Best of
Thriller
2002
Tell No One / Gone For Good
Harlan Coben - 2002
David Beck, the loss was shattering. And every day for the past eight years, he has relived the horror of what happened. The gleaming lake. The pale moonlight. The piercing screams. The night his wife was taken. The last night he saw her alive. Everyone tells him it’s time to move on, to forget the past once and for all. But for David Beck, there can be no closure. A message has appeared on his computer, a phrase only he and his dead wife know. Suddenly Beck is taunted with the impossible—that somewhere, somehow, his wife is alive…and he’s been warned to tell no one.“A COMPELLING AND ORIGINAL SUSPENSE THRILLER.” —Los Angeles Times GONE FOR GOOD As a boy, Will Klein had a hero: his older brother, Ken. Then, on a warm suburban night in the Kleins’ affluent New Jersey neighborhood, a young woman—a girl Will had once loved—was found brutally murdered in her family’s basement. The prime suspect: Ken Klein. With the evidence against him overwhelming, Ken simply vanished. And when his shattered family never heard from Ken again, they were sure he was gone for good. Now eleven years have passed. Will has found proof that Ken is alive. And this is just the first in a series of stunning revelations as Will is forced to confront startling truths about his brother, and even himself.“RIVETING…HAS MORE TWISTS AND TURNS THAN AN AMUSEMENT PARK RIDE.” —USA TodayFrom the Trade Paperback edition.
The Company
Robert Littell - 2002
In a style intelligent and ironic, Littell tells it like it was: CIA agents fighting not only 'the good fight' against foreign enemies, but sometimes the bad one as well, with the ends justifying such means as CIA-organized assassinations, covert wars, kidnappings, and toppling of legitimate governments. Behind every manoeuvre and counter-manoeuvre, though, one question spans the length of the book... Who is the mole within the CIA? The Company - an astonishing novel that captures the life and death struggle of an entire generation of CIA operatives during a long Cold War.
The Last Jihad
Joel C. Rosenberg - 2002
Their secret project: a billion-dollar oil deal off the coast of Tel Aviv and Gaza that could form the basis of a historic peace treaty and bring enormous wealth to every Israeli and Palestinian. But nothing has prepared Jon or Erin for the terror that lies ahead.•Terrorists hijack a jet plane and fly a kamikaze mission into an American city.•Israeli commandos foil a nuclear attack, but find evidence that the next targets could be Washington and New York.•And suddenly the United States finds itself in a war in the Middle East over terrorism and weapons of mass destruction that will forever change the course of human history.
Amazonia
James Rollins - 2002
Years later, one of its members has stumbled out of the world’s most inhospitable rainforest: a former Special Forces soldier – scarred, mutilated, terrified, and mere hours from death – who went in with one arm missing…and came out with both intact.Unable to comprehend this inexplicable event, the government sends Nathan Rand into this impenetrable secret world of undreamed – of perils to follow the trail of his vanished father…toward mysteries that must be solved at any cost. But the nightmare that is awaiting Nate and his team of scientists and seasoned U.S. Army Rangers dwarfs any danger they anticipated…an ancient, unspoken terror – a power beyond human imagining-that can forever alter the world beyond the dark, lethal confines of the Amazon rainforest for better… and for worse.
Blink
Ted Dekker - 2002
For starters, he has one of the world's highest IQs. Now he's suddenly struck by an incredible power--the ability to see multiple potential futures.Still reeling from this inexplicable gift, Seth stumbles upon a beautiful woman named Miriam. Unknown to Seth, Miriam is a Saudi Arabian princess who has fled her veiled existence to escape a forced marriage of unimaginable consequences. Cultures collide as they're thrown together and forced to run from an unstoppable force determined to kidnap or kill Miriam.Seth's mysterious ability helps them avoid capture once, then twice. But with no sleep, a fugitive princess by his side, hit men a heartbeat away, and a massive manhunt steadily closing in, evasion becomes impossible.An intoxicating tale set amidst the shifting sands of the Middle East and the back roads of America, Blink engages issues as ancient as the earth itself...and as current as today's headlines.
Gone for Good
Harlan Coben - 2002
Then, on a warm suburban night in the Kleins' affluent New Jersey neighborhood, a young woman--a girl Will had once loved--was found brutally murdered in her family's basement. The prime suspect: Ken Klein. With the evidence against him overwhelming, Ken simply vanished. And when his shattered family never heard from Ken again, they were sure he was gone for good. Now eleven years have passed. Will has found proof that Ken is alive. And this is just the first in a series of stunning revelations as Will is forced to confront startling truths about his brother, and even himself. As a violent mystery unwinds around him, Will knows he must press his search all the way to the end. Because the most powerful surprises are yet to come.
Cold Silence
Danielle Girard - 2002
Then Ryan is kidnapped in broad daylight. And Cody knows why. Her life is a dangerous lie, easily exposed by the killers responsible for her husband's murder. Failed by the Witness Protection Program, she's on the run again, trusting only herself to save her son while heading blindly toward a past that wants only one thing from her: cold-blooded revenge. Winner: Barry Award 2002 THE ROOKIE CLUB, in series order: Dead Center One Clean Shot Dark Passage Interference Everything to Lose DR. SCHWARTZMAN SERIES, in series order: Exhume Excise (due out 2017) OTHER SUSPENSE NOVELS by Danielle Girard: Chasing Darkness Savage Art Ruthless Game Cold Silence
No One to Trust
Iris Johansen - 2002
And he has the means to get whatever he wants. And what Rico Chavez wants most is Elena Kyler--and he wants her dead. Trained as an assassin, Elena didn’t need anyone to survive. But now she finds herself on the run from one dangerous man and turning for help to another.Sean Galen was a man without illusions. He knew it was only desperation that caused Elena to accept his help--a mother’s desperation to save her young son from a psychopath father who would raise their son in his own chilling image. And yet he was determined to get this woman who had never been able to trust anyone or anything in her whole life to accept him as her ally. But both Galen and Elena know that Chavez’s power and wealth mean there is no place they can be safe and no one they can trust--not even each other. Already Chavez’s assassins and connections to those in the highest positions of power have turned this into a war with no rules. With two shocking acts of brutal violence, Chavez shows he will stop at nothing and that nothing will stop him. Soon a trail of horrifying murders will follow Galen and Elena across country to a last stand and a shattering showdown. For Chavez is a master of control and he wants more than just to take Elena’s life. He wants her alive long enough to see him destroy every reason she has for living. He wants her to turn against everything and everyone she ever believed in. He wants her to commit the ultimate act of betrayal. And by the time he is through, he wants her to beg him to take the only thing she’ll have left to give: her life.
Tango One
Stephen Leather - 2002
All three had succeeded in getting into the police in spite of weaknesses. But on their first day, the assistant commissioner announces that he wants them to join a team of undercover detectives. Their brief? To become criminals; to work their way up through whatever criminal organisations they can get access to, and to collate evidence against the criminals they come across. Their target? One of the world's biggest drug dealers. Den Donovan, alias 'Tango One' - number one on HM Customs and Excise List of most wanted criminals. Three years later all the recruits are getting close to their target. Too close, perhaps, to remember the rules...
The Survivors Club
Lisa Gardner - 2002
In this masterful new novel, the killer may very well be the one you sympathize with the most... THE FIRST RULE IS NEVER BLAME THE VICTIM.They survived what no woman should ever have to endure. Now these three women have the means, the opportunity, and the perfect motive. Are they trying to get away with murder--or is someone trying to make sure that this time they don't get away at all? The Survivors Club... that's what Jillian Hayes, Carol Rosen, and Meg Pesaturo call it. They won't consider themselves victims. They are survivors. They faced the blazing headlines and helped lead the investigation that caught the man who changed their lives forever. And now that Eddie Como, the College Hill rapist, has been murdered, shot down outside a packed courthouse moments before his trial was about to begin, all three women are openly ecstatic that he's dead. They are also the prime suspects in his murder. Detective Sergeant Roan Griffin knows all too well what can drive even the best people to cross the line. But he has never seen a case quite like this one. No one doubts that the murder of Eddie Como was a professional job, especially when the gunman is killed only blocks away from the shooting.But questions taunt Griffin: Who ordered the deaths of Eddie Como and his killer? Could three ordinary women have been driven to do the unthinkable? Had someone in the Survivors Club become a killer? Griffin seeks the truth--and finds himself confronted with the leader of the Survivors Club. Jillian Hayes is beautiful, successful, cool as ice, and she harbors a pain that mirrors Griffin's own. Did the horror of what happened to her push her over the thin and desperate line that separates survival and revenge? And if it did, could he blame her--or anyone in the Survivors Club? Then another woman is brutally attacked.Suddenly, with the city on the ragged edge of panic, gripped in a media and political firestorm of controversy, cover-up, and conspiracy, the hunt is on for a ruthless and cunning killer. For Griffin, this may well be the case that shatters his career. For Jillian, the harrowing nightmare is beginning all over again. Someone is out there. Someone who wants to finish what was started. Someone who wants to make sure that no one survives the Survivors Club.
Hush
Anne Frasier - 2002
None haunts her dreams more than the killer who took her son's life sixteen years ago, then silently disappeared into the dark. Now an urgent request for help from the Chicago police has reawakened Ivy's greatest nightmare. The Madonna Murderer has returned to fulfill his calling. This time Ivy understands the killer instinct. She knows what man is capable of. This time she's ready to confront her deepest fear, face-to-face. For the very last time...
The Lions of Lucerne
Brad Thor - 2002
But Scot Harvath, surviving agent and ex-Navy SEAL, doesn't believe the Fatah is responsible. A shadowy coalition comprises some of the highest-ranking officials in government and business – men who operate above the law, realize the threat Scot poses to their hidden agenda, and will do anything to stop him. Framed for murder and on the run, Scot takes to the towering mountains of Switzerland with beautiful Claudia Mueller of the Swiss Federal Attorney's Office. They brave subzero temperatures and sheer heights of treacherous Mount Pilatus, and the den of notorious professional killers.
The Front
Mandasue Heller - 2002
Robbing a small supermarket on a Manchester estate looks easy—but with one of them wounded and a dead body on their hands, could things get worse? They could—the supermarket is merely the front for something bigger, and the friends are small fish who have unwittingly plunged into a very big pond.
Chasing Darkness
Danielle Girard - 2002
A tough special-agent with the Department of Justice, and a dedicated single mother to her orphaned nephews, Samantha Chase is unbreakable. Until two women, both from the shadows of Sam’s past, are discovered strangled. For Sam, the most unnerving detail is the eucalyptus branch tucked behind the victims’ ears—the signature of a notorious serial murder already convicted and executed for his crimes. To detective Nick Thomas, the only link to the copycat killings is Sam herself. And when she becomes the target of threats—each one more menacing than the last—his feelings for her just might jeopardize the case. But to understand the killer’s twisted motive is to explore Sam’s past—and a crime she’s spent a lifetime trying to bury... AWARDS: Winner of the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award OTHER SUSPENSE NOVELS by Danielle Girard: Savage Art Ruthless Game Cold Silence The Rookie Club
While my pretty one sleeps; Loves Music, Loves to Dance
Mary Higgins Clark - 2002
Mission Compromised
Oliver North - 2002
Marine Major Peter Newman, a highly decorated war hero, was content doing his job--leading troops into harm's way. He was good at it. But the White House had other plans for him. When Newman is hand picked for a dangerous clandestine operation as the head of the White Houses Special Projects Office, his orders are clear--hunt down and eliminate terrorists before they attack the United States with weapons of mass destruction.From the corridors of power in Washington to the heart of the Middle East,Newman finds himself on an assignment so sensitive that it is known only to a handful of officials as he becomes entangled in a nightmarish web of intrigue, revenge and betrayal.When the mission is compromised, Major Newman embarks on a personal odyssey that threatens his life, morality, marriage and his loyalty to corps and country.
Split Second
David Baldacci - 2002
Against her instincts, she let a presidential candidate out of her sight for the briefest moment and the man whose safety was her responsibility vanished into thin air. Sean King knows how the younger agent feels. Eight years earlier, the hard-charging Secret Service agent allowed his attention to be diverted for a split second. And the candidate he was protecting was gunned down before his eyes. Now Michelle and Sean are about to see their destinies converge.Drawn into a maze of lies, secrets, and deadly coincidences, the two discredited agents uncover a shocking truth: that the separate acts of violence that shattered their lives were really a long time in the making – and are a long way from over….
Three Great Novels: Dixie City Jam; Burning Angel; Purple Cane Road
James Lee Burke - 2002
Full description
Sunset Express / Indigo Slam
Robert Crais - 2002
A wealthy WASP entrepreneur appears to have murdered his wife. A hot-shot defense attorney takes the case and hires Elvis to find proof that the L.A. detective - rumored to be dirty - fooled around with the evidence. But as Elvis investigates, he becomes more suspicious of the media-loving lawyer than the cops. With sidekick Joe Pike and girlfriend Lucy Chenier in tow, Elvis carries the day.Indigo Slam: When a 15-year-old girl shows up to plead with Elvis to find her errant father, his first impulse is to hand the case over to Social Services. But he sees how hard the kid is working to keep her two siblings together and afloat. As Elvis and sidekick Joe Pike try their hand at babysitting, events are set in motion that will pit them against a scary group of counterfeiters - and the even scarier U.S. Marshals.
Raising Abel
W. Michael Gear - 2002
His son Abel is brought to her by computer expert Bryce Johnson and they realise that Abel is the key to a discovery from the ancient past.
The Dead Room
Robert Ellis - 2002
The atrocity kicks off an investigation into a bizarre string of increasingly disturbing murders, all believed to be perpetrated by someone of unprecedented savagery and cunning.As the city's panic rises, civil attorney Teddy Mack is thrown headlong into the grisly homicide case—and into a world of dirty politics and corrupt justice, where deceptions are as deadly as a killer's twisted secrets. Now, another woman is about to meet the same horrific fate as the others. To end a madman's reign, Teddy must enter his maze—a place of unimaginable terror…and shocking revelations.With his second thriller, and more than 375 FIVE STAR Amazon reviews, L.A. Times bestselling author Robert Ellis delivers an explosive read with full-blown characters, a world stacked with twists and turns, and an emotional intensity that burns white hot.
The Business of Dying
Simon Kernick - 2002
Cynical and jaded, Milne earns money on the side by doing what he does best: punishing the bad guys. But this time he's been duped. Instead of blowing away drug dealers, he kills three innocent people, their deaths starting an investigation that sees him and his conscience heading for trouble.Less than twelve hours later, Milne is out on the streets again. Eighteen-year-old Miriam Fox has been found dead by Regent's Canal---her throat slashed. Desperate to find Miriam's killer, Milne uncovers a web of depravity far more shocking than he could ever have imagined. Can he evade arrest for his own crimes and solve a case so sickening that it may provide the key to his personal redemption?The clock is ticking and everyone's watching their backs as a war of morality is fought in the mind of one renegade policeman in this gripping first novel by a talented young crime writer.
Fatal
Michael Palmer - 2002
Recognized around the world for original, topical, nail-biting suspense, emergency physician Palmer'swork has been translated into more than thirty-five languages. Now he reaches controversial and startling new heights in a terrifying tale of cutting-edge microbiology, unbridled greed, and murder, where either knowing too little or trusting too much can be FATAL.In Chicago, a pregnant cafeteria worker suffering nothing more malevolent than flulike symptoms begins hemorrhaging from every part of her body. In Boston, a brilliant musician, her face disfigured by an unknown disease, rapidly descends into a lethal paranoia. In Belinda, West Virginia, a miner suddenly goes berserk, causing a cave-in that kills two of his co-workers. Finding the link between these events could prove FATAL.Five years ago, internist and emergency specialist Matt Rutledge returned to his West Virginia home to marry his high-school sweetheart and open a practice. He also had a score to settle. His father died while working for the Belinda Coal and Coke Company, and Matt swore to expose the mine's health and safety violations.When his beloved Ginny succumbed to an unusual cancer, his campaign became even more bitterly personal. Now Matt has identified two bizarre cases of what he has dubbed the Belinda Syndrome--caused, he is certain, by the mine's careless disposal of toxic chemicals. All he needs is proof.Meanwhile, two women, unknown to one another, are drawn inexorably to Belinda, into Matt's life--and into mortal danger. Massachusetts coroner Nikki Solari comes to attend the funeral of her roommate, killed violently on a Boston street. Ellen Kroft, a retired schoolteacher from Maryland, seeks the remorseless killer who has threatened to destroy her and her family.Three strangers--Rutledge, Solari, and Kroft--each hold one piece of a puzzle they must solve, and solve quickly. If they don't, it will be far more than just their own lives that are at risk.Michael Palmer has crafted a novel of breathtaking speed and medical intricacy where nothing is as it seems and one false step could be FATAL.
Labyrinth
Mark T. Sullivan - 2002
Still traumatized by the tragic loss of her assistant on her last expedition, Whitney can only watch from a distance when her husband and daughter agree to join a NASA-sponsored caving trip. When the expedition is seized by a band of criminals—effectively holding her family hostage—Whitney must surmount her all-consuming fear and put everything on the line for her family. Battling her own terror and the paralyzing elements of the subterranean atmosphere will take all the knowledge and strength Whitney has in this high-stakes tale of adventure. “Expertly crafted, [LABYRINTH] is one of the most exciting yarns of this millennium. Brilliantly told and realized. A great read.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Apple Of My Eye
Patrick Redmond - 2002
He can do no wrong, although sometimes he wants to, especially to people who look down on him and his mother, and their drab existence. And if bad things should happen to them - why, it's nothing to do with him. He's a good boy. Everybody says so.Susan Ramsey was once perfect too, cherished by her parents, a popular girl at school. A nice girl in a nice home. Then her dad died and her mum remarried. The way her stepfather cherished her wasn't very nice at all.So then they meet, Ronnie and Susan, become teenage sweethearts. If the world wasn't so wrong they'd be the perfect couple. But Ronnie can set that right. He's a good boy. Everybody says so.
Resurrection Day
Glenn Meade - 2002
A chilling message is delivered to the US president by the world's most wanted terrorist - a message that begins a daring siege, and America's worst nightmare. A terrorist cell hidden deep in the American capitol is ready to unleash a terrifying new secret weapon of mass destruction - one so powerful it can decimate Washington and tear apart the Russian Federation - unless their demands are met within seven days. When Washington and Moscow agree a joint plan to hunt down the terrorists and neutralise their threat before the deadline expires, FBI counter-terrorist expert Jack Collins is put in charge of the manhunt alongside Alexei Kursk, one of Russia's top investigators. For them the hunt is personal...
Chasing the Dime
Michael Connelly - 2002
It's on the site."Pierce has just been thrown out by his girlfriend and moved into a new apartment, and the company he founded is headed into the most critical phase of fund-raising. He's been "chasing the dime" - doing all it takes to come out first in a technological battle whose victor will make millions. But he can't get the messages for a woman named Lilly out of his head:"Uh, yes, hello, my name is Frank. I'm at the Peninsula. Room six twelve. So give me a call when you can."Something is wrong. Pierce probes, investigates, and then tumbles through a hole, leaving behind a life driven by work to track down and help a woman he has never met.The world he enters is one of escorts, websites, sex, and secret passions. The beautiful Lilly is an object of desire to thousands. To Pierce, she becomes the key that might fix a broken life. But in pursuing Lilly, Pierce has entered a landscape where his success and expertise mean nothing. He is a mark, an outsider, and soon he is also the victim of astonishing violence, the chief suspect in a murder case, and fighting for his life against forces he can barely discern.
The Contortionist's Handbook
Craig Clevenger - 2002
In the face of his impending institutionalization, he continually reinvents himself to escape the legal and mental health authorities and to save himself from a life of incarceration. But running turns out to be costly. Vincent's clients in the L.A. underworld lose patience, the hospital evaluator may not be fooled by his story, and the only person in as much danger as himself is the woman who knows his real name.
Dead Run
Erica Spindler - 2002
I've uncovered something.... They're watching...."That panicked message on her answering machine is the last time Liz Ames hears from her sister Rachel, pastor of Paradise Christian Church in Key West, Florida.Compelled to uncover the truth about her sister's disappearance, she heads to Key West. Within hours of her arrival a successful banker jumps to his death. Then a teenage girl whom Rachel was counseling is found brutally murdered. The ritualistic style of the killing is hauntingly similar to that used by the notorious "New Testament" serial killer--now on death row. Could the teen's murder be related to Rachel's disappearance? Is a copycat killer at work? And why do the police refuse to help?For answers, Liz turns to Rick Wells, a former Miami cop who worked the fringes of the "New Testament" investigation. Together they peel away layers of deception to reveal a terrifying adversary--and the unspeakable evil at the heart of this island paradise.
Darkside
P.T. Deutermann - 2002
So when a first-year student falls to his death from a campus building, the Academy tenses as the Darkside begins to creep out of the shadows to cut off any potential scandal. Retired naval aviator Ev Markham is now a professor at the Academy. When a provocative clue connects the dead student to senior midshipman Julie Markham, Ev knows how quickly his daughter could become the easy scapegoat the Darkside badly craves. But a second body convinces Academy security chief Jim Hall that a killer is on the loose. As both men struggle to uncover the truth, a psychopath more sinister than they can imagine lies in wait, protecting the ultimate-and most deadly-secret of all...
The Queen of the South
Arturo Pérez-Reverte - 2002
Teresa Mendoza is his girlfriend, a typical narco's morra-- quiet, doting, submissive. But then Guero's caught playing both sides, and in Sinaloa, that means death. Teresa finds herself alone, terrified, friendless and running to save her life, carrying nothing but a gym bag containing a pistol and a notebook that she has been forbidden to read. Forced to leave Mexico, she flees to the Spanish city of Melilla, where she meets Santiago Fisterra, a Galician involved in trafficking hashish across the Strait of Gibraltar. When Santiago's partner is captured, it is Teresa who steps in to take his place. Now Teresa has plunged into the dark and ugly world that once claimed Guero's life-- and she's about to get in deeper...
The Kiss of Judas
Renee Allen McCoy - 2002
After she's promised herself that she would leave her past in the past, history starts to repeat when her current boyfriend, Isaiah Johnson, shows interest in someone other than her. Justine makes it known that she'll stop at nothing to get what she wants...no matter who gets hurt along the way.Isaiah Johnson, a young, successful CEO, has climbed himself to a life of wealth. He's worked hard to open his own business and just when success peaks, Isaiah's new found strength to step out on faith drives a wedge between him and the woman in his life. Not only does he regret meeting Justine, it's a challenge for him to escape her calculated stalking. At what cost will Isaiah say no to the world and yes to God?
Warrior in the Shadows
Marcus Wynne - 2002
The skills he learned in the Australian Special Air Service have carried over to his new life as an Aboriginal spiritual leader and contract killer for drug lord Jay Burrell. Alfie knows how to stalk and kill a victim, then disappear without a trace. But it's the ritualistic murders and the devouring of his victims during the Aboriginal ceremony that send a clear message to Burrell's enemies.Charley Payne was losing it. He had spent his life as a door kicker for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in the world's hot spots. When his friend, Police Detective Sergeant Bobby Lee Martaine realized that Charley was becoming a danger to himself and his missions, Bobby Lee offered him a job. Trading in his guns for a camera, Charley finds his new life as a forensic photographer in the Twin Cities uneventful and peaceful—just what he needed, until Charley is called in to photograph a gruesome murder scene.There are no fingerprints and only one clue, a bizarre Aboriginal painting. Most in the police department begin to suspect a serial killer is on the loose. Bobby Lee is closing in on Alfie, but Alfie learned in the SAS that a mission is not complete if you've left a trail behind. When Bobby Lee and his family turn up dead, Charley returns to the way of the gun. But he will be fighting a war on the spiritual leader's turf in the Australian outback. A fight to the death that took place in the Aboriginal dream world five centuries before.
Dead Secret
Richard Milton - 2002
Tony is bewildered by the horrifying secrets he begins to unravel. Can human heads really be used to predict the future? Who would pay $7 million for the skull of the Russian President? Is British intelligence involved? His search leads Tony to the wealthy and secretive Chadwick Foundation whose bizarre beliefs both repel and attract him. Are they merely wealthy, powerful people playing an elaborate game, or have they truly gained the power to see into the future? When Tony witnesses the Home Secretary die in an elaborate sex ritual at a Belgravia dinner party he knows he is in too deep to back out. The keeper of The Foundation's secrets is the stunning, enigmatic Eve Canning, who turns his search into a very personal quest. Eve seems to know more about Tony than he knows about himself – she believes he has inherited psychic gifts. Eve's form of love is addictive – but it has a price. She is a sadist who specialises in erotic asphyxiation. And she has revived a ritual form of sex from French revolutionary times that literally makes death an aphrodisiac. When Tony is initiated by Eve and her cult into the ultimate terrifying secret, he has a decision to make that can cost him his life: he can achieve a form of immortality but only by risking everything.
The Pepperdogs
Francis J. "Bing" West Jr. - 2002
We've run a hundred miles," Lang thought, "to come up a football field short." When a fellow Marine is kidnapped, Captain Mark Lang and his recon team, the Pepperdogs, disobey orders and cross into snowbound Serbia to rescue him. A leader who can't quit, Lang is urged on by his team members. Five New York City reservists -- a trader, a fireman, an auto mechanic, a fitness trainer and a computer geek -- set out on an impossible odyssey. Superbly fit and equipped, they employ speed, ambush and the Internet to close in on their target.After a team member sends back e-mails describing their firefights, the Pepperdogs become front-page news. Once Weekend Warriors, by the end of their mission they are the most feared unit in Europe, fighting anyone who stands in their way. The press calls them ""The Wild Bunch" on technological steroids." Lang, haunted by memories of his missing buddy's dying mother, knows the horrific costs they are inflicting but won't turn back. Their rescue mission, condemned by the military, slowly escalates into a standoff between the Oval Office and NATO Europe with the world watching.A razor-sharp storyteller and Pentagon insider, Bing West unleashes a blistering techno thriller that probes the limits of physical and mental endurance. Drawing on firsthand knowledge of combat, West fuses the grit of "Blackhawk Down" with the behind-the-scenes intrigue of "The West Wing," showing how in the near future a squad can become wired to the White House, to the dismay of the traditional chain of command. "The Pepperdogs" is a gripping storyabout American reserves, conflicting loyalties and devotion to comrade. What price will a nation pay to save one life?