Book picks similar to
Baptism of Fire by Todd McLeod


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Endure


Craig Martelle - 2016
    How will Chuck and his family survive? What would you do if you lost power, water, and the protection of law enforcement, all in an instant … and what if you knew it was never coming back? Retired Marine and survivalist Chuck, his brilliant and brave wife, Madison, and their remarkable children are thrown from the modern world into a dystopian wasteland in the span of a few heartbeats. Now it’s up to Chuck to build a new life in a post-apocalyptic world that becomes more dangerous every day. Join the Nagys as they do more than simply survive a devastating surprise attack: They thrive. They learn to protect themselves. They venture into the devastated city for essential supplies, and fight wolves, wildlife, and desperate humans. Ultimately they rally other survivors to build a new community. But when the faceless enemy that ended their world returns, they learn a harsh new truth: They must run for their lives through three hundred miles of a frozen Alaskan wilderness if they hope to endure. “This novel takes the reader on a journey of survival that is unique and compelling. It pulled me in and made me feel like I was right there with the main character, experiencing survival without the actual pain and frustration that comes with it. The first-person presentation is just right for a survival novel like this. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and I believe you will too.” Amazon Five Star Review Attorney, consultant, successful author and twenty-year Marine Corps veteran Craig Martelle has written a frighteningly realistic story that a five-star Amazon review called “unique and compelling.” “The author masterfully portrays characters that are forced to do things they never would have imagined being capable of doing. A crisis can bring out the best and worst of humanity, and this novel shows us both.” Experience what the future may hold for us all, and how one smart, courageous family endures!

Fracture


Kenny Soward - 2021
    A world on the brink. One man will stop at nothing until his family is safe.Fault lines begin splitting apart without warning.Entire nations are wiped out in the blink of an eye.As the US Government pursues the man with the only theory behind what’s happening, he will do anything to reach his family… or die trying.***On the last day of his contract working for the Department of Defense, geologist Ben Willard is called in to investigate a string of anomalies fracturing the West Coast - and beyond.As the chaos spreads, tens of millions are left dead or homeless. Pitted against time and the unstoppable forces of nature, Ben must risk everything to save his family. Meanwhile, the Willards fight to hold their world together as tides of destruction threaten to rip them apart.

The Knights of Dark Renown


Graham Shelby - 1969
    His face tells a tale of epic battles hard-won, stitched together by the jagged scars of combat.England is divided and Christendom struggles to retain its grip on the Holy Land... The code of chivalry chimes in hideous dissonance with massacre and cruelty as Reynauld is determined to raise the stakes of war to their limits. Based on real historical figures and events, Churchmen, barons, knights, courtiers, their wives and mistresses, are seen in sharp outline against a hard, dry, dangerous landscape commanded by huge castles and roamed by mounted soldiers. The Knights of Dark Renown is first in an epic historical series, The Crusader Knights Cycle, perfect for fans of Conn Iggulden, Anthony Riches and Bernard Cornwell. ‘An impressively confident first novel, most readable and refreshingly free from any pseudo-medieval mysticism’ Sunday Telegraph‘The chivalry and the cruelty are finely balanced’ Daily Mirror‘Highly enjoyable. Here we have a wide canvas of characters, almost all based on historical figures... The story is exciting as well as psychologically convincing and thought-provoking’ Financial Times

The Mullah's Storm


Tom Young - 2010
    The storm makes rescue impossible, and for two people—navigator Michael Parson and a woman Army interpreter, Sergeant Gold—a battle for survival begins across some of the most forbidding terrain on earth against not only the hazards of nature, but the treacheries of man: the Taliban stalking them; the villagers, whose loyalty is unknown; and a prisoner who would very much like the three of them to be caught. All Parson and Gold have is each other, to stay alive.“When you write fiction, your best work may come from what scares you the most,” writes airman Thomas W. Young. “When I first flew to Afghanistan, what scared me the most wasn’t the thought of getting shot down and killed. It was the thought of getting shot down and not killed. . . .”

Stone


Jack Buchanan - 1985
    A new kind of war.  Mark Stone has a score to settle. A former Green Beret, he has only one activity that gives meaning to his life - finding American's forgotten fighting men, the P.O.W.'s the government has conveniently labeled M.I.A.'s, and bringing them back from their hell on earth.  It's too big a job for one man. But Stone has friends. And with Hog Wiley and Terrance Loughlin-a merc from east Texas and a crack British commando - Stone returns to the steaming jungles of Laos on a do-or-die mission: to free a captured fighter jock from the sadistic commander who has sentenced him to a fate worse than death....

Iron Triangle


Patrick Adams - 2013
    Navy's SEAL Team 6 in disgrace, he thought he'd left the violence of combat behind him forever. He was wrong. Haunted by memories of his past, Jackson is thrust into a nightmare scenario more horrific than anything he could have ever imagined. After witnessing a murder, Jackson is pursued by a multinational organization who will stop at nothing keep him silent. As the former Navy SEAL fights for truth, justice, and at times for his very life, he unravels the organization's deeply sinister plan. Now, in order to bring the guilty to justice and save thousands of innocent people, Jackson will need every shred of combat skill at his disposal as he rails against a multinational organization whose corruption extends to the highest levels of government and industry.

Escape the Virus


Ryan Westfield - 2019
    No one is safe.Albuquerque, NM is quickly overrun. People drop like flies. And with no one left to keep things running, they'll soon be plunged into darkness. City services grind to a halt. Those who manage to stay uncontaminated are left to compete for quickly-dwindling supplies.Matt's a normal office worker with an eye for being prepared. But now that a real catastrophe has hit, he quickly realizes that he's not prepared enough. Much of his gear is back at home, and he's trapped at the office. Will he be able to cross a city that's quickly descending into chaos?Matt's coworker, Jamie, finds herself flung into the violence and insanity. Her only way to survive? Pair up with someone who seems to have it figured out. For her, that's Matt. Her only problem? Their handful of dates a month ago didn't exactly end well.Escape the Virus is book 1 of Last Pandemic, a post-apocalyptic survival thriller series. It deals with real people fighting for their survival every inch of the way.

Strike Force


Mary Alford - 2019
     In this sequel to the USA Today Bestselling story, Storm Warnings, the Strike Force team rises from the ashes of defeat determined to finish the mission that started two years earlier with the deaths of Piper's entire team. Failure isn't an option. Because if they fail, the freedom of the entire world might be at stake.

Fractured


L.T. Ryan - 2019
     While serving as an interrogator attached to an elite group of Army Green Berets, Rachel Hatch's team comes under heavy fire. She has to rely on grit and instinct to keep herself, and her team, alive. But her actions will leave her forever changed... Fractured.

Gold in the Keys


Matthew Rief - 2017
    Almost five centuries later, former Navy SEAL Logan Dodge finds a mysterious gold coin off of a secret ledge in the Florida Keys. When he learns the origin of the coin, he goes on a mission to find and secure the treasure for the people of Mexico. But he’s not the only one who’s caught the scent of gold. A notorious Mexican drug cartel known as Black Venom is right on his heels and will stop at nothing to take the treasure for themselves. With the help of one of his old Navy buddies, a notorious mercenary, a beach bum Key West charter captain and a marine geologist, Logan races to find the treasure and take down the drug cartel while he’s at it. Gold in the Keys is a shoot ‘em up, beat ‘em up, speedboat chasing, get the girl, treasure hunting romp in the Florida Keys.

Asteroid Discovery


Bobby Akart - 2019
    Until now.An asteroid is on a collision course with our planet.Gunner Fox is on a collision course with death. International best selling author, Bobby Akart, introduces Gunner Fox, a United States Air Force fighter pilot and Earth Scientist. When America needs a hero, they turn to a man who has nothing to live for, without a care in the world – except to save it.Somewhere out there, an asteroid is on a collision course with Earth. Five times in the history of our planet, extinction level events have occurred, arguably all of which have been caused by asteroids.Will we be ready to meet it? We’ll get just one chance to defend ourselves. Will we succeed?In Bobby Akart's Asteroid Series, he serves up hard evidence for the astonishing fragility of life and a humbling lesson for us all. It shows we are at the mercy of forces we do not see nor understand; forces that made our existence possible a few hundred thousand years ago and that just as quickly – in the twinkling of an eye – can and will one day, take us out.A page turning trilogy from a master storyteller, this new Gunner Fox series begins with Asteroid Discovery.WHAT READERS ARE SAYING“I have not been so enthralled in a story in a long time!”“If you want an intense, intelligent read, this if for you.”“I love the way Mr. Akart does his research and his writing shows it.”“Bobby Akart writes so eloquently that you forget you’re reading a story. You’re in the book ... racing against time, looking over your shoulder, gasping for air.”

Cold Blood


Alex Shaw - 2014
    Disaster strikes when the criminals blow the convoy to hell, and Snow is left fighting for his life in a car’s wreckage. A green-eyed soldier stands over him and watches what he believes are Snow’s last breaths, but he doesn’t pull the trigger. Ten years on and Snow is teaching in Ukraine, keeping a low profile. But events will force Snow into a life-or-death chase. The green-eyed man, Taurus Pashinski – also known as the Bull – is employed by old military contacts to help smuggle arms and drugs over the border of Ukraine. A young, vengeful ex-solider is drawn into the Bull’s plot when he persuades him that two British investors are his older brother’s killers. The murders will spark a manhunt in Britain and a series of dramatic events in Ukraine which will drag Snow and his friends into deeper and deeper trouble. With crooked intelligence officers, ambitious businessmen and bloodthirsty ex-military, Ukraine rapidly becomes a killing zone. Has Aidan Snow still got what it takes to come out of retirement and face the Bull? What is the Bull really after, and what will he do to get it? Will the ex-SAS soldier be able to defeat his old nemesis before he destroys everything Snow holds dear?

Coastal Pursuit


J.D. Dudycha - 2020
    A government conspiracy. And two bullets to the chest. For FBI Special Agent Jasper James, living the relaxed Florida lifestyle just isn’t an option. Not when one of the FBI’s Most Wanted is standing over him with a loaded gun. Instead of waking up in the emergency room, James expected to be waking up on the other side of eternity, but thanks to the stopping power of Kevlar, he got a second chance at life. And now he’s hell-bent on making the man pay for his transgressions. From the beach to the bayou, James pursues his failed executioner only to come up empty-handed. But there’s a reason for that . . . and he’s about to find out why.

A Damned Serious Business


Gerald Seymour - 2018
    Massive thefts of personal information, electoral interference, catastrophic disruptio n of commercial and social services, banks, airlines, even whole countries disabled - this is happening now. Nicknamed 'Boot' because of his obsession with the Duke of Wellington and the battle of Waterloo, Edwin Coker is a case officer at the Vauxhall headquarters of MI6. When a young hacker falls into his hands and reveals details of a secret meeting, Boot conceives a daring plan to strike back - not with a computer virus of his own, but with a bomb that will seriously damage the Russian operation, spreading fear and distrust.Now Boot and his little team need a 'deniable' handler to deliver the explosives across the border from Estonia into Russia and bring the hacker back out. They turn to Merc, an ex-soldier fighting in Iraq, a gun-for-hire who knows how to get out of a tight spot. They hope.From the moment Merc sets out to cross the River Narva things do not go to plan and when the hacker's sister becomes involved, his mission turns from tough to near impossible. The scene is set for a classic story of pursuit and evasion and an epic battle for survival.

16 Souls


John J. Nance - 2017
    Bizarrely, the fuselage of the smaller aircraft is tenuously wedged onto the huge right wing of his Boeing 757, leading Mitchell to an impossible life-or-death choice. Mitchell’s decision will land the former military pilot in the cross-hairs of a viciously ambitious district attorney determined to send him to prison for doing his job. Despondent and deeply wounded by what he sees as betrayal by the system, Mitchell at first refuses to defend himself or even assist the corporate lawyer forced against her will to represent him. Pitted against the prosecutorial prowess of flamboyant Denver DA Grant Richardson, who is using Mitchell’s case to audition for a presidential appointment as a U.S. attorney, is young defense attorney Judith Winston. Her lack of experience in criminal cases could mean the end of Mitchell’s freedom, if he doesn’t end his own life first. However, a rising level of gritty determination even her law partners have never witnessed before, propels Winston to lay it all on the table to save Mitchell and expose Richardson as a fraud. 16 SOULS takes the reader for a wild ride in a heart-stopping aviation and legal thriller propelled by irresistible characters, an agonizingly possible airborne dilemma, and a desperate refusal both in the air and in the courtroom to give up in the face of devastating odds. "In the air, or in a courtroom, nobody writes a better thriller than John J. Nance."--New York Times bestselling author Steve Jackson