Book picks similar to
Breakout by Kevin Scott Olson


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A Tropical Frontier: The Cow Hunters


Tim Robinson - 2014
    Smith Award, 2015. [Rating: R] The Fourth novel in the "Tropical Frontier" series, The Cow Hunters is the sequel to The Good Dog. The Florida Prairie, 1860, cattle country. War looms, but to the settlers living along a jungled, tropical creek, it all seems very far away. For Becky Hackensaw, there are much more pressing matters, such as providing an education for her six children, but where to find someone willing to brave an uninhabited wilderness overrun with wild animals, alligators, poisonous snakes, and bloodthirsty mosquitoes?

The Middleman


Olen Steinhauer - 2018
    Told from the individual perspectives of an FBI agent, an undercover agent within the group, a convert to the terrorist organization, and a writer on the edges of the whole affair, this is another tightly wound thriller, and an intimate exploration of the people behind the politics, from a master of suspense.

The Cannastar Factor


Stephen Steele - 2011
    This rewritten, revised, expanded and updated edition is now part of a 3-book series entitled The Trouble with Miracles.Alex Farmer, M.D. is a former drug addict trying to put his tortured life behind him. Cyd Seeley is a brilliant botanist and rancher in dire financial straits. Inadvertently, they are thrown together when a mutual friend is murdered after developing an inexpensive, organically grown cure for viral diseases.The miracle plant is called Cannastar and it cures all manner of viruses from Coronavirus and cancer, to HIV and herpes. Cannastar costs next to nothing to grow, returns the hopelessly ill to good health, and threatens to bankrupt the pharmaceutical industry. Big Pharma will stop at nothing to keep it off the market.Aided by faithful Native Americans from the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana and the Navajo Nation in Arizona, Cyd and Alex fight to grow Cannastar and bring it to a desperate world. Their harrowing and perilous journey ranges from the Rocky Mountain wilderness, to the political corruption of Washington D.C., to the jungles of Mexico, to the deserts of the Southwest.Filled with mystery and suspense, The Cannastar Factor is part adventure and part love story; a timely thriller that unfolds with endless surprises and heartwarming relationships; an epic novel about the resolute passions of two people who stand against a broken world.

Blood Symbols


Izak Botha - 2017
    She has become convinced that the Catholic church’s authority, which incidentally constitutes the cornerstones of her own Protestant faith, is based on a lie. Desperate to prove herself wrong, she goes to the Vatican, only to be caught up in an international hunt for the truth about the church, the Pope, and how Jesus intended his followers to live their faith. A stolen artifact, a mysterious murder, and an escaping intruder lead Jennifer from the Vatican to the streets of Rome to the Cave Church of St. Peter in Turkey, where she discovers a secret that could delegitimize the Pope. Chased by scheming cardinals and the trigger-happy head of Vatican security, assisted only by an elderly professor, the son of an Italian Mafioso, and a mysterious—but handsome—Turk, Jennifer must decide whether to become complicit in the church’s duplicity or shake the foundations of the planet’s most dominant religion. “This fast-paced and intriguing work will hook readers from the first page to the last, leaving them wanting more.” BookLife Prize-2107 by Publishers Weekly.

Without Sanction


Don Bentley - 2020
    Now, to save the life of another, he must return to Syria and confront his biggest failure.Defense Intelligence Agency operative Matt Drake broke a promise. A promise that cost three people their lives and crippled his best friend. Three months later, he's paralyzed by survivor's guilt and haunted by the memories of the fallen. Matt may have left Syria, but Syria hasn't left him.In the midst of his self-imposed exile, Matt is dragged back into the world of espionage and assets that he tried to forget. A Pakistani scientist working for an ISIS splinter cell has created a terrifying weapon of mass destruction. The scientist offers to defect with the weapon, but he trusts just one man to bring him out of Syria alive—Matt Drake.

The Calypso Directive


Brian Andrews - 2012
    But when his secret is discovered, They will stop at nothing to take it from him. Imagine BILLIONS meets THE FUGITIVE... in Brian Andrew's debut novel THE CALYPSO DIRECTIVE--greed, medicine, and conspiracy intersect as big pharma attempts to hijack one man's DNA, source code potentially worth trillions of dollars and the possibility of giving the human race immunity from all disease. _______________________________________ "This book grips you from the beginning, I couldn't put it down. Medical espionage at its finest."--Amazon Reviewer "Suspenseful, clever & intriguing. A great mix of intellect & emotion to keep you hanging on the edge. Great author!" --Amazon Reviewer _______________________________________ Brian Andrews is a US Navy veteran, father, and Amazon Top 100 Thriller Author. He co-authors the WSJ Bestselling TIER ONE series with Jeffrey Wilson. THE CALYPSO DIRECTIVE is recommended for fans of television shows like HOUSE, WEST WORLD, CODE BLACK and BILLIONS. It will also appeal to readers who follow Michael Crichton, Dean Koontz, Robin Cook, Michael Palmer, Ridley Pearson, Michael Grumley, Jeremey Robinson, Tim Tigner, Stieg Larsson, Matthew Mather, and AG Riddle.

The Night Child


Anna Quinn - 2018
    But one November day, moments after dismissing her class, a girl's face appears above the students' desks -- 'a wild numinous face with startling blue eyes, a face floating on top of shapeless drapes of purples and blues where arms and legs should have been. Terror rushes through Nora's body -- the kind of raw terror you feel when there's no way out, when every cell in your body, your entire body, is on fire -- when you think you might die.Twenty-four hours later, while on Thanksgiving vacation, the face appears again. Shaken and unsteady, Nora meets with neurologists and eventually, a psychiatrist. As the story progresses, a terrible secret is discovered -- a secret that pushes Nora toward an even deeper psychological breakdown. This breathtaking debut novel examines the impact of traumatic childhood experiences and the fragile line between past and present. Exquisitely nuanced and profoundly intimate, The Night Child is a story of resilience, hope, and the capacity of the mind, body, and spirit to save itself despite all odds.

Rain City Lights


Marissa Harrison - 2020
    A young woman is pushed onto the streets where she learns the harsh realities of what it means to survive, to serve justice, and to fight for the man she loves. As they navigate their way through Seattle's Underground, Monti & Sasha will break and warm your heart!"Sometimes you make so much history with someone, the present just don't make sense."In the summer of 1981, a serial killer preys on black, teenage prostitutes working Seattle’s arterial highways. But the eyes of youth are blind to danger, and Montgomery “Monti” Jackson is distracted by her own problems. She’ll be starting high school soon, and the return of her mother’s boyfriend heightens the tension in her fractured household.To add to her worries, Monti fears she may be in love with her best friend Sasha. But as close as they’d once been, now they couldn’t feel further apart. Sasha is a burnout punk rocker, and has befriended the neighborhood drug dealer. And when an eviction notice is posted on Monti’s door, a strange dynamic forms between them.One night, an altercation leaves her family penniless. So Monti turns to the very streets where a killer stalks and ensnares young women, beginning her journey towards understanding one, simple truth - sometimes your only choices in life are to love and survive.

Night Night, Norman


Marie Dimitrova - 2020
    One night he loosens the latch on his stall and sneaks out. When he pushes his horse-sized body through the door and into Ellie’s house, he smells something delicious coming from the kitchen. While Ellie sleeps, Norman investigates. His equine curiosity and clumsy hooves create all sorts of chaos, leaving us wondering, will he wake Ellie?Laugh out loud with the adventures of Norman, and find out what happens when we think our pets are sleeping. A perfect book to read together before bedtime!

Until I Find You


Rea Frey - 2020
    55 steps to go up. 40 more to the crib. Since Rebecca Gray was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease, everything in her life consists of numbers. Each day her world grows a little darker and each step becomes a little more dangerous. Following days of feeling like someone’s watching her, Bec awakes at home to the cries of her son in his nursery. When it’s clear he’s not going to settle, Bec goes to check on him.She reaches in. Picks him up.But he’s not her son.And no one believes her. One woman’s desperate search for her son . . . In a world where seeing is believing, Bec must rely on her own conviction and a mother’s instinct to uncover the truth about what happened to her baby and bring him home for good. ""Completely captivating, utterly compelling?a must read!"" - Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke, authors of The Two Lila Bennetts "

Forged in Desire


Brenda Jackson - 2017
    Bold enough to love her. When good girl Margo Connelly becomes Lamar "Striker" Jennings's latest assignment, she knows she's in trouble. And not just because he's been hired to protect her from an underworld criminal. The reformed bad boy's appeal is breaching all her defenses, and as the threats against her increase, Margo isn't sure which is more dangerous: the gangster targeting her, or the far too alluring protector tempting her to let loose. Though Striker's now living on the right side of the law, he's convinced his troubled past keeps Margo out of his league. But physical chemistry explodes into full-blown passion when they go on the run together. Surrendering to desire could be a deadly distraction—or finally prove that he's the only man qualified to keep her safe, and win her love.

The Untethered


S.W. Southwick - 2017
    But when a few unrepentant ladies join his fight to live free, the Las Vegas desert is going to light up like the 4th of July.

Hot Flush


Rosy Fenwicke - 2017
    Just a few days earlier she’d discovered that Alison, her mousy receptionist at Sage Consulting, had been working as a loan shark on the side. And now Alison, her husband and those thick-necked men in the cheap suits wanted the money back. When a desperate Jane had come to Euphemia, of course she had to help. After all, wasn’t this what she was supposed to do? Euphemia had waited more than twenty years to find out if the story in the mysterious letter she’d received on her thirtieth birthday was true. So when at 53 her first hot flush triggered a genetic switch and gave her unexpected powers, she felt more than ready to save Jane and deal to Alison. But what had seemed simple suddenly became complicated when Alison produced a gun.

Head Shot


Otho Eskin - 2021
    Homicide Detective Marko Zorn Washington, D.C. homicide detective Marko Zorn is investigating the murder of an actress—an old love—when he is assigned to protect the visiting prime minister of Montenegro, the beautiful Nina Voychek. Political enemies are planning her assassination—this, he knows—but now it’s apparent that he, too, is a target. As he foils the initial attempts on his life, he pulls out all stops—deploying his sometimes nefarious resources—to hunt whoever is targeting him and prevent an international tragedy on American soil. Decoded messages, Supermax prisoner interviews, mafia lawyers, and an ancient Black Mountain curse swirl among the icons of D.C. Marko and his young partner, Lucy, face down what may be multiple assassins with diverging agendas. Or are they facing one assassin—the deadliest and most elusive on the international stage?Perfect for fans of David Baldacci and Daniel Silva While the novels in the Marko Zorn Thriller Series stand on their own and can be read in any order, the publication sequence is:The Reflecting PoolHead Shot

Rooked


Caitlin Sara - 2018
    . . Despite her desire for control, Ara Hopkins has always felt like a pawn—constantly being maneuvered by those surrounding her. Carrying a riddled past of abandonment by her mother, a jealous step-sister and exploitation by men she was supposed to be able to trust, Ara craves a social media certified life. So, when she meets her husband, a New York congressman’s son, she believes she’s finally won her game. Secure in a life her mother would approve of—and having firmly shut the door on her chaotic and miscalculated past—Ara feels she’s thriving. Until the night her husband is murdered. Thrust into a game of deceit and lies, Ara realizes that nothing is as it seems and that the past can quickly return to the present. The facade crumbles as relationships are tested and family boundaries crossed. Faced with losing it all, she discovers what a person is really capable of. Because in this game of life, it's either rook or be rooked. An intricately braided plot with unforeseeable twists and a sucker-punch ending, Rooked is a captivating thriller that shatters all perceptions.