Book picks similar to
The First Team by John Ball Jr.


fiction
thriller
military
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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.

Punk's War: A Novel


Ward Carroll - 2002
    Written in the tone of the quixotic lieutenants who populate its pages, this novel vividly illustrates the pressures on the new generation of war fighters. Along the way the book introduces an engaging cast of characters: a self-centered squadron commander hell-bent on fixing his tainted professional reputation; a reluctant air-wing commander more suited for life within the walls of the Pentagon than on a flight deck at sea; a battle-group commander trained in the art of driving ships, now thrust into the snap-decision matrix of supersonic jets; and a host of junior officers. Seeking only the ideals they were promised, these technology-savvy aviators are products of pop culture, unimpressed by rank for its own sake and unresponsive to petitions in the name of the profession's lofty mottoes. But for all of its irreverance, Punk's War is a loving tribute to those called to service during an unsteady peace and a definitive statement about why flying fighters for a living remains among the most noble of professions.

Noble Beginnings


L.T. Ryan - 2013
    A Marine in name only, Jack is on-loan to the CIA. Normally an integral part of the team, he finds that he is nothing more than a security detail in Iraq.Jack and his partner Bear have a run-in with four CIA special agents over the treatment of an Iraqi family. Within hours Jack and Bear are detained.All Jack wanted was to finish his enlistment and move on with his life. All he did was intervene and save a family from unwarranted violence at the hands of four CIA agents. But he soon discovers that he did far more than intervene. He has placed himself dead square in the middle of a conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of the U.S. government.

PRIMAL Mirza


Jack Silkstone - 2014
    It reveals the back-story of Mirza Mansoor, a former Indian Special Forces soldier turned PRIMAL operative. *** The year is 1999 and tensions between Pakistan and India are at breaking point. When critical intelligence prompts a cross border raid Indian Para Commandos arrive too late to prevent the deployment of a team of Lashkar terrorists. Mirza Mansoor, a Special Group operative and his partner Himesh Arjun, are all that stands between highly trained jihadists and their sinister objectives. As they track their quarry from the mountains of Kashmir to India’s capital they realize that terrorism is not the only threat they face. In the poverty-stricken slums of New Delhi crime and terror have free reign, greed is king, life is cheap, and heroes are few and far between. *** FROM THE AUTHOR This story is set just after the Kargil war between India and Pakistan, the closest these two nuclear-armed states have come to full-scale conflict. Having been defeated at Kargil, ISI and terrorist proxies escalated operations against India, which culminated in the 2008 Mumbai attack, resulting in over 600 casualties. During this time, the NSG, India’s lead counter-terrorism response unit, was severely under-resourced and -equipped. It’s in this setting of extreme contrasts, corruption, and terrorist threat that I’ve crafted a backstory for one of PRIMAL’s favorite characters.

Black Squadron


Michael Stephen Fuchs - 2021
    engagement from the invasion of Sicily to Black Hawk Down. The Rangers are upright, loyal, and never leave their brothers behind.But now the Rangers may be the only ones who can stop a rogue Black Squadron from leaving everyone bleeding out in the street – and also kicking off a shooting war between two nuclear powers.It’s Black Hawk Down meets Training Day in this explosive collision of two legendary special-operations units battling to survive and prevail in the most dangerous city on the planet.

Spies Of Jerusalem


Colin Smith - 2013
    A land of conflict. And a land of spies.As World War One rages on the killing fields of Flanders, another battle is playing out in the Holy Land.British forces invade a stronghold of the Ottoman Empire, fighting German officers, Arab conscripts and Turkish troops.But as the British armies advance, the Germans suspect they have a traitor within their ranks.An agent - code-named Daniel - is transmitting messages to the British from the heart of the German headquarters.If they can't stop him, the war will be lost.But as the Germans dig deeper, they discover an espionage ring called Nili made up of Zionist Jews supporting the British.They begin close in on the ring.But will they ever unearth the true identity of Daniel?And what is the true purpose of the organisation known as Nili?In this gripping novel, Colin Smith interweaves the stories of British Tommies, German officers and Jewish nationals.In a tale of intrigue and espionage the hunt for Daniel turns into a race against time, as the British prepare to meet the Austrian troops on the brutal battlefield at Huj.'Spies of Jerusalem' brilliantly blends fact with fiction in a novel that will appeal to fans of Alan Furst and and John Le Carre.

Sanction


William Hunter - 2017
    With his cover blown, Garrett is on the run from an assassin desperate to erase his tracks, and authorities who believe he is responsible for the murder. Banastre Montjoy, a burned-out head of section at the Secret Intelligence Service, is in a race himself to discover if the scholar's death is linked to a bombing of the London Underground a year earlier. Montjoy's nemesis, the power-hungry and scheming Berwyn Rees, seeks to drum his rival out of MI6, while maneuvering to become deputy chief.With time running out, SOG operators are sent in by the CIA to locate and extract Garrett. As Laurent, MI5, and Scotland Yard close in on their target, Montjoy uncovers a devastating secret, one that someone inside the British government has sought to keep buried since World War II.

American Assassin


Vince Flynn - 2010
    He trains six months intensely with other clandestine operatives, under CIA Operations Director Thomas Stansfield and protégé Irene Kennedy, to stop terrorists before they reach America. The assassin leaves a trail of bodies from Istanbul across Europe to Beirut, where he needs every ounce of skill and cunning to survive the war-ravaged city and its deadly terrorist factions.

The Faithful Spy


Alex Berenson - 2006
    Alex Berenson’s debut novel of suspense, The Faithful Spy, is a sharp, explosive story that takes readers inside the war on terror as fiction has never done before.John Wells is the only American CIA agent ever to penetrate al Qaeda. Since before the attacks in 2001, Wells has been hiding in the mountains of Pakistan, biding his time, building his cover.Now, on the orders of Omar Khadri–the malicious mastermind plotting more al Qaeda strikes on America–Wells is coming home. Neither Khadri nor Jennifer Exley, Wells’s superior at Langley, knows quite what to expect.For Wells has changed during his years in the mountains. He has become a Muslim. He finds the United States decadent and shallow. Yet he hates al Qaeda and the way it uses Islam to justify its murderous assaults on innocents. He is a man alone, and the CIA–still reeling from its failure to predict 9/11 or find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq–does not know whether to trust him. Among his handlers at Langley, only Exley believes in him, and even she sometimes wonders. And so the agency freezes Wells out, preferring to rely on high-tech means for gathering intelligence.But as that strategy fails and Khadri moves closer to unleashing the most devastating terrorist attack in history, Wells and Exley must somehow find a way to stop him, with or without the government’s consent.From secret American military bases where suspects are held and “interrogated” to basement laboratories where al Qaeda’s scientists grow the deadliest of biological weapons, The Faithful Spy is a riveting and cautionary tale, as affecting in its personal stories as it is sophisticated in its political details. The first spy thriller to grapple squarely with the complexities and terrors of today’s world, this is a uniquely exciting and unnerving novel by an author who truly knows his territory.

The Last Frontier


Alistair MacLean - 1959
    Now reissued in a new cover style.Michael Reynolds was going insane … slowly but inevitably insane. And the most terrible part of it was that he knew it. Since the last forced injection, there had been nothing he could do about the relentless onset of this madness. The more he struggled to ignore the symptoms, the more acutely he became aware of them, the deeper into his mind dug those fiendish chemical claws that were tearing his mind apart…

The White League


Thomas Zigal - 2004
    Blackmail, a secret organization hiding within the elite society of New Orleans, a white supremacist running for governor of Louisiana; these are the key ingredients in this fine Southern crawfish boil of a novel about guilt, privilege and racism in one of America's most exotic cities.

The Hill


Leonard B. Scott - 1989
    Point man for his platoon. Jason is the favored one: a football hero picked for officer training school who leads his men into a slaughter ground from which most of them will never return. Ty and Jason -- Oklahoma brothers different in character, yet close in soul -- are about to meet in the Battle of Dak To, upon the blood-drenched sides of Hill 875.

Codename: Chandler Collection - Three Short Prequel Novels


J.A. Konrath - 2013
    Trained by the best of the best, she has honed her body, her instincts, and her intellect to become the perfect weapon.CODENAME: CHANDLERHIT:The world's deadliest assassin just met her match...Before special operative Chandler was forced to FLEE, she executed the most difficult missions--and most dangerous people--for the government. So when she's ordered to eliminate a crooked corporate CEO in a manner that looks like natural death, it's a regular day at the office... until she discovers she's not the only assassin hunting this particular prey, and her competition is aiming to make this hit into a political statement that will shake the nation.EXPOSED:Death is in her blood.Before special operative Chandler was forced to FLEE, she executed the most difficult missions - and most dangerous people - for the government. So when she's tasked with saving a VIP's daughter from human traffickers, Chandler expects the operation to be by the numbers...until she uncovers a secret that will endanger the entire population of New York City, and possibly the world.NAUGHTY:You have nothing to fear but fear itself. And her.Before special operative Hammett became a mercenary, she executed the most difficult missions--and most dangerous people--for the government. When one sanction turns into half a dozen dead, the agency Hammett works for realizes she's gone rogue. And there's only one way to deal with rogues; eliminate them with extreme prejudice.But this target has other ideas...HIT, EXPOSED, and NAUGHTY combine for a total of over 100,000 words or roughly 400 pages.

Operator


David Vinjamuri - 2012
    Michael hasn't stepped foot in his Catskills hometown for more than a dozen years since he left it and a college football scholarship behind to join the Army. Michael quickly learns that his hometown has changed as he is pulled into the web of mystery and corruption surrounding Melissa's death. He will soon confront the abusive ex-boyfriend, a town sheriff with mixed motives and the ruthless Russian gang at the heart of it all.Michael will be forced to choose between two paths - that of the desk-working, college-educated intelligence analyst he has become or the Tier I Army Operator he once was. Only one of these identities will survive as Michael is relentlessly hunted by a series of ruthless men.This meticulously researched, seamlessly plotted thriller is the first in a new series by David Vinjamuri.

Odds Against Tomorrow


Joseph T. Nutter
    Her father, a former territorial governor, must now make the hard decision to recruit a former friend and gunfighter, whom he tried to hang in the past, to join in pursuit of his strong-willed daughter and the violent men she seeks. The energetic and exciting story is told from both perspectives as they must fight their way through the still untamed towns and locations of New Mexico Territory and Texas of 1884. And blended into the backdrop of their journey are the final days of the spirited campaign to elect a new President—Grover Cleveland. Behind this story lies the dynamics of two former friends who grew up together and fought alongside one another as members of the Texas Brigade in the Civil War and later as Texas Rangers. But they would be driven apart later by the sides of the law they would hold to. They now come together once again in an epic tale and must reach beyond their strained relationship to the strong bonds of friendship of their youth.