Book picks similar to
TSU: Desert Heat by David F. Berens


epic-adventure-thriller
overcoming-the-odds
political-thriller
spy-thriller

The Diplomat's Wife


Michael Ridpath - 2021
    But when she marries an ambitious diplomat, she must leave her ideals behind and live within the confines of embassy life in Paris and Nazi Berlin. Then one of Hugh's old comrades reappears, asking her to report on her philandering husband, and her loyalties are torn.1979: Emma's grandson, Phil, dreams of a gap-year tour of Cold War Europe, but is nowhere near being able to fund it. So when his beloved grandmother determines to make one last trip to the places she lived as a young diplomatic wife, and to try to solve a mystery that has haunted her since the war, he jumps at the chance to accompany her. But their journey takes them to darker, more dangerous places than either of them could ever have imagined...'Thoroughly engaging. Prewar Europe has rarely been evoked with the skill that Ridpath displays here.' Financial Times

Deadly Straits


R.E. McDermott - 2011
    Griffin, R.E. McDermott delivers a thriller to rival the masters.When marine engineer and very part-time spook Tom Dugan becomes collateral damage in the War on Terror, he's not about to take it lying down.Falsely implicated in a hijacking, he's offered a chance to clear himself by helping the CIA snare their real prey, Dugan's best friend, London ship owner Alex Kairouz. Reluctantly, Dugan agrees to go undercover in Alex's company, despite doubts about his friend's guilt. Once undercover, Dugan's steadfast refusal to accept Alex's guilt puts him at odds not only with his CIA superiors, but also with a beautiful British agent with whom he's romantically involved.When a tanker is found adrift near Singapore with a dead crew, and another explodes in Panama as Alex lies near death after a suspicious suicide attempt, Dugan is framed for the attacks. Out of options, and convinced the attacks are prelude to an even more devastating assault, Dugan eludes capture to follow his last lead to Russia, only to be shanghaied as an 'advisor' to a Russian Spetsnaz unit on a suicide mission.Deadly Straits is a non-stop thrill ride, from London streets, to the dry docks of Singapore, to the decks of the tankers that slake the world's thirst for oil, with stops along the way in Panama, Langley, Virginia, and Teheran. Richly spiced with detail from the author's 30 years sailing, building, and repairing ships worldwide, it is, in the words of one reviewer, "fast-paced, multilayered and gripping."

Battle Sight Zero


Gerald Seymour - 2019
    A weapon with a unique image. A symbol of freedom fighters and terrorists across the globe. Undercover officer Andy Knight has infiltrated an extremist group intent on bringing the rifle to Britain - something MI5 have been struggling for years to prevent. He befriends Zeinab, the young Muslim student from Yorkshire who is at the centre of the plot. All Zeinab needs to do is travel to the impoverished high-rise estates of Marseilles and bring one rifle home on a test run. Then many more will follow - and with them would come killing on an horrendous scale. Zeinab is both passionate and attractive, and though Andy knows that the golden rule of undercover work is not to get emotionally attached to the target, sometimes rules are impossible to follow. Supremely suspenseful, Battle Sight Zero follows Andy and Zeinab to the lethal badlands of the French port city, simultaneously tracking the extraordinary life journey of the blood-soaked weapon they are destined to be handed there.

Sleeping Gods


Matt Eaton - 2015
     A long list of things could go catastrophically wrong as they attempt to park their supersonic spacecraft into stable lunar orbit. But they get it done, paving the way for one giant leap toward the surface. They are the first men alive to see the far side of the Moon — the lunar face permanently turned away from Earth. Inside the tiny capsule, astronaut Bill Anders points his camera at the lunar horizon and captures one of the most famous photographs of all time. Our planet, lonely and fragile in the eternal darkness of space. Lonely, but perhaps not alone. Another photo is taken that day... one so sensitive even the NASA chiefs don't know about it. Sleeping Gods puts you right there on the first manned mission to the Moon. You'll be surprised and amazed by this alternate view of space history, a prelude to Matt Eaton's acclaimed novel, Blank. If you've pondered flying to the Moon, climb inside the capsule with the men who did it. Then join astronaut Frank Borman on a journey even more incredible that begins shortly after splashdown. Coming soon... Apollo 8.1 — go one step beyond Sleeping Gods on a space trip no-one was ever told about. "Matt Eaton does not let you down with his smooth writing style." - Amazon reviewer

The Jeera Packer


Prashant Yadav - 2016
    One shot, one man. Right man, wrong man. But that was thirty years ago. I shot people through their heads then. I pack jeera in a basement now.This is me and here is my story.He was the best sharpshooter in the state. A true bullet artist. But he gave it all up to lead a happy, normal, stable life . . . with his loving wife and dear son. And that proved to be his undoing. Resonant and deeply affecting, The Jeera Packer is the gripping tale of a man who after three decades of playing the happy family man returns to his profession of old for one final work—to shoot the chief minister.Convinced that this is his raison d'etre, will he manage to pull off this one last act, as his concluding hat tip to the man he could have been? Will he be able to brush away the jeera dust and rediscover himself? Or has the middle-aged family man already throttled the sharpshooter in him?

Camelot's Cousin: The Spy Who Betrayed Kennedy


David R. Stokes - 2012
    Its contents include a journal with cryptic writing. He turns to his friend, and boss, Templeton Davis, a Rhodes scholar, popular national radio talk show host, and best-selling author of spy novels and history books, for help figuring out what he's found. They soon realize that they possess materials concealed more than 60 years earlier before by Soviet intelligence and espionage agent, Kim Philby--and also clues to the last great secret of the Cold War. There was another highly placed spy. Someone never discovered--until now. This traitor had unique access to the White House, and was perfectly positioned to influence President John F. Kennedy as he faced challenge after challenge in the era now remembered as Camelot.Templeton Davis becomes obsessed with a story so many found in the spy books he loves to read and write. And some of those very espionage spy thrillers come in handy. The trail of mystery and suspense leads to a picturesque town in Vermont, the streets of New York City, the corridors of power in Washington, DC, and most importantly, Oxford, England. He learns that the beautiful city of spires on the Thames was once also a city of spies.

The Oxford spies may never have reached the level of public notoriety as those from that other British academic stronghold--Cambridge. But clearly the story had never been completely known--or told. And it was a very dangerous mine of intelligence and espionage detail in which to dig, a fact borne out by a couple of suspicious deaths left in the wake of Templeton Davis's travels. 

Davis discovers that during the Cuban Missile Crisis, secrets were being betrayed at the highest levels. And what he learned also connected to a time of great sorrow for mankind--the Kennedy assassination.

 At a crucial moment, Templeton Davis develops a bond borne of necessity with a beautiful young woman from Russia, someone with her own secrets. And when what she knows is combined with what the famous broadcaster has learned, the two unlikely heroes find themselves in danger, yet poised to rock the world. Camelot's Cousin: An Espionage Thriller is a page-turner for readers who enjoy suspense thrillers and mysteries.

Manuscript 512


Rick Chesler - 2018
    Thought to be buried somewhere within the Mato Grosso region of the Amazon rainforest, the lure of the vanished riches has long proven deadly to treasure-seekers who brave the forbidding wilderness and mysterious creatures in search of it. Disgraced historian Dr. Hunter Winslow, fired from a lucrative professorship for stealing rare documents in order to gain a competitive edge over his colleagues, thinks the key to Manuscript 512 lies not in its words, but in its paper itself. The only problem is that to confirm his hypothesis means to destroy the document, something the Brazil National Library in Rio de Janeiro will never allow. But old habits die hard, and Hunter knows his way around a Special Collections room. After a brazen theft that triggers an international manhunt, the rogue historian is able to reveal the document’s secrets in a way no one else can, or ever will be able to again—by using its physical properties to reveal missing sections that had supposedly been irreversibly damaged. Armed with this new information, Hunter embarks on an expedition to the deepest Amazon to put to rest the mystery of the lost city once and for all. But while Hunter is looking for the fabled treasure, the long arm of the law is looking for him. Will they catch up to him before he can locate the treasure of a thousand lifetimes, or will he become as lost as the city he seeks?

The Candidate


J.R. McLeay - 2018
    When radical fringe candidate James Marshall becomes the front-runner in the race to be President, powerful interests will do anything to stop him. Just as he's on the brink of capturing the White House, the unthinkable happens. With time running out, James is forced to make an impossible choice between saving his family and the country he loves... A heart-pounding political thriller for fans of Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn, and Brad Thor. Catch the excitement — read the reader reviews: "Starts out with a bang and keeps rolling right to the end." "I couldn't put it down. From beginning to end I sat on the edge of my seat until I finished it." "A rollercoaster ride of political maneuvering, murder, and double-crossing." "A political thriller that hits all the marks." "With the current political climate in America, this book reads like a modern utopia you can only dream of."

White Sea Rising


M.J. Kephart - 2014
    But when he steps onto the wrong floor of his luxury hotel he finds bodies strewn across the hall. A dying tourist begs him to carry a backpack to the American Embassy. In doing so, Barrett is thrust into a whirlwind of violence, deceit, and betrayal, as foreign operatives hunt for the secret that’s fallen into his hands. Suddenly at his side is Sada, a stunning female Mossad agent whose agenda is as unclear as her identity. A chilling discovery sends the pair careening across three continents, saddled with a story no one believes. When a black ops unit infiltrates onto American soil, Barrett realizes only he can stop this threat. But first he’ll have to find a secret that’s lain buried for fifty years in a West Virginia coal mine.

Endure


Mike Kraus - 2021
    A father and daughter caught in the middle. A desperate struggle for survival, where each step may be the last.In the North Atlantic, a massive fissure in the sea floor has opened up, and an underground reservoir is releasing quadrillions of gallons of water into the oceans.A dozen Naval ships investigating this strange anomaly are sunk, leaving one scientist and his daughter as the only survivors.As unforeseen consequences spread from the anomalous rupture, those on both land and sea are faced with the reality that life in the world is rapidly changing as the current epoch ends… and a new one begins.

Any Means Necessary


Jack Mars - 2015
    Luke Stone, head of an elite, secretive, department within the FBI, is the only man they can turn to. Luke realizes right away that the terrorists’ aim is to create a dirty bomb, that they seek a high-value target, and that they will hit it within 48 hours. A cat and mouse chase follows, pitting the world’s most savvy government agents versus its most sophisticated terrorists. As Agent Stone peels back layer after layer, he soon realizes he is up against a vast conspiracy, and that the target is even more high value than he could have imagined—leading all the way to the President of the United States. With Luke framed for the crime, his team threatened and his own family in danger, the stakes could not be higher. But as a former special forces commando, Luke has been in tough positions before, and he will not give up until he finds a way to stop them—using any means necessary. Twist follows twist as one man finds himself up against an army of obstacles and conspiracies, pushing even the limits of what he can handle, and culminating in a shocking climax. A political thriller with heart-pounding action, dramatic international settings, and non-stop suspense, Any Means Necessary marks the debut of an explosive new series that will leave you turning pages late into the night.

The Code Within (Trent Turner #1)


S.L. Jones - 2014
     For years, Trent Turner has worked in the shadows using his vigilance and determination to covertly defend his country. His anonymous days dispatching of the world's dark realities are interrupted when the unthinkable happens and sends him on a path that could destroy him. He finds himself embroiled in a conspiracy where political and financial powers collide when members of a hacktivist group are strong-armed into helping a sworn enemy of the United States rise to power once again. It's a race against time for the operative to prevent an attack that will transform the enemy into a superpower once again and destroy his country in the process.

Road to Redemption: A Global Spy Thriller (The Ahriman Legacy Book 2)


Puja Guha - 2020
    After the events of Ahriman: The Spirit of Destruction, Petra Shirazi settles into a life in Paris under the alias of Ana Zagini. Her new world comes crashing down after a visit from a former Agency colleague forces her back into fieldwork. As they race to stop a mole that has infiltrated the Agency, they uncover an insidious plot to destroy the leadership of the International Monetary Fund and place it in the control of a corrupt Russian politician. The investigation spirals downward and she is forced to enlist the help of the Ahriman, now in hiding and presumed dead by most intelligence sources. Together they must face their demons to stop a conspiracy that threatens to bring global commerce to its knees.

Gol


J.W. Webb - 2015
    Will their greed-driven land heed the warnings… or burn?Lissane Barola’s dreams are fading fast. Unwillingly betrothed to a pompous brute for political reasons, the baron’s daughter knows her power-hungry father would never approve of her love of a commoner. But she’s horrified when he enlists her awful brothers to batter her beloved into a bloody, lifeless pulp.Erun Cade’s soul thrives on poetry and high-court fantasies. Yet mere words are little help to the blacksmith’s son when he’s tortured and left for dead by his sweet flame’s vicious family. Revived by a mystic saddling him with a deadly mission, he longs to be back with the proud woman who holds his heart, but a far more pressing danger looms on the horizon…Desperate to move on and find happiness, Lissane loses hope as it’s ripped into shreds by continued betrayal and death. And after enduring punishing training with an elite battalion, Erun musters but one thought for his home after witnessing an elemental demon’s maelstrom of destruction: If he doesn’t warn them, everybody will die.Can the star-crossed lovers reunite and deliver their realm from utter annihilation?Gol is the breathtaking prequel to the Legends of Ansu fantasy series. If you like twisted webs of passion, epic tapestries, and staggering battles, then you’ll adore J.W. Webb’s thrilling ride into war.

The Kremlin Conspiracy


Joel C. Rosenberg - 2018
    Rosenberg returns with a high-stakes political thriller set in Russia.Everything he learned to protect the president, he must use to take out theirs.With an American president distracted by growing tensions in North Korea and Iran, an ominous new threat is emerging in Moscow. A czar is rising in the Kremlin, a Russian president feverishly consolidating power, silencing his opposition, and plotting a brazen and lightning-fast military strike that could rupture the NATO alliance and bring Washington and Moscow to the brink of nuclear war. But in his blind spot is the former U.S. Secret Service agent, Marcus Ryker, trained to protect but ready to kill to save his country.