Army of One: Introducing Joe Beck


Alastair Brown - 2020
    He's unlicensed. His office is his cell phone. The gun he carries is unregistered, its serial number is filed off, and his methods are out with the law. At a huge 6'5" tall with a hulking 275lb frame packed with rock-solid muscle, he's big, he's bad and he's about as hard as they come - and he's never been one to shy away from a fight. A model cop sent down for a crime he didn't commit, he's out of jail and he's gone renegade. He's become America's Unlicensed Private Detective - a man who drifts around, roaming the length and breadth of America righting wrongs and reaping riches whilst serving up his own hard brand of vigilante justice. In Army of One, he's in McAllen, Texas, - a city not too far from the US-Mexico border - for the funeral of an old friend who, he heard, took his own life. While in town, he soon bumps into a beautiful escort named Sapphire, who mistakes him for somebody else. They make plans to spend the night together, holed up in a cheap nearby motel. But things don't go as planned. They’re soon abducted at gun point and bundled into the back of a black SUV by a sinister group of men they've never seen before. Under orders of a man known only as 'the chairman,' the men drive them out to a desolate stretch of land in the dark Texan desert where a gut-wrenching discovery, a hand-dug grave and a harrowing demise awaits. How will Joe Beck react? What do the men want with them? And what horrors will come to light in the dark of the Texan night? Buy Army of One: Introducing Joe Beck today or find it on the Amazon Kindle Unlimited subscription service for free and start reading to find out. ------- Revised edition: This edition of Army of One: Introducing Joe Beck contains editorial revisions. ------- Reviews “A bit like a Jack Reacher except the main character is more sophisticated. Well worth reading.” JCH, posting on Goodreads.com “A classic thriller. Bit of a modern day western with a hero coming to town to expose a bunch of bad guys. Great read.” Scotty M, posting on Goodreads.com “What a story from start to finish good believable characters and really evil bad guys looking forward to more in future.” Belter, posting on Goodreads.com “Absolutely great. Characters are mysterious and the settings are vivid. In some chapters, I felt like I was actually there! Would highly recommend this book. Looking forward to more Joe Becks!” John, posting on Goodreads.com “What a read! Absolutely loved it.” Jayden, posting on Goodreads.com Books it's similar to If you like Lee Child's Jack Reacher, Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp, J.B. Turner’s Jon Reznick, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, L.T.

Quantum of Solace: The Complete James Bond Short Stories


Ian Fleming - 1965
    The title story, Quantum of Solace, lends its name to the upcoming James Bond film, slated to release in Fall 2008. This collection will be published to coincide with the film's release, as well as to continue Penguin's centenary celebrations of Fleming's birth.

Sex Slaves of The Dragon Tong(The Yellow Peril Triptych)


F. Paul Wilson - 2007
    Nothing overtly mean, just uneducated folks.One of the stories is new for this edition.

Caught Stealing


Charlie Huston - 2004
    But now Hank is here, working as a bartender and taking care of a cat named Bud who is surely going to get him killed.It begins when Hank’s neighbor, Russ, has to leave town in a rush and hands over Bud in a carrier. But it isn’t until two Russians in tracksuits drag Hank over the bar at the joint where he works and beat him to a pulp that he starts to get the idea: Someone wants something from him. He just doesn’t know what it is, where it is, or how to make them understand he doesn’t have it.Within twenty-four hours Hank is running over rooftops, swinging his old aluminum bat for the sweet spot of a guy’s head, playing hide and seek with the NYPD, riding the subway with a dead man at his side, and counting a whole lot of cash on a concrete floor.All because of two cowboys, two Russian mafia men, and some of the weirdest goons ever assembled in one place. All because of Bud. All because once, in another life, in another world, the only thing Hank wanted was to take third base—without getting caught.

The Last Good Kiss


James Crumley - 1978
    Sughrue, a Montana investigator who kills time by working at a topless bar. Hired to track down a derelict author, he ends up on the trail of a girl missing in Haight-Ashbury for a decade. The tense hunt becomes obsessive as Sughrue takes a haunting journey through the underbelly of America's sleaziest nightmares.

Keller in Dallas


Lawrence Block - 2009
    A phone call and an economic downturn is all it takes to put him back in business.Keller in Dallas, a Kindle bestseller, serves too as the opening episode of Lawrence Block's brand-new bestseller, Hit Me.

Integration


Stephen Edger
    All they want in return is a small favour.The offer seems too good to be true, and when the group calls again, demanding he integrate their laundered cash through the bank he works for, he refuses. But when Mark’s girlfriend goes missing and his brother is attacked, he begins to realise just how far the group will go to get what they want.But it’s not easy to move vast sums of money undetected, and as the pressure mounts, Mark finds himself risking everything he has to find his girlfriend and save his own life before the group and the police catch up with him.Blackmail, murder, conspiracy and money laundering: INTEGRATION is a British crime thriller set in the murky depths of the finance industry.

Line of Sight


James Queally - 2020
    Until Keyonna Jackson, a social justice activist, presents him with a troubling video: a made-for-Youtube cell phone snippet chronicling the same kind of questionable use-of-force that had set New York City, Ferguson, and Cleveland on fire in recent years. The same use-of-force that he’s been covering up for Newark PD.Now, the young black man who filmed this video is dead and the more questions Russell asks, the less his cop buddies like him. For the first time in his life, Russell finds himself on the wrong side of the guys with the badges and guns. When details of the shooting become public―and a city with race riots in its DNA flirts with the idea of letting history repeat itself―Russell finds himself allying with street activists and gang members as he races to put together the biggest story of his life… before the city he needs to tell it to burns down around him.

An Imperfect Killing


Luke Delaney - 2016
    Perfect for fans of Mark Billingham, Peter James and Stuart MacBride.A STAR HAS BEEN MURDEREDSue Evans is a beautiful and successful TV presenter – that is until she’s shot dead in the car park of her Southbank studios.IT’S CLEAR WHO THE KILLER ISDS Sean Corrigan and the Southwark Police Department are under pressure to solve the crime fast. Luckily they don’t have far to look – turns out Sue Evans had a stalker and all the evidence points to him.BUT THINGS AREN’T ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEMCorrigan is not so sure – some things just aren’t adding up. With everyone convinced it’s case closed, he must take a risk to get to the truth. But can he be sure it’ll pay off?

The Prone Gunman


Jean-Patrick Manchette - 1981
    Ebook ISBN: 9780872866652). Film opened March 20, 2015 starring Sean Penn, Javier Bardem, Idris Elba and Ray Winstone, directed by Pierre Morel (Taken).Martin Terrier is a hired killer who wants out of the game — so he can settle down and marry his childhood sweetheart. After all, that's why he took up this profession! But "the company" won't let him go: they have other plans. Once again, the gunman must assume the prone firing position. A tour de force, this violent tale shatters as many illusions about life and politics as it does bodies. Jean-Patrick Manchette subjects his characters and the reader alike to a fierce exercise in style. This tightly plotted, corrosive parody of "the success story" is widely considered to be Manchette's masterpiece, and was named a New York Times "Notable Book" in 2002. The Prone Gunman is a classic of modern noir."For Manchette and the generation of writers who followed him, the crime novel is no mere entertainment, but a means to strip bare the failures of society, ripping through veils of appearance, deceit, and manipulation to the greed and violence that are the society's true engines."—Boston Globe"There's not a superfluous word or overdone effect . . . one of the last cool, compact and shockingly original crime novels Manchette left as his legacy to modern noir fiction."—New York Times"For the first time readers can experience in English translation the masterful thriller considered Manchette's finest, proof positive that the French knew what they were talking about when they labeled this sort of novel 'noir'." —Publishers Weekly"This superbly muscular translation of the late French mystery writer Jean-Patrick Manchette's most celebrated work, The Prone Gunman, is the third volume issued [by] City Lights Noir. The series may prove to be the most needed contribution to contemporary fiction by any publisher in a good long while." —The San Francisco ChronicleJean-Patrick Manchette was a French crime novelist credited with reinventing and reinvigorating the genre. He wrote ten short novels in the 1970s and early 80s, and is widely recognized as the foremost French crime fiction author of that time. His stories are violent, existentialist explorations of the human condition and French society. Jazz saxophonist and screenwriter, Manchette was also a left-wing activist influenced as much by the writings of the Situationist International as by Dashiell Hammett. Jean-Patrick Manchette's other work, 3 to Kill is also published by City Lights Publishers.

Creepers


David Morrell - 2005
    Built in the glory days of Asbury Park by a reclusive millionaire, the magnificent structure - which foreshadowed the beauties of art deco architecture - is now boarded up and marked for demolition.The five people are "creepers," the slang term for urban explorers: city archeologists with a passion for investigating abandoned buildings and their dying secrets. On this evening, they are joined by a reporter who wants to profile them - anonymously, as this is highly illegal activity - for a New York Times article.Frank Balenger, a sandy-haired, broad-shouldered reporter with a decided air of mystery about him, isn't looking for just a story, however. And after the group enters the rat-infested tunnel leading to the hotel, it becomes clear that he will get much more than he bargained for. Danger, terror, and death await the creepers in a place ravaged by time and redolent of evil.

Storm Front


Richard Castle - 2013
    senator. In a heated race against time, Storm chases Volkov's shadow from Paris, to the lair of a computer genius in Iowa, to the streets of Manhattan, then through a bullet-riddled car chase on the New Jersey Turnpike. In the process, Storm uncovers a plot that could destroy the global economy--unleashing untold chaos--which only he can stop.

Getting Off


Jill Emerson - 2011
    She goes to bed with him, and she likes that part. Then she kills him, and she likes that even better. On her way out, she cleans out his wallet. She keeps moving, and has a new name for each change of address. She's been doing this for a while, and she's good at it.And then a chance remark gets her thinking of the men who got away, the lucky ones who survived a night with her. She starts writing down names. And now she's a girl with a mission. Picking up their trails. Hunting them down. Crossing them off her list...

Gray Justice


Alan McDermott - 2011
    But when the killer is let off with time served on remand, Gray knows there is something fundamentally wrong with the justice system. Engaging the help of his ex-SAS buddies, he kidnaps five repeat offenders and asks the public to vote on their fate: Should they be allowed to continue their criminal ways with inadequate punishment, or has Britain had enough?His website attracts a worldwide audience and, although the authorities know where he is, they are powerless to stop him.Can Gray carry out his audacious plan? Will Andrew Harvey and his fellow MI5 operatives find a way to stop him?Gray Justice is more than a simple tale of revenge: it’s a rollercoaster ride with an ending you’ll never forget.

The Art of Rendition


Mark T. Sullivan - 2012
    But that’s only part of the challenge – one that many trained agents could handle effectively. They’ve called upon Monarch because, after the interrogation, he must return the scientist without the Russians, the Iranians, or the scientist himself ever knowing he’s been grabbed.