Book picks similar to
Escalation by Peter Nealen


military-fiction
fiction
suspense
war

The Search: A Walker Series Thriller


Alex Howell - 2019
    Though burdened by his past, Mason has found contentment in the anonymity of his family life in Baltimore, Maryland. And then his daughter gets kidnapped. Upon returning home for lunch one day, Mason comes home to find his house destroyed, his daughter gone, and security footage of her in an anonymous bunker. A voice advises that she will only be safe if Mason does exactly as he’s told. Will Mason be able to reclaim his old skills to save his daughter? Can he use his ingenuity to save her before he’s too late? What will it cost him?

Dead of Night


Blake Banner - 2020
    He’s been sent home, to New York, where he was raised an orphan ‘til he was old enough to split and join the special forces.Now he’s back, and unemployed; until Russian Mafia boss Peter Rusanov offers him a job wiping out the Albanian Mafia. It’s a job he figures could make him rich, until Colonel Jane Harris shows up, takes him for a ride to Pleasantville, and tells him about Cobra…Then all hell breaks loose.

Scars


Brian Andrews - 2020
    Discover the story of Dempsey's first encounter with Mahmood Bin Jabbar (the villain in WAR SHADOWS) and learn how Dempsey got his iconic serpentine scar.With SCARS, Andrews & Wilson are launching the first installment in a new series of novellas called TIER ONE ORIGINS. Each short features a different Tier One character during a pivotal event in their past before joining Task Force Ember.

Donovan's War


W.J. Lundy - 2017
    one that could cost him the last of his humanity.Once a member of an elite underground unit, the only wars Thomas knows now are the ones that rage inside him. All he wants is to stay under the radar of existence, trying to forget the past and isolating himself from the present. But when extremists kidnap a group of women from a Christian church in Syria, the past and present collide, forcing Donovan to act. This time, the battle is personal. This time, evil has chosen the wrong victim, and Thomas Donovan will not stop until he has made those responsible pay.Facing insurmountable odds in hostile territories and always one step behind, will he be too late to save the life of the one he holds dear?Riveting unexpected twists, gritty realism, and first-hand adventure are inside this book. Get it now. -JL Bourne, author of Tomorrow War and Day by Day Armageddon

Nightshade


Stephen England - 2013
    None of them were. That wasn't unusual--he'd spent well over ten years of his life going places he wasn't supposed to go, doing things he wasn't supposed to do."CIA paramilitary operations officer Harry Nichols had brought his team to Ciudad del Este for a single purpose: eliminating Jean-Claude Manet, aka Ramzi bin Abdullah, the former head of al-Qaeda operations in Europe. It was supposed to be simple. But there's nothing simple about killing a man.

Last Man Standing


Eric Meyer - 2018
    He thought he’d been to hell and back in Iraq, but when he arrives back in his home town of Copperville, his war is not over. Everything has changed, and nothing is as he remembered. What happened? Is this the end? When society breaks down, who will keep order? People are running scared, abandoning their homes, fleeing for their lives. Where is his wife, and is she alive or dead? There are no answers, only questions. The local cops have fled, and lawlessness is the new power in the land. Yet some men and women will fight to survive. It is time for Americans to defend what is theirs. To fight and keep fighting. To remain forever free. Last Man Standing is the first in an ongoing Forever Free series of short novels that chronicle the vicious aftermath of the breakdown of society.

Scar Tissue


Ollie Ollerton - 2020
    Scraping a living as a gun for hire and estranged from his family, Abbott is haunted by ghosts of the past, drinking to dull the pain. Life's tough, but there is one upside - at least he's not in Baghdad.That's about to change.When a job goes badly wrong, Abbott's in hot water. Next he learns that his military son, Nathan, is missing in Iraq. Knowing something is wrong, needing to find his son and desperate for redemption, Abbott has no choice but to go back.Returning to Baghdad, Abbott renews old acquaintances and begins his search for Nathan. The body count rises as old wounds open and he struggles to confront his demons, self-medicating the only way he knows how. But when one of his old crew turns up dead in mysterious circumstances and the link with Nathan is clear, Abbott begins to suspect a trap.But who is the hunter? And who is the hunted?

A Call to Colors


John J. Gobbell - 2006
    It will take 165,000 troops and 700 ships in the bloody battle of Leyte Gulf to do it. Among them is the destroyer USS Matthew and her skipper, Commander Mike Donovan, a veteran haunted by earlier savage battles. What Donovan doesn’t know is that Vice Admiral Takao Kurita of Japan has laid an ingenious trap as the Matthew heads for the treacherous waters of Leyte Gulf. But Donovan faces something even deadlier than Kurita’s battleships: Explosives secretly slipped on board American ships by saboteurs are set to detonate at any time. Now the Matthew’s survival hinges on the ability of Donovan and his men to dismantle a bomb in the midst of the panic and the chaos of history’s greatest naval battle.“Gobbell’s sea tales . . . will have you looking up your nearest Navy recruiter.” —W.E.B. Griffin“[John Gobbell is] a first-rate storyteller.” — Stephen Coonts“Wonderful . . . a rousing dramatization of history’s greatest sea battle.” — James D. Hornfischer, author of The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors

SEAL Team Six


Chuck Dixon - 2011
    Their missions are classified. They are our best and last hope. Yet they do not exist. Follow SEAL Team Six as they train, hunt and fight an enemy who reaches out from the most remote corners of the world to murder and maim. These highly-trained, military men are the unknown heroes who endure unimaginable hardship and murderous combat to protect our homeland.In SEAL Team Six: The Novel, a mass shooting at a California big box store begins a new round of murder from an unknown source. America is suffering a virus of homegrown terror as one-man cells are inspired by a new kind of terrorist who speaks to them through websites, tweets and emails. These lone wolves get their orders and directions on how to carry them out from a man known only as Young El. His identity and face aren't known. Counter-intelligence agencies in the West have only the voice on his podcasts to identify him. The super-secret group often know as SEAL Team Six is the point of the spear to find, and eliminate, this new source of murder and suffering. Their hunt takes them from their base in the USA to a deadly labyrinth in the Phillipines and, finally, a terror stronghold deep in the jungles of Borneo. You'll train with these men, fight alongside them and share their danger and losses. America's gunfighters take the battle to the home turf of terror no matter where on the planet it hides.

Rope on Fire


Mark Parragh - 2016
    He’s all dressed up with nowhere to spy. Josh Sulenski is an Internet prodigy with some serious James Bond fantasies and more money than 37 countries. Together, they’re out to save the world…in style. John Crane bursts onto the espionage scene in Rope on Fire. On only his second mission for the top secret Hurricane Group, the U.S. Government suddenly shuts Hurricane down, leaving Crane an agent without an agency. Adrift in Key West, he's approached by Internet billionaire Josh Sulenski, who asks him to find out why one of his charitable projects is under attack deep in Puerto Rico's rain forest. Crane finds himself battling corrupt police officers and drug smugglers with no authority and no backup. For the first time, he's on his own. Branislav Skala is an aging gangster whose ruthlessness and ambition helped him claw his way up from the gutters of communist Czechslovakia to rule a criminal empire. Skala thinks he’s reached the top of the heap and is ready to retire to his palatial country estate—until he discovers a whole new game of transnational power blocs, capital networks, and vicious battles among competing factions. Skala wants a seat at this new table, and he has a plan to get one. It’s a plan that puts him squarely in John Crane’s sights. When their destinies collide, Branislav Skala will learn that this new game doesn’t follow the same rules he’s used to. And John Crane will find a broken laptop with the power to change his life forever. So join John Crane for freewheeling adventure in a world of glamour, intrigue, and action. Because spy stories are supposed to be fun!

Dark Operator


Doc Spears - 2020
    Tasked with performing covert missions, its kill teams are filled with the best warriors from within the ranks of the Legion.Kel Turner is one of the youngest legionnaires ever to be selected to its ranks. After many battles and trials, he is faced with the greatest challenge of his life - operating by himself on a remote planet at the galaxy’s edge, a foot soldier for the policies of the duplicitous House of Reason, tasked with solving a crisis that would take ten kill teams to resolve.Diplomats, spies, shadowy terrorist groups, and an enigmatic general work with and against Kel as he fights to save a society from itself. What can one operator do alone, separated from his kill team, fighting a war that has no name?This lone operator doesn’t know what it will take to win. He only knows he’s not going to lose.

The Courier


Ernest Dempsey - 2021
    Some of the same soldiers who left him for dead in the Middle East still want his head. And they’re getting closer.So far, he’s been lucky. But Dak is low on money and nearly out of time.All he needs is an easy gig. A place to lie low, bank some cash, and quietly figure out his next move.That’s not exactly what he finds.Some rich kid with more money than he knows what to do with wants to open his own museum. But first, he’s got to fill it, and that’s where Dak comes in.Not sure if his gift for hunting bad guys will translate to finding priceless artifacts, Dak’s willing to give it a shot. He needs this job. The kid will pay him a lot of money and ask no questions.Before he knows it, Dak’s on the first flight to South America, chasing his big payday. But Dak’s about to trade one set of problems for something even worse: the deadliest mission of his life.

Hunted


Antony Dunford - 2021
    Once a member of the world’s first all-female special forces unit, the Norwegian Hunter Troop, Jane Haven is now helping her brother Kennet protect some of the world's most endangered animals at his Kenyan Wildlife Conservancy.Heavily armed poachers pose a deadly threat to humans and animals alike, and when her brother dies suddenly, Jane vows to protect his legacy against the threats circling the Bandari reservation.With rhino horn worth more than diamonds - those threats keep on coming - until Jane finds she's the one being hunted ...

Mission Critical


Jamie Fredric - 2010
    Commander Grant Stevens, intelligence officer and Navy SEAL, is assigned to the black ops division of the Naval Investigative Service. His present mission: prevent the USS Bronson, the newest, most sophisticated destroyer in America's arsenal from being hijacked. Stevens and his friend, Senior Chief Joe Adler, will take on Russian commandos and an old KGB nemesis, as they hunt for and try to flush out a Russian mole, who could be buried deep in the heart of the U.S. Navy itself.

Launch Code


Michael Ridpath - 2019
    A well-crafted ingenious mystery, tightly plotted, compelling and contemporary, this could well be Michael Ridpath's best novel yet.' - Stav Sherez, author of the Carrigan & Miller series November 1983: Three hundred feet beneath the Atlantic, US submarine Lieutenant Bill Guth and his fellow officers suddenly receive the order they've long-dreaded - to launch their nuclear missiles in a retaliatory strike against the USSR. But in the unexpected chaos that follows, one person on board lies dead... Norfolk, England, November 2019: Bill is celebrating Thanksgiving with his four daughters and his English son-in-law when they are interrupted by a historian who turns up unannounced to ask about a near-apocalyptic incident back in 1983. And the death that prevented it. Bill smiles but does not respond – the details are classified – and the historian leaves, unenlightened. That night, the historian is brutally murdered in the local pub. Bill and his family are thrown under suspicion. What happened all those years ago? Just how much is Bill to blame for events in the past, and indeed the present? As the layers of history reveal themselves, it becomes clear there is a killer at work who will stop at nothing to keep the secrets of 1983 where they belong... 'Deadly state secrets and deadlier family secrets - perfectly crafted, scrupulously researched Launch Code weaves an ingeniously dark and tangled web that will keep you gripped and guessing to the very end. Ridpath is one of the best thriller writers around.' - Craig Russell, author of The Devil Aspect