Book picks similar to
The Critical Task by Bryan A. Mantz
first-reads
science-fiction
giveaways
mystery-thriller
The Immortalists
Kyle Mills - 2011
Richard Draman is trying desperately to discover a cure for a disease that causes children to age at a wildly accelerated rate—a rare genetic condition that is killing his own daughter. When the husband of a colleague quietly gives him a copy of the classified work she was doing before her mysterious suicide, Draman finally sees a glimmer of hope. The conclusions are stunning, with the potential to not only turn the field of biology on its head, but reshape the world. Soon, though, he finds himself on the run, relentlessly pursued by a seemingly omnipotent group of men who will do whatever it takes to silence him.
Helix
Nathan M. Farrugia - 2016
A rogue operative.A secret war that could destroy them both.Olesya hunts the augmented operatives she was trained to become. But when a clandestine mission takes her from the illegal bio-clinics of Brazil to the icy borderlands of Kaliningrad, she encounters a rogue assassin with a dangerous secret. As operatives and hunters start vanishing, one thing becomes clear…They aren’t the only players in this deadly game.This is the first episode in the new USA Today bestselling series of cyberpunk thrillers by Australian ex-recon soldier Nathan M. Farrugia. Do you like conspiracies and genetically-enhanced operatives? You’ll love this action-packed cross between Jason Bourne and Altered Carbon. Find out why readers are calling it “the most addictive action series” they’ve read.
The God Organ
Anthony J. Melchiorri - 2014
Behind this movement is Chicago-based medical giant LyfeGen. The company dominates the biotech industry with their Sustain, an implantable artificial organ designed to grant its recipients near-immortality. But many of those recipients are suddenly dying. Biomedical scientist Preston Carter developed the Sustain to improve and save lives. Yet there are others that would see him fail. Extreme religious groups, radical movements, and competing corporations would prefer to see LyfeGen collapse rather than allow “the god organ” to fundamentally alter medicine and the human body. In a race against time, Carter must learn to trust resourceful journalist Audrey Cook. She may hold the key to discovering who is sabotaging the Sustain. And with the organ already implanted in his own body, Carter must uncover the truth before he’s killed by his invention.THE GOD ORGAN is a near-future medical thriller that takes the reader on a suspenseful ride filled with sinister conspiracies, intriguing biomedical science, and rampant corruption that will leave readers wondering just how dangerous becoming a god may really be.
State of Fear
Michael Crichton - 2004
In the jungles of Malaysia, a mysterious buyer purchases deadly cavitation technology, built to his specifications. In Vancouver, a small research submarine is leased for use in the waters off New Guinea. And in Tokyo, an intelligence agent tries to understand what it all means. Thus begins Michael Crichton's exciting and provocative technothriller, State of Fear. Only Michael Crichton's unique ability to blend science fact and pulse-pounding fiction could bring such disparate elements to a heart-stopping conclusion. This is Michael Crichton's most wide-ranging thriller. State of Fear takes the reader from the glaciers of Iceland to the volcanoes of Antarctica, from the Arizona desert to the deadly jungles of the Solomon Islands, from the streets of Paris to the beaches of Los Angeles. The novel races forward, taking the reader on a rollercoaster thrill ride, all the while keeping the brain in high gear. Gripping and thought-provoking, State of Fear is Michael Crichton at his very best.
The Eden Project (Peter Zachary Novel Book 1)
John Bolin - 2009
When an ex-Army Ranger and a beautiful anthropologist team-up to find a cure, science and faith collide in an epic struggle for survival.SYNOPSIS:Anthropologist Alex Forsythe spent three years studying a remote tribe in the Amazon jungle when they mysteriously vanished without a trace. Months later, a teenage girl from the tribe turns up babbling about a horrifying place her people had been taken. The girl’s body is ravaged by a strange malady, and blood tests reveal an unknown, lethal pathogen. Alex realizes she must find the source of the outbreak if there is to be any hope of a cure.Nearby, former Army Ranger Peter Zachary leads a small team into the jungle to film a reality show created to explore and explain paranormal phenomena. When Alex and Peter’s paths cross and they join forces, they face the most dangerous adversary they’ve ever encountered—and a technology that threatens the future of humanity. Faith and science collide as Peter and Alex discover the dark secret at the heart of The Eden Project.
Urge to Kill
J.J. Franklin - 2012
It was almost as if they had the copper’s nightmare to deal with - a child’s murder. Except this was no innocent child but a young woman, he would guess around twenty-two and with everything to live for. Though it was obvious she was a woman, the bows in her hair, her pink party dress and white ankle socks said she was a little girl.’ Detective Inspector Matt Turrell returns from honeymoon to face the most bizarre and dangerous case of his career after the body of a woman is found at a luxury spa near Stratford-upon-Avon. However, struggling within the confines of his new marriage, and haunted by a past mistake, Matt finds it difficult to concentrate. Killer, Clive Draper, is a clever, ambiguous character whose motives and personality is not beyond empathy. Empowered by his first kill, Clive uses his charm to draw further victims into his net. Seeing Matt as his mortal enemy, he uses his charisma to lure Matt’s new wife into his snare. With the danger coming ever closer to home, Matt finds himself drawn into a deadly duel, where he must put his own life on the line and where the stakes have never been higher. Urge to Kill is the first in a series of novels featuring DI Matt Turrell of the Warwickshire Police. It is a rich psychological thriller with great character development of both the detective and the serial killer. The reader quickly becomes engaged in the epic battle between the two men. The book is set within the historic district of Stratford-upon-Avon.
It's About Time: A Mysterious Time Travel Conspiracy
Lyle Howard - 2016
Her life is about to change, as someone else is taking over her future.
A fast-paced action thriller that will grab you and not let you go.
In Japan’s infamous Devil’s Triangle, a small fishing boat disappeared in a swarm of crimson firefliesA leading quantum physicist is assassinated before his keynote speech. While in pursuit after his killers, his highly trained bodyguard, Angela, is caught in a cloud of turquoise fireflies and vanishesA tyrannical ruler will go out on a merciless quest for immortality, and will use any measures necessary to guarantee his success. Even if it means altering the course of history.
Past, present and future collide in a journey through time, mystery and suspense.
Lyle Howard’s newest It’s About Time is an exhilarating read filled with unexpected twists and turns, that will take you on a rocket ride through history to reveal a suspenseful conspiracy.
Suspense, Romance and Mystery in a time travel thriller you will not forget.
Get your copy of It's about Time now!
Phoenix (Book 1)
Kimberly Packard - 2012
The road to revenge is ahead. But the pit stop she makes along the way could reroute her life. Amanda Martin refuses to burn for the crimes of her manipulative ex-boyfriend. After all, he was the one who strong-armed her into committing fraud and left her to shoulder the blame. When an enraged investor sets fire to their office building, she scrambles onto the first bus out of the city. With the authorities hunting for her, she hides out to plot her revenge in the last place anyone would look—the tiny Texas town of Phoenix.But when Amanda uncovers a hidden talent for reporting at the local paper and starts a sweet romance with a charming cop, she starts to question whether she’d be better off building a new life than tearing her ex a new one. Just as she starts settling in, her work at the paper unearths a decades old cold case that threatens to turn the town against her and expose her criminal past. With time running out before the townsfolk discover her true identity, Amanda is faced with an impossible choice—turn her back on a fellow victim of crime or stand her ground and lose her precious freedom. Phoenix is the first book in an enthralling women’s fiction series. If you like compelling characters, nail-biting suspense, and a dash of romance, then you’ll love Kimberly Packard’s small-town mystery.
Death Never Sleeps
E.J. Simon - 2013
. . A Must Read! E.J. Simon is the real deal VITO COLUCCI, JR. author of the true crime book, Rogue Town, A City Under the Stranglehold of Organized Crime "This reader white-knuckled her way from start to finish. Simon is a master at the game of suspense. A page-turner at its best that left me begging for more" JUDITH MARKS-WHITE, author of Seducing Harry and Bachelor Degree "DEATH NEVER SLEEPS . . . will make you ponder the technology suturing our lives. You will also question where life ends, and where death begins" MARK RUBINSTEIN, author of Mad Dog House and Love Gone Mad DO THE DEAD HAVE SMARTPHONES? The problem with Alex Nicholas is that he won't stay dead. Alex Nicholas was the consummate Queens bookie: fast cars and even faster women, and friends in all the wrong places. As an illegal sports betting and loan shark king in New York City, Alex was fearless-until the night his luck ran out and someone leveled the silver barrel of an automatic on him and pulled the trigger. Michael Nicholas was everything his brother Alex was not: a powerful, married straight-arrow corporate CEO living the American Dream. Their two worlds collide when Michael discovers his brother's secret laptop. As Michael crosses the globe to find his brother's murder, can he avoid his brother's fate? And can the information contained in the laptop help Alex reach out to help Michael-from beyond the grave.
Polar Vortex
Matthew Mather - 2019
No distress calls. Vanished into thin air.Mitch Matthews is a writer struggling to make ends meet when his wife's brother Josh offers them a first-class seat on a flight from Hong Kong to New York. When his wife needs to stay behind, it becomes an opportunity for some quality daddy-daughter time with his five-year-old Lilly.At check-in, they run into a strange Norwegian arguing with a huge Russian. A mysterious redhead is guarding a package in the business lounge. But everything is fine, until...Within hours of Allied Airlines 695 disappearing, a massive international search is launched. Aircraft and ships are dispatched from Russia, China, America, Canada, and Norway. In an area overflown by dozens of satellites from as many nations, ringed by radar and missile installations dating from the Cold War...How can a modern airliner simply vanish in one of the most heavily monitored places on Earth?
A Boatload
Dwight Holing - 2014
Keeps the plot turning.” — Kirkus Reviews When San Francisco con artist Jack McCoul gets married, he vows to give up his life of crime for good. But then his new brother-in-law pulls a heist that lands Jack in the middle of a deadly fight over hot computer chips. As bodies stack up, he must pull off the grift of a lifetime to solve a murder and escape a one-way ticket to death row.What readers are saying:★★★★★ The characters are delicious. The local color spot-on.★★★★★ Gritty, surprising, and funny as hell.★★★★★ Fun, stylish, edge-of-your-seat.★★★★★ A roller coaster ride full of surprises.★★★★★ 100% fun.★★★★★ Brilliantly authentic.★★★★★ Successful in every way and at every level.
The Gemini Effect
Chuck Grossart - 2012
By dawn, only a dead city remains, eerily quiet and still, except for mutant beasts that hide from the light, multiply, and await the shadows of night to continue their relentless advance.Ordered to investigate the unfolding crisis, biowarfare specialist Carolyn Ridenour barely escapes the creatures’ nocturnal onslaught, saved in the nick of time by Colonel Garrett Hoffman, who lost hundreds of his troops to a swarm that neither bombs nor bullets can stop.As Carolyn and Garrett race to stop the plague, a battered and broken government prepares to release the fury of America’s nuclear arsenal on its own soil and its own citizens.
The Gemini Effect was originally published as The Mengele Effect. This edition has been completely edited and revised, including significant plot changes.
Archaea
Dain White - 2011
Captain Dak Smith saw in her something special, an opportunity to burn for the far horizon as an independent, free from the gloms that hold known space in thrall – but he had to get her running first.Armed with a standard-issue captain's eyebrow and an infectious grin, Captain Smith and his hand-picked crew embark on an adventure through deep space filled with scoundrels, pirates, and some incredibly unfortunate peace-loving rocks that happened to be at the wrong place, at the worst time.
The Last Orphans
N.W. Harris - 2014
In a span of mere hours, the entire adult population is decimated, leaving their children behind to fend for themselves and deal with the horrific aftermath of the freak occurrence. As one of the newly made elders in his small town, Shane finds himself taking on the role of caretaker for a large group of juvenile survivors. One who just happens to be Kelly Douglas—an out-of-his-league classmate—who, on any other day, would have never given Shane a second glance. Together, they begin their quest to find out why all of the adults were slaughtered. What they find is even more horrifying than anything they could have expected—the annihilation of the adults was only the beginning. Shane and his friends are not the unlucky survivors left to inherit this new, messed-up planet. No, they are its next victims. There is an unknown power out there, and it won’t stop until every person in the world is dead. A spine-tingling adventure that will have you gasping for breath all the way until the last page, The Last Orphans is the first book in an all-new apocalyptic series.
Beyond Hades
Luke Romyn - 2012
Were they just highly imaginative, or was their inspiration from somewhere else?Doctor Talbot Harrison, a professor in archeology, receives a phone call one day which will destroy everything he perceives as reality. His brother has been mysteriously killed and within moments the United States Military appear at his door, literally dragging him from his home. Thrown into a helicopter under intense armed guard, it doesn’t take long until they are attacked by something which cannot possibly exist, something drawn to destroy the one man who can stop the beasts from a land beyond Hades....