Shadows of War


Larry Bond - 2009
    China's rice-growing regions have been devastated by typhoons, while its western breadbasket is suffering from three years of drought. Riots threaten to tear the country apart. With the old-guard Chinese government paralyzed by the crisis, a young, charismatic party leader steps to the fore. His solution to the unrest is a time-tested one — conquest of China's neighbors.And after that, the world.Josh MacArthur, a mild-mannered American scientist studying climate change in northern Vietnam, is the only witness to a clever attempt by the Chinese to make it appear that Vietnam started the war. Escaping a massacre, he manages to gather critical evidence that could turn world opinion against China.Unfortunately, the Chinese learn of MacArthur's survival, and of the information he carries. A former Ch'an fighting monk turned commando is sent to capture him. Mara Duncan, a CIA agent, is also on MacArthur's trail. The American scientist has become the subject of a deadly race in the jungles of northern Vietnam, with the fate of the world in his hands.

The Winter Over


Matthew Iden - 2017
    For thirty-something mechanical engineer Cass Jennings, Antarctica offers an opportunity to finally escape the guilt of her troubled past and to rebuild her life.But the death of a colleague triggers a series of mysterious incidents that push Cass and the rest of the forty-four-person crew to the limits of their sanity and endurance. Confined and cut off from the outside world, will they work together or turn against one another? As the tension escalates, Cass must find the strength to survive not only a punishing landscape but also an unrelenting menace determined to destroy the station—and everyone in it.

Fallen Angel


John Ling - 2013
    She is put on medication. Endures months of therapy. And slowly, surely, she starts to emerge from the shadows.But any peace is short-lived.One afternoon, on a busy street corner, Kendra spots a familiar face from her past. Ryan Hosseini -- the lover she left behind ten years ago when she decided to serve her country.Wrestling with old regrets, she is about to approach him when she realises that he isn't alone. A surveillance team is hovering close by. Affiliation unknown. Intentions unknown.And before Kendra can make sense of the situation, a bomb detonates and rips through the lunchtime crowd. And amidst the fire and rubble, Ryan vanishes.Now Kendra finds herself on the hunt once more. Searching the city. Determined to uncover the truth.Is Ryan a victim of circumstance? Or is he a home-grown terrorist on the verge of unleashing an even deadlier attack?

The Keeper's Cup


Ken Fry - 2020
    a story that when revealed, could rock the Christian world?What will powerful factions do to get hold of this information? How will they use it?Near the Qumran Caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, archaeologists unearth scrolls supposedly written by the apostles, Philip and Thomas. And they're telling a different story...Death quickly follows. The Pope funds an excavation team to verify the stories of the apostles. What they discover is a tale buried under Britian's mysterious past. A history that's different from what we know.

Don't Go


Lisa Scottoline - 2013
    Mike Scanlon is called to serve as an army doctor in Afghanistan, he's acutely aware of the dangers he'll face and the hardships it will cause his wife Chloe and newborn baby. And deep inside, he doesn't think of himself as a warrior, but a healer.However, in an ironic turn of events, as Mike operates on a wounded soldier in a war-torn country, Chloe dies at home in the suburbs, in an apparent household accident. Devastated, he returns home to bury her, only to discover that the life he left behind has fallen apart. His medical practice is in jeopardy, and he is a complete stranger to the only family he has left - his precious baby girl. Worse, he learns a shocking secret that sends him into a downward spiral.Ultimately, Mike realizes that the most important battle of his life faces him on the home front and he'll have to put it all on the line to save what's dearest to him – his family.

The Double Traitor


E. Phillips Oppenheim - 1915
    "This young man is your slave. Whatever your daily business may be here, some part of your time, I imagine, will be spent in his company. Let me know what manner of man he is. Is this innate corruptness which brings him so easily to the bait, or is it the stinging smart of injustice from which he may well be suffering? Or, failing these, has he dared to set his wits against mine, to play the double traitor? If even a suspicion of this should come to you, there must be an end of Mr. Francis Norgate."

The 39 Steps


John Buchan - 1915
    Initially sceptical, Hannay nonetheless harbours the man—but one day returns home to find him murdered... An obvious suspect, Hannay flees to his native Scotland, pursued by both the police and a cunning, ruthless enemy. His life and the security of Britain are in grave peril, and everything rests on the solution to a baffling enigma: what are the 'thirty nine steps?'

Tepui: The Last Expedition


John Oehler - 2015
    Tepui is an "intelligent, cutting edge" tale of adventure, intrigue, and forbidden love.In 1559, forty-nine Spaniards exploring a tributary of the Orinoco River reached a sheer-sided, cloud-capped mountain called Tepui Zupay. When they tried to climb it, all but six were slaughtered by Amazons. Or so claimed Friar Sylvestre, the expedition's chronicler. But Sylvestre made many bizarre claims: rivers of blood, plants that lead to gold ...Jerry Pace, a burn-scarred botanist struggling for tenure at UCLA, thinks the friar was delusional. Jerry's best friend, the historian who just acquired Sylvestre's journal, disagrees. He plans to retrace the expedition's footsteps, and wants Jerry to come with him. Jerry refuses, until he spots a stain between the journal's pages--a stain that could only have been left by a plant that died out with the dinosaurs. Now he has to find that plant.But the Venezuelan wilderness does not forgive intruders. Battered and broken, they reach a remote Catholic orphanage where the old prioress warns of death awaiting any who would venture farther. But an exotic Indian girl leads them on, through piranha-infested rivers and jungles teaming with poisonous plants, to Tepui Zupay--the forbidden mountain no outsider has set eyes on since the Spaniards met their doom.This is a story about life's surprises--the challenges, risks--and how they transform us. It is also a tale of Beauty and the Beast.

Do Not Become Alarmed


Maile Meloy - 2017
    The ship's comforts and possibilities seem infinite. The children - two eleven-year-olds, an eight-year-old, and a six-year-old—love the nonstop buffet and the independence they have at the Kids' Club. But when they all go ashore in beautiful Central America, a series of minor misfortunes leads the families farther and farther from the ship's safety. One minute the children are there, and the next they're gone. What follows is a riveting, revealing story told from the perspectives of the adults and the children, as the once-happy parents - now turning on one another and blaming themselves - try to recover their children and their lives. Celebrated for her ability to write vivid, spare, moving fiction, Maile Meloy shows how quickly the life we count on can fall away, and how a crisis changes everyone's priorities. The fast-paced, gripping plot of Do Not Become Alarmed carries with it an insightful, provocative examination of privilege, race, guilt, envy, the dilemmas of modern parenthood, and the challenge of living up to our own expectations.

Recall


David McCaleb - 2013
    . .   To a trio of muggers, Red looks like just another suburban dad. But when they demand his wallet at knifepoint, something snaps. In the blink of an eye, two muggers are dead, the third severely injured, and Red doesn't remember a thing. Once an elite member of the Det, a secret forces outfit whose existence is beyond classified, Red thought his active service was over.   But his memory is coming back--and a lethal killing machine is returning to duty . . .   Facing an unthinkable nuclear threat, a volatile international power play, and a personal attack against his family, Red has no choice. He must rejoin his old team, infiltrate the enemy camp, and complete the biggest mission of his life . . .

The Einstein Prophecy


Robert Masello - 2015
    Shipped to Princeton University for study, the box contains mysteries that only Lucas, aided by brilliant archaeologist Simone Rashid, can unlock.These mysteries may, in fact, defy—or fulfill—the dire prophecies of Albert Einstein himself.Struggling to decipher the sarcophagus’s strange contents, Lucas and Simone unwittingly release forces for both good and unmitigated evil. The fate of the world hangs not only on Professor Einstein’s secret research but also on Lucas’s ability to defeat an unholy adversary more powerful than anything he ever imagined.From the mind of bestselling author and award-winning journalist Robert Masello comes a thrilling, page-turning adventure where modern science and primordial supernatural powers collide.

Child 44


Tom Rob Smith - 2008
    He arrests whomever he is told to arrest. He dismisses the horrific death of a young boy because he is told to, because he believes the Party stance that there can be no murder in Communist Russia. Leo is the perfect soldier of the regime. But suddenly his confidence that everything he does serves a great good is shaken. He is forced to watch a man he knows to be innocent be brutally tortured. And then he is told to arrest his own wife. Leo understands how the State works: Trust and check, but check particularly on those we trust. He faces a stark choice: his wife or his life. And still the killings of children continue...

Before the Fall


Noah Hawley - 2016
    Sixteen minutes later the unthinkable happens: The plane plunges into the ocean. The only survivors are Scott Burroughs - the painter - and a four-year-old boy who is now the last remaining member of an immensely wealthy and powerful media mogul's family. With chapters weaving between the aftermath of the crash and the backstories of the passengers and crew members - including a Wall Street titan and his wife, a Texan-born party boy just in from London, a young woman questioning her path in life, and a career pilot - the mystery surrounding the tragedy heightens. As the passengers' intrigues unravel, odd coincidences point to a conspiracy. Was it merely by dumb chance that so many influential people perished? Or was something far more sinister at work? Events soon threaten to spiral out of control in an escalating storm of media outrage and accusations. And while Scott struggles to cope with fame that borders on notoriety, the authorities scramble to salvage the truth from the wreckage. Amid pulse-quickening suspense, the fragile relationship between Scott and the young boy glows at the heart of this stunning novel, raising questions of fate, human nature, and the inextricable ties that bind us together.

The Mercenary


Paul Vidich - 2021
    The Soviet Union and its communist regime are in the last stages of decline, but remain opaque to the rest of the world—and still very dangerous. In this ever-shifting landscape, a senior KGB officer—code name GAMBIT—has approached the CIA Moscow Station chief with top secret military weapons intelligence and asked to be exfiltrated. GAMBIT demands that his handler be a former CIA officer, Alex Garin, a former KGB officer who defected to the American side. The CIA had never successfully exfiltrated a KGB officer from Moscow, and the top brass do not trust Garin. But they have no other options: GAMBIT's secrets could be the deciding factor in the Cold War. Garin is able to gain the trust of GAMBIT, but remains an enigma. Is he a mercenary acting in self-interest or are there deeper secrets from his past that would explain where his loyalties truly lie? As the date nears for GAMBIT’s exfiltration, and with the walls closing in on both of them, Garin begins a relationship with a Russian agent and sets into motion a plan that could compromise everything.

Counterfeit Lies


Oliver North - 2014
    A prominent criminal defense attorney wants to hire Jake on another kind of mission: to kill the daughter of a local crime boss. What began as a “contract killing” soon captures the attention of the CIA, the US Secret Service, and high-level officials in Washington. The undercover agent is plunged into a deadly underworld of North Korean espionage, Hezbollah terror, and the sinister deception Iran uses to acquire nuclear weapons. Caught in a web of international intrigue that goes to the top of the US government, Kruse is forced to confront the ultimate moral quandary: doing what’s right when everything seems wrong. Now, national security expert and decorated war hero Oliver North and former US Marine and FBI undercover agent Bob Hamer bring their real life experience to this tightly written tale of international intrigue and down-to-the-wire suspense. They say it’s fiction. But it’s all too real.