Book picks similar to
Hard Kill by Charlie Flowers
fiction
thriller
cover_black-white-grey
first-in-series
Ratcatcher
Tim Stevens - 2012
British Intelligence has John Purkiss, the Ratcatcher.Purkiss's job is straightforward. Track down agents of the intelligence services who are taking kickbacks, committing crimes, or otherwise abusing their positions. And bring them to justice.Straightforward doesn't mean easy...After a renegade British former spymaster, Fallon, is sighted in the Baltic city of Tallinn on the eve of a historic summit meeting between the Russian and Estonian presidents, Purkiss is despatched to investigate, and uncovers a conspiracy that threatens to tear Europe - and the world - apart. But Purkiss has personal reasons for going after Fallon. Four years ago, Fallon was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Purkiss's fiancée, a murder Purkiss himself witnessed.Now, in an atmosphere of treachery and sudden violence, as the countdown begins towards a potentially catastrophic conflict between Russia and the West, Purkiss must keep his desire for revenge under control for the sake of the world's - and his own - survival.Described in Amazon reviews as a "cracker of a spy thriller" with "superbly choreographed action scenes" that "leave you feeling almost dizzy", RATCATCHER is both an adrenaline fuelled action adventure novel and a hardboiled mystery story which exposes the world of the spy, in which few motives and actions are purely black or white.
Agent Zero
Jack Mars - 2019
Kent Steele, 38, a brilliant professor of European History at Columbia University, lives a quiet life in a New York suburb with his two teenage daughters. All that changes when late one night he gets a knock on his door and is abducted by three terrorists—and finds himself flown across the ocean to be interrogated in a basement in Paris. They are convinced that Kent is the most lethal spy the CIA has ever known. He is convinced they have the wrong man. Do they? With a conspiracy around him, adversaries as smart as he is, and an assassin on his tail, the wild game of cat and mouse leads Kent on a perilous road—one that may lead back to Langley—and to a shocking discovery of his own identity.
Someone Else's Daughter
Linsey Lanier - 2011
Independent. Skeptical.Thirteen years ago her abusive husband stole her baby and gave it up for adoption.She comes to Atlanta to find her daughter.THE PIWade Parker.Ace detective.Wealthy owner of the Parker Investigative Agency.The most eligible forty-four-year-old bachelor in Atlanta.Still mourning the death of his socialite wife, he must solve a disturbing murder case.Before the killer strikes again.THE MURDERERA serial killer strangling young girls in a bizarre ritual.Why?She doesn't need a man.He needs to find a killer.Together, can they save a thirteen year old girl?
A Ghostly Shade of Pale
Merle Temple - 2013
History files on a bygone era are ripped open and rewritten in temporal games with eternal consequences at the intersection between heaven and hell, between the visible and the Invisible.Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics Captain Michael Parker is an unlikely player in a struggle for the soul of America. A ghostly pale embodiment of evil becomes his obsession, and his tormentor leaves a trail of bodies across the South.As snipers ambush Michael and his agents on frozen fields of regret and the woman he loves is stalked by death, he learns that he is not alone as he has to fight for his life against enemies seen and unseen.
Spy
Danielle Steel - 2019
With her delicate blond looks, she is a stunning beauty who seems destined for a privileged life. But fate, a world war, and her own quietly rebellious personality lead her down a different path.By 1939, Europe is on fire and England is at war. From her home in idyllic Hampshire, Alex makes her way to London as a volunteer in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry. But she has skills that draw the attention of another branch of the service. Fluent in French and German, she would make the perfect secret agent.Within a year, Alex is shocking her family in trousers and bright red lipstick. They must never know about the work she does--no one can know, not even the pilot she falls in love with. While her country and those dearest to her pay the terrible price of war, Alex learns the art of espionage, leading to life-and-death missions behind enemy lines and a long career as a spy in exotic places and historic times.Spy follows Alex's extraordinary adventures in World War II and afterward in India, Pakistan, Morocco, Hong Kong, Moscow, and Washington, D.C., when her husband, Richard, enters the foreign service and both become witnesses to a rapidly changing world from post-war to Cold War. She lives life on the edge, with a secret she must always keep hidden.
The Lions of Lucerne
Brad Thor - 2002
But Scot Harvath, surviving agent and ex-Navy SEAL, doesn't believe the Fatah is responsible. A shadowy coalition comprises some of the highest-ranking officials in government and business – men who operate above the law, realize the threat Scot poses to their hidden agenda, and will do anything to stop him. Framed for murder and on the run, Scot takes to the towering mountains of Switzerland with beautiful Claudia Mueller of the Swiss Federal Attorney's Office. They brave subzero temperatures and sheer heights of treacherous Mount Pilatus, and the den of notorious professional killers.
Code Name: Griffin
Morgan Hannah MacDonald - 2018
She’s the deadliest operative the CIA has ever known. Alexandria Kingston is The Griffin. SHE’S BEAUTIFULAfter graduating from The Farm in Langley, Virginia, she’s banished from the only family she’d ever known. Heartbroken and alone, Alex settled in Paris and threw herself into her work by taking every operation the CIA offered, as well as volunteering for those no one else would. SHE’S CUNNINGThrough the years, she’s built quite the reputation. The chatter throughout the underworld is ‘Kill the Griffin,’ but as a master of disguise, no one truly knows what she looks like. Not even her lovers. UNBELIEVABLY SEXYOut of nowhere she gets a call to return home. Alex jumps on the next flight to the States where she learns that her adoptive family is in trouble. The Murphy clan heads the Irish Mob out of Boston and when their matriarch is rushed to the hospital word spreads that her life is hanging in the balance. Someone has decided that he will be the next crime boss and is willing to kill every last member of the Murphy clan to make that happen. UNDENIABLY DANGEROUSDeception has always been a major part of her life, but returning home means facing the biggest deception of all, the one truth she’s hidden even from herself: her love for Shane Donovan - the only man oblivious to her existence. SHE’S THE GRIFFINNow Alex has joined her family in taking down the enemy. The only question is, who will die in the process?
Rules of Deception
Christopher Reich - 2008
Jonathan Ransom, a surgeon for Doctors Without Borders, is climbing in the Swiss Alps with his wife, Emma, when she falls into a hidden crevasse and dies. Twenty-four hours later, Jonathan receives an envelope addressed to his wife containing two baggage-claim tickets. Puzzled, he journeys to a railway station only to find himself inexplicably attacked by the Swiss police. Suddenly forced on the run, Jonathan's only chance at survival lies in uncovering the devastating truth behind his wife's secret life.
Lockdown
Sean Black - 2009
His task: to protect one of America's most ruthless businessmen.A BLOODY SHOOTOUTSuddenly gunshots ring out. People run for cover. Innocent bystanders are mown down. Amid the chaos, Lock's hunt for the killers turns into an explosive game of cat and mouse.ONLY ONE MAN CAN SAVE NEW YORKLock's search for the truth leads him through the corporate corridors of power and dark alleys of Manhattan towards a deadly confrontation with one of the world's most dangerous women. As the clock ticks towards midnight on New Year's Eve, Lock realizes that not only is his own life in terrible danger but so are the lives of millions of others...
You Can Run
Karen Cleveland - 2021
It's the call that's every parent's nightmare. And for CIA analyst Jill Bailey, it's the call that changes everything.It's Jill's job to vet new CIA sources. Like Falcon, who's been on the recruitment fast track. But before she can get to work, Jill gets the call. Her son has been taken. And to get him back, Jill does something she thought she'd never do.Alex Charles, a hard-hitting journalist, begins to investigate an anonymous tip: an explosive claim about the CIA's hottest new source. This is the story that Alex has been waiting for. The tip--and a fierce determination to find the truth--leads Alex to Jill, who would rather remain hidden.As the two begin to work together, they uncover a vast conspiracy that will force them to confront their loyalties to family and country. An edge-of-your-seat thriller, You Can Run will have you asking: What would you do to save the ones you love?
Line of Succession
William Tyree - 2010
As the Pentagon begins retaliating against Islamic radicals abroad, counter-terrorism agent Blake Carver soon realizes that his job isn’t as easy as hunting down a group of foreign extremists. This war isn’t about religion, foreign policy or oil. It’s up to Carver to stop a group of powerful Washington insiders battling over control of the planet’s most precious resource: water.
Falling Suns
J.A. Corrigan - 2016
Then his body is discovered. Her cousin Michael is found guilty of his murder and incarcerated in a secure psychiatric unit.Four years later, now divorced and back in the police force, Rachel discovers that Michael is being released to a less secure step-down unit, with his freedom a likely eventuality. Unable to cope with this, she decides upon revenge, assuming a new identity to hunt him down and kill him. However, as she closes in on her target, her friend Jonathan, a journalist, uncovers some unnerving information about her mother and others in her family and begins to suspect that Rachel’s perception of the truth might not be as accurate as she thinks – that she might be about to murder the wrong man…
Remote Control
Andy McNab - 1997
A member of the crack elite force the Special Air Service for seventeen years, McNab saw duty all over the world--and was the British Army's most highly decorated serving soldier when he resigned in 1993.Now, in Remote Control, his explosive fiction debut, McNab has drawn on his personal experience and unique knowledge to create a thriller of gripping authenticity, high-stakes intrigue, and unstoppable action. After his mission is suddenly terminated in Washington, D.C., British Intelligence agent Nick Stone decides to visit an old colleague, Kev Brown. But when Stone arrives at his friend's eerily quiet suburban home, he discovers a chilling scene of carnage. Every member of the Brown family has been brutally slaughtered except one: seven-year-old Kelly Brown. His instincts on red alert and adrenaline in overdrive, Stone grabs the girl and runs--with anonymous assassins in hot pursuit. But whom do they wish to silence: Stone, the innocent child, or both? During a heart-pounding chase that takes the resourceful, sometimes ruthless seasoned pro and his frightened young charge from Washington to Florida, and across the Atlantic to England, Stone begins to piece together a shocking global conspiracy. Thrust into a lethal game of cat-and-mouse, Stone is certain of two things: He and Kelly are on their own. No one can be trusted. And his darkest fears about the shadowy link between politics, money, and terrorism are about to be realized.Combining relentless action, daring escapes, and breathless plotting with chillingly authentic operational detail rarely seen in thrillers, Remote Control is a novel so real and so suspenseful it sets a new standard for the genre.From the Hardcover edition.
D.E.D Dead
Geoffrey McGeachin - 2005
. .From the moment Alby drops his gun on a St Kilda tram he knows he's in for a bad day. Then his partner Harry is gunned down in a Double Bay coffee shop. By lunchtime Alby realises someone wants him dead – and they want him dead now.All Alby wants is some pasta, a good bottle of wine and to know more about the mysterious Grace Goodluck . . . long dark hair, legs up to there, and piercing slate-grey eyes...sniper's eyes. But he also has to figure out who shot Harry and who wants him dead. And why.Unfortunately for Alby, the answer lies over the razor wire and past the anti-personnel mines protecting Bitter Springs, a top-secret US military facility deep in the central Australian desert. Now that can really ruin your day . . .
The Incident: Inferno Rising
Lars Emmerich - 2016
People are trying to kill her.That would be business as usual in the counterespionage world, except that it’s the good guys who have her in the crosshairs. Why are the DC Metro police trying to kidnap her? Do her bosses at Homeland want her in a body bag, too?And why does everyone she talks to seem to end up in the morgue?Will a ruthless mercenary, a hapless American traitor, and a dead man’s cryptic clue hold the key to Sam’s survival?