The Black Echo / The Poet


Michael Connelly
    This one is personal.The dead man, Billy Meadows, was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who fought side by side with him in a nightmare underground war that brought them to the depths of hell. Now, Bosch is about to relive the horror of Nam. From a dangerous maze of blind alleys to a daring criminal heist beneath the city to the tortuous link that must be uncovered, his survival instincts will once again be tested to their limit.Joining with an enigmatic and seductive female FBI agent, pitted against enemies inside his own department, Bosch must make the agonizing choice between justice and vengeance, as he tracks down a killer whose true face will shock him.The Poet (read by Buck Schirner)Our hero is Jack McEvoy, a Rocky Mountain News crime-beat reporter. As the novel opens, Jack's twin brother, a Denver homicide detective, has just killed himself. Or so it seems. But when Jack begins to investigate the phenomenon of police suicides, a disturbing pattern emerges, and soon suspects that a serial murderer is at work - a devious cop killer who's left a coast-to-coast trail of "suicide notes" drawn from the poems of Edgar Allan Poe. It's the story of a lifetime - except that "the Poet" already seems to know that Jack is trailing him. . .

The Demon Trap


Peter F. Hamilton - 2008
    A group called the Free Merioneth Forces have claimed responsibility but there had to be an individual at the end of that missile launcher and Paula is determined to find out who it was.This short story is taken from Manhattan in Reverse, the first short story collection in thirteen years from the master of space opera. Peter F. Hamilton takes us on a journey from a murder mystery in an alternative Oxford in the 1800s to a brand new story featuring Paula Mayo, Deputy Director of the Intersolar Commonwealth's Serious Crimes Directorate. Dealing with intricate themes and topical subjects this top ten bestselling author is at the top of his game.The cover image for The Demon Trap was designed by Andrew Parkes as part of a competition run by Pan Macmillan in association with SFX magazine.

Act of Revenge


Dick Couch - 2014
     Garrett Walker is a warrior. For the last decade and a half he’s been continuously at war –combat rotation after combat rotation. He’s a veteran of the close fight. And he’s taken a great many lives. Yet, all that combat and all those deaths were in the service of his country. Now, that’s about to change. Since their college days, Garrett and his identical twin have been estranged. They were both in love with the same woman, and she chose Garrett’s brother. So Garrett chose the Navy SEALs. Then, following the death of their younger brother, also a Navy SEAL, yet another tragedy strikes the Walker family. The twin is caught in the web of a Russian Mafia organ-theft ring. He was just another business man in Las Vegas on just another business trip. Then drugged and alone, strange men enter his hotel room and crudely remove his kidneys. It’s a rare crime, but one that happens more than is reported. For those in the black-market organ trade, easy pickings right? But they didn’t count on the resiliency of the one twin, nor the rage of the warrior twin. Together, they embark on a mission. Together, they put all the rules to aside bring about the ultimate Act of Revenge. About the Author Dick Couch. Navy SEAL, Combat Veteran, CIA Case Officer, New York Times Best Selling Author–with eighteen books to his credit. During the Global War on Terror, Dick Couch alone has been allowed to embed with the component commands of the US Special Operations Command. Dick Couch alone has tracked the SEALs, Green Berets, Rangers, and Marine Special Operators as they trained for war–and written extensively about this training. Now after eight books of special-operations nonfiction, Act of Revenge marks his return to fiction.

A Perfect Murder


Jeffrey Archer - 1991
    Each story is different and each ends with a surprising twist.

On Basilisk Station/Flag in Exile


David Weber
    

Encryption


Bill Ward - 2014
    The Security Services of the UK, USA and China all want to control the new software. The Financial Director has been murdered and his widow turns to her brother-in-law to help discover the truth. But he soon finds himself framed for his brother’s murder. When the full force of government is brought to bear on one family, they seem to face impossible odds. Is it an abuse of power or does the end justify the means? Only one man can find the answers but he is being hunted by the same people he once called friends and colleagues.

The Spider Shepherd Collection 5-7: Dead Men, Live Fire, Rough Justice


Stephen Leather - 2013
    Dead MenFormer SAS trooper turned undercover cop Dan Spider Shepherd knows there are no easy solutions in the war against terrorism. But when a killer starts to target pardoned IRA terrorists, Shepherd has to put his life on the line to protect his former enemies; and as a Muslim assassin closes in on his prey, Shepherd realises that the only way to save lives is to become a killer himself. Live FireDan 'Spider' Shepherd is infiltrating a tightly-knit team of bank robbers, when a group of home-grown Islamic fundamentalist fanatics embark on a campaign of terror the like of which Britain has never seen. Car bombs and beheadings are only the prelude of what they have planned. And Shepherd is the only man who can stop them. Rough JusticeVillains across London are being beaten, crippled and killed by vigilante cops. Crime rates are falling, but the powers that be want Dan 'Spider' Shepherd to bring the wave of rough justice to an end. Shepherd has always known that there are grey areas in the fight against crime, and that sometimes justice gets lost in the process. But when his own family is brought into the firing line, Shepherd has some hard decisions of his own to make.

Dublin Murder Squad Series 6 Books Collection Set by Tana French (In The Woods, The Likeness, Faithful Place, Broken Harbour, Secret Place & The Trespasser)


Tana French - 2019
    He never saw them again. Their bodies were never found, and Adam himself was discovered with his back pressed against an oak tree and his shoes filled with blood. The Likeness: Still traumatised by her brush with a psychopath, Detective Cassie Maddox transfers out of the Murder squad and starts a relationship with fellow detective Sam O'Neill. When he calls her to the scene of his new case, she is shocked to find that the murdered girl is her double. Faithful Place: The course of Frank Mackey's life was set by one defining moment when he was nineteen. The moment his girlfriend, Rosie Daly, failed to turn up for their rendezvous in Faithful Place, failed to run away with him to London as they had planned. Broken Harbour: In Broken Harbour, a ghost estate outside Dublin - half-built, half-inhabited, half-abandoned - two children and their father are dead. The mother is on her way to intensive care. Scorcher Kennedy is given the case because he is the Murder squad's star detective. The Secret Place: Even in her exclusive boarding school, in the graceful golden world that Stephen has always longed for, bad things happen and people have secrets. The previous year, Christopher Harper, from the neighbouring boys' school, was found murdered on the grounds. The Trespasser: Being on the Dublin Murder squad is nothing like Detective Antoinette Conway dreamed. Her working life is a stream of thankless cases and harassment. Antoinette is tough, but she's getting close to the breaking point.

The Murder on the Links / The Secret Adversary


Agatha Christie - 1977
    Before Poirot can begin to assess the clues, a second corpse is found, murdered in the same way as his client. &A crime novel in which two desperate youngsters, short of money and restless for excitement, place an advertisement saying they are willing to do anything and to travel anywhere, but their first assignment for a sinister client plunges them into more danger than they could have imagined.

Brad Thor Collectors' Edition #3: The Last Patriot / The Apostle / Foreign Influence


Brad Thor - 2012
    Follow counterterrorism operative and ex-SEAL Scot Harvath’s action-packed exploits, and discover why Brad Thor has been called “America’s favorite author” (KKTX).THE LAST PATRIOTJune 632 A.D.: The prophet Mohammed shares a final and startling revelation. Within days, he is assassinated. September 1789: Thomas Jefferson uncovers a conspiracy that could change the face of Islam. Present day: Men still kill to keep the secret hidden. When a car bomb explodes outside a Parisian café, counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath is thrust back into the life he has tried desperately to leave behind. In a race to uncover an ancient secret with the power to stop militant Islam, Harvath will risk everything to reclaim Mohammed’s final revelation and defeat one of the deadliest evils the world has ever known.THE APOSTLEEvery politician has a secret. And when the daughter of a politically connected family is kidnapped abroad, America’s new president will agree to anything—even a deadly and ill-advised rescue plan—in order to keep his secret hidden. But when covert counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath is assigned to infiltrate one of the world’s most notorious prisons and free the man the kidnappers demand as ransom, he quickly learns that there is much more to the operation than anyone dares to admit. As the subterfuge is laid bare, Harvath must examine his own career of ruthlessly hunting down and killing terrorists and decide if he has what it takes to help one of the world’s worst go free.FOREIGN INFLUENCEBuried deep within the black ops budget of the Department of Defense, a newly created spy agency reports only to a secret panel of military insiders. Its job: target America’s enemies—both foreign and domestic— under charter of three simple words—Find, Fix, and Finish. When a bombing in Rome kills a group of American college students, the evidence points to a dangerous colleague from Harvath’s past. Leveraging this relationship to lure the suspect out of hiding, Harvath must destroy him. But what if it is the wrong man? In Chicago a young woman is struck by a taxi in a hit-and-run, and the family’s attorney uncovers a shocking connection to the Rome bombing. Harvath must link together the desperate violence, and race to prevent one of the most audacious and unthinkable acts of war in the history of mankind.

Tell No One / Back Spin


Harlan Coben - 2004
    Every day for the next eight years Dr Beck re-lived the horror of what happened. Then, one afternoon, he receives an anonymous e-mail telling him to log on to a certain web-site at a certain time. The screen opens onto a web cam and it is Elizabeth's image he sees. Is it just a heartless practical joke? Or could Elizabeth be alive? BACK SPIN The search for a missing boy gives Myron Bolitar far more than he bargained for. When Myron investigates, he crashes through a crowd of low-lifes, blue-bloods and liars on both sides of the social divide. And when family skeletons start coming out of the closet, Myron is about to find out just how deadly life can get...

Garrett On The Case - Contains Angry Lead Skies; Whispering Nickel Idols - Book Club Edition


Glen Cook - 2005
    If you're cute and female, look me up, my address is in wizard-run TunFaire, where the paranormal plays daily. Look at my partner. Someone stuck a knife in him centuries ago, and hes been sedentary ever since. Dead, but not dumb, if you get my drift. And there's all these supernatural races clogging the streets-elves, trolls, pixies, ogres, dwarves, and some of the strangest are among my friends. Even they bring trouble, and when trouble comes knocking, don't open the door.You think Id learn. Maybe that's why I got roped into the case in Angry Lead Skies. My bulky friend Playmate talked me into protecting Kip Prose, an annoying kid touched by brilliance and a bit of paranormal ability, whom he claimed was being threatened by skinny gray creatures with bulgy black eyes. According to Kip, the attackers weren't after him at all-just trying to get to his friends Lastyr and Noodiss. But before I could get him to explain who they were, Kip was abducted, and the chase began....In Whispering Nickel Idols, trouble came from two sources: a streetwise priestess and her bucket of kittens, part of the ancient prophecy of the cult of A-Lat (curse this god-plagued city!). And a message from Harvester Temisk, mouthpiece of Chodo Contague, kingpin of kingpins, who slumbered in coma-land while his beautiful, psychotic daughter ran the Outfit. Temisk believed someone was deliberately keeping the Boss helpless and wanted me to snoop around. Then Chodo up and vanished. Add to that a mysterious plague of burning deaths and the fact that suddenly everyone was trying to kill me, I had plenty to figure out....

Mind Prey / Sudden Prey / Secret Prey (Lucas Davenport, #7-9)


John Sandford - 2000
    The first-rate thrillers in this collection of Prey novels offer the kind of brilliantly plotted, vastly entertaining stories that have become Sandford's stock in trade. All propelled by Lucas Davenport, with his "icy killer instincts" (Orlando Sentinel

The Proteus Cure


F. Paul Wilson - 2013
    Who is to decide what is for the good of humanity?Changing the world. One person at a time…That is the mission statement of Tethys Hospital, run by Dr. Bill Gilchrist and his deformed sister, Abra. VG723, their revolutionary stem-cell-based therapy, appears to be capable of doing just that for the cancer patients who come to Tethys. VG723 is often their last hope. But if they match the protocol, they're virtually guaranteed a cure.Dr. Sheila Takamura, a young, dedicated oncologist, is proud to be involved in the clinical trials. Once the FDA approves it for widespread use, VG723 will revolutionize cancer therapy. That is why she's alarmed when former patients return with bizarre syndromes. Yes, they're cancer free, but they're experiencing dramatic changes in their hair and skin and general appearance. When she investigates a possible link to the protocol, those patients start dying. As the body count grows, Sheila finds her own life in danger. She comes to suspect there might be a literal meaning behind the Tethys motto – but can she learn the truth in time to save herself and millions of others?

Desert Fire


David Hagberg - 1993
    Known as Saddam Hussein's "Jackal," his bloody hit list includes the 1972 Israeli Olympic athletes, the South Yemen cabinet, and the 20,000 slaughtered citizens of Hamma, Syria.             Now Assad-Sheriff has been called upon for his most vicious task, acquiring and transporting nuclear technologies for Iraq.  When this psychopath takes the life of Sharazad Razmarah, an American citizen working with the German Secret Service, Federal investigator Walter Roemer is set on his trail. Roemer soon discovers that the clandestine operations of the nuclear industry hold many well-guarded secrets, which cannot ever see the light of day. Roemer finds himself battling not only the crazed Assad-Sherif but the German Secret Service, and the clock is ticking: on Assad-Sherif's orders, Iraqi terrorists are heading for Germany's largest nuclear facility . . . with suicidal detonation plans.