Book picks similar to
The Crimson Blind by Fred M. White


english
genre-mys-thrill-act
public-domain-research
pulp

Different Paths


A.E. McCullough - 2012
    As a former Spec-Ops warrior, Spartan has found that the skills given to him by the Coalition government are well suited to his new occupation. After retrieving a lucrative bounty, Spartan returns to Terran space and finds that one of his oldest friends has been murdered. Vowing to track down the killer, he soon becomes the unwilling pawn in an interstellar power struggle between two old rivals, his former Omega Squadron Commander and the President of the Coalition. When Spartan is forced to kill his mentor in self-defense, he is arrested by Galactic Marshals and detained. But when the Marshals kill a Federal Agent and pin the murder on him, he is forced to flee Earth with a small group of friends. Now the hunter becomes the hunted. Spartan finds that having a bounty placed on his head to be troublesome as he evades the authorities, tracks down his old commander and struggles to clear his name. Unknown to all, an ancient evil has awakened and has plans of its own for mankind and they include death, destruction and chaos. Are the skills Iaido ‘Achilles’ Spartan gained over the years enough to save the day and clear his name?The Last Spartan: Different Paths is the first book in a Sci Fi adventure novel series following a genetically engineered super-soldier on his quest for redemption and discovery of his purpose since leaving the service. Typically a loner, Iaido ‘Achilles’ Spartan learns the bittersweet truth that that no man is an island and nothing is more valuable than friendship. He might have been designed to be nothing more than a killer but in the end, he chooses to walk a different path. Carpe diem.

Locked Up


G.B. Williams - 2017
    Soon Charlie finds himself working with Ariande but she is a guard, he is an inmate and some lines should never be crossed… Can two people on different sides of the law come together to solve the case? And do the answers lie closer to home than anyone ever imagined?  "Tense and claustrophobic, with a spine-chilling denouement!" Caro Ramsay, author of the Anderson and Costello series"A brilliant new and authentic voice in crime fiction - G B Williams knows how to tell a story and tell it well" Katherine John, author of the Trevor Joseph series and "By Any Name" Also available in The Locked Trilogy: Locked In Locked Up is a hard-boiled police thriller that will have you gripped from page 1. It will appeal to fans of authors like Rachel Abbott, Ed James, Joy Ellis and Angela Marsons.

The Last Platoon: A Novel of the Afghanistan War


Bing West - 2020
    In a series of escalating fights, Cruz must prove he is a combat leader, despite the growing disapproval of the colonel in overall charge. At the same time, the president has ordered the CIA to capture a drug lord. But with a fortune in heroin at stake, the Taliban joins with the drug lord to wipe out the base. As the president negotiates a secret deal, Cruz must rally the Marines to make a last stand. Bringing you into America’s longest war with vivid immediacy, The Last Platoon portrays how leaders rise or wilt under intense pressure. A searing, timeless story of moral conflict, savage combat, and feckless politics.

The House of the Wicked


D.M. Mitchell - 2011
    It is an isolated Cornish fishing community, largely untouched by the modern, developing Victorian world, hanging onto its old traditions, superstitions and beliefs – a community that lives with a disturbing secret. So too does Denning. He is a reluctant visitor, and though he is supposedly joining his one-time artist friend Terrance Wilkinson to form an artists’ colony it is circumstances that force him there. Denning is still haunted by the brutal death of a young woman in Brittany, and shouldering guilt for the fact that he covered up for Wilkinson when he suspects the man of having been been involved with the murder. But Porthgarrow is haunted by its own demons and secrets. He learns about the savage murder of a woman by her husband Jowan Connoch thirteen years previously, and of Jowan’s son who has returned to Porthgarrow to uncover the truth and to clear his father’s name. Yet it is far from over. Before long three more people are destined to die in Porthgarrow before the village gives up its sinister secrets, and Stephen Denning will learn of his own family’s mysterious involvement. The house of the Wicked is peopled with larger than life characters – the powerful businessman Gerran Hendra and his beautiful daughter Jenna; the Reverend Biddle who collects photographs of the dead; Benjamin Croker, the journalist; and Tunny, the village wise man and healer. From its atmospheric Gothic undertones to its shocking and unexpected end, ‘The House of the Wicked’ is D. M. Mitchell at his darkest and most imaginative best. Some secrets will not stay buried...

The Efficiency Expert


Edgar Rice Burroughs - 1921
    He set out for Chicago with all the enthusiastic eagerness oif a man who knows in his heart of heart, that he's on the winning team. But Chicago wasn't Ivy-league college football, a there was no team to captain: What Jimmyu found in Chicago was a tough life in a tough place at a miserable wage. He found the decency of folks any ordinary fellow would have branded criminals, and he found the criminality of upstanding citizens who surrounded him. He found a whore with a heart of gold, and a safe-cracker who was also a man a body could rely on. And most important of all, in that freakish, frightful burg, Jimmy found a thing called love. . . .

Good Girl Gone


K.T. Finch - 2017
    Molly, his ten-year-old daughter is his whole life. But one ordinary morning, Tom discovers that Molly's not in her room.Gone. Vanished.Police are called, a search party goes out, and Tom, already struggling with staying sober, finds himself coming undone. As hours become days without any sign of Molly, everyone she knows is called into question, including Tom himself. As he tries to desperately piece together what could've happened, Tom realizes that nothing is quite as it seems. Will Molly be found in time? Or will Tom have to face the rest of his life not knowing what happened to little girl?Perfect for fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train.

Can I Be Frank?


Rob Wyatt - 2011
    He is not sure what to expect, but certainly isn’t prepared for what he finds. As if his new role isn’t challenging enough, he struggles with everything from jalapenos to fire ants, from church politics to the language barrier. Having unwittingly managed to alienate his parish’s main benefactor, Frank soon finds himself in hot water with his Diocese. His troubles only increase when he stumbles across suspicious goings-on deep in the Florida orange groves. Can he solve the mystery before he loses his parish…or his life?

Wild Desires: Book 1


Natalie Wild - 2014
     Alyssa’s suppressed sexual desire has been set loose by her adventurous yoga instructor. Can she control herself and hold on to her perfect relationship with the perfect man? Uptight and in control at all times, Alyssa decides to try yoga to help her to relax. Her partner, Jonathan, certainly isn’t interested in relieving the tension. However, Alyssa hadn’t banked on her open minded instructor, Jill, stirring something within her that will turn her perfect life upside down. Confronting both her own and Jonathan’s sexual fantasies while fending off the questions about marriage and status from the company wives; Alyssa realizes that letting go once in a while can create opportunities as well as problems. This ebook contains very hot and explicit descriptions of romantic activity. Only mature readers should download this book.

Man of Steel


Dave Conifer - 2008
    But as he’s half-assing through the legwork he stumbles across something that makes him realize this one might be for real. It gets even better when Abby Reno, a saucy reporter from Austin, insists on working on the story with him. As Jonas and Reno circle closer to the plot they come to realize that the protectors of the secrets are still on the job and they don’t take prisoners. The bodies pile up while the reporters look over their shoulders wondering if the story of the century is worth their lives. "Very intriguing twist on the JFK assassination story! Was there really a plot behind the assassination, and not just a single shooter? The author has clearly read the findings of the Warren Report -- and the footnotes, which include some strange and interesting facts!" -- Smashwords review

If Nobody Listens Part One


Rikard Sommer - 2019
    They know all about her.When Paul Bild offers millionaire Jeffrey Hughes a chance to save his sick daughter, he and his partner Tom Avild are about to get their international breakthrough. Anybio Analytics is the best bacterial analysis software on the market. Tom travels to the branch office in Ukraine to investigate unexplained delays. On arrival, he finds out that their branch manager Yulia Kuznetsova has gone missing.Tom and Vasili Romanov are in a world where no one can be trusted. A world where powerful forces are prepared to kill for what they want.

Corrector


Bob Blink - 2013
    Regrettably, the police and FBI see his actions in a wholly different light, and while they have yet to determine whom the mysterious killer is, they continue their search and are building up both a profile and a backlog of unsolved cases. They are perplexed at his actions and how he has had the advanced knowledge to perform his surgical removals.Jake, ex-military and a survivor of the war in Afghanistan, tries to pursue his own destiny as a freelance programmer who writes computer games and consults with NASA on special projects. He is blessed or cursed with a special skill, depending on your perspective, one which makes him aware of events that no one else is. As a result, he sometimes feels it necessary to take action on his own. Those he removes have been planning numerous horrific deaths, and he does not feel bad by his actions. He also suspects the police will one day stumble upon his identity or catch him in the middle of one of his missions. Then he will have to rely on his ability to elude them.For the most part, Jake is an average guy. Except for his ability to back-track, of course. That makes him different from everyone else and has not only saved his own future, but has often provided him the means to help others. Unfortunately, he's learned that providing that help came at a large personal cost and not a little risk. For the most part, he feels the results are worth it.Jake's own life has become more complex of late. He has become seriously interested in a young woman, Karin Wolter, who he hopes to bring closer to him. For their relationship to progress, Jake feels it will be necessary to reveal what he can do, and what he has done in the past. He is concerned how she might react once he reveals his past to her. She has never understood violence, and has expressed some concerns over what he had been forced to do in the military.After her mother is killed, Jack's close friend Cheryl comes to him for help in ensuring the death doesn't happen. When his attempt to help doesn't go as expected, Jake learns of another event that forces his hand. It becomes necessary to reveal himself to the FBI in the hopes he can gain their trust and help to prevent the impending disaster from taking place. Even if he is able to turn aside the catastrophe, he is uncertain what his own future will become once the FBI has their hands on the man they have been seeking for so long.

Sense and Sensibility


Cherry Gilchrist - 1811
    [Penguin Readers Level 3]

Gibraltar Road


Philip McCutchan - 1960
    A little later an Admiralty physicist disappears from Gibraltar, and a body is found washed up against its shores… Deep below Gibraltar’s Rock, a secret, auto-powered nuclear fuel-production unit throbs and hums as its builds up a store of AGL SIX, a dangerous new motivating-agent for the British atomic submarines to be based there. This fuel unit has developed a fault. Allowed to overrun beyond a certain point, it will produce the biggest atomic blast since Hiroshima. Only Ackroyd, the persecution-complexed inventor of the unit, can stop it. And Ackroyd has disappeared. Commander Esmonde Shaw, R.N, of the Naval Intelligence Division wants to get out and settle down with a house in the suburbs. Unfortunately for Naval Intelligence’s finest secret agent, these peaceful plans will have to wait. Shaw establishes that the physicist has fallen into the hands of foreign agents operating from Spanish territory. Shaw's job is to get Ackroyd back to Gibraltar before the Rock blows up — and before Ackroyd is smuggled out of Spain. As Shaw wanders rounds the Spanish streets, he catches the heavy odour of a well-remembered perfume. Karina Czercov, the most dangerous, beautiful woman behind the Iron Curtain, is caught up in this intrigue. Something in the air tells them that this encounter was going to be a fight to the finish. Gibraltar Road is a high-octane thriller filled with espionage and intrigue. Praise for Philip McCutchan "A nautical war buffs feast...[McCutchan] keeps an authoritative hand on the wheel and his descriptions of battles at sea ring with laconic truth." —The New York Times Book Review 'A gripping page-turner.' - Tom Kasey, best-selling author of 'Trade-Off.' Philip McCutchan(1920-1996) grew up in the naval atmosphere of Portsmouth Dockyard and developed a lifetime's interest in the sea. Military history was an early interest resulting in several fiction books, from amongst his large output, about the British Army and its campaigns, especially in the last 150 years.

Goodbye Vietnam


William Broyles Jr. - 2013
    Previously published as Brothers in Arms, this edition includes a new preface by the author.When William Broyles Jr. was drafted, he was a twenty-four-year-old student at Oxford University in England, hoping to avoid military service. During his physical exam, however, he realized that he couldn’t let social class or education give him special privileges. He joined the marines, and soon commanded an infantry platoon in the foothills near Da Nang. More than a decade later, Broyles found himself flooded with emotion during the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. He decided to return to Vietnam and confront what he’d been through. Broyles was one of the very first combat veterans to return to the battlefields. No American before or since has gone so deeply into the other side of the war: the enemy side. Broyles interviews dozens of Vietnamese, from the generals who ran the war to the men and women who fought it. He moves from the corridors of power in Hanoi—so low-tech that the plumbing didn’t work—to the jungles and rice paddies where he’d fought. He meets survivors of American B-52 strikes and My Lai, and grieves with a woman whose son was killed by his own platoon. Along the way, Broyles also explores the deep bonds he shared with his own comrades, and the mystery of why men love war even as they hate it. Amidst the landscape of death, his formerly faceless enemies come to life. They had once tried to kill each other, but they are all brothers now.

The Last Valkyrie


Dietmar Arthur Wehr - 2016
    The last of her kind, she finds a new purpose in protecting the remaining few thousand humans from the hostile alien races called The Compact. As humanity teeters on the edge of extinction, one human male helps her to realize her destiny. She takes on a new role as the last of the mythical Valkyries who have been given the power to decide who lives and who dies. She will need all that power and her Warrior Code discipline when an old threat from the past re-emerges, a threat that this time, she must face alone. Excerpt: A double ping brought his attention back to the display. The Compact fleet had just crossed the outer boundary of the sphere. He watched as the side bar data showed her four turrets’ status which shifted from ‘Tracking’ to ‘locked on’. He shifted his gaze back to the yellow dots just in time to see them flash brightly for half a second before becoming very faint dots that were now falling behind the rest of the still advancing fleet. “Targets hit and disabled,” said Val Ky Ree. Before Ronson could say anything, she continued. “Val Ky Ree to Compact Fleet. I have disabled the three Trior ships that are carrying torsion beam weapons. If you board those ships and examine their cargo compartments, you’ll see what’s left of those weapons. I could have destroyed those ships completely, and I can destroy all of your remaining ships just as easily, but I would prefer not to do that. You are being used by the Trior for their own ends. Now that you have seen my power, you are advised to take advantage of my patience and immediately decelerate to zero velocity. If you do not do so, I will take whatever measures are necessary to defend the humans. If all humans are killed, either now or in the future, the race that is responsible for their elimination will face the same fate. This I swear as an Aesir Warrior!” Ronson held his breath as he watched the velocity data of the Compact fleet. It wasn’t slowing down. Another translated text message scrolled across the display. [The decision to destroy all humans was made by the leaders of our races. Your Aesir are gone! By what authority do you interfere in our quest for justice!”] When Val Ky Ree replied, the volume was deafening. “I AM THE LAST OF THE VALKYRIES! THE GODS GAVE US THE POWER TO DECIDE WHO LIVES AND WHO DIES! YOU HAVE DETERMINED YOUR OWN FATE. IN ORDER FOR MY HUMANS TO LIVE, YOU MUST DIE.” Keywords: Space Opera, military science fiction, space fleet, galactic empire, war