Best of
Thriller

2003

Angels and Demons / The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon, #1-2)


Dan Brown - 2003
    His conclusion, that it is the work of the Illuminati, a secret brotherhood presumed long dead, leads him to Rome, where against the backdrop of a papal election the Illuminati look set to renew their bitter vendetta against their sworn enemy, the Catholic Church . . .The Da Vinci CodeRobert Langdon receives an urgent late-night phone call while on business in Paris: the elderly curator of the Louvre has been violently murdered inside the museum. Alongside the body, police have found a series of baffling codes. As Langdon begins to sort through the bizarre riddles, he is stunned to find a trail that leads to the works of Leonardo da Vinci - and suggests the answer to an age-old mystery which will take him into the vaults of history . . .

Blindsighted / Kisscut


Karin Slaughter - 2003
    2 books in 1

Final Bearing


George Wallace - 2003
    A US Navy SEAL team is inserted into South America. Their orders are to destroy the secret laboratories of the world’s most notorious drug cartel, and the Spadefish has been sent to provide assistance.But Juan de Santiago, the violent billionaire drug lord, has an entire private army and a futuristic new mini-submarine of his own. He will do anything to protect his empire.And he knows the Americans are coming...

The Perfect Husband/The Other Daughter


Lisa Gardner - 2003
    Even locked up in a maximum security prison, he vowed he would come after her and make her pay. Now the cunning killer has escaped—and the most dangerous game of all begins....After a lifetime of fear, Tess will do something she's never done before. She's going to learn to protect her daughter and fight back, with the help of a burned-out ex-marine. As the largest manhunt four states have ever seen mobilizes to catch Beckett, the clock winds down to the terrifying reunion between husband and wife. And Tess knows that this time, her only choices are to kill—or be killed.The Other DaughterWhat you don't know can kill you.In Texas a serial killer is executed, taking to his grave the identity of his only child.In Boston a nine-year-old girl is abandoned in a hospital, then adopted by a wealthy young couple.Twenty years later, Melanie Stokes still considers herself lucky. Until...Until the terrifying visions begin.Until a has-been reporter starts investigating her past.Until the first note arrives saying YOU GET WHAT YOU DESERVE.Melanie had lost all memory of her life before the adoption, and now someone wants to give it back. Even if it includes the darkest nightmare the Stokes family ever faced: the murder of their first daughter in Texas. As Melanie pursues every lead, chases every shadow in the search for her real identity, two seemingly unrelated events from twenty years ago will come together in a dangerous explosion of truth. And with her very life at stake, Melanie will fear that the family she loves the most may be the people she should trust the least.

Monkeewrench


P.J. Tracy - 2003
    Literally. With Serial Killer Detective out in limited release, the real-life murders of a jogger and a young woman have already mimicked the first two scenarios in the game. But Grace McBride and her eccentric Monkeewrench partners are caught in a vise. If they tell the Minneapolis police of the link between their game and the murders, they'll shine a spotlight on the past they thought they had erased-and the horror they thought they'd left behind. If they don't, eighteen more people will die...

Blind Run


Patricia Lewin - 2003
    Then a daring mission takes a lethal turn, leaving innocents dead in its wake, and Ethan’s wife a prime target of a ruthless assassin. To save her, and because he can no longer justify his actions, Ethan exiles himself to a remote desert in New Mexico, a prisoner of his own guilt and grief.Then one searing day, a former member of Decker’s covert team arrives at his door, shepherding two children. She entrusts them to his protection and leaves without explanation.Suddenly, the race is on: to reach his ex-wife before the deadly assassin finds her, and to unlock the mystery behind the two children—who have become pawns in a dark conspiracy so evil that even this former spy cannot imagine the peril that lies directly in his path.

Shutter Island


Dennis Lehane - 2003
    U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, have come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to investigate the disappearance of a patient. Multiple murderess Rachel Solando is loose somewhere on this remote and barren island, despite having been kept in a locked cell under constant surveillance. As a killer hurricane relentlessly bears down on them, a strange case takes on even darker, more sinister shades—with hints of radical experimentation, horrifying surgeries, and lethal countermoves made in the cause of a covert shadow war. No one is going to escape Shutter Island unscathed, because nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is what it seems. But then neither is Teddy Daniels.

Don't Tell


Karen Rose - 2003
    But Mary Grace Winters knew the only way to save herself and her child from her abusive cop husband was to stage their own death. Now all that remains of their former life is at the bottom of a lake. Armed with a new identity in a new town, she and her son have found refuge hundreds of miles away. As Caroline Stewart, she has almost forgotten the nightmare she left behind nine years ago. She is even taking a chance on love with Max Hunter, a man with wounds of his own. But her past is about to collide with the present when her husband uncovers her trail and threatens her hard-won peace. Step by step, he's closing in on her—and everything and everyone she loves.

Sleep Tight


Anne Frasier - 2003
    DO YOU LIKE WHAT YOU SEE?He's looking for the perfect woman. Someone who won't disappoint him, like so many have before. Someone who'll love him ... someone who won't have to die for her mistakes.GIVE UP, LITTLE DARLING....FBI agent Mary Cantrell has been called to Minneapolis to hunt down a killer. Her reluctant return home is shaking her to the core, reviving dreadful memories. Years ago, her best friend was murdered. Now the man convicted of the crime, Gavin Hitchcock, is free--and Mary's own sister, Gillian, a local cop, has befriended him.NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM BUT ME.As each clue to the new killings leads them closer to Hitchcock, Mary and Gillian put their differences aside and set themselves up as the perfect target--and the perfect trap. Unless Mary's own past has blinded her to an unimaginable truth ... and will plunge them into a waking nightmare....

No Second Chance


Harlan Coben - 2003
    Marc Seidman lies in a hospital bed. His wife has been killed. His six-month-old daughter has vanished. But just when his world seems forever shattered, the ransom note arrives: We are watching. If you contact the authorities, you will never see your daughter again. There will be no second chance. With no one to trust, and mired in a deepening quicksand of deception and deadly secrets, Marc clings to one unwavering vow: bring home his daughter, at any cost.

Retribution


Jilliane Hoffman - 2003
    Townsend is a brilliant prosecutor known for keeping her cool even when trying the most horrific cases. The latest: an accused serial killer who savors cruelty and considers murder an art. But this case is different. C.J. recognizes the suspect. She knows what he's capable of. After all these years she still has the nightmares to prove it. Now she's walking a fine line between justice and revenge. Even C.J. isn't prepared for where it will take her.

We Need to Talk About Kevin


Lionel Shriver - 2003
    Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood, and Kevin's horrific rampage in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her estranged husband, Franklin. Uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood from the start, Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so nihilistically off the rails.

Golden Buddha / Sacred Stone (The Oregon Files, #1-2)


Clive Cussler - 2003
    His gambling chip is a Golden Buddha containing records of vast oil reserves in the disputed land.But first, he'll have to locate - and steal - the all-important artifact. And there are certain people who would do anything in their power to see him fail . . .Sacred Stone:In the remote wastelands of Greenland, an ancient artifact possessing catastrophic radioactive power is unearthed. But the astounding find puts the world at risk.Caught between two militant factions bent on wholesale slaughter, Juan Cabrillo and his network of spies known as The Corporation must fight to protect the stone – and prevent the outbreak of World War III…

Ice Hunt


James Rollins - 2003
    The twisted brainchild of the finest minds of the former Soviet Union, it was designed to be inaccessible and virtually invisible.But an American undersea research vessel has inadvertently pulled too close – and something has been sighted moving inside the allegedly deserted facility, something whose survival defies every natural law. And now, as scientists, soldiers, intelligence operatives, and unsuspecting civilians are drawn into Grendel’s lethal vortex, the most extreme measures possible will be undertaken to protect its dark mysteries – because the terrible truths locked behind submerged walls of ice and steel could end human life on Earth.

Enemies Foreign And Domestic


Matthew Bracken - 2003
    A police marksman kills the sniper, a mentally unbalanced Desert Storm veteran holding a smoking assault rifle. It's an open and shut case, or so America is led to believe... In the aftermath of the stadium massacre, an outraged public demands an end to the threat posed by assault rifles, and Congress passes emergency legislation banning their private possession. American gun owners have one week to turn in their semi-automatic rifles, or face mandatory five year federal prison terms. Jimmy Shifflett, the alleged stadium sniper, is linked to a shadowy "gun club" in southeastern Virginia, which the FBI believes is a cover for a secret right wing militia terror group. Those who knew Shifflett the best don't believe he was a member of any militia, or that he was guilty of the horrific mass murder. But if he didn't fire the "assault rifle" into the stadium, who did, and why? A small band of Virginians, thrown together by fate, is forced to undertake a desperate odyssey through a minefield of government blackmail, official deception and covert death squads, to discover the truth behind the stadium massacre, and save their own lives.

Firestorm


Iris Johansen - 2003
    This time a gifted arson investigator teams up with a mysterious operative to stop a killer raging completely out of control...For Kerry Murphy, the inferno is never far away. The flames of that long-ago night still burn in her nightmares: the heat, the choking smoke, the helplessness. She can never run fast enough...Now Kerry works as an arson investigator with her evidence-sniffing dog, Sam. Together they're a great team, but her life is about to change in the time it takes to strike a match. The deadly flames of her past are back, and from out of the ashes a stranger appears. Who is Silver? And why has he chosen her in the desparate race to find a killer determined to ignite hell on earth? Kerry and Silver may not have a chance against a psychopath as coldhearted as his method is red-hot. To save themselves and the innocent lives at stake, Kerry will have to do what she hoped she'd never have to do: fight fire with fire.

Avenger


Frederick Forsyth - 2003
    But Dexter is no ordinary man.The summer before he goes to college, Ricky Colenso travels to Bosnia to volunteer as an aid worker. A few weeks later, he disappears and is never heard from again. A family grieves and is offered little hope--in the fog of that horrible time and place, the killer, too, has vanished.Or so it would seem. For in a world that has forgotten right and wrong, there are few like Cal Dexter who can settle the score. And so, years later, a worldwide chase is on and Dexter begins to draw a net around the killer. But this time CIA agent Paul Devereux must find a way to stop Dexter before his quest for vengeance throws the world into chaos.A heart-stopping novel of murder and mystery, double-cross and triple-cross, old loyalties and new hatreds, Avenger has all of Frederick Forsyth's page-turning trademarks.

Every Dead Thing / Dark Hollow (Charlie Parker, #1-2)


John Connolly - 2003
    

Three Great Novels: Perfect Husband / Other Daughter / Third Victim


Lisa Gardner - 2003
    Even locked up in a maximum security prison, he vowed he would come after her and make her pay. Now the cunning killer has escaped--and the most dangerous game of all begins.... After a lifetime of fear, Tess will do something she's never done before. She's going to learn to protect her daughter and fight back, with the help of a burned-out ex-marine. As the largest manhunt four states have ever seen mobilizes to catch Beckett, the clock winds down to the terrifying reunion between husband and wife. And Tess knows that this time, her only choices are to kill--or be killed. Lisa Gardner sold her first novel when she was 20 years old. In 1993 she graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in international relations. She lives in Rhode Island, where she is at work on her next novel of suspense.

Candlemoth


R.J. Ellory - 2003
    Accused of the horrific murder of his best friend Nathan 12 years before, he has exhausted all appeals and now faces the long walk to the electric chair. All he can do is make peace with his God. Father John Rousseau is the man to whom the last month of Daniel's life has been entrusted. All the two men have left to do is rake over the last ashes of Ford's existence. So he begins to tell his story. Beginning with his first meeting with Nathan, aged 6, on the shores of a lake in 1952, through first loves, Vietnam, the death of Kennedy, and finally their flight from the draft which ended in Nathan's brutal murder.

In Silence


Erica Spindler - 2003
    When Avery Chauvin returns to her Louisiana hometown after her father's suicide, she discovers clippings of a fifteen-year-old murder and learns about recent disappearances and murders that lead her to start an investigation.

Greg Iles Collection: The Quiet Game, 24 Hours, Dead Sleep


Greg Iles - 2003
    As a Houston prosecutor he sent sixteen men to death row, and watched seven of them die. But now, in the aftermath of his wife's death, the grief-stricken father packs up his four-year-old daughter, Annie, and returns to his hometown in search of healing. But peace is not what he finds there.Natchez, Mississippi, is the jewel of the antebellum South, a city of old money and older sins, where passion, power, and racial tensions seethe beneath its elegant façade. After twenty years away, Penn is stunned to find his own family trapped in a web of intrigue and danger. Determined to save his father from a ruthless blackmailer, Penn stumbles over a link to the town's darkest secret: the thirty-year-old unsolved murder of a black Korean War veteran. But what drives him to act is the revelation that this haunting mystery is inextricably bound up in his own past.24 HoursRead by Dick Hill (Ruth Bloomquist, Russell Byers)24 Hours begins with the perfect family. On the perfect day. About to become trapped in the perfect crime. Will Jennings is a successful young doctor in Jackson, Mississippi, with his whole life ahead of him. He has a thriving practice, a beautiful wife, and a young daughter he loves beyond measure. But Will and his family are being watched by a con man and psychopath. A man who has crafted the unbeatable crime. A man who has never been caught, and whose victims have never talked to the police. A man whose life's work strikes at the heart of every family's nightmare: the unstoppable kidnapping. But this man has never met Will and Karen Jennings.Dead SleepRead by Susie Breck (Dick Hill)Jordan Glass, a photojournalist on a well-earned vacation, wanders into a Hong Kong art museum and is puzzled to find fellow patrons eying her with curiosity. Minutes later, she stumbles upon a gallery containing a one-artist exhibition called "The Sleeping Women," a mysterious series of paintings that has caused a sensation in the world of modern art. Collectors have come to believe that the canvases depict female nudes not in sleep but in death, and they command millions at auction. When Jordan approaches the last work in the series, she freezes. The face in the painting seems to be her own. This unsettling event hurls her back into a nightmare she has fought desperately to put behind her - for, in fact, the face in the painting belongs not to Jordan but to her twin sister, murdered one year ago. At the urging of the FBI, Jordan becomes both hunter and hunted in a duel with the anonymous artist, a gifted murderer who knows the secret history of Jordan's family, and truths that even she has never had the courage to face.

Heart of the Hunter


Deon Meyer - 2003
    Now leading a quiet, ordered life in the countryside, he is reluctantly summoned back into the game when a trusted old friend is kidnapped. With just seventy-two hours to deliver the ransom, with an army of security forces deployed to stop him, and with a diabolical double agent perilously close to assuming absolute power, Tiny races a hijacked motorcycle across the wilds of backcountry Africa in a thrilling epic adventure.

The Hostage


Duncan Falconer - 2003
    It's a dangerous race against time: if the Real IRA get to the Republic before Stratton gets to the Real IRA, his colleague is as good as dead.But the battle in the Northern Ireland borders is just the beginning. For there can only be one way the Real IRA knew about the British agent: someone within MI5 is tipping them off. A surveillance mission is mounted in Paris to identify the mole but ends in disaster: Hank Munro, US Navy SEAL on secondment, is captured.Munro's wife Kathryn is distraught, and her priest Father Kinsella is very supportive. Kinsella, though, is not the holy man he seems, and Kathryn becomes an unwitting part of a deadly Real IRA plan, a terror attack the likes of which London has never seen . . . When Hank is inadvertently kidnapped by terrorists on an SBS 'safe op', Kathryn returns home to America, only to be manipulated by a priest and secret IRA godfather into playing a political role in the negotiations for Hank's release. Unknown to her she is to have a key part in the most destructive terrorist assault in Irish Republican history, one that holds the fate of hundreds of thousands of Londoners in its hands.

Watch Them Die


Kevin O'Brien - 2003
    From afar he watches the ones he so desperately wants. Willing to do whatever it takes to prove his love. But should his latest obsession betray him, he will have no choice but to punish her.

Bad Men


John Connolly - 2003
    The dead ones. They were dead, but they had lights. Why do the dead need light?Three hundred years ago, the settlers on the small Maine island of Sanctuary were betrayed to their enemies and slaughtered. Since then, the island has known peace. Until now. A gang of four men are descending on Sanctuary, intent on committing a brutal and relentless massacre. All that stands in their way are rookie police officer Sharon Macie and the strange, troubled officer Joe Dupree.But Joe is no ordinary policeman. He knows the island has been steeped in blood once and that it will never again tolerate the shedding of innocent blood. The band of killers who are set to desecrate Sanctuary will unleash the fury of its ghosts upon themselves and all who stand by them. On Sanctuary, all hell is about to break loose ...

Black Star


Robert Gandt - 2003
    But with a beautiful defector of dubious loyalties guiding him, Maxwell's mission could take a wrong turn at any moment...

Inside Track


John Francome - 2003
    The perfect read for fans of Felix Francis' Pulse and Triple Crown. 'There are some genuinely exhilarating descriptions of races that capture the tension and excitement, and could be written only with a jockey's insight' - Daily Mail Pippa Hutchinson is an aspiring young trainer, certain that given the right horses she is as good as anyone in the business. Until, that is, an owner removes two horses to another yard, and one shows dramatic improvement. She enlists the help of her brother, Jamie, once a star flat jockey, now trying to revive his racing career over fences after a harrowing term in prison. But former wild boy Jamie has his own demons to deal with, like the new challenge of jumps riding, the hostility of those who can never forgive him for a young lad's death - and the black wall within him that separates him from his past. What readers are saying about Inside Track: 'The best book he [John Francome] has written so far''An outstanding, compelling book from start to finish''Well written, well-paced and the way he portrays the differing characters is astounding'

Odd Thomas


Dean Koontz - 2003
    I don't know why. But they do try to communicate, with a short-order cook in a small desert town serving as their reluctant confidant. Sometimes the silent souls who seek out Odd want justice. Occasionally their otherworldly tips help him prevent a crime. But this time it’s different.A stranger comes to Pico Mundo, accompanied by a horde of hyena-like shades who herald an imminent catastrophe. Aided by his soul mate, Stormy Llewellyn, and an unlikely community of allies that includes the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, Odd will race against time to thwart the gathering evil. His account of these shattering hours, in which past and present, fate and destiny, converge, is a testament by which to live—an unforgettable fable for our time destined to rank among Dean Koontz’s most enduring works.

Betrayed


Brendan DuBois - 2003
    He considered his brother dead, but thirty years later a knock on the door heralded the arrival of his long-lost brother and the beginning of a terrifying journey of revenge.

Sealing Fate


David P. Warren - 2003
    When she is found murdered, Brian receives a cryptic call that leads him down a path of murder, blackmail and mortal danger.Coerced into making unthinkable choices, Brian must meet the caller’s demands, or pay the price. But will he give in, or find the courage to fight back?Praise: ★★★★★ - "Exciting and suspenseful, Sealing Fate will hit you with twists and turns you would have never imagined." ★★★★★ - "I felt connected to each character. Could not put this book down."

Forward to Camelot


Susan Sloate - 2003
    On November 22, 1963, just hours after President Kennedy's assassination, Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as President aboard Air Force One using JFK's own Bible. Immediately afterward, the Bible disappeared. It has never been recovered. Today, its value would be beyond price. In the year 2000, actress Cady Cuyler is recruited to return to 1963 for this Bible-while also discovering why her father disappeared in the same city, on the same tragic day. Finding frightening links between them will lead Cady to a far more perilous mission: to somehow prevent the President's murder, with one unlikely ally: an ex-Marine named Lee Harvey Oswald. Forward to Camelot: 50th Anniversary Edition brings together an unlikely trio: a gallant president, the young patriot who risks his own life to save him, and the woman who knows their future, who is desperate to save them both. History CAN be altered ...

The Distant Echo


Val McDermid - 2003
    The only suspects in her brutal murder were the four young men who found her: Alex Gilbey and his three best friends. With no evidence but her blood on their hands, no one was ever charged.Twenty five years later, the Cold Case file on Rosie Duff has been reopened. For Alex and his friends, the investigation has also opened old wounds, haunting memories-and new fears. For a stranger has emerged from the shadows with his own ideas about justice. And revenge.When two of Alex's friends die under suspicious circumstances, Alex knows that he and his innocent family are the next targets. And there's only way to save them: return to the cold-blooded past and uncover the startling truth about the murder. For there lies the identity of an avenging killer...

Fire Flight


John J. Nance - 2003
    When forest wildfires threaten two American national parks and countless homes, retired fire bomber Clark Maxwell joins his former teammates despite the unreliability of their air tankers, which are breaking apart with fatal consequences, a situation that Maxwell suspects may be linked to a sinister cover up.

Dead I Well May Be


Adrian McKinty - 2003
    I had my reasons. But I went."So admits Michael Forsythe, an illegal immigrant escaping the Troubles in Belfast. But young Michael is strong and fearless and clever -- just the fellow to be tapped by Darkey, a crime boss, to join a gang of Irish thugs struggling against the rising Dominican powers in Harlem and the Bronx. The time is pre-Giuliani New York, when crack rules the city, squatters live furtively in ruined buildings, and hundreds are murdered each month. Michael and his lads tumble through the streets, shaking down victims, drinking hard, and fighting for turf, block by bloody block.Dodgy and observant, not to mention handy with a pistol, Michael is soon anointed by Darkey as his rising star. Meanwhile Michael has very inadvisably seduced Darkey's girl, Bridget -- saucy, fickle, and irresistible. Michael worries that he's being followed, that his affair with Bridget will be revealed. He's right to be anxious; when Darkey discovers the affair, he plans a very hard fall for young Michael, a gambit devilish in its guile, murderous in its intent.But Darkey fails to account for Michael's toughness and ingenuity or the possibility that he might wreak terrible vengeance upon those who would betray him.A natural storyteller with a gift for dialogue, McKinty introduces to readers a stunning new noir voice, dark and stylish, mythic and violent -- complete with an Irish lilt.

Praying For Sleep / The Bone Collector


Jeffery Deaver - 2003
    

The Eyewitness


Stephen Leather - 2003
    Working in the fractured remains of Yugoslavia, his task is to identify the victims of ethnic cleansing and to tell families that their loved ones are never coming home.Years of working in the killing fields have desensitised the former London policeman to the horrors of war, but when a truck containing twenty-six bodies is pulled from a lake, Solomon is unable to walk away from the case.He sets out to track down the only survivor of the massacre, a young girl on the run from the killers. Solomon's hunt for the last witness leads from the brothels of Sarajevo to the high-stakes world of London's internet prostitution - where he will discover that the killers are closer to home than he thinks . . .

Secret Justice


James W. Huston - 2003
    Kent "Rat" Rathman ends with theapprehension of the world's most wantedcriminal. But the methods necessary toachieve the goal are brutally unorthodox -- and a Middle Eastern prisoner suffersand dies as a result.Wheels of power are turning rapidly in Washington as politicians use the complex international situation to disguise their real motives of crushing their political enemies while fighting the war on terrorism. As a military tribunal convenes to determine the fate of terrorist leader Wahamed Duar, another courtroom drama is about to unfold: the trial of Lt. Rathman for war crimes and murder. But Duar's capture may have come too late and at too high a cost, setting in motion a potentially devastating nightmare of destruction on American soil. The one man who could prevent it now stands accused by his own government . . . and faces a dark future in a military prison.

The Delta


Tony Park - 2003
    Kurtz, an ex-soldier turned mercenary, is given a high profile job—to kill the president of Zimbabwe. But it's a set up, the assassination attempt fails, Kurtz has been burned and her exfiltration plan are in ruins. Kurtz now heads for her only place of refuge, the Okavango Delta in the heart of Botswana. Determined to lay low and take it easy, Sonja discovers that her beloved Delta is on the brink of destruction. In a bid to halt a project that would destroy the Delta's fragile network of swamps and waterways, she is recruited as an ‘eco-commando.'Soon she finds herself caught in a web of intrigue as deadly as the one she left behind her. Caught between her ex-lover Sterling, Martin Steele, her mercenary commander, and a TV wildlife documentary host ‘Coyote' Sam Chapman who blunders out of the bush in a reality show gone wrong. Instead of escaping her violent past, Sonja is now surrounded by men who are relying on her killer instincts. Having come to peace, she finds herself in the midst of a deadly war… and it is not only the survival of the Delta that is at stake.The Delta is a white-knuckle thriller from international bestseller Tony Park, the new "master of adventure," in his North American debut.

The Pact: OP One


C.N. Bring - 2003
    Navy Commander Celia Kelly is a strong woman of faith and valor whose husband, Tom Kelly, went MIA. As she seeks to unravel the mystery of his disappearance--is he dead? missing? abducted? --her connections in the military start facing danger. "Celia, if you are reading this, I am in trouble or dead." Kelly discovers she's been set up. With an unpredictable secretary, a by-the-book assistant and a Navy SEAL Team, Celia Kelly has her hands full as a Navy SEAL mission sucks her into murder, conspiracy and a hunt for an arms group, The Pact, missing 20 million dollars. What really happened to Tom Kelly? Is the conspiracy related to Tom Kelly's disappearance and who are the members of The Pact?

Destroyer World: The Assassin's Handbook 2


Warren Murphy - 2003
    Together, they bring you the all-new readers' guide to the past thirty years of America's greatest adventure series! Inside you will find the all-new Destroyer Novella "False Starts and Bitter Ends" by James Mullaney, a unique interview of the authors by the fans of the series, and an original short story, "The Man in Room 36E". And a whole lot of Chiun! There's a lot more to enjoy inside these pages than we can list here.ABOUT THE SERIES:Sentenced to death for a crime he didn’t commit, ex-cop Remo Williams is rescued from the electric chair and recruited by a secret government organization as an assassin, targeting criminals who are beyond the law. Remo’s trainer is a curmudgeonly old Korean named Chiun, whose mastery of the terrifyingly powerful martial art of Sinanju makes him the deadliest man alive.The winning combination of action, humor, and mysticism has made the Destroyer one of the best-selling series of all time. With more than 150 books and over 50 million copies sold worldwide, the Destroyer has been praised by the LA Times as “flights of hilarious satire,” and gave birth to the mythology of the brash young Westerner taught by an ancient, inscrutable master.

The Guilty


Gabriel Boutros - 2003
    After twenty years of defending the most hardened criminals, many of whom he knew to be guilty, the only thing he can no longer do is look at himself in the mirror. Loosely based on a multiple-murder that shocked Montreal in the 1990s, this riveting story pulls the reader into the inner workings of a murder trial, and reveals what one lawyer must do when he has to defend "The Guilty."

Rat Race / To the Hilt


Dick Francis - 2003
    They're nervous, but Matt's not. That is, until he manages an emergency landing minutes before the plane explodes. Matt doesn't think anything else can possibly go wrong. Then he finds himself caught up in a rat race of danger that puts him on the wrong side of the odds....To the Hilt:Alexander Kinloch found solitude and an steady income painting in a bothy on a remote Scottish mountain. Until the morning the strangers arrived to rough him up, and Alexander was dragged reluctantly back into the real and violent world he thought he'd left behind.Millions of pounds are missing from his stepfather's business. A valuable racehorse is under threat. Then comes the first ugly death and the end of all Alexander's doubts. For the honour of the Kinlochs he will face the strangers... committed up to the hilt...

The Fifth Victim


Beverly Barton - 2003
    Cherokee Pointe, Tennesee. Deep in the Smoky Mountains, the victim lies, sacrificed on a makeshift altar---the gruesome work of a killer who has evaded the authorities in state after state. FBI agent Dallas Sloan knows the scene all too well---just as he knows the killings won't stop until there are four more bodies... Some warnings won't be heeded... Genny Madoc's "sixth sense" has brought many of Cherokee Pointe's residents to her isolated log cabin, looking for help from the disturbing visions she sees---images that are getting stronger and more violent day by day... Some fears can't be stopped... Thrown together by necessity, drawn to each other by desire, Dallas and Genny must band together, searching the darkest heart of a town's hidden secrets before a twisted killer can complete a sinister plan that will make one of them the fifth victim...

Outside 25: Classic Tales and New Voices from the Frontiers of America


Hal Espen - 2003
    adopts a wild manatee; David Rakoff survives survival school; and more.The editors of Outside bring together 36 stories that comprise some of the finest nonfiction gathered anywhere, works that take us to remote corners of the world and into distant realms of the imagination. By turns comical and sobering, whimsical and nerve-racking, the stories in this collection embody Outside's ability to hone the cutting edge, publishing the innovative, exhilarating, zany, wise voices of sport, travel, and adventure.

The Harmony Society


Tim Waggoner - 2003
    Past and present. Sanity and madness. For Nathan Bennett, there is no longer any difference between them - not since the Harmony Society came into his life. Now, as his world begins to collapse around him, Nathan must travel the strange and dangerous roads of the Nightway in search of the Dark Angel - a being of great power that the Harmony Society desperately wishes to control. But even if Nathan reaches the Angel first, what waits for him at the end of his long, dark road: salvation . . . damnation . . . Or both? Biography Tim Waggoner is the author of two novels, Dying for It and The Harmony Society, as well as the short story collection All Too Surreal. He's published over seventy short stories in the fantasy and horror genres, and his articles on writing have appeared in Writer's Digest, Writers' Journal, New Writer's Magazine, Ohio Writer, Speculations, and Teaching English in the Two-Year College. He teaches creative writing at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio. His home page is located at www.sff.net/people/Tim.Waggoner.

Dreg


Terry M. West - 2003
    1940. Madness thrives in the Pointe au Chien and a dark legacy is embraced. A bayou boy is baptized in city blood and a pack as old as time rises from the swamps. A man beast escapes his shackles, and the hunt begins- a hunt that will last for decades. A hunt fueled by the moon. For when the moon is full, the beast rises. And the blood flows. Houston, Texas. 1999. Lucas Glover is a local psychic who assists the police. Lucas' supernatural abilities are faltering and his health has been greatly affected by his gift. He is brought in by the police commissioner to help profile and track down the Keepsake Killer. The Keepsake Killer is a mass murder who has eluded the police for almost two decades. Lucas is partnered with William Harlson, a hard as nails, skeptical and terminally ill homicide detective who sees stopping the killer as his last hurrah. As the investigation progresses, Lucas is plagued by strange dreams and he develops a connection with an otherworldly force that slowly reveals the origins of the killer. Lucas discovers that he is dealing with a primal force of nature far more dangerous than any human serial killer. And when the Keepsake Killer strikes close to home, Lucas has to push his abilities farther than they have ever been pushed. Even if it kills him. Dreg is a horror/thriller novel written by critically-acclaimed author, Terry M. West. This is the revised and expanded version of the out of print 2003 first edition.

Living Proof


Peter J. Thompson - 2003
    The subjects, like Ramon, are taken from homeless shelters and prisons, and serve their country as unwilling lab rats.Ramon didn’t commit the murder that put him on death row. But he’s guilty of something worse—surviving the virus and escaping his captors. Ramon escapes, and begins a life on the run, a dead man hunted by would-be executioners determined to silence him. There’s only one person he can turn to—Lena Dryer, the reporter who covered his case and watched him die. Together, they must uncover the dark truth about the facility and its deadly secret.A secret that could alter the course of human history.A secret they may be too late to stop.Government secrets. Biological weapons. Human subjects. Fans of the dark imaginings of Stephen King and the breakneck pacing of Robert Ludlum will fall in love with “Living Proof.”