Book picks similar to
The Palermo Affair by Colin Forbes


thriller
war
colin-forbes
historical-fiction

Flight of the Intruder


Stephen Coonts - 1986
    Former Navy flyer Stephen Coonts gives an excellent sense of the complexities of modern air raids and how nerve-wracking it is, even for the best airmen, to technically solve sudden problems over and over, knowing that even a twist of fate like a peasant wildly firing a rifle from a field could wipe out the crew. Grafton alternates between remorse over the fate of his unseen Vietnamese victims on the ground and a gung-ho "let's win this war" sentiment that lashes at both policymakers who select less-than-important targets for the dangerous missions and advocates for peace back in the States.

Honor Bound


W.E.B. Griffin - 1994
    A Marine aviator, an Army paratrooper and demolitions expert, and a non-com radio man are on an impossible mission for the OSS - sabotaging the resupply of German ships and submarines - by any means necessary! First Lieutenant Cletus Frade is fresh from Guadalcanal. He teams up with Second Lieutenant Anthony Pelosi and Sergeant David Ettinger for the most critical OSS operation of the war. Under the direction of the mysterious Colonel Loman, they venture into a simmering stew of German and Allied agents, collaborators, and government security thugs, of men and women hiding their pasts and plotting their futures - all in supposedly neutral city of Buenos Aires.

Last of the Breed


Louis L'Amour - 1986
    It is the compelling story of U.S. Air Force Major Joe Mack, a man born out of time. When his experimental aircraft is forced down in Russia and he escapes a Soviet prison camp, he must call upon the ancient skills of his Indian forebears to survive the vast Siberian wilderness. Only one route lies open to Mack: the path of his ancestors, overland to the Bering Strait and across the sea to America. But in pursuit is a legendary tracker, the Yakut native Alekhin, who knows every square foot of the icy frontier—and who knows that to trap his quarry he must think like a Sioux.

Trapp's War


Brian Callison - 1974
    Only the SS Charon, a rusty eight-knot coal burner, moves with an ease in these dangerous waters. So the Royal Navy decides to use her. And her captain, Edward Trapp, privateer and professional survivor, with his ramshackle, unorthodox crew, suddenly finds himself fighting for the allies in a strange, harrowing, unorthodox war.

Homeland: Carrie's Run [Prequel Book] Part 1 of 3


Andrew Kaplan - 2013
    The hunt is on in this edge-of-your-seat original prequel thriller based on Showtime’s hit series, HOMELAND.Beirut, 2006. CIA operations officer Carrie Mathison barely escapes an ambush while attempting a clandestine meeting with a new contact code-named Nightingale. Suspicious that security has been compromised, she challenges the station chief in a heated confrontation that gets her booted back to Langley.Expert in recognizing and anticipating behavioral patterns—a skill enhanced by the bipolar disorder she keeps secret to protect her career—Carrie is increasingly certain that a terrorist plot has been set in motion. Carrie risks a shocking act of insubordination that helps her uncover secret evidence connecting Nightingale with Abu Nazir, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq. Determined to stop the terrorist mastermind, she embarks on an obsessive quest that will nearly destroy her.Filled with the suspense and plot twists that have made Homeland a must-watch series, this riveting tale reveals the compelling untold backstories of the series’ main characters and takes fans deeper into the life and mind of one brilliant woman spy.

The Athena Project


Brad Thor - 2010
    And not a moment too soon . . .From behind the rows of razor wire, a new breed of counterterrorism operator has emerged.Just as skilled, just as fearsome, and just as deadly as their colleagues, Delta Force’s newest members have only one thing setting them apart—their gender. Part of a top-secret, all-female program codenamed The Athena Project, four of Delta’s best and brightest women are about to undertake one of the nation’s deadliest assignments.When a terrorist attack in Rome kills more than twenty Americans, Athena Team members Gretchen Casey, Julie Ericsson, Megan Rhodes, and Alex Cooper are tasked with hunting down the Venetian arms dealer responsible for providing the explosives. But there is more to the story than anyone knows.In the jungles of South America, a young U.S. intelligence officer has made a grisly discovery. Surrounded by monoliths covered with Runic symbols, one of America’s greatest fears appears to have come true. Simultaneously in Colorado, a foreign spy is close to penetrating the mysterious secret the U.S. government has hidden beneath Denver International Airport.As the women close in on their target, they will soon learn that another attack—one of unimaginable proportions—has already been set in motion, and the greatest threat they face may be the secrets kept by their own government.

The Fighting Man


Gerald Seymour - 1994
    Now in a self-imposed exile, he is recruited by a group looking for a fighting man to help in their uprising against the dictatorship in one of the world's most oppressed countries. Brown finds his past and future irreversibly entwined as he is plunged into a war without mercy. HC: HarperCollins.

God Save the Spy (Operation TINKER #1)


John Ellsworth - 2020
    He begins passing KGB secrets to the Brits. It is 1962, and Nikolai smuggles Russian war plans for Cuba. President Kennedy needs the plans immediately, must talk.The Russians discover his deception and kidnap him back to Moscow. But the British have a plan, terrible as it is. For they can save him and his wife, or him and his daughter, but not both. He must decide, does he escape with his wife or with his one-year-old? The KGB will murder whichever one he leaves behind. The choice is made in a way no one expects. Britain's escape plan is activated, and the wheels begin to turn.Colonel Viktor Bucharov of the KGB falls in behind them. Bucharov is the KGB’s best and most violent. A desperate attempt to shake Bucharov from their tail, as they jump from buses, change moving subway cars, dash into malls, and underground passageways. Then they head for the escape rendezvous, with Bucharov minutes behind.Get ready to stay up late tonight.

Scend of the Sea


Geoffrey Jenkins - 1973
    In 1967, the Gemsbok, a Viscount airliner of South African Airways disappears in exactly the same place. To some it is merely an uncanny mystery. To others a tragedy. People like Ian Fairlie, captain of the weather ship Walvis Bay--whose father was the pilot of the Gemsbok and whose grandfather was the first officer of the Waratah.Ian Fairlie has sworn that he will resolve the mystery. But to do so, he must face cyclonic winds and mountainous seas, risking his ship, his life and the woman he loves..."Geoffrey Jenkins can write with a rare compelling fervour." Times Literary Supplement

The Master Sniper


Stephen Hunter - 1980
    AND HE'S GOT THE WORLD'S DEADLIEST WEAPON IN HIS HANDS....With a sniper's rifle he has calmly executed hundreds of enemy soldiers in a single battle, and gunned down thousands of innocent civilians in a single day, waiting patiently for the barrel of his gun to cool before resuming his craft....It is the spring of 1945. And Repp, the master sniper, is about to carry out his final mission -- even as Germany's enemies overrun it, even while a tired, disorganized team of American and British agents tries everything in its power to stop him. Because for Repp, this is the one job at which he cannot fail. For this time, he possesses the ultimate killing tool. And with it, he will commit the ultimate crime....

Siege of Silence


A.J. Quinnell - 1986
    The American ambassador is held prisoner. And the US President faces the choice: get him out ... or kill him. In as rat-infested room ambassador Peabody faces a brilliant, ruthless young protege of Fidel Castro, Jorge Calderon, who is determined to extract the truth behind a secret CIA operation against Cuba. Meanwhile, back in Washington, the President is caught between CIA strategists who want to eliminate Peabody before he can reveal the CIA's plans, and Colonel Silas Slocum, the one man who believes he can rescue the ambassador in an awesome and daring rescue...

The Five Fingers


Gayle Rivers - 1978
    Book by Rivers, Gayle

Our Game


John le Carré - 1995
    His Cold War is fought and won, and he is free to devote himself to his stately manor house, his vineyard, and his beautiful young mistress, Emma.

Black Cross


Greg Iles - 1995
    To salvage the planned assault, two vastly different but equally determined men are sent to infiltrate the secret concentration camp where the poison gas is being perfected on human subjects. Their only objective: destroy all traces of the gas and the men who created it — no matter how many lives may be lost...including their own.Stunning....From the very first page, Greg Iles takes his readers on an emotional roller-coaster ride, juxtaposing tension-filled action scenes, horrifying depictions of savage cruelty, and heart-stopping descriptions of sacrifice and bravery. A remarkable story from a remarkable writer.” — Booklist

Three Novels of Ancient Egypt: River God / The Seventh Scroll / Warlock


Wilbur Smith - 2003