Book picks similar to
Contraband by Charlie Vázquez


fiction
male-writers
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Cold Trap


Jon Waskan - 2014
    Inexplicably, the explorer vanishes, and the object along with him. Nearby, the gears spin on a secret device, setting in motion a chain reaction that could avert a civilization-ending cataclysm. Known only to a select few, the machine must be protected.But watching from the shadows, a brilliant sociopath has plans of his own. . .____________________________________________AboutInspired by Crichton, Asimov, and Brown, “Cold Trap” has intense action, political intrigue, a deep central mystery, and a backdrop of science and high-tech gadgetry, a combination that is sure to resonate with fans of contemporary science fiction and techno-thrillers.____________________________________________ReviewsMelinda Hills for Readers' Favorite (5 Stars)"I really enjoyed the story! ... a well written tale of scientific discovery and political/economic maneuvering for world dominance ... Tremendous creativity and an in-depth look at exo-geology - the study of rocks and deposits on the surface of the moon and other 'space rocks' - create a realistic background for action involving the basic human emotions of love, greed, the desire for knowledge and the hunger for power."

My Best Friend's Man 2


P. Dotson - 2015
    However, that doesn’t last long. With Brian’s constant demands for more than what she is willing to give, Savannah finds herself in a familiar place of loneliness. Finally, she calls it quits, but Brian isn’t willing to say it’s over unless it’s on his terms. Roxie’s dislike for Brian grows even stronger once she gets a hold of some confidential information. She’s determined more than ever to destroy her best friend’s man. Get ready for round two of this gritty tale of obsession in, My Bestfriend's Man 2.

The Little Ice Cream Shop By The Sea


Lizzie Chantree - 2021
    Their seafront business is failing with the loss of Genie’s grandmother and her legendary ice cream flavours. Genie is determined to be the one to save her family’s heritage, but suddenly her mother wants to sell to developers and leave their shared history behind.Buying the business and taking on a sixty-eight year old business partner, Ada, with a mysterious past and a gorgeous but distracting grandson, Genie sets out to prove her parents wrong.Ada’s grandson, Cal, wants to protect his gran from ‘pensioner persuader’, Genie, but soon realises that living in a little seaside town and away from the paparazzi in Hollywood can actually give him time to heal. Hiding in a seafront business with its fiery owner and working as kitchen staff, is the only way he can think of to keep his ex-Hollywood glamour-puss, gran from harm. But his meddling might also ruin Ada's second chance at love. Hiring a private detective and learning about Genie’s parent’s past makes Cal regret his own impulsiveness. The information he has unearthed could destroy their blossoming romance and turn Genie’s world upside down.Genie soon discovers that friends can become enemies and your closest family can have lied to you for your whole life.

Return to Sarah's Valley: Sequel to Sarah's Valley


Sharon Mierke - 2017
     In Sarah's Valley, Patrick Smithson meets Frank Lawdry. Frank, who prefers his Abenaki name, Winnipesaukee, spends the night recalling his life story. He and his sister, Sarah, were left orphans when everyone on a wagon train died in a horrific tragedy. It was their story of survival. Return to Sarah's Valley continues where Sarah's Valley leaves off. Now an old man in his nineties, Patrick meets Michael Lawdry, one of Winnipesaukee's descendants, and tells him how two Lawdry men influenced his life. This is a story of life during the Great Depression, struggles and heartache, but also the deep love that a man has for one woman.

Pete, Popeye and Olive (Privateer Tales Shorts Book 2)


Jamie McFarlane - 2016
    When an opportunity to join the Mechanized Infantry presents itself, Pete is first in line. He knows that he's going to get shot at one way or another, but the idea of sitting in a warm and more importantly, dry mechanized suit appeals to him almost beyond reason. While still training in the jungle, Pete's squad is called out to intervene in a skirmish in a nearby village. Of course, the Marines haven't seen fit to certify his squad with ordnance. The fact that they'll be up against a platoon of squishies doesn't convince him that's it's any better of an idea and things turn quickly to crap when they discover the squishies are protected by grav-tanks. Pete, Popeye and Olive is a fast paced, short-story with plenty of action.

Terminal Event


Robert Vaughan - 2017
    There are strange, and unrecognizable markings on the canister. How did it get there, and where did it come from? It is sent back to a research center in the U.S. where it is opened in an environmentally controlled room. Inside are six human embryos, and even more shocking is the discovery that the embryos are viable. Should they be brought to term? Terminal Event tells the intriguing story of who the embryos are, where they came from, and how they spent 100 million years waiting to be discovered.

Final Dawn: The Complete 16-Book Saga:


Mike Kraus - 2020
    

Last Contact (Titan Chronicles #3)


Samuel Best - 2021
    The crew’s daring plan might be the only way to save humanity.Meanwhile, a research station in orbit around Venus could hold the key to survival. The scientists on board have been studying an alien creature that may be connected to Earth’s imminent demise—if only they could make contact…The events of Mission One and Deep Black culminate in this thrilling conclusion to the Titan Chronicles.

Pines (Digital Sample) (The Wayward Pines #1)


Blake Crouch - 2015
    Night Shyamalan, starring Matt Dillon and premiering May 14th on FOX. Secret service agent Ethan Burke arrives in Wayward Pines, Idaho, with a clear mission: locate and recover two federal agents who went missing in the bucolic town one month earlier. But within minutes of his arrival, Ethan is involved in a violent accident. He comes to in a hospital, with no ID, no cell phone, and no briefcase. The medical staff seems friendly enough, but something feels…off. As the days pass, Ethan’s investigation into the disappearance of his colleagues turns up more questions than answers. Why can’t he get any phone calls through to his wife and son in the outside world? Why doesn’t anyone believe he is who he says he is? And what is the purpose of the electrified fences surrounding the town? Are they meant to keep the residents in? Or something else out? Each step closer to the truth takes Ethan further from the world he thought he knew, from the man he thought he was, until he must face a horrifying fact—he may never get out of Wayward Pines alive. 2013 International Thriller Award Nominee

The Wraith's Story


Natalie K. French - 2015
     THIS BOOK CONTAINS ADULT CONTENT DANGEROUS BEAUTY... This first novella in an exciting new series will take you to a future unlike anything you’ve ever seen. The world of BRIGAND is as beautiful as it is cruel - a landscape of sharp edges and sharper characters. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes harsh, always sexy, it's a world filled with people who play power games that span multiple planets and the life of a scut can be bought for a few ounces of fresh water. Genetically modified and cybernetically augmented before she even left the womb, Subject 11 was to be one of the Mandate of St. Nicolo's most potent tools of statecraft. With her contract bid out to one of the great families of Marajo Lift, she would become a crucial wheel within the many thousands of wheels that formed the Mandate's legendary engine of intrigue. But 11 had other plans... NOTE: The cover illustration for this novella has been changed to more accurately reflect the main character. DO NOT buy it if you have already purchased The Wraith's Story. ~22,000 words

Times What They Are


D.L. Barnhart - 2015
    Panicked millions gridlock roads as Ray Bramlett escapes New York, barely ahead of a radioactive cloud. A thousand miles west, Karla Becker stares in horror at the televised images—sure the aftermath will bring worse. While Karla hunkers down at home, trusting her preparations, Ray seeks safety among his Tennessee friends. Each of their strategies buys time, but as social order collapses around them, both plans go awry. Now, survival means confronting a world teeming with sudden death and learning that no sanctuary remains safe forever.

Fauna


David Benton - 2018
    In a few days time the attacks become a massacre and all life on Earth moves toward a single purpose: the culling of the human race. "When Mother Nature's angry, she's a bitch! Fauna will have you gripping the edge of your seat from the first page to the last. This is a non-stop eco-thriller and cautionary tale that will leave you looking at your pets with a different eye. This is also the best book I've read all year! Read it now! But maybe lock the doors and windows first." --John Everson, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Covenant and Redemption "We should have known that decades of messing with Nature would come back to bite us -- with a vengeance... In David Benton's exciting, realistic thriller FAUNA our world has finally decided we're the problem, and it's had enough of us. How would we cope if our apocalypse had fangs and four legs and didn't shamble at all? Reminiscent of Hitchcock's adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's "The Birds" in approach, FAUNA will raise your neck hairs and chill you to the bone." --W.D. Gagliani, author of Savage Nights and the Nick Lupo Series "The animal kingdom runs amok in David Benton's wildly entertaining Fauna. Exciting, action-packed and disturbing in all the right ways, this man-versus-beast saga gallops at a fierce pace with bloodthirsty menace. Benton's scenes unfold with a cinematic crispness and intensity that keeps the pages turning. This book will leave bite marks!" --Brian Pinkerton, author of Anatomy of Evil "In Fauna, David Benton takes you on a globe-circling thrill ride through a gone-crazy world where the animals have taken charge and want revenge. It's equal parts fantastic escapism and white-knuckle horror--a riveting read from the first page that touches on many of the ways humankind uses things and takes them for granted." --Christian Larsen, author of The Blackening of Flesh and Losing Touch

The Maze Runner: by James Dashner | Summary & Analysis (The Maze Runner Series, Book 1)


Book*Sense - 2014
    Award-winning author James Dashner’s The Maze Runner shows the influences of the author’s broad reading. It relates the story of the amnesiac Thomas as he is forced into the near-bucolic setting of the Glade, learns to navigate it and the labyrinthine Maze surrounding it and leads the people of the Glade from their bounded world into a broader outside world. It also presents a perspective on adolescence well worth discussing which this Analysis covers every detail that you would otherwise miss. The Maze Runner has features that recommend it for both adolescent readers and those who teach them which this Summary & Analysis helps to decipher increasing your understanding of the book more than ever. The former will find the dialogue and action engaging without neglect of character development. The latter will find a text that manages to play with the tropes of Golding’s Lord of the Flies (which Dashner reports as a direct influence on the book), offering a way to introduce that text and a venue for discussion of it. They present opportunities for readers to engage with underlying assumptions and attitudes, offering the chance for readers to understand themselves, the culture in which they live and the culture in which the writer writes which this Analysis covers. Each is a chance to better understand the world, and The Maze Runner does well to make such chances available. The book is well worth reading, both for its intended audience of young adults (inside and outside the classroom) and for a more general reading public. This Analysis of The Maze Runner fills the gap, making you understand more while enhancing your reading experience.

Chorrier's Rise


Petros Asteriou Malousis - 2017
    Follow his adventures as he faces ruffians, dragons, the wrath of the Clergy, the intrigue of the nobles and fends off invading armies as he tries to win the heart of a girl he never had the courage to speak to.

Elite Dangerous: Premonition


Drew Wagar - 2017
    Disturbing encounters with unknown ships. Three great superpowers manoeuvre against each other. But are their destinies their own, or are they merely the puppets of some greater power? Since the loss of the Prism system in 3300, Lady Kahina Tijani Loren has operated on the fringes of Imperial society. Led by clues from a woman once thought dead, she is drawn into a conspiracy at the heart of humanity. To uncover the truth she must contend with dangerous enemies, navigate murky political waters, and – with the help of her friends – uncover the secret of the Formidine Rift. Premonition is the new story set in the Elite: Dangerous galaxy, shaped by player actions in the game.