Book picks similar to
The Magic Bullet by Harry Stein


fiction
mystery
mystery-thriller
miscellaneous

The Black Shrike


Alistair MacLean - 1961
    Eight jobs. Eight specialists in modern technology required. Eight scientists to fill them. Applicants to be married, with no children, and prepared to travel. Highly persuasive salaries. One criminal mastermind. Eight positions filled. Eight scientists - and their wives - disappear. Completely. One secret agent to stop him.Advertisment no.9. Sydney, Australia. Fuel specialist required. Looks like a job for John Bentall-

Don't Wake Up


Liz Lawler - 2017
    Ostracised by her colleagues, her family and her partner, she begins to wonder if she really is losing her mind.And then she meets the next victim.So compulsive you can't stop reading.So chilling you won't stop talking about it.A pitch-black and devastatingly original psychological thriller.

The Charm School


Nelson DeMille - 1988
    In a place called Mrs. Ivanova's Charm School, young KGB agents are being taught by American POW's how to be model citizens of the USA. The Soviet goal -- to infiltrate the United States undetected. When an unsuspecting American tourist stumbles upon this secret, he sets in motion a CIA investigation that will reveal horrifying police state savagery and superpower treachery.

The Ninja


Eric Van Lustbader - 1980
    A sprawling erotic thriller that swings from postwar Japan to present-day New York in a relentless saga of violence and terror elaborately designed for the most savage vengeance of all...

D.E.A.D. Till I Die


James P. Sumner - 2015
     Following on from the devastating events in Deadly Intent, Adrian is trying to stay one step ahead of the people responsible for the most atrocious terrorist attack in human history, while fighting to bring them to justice. But there's only so much he can do on his own. His best friend, Josh Winters, has spent the last couple of years working his way up the corporate ladder at GlobaTech Industries, the world’s largest private security firm. He takes it upon himself to use the vast amount of resources at his disposal to assist Adrian in his efforts, by putting together a small team, tasked with tracking down a former employee who has evidence to prove Adrian's claims of a conspiracy. But Josh and his team aren't the only ones after him. NB: This story takes place in between the events that occur in the Adrian Hell novels, Deadly Intent and A Necessary Kill, although it can still be enjoyed as a stand-alone title. It is a re-envisioning of a novella published under the same name in August 2015, but has changed drastically from its previous incarnation, including an alternative ending. The Adrian Hell Series A Hero of War - An Adrian Hell novella True Conviction Hunter’s Games One Last Bullet Deadly Intent D.E.A.D. Till I Die - A GlobaTech novella A Necessary Kill Good Intentions

Terminal Event


James Stewart Thayer - 1999
    Desperate to find answers for his devastated fifteen-year-old daughter, his hunt for clues becomes obsessive. But while he meticulously wades through the wreckage and collects evidence pointing to sabotage, higher powers are determined to blame the tragedy on pilot error. Now the bomber has stepped forward and promised to strike again within ten days...and Durant must race to avert another ghastly catastrophe.Exploring the grimly fascinating world of NTSB crash investigators in riveting, authentic detail, "Terminal Event" is a page-turning suspense thriller whose shocking ending will leave you gasping.

All Around the Town


Mary Higgins Clark - 1989
    Her fingerprints, however, are everywhere. When she asks her sister, attorney Sarah, to mount her defense, Sarah in turn brings in psychiatrist Justin Donnelly. Kidnapped at the age of four and victimized for two years, Laurie has developed astounding coping skills. Only when the unbearable memories of those lost years are released can the truth of the crime come out—and only then can the final sadistic plan of her abductor, whose obsession is stronger than ever, be revealed.

Pigtown


William J. Caunitz - 1995
    Investigating the murder of a small-time mobster, Lt. Matthew Stuart enters a dark tunnel of police corruption that reaches from a Brooklyn neighborhood called Pigtown to One Police Plaza. Reissue.

The Desperate Hours


Joseph Hayes - 1954
    Suspense novel about a middle class family whose home is invaded by dangerous escaped convicts.

Those Who Walk Away


Patricia Highsmith - 1967
    Ray Garrett, the grieving husband, convinces the police in Rome of his innocence, but not his thuggish father-in-law, an American painter named Ed Coleman, who shoots him at point-blank range and leaves him for dead. Ray survives, however, and follows Coleman to Venice, where the two fall into an eerie game of cat-and-mouse—Coleman obsessed with vengeance and Ray equally insistent on clearing his conscience, though each is at once the hunter and the hunted in a duel composed of tension, hiding, and guessing, and at times punctuated by violence that, even as each manages to walk away, draws them nearer to death.

The President Is Missing


Bill Clinton - 2018
    Enemies are planning an attack of unprecedented scale on America. Uncertainty and fear grip Washington. There are whispers of cyberterror and espionage and a traitor in the cabinet. The President himself becomes a suspect, and then goes missing...Set in real time, over the course of three days, The President Is Missing is one of the most dramatic thrillers in decades. And it could all really happen. The President Is Missing is Bill Clinton and James Patterson's totally authentic and spellbinding thriller.

The Inspector Barlach Mysteries: The Judge and His Hangman and Suspicion


Friedrich Dürrenmatt - 1953
    Both mysteries follow Inspector Barlach as he moves through worlds in which the distinction between crime and justice seems to have vanished. In The Judge and His Hangman, Barlach forgoes the arrest of a murderer in order to manipulate him into killing another, more elusive criminal. And in Suspicion, Barlach pursues a former Nazi doctor by checking into his clinic with the hope of forcing him to reveal himself. The result is two thrillers that bring existential philosophy and the detective genre into dazzling convergence.

Nerve


Jeanne Ryan - 2012
    But whoever's behind the game knows exactly what she wants, enticing her with lustworthy prizes and a sizzling-hot partner. With Ian on her team, it's easy to agree to another dare. And another. And another. At first it's thrilling as the Watchers cheer them on to more dangerous challenges. But suddenly the game turns deadly. Will Vee and Ian risk their lives for the Grand Prize dare, or will they lose NERVE?

Hard Fall


Ridley Pearson - 1991
    To FBI Agent Cam Daggett it was more than that. It was personal. His parents and son were on that plane. And for two years he's been after the killer who did it. All he has to go on is a name: Anthony Kort...and the knowledge that Kort is in the United States with a detonator no airport security can detect. HE MUST BE STOPPED. Daggett's colleagues at the Bureau and his girlfriend tell him his vendetta has become an obsession. They suggest he leave the investigation to other agents, in order to keep it objective. But having painstakingly constructed a portrait of the terrorist, Daggett believes he's now the only one with any chance of predicting Kort's next target. A novel of madness and revenge, Hard Fall begs readers to fasten their seatbelts.

The Falconer


Elaine Clark McCarthy - 1996
    I should have swooned. Instead, I walked toward him quite calmly, or I thought I was calm. Yet I do remember wondering if I had combed my hair that morning. I do remember being glad I had worn a bra and wishing it were not so plain and businesslike. And I remember thinking of one more thing to add to my 'before I die' list - not the list I'd written out of things a person can actually arrange on purpose, but the mental list of things I would most likely die without: passion. It is a measure of how dazzled I was that I completely failed to see any significance in such a thought at that particular moment." And so begins The Falconer, a stunning love story set in the Sierra Nevada mountains, about two ordinary people whose lives are transformed by love. India Blake realizes that she has let her life pass in dutiful commitments, without living fully, without achieving her dream of adventure and love. And then she meets Rhodri, a master falconer who teaches her how to fly falcons - and with whom she discovers the passion and deep connection she has been missing.