Book picks similar to
The Big Bend by Gary Showalter


mystery
thriller
fiction
action-adventure

Takeoff


Joseph Reid - 2018
    All he has to do is accompany female pop star Max Magic to Los Angeles and deliver her to the FBI. But when their routine flight ends in a hail of gunfire at LAX, Walker has no choice but to take the frightened diva on the run.After a second attack leaves him battered and bloody, Walker realizes he cannot trust the FBI. To keep his client alive, he must use a patchwork of trusted aviation contacts to get her home to Austin, where the key suspects await.But as they race to stay one step ahead of their deadly pursuers, the biggest danger of all may be what they’re heading toward—the dark secrets that Max herself has been keeping…

Ratcatcher


Tim Stevens - 2012
    British Intelligence has John Purkiss, the Ratcatcher.Purkiss's job is straightforward. Track down agents of the intelligence services who are taking kickbacks, committing crimes, or otherwise abusing their positions. And bring them to justice.Straightforward doesn't mean easy...After a renegade British former spymaster, Fallon, is sighted in the Baltic city of Tallinn on the eve of a historic summit meeting between the Russian and Estonian presidents, Purkiss is despatched to investigate, and uncovers a conspiracy that threatens to tear Europe - and the world - apart. But Purkiss has personal reasons for going after Fallon. Four years ago, Fallon was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Purkiss's fiancée, a murder Purkiss himself witnessed.Now, in an atmosphere of treachery and sudden violence, as the countdown begins towards a potentially catastrophic conflict between Russia and the West, Purkiss must keep his desire for revenge under control for the sake of the world's - and his own - survival.Described in Amazon reviews as a "cracker of a spy thriller" with "superbly choreographed action scenes" that "leave you feeling almost dizzy", RATCATCHER is both an adrenaline fuelled action adventure novel and a hardboiled mystery story which exposes the world of the spy, in which few motives and actions are purely black or white.

Stone of Fire


J.F. Penn - 2011
    Morgan Sierra, an Oxford University psychologist with a deadly past, doesn’t know the answer to that question — and doesn’t care. All she knows is that her sister and niece have been abducted, held hostage for the stone pendants that Morgan and her sister wear: two of twelve relics once owned by the original Apostles.Forged in fire and wind, drowned in the blood of martyrs, the twelve Pentecost stones have been kept secret for two thousand years. But now the Keepers of the stones are being murdered, and the relics stolen by Thanatos, a shadowy group dedicated to remaking the world into a living Hell. The authorities are clueless; the world lies helpless. And Thanatos grows more powerful with each stone they take. Enter Jake Timber — agent of ARKANE, the British agency tasked with investigating the supernatural. Jake knows some of the secrets Morgan needs to save her family, but can’t stop Thanatos without her help. Only together can they stop Thanatos before the stones are captured, before Morgan’s family is murdered, and before the world is changed forever.From flooded ruins in Italy, to religious sites in Israel, to the far reaches of Iran and Tunisia, Morgan and Jake must race across the world to find the stones before Thanatos gathers the relics and uses their power to turn Earth into a living Hell.But every step they take brings Morgan and Jake closer to the end. To the knife edge between salvation and madness. To the moment when Morgan will have to decide whether she will save her family… or save the world.Time is running out. Thanatos draws near. And the day of Pentecost is at hand.Stone of Fire is the first book in the ARKANE series by New York Times and USA Today bestselling author J.F. Penn.

The Grave Man


David Archer - 2015
     Sam Prichard was a cop, and a good one, until the bullets took out the joint of his right hip. Now he's trying to learn to live without being a cop, and getting to know his neighbors, learning to walk again and even ride a motorcycle. Life is bearable, barely, but then he gets asked to find a missing child, and the lure of getting back into some kind of police work is too much for him to resist. When he teams up with computer whiz Indiana Perkins, he suddenly becomes one of the best investigators he's ever even known. Now, he's found the missing child, but it's thrown him right into the middle of something that may be a drug war--or could be a chance to stop the next 911! There's no way out for Sam, so he's in for the ride of his life, but when the girl he's becoming fond of is suddenly drawn into the line of fire with her own little daughter, Sam is ready to forget all the rules and do whatever is necessary to win the day.

A Death in Sweden


Kevin Wignall - 2016
    A former CIA operative, he is now an agent for hire by foreign powers on the hunt for dangerous fugitives. It’s a lethal world at the best of times, and Dan knows his number is almost up. His next job could be his last—and his next job is his biggest yet.The target sounds trackable enough: Jacques Fillon, who gave up his life trying to save a fellow passenger following a bus crash in northern Sweden. But the man was something of an enigma in this rural community, and his death exposes his greatest secret: Jacques Fillon never existed at all.Dan is tasked with uncovering Fillon’s true identity—but can he do so before his own past catches up with him?

Regret


Dan Dawkins - 2011
    at first, that is. Dan, a newly published bestselling author has just begun to taste the good life: Money in the bank, house in a quiet neighborhood, beautiful wife. His monster of a fictional character--a wealthy, handsome, womanizing murderer--is the catalyst for Dan's good fortune, intriguing millions of readers. But when Dan sleeps with his agent on a business trip, and then confesses the whole thing to his wife in near tears, he sets off a chain of events that cause him to lose his wife and his grip on everything, including reality.Fleeing his hometown in an attempt to outrun tormenting memories, Dan lands himself in a nearly forgotten small town in Oklahoma, taking up indefinite refuge in a Bed and Breakfast. While here, Dan's demons begin to prey on his mental instability, and the character that he's thrilled his readers with begins to come off the page and out into the flesh, sending shockwaves through the otherwise peaceful town, and giving Dan some interesting and horrific ideas on how to cope with his pain.

Pinpoint


Sheila Mary Taylor
    Eyes that are like no other blue eyes she has ever seen - except for her own. So startling that she knows immediately she sees them that she has seen them before. But where? When? And why does the sight of him trigger memories of her youth - of something so terrible she has done that she cannot remember anything that happened before she was ten years old? And who is this evil man who calls himself Sam Smith, who threatens to tell the world what Julia did if she doesn't comply with his demands? Julia's dilemma takes her beyond any normal person's limit of endurance: how to protect herself and her daughter from Smith's threats; how to raise the quarter million pounds Smith is demanding; and how to keep alive her burgeoning relationship with Paul Moxon, the police superintendent hunting Smith ...

Gray Justice


Alan McDermott - 2011
    But when the killer is let off with time served on remand, Gray knows there is something fundamentally wrong with the justice system. Engaging the help of his ex-SAS buddies, he kidnaps five repeat offenders and asks the public to vote on their fate: Should they be allowed to continue their criminal ways with inadequate punishment, or has Britain had enough?His website attracts a worldwide audience and, although the authorities know where he is, they are powerless to stop him.Can Gray carry out his audacious plan? Will Andrew Harvey and his fellow MI5 operatives find a way to stop him?Gray Justice is more than a simple tale of revenge: it’s a rollercoaster ride with an ending you’ll never forget.

Secret of the Scroll


Chester D. Campbell - 2002
    Then he brings a "souvenir" Dead Sea Scroll home from the Holy Land and things go from bad to worse. A Palestinian terrorist group invades his home, fails to find the scroll, and takes his wife, Jill, hostage. Greg finds himself with an ancient Hebrew scroll worth millions, wanted by both the Palestinians and a radical far-right Israeli organization. When he tries to exchange it for Jill's freedom, everything goes wrong. Then the police target him as a suspect in his wife's disappearance, and he sets out alone on a perilous chase to save her life.

Highway to Vengeance: A Thomas Highway Novel (Volume 1)


Brian Springer - 2011
    One is trying to stop him. One wants to help. But both have their own hidden agendas. Highway's search leads to a former drug lord turned terrorist who's looking to smuggle a WMD under the porous Mexico border. But that's not going to happen. Not if Highway can help it.From the sun-drenched beaches of San Diego to the crime-ridden streets of Tijuana, HIGHWAY TO VENGEANCE combines a hard-boiled, neo-noir, first-person POV with modern thriller elements and a highly accurate account of real-life SEAL training to create a twisting novel that explores the darkness within us all, the lengths one man will go to avenge his lost love, and the difference between vengeance and justice.Highway To Vengeance is a 60,000 word novel.For fans of Lee Child, Dennis Lehane, George Pelecanos, and Stephen Hunter.Includes a preview of THIRTEEN, a supernatural thriller.Also available from Brian Springer:Broken Highway (A Thomas Highway Short Story)Thirteen (A Supernatural Thriller)Blood Money (A Greg Kelton Novel)Wet Work (A Greg Kelton Short Story)Stain of Mind (The Serial Killer Journals Volume One)

Highwater


T.J. Brearton - 2014
    He needs a blood transfusion and only one person matches. But first Milliner must solve the mystery at the Kingston house, where Liz Goldfine may have committed a heinous crime, and the dark depths of the lake harbor teenage secrets.Groups of strange young men are gathering on the roads, the old house holds many mysteries, and the waters are rising fast. What lurks deep in the lake and can anyone stop it?

Burnt Offerings


Michael Lister - 2012
     Terror reigns over the North Florida National Forest, the coastal town of Bayshore, and the barrier island of Pine Key—a fiery terror whose flame threatens to consume the whole world. An exacting and methodical killer whose weapon is fire is working on his masterpiece, and only a wounded and scarred FDLE agent and a retired ritual crimes expert hiding from the world in a cabin in the woods have any hope of stopping him. Rich and textured, yet fast-paced and pulse-pounding, BURNT OFFERINGS will leave you breathless right up until its heart-stopping conclusion.

Surface Tension


Christine Kling - 2002
    Working as she does in a man's world, Seychelle has to work twice as hard just to compete. Some have even called her reckless. In her view, she's just doing her job, salvaging boats and people's lives. FROM BOOKLIST –Kling packs her debut with nautical detail, interesting characters, a well-tangled plot, and detailed descriptions of both the natural beauty and rampant tackiness of southern Florida. Recommend to James W. Hall fans and to all who like outdoor adventure along with their murder and mayhem. Carrie Bissey Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved SURFACE TENSION Years ago Seychelle Sullivan had the chance to save a person’s life. But on that summer night in Florida, lost in a world of teenage resentment and loneliness, Seychelle was not able to feel any pain but her own. Today Seychelle captains her father’s forty-six-foot salvage boat out of Fort Lauderdale’s New River. But she’s never escaped that one moment when she could have made a difference and didn’t. On a steamy Florida morning Seychelle is answering a Mayday call launched from the five-million-dollar Broward yacht called Top Ten. Racing her fiercest competitor for salvage rights, Seychelle has a personal stake in this rescue: Her former lover, Neal Garrett, is the yacht’s hired skipper. But being the first to reach Top Ten leads to a bloody payday. A beautiful woman has been stabbed to death onboard. And Garrett is nowhere to be found. While the police treat her as the prime suspect, Seychelle begins to unravel a tangled plot centered on a strip club where “all the girls are tens on top.” Seychelle is connecting human predators with innocent victims, and a mystery on land with a mystery buried deep beneath the sea. Now, to find out what really happened to Neal Garrett, Seychelle must retrace his last steps, through two murders and a horrific crime wave, to a final confrontation with someone who may want to kill her . . . or be her salvation. About the Author Christine Kling is the author of five nautical thrillers and one anthology of short stories. She lives aboard her 33-foot sailboat Talespinner and travels wherever the wind and free wifi may take her.

Wanted


Nick Stephenson - 2013
    Caught in the cross hairs of a ruthless assassin and on the run from the police for a murder he didn't commit, Blake and his team must fight to clear his name before it's too late.As enemies close in from all sides, Blake is about to learn who he can trust - and who is determined to destroy him - as The City of Light becomes a new hunting ground.Wanted is the first novel in the Leopold Blake series of thrillers, which can be read and enjoyed in any order.

The Speed of Sound


Eric Bernt - 2018
    Resident Eddie Parks’s contribution is nothing less than extraordinary: an “echo box” that can re-create never-recorded sounds using acoustic archeology.All Eddie wants is to hear his late mother’s voice. But what he’s created is inadvertently posing a threat to national security.To Harmony House’s shadowy government backers and radical extremists, the echo box is the ultimate intelligence asset—an end to the very concept of secrecy. Now for Eddie and the compassionate Dr. Skylar Drummond, the true nature of the institution is becoming chillingly clear.As ruthless competing enemies close in on Eddie and his miraculous machine, Skylar risks all to take him on the run. Because once that prize is won, Eddie Parks will no longer be considered a “special person” but a dangerous redundancy. An inconvenient echo that must be silenced.