Book picks similar to
Counterspy by Matthew Dunn


thriller
2023
spycatcher
short-stories

Not a Drill


Lee Child - 2014
    But even a pleasant hike on a beautiful summer day turns into a walk on the wild side . . . and perhaps something far more sinister.Jack Reacher is on the road, hitching a ride with some earnest young Canadians who are planning a hike through some of the last unspoiled wilderness in North America in the dense forests of Maine. They part ways after sharing a hot meal, and Reacher checks out a quiet town surrounded by countryside serene enough to cool even his raging wanderlust. But not for long. First the trail is suddenly and inexplicably closed. Then the military police show up in force. Maybe it's a drill. Or maybe it's trouble—the kind of trouble that always finds Reacher, no matter how far he travels off the beaten path.

Ghost Town


Mark Lukens - 2014
    They don't know each other and they don't know how they got there. Their only refuge from the heat and sun is the ghost town shimmering on the horizon.Once inside the ghost town they become pawns in a twisted game. They must figure out the clues, the connection they all have to each other, and the rules of this game if they have any hope of surviving.

All The Hidden Pieces


Jillian Thomadsen - 2018
    Within minutes, she and her family hastily pack up their belongings and abandon their home. Where did the family go and why? Det. Roberta Hobbs has been assigned to uncover the family's whereabouts. Hobbs is a confident, intelligent police veteran. However, each passing day brings her closer to her unresolved past. When Hobbs digs deeper into the mystery, all leads point to her own longtime ex-boyfriend - a former drug dealer turned philanthropist named Steven Vance -- as the primary suspect. This riveting dual-timeline suspense novel takes us back to 2004 -- the year Greta Carpenter first realizes something is wrong with her young son, John. Over the course of his childhood, John's learning disabilities become apparent. Greta's unfaltering advocacy on his behalf puts her at odds with the school system and strains her relationship with her husband Griffin. Eventually Greta and Griffin's marriage falls apart, and during the divorce trial, Greta reveals that she was a teenage runaway, and a local entrepreneur named Steven Vance rescued her from the streets. Vance is certainly a man of many shades - a local celebrity for his philanthropy, a cunning CEO who sits atop a questionable mini-empire, a benevolent former father figure to Greta and a lying, evasive former companion to Hobbs. It seems that only Vance has the power to make people disappear in this small town and he emerges as the most obvious suspect...but Hobbs remains uncertain of his role. While her colleagues question whether she can truly be impartial, Hobbs realizes she has a reason to suspect them as well. Nothing is obvious in this thrilling mystery...except that Hobbs must race to solve the mystery before it's too late.

The Sleep Tight Motel


Lisa Unger - 2018
    Check in for the night with New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger.Eve has a fake ID, a .38, and a violent lover receding in the rearview mirror. He’ll never find her at the isolated motel, and its kindly manager is happy to ease her fears. But if Eve is the only guest, whom does she keep hearing on the other side of the wall? Eve won’t get a good night’s rest until she finds out.Lisa Unger’s The Sleep Tight Motel is part of Dark Corners, a collection of seven heart-stopping short stories by bestselling authors who give you so many new reasons to be afraid. Each story can be read in a single sitting. Or, if you have the nerve, you can listen all by yourself in the dark.

The Secret of Hades' Eden


Graham J. Thomson - 2011
    When Ella Moore, a brilliant Egyptologist at Cambridge University, receives a strange and unexpected inheritance from her murdered father – a cryptic note, a mysterious painting and a gold ring emblazoned with a strange symbol – she embarks on a deadly journey to locate an ancient and mysterious book. Hidden for over two-thousand years, and protected by an ancient cult, the book holds the secrets of a long forgotten civilisation. Secrets that would rock the foundations of Western society and religion. Secrets worth killing for. Agent William Temple, a former special forces intelligence officer, has just joined F-Branch, a covert operational arm of MI6. For his first mission he is assigned to investigate a secret society who plan to release a genetically engineered virus. After William rescues Ella from abduction, they join forces in the hunt for the book. Pursued by a ruthless assassin working for the world’s most ancient secret society, together they must decode the mysteries of her father’s legacy and find the book before it falls into the hands of evil and is lost forever. Find the book. Find the vaccine. The clock is ticking...

The Lake and 17 Other Stories


David McAfee - 2010
    and Saying Goodbye to the Sun. THE LAKE THE SPIDER AND THE FLY EXHIBIT A Plus 14 Horror Microstories! BONUS STORY: One last Dinner Party, by David Dalglish, author of the Half Orc series.

Pilot Error


Dan Moren - 2020
    But instead of being swept up in a new life of intrigue and excitement, Eli has instead been tasked with sharpening his rusty piloting skills on routine asteroid mining missions.But, as he’s about to discover, those missions can quickly become anything but routine…

The Dawn Of Grace


Randy Mixter
    A time for joy. A time for tears. A time for reflection. A time for hope.And a time for miracles.This Christmas season Dave and Karen Brenner have welcomed a stranger into their lives. A stranger who may change their lives forever.

The Corporal's Wife


Gerald Seymour - 2013
    If they are caught, they will all be executed by the fundamentalist government - the Brits because they are effectively spies and Farideh because her husband is regarded as a traitor and she has a dangerous mind of her own.Farideh's husband is a corporal in the Revolutionary Guard, entrapped by MI6 and held in a safe house in Austria for interrogation. His lowly position would not normally make him a target, but his job as a driver to a top general means that he knows the location of secret nuclear sites and has overheard many unguarded conversations.But he won't talk unless they will bring out Farideh. The SAS say it's too dangerous, but the director of the operation doesn't want to lose his prize. He assembles a little team of three ex-soldiers and one student drop-out who knows the language and smuggles them into Tehran.The journey out is an epic of drama and suspense, culminating in a never-to-be-forgotten run for the border. Along the way, we meet many characters, both British and Iranian, who display courage, cowardice, hatred, and love.

Dead Lake


Darcy Coates - 2015
     A week's visit to the remote Harob Lake cabin couldn't have come at a better time for Sam. She's battling artist's block ahead of a major gallery exhibition. Staying at Harob Lake is her final, desperate attempt to paint the collection that could save her floundering career. It seems perfect: no neighbours, no phone, no distractions. But the dream retreat disintegrates into a nightmare when Sam discovers she's being stalked. A tall, strange man stands on the edge of her dock, staring intently into the swirling waters below. He starts to follow her. He disables her car. He destroys her only way to communicate with the outside world. And Sam is beginning to suspect he's responsible for the series of disappearances from a nearby hiking trail. Stranded at Harob Lake, Sam realises she’s become the prey in the hunter’s deadliest game…

The Vanishing (Detective Dean Cornell, #1)


David J. Delaney - 2015
    Grab a copy now. Detective Dean Cornell is investigating the murder of a young woman when he and his partner stumble across a second brutal murder. Hunting for the killer through the streets of Sydney he discovers another young girl has vanished, leaving a distraught father holding onto whatever hope he can. Dean and the detectives of Sydney homicide desperately try to unfold the mystery of the dead and the missing. Can they find the killer before another life is lost What people have said about the Author “David J Delaney mixes suspense and emotion to put you on the edge of your seat. You’ll have a blast reading his books.” J. Thorn, author of The Portal Arcane trilogy "Good luck putting down one of David's books. He'll have you biting your nails and turning pages for hours." Zach Bohannon, Amazon Top 100 Author of the Empty Bodies series “David has the ability to grab hold of you with his voice and never let go. The sense of place he firmly puts you in is remarkable, evoking every sense, every feeling of that moment. As a fan of David's work I know when I begin to read one of his stories I'll be reading late into the night, because putting it down isn't an option. If you're interested in a great read, you cannot go wrong with anything written by this talented author. I, for one, can't wait for his next story, and the next, and the next...” Sue Coletta, Crime Writer

The Body Man


Eric P. Bishop - 2021
    And he's vanished without a trace.In a town that's obsessed with dark secrets, where the currency of power is information, The White House has kept a huge one for decades. Charged with the task of protecting and defending the Office of the Presidency from threats both outside and in, the keeper of secrets-the Body Man-has been in the shadows since the 1960s.The Body Man has been a unique protector of American presidents ever since a previous well-known president used the first Body Man to usher women, diplomats, and other heads of state into the White House via a secret tunnel. The Body Man is drawn from the Secret Service, but he isn't on the classic protective detail, and he reports to no one. Once his term is over, he's given a huge payout and a one-way ticket to anywhere on Earth.With a CIA conspiracy buff named Zed and The Body Man's aged neighbor Rose, former US Army Ranger and FBI Special Agent Eli Payne and his new probationary agent Kat Stone must find the Body Man before it's too late-and the trail may lead directly to the Oval Office itself.

Red Sparrow


Jason Matthews - 2013
    In present-day Russia, ruled by blue-eyed, unblinking President Vladimir Putin, Russian intelligence officer Dominika Egorova struggles to survive in the post-Soviet intelligence jungle. Ordered against her will to become a “Sparrow,” a trained seductress, Dominika is assigned to operate against Nathaniel Nash, a young CIA officer who handles the Agency’s most important Russian mole.Spies have long relied on the “honey trap,” whereby vulnerable men and women are intimately compromised. Dominika learns these techniques of “sexpionage” in Russia’s secret “Sparrow School,” hidden outside of Moscow. As the action careens between Russia, Finland, Greece, Italy, and the United States, Dominika and Nate soon collide in a duel of wills, tradecraft, and—inevitably—forbidden passion that threatens not just their lives but those of others as well. As secret allegiances are made and broken, Dominika and Nate’s game reaches a deadly crossroads. Soon one of them begins a dangerous double existence in a life-and-death operation that consumes intelligence agencies from Moscow to Washington, DC.Page by page, veteran CIA officer Jason Matthews’s Red Sparrow delights and terrifies and fascinates, all while delivering an unforgettable cast, from a sadistic Spetsnaz “mechanic” who carries out Putin’s murderous schemes to the weary CIA Station Chief who resists Washington “cake-eaters” to MARBLE, the priceless Russian mole. Packed with insider detail and written with brio, this tour-de-force novel brims with Matthews’s life experience, including his knowledge of espionage, counterintelligence, surveillance tradecraft, spy recruitment, cyber-warfare, the Russian use of “spy dust,” and covert communications. Brilliantly composed and elegantly constructed, Red Sparrow is a masterful spy tale lifted from the dossiers of intelligence agencies on both sides of the Atlantic. Authentic, tense, and entertaining, this novel introduces Jason Matthews as a major new American talent.

Alpha


Steven Konkoly - 2011
    A secret his government has hidden in the deepest vaults of the Pentagon.Someone is trying to raise Black Flag from the dead, and drag Petrovich back into the poisonous life he abandoned. Someone who knows his darkest secrets.In exchange for the promise of a clean slate, and a chance to keep the life he has built with the woman he loves, he agrees to carry out one more mission. Now Daniel has an even bigger problem. The assassination of Mohammed Ghani, a wealthy Muslim importer, wasn't the uncomplicated mission he had been promised. Seven other prominent Muslim businessmen are killed on the same night along the East Coast, suddenly extinguishing Task Force HYDRA, the most significant counter-terrorism investigation in recent FBI history.Daniel's life is about to disintegrate, as he becomes the focus of a relentless FBI manhunt, and the target of a vengeful CIA agent. To survive, he'll be forced to release a dark side he fought for years to keep suppressed. A dark side with no boundaries, and few loyalties.

The Arrangement


Kiersten Modglin - 2021
    It’s what she prides herself on. So, when she realizes her marriage is at its breaking point, she makes a decision to repair it, no matter the cost. Approaching her husband to propose the arrangement is supposed to be the hard part, but Peter agrees to the salacious plan almost immediately.The rules are simple:They will each date someone new once a week. They will never discuss what happens on the dates. Soon, though, the rules are broken, turning terrible mistakes into unspeakable consequences. When the only person they can count on to keep their darkest secret is each other, new questions and deceits surface. Can they truly trust the person they share a life with, or will the vicious lies that have mounted over the years destroy everything they’ve built?Once, Peter and Ainsley vowed to stand together forever, but as they push boundaries of deception, suspicion, and temptation, each begins to wonder if ’til death do us part may come sooner than they’d intended.