Skulduggery Pleasant #4-6


Derek Landy - 2013
    There is no official, Sanctuary-approved plan to save him. But Valkyrie’s never had much time for plans…Book 5: With Valkyrie struggling to protect her dark secret, Skulduggery and the gang are more vulnerable than ever, just as a plague of body-snatching Remnants are released upon the world…Book 6: The Death Bringer has risen. Skulduggery and Valkyrie have seven days to uncover the Necromancers’ secret before it’s too late. The clock is ticking. Lord Vile is loose. And after this one, nothing will ever be the same again.

The Sympathy Wave


P.R. Ganapathy - 2013
    Rohit is not just his party’s next Prime Ministerial candidate, but also a reluctant heir to his family’s political legacy. Soon after, the wreckage of the plane is discovered scattered over the Rajasthan desert, sending the media as well the nation’s public into a tizzy. As Rohit’s sister sweeps the general elections, riding a massive wave of public sympathy, some uncomfortable questions remain. Who is behind this audacious plan? What could be the reason behind this high-profile assassination? The proverbial finger seems to point at India’s geopolitical enemy, Pakistan, but not everyone is convinced. Anwar Islam reunites with his mentor Colonel Vijay Gupta, and his friend Vishal Karandikar to find the missing pieces of this puzzle. As the trio explores the dark alleys hidden behind the façade of India’s seat of power, unbelievable conspiracies come to light. A gripping thriller, The Sympathy Wave takes it reader into the heart of political India to uncover a nest of intrigues.

Zetta's Dream: An Appalachian Coal Camp Novel (The Zetta Series Book 1)


Sandra Picklesimer Aldrich - 2015
    Determined to keep the family together, Zetta and their toddlers join Asa and her brothers at the Golden Gate coal camp just before Christmas 1922. She is eight months pregnant. During the first week in the dismal camp, Zetta suffers fearful nightmares of cut trees and fresh dirt--Appalachian signs of trouble. Asa dismisses his wife's pleas to return to their farm, insisting their three-month stay will provide the $400 they need to give their children better lives. Disappointed, Zetta draws strength from her plump red-haired neighbor, Dosha, and the strong willed granny woman, Clarie, who will deliver her baby. And each morning, she thanks the Lord they are one more day closer to home. Or are they?

Angels & Demons


Dan Brown - 2000
    What he discovers is unimaginable: a deadly vendetta against the Catholic Church by a centuries-old underground organization -- the Illuminati. In a desperate race to save the Vatican from a powerful time bomb, Langdon joins forces in Rome with the beautiful and mysterious scientist Vittoria Vetra. Together they embark on a frantic hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, and deserted cathedrals, and into the depths of the most secretive vault on earth...the long-forgotten Illuminati lair.(back cover)

Asura: Tale Of The Vanquished


Anand Neelakantan - 2012
    The enthralling story of Rama, the incarnation of God, who slew Ravana, the evil demon of darkness, is known to every Indian. And in the pages of history, as always, it is the version told by the victors that lives on. The voice of the vanquished remains lost in silence. But what if Ravana and his people had a different story to tell? The story of the Ravanayana has never been told. Asura is the epic tale of the vanquished Asura people, a story that has been cherished by the oppressed castes of India for 3000 years. Until now, no Asura has dared to tell the tale. But perhaps the time has come for the dead and the defeated to speak. “For thousands of years, I have been vilified and my death is celebrated year after year in every corner of India. Why? Was it because I challenged the Gods for the sake of my daughter? Was it because I freed a race from the yoke of caste-based Deva rule? You have heard the victor’s tale, the Ramayana. Now hear the Ravanayana, for I am Ravana, the Asura, and my story is the tale of the vanquished.” “I am a non-entity – invisible, powerless and negligible. No epics will ever be written about me. I have suffered both Ravana and Rama – the hero and the villain or the villain and the hero. When the stories of great men are told, my voice maybe too feeble to be heard. Yet, spare me a moment and hear my story, for I am Bhadra, the Asura, and my life is the tale of the loser.” The ancient Asura empire lay shattered into many warring petty kingdoms reeling under the heel of the Devas. In desperation, the Asuras look up to a young saviour – Ravana. Believing that a better world awaits them under Ravana, common men like Bhadra decide to follow the young leader. With a will of iron and a fiery ambition to succeed, Ravana leads his people from victory to victory and carves out a vast empire from the Devas. But even when Ravana succeeds spectacularly, the poor Asuras find that nothing much has changed from them. It is then that Ravana, by one action, changes the history of the world.

Five Days in May


Ninie Hammon - 2011
    A big one, a monster F5--a mile wide and eight miles tall. The writhing finger of death hurls across the prairie toward Graham, Oklahoma, one Friday afternoon in May, 1963, on a collision course with the lives of 4 people—each of whom has already planned a personal rendezvous with death in some other form that day. In Jonas Cunningham’s mind, what he’s planning isn’t murder. The handful of little white pills that will free his precious Maggie from the fog of Alzheimer's is a gift, a final act of unconditional love. Jonas’s 16-year-old granddaughter, Joy, isn’t planning “murder” either. She's pregnant and sees only one way to keep from shaming her family. Secrets like that are hard to keep though, in a small town. Joy's father, Rev. Mac MacIntosh has lost his wife and his faith and on Friday, he plans to commit professional suicide—not just leave his church, but abandon his call to ministry. Princess has an appointment with the Reaper on Friday, too, one she’s been staring down for 14 years. At 5 o’clock, the state of Oklahoma will strap her into an electric chair called Sizzlin’ Suzie and turn on the juice. But as the strange, psychic death row inmate meets daily with the minister during the final 5 days of her life, everything in both their lives begins to change. Princess knows—about Mac’s life and family. And sees—the Big Ugly coming to eat up the world. She sees other terrible things, too, and is determined to carry to her grave an incredible secret about the little sister she confessed to beheading a decade ago. When the savage tornado roars with a sound like gravel in a blender into their small prairie town on that May Friday, all 4 of the people who'd penciled in "death" on their calendars actually do confront eternity. But none of them comes to the crossroads of life and death by the path they'd planned or leaves with the result they expected. In the end, the Big Ugly decides who lives and who dies that day.

Depth Charge


Jason Heaton - 2021
    The tragedy sets in motion a dangerous quest for truth that pulls Tusker into a sinister plot spanning 75 years, from World War II Ceylon to modern day Sri Lanka. Along the way, he matches wits with a psychopathic mercenary, discovers a long lost ship with an explosive secret, and falls for a beautiful marine biologist who is at least as strong as he is. In the end, Tusker finds that the truth may lie at the bottom of the sea, with only one way back to the surface. Depth Charge is an old school thriller in the tradition of Fleming, Maclean, and Cussler, with an eye for detail, cunning villains, and narrow escapes. The story is full of wartime secrets, the intersection of religion and politics, and the arcane world of deep technical diving. It takes readers from the smoky halls of 1940s London to the volatile, seductive heat of Sri Lanka and sixty fathoms under the Indian Ocean.

Trinity


Luke Romyn - 2016
    Prepare to have your nerves shredded in this pulse-pounding race for answers. "If you love suspenseful, edge-of-your-seat, can't-put-it-down-action-packed-thrillers ... the type of book where you can't wait to get up in the morning and read more as soon as you wake up, this is the book for you!" -- Tony Kaup A young man wakes up knowing nothing other than the fact that three killers are stalking the country, and they have now set their sights on him. Chance Ripley is not ordinary. He sees things others can’t see and knows things he cannot possibly know. As time goes on, and the tangled threads of his memory begin to unravel, the brutal truth of his past slowly seeps through, and Chance learns that to remain still is to face certain death. For the visions tormenting him are no mere fantasies, no flits of his imagination sent to plague his waking hours. They are real, just as the horrors they show him are real, and if he refuses to act, more people will die, himself among them. The problem is, he can't escape; he's locked in an asylum. "As usual, Romyn doesn't give the reader much chance to breathe once the action starts... If you're still thinking about a book several weeks later, it's done its job. I absolutely recommend this one!" -- Adina

The Righteous Men


Sam Bourne - 2006
    . . .A teenage computer prodigy is mortally strangled in Mumbai. A far-right extremist is killed in a remote cabin in the Pacific Northwest. A wealthy businessman is murdered in Thailand. A pimp in Brooklyn is found stabbed to death and mysteriously covered by a brown shroud. What connects the victims is an ancient prophecy that leads to the end of the world, and it's up to Will Monroe, a fledgling reporter at the New York Times, to stop it.But Monroe's investigation quickly makes him some shadowy enemies, who kidnap his wife and hold her hostage in Crown Heights. Desperate to find the link between the killings and to save his wife, he enlists his college sweetheart, TC, an eccentric artist and Kabbalah expert. As the death toll rises, they follow a trail of clues that seems to lead inexorably to a set of ancient texts containing a prophecy that promises to save the world—or to destroy it.What will happen when the one secret that has kept the world safe for thousands of years is revealed to all? In The Righteous Men, a blistering thriller filled with mystery, romance, and suspense, Sam Bourne takes readers deep into the hidden worlds of fundamentalist religion, mysticism, and biblical prophecies. This is a visionary tale that is as frightening as it is entertaining. Readers won't stop turning the pages until the very end.

The Probe Begins


Sohil Makwana - 2021
    Human DNA is extracted from a mosquito's stomach. "Why had Harold Shipman killed 250 women?" A question of criminal psychology enters the picture. Against the corrupt system, a CBI intern leaves no stone unturned to dig the rort of a cold-blooded serial killer.Several incredible, high-tech forensic investigations are stacked against a tech-savvy killer who knows his job inside-out. And, the sexual sadist killer releases another cipher with a rise of body count.Forensic advancement has brought out a digital face from DNA. Will she able to get the killer's DNA?How has he become a monster out of a man?Are these efforts enough to catch the killer? Or is there something special in the store?

Beyond Every Mirror


Christine Church - 2016
    Women desire him. Men envy him. Despite his charmed life, however, what Dane Bainbridge truly craves is love. But the only woman who sends his heart aflutter and his emotions in turmoil is the "imaginary woman" he has been seeing in mirrors all his life. Meirah resides in a time dimension beyond every mirror. Her world is one of imagination and nightmares, kept alive by the strength of a mortal’s blood. And Dane’s is the strongest, which curses him to life after life of suffering and torture - watching the only woman he could ever love slip away with his sacrifice. Can they break the curse that separates them before they die in a war of worlds never before known?

Empress Gold


Jeffrey Whittam - 2013
    Both keys slid in unopposed. Both locks operated first time – lifting the heavy lid took all of Lee’s strength.From inside the box the accumulated wealth of twenty years stared up at him. Though he had seen it a hundred times before, under that yellow glare from his cap lamp the buttery glint of raw metal took his breath away.For over two decades, the Goddards have struggled through the uncertainties of war, political upheaval and now, faced with mounting pressure from a corrupt government, they are forced to make decisions that will change their lives forever. As Managing Director of the Empress Deep gold mine, Lee Goddard rolls into play the final ball of an already dangerous game.Fostered by rampant avarice and political uncertainty, life in Zimbabwe is worthless – only the elite survive. For a fortune in gold and tribal treasures, some are willing to sell the very soul of an emergent country.

Everybody Lies


Emily Maine Cavanagh - 2020
    But now they have found that poor girl down on the beach, I realize just how many secrets we’ve been keeping all along.Evvy has lived on the island of Great Rock all her life. Every year, after the holidaymakers have departed, storms begin to roll in off the Atlantic and the island returns to the small group of locals who, like her, have decided to make it their home.But when a body is found on the snow-covered beach it sends shockwaves through this tight-knit community and rattles Evvy to her core.The dead woman had worked on the island the previous summer and it seems strange she would have been visiting so out of season. What drew her back and who was she meeting? When Evvy learns that her partner, Ian, was the last person to see her alive, the shadow of the murder falls far too close to home.No stranger to being talked about on the island, where no one’s private life is their own, Evvy must protect her daughter, Daisy, from yet more island gossip. Her family’s happiness has felt fragile at the best of times and now with Ian under suspicion, she senses they are close to freefall once again.As the icy weather closes in, Evvy will discover that no matter how hard you try to hide it, the truth will always find a way out.A tense and atmospheric emotional drama that will keep you guessing. Perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty, Diane Chamberlain and Sally Hepworth.

The Alchemist's Secret


Scott Mariani - 2007
    But it soon becomes apparent that others are hunting this most precious of treasures – for far more evil ends. It seems that everyone – from the Nazis of the past to the shadowy modern organisation known as Gladius Domini – wants to uncover the secrets of immortality.Teaming up with attractive American scientist Dr Roberta Ryder, Ben is led on a wild and dangerous trail from Paris to the ancient Cathar strongholds of the Languedoc, where an astonishing secret has lain hidden for centuries…

The Pawn in the Portal


Nick Cole - 2016
    Ward, a tier-one operator turned mercenary, has just flung himself off the cargo deck of a doomed C-130. Now he’s out of the Drop Zone and evading the undead as a terrible new breed of hunter enters the Wyrd. But these new, faster predators might not be the only thing to fear in an apocalypse beset by zombies, nukes and killer A.I.’s. One of the last warriors of a collapsed government is planning on putting up some big numbers in this final, ultimate game of Survivor, until he finds a mysterious new companion... a stranger dressed in black.