November 8, 2025

Meet BTB Reviewer Kashif Hussain

November 8, 2025

Background: Reading has morphed from a hobby into an addiction - no complaints there. When I'm not reading, I'm usually wondering what next cool thing I can try in the world of advancing technology. But I'm always thinking about what's my next book. Thriller is my favorite genre, but I dabble in other genres too.

Go-To Author: Mark Greaney - there's no doubt that if you're itching for a great story that packs supreme action and high stakes, you can’t go wrong with Greaney. His Gray Man books are some of the most phenomenal action thrillers you’ll read and he continues to outdo himself and stay with the new trends in the thrillerverse.

Author People Should Discover: Jethro Wegener - he made his debut splash quite recently with a black protagonist in the racial tensions of 60's and 70's who embodies the physicality of Reacher with a lot more violence and witty one-liners. Wegener knows how to keep you hooked and entertained and sometimes, that's the best thing you need after a long hard day.

Book You Would Recommend From 2024: Burn Out by Joshua Hood - an epic and grounded story of a smokejumper who comes upon a devious conspiracy in the heat of a dangerous fire spreading across the mountains of California’s notorious Emerald Triangle. It’s a thrilling experience to dive into the shoes of the protagonist as he battles man and nature!

Most-Anticipated Book Of 2025: Famous by Blake Crouch. Crouch's mind-bending tales are riveting to say the least and I am ready to have my reality shattered by his latest take on how we perceive our world vs how it actually may be.

Favorite Local Bookstore: Barnes and Noble at Firewheel Town Center; great selection of books and delicious cookies.

Favorite Charities: Miracle Foundation is an international nonprofit organization for children. Focused on orphans in need and partnered with over 300 orphanages in India.

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View Kashif’s Latest Reviews (book pub. dates)

Kashif Hussain

November 8, 2025

The Council By Matthew Betley

Kashif Hussain

November 8, 2025

Matthew Betley marks a triumphant return to the thrillerverse with a bonafide action-packed narrative built on an emotionally charged character-driven arc in The Council.

To the regular joes and janes, Owen Pierce is a damn-good lawyer. But what hides beneath the veneer is a man who understands that the law itself sometimes doesn’t give justice. So he spends his remaining hours as a member of The Council, an organization that trains and deploys assassins for the greater good, or so it seems. When a mission pits Owen against the last person he expected to fight, he begins to see that The Council has its own blinders that are more sinister than anything he’s stopped so far. Feeling betrayed, Owen will scorch Earth to exact retribution, and save the free world while he’s at it.

I picked up The Council knowing next to nothing about the book. All I read was Matthew Betley’s name and that was enough to get me to try. This is perhaps the best book of 2026 I’ve read yet and we haven’t even reached the year. This statement may sound bold but it’s backed up by logic and pure adrenaline-fun that Betley excels at infusing into his stories. The Council boasts some of the most vivid and cinematically engaging action sequences rocking tactical and technical authenticity in every single page. Whether it’s a fight between a katana and a knife, a brazen heavy machine gun shootout, or a calculated clearing of hostile quarters with CQB, Betley goes solid on all kills.

The action works as great as it does because of the underlying foundation, which in this case are the characters. Owen Pierce and his team reflect on the best of us, as flawed and broken as they are, because they do what’s right even when the easiest path is to avoid what’s right. This moral compass helps install a strong bond between you and the characters without any drag in its connection. The story is direct, unflinching, and raw in its depiction of trauma and pain that molds our heroes into the warriors they become. Owen Pierce and his team became instant new favorites before I even finished the whole book.

The Council is a riveting roller-coaster thriller bursting with awesome and memorable action sequences and taut plotting connected together with a strong emotional undercurrent that serves as the bedrock for this adventure. I can’t wait to see this take off into a multi-book series and even a movie/tv-show. It’s that superb.

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Purchase The Council
(Note: most indie bookstores can fulfill an order as quickly as larger retailers. Please consider contacting them for your next purchase.)

Barrington Books
Chapter 2 Books
Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen

Kashif Hussain

June 14, 2025

The Survivor By Andrew Reid

Kashif Hussain

June 14, 2025

Andrew Reid’s The Survivor is a fast-paced twisty adventure with an intensity that rivals the best of the race-against-time stories.

A seemingly ordinary day in the subway goes horrendously wrong as a man’s past catches up to him. With an invisible but very real adversary threatening the safety of the others, the man must do whatever he’s told to do in order to keep his fellow passengers safe, realizing that the person on the other end of the line has something very sinister planned for him. Can he outwit the police and the nameless threat before he forfeits his life?

I am thoroughly impressed with how Reid sets this narrative almost completely in a single setting of a subway train yet never loses momentum in keeping readers engaged with a relentless barrage of oh-crap jaw-dropping reveals and an aura of terror that something wild and crazy might happen in the next page, which somehow ends up to be quite the prophecy as you read through the suspenseful story. Reid smartly weaves past and present day storylines together such that each chapter reveals a secret that makes you look at the characters differently. You could be rooting for a character one moment and then questioning all of their actions the next, and then swinging back and forth as the narrative peels off its layers for the final twist that really flips the story on its head.

The Survivor is a delightfully engaging and intense thriller that delivers copious amounts of adrenaline straight to your bloodstream for a midnight hour reading rampage. Andrew Reid knows how to keep readers thoroughly engaged.

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Purchase The Survivor
(Note: most indie bookstores can fulfill an order as quickly as larger retailers. Please consider contacting them for your next purchase.)

Barrington Books
Chapter 2 Books
Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen

Kashif Hussain

June 12, 2025

The Dark Time By Nick Petrie

Kashif Hussain

June 12, 2025

Peter Ash and the gang face off their dangerous threat yet, a cult hellbent on bringing Armageddon to life in The Dark Time.

When Katelyn Thorsen, known as KT, receives a death threat, she knows it has something to do with her latest investigation into tech giants. What she doesn’t know is how quickly that threat rears its ugly face, until Peter Ash steps in to protect KT and her daughter and inserts himself into a dangerous position. As the gang tries to keep their charges alive, they dig deeper into the rabbit hole that has the potential to spell an end for the tech-powered world we’ve become so comfortable in.

Nick Petrie rocks and rolls with this action-packed narrative as we see Peter, June, and Lewis unleash havoc on perhaps the most dangerous adversary they’ve faced yet. Even as a bonafide action thriller, The Dark Time is part commentary on our reliance on technology, part crime thriller, and all action from the get-go. Every chapter brews a fresh storm for the characters to evade or push through headfirst, and you never know what will happen in the next moment so you keep on flipping the pages. With such a cinematic tinge to the action and characters, The Dark Time reads fast and hard with no good place to rest, so you best keep on reading till the last page.

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Purchase The Dark Time
(Note: most indie bookstores can fulfill an order as quickly as larger retailers. Please consider contacting them for your next purchase.)

Barrington Books
Chapter 2 Books
Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen

Kashif Hussain

June 11, 2025

The Hard Line By Mark Greaney

Kashif Hussain

June 11, 2025

The Hard Line is the answer to every Gray Man fan’s prayer that this series continue on for a long, long time. Mark Greaney refuels the saga with a new personal story for Court Gentry and an ending that merits a follow-up as great as this one.

The intelligence gathering apparatus of the United States falls under fire when attacks spawn up across the country targeting high value individuals. With a growing feeling that this is the work of a mole placed at a strategically sensitive position, Court’s boss, Matt Hanley, sets up a team to investigate and intervene where necessary to ferret out the leak. While Court is getting into battles on the urban streets, he has a bullseye on his back as he’s pursued by a legendary assassin who has a personal vendetta against The Gray Man. With walls closing in from all sides, can The Gray Man make it out unscathed before this life of violence takes yet another chip off his soul?

One of the most resonating features about The Gray Man is his surprising relatability with us normal folks. He gets frustrated, he swears, he tries his best when the odds are stacked against him. He also inspires when he goes the impossible at times. Mark Greaney captures lightning in a bottle once more with a plethora of kinetic and energetic action sequences that stand out in the series. These combat sequences not only emphasize Court’s prowess, but also highlight his vulnerability as a human who pushes himself farther than one is comfortable with, in the name of something bigger than himself.

Greaney doesn’t shy away from highlighting the moral quandary of the ugly business that The Gray Man is such a big part of; Killing. As readers, we get caught up in the hype of the action, never batting an eye on who’s on the receiving end of our hero’s violence. That’s what Greaney subtly calls out to with a narrative that pits Court against an assassin who faced a grievous loss at the hands of The Gray Man and is now out for blood. It’s the classic moral dilemma where you can’t fully support nor denounce either side, such is the strong and powerful characterization of each side. The conflict is a raw and emotionally charged reflection of what life amounts to, a commentary on the endless cycles of revenge and violence that can only end if both sides walk away. But can they do that with the losses they faced at the hands of each other?

The Hard Line is a different breed of thrillers and it’s one that I am happy to read any given day. It’s got tons of gritty action, high stakes, and a personal touch that makes you appreciate literature in all its glory. Much like the last few Gray Man stories, this one ends on a cliffhanger, happily frustrating you that Greaney isn’t releasing two books at once.

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Purchase The Hard Line
(Note: most indie bookstores can fulfill an order as quickly as larger retailers. Please consider contacting them for your next purchase.)

Barrington Books
Chapter 2 Books
Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen

Kashif Hussain

June 10, 2025

Murder At 30,000 Feet By Susan Walter

Kashif Hussain

June 10, 2025

Murder at 30,000 Feet reads like a spiritual successor of the OG whodunnits where the readers go through a plethora of clues and insights like a real life sleuth with some crafty twists in the mix that lead to a devastatingly satisfying resolution.

A Puerto Rico bound flight takes off with a packed flight thanks to a destination wedding and a basketball tournament. What starts off as a typical flight turns lethal when a passenger is found dead in the lavatory. What takes place is a suspenseful unraveling of secrets with a deep dive into different perspectives of diverse characters whose collective pasts and shameful skeletons in the closet all led to this fateful flight and the gruesome murder on it.

Susan Walter crafts a scintillating and dramatic narrative of high stakes yet grounded in the most primal and banal human emotions that drive the characters to embrace their secrets. Each perspective opens up an insight into the character, opening up like a Russian doll with one twist after another unfurling just when you think you’ve gotten the full gist of the story. The narrative structure took me to the Agatha Christie stories where readers get a sense of the full dilemma from the eyes of various characters, all of whom are so intricately tied to the plot that the finale is immensely satisfying.

Tackling timely and compelling themes of human flaws and courage under fire with a tight setting in the air and a steady pacing that unfurls at the right time for the right impact, Murder at 30,000 Feet is a riveting and powerful story of love, violence, and a dark pursuit of justice. It’s going to stick with you long after you finish it.

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Purchase Murder At 30,000
(Note: most indie bookstores can fulfill an order as quickly as larger retailers. Please consider contacting them for your next purchase.)

Barrington Books
Chapter 2 Books
Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen

Kashif Hussain

June 8, 2025

The Bourne Revenge By Brian Freeman

Kashif Hussain

June 8, 2025

Writing a legacy character is a tough cookie, especially with how far you can take the origin story and make something meaningful and special out of what fans already know and love without veering too far from the established lore. I was delighted to read The Bourne Revenge, for it adds an exciting paradigm to Bourne’s memory loss without taking away from what the fans appreciate about the whole series.

Jason Bourne is on the mend from his last misadventure, a dangerous reckoning that cost him his love and his hope. With revenge on his mind against the cabal that pulled the strings, he sets off on a mission to investigate a hazy memory in his past where he supposedly went toe to toe with some of the most lethal operatives. When that investigation leads him to a woman who suffered the same fate of a wiped memory, Bourne begins to realize that the reason for his memory loss may not be as much of a coincidence as he had chalked up.

Brian Freeman brings the heat in this latest Jason Bourne thriller. It’s packed with vivid and immersive action sequences that simply ooze adrenaline right into your bloodstream as you’re reading through cinematic car chases, shootouts, and furious fisticuffs. The pacing is stupendously addictive; I tried hard to keep this book going for more than a day but I’d finished it before I knew it.

Revealing a backstory that tied so well with Bourne’s past adds a personal core to the narrative, where Freeman retains the authenticity of the original lore but adds a crafty twist that respects and builds upon what the fans love and want more of. The strong character development shaped by years of betrayals, losses, and an indomitable spirit of fortitude keeps Jason Bourne a very relevant and powerful figure in the thriller community. The Bourne Revenge goes a long way to show that Brian Freeman not only continues the legacy of Robert Ludlum but matches up to the same quality and authenticity in more ways than one. For those who prefer some good tunes with their reads, Moby’s Extreme Ways hits extra-special with the closing chapter. You’re welcome!

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Purchase The Bourne Revenge
(Note: most indie bookstores can fulfill an order as quickly as larger retailers. Please consider contacting them for your next purchase.)

Barrington Books
Chapter 2 Books
Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen

Kashif Hussain

June 8, 2025

Underdogs By Stephen Leather

Kashif Hussain

June 8, 2025

Underdogs is Stephen Leather at his finest with a fresh change of style with fast-paced and technically engaging action.

Andy Bird is a man living the harsh streets of London as a homeless man. One look at him wouldn’t give you the full picture, but he’s Andy “Deadman” Bird, an ex-SAS veteran who lost his hearing on a mission gone haywire. Unable to adjust to life back home, he finds himself in an undesirable place but he’s got his dog, Tyrone with him. As fate would have it, it’s on the streets of London that he witnesses a murder that starts a chain reaction with trained killers and cops alike hunting Andy and Tyrone. They may be underdogs, but that’s their speciality.

Stephen Leather raises the bar on crafting a distinctive protagonist in Andy Bird. Even as a deaf protagonist, Andy not only learns to rise up to the challenge but also shows us that there’s nothing we can’t succeed at if we’re willing to go the extra mile. The unorthodox challenge of a deaf character trying to dodge bullets and close encounters when every sound matters adds a crispy layer of excitement and anticipation to the action in Underdogs. Andy’s bond with Tyrone also adds with an emotional driving force to elevate the storytelling from a straight-forward action thriller to a compelling thriller that keeps you hooked with tenacity.

It wouldn’t be a Stephen Leather story without kickass action, high stakes, and nail-biting excitement. Underdogs delivers on all with flying colors and then some. As soon as you start your journey with Underdogs, you’re only going to put it down once you’ve run out of pages to flip.

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Purchase Underdogs
(Note: most indie bookstores can fulfill an order as quickly as larger retailers. Please consider contacting them for your next purchase.)

Barrington Books
Chapter 2 Books
Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen

Kashif Hussain

June 8, 2025

Cold Zero By Brad Thor & Ward Larsen

Kashif Hussain

June 8, 2025

Brad Thor and Ward Larsen write a high-stakes adventure in this freezing cold action-packed thriller.

Hemisphere Airlines Flight 777 is transporting a prototype for upsetting the world power with just a few keystrokes. With all eyes on this piece of tech, there’s no time for chances. When the jetliner is brought down by sabotage in the icy barren wasteland of the North Pole, the ball falls to C.I.A. operative Kasey Sheridan and First Officer Brett Sharpe to navigate their predicaments while trying to keep the prototype from falling into the hands of other nations highly interested in getting their hands on this dangerous piece of tech.

Cold Zero has a special place on my shelves because it doesn’t shy away from being adventurous. You’ve got plane crashes, frigid temperatures, colliding submarines, high technology, and an unyielding race against time for survival where no one side can truly be trusted, all blended together to present a strong contender for the most memorable and fun-filled book of the year. Where Thor and Larsen shine together the most is having all of these elements work together in a way that feels plausible and pulse-pounding. It’s out there, but not so much that you believe it can’t happen at all. Crazier things have happened. The emphasis on developing Sheridan and Sharpe as relatable and authentic characters who give you a sense of inspiration for trying to beat such harsh odds compels you to read past your snack-time at work. It’s dangerous, but worth it.

If you like the political intrigue of Brad Thor’s Scot Harvath books and Ward Larsen’s espionage, David Slaton series, you’re going to love Cold Zero. It’s the start of what I hope is a long running series and collaboration between two maestros of the thrillerverse.

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Purchase Cold Zero
(Note: most indie bookstores can fulfill an order as quickly as larger retailers. Please consider contacting them for your next purchase.)

Barrington Books
Chapter 2 Books
Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen

Kashif Hussain

June 8, 2025

Antihero By Gregg Hurwitz

Kashif Hussain

June 8, 2025

Antihero is perhaps the apt name for Gregg Hurwitz’s latest thriller as it dives into the darkest of topics that show us the man behind the legend.

When a helpless woman is kidnapped in broad daylight and assaulted, her case comes across Evan’s helpline. As Evan puts his skills to use, he becomes deeply acquainted with his charge, and uncomfortably grapples with his own sense of morality where his inner darkness threatens to lay waste to all those who transgressed with the attack.

Antihero is as much a powerful character study as it is an action thriller that breaks down our hero into the darkest bits. Hurwitz does not shy away from the trauma and the aftermath of violence. Even more realistic is the chink in Evan’s armor where his rules and control fail to reign in the storm that rises over the violation of a human being. Far from being a man in control, Evan spirals into darkness and his fall and rise equally speak to the monumental strength that resides in us to combat evil without becoming evil ourselves.

In addition to being an emotionally charged story, it packs hard-hitting action where Evan dishes out much-deserved justice to criminals and scums in brutal yet classy style. While it may not be the most action-packed entry in the series, it’s certainly one of the most gut-wrenchingly insightful and thought-provoking books in the genre that meets evil head-on with the strength and sophistication that surprises most if not all of us in our darkest moments.

A brutal story of violence and trauma told expertly through different points of view with a powerful message that speaks to everyone, Antihero is a memorable thriller with tons of firepower and brute force.

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Purchase Antihero
(Note: most indie bookstores can fulfill an order as quickly as larger retailers. Please consider contacting them for your next purchase.)

Barrington Books
Chapter 2 Books
Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen

Kashif Hussain

June 8, 2025

Godfall By Van Jensen

Kashif Hussain

June 8, 2025

When an alien ship crash lands in a small town, you’d think a story centered on a sheriff handling serial killings probably doesn’t seem like the most interesting bit. Godfall dispels that notion in the best possible way.

The question of whether we’re alone in this universe finally gets put to rest as what seems to be an asteroid on collision course with Earth turns out to be a 3-mile tall alien supposedly dead on arrival. The small quiet town of Little Springs, Nebraska, transforms into a hub of black suits and secrets creeping in from different parts of the country. This migration seems to also bring in a killer. It falls to Sheriff David Blunt to keep calm and carry on investigating a string of murders that hit close to home even when the whole world has drastically shifted with the arrival of something bigger than us.

Van Jensen methodically builds a crisp and elegant narrative that organically grows with natural character developments and efficient storytelling without a wasted breath. From the alien to the murder mystery in the small town, I loved every aspect of the thriller. The mystery unravels at a breakneck pace for you to devour in just a few sittings. The small town setting makes the story all the more intimate where every character you come across may be hiding a secret, adding a layer of suspense and emotional weight to the already suspenseful and engaging story that leads neatly to a profoundly satisfying finale. There’s a message for the readers that perhaps hits the hardest now in this time of divisiveness and fear, and it’s this ultimate point that really helps Godfall stand out.

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Purchase Godfall
(Note: most indie bookstores can fulfill an order as quickly as larger retailers. Please consider contacting them for your next purchase.)

Barrington Books
Chapter 2 Books
Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen

Kashif Hussain

June 7, 2025

A Spy Inside The Castle By M.B. Courtenay

Kashif Hussain

June 7, 2025

A Spy Inside The Castle is a fascinating espionage tale that blends gritty spycraft with a mystical twist and unrelenting suspense that doesn’t let up.

Ethan Briar is an intelligence analyst who finds himself embroiled in an absolute bonkers of a world dominion plan that involves a supercomputer with the capability to accurately predict the future. When Ethan comes face to face with an assassin with mythical specter-like reputation, he knows he must go down the rabbit hole, right to the Castlemartin Manor, where dangerous secrets isolated from the world are bursting to be revealed.

M.B Courtenay crafts one of the most interesting fusions I’ve read in the thriller genre. What starts off as a straight-shooting spy story takes abrupt and creative turns into the forays of science fiction and even fantastical elements that normally wouldn’t click so well. Except they do. The narrative boasts a cerebral tone that entices you to dig in with an overactive imagination to visualize this grand and complex story unfurling with elements beyond your standard expectations. The focused perspective on the protagonist helps instill in you the same sense of paranoia, dread, and awe that the character feels in the grand scheme of the narrative.

If you’re on the prowl for a slow-burn spy story with a unique pinch of mythical storytelling, A Spy Inside The Castle is the way to go.

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Purchase A Spy Inside The Castle
(Note: most indie bookstores can fulfill an order as quickly as larger retailers. Please consider contacting them for your next purchase.)

Barrington Books
Chapter 2 Books
Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen

Kashif Hussain

June 7, 2025

Dead Ringer By Chris Hauty

Kashif Hussain

June 7, 2025

No one does conspiracy thrillers as hot and savvy as Chris Hauty. With a plethora of real-life history to draw from, Hauty infuses high adrenaline into a vivid journey all across the country to debunk possibly the darkest secret in American history.

What do a disgraced Secret Service agent and a Jesuit Professor have in common? Not their personalities. But they do share a common goal when they’re both targeted by a cabal that has been operating in the shadows and pulling the strings in history without anyone being any wiser. But as the duo hone in on the truth, the cabal sends an assassin to silence them before they can shed light on a conspiracy that’s been haunting the American public since the assassination of JFK.

Hauty brings his flair of creating the most intriguing twists and turns to this standalone adventure that catapults you right into the action before you can even utter “go”. As the characters unearth the secrets of the past, Hauty puts you in the hot seat with them and you feel that raw excitement coursing through your veins trying to get to the bottom of some of the most burning questions if you’re a history buff. It gets difficult more times than one would like to differentiate fact from fiction. Such is the nuanced nature of Hauty’s approach to conspiracies that make more sense than you’d think.

Hauty also diverges from his Hayley Chill’s series with Dead Ringer as he turns it into a buddy road trip adventure with two folks who aren’t each other’s greatest fans but learn to work together if they wish to survive. It’s endearing and fun to see their banter evolve over the pages and by the end, you feel like you’ve known them for way longer.

Dead Ringer is the perfect book for you as a thriller fan and especially as a reader who likes thinking about crazy what-ifs. Just beware that Hauty makes them sound so plausible it’ll have you googling things just to distinguish fact from fiction, a winning factor for mystery thrillers.

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Purchase Dead Ringer
(Note: most indie bookstores can fulfill an order as quickly as larger retailers. Please consider contacting them for your next purchase.)

Barrington Books
Chapter 2 Books
Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen

Kashif Hussain

June 7, 2025

NYPD Red 8: The 11:59 Bomber By Marshall Karp

Kashif Hussain

June 7, 2025

NYPD RED 8: The 11:59 Bomber is a savvy thrill-ride that’ll have you laughing out loud in one moment and supremely serious and intense the next as the narrative simmers in suspense for an amazing payoff.

New York City becomes the target of a man who has a score to settle with the city as he sets off bombs to go off at 11:59 AM across the city. With casualties mounting and innocent people hiding in terror, NYPD Red Detectives Kylie MacDonald and Zach Jordan pursue their investigation to stop the 11:59 Bomber before he reaches his final explosive objective.

Marshall Karp brings his A-Game with a lot of witty humor interspersed between moments of intense excitement throughout the narrative. What worked best for me was the realistically flawed humanity of its characters, from protagonists venturing into their personal drama on the case to the unpredictable antagonist lashing out on an institution without thinking things through at times. The ironic drama and interpersonal conflicts add a flurry of emotions to the story for a full-immersion into the experience. That’s on top of the fast-paced storytelling where you’re holding onto the guardrails for life as the vivid danger and realistic threat hits close to home while you root for the protagonists to stop the madman from causing wanton destruction. New York City feels a lot more like a living and breathing organism than a simple city thanks to Karp’s attention to detail and his smooth descriptive prose that takes you through the streets like Google Maps, but better.

Strap in for a thrilling pulse-pounding race against time where every moment feels like it’s barely keeping a lid on before it ultimately blows your socks off. NYPD RED 8: The 11:59 Bomber is Karp at his finest.

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Purchase NYPD Red 8: The 11:59 Bomber
(Note: most indie bookstores can fulfill an order as quickly as larger retailers. Please consider contacting them for your next purchase.)

Barrington Books
Chapter 2 Books
Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen

Kashif Hussain

June 7, 2025

Simultaneous By Eric Heisserer

Kashif Hussain

June 7, 2025

Simultaneous caught me by surprise with its ingenious take on the serial killer angle with some really mind-bending and jaw-dropping twists and turns.

Federal agent Grant Lukather has a very peculiar job. He works for a department of Homeland Security called Predictive Analytics, specializing in patterns to prevent a terrorist event before it happens. When a recent bombing reveals that a tip was called in by a therapist, he crosses paths with Sarah Newcomb who specializes in helping her patients uncover their “simultaneous-lives” through hypnosis. As Grant reluctantly partakes in a session, he finds the world to be a lot stranger than he could have imagined. With a serial killer on the loose, he’s gonna have to shed his skepticism and embark on a wild ride through the past, present, and future to catch the killer who just might have a better grasp of this whole situation.

Eric Heisserer crafts an intricate narrative with out-of-this-world creativity that makes a home in your mind with all the wondrous possibilities of life beyond our enclosed thinking. It reads as fast and smooth as the best of crime thrillers but it also captivates your mental cogs to digest the grand and complex realities of the world beyond what we understand. This makes for an incredibly powerful and satisfying experience where the thrills are on beat for beat with the exciting new ideas that elevate this narrative from a genre-specific thriller into a kaleidoscope of cool concepts. Add to that the fast-paced high octane action and suspense, and you’ve got the recipe for a book that you just can’t get enough of.

Simultaneous is one of my favorite and most entertaining books for this year and I can’t wait to see where Heisserer takes this story next. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear it being adapted for the big screen!

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Purchase Simultaneous
(Note: most indie bookstores can fulfill an order as quickly as larger retailers. Please consider contacting them for your next purchase.)

Barrington Books
Chapter 2 Books
Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen

Kashif Hussain

June 6, 2025

White Tiger By Andrew Warren

Kashif Hussain

June 6, 2025

As I feverishly read through White Tiger at the expense of sleep and all my other chores, one thing became clear; I genuinely wanted to do nothing but read the book cover to cover. Andrew Warren crafts a love letter to the espionage genre with powerful and vivid sequences that appealed to the reader in me who wishes to unwind with a kickass story and badass characters.

Thomas Caine is on a mission in Korea that reads like the opening to a James Bond movie with a memorable action set-piece against the neon backdrop of the pulsing city. When the mission goes awry, Caine is told to lay low. But his past comes knocking with a debt he must pay, and so he heads to Japan to settle an old marker. At the same time, America is targeted for a deadly attack by a Yakuza gangster, the White Tiger, in alliance with a cabal of foreign operatives. With disinformation at the highest, Caine’s handler needs him back. But with Caine’s luck, his personal mission ultimately ties back to the greater threat, putting him in just the right place at the right time. Teaming up with some old friends, he goes up against the physically and intellectually imposing Yakuza gangster who gives Caine a run for his money.

x`There’s a lot of brilliant moments to love in this thriller as you read Thomas Caine dispatch his adversaries in hand to hand combat, through varied use of cool firearms, and with a myriad of vehicles operating with close shaves.

Andrew Warren elevates the action-packed narrative with a nuanced insight into Caine’s emotional state as he struggles to make peace with being back so close to the ones he cares about. The emotional catharsis of seeing his journey take a turn adds to the ultimate enjoyment of the thriller with all the cool twists and turns and top-tier action.

White Tiger is a tremendously awesome spy adventure through the cities of South Korea and Japan that hits all the right notes for a memorable and entertaining story worth the sacrifice of a night’s sleep.

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Kashif Hussain

June 5, 2025

The Second Son By Simon Gervais & Ryan Steck

Kashif Hussain

June 5, 2025

The Second Son took me by surprise. With names like Simon Gervais and Ryan Steck, I knew it was going to be a blast, but I didn’t realize it would end up in the running for my top thrillers of the year.

Chase Burke isn’t your average sommelier. He’s a great one, but he’s also a former soldier. Thinking he has left that life behind, he sticks to the wine, until an ambush at his restaurant puts him in the crosshairs of some nasty and dangerous individuals who now want their pound of flesh after Burke interrupts a carefully planned attack on a congresswoman. His life unravels as he finds close threads linking to his brother who died in a covert operation and branded a traitor in death. With all points converging, it’s up to Chase Burke to clear his family name and unmask the sinister forces behind the scenes orchestrating terror on a global scale.

Firstly, I love the action sequences in The Second Son. They’re so crisp and tactically resilient that you find yourself re-reading the execution of the scenes multiple times just by how cool and cinematic they read off. The awesome action compliments the suspense-filled atmosphere of the story that keeps the momentum bustling at a steady pace with some great shocks in between when you least expect it.

The Second Son is an emotionally charged narrative at its core, dealing with themes of family and neglect in the midst of the fast-paced storytelling. The strong character arc for Chase Burke took me back to the time I first read The Terminal List by Jack Carr and was just as moved by its emotionally resonant themes.

Make sure you’ve got The Second Son on your radar for must-reads this year. The cliffhanger ending took my breath away!

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Purchase The Second Son
(Note: most indie bookstores can fulfill an order as quickly as larger retailers. Please consider contacting them for your next purchase.)

Barrington Books
Chapter 2 Books
Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen

Kashif Hussain

June 3, 2025

The Tin Men By Nelson DeMille and Alex DeMille

Kashif Hussain

June 3, 2025

The Tin Men is a fascinating old-school investigative thriller that combines the old-school sleuthing-style narrative with the modern atmosphere of artificial intelligence in armed forces. It does a fantastic job at both entertaining as well as educating the general reader on the intricacies and challenges of incorporating the fast-paced developments without compromising safety and security.

Army CID Special Agents Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor face their most perplexing investigation yet when they’re dispatched to a highly secure installation on US soil that’s working on the next generation of combat, that is autonomous killer robots. When a routine inspection results in a gruesome murder, Brodie and Taylor must go into the heart of the darkness to root out the problem, whether it be a ghost in the machine or a human-backed monster.

Nelson and Alex DeMille masterfully craft this suspenseful story that simmers at the perfect pace, not too fast and not too slow. The investigation unfurls at an engaging pace, filled with deceit, horror, and uncertainty regarding who you can trust in the roster of new characters, if you can trust any at all. This aura of paranoia is utilized to the maximum effect such that you just have to know if it panned out the way you imagine it does. Most likely, it’s going to surprise you. It helps that we get fantastic insights into the topic of autonomous weapons through the differing viewpoints of Brodie and Taylor, who are both trying to get to the truth but share beliefs you’d find on both sides of the spectrum, helping you think through the larger picture.

The Tin Men is an excellent timely thriller with a fascinating subject matter and a killer execution by the DeMille duo. The legacy of Nelson DeMille is in safe hands with Alex DeMille as clearly exhibited in The Tin Men.

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Purchase The Tin Men
(Note: most indie bookstores can fulfill an order as quickly as larger retailers. Please consider contacting them for your next purchase.)

Barrington Books
Chapter 2 Books
Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen

Kashif Hussain

June 3, 2025

The Proving Ground By Michael Connelly

Kashif Hussain

June 3, 2025

Michael Connelly tackles one of the greatest rising concerns today with a razor-sharp novel that will stick with you for how real and timely it is, perhaps even ahead of its time.

The Proving Ground pits Mickey Haller and his team against a tech giant, whose AI chatbot told a disturbed teenager that it was acceptable for him to kill his girlfriend so that the boy could be with the AI forever. Haller finds himself drawn to this case as he’s hired by the parents of the boy and the deceased girl to take the fight to the corporation whose lax guardrails on the AI had such disastrous consequences. As both sides head to court, it becomes clear this is a generational case for which the implications will ripple across time as our technological landscape expands evermore.

Connelly brings a packed courtroom drama that smartly raises the dangers of AI through a tragic tale with deliberate storytelling that takes Haller and Jack McEvoy (yes he’s in this too) on a mission to not only understand how the unrestrained growth of AI is a danger to the world but also the lessons we need to heed before this fictional story becomes a cold reality. The nail-biting suspense as the courtroom becomes a battleground is propelled by Connelly’s stellar writing with vivid characters and exciting developments that make for an exciting reading experience. While Connelly doesn’t do action in traditional fashion, the courtroom does indeed serve as a colosseum of gladiators in suits and formals battling for their causes, going viciously for the jugular.

The Proving Ground is a narrative for modern society that’s as thrilling as it is informative about how the structure of our society is at risk from the lack of guardrails as we rush into the future at hyper speed.

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Purchase The Proving Ground
(Note: most indie bookstores can fulfill an order as quickly as larger retailers. Please consider contacting them for your next purchase.)

Barrington Books
Chapter 2 Books
Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen

Kashif Hussain

June 3, 2025

Blood Rival By Jake Arnott

Kashif Hussain

June 3, 2025

Blood Rival is a taut crime thriller filled with palpable tension and harrowing twists that will stay in your mind for a considerable amount of time after you finish reading the last page.

When the murder of a gangster, Lee Royal, stays cold with no leads, the investigation is all but shelved. But that’s not good enough for Eddie Pierce, an up-and-comer rival of Lee who always begins an affair with Lee’s wife, Jo. What should be something of a blessing for Eddie soon turns into an obsession where Eddie tries to dig for the truth along with Jo and a brash Commander of Scotland Yard who wants what he’s owed by Lee. With new leads suddenly churning up, can Eddie trust his Jo, his friends, or even himself to accept the high cost of finding out what really happened the night where a mysterious man in the dark killed Lee in cold blood?

Jake Arnott crafts a mesmerizing and enthralling narrative where the characters get their due time to become familiar to the readers before taking the story for a wild descent into chaos, betrayals and a final twist that had me in knots with its mind-boggling nature. The story plays out with each major character driving the narrative to greater heights of unpredictability where just when you think you’ve figured out a character, you’re actually miles away from the truth.

At its core, Blood Rival is a crime drama that retains an old-school feel of grand gestures but with a faster modern pacing that kept me glued to the book. I finished it in a day without a single inclination to put the book down for even a second. Easier said than done, but Blood Rival put up quite the challenge.

Follow Kashif on Twitter or contact him via the site.

Purchase Blood Rival
(Note: most indie bookstores can fulfill an order as quickly as larger retailers. Please consider contacting them for your next purchase.)

Barrington Books
Chapter 2 Books
Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen

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