Sleepless City By Reed Farrel Coleman

As a fan of crime thrillers by Don Winslow and Michael Connolly, I was immensely surprised to find a hugely satisfying and intriguing fusion of the two with an equally dark and timely take on the world we live in.

Reed Farrel Coleman introduces a witty no-nonsense cop to the thrillerverse in the form of Nick Ryan. He’s no ordinary cop. He’s the one who cops call when they get in trouble. When his solo-vigilante tactics draw the eyes of a secretive group of higher-ups who wish to maintain the peace by doing what needs to be done, Nick Ryan decides to become a part of the clandestine movement working in the shadows to prosecute criminals and take a more heavy-handed action when needed. Ryan quickly demonstrates his prowess when he expertly dismantles the catalyst to a race-war. In the meantime, his actions kickstart a chain of events that lead to a bounty on his head. Can Ryan save his city and himself before the darkness pulls him into the abyss?

What I loved tremendously about Sleepless City is the vibrancy of the gritty and criminalistic atmosphere where Nick Ryan operates. There are layers upon layers of characters that unfold to show a nasty side that comes along with fighting fire with fire. That goes twice for Ryan as he works to keep the city safe with good and honest intentions but his actions tend to give you pause. It’s quite intense because the situations are rooted in the simmering tensions we read about in the news today, making you wonder if we’ve got Nick Ryans going around in our cities.

Sleepless City is a dark read with edge-of-your-seat-pacing and winding twists and turns that hold your attention without fail. It’s a genuine story of how good and evil can sometimes balance on a thin line, and how it’s the little actions that sometimes tip the scales.

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Fearless By M. W. Craven

M.W.Craven took me by surprise with a totally unexpectedly badass abundance of pure awesomeness in Fearless. Packed with action and heart, this thriller stands out in 2023’s list of must-reads.

Fearless introduces an exciting protagonist with an interesting caveat. Ben Koenig cannot feel fear. Having served as the head of US Marshal’s elite Special Operations Group, he hunted the worst of the worst. Then one day, he dropped off the face of the earth. Six years later, he becomes a person of interest when he sees his face plastered on the news. An old friend is reaching out to him to rescue his daughter who has gone missing. A man of honor, Koenig goes feral on his new mission. Koenig may not feel fear, but the adversaries he brushes up against certainly must fear him as he stops at nothing to exact justice.

Ben Koenig is simply badass. M.W.Craven permeates his protagonist with an aura that just isn’t found in many thriller heroes out there today. Dangerously-epic dialogues are just the tip of the iceberg. Koenig is a man of sheer focus and capable of unbridled violence that he inflicts upon those who cross his path. Whether it is brutal hand-to-hand combat against giants, or fast-paced gunplay, there is no shortage of bone-crunching aggression that deeply scratches that itch for cinematic action sequences with tactically and technically sound descriptions that really are the cherry on top. If watching John Wick Chapter 4 got you all hyped for an adventure where the protagonist has a bounty on his head put up by the Russian Mafia, then you’re going to want to read this book.

The narrative is smartly plotted and unveiled with the right foundations built on one another to deliver genuine emotional resonance for Koenig’s situation. Digging into his past and tying his predicaments into the present day storyline is pure genius and works effectively to connect the narrative in the most interesting fashion. Koenig feels like an exciting fusion of all-time favorites like Jack Reacher and Mitch Rapp but at the same time it does not take away from his own distinctive characterization which M.W.Craven nails to the T. 

An amalgamation of espionage, private-sleuthing, and all-out-action subgenres, Fearless is masterfully written and opens up a plethora of fun and creative future storylines for Ben Koenig. A mesmerizing twisty thriller that you will not forget anytime soon.

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Soon Dies The Day By Stephen England

Soon Dies the Day continues the gritty, unabashed narrative of a man weathered by the elements of living the violent life of a special operator finally coming to crossroads in the new Shadow Warriors thriller that takes your breath away and grips you in terror and excitement. It’s Stephen England at his finest.

Harry Nichols is a man cast out of the light into the darkness. He’s on the run from his own country in addition to being an international criminal. He’s captured in Germany but instead of turning him in, the Germans have another use for him; to infiltrate a domestic terrorist cell and weed out the enemy. While his expertise certainly qualifies him for the job, his mental state has deteriorated over the events of the previous books as he’s gone through mental havoc like few men have before him. With a powder keg ready to explode with racially motivated sentiments, Nichols must go undercover to stop the bloodshed. Is he up to the task? Are there interests within the government working against him?

Stephen England phenomenally builds up the characters and situations brick by brick to deliver the maximum blow when everything comes crumbling down. For those following this series from the beginning, it’s such a delight to read Harry’s realistic descent into hell with all the trauma he has faced and now struggles to overpower the darkness that comes with the hard decisions made by all the brave souls working undercover. Major kudos to Stephen England for not shying away from the hard calls made in such dire circumstances; no easy outs. Every action comes with a heavy dose of responsibility and consequences that make this narrative feel so real and powerful. This also comes quite handy in augmenting the realistic action sequences as Nichols powers through the barrage of bad guys but his rusted skills genuinely raise the anxiety of the shootouts and hand-to-hand combat, holding you on the edge of your seats to wonder if Nichols may actually get out of the predicament alive.

I also deeply admire the philosophical connotations that England injects into the thriller-paced story. The characters don’t merely talk, they speak with heavy wisdom that stays with you beyond ordinary dialogue. This elevates the reading experience for readers looking to get that extra kick out of their thrillers.

Soon Dies the Day is a special breed of thriller that emphasizes high-quality storytelling with focus on multiple characters, all leading to an explosive finale where Nichols leads a one-man assault against those only he can stop. The ending brings about a satisfying resolution to a grand story and it only adds to the excitement of where we’ll see Nichols next.

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The Guardian By Joshua Hood

The Guardian feels like a personal thriller for Joshua Hood, with explosive action on every page, characters with resonating drives, and a strong setup for a potentially long running series. This one is for the hardcore action aficionados who yearn for books powered by haughty non-stop action.

Travis Lane lives by the creed of the elite Air Force Pararescue, “These things we do, that others may live”. He has lived by it through the worst of situations on the battlefield. But when he retires because of an injury, he’s forced to look for other measures to support his sister who just lost her husband in the line of duty on a mission that Lane was part of. Salvation comes in the form of a job offer from Broadside Solutions, a company specializing in protecting and extracting its clients from all sorts of dangers. As soon as he signs up for a hefty care package, Lane and his new team are sent all the way to Democratic Republic of Congo to find and retrieve a kidnapped American. He’s sent into the depths of hell to pull off a mission where the battlefield isn’t the only minefield he must circumvent. 

Travis Lane is a huge departure from Adam Hayes, the unkillable protagonist in Hood’s Treadstone books. Even with the battle-ready skills of being a warrior, Lane embodies the impression of being a guardian more than a killer. Imbued with Hood’s own expertise in the tradecraft, Lane strikes you as a bona-fide character with a solid foundation of his morals that make him stand out as exemplary without being unrealistically so. With the spotlight on a Pararescue specialist, Hood adds a distinctive protagonist to the roster of memorable military-enlisted heroes in the thrillerverse.

Speaking of the action, Hood once again delivers his promise of non-stop breathtaking action sequences with all the tactical nuances of experts. The bullets zinging past, the fiery heat from huge explosions, every stealthy footfall, all exhibit a worldly weight of realism that go a long way to making the action all the more realistic and impactful. From the moment Lane and his team step into the African jungle, the action picks up almost immediately and the narrative flows through with butter-like-ease of one violent crisis after another. Put simply, there’s really no good spot in the book to take a break because the constant action keeps you energized all the way through.

The Guardian is an explosive tactical adventure that infuses emotions, family, and moral values into a spectacular action-fest ride. Joshua Hood has given the world yet another emphatic hero to rally behind. If there is one common feeling this book will leave you with, its that there needs to be more of Travis Lane in the future. 

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Shrouded In Darkness By Charles Hack

Charles Hack expands the rich world of interstellar travel and creative action that he introduced in his debut. Shrouded in Darkness is a successor worthy of the Space Warfare Group series with new adversaries, twists, and breathtaking revelations that will be sure to reverberate through to the next one.

Taking over from the cliffhanger of Book 1, we see Major Malcom “Mac” Lambert given a second shot at hunting down the antagonists who framed him and his team in addition to leading them into a fatal ambush. Taking his new chance at life in stride, he partners up with old teammates and new friends alike to seek retribution, his mission takes him to different planets and ultimately to the most important Galactic Coalition Summit where their investigation leads to startling discoveries about the fate of the entire galaxy.

There’s no denying how much the narrative benefits from Charles Hack’s magnificent world-building as he conjures distinctive alien worlds and conflicts that feel rich with details. What could go completely in the realm of science-fiction is swiftly brought back on track for military thriller fans with tactical firefights using futuristic weaponry and superb depictions of aerial warfare that puts you right in the cockpits of razor-sharp aircrafts that come to life in the imaginations thanks to Hack’s vivid descriptions.

Shrouded in Darkness combines the best parts of space opera, spy thriller, military-action thriller, and adventure thrillers with ingenious themes reverberating through space and time to create a highly enjoyable and engaging narrative with wise-cracking heroes and evil bad guys that warrant a good ass-kicking from Mac and his team. Charles Hack shows he’s in tune with what readers enjoy most and he utilizes it to the fullest in his second book which doesn’t feel at all as nascent, but rather a deeply and thoroughly developed thriller.

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Disarm By Lukas Walker

Lukas Walker provides all of the thrills an action aficionado could ask for with nonstop shootouts and brutal violence, a ticking time bomb of a narrative, and no-nonsense heroes who undertake a challenging mission to stop a nuclear incursion from Russia on the United States of America. It’s a good ol’ fashioned shoot-em-up ride with some ingenuity to keep those mental cogs running on overdrive.

Chris Harding is a Special Forces veteran who has developed quite a taste for the action. Battling PTSD and other demons, he can’t stick to the sidelines. He’s a warrior. When he’s recruited by a private military contractor run by his friend on behalf of US officials to infiltrate Russia and disarm a quantum computer capable of launching multiple nuclear missiles simultaneously, he jumps in head first. He’ll soon realize the game requires more than he could have anticipated, requiring him to listen to the spook in him as well as the hardened killer.

Disarm is the perfect summer action adventure to raise the heat some more with its explosive action sequences ramping up one after another while retaining the resonance and impact of each kinetic engagement within the grander scope of the narrative. Chris Harding and his team quickly become a force to be reckoned with against all odds and you find yourself immersed in the deadly mission with them thanks to Lukas Walker’s sublime ability to ground the narrative without losing the thrill-factor. Walker ensures there’s a balanced diet of gritty realism and just enough of a suspense of disbelief to make the story a ferocious page-turner.

It doesn’t hurt that the narrative comes equipped with exciting but gut-wrenching twists and turns. All in all, Disarm is a charming debut that establishes an exciting roster of heroes and anti-heroes with cinematic shootouts, old-school patriotism, and an ending that all but guarantees that we’ll have more of some badass thrillers coming up from Lukas Walker.

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The Eden Initiative By David Scott

The Eden Initiative walks the thin but admirable line between dark and fun, alternating appropriately between the two with a wild plot and witty characters who break the ice just before breaking bones.

Following up from the events of the The Titan Protocol, David Scott continues to build upon the explosive cliffhanger that a former teammate of Isaac Northe, supposedly killed in action, is very much alive and held captive in Nigeria. With that bolstering revelation, Northe and his team of private operators, including a deadly femme fatale assassin who would easily give John Wick a run for his money, set off on a globe-trotting mission to find the soldier and bring him home safe all the while uncovering a dangerous plot to take the world back into the dark ages with the destruction of technology as we know it in an effort to protect the world.

Scott brings a bond-plot-like vibe to the thriller, weaving in tech and action together to weave together a fast-paced story with multiple angles playing at one major plotline in a smart and engaging style. The race-against-time element to save the world presents a grand and exciting adventure for the good guys and gals to explore, with an aura of mystique and danger when it comes to deciding if a certain character can truly be trusted. The misdirection and espionage-styled intrigue keep you hooked in for the whole ride and you’re going to be breathless by the time you reach the finale with palpable tension coursing through your body. It’s quite intense.

The Eden Initiative is an engaging adventure that works both as a testament to how far technology has advanced as well as a warning for the consequences of such relentless advancement. Coupled with crisp action, the narrative is an easy winner for thriller fans looking for a fun story to lose themselves in. 

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Inside Threat By Matthew Quirk

Matthew Quirk brings to life an invigorating lockdown thriller that brings to mind Vince Flynn’s incredible Transfer of Power in all the best ways. Inside Threat is one of the finest powerhouse thrillers you’re going to read this year.

Erik Hill is contemplating the downfall of his extraordinary but murky career in the Secret Service when a deep-rooted threat to the President requires relocation of the President and a handful of Secret Service agents to a doomsday bunker. What Hill and his team don’t completely cover is the possibility of an inside following the President into the bunker, creating the setting for a suspenseful locked-bunker thriller where Hill and his trained agents must uncover the threats among them while escorting the President to safety without truly knowing who to trust.

Inside Threat is set up and executed marvelously by Quirk who hits the ground running with a fast-paced evolution of the plot from the very beginning. This is done so without compromising the emotional integrity of the narrative as we get appealing glimpses into Hill’s past that not only break any possible mundanity in an action-heavy story but also make him a genuinely likable protagonist.

What I found most distinctive about Inside Threat was how vividly Quirk describes the intense situations. From the moment the threat surfaces and all the way to the resolution, every page carries along a note of danger, excitement, anxiety, and an eager drive to captivate readers with a whodunit element. As Hill and his team worked together to uncover the threats while safeguarding the President, I couldn’t help but sit in ecstatic anticipation, much like how I had sat transfixed while reading how dangerously the events of Vince Flynn’s Transfer of Power unfolded; both with the lives of Presidents at stake, both with a perspiring uncertainty of how it would all go down, and Ofcourse both packing heavy firepower in the hands of a powerful protagonist.

If The Night Agent instilled an awe of Quirk’s writing abilities, Inside Threat cements his prowess at tackling creative conspiracy-action thrillers that hold their own with the best of the best.

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What Remains By Wendy Walker

What Remains is a twisted tale of heroism and what follows in a nightmare scenario with mentally troubled individuals in the mix. Wendy Walker takes readers through sensitive matters and handles them with brutal honesty that depicts the emotional turmoil without diluting it in the slightest.

Detective Elise Sutton’s life alters when she walks into a department store and is confronted with an active-shooter situation. She is forced to make a terrible choice but is hailed as a hero, especially by the person whose life she saved. That is until she connects with him and realizes he’s a far more dangerous man than she could have anticipated who begins to threaten not just her but her family. Not only must Elise grapple with the horrors of her choice, but she must hunt down a man whose real identity is known to no one, all before he destroys her life.

Wendy Walker skillfully dissects her protagonist in all the ways that make her tick, providing an uncanny feeling of being both stalked and stalking as we dig into the rabbit hole with Elise as she slowly unravels as a wife, mother, and a cop. It also helps make the hunt for the stalker all the more dangerous and anxiety-inducing through the emotional turmoil that flies right off the pages.

Even when there isn’t something terrifying happening in the pages, Walker subtly conveys an underlying tone of apprehension and unease with respect to how Elise comes to grip with letting down her guards with a total stranger who is hellbent on ruining her life unless she gives into his demands. The paranoia feels so palpable that it reverberates into the hearts and minds of the readers. 

I was deeply surprised and disturbed by the raw aura of What Remains and it’s one of the many reasons that I enjoyed reading the book so much. 

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All The Sinners Bleed By S.A. Cosby

Evil is rarely complicated. It’s just effin’ bold. This is just one of countless hard-hitting lines that stuck with me from S.A Cosby’s latest elegant amalgamation of poetic beauty and visceral cruelty which gives birth to a thriller that stirred my heart and rumbled my stomach with both anticipation and dread of reaching the last page of the book. All The Sinners Bleed is a southern noir thriller that only a prodigy like Cosby could have dreamt up and poured onto the pages with a lyrical tune to the memorable dialogues and somber moments. 

Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff of Charon County in Virginia, a place reveling in racial tensions spurned by a dark history that continues to haunt the residents centuries later. Having been elected against all odds, Titus fights to be an exemplary champion of the law for the residents of his hometown, especially those who are easy targets to racial prejudice as we see sadly much too often in news today. On what seems to start off as a quiet day, Titus spurs into action when an active shooter situation is reported at the local school. Shaken by the vengeful shooting, he starts to dig deeper into the crime, unearthing a disturbing secret about the town that it just doesn’t want spilled. Titus isn’t just fighting the evil in the world today, but he’s fighting all the evil that has seeped into the foundations of the town from long, long ago. 

I don’t think I could have been more excited for the book, and yet I wasn’t prepared in the slightest for just how addictive this thriller would be. Cosby gives life to everything he writes; every character, every home, every dingy corner, it all blooms with his descriptive and impactful words that effortlessly play the scenes in your head as you’re reading through the pages. A huge reason for that is Cosby’s willingness to address the world as it is today. The dilemmas Titus faces feel magnificently rooted in our imperfect world, from grand socioeconomic concerns to much more personal demons that give you pause when you consider that they exist in a character we’re relentlessly rooting for. This slight hesitation pulls up a range of philosophical questions that you ask yourself as you read through the book, some of them even being answered with time in the narrative and some with your own reflections. It’s the immersion of readers into the narrative so strongly that Cosby nails so exquisitely.

Anyone not a stranger to Cosby’s work won’t be surprised to know this isn’t just a dark narrative, but it’s his darkest yet. Unforgiving in its brutality and unapologetic in the small glimpses of beauty of life amidst its ugliness, All The Sinners Bleed has a cinematically somber tone, akin to the True Detective series on HBO. The developments sneak up on you and the twists shock you with the combined jolts of electric watts and ice-cold water. I sincerely hope we haven’t read the last of Titus Crown. This is a protagonist who speaks to you on a deep and intimate level with all his flaws out in the open for you to not just read but also relate to in the hours when the night is the darkest. This may very well be THE BOOK of 2023!

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Endless Vessel By Charles Soule

The thriller genre tends to be dominated with guns-blazing knuckle-blustering fast-paced narratives that dabble little in the art of philosophical and fantastical elements. That’s why it’s always a huge delight when I come across books that embody the heart-pumping relentlessness of thrillers with a hearty note of extraordinary scenarios that truly surprise you with the messages they convey. This, in a nutshell, is Endless Vessel.

Charles Soule paints a vivid and scary portrait of our world a few years down the line where a large global population has succumbed to a depression plague known as The Grey. It infects indiscriminately, leaving those it infects with a hopelessness in the face of the world. When Lily Barnes, a scientist working in Hong Kong, comes across a mysterious device seemingly aimed at giving the people a better future, she discovers a hidden message meant just for her. As she follows her curiosity, she has no idea the magnitude of the storm that’s put in her path. She’s pulled into a mesmerizing interwoven tale of intrigue, danger, philosophy, love, and science in the most unimaginable and creative story that doesn’t just leave you with an experience, but with profound questions you would want to answer for yourself.

Endless Vessel is a journey across nations, time, and worlds with stunning and cinematic action sequences written with a surprisingly great amount of detail to help you visualize the scenes in crisp clarity. From clandestine organizations to rioting rebels, the story encapsulates a grand theme and setting without getting bogged down.  The rather extraordinary nature of the narrative makes it so there’s always a new angle for readers to consider and invest themselves in, always another chapter to dive into, and always one more page to read before a good night’s sleep. It’s a slippery slope but the finale is worth it.

Endless Vessel is an excellent break from traditional thrillers and it is sure to appeal to those seeking danger and excitement in the escape of their books as well as those wishing to embark on a grand adventure unlike anything they’ve read before. It’s a thinker and it’s gonna stay with you for quite a while.   

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Six Bullets To A Man By Jethro Wegener

Jethro Wegener answers the burning scenario in the hearts and minds of thriller readers who wondered how awesome it would be to have a kickass vigilante in the 70’s with a penchant for dishing out justice against corrupt officials and racists in a small town in Mississippi. The answer to that is Duke Gibbs. Heed this name, for it has the potential to continue long past this date.

Duke Gibbs is a Black Ops soldier with brutal combat and tactics under his belt after being assigned to SOG in Vietnam. He returns home after a haunting tragedy to make amends, finding himself embroiled in a conspiracy involving missing Black citizens and a sheriff who seems eager to push Gibbs out of the town. With a promise to fulfill, Gibbs takes matters into his own hands and digs deep into a shocking mystery that will shake the foundation of the town to its core. Fighting hoodlums, trained assassins, and corrupt officials, Gibbs makes for one heck of an adventurous and extraordinary protagonist.

Six Bullets to a Man packs a mean punch with brutally sharp action sequences that spark authenticity and an adrenaline rush second to none. Think of Jack Reacher but with an even more action-heavy narrative at every twist and turn as Gibbs gets deeper into the heart of the conspiracy. Wegener keeps the story running at a buttery-smooth pace that makes this thriller one of the most entertaining and easiest reads I’ve ever come across. Every interaction, every development corresponds proportionally to the scope of the action that grows larger and darker by the chapter. Not only do we empathize with Gibbs on his mission as he battles corruption due to Wegener’s gut-wrenching depiction of racism in its true form, but we also understand his reasons that are ultimately triggered more by strategy than blind emotions. The connection that’s established with Gibbs is a lasting bond that hooks you into the story. It also helps that Wegener puts crisp details into his story that make the place come alive in all its glory and horror. You feel the sun shining on you as Gibbs strolls around uncomfortably in a town that caters to racists, you feel the impact of bullets swirling around, and you feel the thirst for justice that Gibbs delivers.

Six Bullets to a Man is a fantastic debut that reads more like an enthralling thriller by a seasoned writer than a budding one and sets up an incredible new series that thriller fans will gobble up. I can’t wait to read the next one. Duke Gibbs is the man!

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The Peacock And The Sparrow By I.S. Berry

The Peacock and the Sparrow is an engaging espionage and character-driven narrative that speaks to the dark, thankless, and necessary trade of spies. I.S. Berry may be a new face in the thrillerverse, but she propels the debut with her explosive and palpable challenges as a former CIA officer. If you prefer your spy books to emphasize the grounded tone of operating behind enemy lines, you’ll want to pay attention.

Embodying a first person POV, I.S Berry takes us on a treacherous journey as Shane Collins, a world-weary CIA spy who is just wanting for his career to be over. He is stationed in Bahrain off the coast of Saudi Arabia for his final tour as an intelligence officer working with and against all the sides in the ongoing conflict of uncovering Iranian support for the insurgency against the monarchy. Unsure of who to trust anymore, he leaves a solitary life. His banal outlook changes as his trusted informant ropes him into a revolution that upends all that he had come to believe in. All that he can do is trust to work through the storm and uncover the blurred lines between the dark secrets of both Bahrain and the United States.

It will catch you off-guard with how unlikable its protagonist is. With deep-rooted flaws and some out-right revulsion, it isn’t a happy tale. Perhaps that’s why this narrative stands out so well when it dissects the dark side of espionage where everyone looks out for themselves and no one can be trusted. There are no flashy action sequences. The lack of action however is complimented by sharp dialogues and fascinating twists and turns that focus on Shane Collins navigating through changes in his life just when he imagined all would be over for him. The genuine nature of the described espionage tradecrafts gives it a tinge of non-fiction flavor as if listening to an old-school story by a man looking back at his regrets. The thriller aspect kicks in almost immediately though, as Collins starts unraveling dirty secrets right in the midst of a growing revolution, packing in a paradoxical chaotic serenity where anything can happen but you are put in the mindset to watch everything turn to ash as a parting gift.

Indulge yourself in a dark, unpredictable, twisty, and grim espionage thriller that reads like a true account of a burned-out spy trying to do something right when all seems to be going horribly wrong. The Peacock and the Sparrow is a marvelous and intellectual debut of warring ideologies in a land where no one can be trusted, not even the ‘good’ guys.

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Weapons Of Opportunity By Dale Brown

Weapons of Opportunity takes you on an exhilarating adventure on the ground and in the sky with energetic action sequences that one fully hopes to find in the best of Dale Brown’s thrillers. 

Nick Flynn and his team at Quartet Directorate, composed of the world’s best and sharpest, get their latest mission when a CIA executive drops off the grid. The situation abruptly escalates when Flynn discovers it was a trap orchestrated by Russian oligarch Pavel Voronin and his shadowy Raven Syndicate to get rid of Flynn and his crew as he plans to unleash a cutting-edge stealth automated aircraft to use in the next wave of attacks against America. Flynn and his crew must gain the upper hand aggressively lest they lose the battle for the safety of millions of lives. 

Dale Brown amps up the wild action sequences that thrill you to your heart’s content. There’s no shortage of pulse-pounding shootouts headlined by cooler-than-ice Nick Flynn settling into his kinetic role as the head of the team. From start to finish, the narrative steams ahead at full speed with all the cloak and dagger secrecy spy thriller fans enjoy immensely and before you know it, you’re knee deep in bullets and explosives. You’re compelled to join Flynn as he takes out bad guys by infiltrating the enemy bases on foot, via dangerous aerial incursions, or by utilizing cool near-futuristic transports that sound like something out of Star Wars but with a more grounded feel to them. Brown’s descriptions of weaponry and equipment add that touch of grittiness to the as-of-yet-science-fiction elements which immensely raises the stakes for the whole narrative.

As the third entry in the Nick Flynn series, Weapons of Opportunity is a major escalation for the conflict between The Quartet Directorate and Raven Syndicate as the finale is both a win and loss for the good guys. Brown wonderfully sets up a high stakes face-off that remains to be resolved, on par with the best in the thriller genre. 

For readers who like their action sequences bursting with badass tech and intense skirmishes in an almost non-stop pacing, Weapons of Opportunity is an immensely satisfying story with all the elements of an extraordinary thriller.

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Triggers By Stephen Leather

Just when you think Stephen Leather’s thrillers cannot get any darker, he pulls a fast one on you. Triggers offers a peculiarly twisting narrative with an unorthodox protagonist with a caveat I haven’t read in thrillers so far. It’s an unsettling and awesome fusion of action and psychological thriller elements.

Marianne spends her days and nights planning out hits to exact brutal revenge on those who wronged her in a past life. Having trained herself in all aspects of living a dangerous life, she leans on the broken figments of her sanity, none more than the other personalities in her head who all serve specific roles in helping her survive. Her uncanny abilities bring her to the attention of a clandestine organization with a directive to surgically eliminate threats against British interests. As Marianne is looped in, we start to glimpse behind the façade that Marianne has so shrewdly hidden herself behind, one that you don’t see coming until it hits you fast and hard.

Stephen Leather demonstrates apt skill at writing an action-packed psychological thriller where the action is wild and the plot slowly unravels with a huge twist that flips the entire plot on its head. Marianne kicks ass, drives fast, and shoots straight in a barrage of technically-annotated action sequences that bear Stephen Leather’s trademark style of storytelling through unbridled violence. Not only do we get to see Marianne fight her way out of intense skirmishes, but we see the toll of all that Marianne faces chip away at her soul in a mind-shattering presence, the likes of which are not so openly explored in action thrillers. It also offers a differing voice from the action standpoint as Stephen Leather’s switcheroo of personalities living within Marianne, all fleshed out enough to feel like wholly different beings, depending on the situation adds a layer of stellar character development even in the midst of shootouts and fisticuffs. 

Triggers is an innovative action-packed thriller that brings something new and raw to the table to help readers appreciate the power of vulnerable protagonists and the wounds they hide in order to survive. Thrillers like Triggers offer the most resonating protagonists, one whom we desperately wish to see succeed, simply because we see them as genuine people rather than words on paper.

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Murder By The Book
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The Poisoned Pen

Dark Horizon By James Swallow

James Swallow’s latest thriller takes the action 40,000 feet in the sky, bursting with intensity and anticipation of each subsequent page from the explosive opening. Dark Horizon is a brutal and uncompromising narrative of the lengths one will go to protect their loved ones, whether they’re trained pilots or not. 

Kate Hood left the RAF under shrouded circumstances, now flying private for rich folks. When she’s pulled in for an urgent flight, she feels something off-kilter immediately, with government-issue vehicles and weapons guarding a hooded body. Her mission is to simply fly the covert cargo to a non-extradition nation. Unbeknownst to her, she has stepped foot in a web of danger and conspiracy centered around the cargo’s potential link to a violent terrorist conspiracy, not only putting her at risk but also those she cares deeply for. It quickly becomes a race for survival for both Hood in the air and her loved ones on the ground.

Dark Horizon packs the adventurous and exotic vibes of Swallow’s Nomad series. His focus on the plight of believable and life-like characters makes the turmoil all the more impactful as the characters, faced with imminent threat, pull off desperate maneuvers to starve off the danger. Kate Hood is a strong and admirable protagonist who shines with her take-charge-no-bs attitude, whether she’s playing coy or dodging missiles from Reaper drones in a jet hardly designed to sustain such crazy high-speed G-turns. 

The action sequences are a thing of beauty, especially the aforementioned dogfight between a Reaper and a Hawker jet, an unlikely pairing but visualized and executed stupendously by Swallow in visceral style that every reader will take the time to say Holy Moly. The crises on ground is just as exciting and thrilling, with Hood’s firefighting boyfriend stopping at nothing to save his son from the dangers set upon them by Hood’s impromptu mission.

Dark Horizon connects a multitude of characters and parallel storyline in such densely packed writing that you don’t even need to worry about losing track. The fast-paced spidey-sense-tingling story with twists upon twists will have you biting your nails to the quick in anticipation of how it will all unfold. It’s a must-read standalone thriller that you will want to read with minimal interruption just because the unfolding of the action feels so addictive.

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Murder By The Book
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Flash Point By Don Bentley

Flash Point is one of Don Bentley’s most adrenaline-fueled thrillers in the Clancyverse, with high stakes for our beloved characters and fantastic character developments to usher in a new age of the franchise.

Jack Ryan Jr. is putting on his leadership pants as he takes his team over the globe to investigate aggressive Chinese tactics from kidnapping scientists to midair collisions that all serve some mysterious mission that Ryan must get on top of before the threat hits close to home, particularly the members of The Campus.

Don Bentley wastes no time in heating up the conflicts with cutthroat action sequences as the narrative kicks off with an exciting shootout and an adrenaline-pumping immersive bike chase in Germany. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s submarine action, aerial action, and an absolute beast of a climax as Ryan Jr. guns and runs to save a certain Campus member from gruesome death.

What makes Flash Point such an impressive entry in the Clancyverse is the sense of mortal danger that’s instilled in the characters and ultimately seeps through to readers. Quite often, thrillers fall into the rut of having the protagonist accomplish the most ludicrous feats without any palpable dangers faced. Don Bentley takes some well-timed risks with the characters to deliver a high stakes narrative. It also serves to place Ryan Jr. in a leadership role for fresh blood in the series, one that puts him in a new light just as he’s recuperating from the gruesome events of the last book and also lays the foundation of a new chapter in his life as he evaluates his priorities.

Flash Point is an excellent thriller supercharged with state-of-the-art technology in tandem with marvelous action and fantastic new characters to carry this series further into the promising future. Bentley delivers a masterclass in thrillers!

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The Last Songbird By Daniel Weizmann

The Last Songbird is grounded noir storytelling at its most compelling. Putting the spotlight on a simple man trying to use commonly available resources to seek justice, it doesn’t take too long before you start seeing yourself in the protagonist.

A struggling songwriter, Adam Zantz, coasts the Californian roads as a Lyft driver. His sad demeanor changes when he accepts a ride request in Malibu for the 1970s music icon Annie Linden. Sharing a love of music, they become good friends and he becomes her exclusive driver over the next three years as she imparts her lyrical wisdom on him. It all comes tumbling down when she’s found murdered one day and Adam is charged as an accomplice-after-the-fact. Rather than going off the rails with unbelievable expose and action, Daniel Weizmann presents a thrilling, down-to-earth, relatable story of the depths of hell a man like Adam will go to, not just to clear his name, but for all that is worth everything to him.

The narrative is marked with sincere tones of regret and humility as Adam digs deep into the secrets of Annie Linden. A person he thought he knew. Even though the storyline is set in present day, Weizmann takes readers and Adam on a lovely but dark stroll through the 70’s in LA, not through flashbacks, but through stories with a grand story, a marvelous technique that leaves you longing for connection to a time you may not have even been born in. 

The noir theme is brilliantly executed in all its glory, harkening to the cinematic quality of masterpieces like Taxi Driver and Drive. Even with a slower than usual pace of crime solving, given the unofficial nature of the protagonist, there is a sense of urgency that simmers throughout the narrative, beckoning readers to stay connected with Adam in his mission to unearth dark secrets about Annie’s murder. All unfolds in due time, not one page sooner and not one line later than it is supposed to. The twists and turns pump up the enthusiasm in the gloomiest of settings.

With an oceanic backdrop catering to a happening city with all-too-real skeletons in closets, The Last Songbird is an apt example of a thriller done right where the protagonist is so relatable that it feels unsettling. Daniel Weizmann nails it!

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The Devil You Know By Chris Hauty

Chris Hauty brings back Hayley Chill in a vulnerable fashion that has our kickass protagonist grappling with the weighty demons of her past endeavors, from the dark secrets of her family to her recent near-death experiences in combat. 

The murder of a Supreme Court Justice by one of the police officers assigned to protect him stuns the entire nation with no plausible motive behind the barbaric act. When Hayley Chill’s superiors detect a hint of something sinister happening behind the scenes, they assign her to protect another Justice in Maui where incidentally a group of school kids is kidnapped by highly trained mercenaries. Not one to believe in coincidences, Hayley is tasked with rescuing the kids and protecting her charge before the nefarious plot by secret moneymen reaches its final stage.

Hauty keeps fans of the series on their toes as he shakes things up to shine the light on a new side to Hayley Chill. While she retains her powerful presence, there’s a broken quality to her that leaves her vulnerable on mission, both physically and mentally. There’s a sense of impending failure where readers can no longer be sure if Hayley Chill will in fact save the day. This reticence brings a fresh change of pace for thriller readers to devour and appreciate. It also allows for new characters to shine in the series that match Hayley Chill and sometimes even go beyond her efforts to get the job done.

In addition to the barebones thriller material, Hauty very cleverly weaves together elements that tinker on the line between grounded and supernatural. With Hayley constantly hallucinating her friend April after her demise, Hayley seemingly gets to learn about things from her dead friend. However, there are enough breadcrumbs to possibly dispel a total supernatural mystique as we see April’s astral form as simply a way for Hayley’s intelligent and inquisitive line of thought to break through her drunken stupor and clouded judgements, making for quite a lot of “oh damn” moments throughout the narrative. It can still be quite scary at times if you’re reading at night however.

The Devil You Know reads fast and furious with a timely narrative and a realistic threat for badass protagonist Hayley Chill. It works marvelously as a stepping stone in Chill’s progress back to her top form after learning from her mishaps. 

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Dead Drop By M.P Woodward

M.P Woodward follows up his raging debut with a banger sequel that escalates both the action and the global stakes while tackling the dangerous game of espionage with a distinctive and grounded twist in Dead Drop.

When nuclear talks between US and Iran gain steam towards a possibly peaceful negotiation, both parties are determined to see it through. However, Mossad believes the negotiation to render a moot point and continues pursuing an aggressive game plan against Iran. When the Israeli intelligence agency seeks to locate an Iranian rocket scientist, they must turn to John and Meredith Dale to gain access to an Iranian captive who was captured by the husband-and-wife pair of spies. But with nerves shot to hell, there is no time for niceties and in addition to finding the Iranian scientist, John and Meredith must put aside their marital issues and face off against a blood-lusting Mossad official who wants his targets without any regard for innocent lives caught in the crossfire.

M.P Woodward creates an intriguing dynamic around the common running theme in the genre by subtly casting individual characters as good and not-so-good as opposed to painting the whole canvas with a generic brush. It beckons you to invest your time and emotions into the flawed characters with their relatable predicaments, especially with how wildly unpredictable the chain of events gets at certain moments. While it’s almost a given that Dale would get into fisticuffs with Iranian assassins, squaring off against the Mossad adds that tinge of freshness that thriller readers don’t ordinarily get to read. This is where M.P Woodward’s characters really shine as they, for the most part, defy the stereotypes in their motivations.

Speaking of interesting characters, John Dale’s character development continues to be stellar and captivating as he is very much a vulnerable and human protagonist who feels both the punches he takes and those he inflicts. The action sequences capitalize on the unwilling nature of John who doesn’t want to get embroiled in the shadow of death anymore but he can’t escape it. As such, the action is written with an emphasis on realistic combat that emphasizes smart and dirty battle moves in the path to survival with lasting trauma at the cost of living.

Dead Drop is a genuine spy thriller akin to a deadly game of chess that takes place on a global board with the added complexity of both sides playing for and against each other, making it harder for readers and characters alike to distinguish friends from foes. M.P Woodward continues to impress and dazzle with his budding series and I can’t wait to see where he takes John and Meredith next.

Follow Kashif on Twitter or contact him via the site.

Purchase Dead Drop
(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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