Book picks similar to
Area Zero by William Bowden
mystery
ebook
humor
mystery-thriller-suspense
Identity Thief
J.P. Bloch - 2014
What if you could get rich with a few strokes of the keyboard? All you have to do is become someone else.But nothing’s that simple in this fast-paced, psychological thriller. As the story dangerously snowballs downhill, the characters discover how losing themselves can lead to duplicity, blackmail, and sometimes murder. JP Bloch’s darkly comic, edgy exploration of the mystery of the self will keep you guessing until the last word. You’ll come away agreeing with the identity thief that “the biggest mistake you can make is thinking you know who you are.”
BULLETS (Jon "Big Slick" Elder Book 1)
Elijah Drive - 2015
Professional poker player Jon "Big Slick" Elder was minding his own business in a diner when an Arizona sheriff walked in and killed the man sitting next to him, a Mexican day laborer accused of murder. The law officer then arrested Slick simply because the sheriff didn't like the color of Slick's skin. Slick knew that the stranger who had been sitting next to him at the diner was no murderer because, in addition to cards, Slick also kills people for money. The poor man didn't have the look, but Slick does, and with the help of a Latina assistant district attorney, a Navajo state trooper and a homegrown federal agent, Slick sets out to prove the dead man's innocence. What he discovers, as he digs deeper, is a deadly mystery that threatens not only him, but his newfound friends as well. But Slick hates to have anyone… ANYONE… toss him his shoes and tell him to get out of town. "This is an exciting, intriguing, and thrilling book with twists and turns that are unexpected but all too believable. Dear author: please write another one like this." - Book Angel "Tense, thrilling and with a lot of twists, this is an edge-of-your-seat-read with some great action scenes. An excellent debut novel by Elijah Drive." Croydon Citizen BULLETS - mystery thriller by Elijah Drive
Human Resources
Geoffrey Neil - 2012
A beautiful business consultant swoops in to rescue a struggling company from financial disaster. She cancels layoffs and dazzles everyone with her killer looks and corporate savvy. Employee, Lonnie Raiford, becomes skeptical when he and the other staff notice unexplainable, over-the-top attention and affection she showers on his best friend, Hugh Berish. As curiosity mounts about the woman's intentions, Lonnie begins a frantic investigation that uncovers her true identity and a secret more bizarre than anyone at the company had imagined.
A Spy Came Home
H.N. Wake - 2014
Massacres are taking place in communities on a regular basis. In schools, lockdown drills are now as commonplace as fire drills. Politicians on Capitol Hill, impotent in the face of one of the most influential lobbying powers, have failed to pass gun legislation since 1994. Mac Ambrose, a twenty-year, international veteran of the CIA, is recruited by her closest friends to run a domestic operation: bring down the gun lobby by any means necessary so the Senate can pass a new assault weapons ban. In four weeks. From the hearing rooms of Capitol Hill, to the rolling hills of Kentucky and the wealthy suburbs of New Orleans, Mac flawlessly sets the traps of a multi-pronged strategy to ensnare a lawmaker, a lobbyist and a gun manufacturer. From a safe house in Philadelphia, she rediscovers relationships forsaken in the name of national security.
The Jeri Howard Anthology: Books 1-9
Janet Dawson - 2018
Jeri Howard finds herself investigating in a puzzling missing persons case that sprawls throughout the grittier sections of Northern California. For a woman who told her husband she had no relatives, Renee Foster’s actually well-stocked with them….and doozies at that. The whole family—criminals, abusers, and kindly aunts alike-- comes alive in Janet Dawson’s first novel, prompting the New York Times to hail it as “a welcome addition to this tough genre.” There’s clearly a lot more here than the simple matter of a wife disappearing with the grocery money. Smelling a rat or two right from the beginning of this complex and intriguing mystery, the red-haired private detective follows many a twisty trail as Dawson weaves an equally twisty tale, which, to the reader’s delight, just keeps winding back on itself, revealing brand new secrets as fast as ancient skeletons can fall out of closets. Dawson’s Oakland is damp and properly sinister and Jeri’s as savvy as Sam Spade, with something of Spade’s seen-it-all outlook. What she doesn't know, her chic lawyer pal, Cassie, can supply; and her cop ex-husband’s on hand to make trouble. As winner of Private Eye Writers of America’s jointly sponsored contest with St. Martin’s Press for Best First Private Eye Novel, KINDRED CRIMES was a sensation even before it was published. It quickly went on to garner Shamus, Anthony, and Macavity nominations. Fans of female sleuths like Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone will particularly enjoy it, as well as aficionados of Marcia Muller’s fellow Bay Area detective, Sharon McCone. “Dawson keeps suspense and interest at high pitch.” --Publishers Weekly “A satisfyingly complex and multilayered novel. . . A wonderfully told and compelling story from a writer who’s in complete control – as is her heroine – from start to finish.” --- The Denver Post. “An auspicious debut.”-- New York Daily News “Dawson writes believable dialogue, creates quickly realized and appealing characters and has a particularly nice atmospheric touch.” --San Francisco Examiner
Escalante
Andrew Vaillencourt
He may have wanted a quiet place to hide, but instead he will team up with the last good cop in Dockside to try to stop a gang war and protect the hard-working folks just trying to make an honest living.It's good cop vs, bad cop, gang leader vs. mobster, and Roland Tankowicz vs. everybody in a high-stakes contest for control of Dockside. He may be brand new to the job, but the smart money is on everybody's favorite Army surplus cyborg as he doubles down on the deadliest game in Dockside:ESCALANTE.
Who Hates Marigold Flowers? (A Cornwall & Company Mystery Book 1)
Sara M. Barton - 2016
Her specialty is parties, not crime. But there's no denying that someone with a lot of money and significant resources is out to silence her. What secrets does she hold about international money laundering and a criminal syndicate? How can she save herself when she's accused of trying to murder the U. S. marshal in charge of her safety? Enter the Cornwall brothers. Jackson, Lincoln, and Jefferson all have some special skills that can help untangle Marigold's complicated life. But they're going to have to work fast if they hope to prevent another murder...or before Marigold Flowers permanently disappears!
Assignment: Athens
Craig A. Hart - 2017
Carlton Moore. A briefcase containing classified information disappears, leaving the future of the United States' war on terror in doubt. With the terrorist group Scorpion suspected of possessing the missing briefcase and vital information somehow leaking from the most secure SpyCo meetings, Moore calls on covert operative James Reagan Burke. Thrown together into an unlikely team composed of a former flame and a Grecian body-builder, and seeing shadowy pursuers at every turn, Burke must decide whom he can trust and recover the briefcase before it’s too late. A fun romp in the Mediterranean, Assignment: Athens provides thrills without the darkness, and chills without the nightmares. Infused with wry humor, Assignment: Athens is an enjoyable beginning to the SpyCo novella series.
The Alexandria Project
Andrew Updegrove - 2011
Only by defeating the Alexandria Project can he clear himself. "THE ALEXANDRIA PROJECT is fiction that cuts close to the bone. But where George Orwell envisioned 1984 from the safety of thirty-five years out, the future that Updegrove describes may already be upon us. That's what makes it dangerous, and that's what makes THE ALEXANDRIA PROJECT an important as well as riveting read." - Dan Geer, CHIEF INFORMATION SECURITY OFFICER, In-Q-Tel
The Endorphin Conspiracy
Fredric Stern - 2012
In 1963, the project came to an abrupt halt when several of the CIA's own agents were unwittingly given high doses of LSD at a weekend retreat, and later suffered severe flashbacks, depression, and in one case, suicide as a result.Thirty-five years have transpired since the fateful MK ULTRA project was shut down. A group of zealots, including several of the original participants, now in highly placed government and academic positions, has kept the program, known as the SIGMA PROJECT, alive. Shifting their focus to the development of highly potent synthetic endorphins and utilizing PET (positron emission tomography) scan technology, they are on the threshold of a major breakthrough in the ability to understand and control the brain's thought processes. And they will let no one get in their way.Dr. Geoffrey Davis, a former medic in the Navy Seals, is the chief resident on the neurosurgery service at the New York Trauma Center. From his first day back on the job after spending a year in the PETronics Research Laboratory of Dr. Josef Balassi, strange events begin unfolding. A crazed janitor, a former head injury patient at the NYTC, explosives in hand, takes a little girl hostage at the Central Park Zoo. A respected Hasidic rabbi opens fire with a machine gun on a crowded subway train. Several of Geoff's patients die under mysterious circumstances while on his neurosurgery service, and key aspects of their medical records, including their PET scans, vanish, leading Geoff inexorably toward the frightening conclusion that all of these events are in some way connected to activities at the NYTC's PETronics Institute. As the deadly conspiracy swirls around him, Geoff becomes increasingly isolated, on the run from the CIA, the police and his own medical staff. At stake is the ability to control the human brain, and Dr. Geoffrey Davis is the only one with the knowledge, courage, and ability to stop THE SIGMA PROJECT!THE ENDORPHIN CONSPIRACY is a first rate medical thriller, a chilling story rooted in today’s medical technology. A breathless ride from start to finish, it’s a novel you won’t want put down until you turn the final page!
Twins of Prey
W.C. Hoffman - 2014
Trained in the arts of the woodsman, they became the ultimate hunting, fishing, surviving and killing forces that Uncle had designed them to be.However, Uncle knew he was leaving this world and that the twins would be okay with the world. What Uncle could have never known was if the world would be okay with the twins.When changing lives is not an option, the twins must begin to take lives. Enjoy this fast paced, thrilling outdoors adventure novel as the Twins battle against the society that wants to end their woodland way of life.Twins of Prey is W.C. Hoffman's first novel in the Twins of Prey series.
Harry Watt Bounty Hunter: 2150 AD - And Harry's Life Just Got More Complicated
Rob Guy - 2015
The book is very well written, without a lot of unnecessary detail. All in all, Harry Watt, Bounty Hunter is a very entertaining little book that will appeal to fans of detective novels and science fiction alike."Raanan Geberer - Reader's Favorite"What becomes immediately evident in reading Rob's books is that not only has he a fine sense of imagination to create unusual stories, but that he accompanies that with a fine tuned sense of humor that is too often lacking in sci-fi novels and indicates that he may just have a strong hold on a fruitful career In his chosen genre."5 Star rating - Grady Harp, Amazon Top 100 Reviewer2150 AD.The Earth is running out of water. On Mars, civil war is looming, which is a pity because there's enough of the wet stuff out there to last the human race for a thousand years.Eager to get their hands on it is Hansel & Gretel, a multi-planetary corporation hell bent on owning every resource in the solar system.WHEN an employee of Hansel & Gretel is accused of theft and then high-tails it to Mars, enter Harry Watt, a would-be bounty hunter who doesn't much care for the water crisis as long as there's enough of the stuff to put ice in his bourbon. Now, a trip to the Red Planet sounds like fun, but our man soon discovers something stinks about his latest case, and it's not one of his socks. To try and find the answers, Harry must first travel to Venus Station. But it's not easy to be in two places at once, and getting framed for murder doesn't help, either.AS the case unravels, Harry must call on all his skills and charm to crack the secret of Mars. His dead partner, an erstwhile assistant, and a host of lady friends lend a hand too.IDEAL for fans of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy or The Stainless Steel Rat, Harry Watt Bounty Hunter will take you on a non-stop thrill ride across the solar system. With a few laughs and the odd bourbon-on-the-rocks thrown in along the way.
The Widow's Husband
William Coleman - 2019
The simple task of proving he isn’t the dead man turns into a challenge when the police decide to look at him as a suspect in the murder.Despite obstacles every step of the way, Allan sets out on an unintended journey of self discovery in the hopes to reclaim his identity and maintain his freedom.
Cesspool
Phil M. Williams - 2016
He was the devoted husband that didn’t know what his wife was up to. His life was a tragedy waiting to happen.After the accident, he moved to a backwoods town, content to waste away while the world burned. He was awakened from his apathy by a small girl with a big problem. It was safer to look the other way. Getting involved would place James squarely in the crosshairs of the local police.He was afraid, but he did it anyway.Adult language and content.
Both Sides of the Law (The Casper Halliday NYPD Series #1)
Nathan Roden - 2018
Casper Halliday’s dream began to unravel two months before his sixteenth birthday. His father, Bobby, resigned from the NYPD after fifteen years without an explanation. Casper’s parents fought. Sirens closed in on their home from every direction. The sound that had always been a source of comfort now brought only humiliation. Bobby Halliday moved out.Casper’s dream dissolved into a daily fight for survival. All he wanted now was to finish high school so he could ease his mother’s burden.On his seventeenth birthday, in the throes of depression, Casper made a bad decision. That decision brought him face-to-face with one of the most dangerous men in the city.In Casper’s world, there is laughter and there are tears.There is light and there is bitter darkness.There are improbable friends and unspeakable enemies.The Casper Halliday NYPD Series launches with the most unlikely of beginnings.
Read Both Sides of the Law today!
The e-book edition includes a sneak peek of Ghost Man, Book 2 in the series.Ghost Man—Book Two in the Casper Halliday NYPD SeriesComing in late 2018!