Book picks similar to
The Essene Conspiracy by S. Eric Wachtel
mystery
thriller
adventure
suspense
72 Hours
William Casey Moreton - 2011
He has few possessions and few friends. He works part-time in the little shop downstairs, and spends most of his free hours out on the open water with just his board and the waves. But he is about to be pulled back into action by a voice out of one of his former lives. He is asked to keep a woman named Lindsay Hammond alive for the next 72 hours, as an army of street thugs, career criminals and professional assassins press in around them from every direction. As they go off the grid, surviving minute to minute, cutting off all contact with the outside world, Lindsay learns to trust Archer in a way she has never trusted anyone before.
Cost of Life
Joshua Corin - 2015
Flight 816 has been hijacked and the terrorists have decided to auction off the passengers online. The passengers who receive the highest bids will be released. The passengers who receive the lowest bids will be executed.
Life can’t be better for veteran pilot Larry Walder. He has a great job, a terrific kid, a gorgeous wife—and no inkling that tonight will be the end of the world as he knows it. In the early hours before the Fourth of July, three men break into Larry’s home. And as the day lurches on to its terrifying course, a life is taken, and Flight 816 from Atlanta to Cozumel, Mexico, vanishes off the radar. In the air, Larry must find a way to save his family, his crew, and his passengers. On the ground, disgraced FBI agent Xanadu Marx goes rogue, making it her mission to track down the missing flight before the hijackers reach their diabolical endgame. With the casualties racking up and the world’s busiest airport under lockdown, a message arrives: This is no ordinary hijacking, no typical hostage crisis. This ransom is a totally different beast—the first hint of a conspiracy that might bring America to its knees.Advance praise for Cost of Life
“Joshua Corin is a master storyteller. Cost of Life is a thriller par excellence: brilliantly imaginative, well written, and delightfully diabolical. Highly recommended!”—Douglas Preston, #1 bestselling co-creator of the Pendergast novels“In Cost of Life, Joshua Corin turns a humdrum airline flight into a ride on an F-15 with a smoking engine—fast, terrifying, and oh so fun. I loved the writing. Corin’s whip-smart dialogue crashed me straight into a world of fascinating characters and complicated allegiances. I couldn’t stop reading until the wheels touched down on that final tarmac.”—Rebecca Cantrell, New York Times bestselling author of The World Beneath “Fraught with danger and surprises, Cost of Life is a tale chock-full of action, adventure, and intrigue. Treachery comes from all directions, so consider yourself warned.”—Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author of The Lincoln Myth “In Cost of Life, Joshua Corin brings us Xanadu Marx, a tough but vulnerable ex–FBI agent who literally pulls no punches. Corin’s sure-footed handling of plot, character, and voice is the kind of writing that inspires authors like me to up their game.”—Robert Gregory Browne, author of Whisper in the Dark
The Last Woman in the Forest
Diane Les Becquets - 2019
Her first assignment takes her to northern Alberta, where she falls in love with her mentor, the daring and brilliant Tate. After they’re separated from each other on another assignment, Marian is shattered to learn of Tate’s tragic death. Worse still is the aftermath in which Marian discovers disturbing inconsistencies about Tate’s life, and begins to wonder if the man she loved could have been responsible for the unsolved murders of at least four women.Hoping to clear Tate’s name, Marian reaches out to a retired forensic profiler who’s haunted by the open cases. But as Marian relives her relationship with Tate and circles ever closer to the truth, evil stalks her every move.…
Solomon's Throne
Jennings Wright - 2012
Paul that could rewrite the history of the Church. What they discover is that an old journal, also stolen but little thought of, was the real object of the theft. An art preservationist, Rei begins to decipher clues in the journal, and finds that they lead to a treasure: the long lost throne of King Solomon. As they embark on a treasure hunt, following the Portuguese Spice Route through east Africa, the Middle East and into India, they must rely on letters from a long dead Jesuit priest. They must also keep one step ahead of the secret militant order that carried out the robbery and is after the same goal: the prize of a lifetime.Filled with fast paced action and having broad appeal, Solomon’s Throne is an ingenious adventure that sweeps the reader around the globe in a race against time.
Beautiful Bad
Annie Ward - 2019
Hospitals and lakes. When Ian drinks vodka in the basement. ISIS. When Ian gets angry... That something is really, really wrong with me.Maddie and Ian's romance began with a chance encounter at a party overseas; he was serving in the British army and she was a travel writer visiting her best friend, Jo. Now almost two decades later, married with a beautiful son, Charlie, they are living the perfect suburban life in Middle America. But when a camping accident leaves Maddie badly scarred, she begins attending writing therapy, where she gradually reveals her fears about Ian's PTSD; her concerns for the safety of their young son, Charlie; and the couple's tangled and tumultuous past with Jo.From the Balkans to England, Iraq to Manhattan, and finally to an ordinary family home in Kansas, sixteen years of love and fear, adventure and suspicion culminate in The Day of the Killing, when a frantic 911 call summons the police to the scene of a shocking crime.
The Road King Chronicles: Blue Ridge Run
Harry Harrigan - 2015
After twenty-three years and three combat tours with the 75th Ranger Regiment, he’s got a Silver Star, a titanium knee and a plan to see America on his Road King motorcycle. No more patrols, no more firefights. Nothing more dangerous than passing the old work van rumbling along in front of him as he rides toward Hunter-Stewart and the sunset of his career in the Army. But just as he twists the throttle to pass, a woman’s bare foot smears a bloody print on the van’s back window. Roman turns back to help, triggering a chain of events that puts his brother Virgil and two old friends in the crosshairs of a murderer. Saving them sends Roman on a desperate ride from Savannah to DC, where he discovers that the past he has been trying to forget has not forgotten him. It’s been waiting patiently, holding his secret like a time bomb.
The Shadow Box
Luanne Rice - 2021
But her well-connected husband, Griffin—who is running for governor—is her prime suspect.Just before the attack, Claire was preparing for an exhibit of her shadow boxes, one of which clearly accuses Griffin of a violent crime committed twenty-five years ago. If the public were to find out who her husband is, his political career would be over. Claire’s certain her husband and his powerful supporters would kill her to stop the truth from getting out.When one of Claire’s acquaintances is murdered, the authorities suspect the homicide is linked to the attack on Claire. As the dual investigations unfold, Claire must decide how much she’s willing to lose to take down her husband and the corrupt group of elites who will do anything to protect Griffin’s interests and their own.
The River at Night
Erica Ferencik - 2017
A high-stakes drama set against the harsh beauty of the Maine wilderness, charting the journey of four friends as they fight to survive the aftermath of a white water rafting accident, The River at Night is a nonstop and unforgettable thriller.
Take One With You
Oak Anderson - 2014
Anyone determined to commit suicide is urged to first kill someone who "got away with it" before taking their own life. Why not, they ask, "take one with you?"The idea goes viral and things rapidly spiral out of control. As they develop feelings for each other, their worldwide followers begin to enact a very different version of their idea, perverting its original intent and threatening the thin line between civil society and criminal anarchy. Just as they find the hope of happiness together, Charlie and Sarah must deal with the monster they've created, a global epidemic of murder-suicide that threatens the very core of their humanity.Take One With You is a unique crime thriller/millennial love story that poses the question: If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, would you kill someone tonight? Someone who had done something terrible. Someone who deserved to die. If so, who would it be? If you wouldn't go that far, what about your neighbor? Your friend? Your enemy? Who draws the line? Who decides who lives and who dies? And what if we all began to take justice into our own hands?
The Expats
Chris Pavone - 2012
. . and to maintain an increasingly unbearable life-defining secret. So when her husband is offered a lucrative job in Luxembourg, she jumps at the chance to leave behind her double-life, to start anew.She begins to reinvent herself as an expat, finding her way in a language she doesn’t speak, doing the housewifely things she’s never before done—play-dates and coffee mornings, daily cooking and unending laundry. Meanwhile, her husband works incessantly, doing a job Kate has never understood, for a banking client she’s not allowed to know. He’s becoming distant and evasive; she’s getting lonely and bored.Then another American couple arrives. Kate soon becomes suspicious that these people are not who they claim to be, and terrified that her own past is catching up to her. So Kate begins to dig, to peel back the layers of deception that surround her. She discovers fake offices and shell corporations and a hidden gun; a mysterious farmhouse and numbered accounts with bewildering sums of money; a complex web of intrigue where no one is who they claim to be, and the most profound deceptions lurk beneath the most normal-looking of relationships; and a mind-boggling long-play con threatens her family, her marriage, and her life.
Insomnia
Sarah Pinborough
When she was just five years old, Emma and her older sister went into foster care because of a horrific incident with their mother. Her sister can remember a time when their mother was loving and “normal,” but Emma can only remember her as one thing—a monster. And that monster emerged right around their mother’s fortieth birthday, the same age Emma is approaching now.Emma desperately wants to keep her successful life separate from her past, so she has always hidden her childhood trauma. But then she’s unable to sleep, and now losing time during the day, also one of the first symptoms her mother showed. Is the madness in her blood, just as her mother predicted? Could she end up hurting her family in her foggy, frenetic state? Or is she truly beginning to lose her mind?
The Dead Don't Talk
Lawrence J. Epstein - 2018
He is asked by a dying man to investigate an unsolved murder. Seeking help, Danny turns to a retired killer--his father. Set on Long Island in 1982, this book follow's Danny's adventures as he tries to escape those trying to kill him and find the truth.
Found Money
Charlie Carillo - 2012
Where did it come from? Whose is it? Those questions will be answered in an overnight drama that’s also a journey into the past - a saga of love, lust, greed, double-crossing, prison, betrayal and redemption on that long, crooked road to the truth. Found money looks like easy money, but looks can be deceiving.
It's Always the Husband
Michele Campbell - 2017
They first met as college roommates and soon became inseparable, even though they are as different as three women can be. Twenty years later, one of them is standing at the edge of a bridge... and someone else is urging her to jump. How did things come to this?As the novel cuts back and forth between their college years and their adult years, you see the exact reasons why these women love and hate each other—but can feelings that strong lead to murder? Or will everyone assume, as is often the case, that it’s always the husband?
Cape Fear
John D. MacDonald - 1957
He lived only for the day he would be free—free to track down and destroy the man who had put him behind bars.Murder was merciful compared to what Cady had in mind—and what Cady had in mind was Bowden's innocent and lovely teenaged daughter...."A powerful and frightening story." —The New York Times