A Spy Like Me By Kim Sherwood

James Bond is back in a way I couldn’t have anticipated. Kim Sherwood expands the universe of the legendary 007 with modern heroes and threats alike, compounding the world of spycraft with grittiness second to none.

The story opens up with a devastating bomb blast in London, the saving grace being the quick work of Double Os on the scent of the sophisticated terrorists. Given carte Blanche to hunt down the enemy, MI6 agents Joseph Dryden, 004, and Conrad Harthrop-Vane, 000 are assigned to follow the money trail all over the globe, some places swarming with eccentric billionaires and some pulsing with violence. At the same time, Johanna Harwood, 003, is picking up James Bond’s trail as he disappeared at the hands of the insidious private military company Rattenfänger. As the investigations tighten the noose on the antagonists, it becomes harder to trust anyone, especially the Double O’s. After all, who else can pose a bigger threat than those trained to subvert the greatest of threats? 

A Spy Like Me is a terrific espionage narrative right off the bat. Sherwood tackles this grand worldwide conspiracy with both panache and an emotional rawness that works best in spy thrillers where you appreciate the fast-paced shiny cool spycraft as well as the high emotional stakes and broken souls that propel characters to step into the abyss in the first place. Each Double O is given their fair share of spotlight and each shines with unique flairs. Dodging bullets, treachery, and one pounding mystery after another, each Double O reaches a tipping point that drastically changes the playing field for all. Ultimately, Sherwood captures the entangled plotlines in a stupendous combination of emotion and action with the right balance between lethality and humanity in the protagonists to make you root for them as they wade in the seas of danger. 

A Spy Like Me is an enthralling spy narrative that beautifully inaugurates the spy-savvy world of Bond in today’s era of misinformation and societal unrest. To add even more flavor to the delicious main course, the story ends with a chilling cliffhanger. When I say the cliffhanger will shock you to your core, I mean that it truly will give you a buzz. Sherwood sure knows how to set up a daunting next chapter and it’s one that shakes the foundation of what we’ve expected from this new series.

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Catchpenny By Charlie Huston

Catchpenny is an intriguing blend of fantastical elements we’ve come to enjoy from the likes of Stephen King’s books along with a gritty insight into LA’s underworld of drugs, music, and dark arts. 

Sidney Catchpenny is a fascinating character. Sure he’s going through a depressive slump but what he can do is steal like none other. How’s that? Well, he can travel through mirrors. Life has a funny way of finding him when he’s down. Even without any desire to catch some new work, he’s sought out by a friend who leads him to a PI-styled adventure that ties in a video game threatening to cause havoc in the real world, a missing girl, lots of dark mojo conjured by dark magic, and a doomsday occult. It’s up to Catchpenny to navigate through the myriad of worlds coexisting with the surface world most of us never break past, until we do.

What charmed me immensely about Catchpenny is Charlie Huston’s breathtaking ability to craft an intricate story that somehow seems to flow effortlessly throughout the course of the book, everything seemingly unconnected at first but fitting perfectly with the right pieces of information that Sidney acquires through his private investigation. Huston’s depiction of a darker and yet more magical world running parallel to ours is creative, exciting and ingenious to the point that it’s much easier than you’d imagine to fall into this new world without even questioning how it would have come to be, simply adopting it as if taken for granted. 

Catchpenny is a story of love, trauma, and a quest to find one’s purpose that would resonate with readers of every genre. It’s got something for everyone. Sprinkling a warm story at its core with really awesome twists and old-school noir elements that will make you want to pick up a Raymond Chandler book again, Catchpenny is a fantastic all-round thriller with so much to offer. 

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Mal Goes To War By Edward Ashton

Edward Ashton tackles AI in a way I wasn’t prepared for. Mal Goes to War is a witty, hilarious, and thought-provoking insight into a possible future as glimpsed through the eyes of an AI entity.

Mal is an AI observer of a war between the bio-augmented Federals and the puritanical Humanists. Not much for playing an active role in the conflict, Mal spends his time in the infospace. When Humanists cut off access to his home while Mal is out looking for salvaging scraps from the battlefields, he finds himself stuck inside the body of a cyborg mercenary. Suddenly thrust into the battlelines while protecting a bio-enhanced girl, Mal will find out more about being human than he could have thought in his endless simulations.

What I found exhilarating about Edward Ashton’s latest technothriller was how he established AI’s as darkly humorous and at times straight-up horrifying beings, a notion that comes with the ability to outthink humans on a large scale. As much as it is a thriller with danger and intrigue, it is also a perspective on how much AIs may learn to emulate humans, with traits like greed and survival at all costs. With the added benefit of us readers being inside Mal’s head as he goes on a journey through the wastelands, the narrative gains that extra touch of blending the book’s reality with ours as Mal acts more and more human throughout the story. Ashton also breaks away from going into much technical detail about the AI, presenting Mal as a character more than a piece of code that mutated.

Mal Goes to War is an incredibly addictive read which thrills, excites and puts you in a thoughtful ponder with supreme ease through Ashton’s fast-paced writing and stimulating characters all packed between bouts of cool hacking sequences as well as violent shootouts.

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Deep Cover By Aiden Bailey

Deep Cover is a fast-paced, adrenaline-pumping, revenge-fueled, action-packed thriller that elevates the espionage action thriller genre a notch or two.

Picking up from the fresh events of The Trigger Man, Mark Pierce, the former CIA paramilitary officer is tortured over a time span of months at the order of a treacherous CIA spymaster out for his own financial gain. Pierce, aptly code-named Trigger Man, wakes up to find himself in a car, with dangerous criminals planning on putting a bullet in his head. What follows is a spectacular action sequence where Pierce takes out his foes efficiently with punches, kicks, and bullets. Pierce finds a surprise in the trunk of the car, an Asian woman tied up by the gangsters. But he has to decide quickly if he can trust all that she seems to be as he faces off against the traitorous spymaster, a spoiled brat in charge of a diamond mining company, an African warlord, and a group of mercenaries all in cahoots to frame Pierce for theft of nuclear waste with a sinister and horrifying plan. 

Aiden Bailey couples the highly intense plot with brutal hand-to-hand combat sequences in a variety of techniques and excellent shootouts with armament fitted appropriately to the exotic locales in the book. Speaking of exotic locales, one of the stellar aspects of the book is the use of exotic locations that are not commonly featured in action thrillers. While the story is set on African Continent for the most part, the different cities explored are done so with extensive research on the author’s part, so much so that one can be fully immersed in a location at any given point with just the right amount of information about the environment in a fast-paced action thriller.

Bailey distinguishes Deep Cover from a straight shoot-em up action fest with its depiction of inhumane horrors in the African warlords governed areas to the philosophical insights in the mind of Pierce as he contemplates revenge and terror. Despite the grand-scale plot, Bailey humbles his protagonist with tremors that get in his way when he’s amped up as he must be to survive the countless action sequences. It comes across wonderfully as the stakes feel higher and the combat more intense, a beautiful but haunting display of a crack in Pierce’s armor.

It flows off the pages that Aiden Bailey has grand plans for his series, taking Trigger Man on global adventures with heart-pounding and cinematic action sequences and characters that continue to evolve spectacularly, so much so that you feel deeply invested in the outcome. The cliffhanger once again shakes things for Trigger Man, and I am keen to find out where he lands next.

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4 Minutes By Andrews & Wilson

Andrews and Wilson have taken on shadowy syndicates and AI in their books and are now exploring the vast realm of sci-fi military thrillers with a really fascinating take on time travel that’s nothing like you’d expect. You’ll be awestruck, terrified, and tensed beyond your grasp as you’re taken on a dangerous mission.

Special Operations Chief Tyler Brooks is a man who relishes being a door-kicker, being in the thick of the combat side by side with his brothers and sisters in combat. When his SEAL brethren are ambushed in a manner that would seem highly impossible, he wants answers. Those answers come in the form of being recruited to lead Task Force Omega, with a directive to use time-bending technology to glimpse 4 minutes into the future. As Brooks rallies his new troops to utilize this opportunity to save lives, he comes face to face with a danger that not only threatens the team, but the entire United States. It’s a mission that will require every single moment in the present and the future.

Time travel can be a tricky topic. There are so many possibilities to address that it can get overwhelming. However, Andrews and Wilson really thought things through to create a narrative that’s both cool and innovative. As the characters get a hands-on education of this new game-changing technology, the readers also gain keen insights and perspectives into the time-jumping missions and the haunting price paid in pursuit of doing good. The core premise is brilliant and invites readers to suspend disbelief without a complaint because of emphasis on reasonable tactical judgment displayed by the heroes throughout the story, holding you captivated with the realism even in the face of an incredibly complex element such as time travel.

On top of the jaw-dropping time travel take, the authors top off the package with great action that immediately jumps off as seeming perfect for a cinematic rendition. The gritty and brutal hand-to-hand combat and fast-paced car chases with shootouts are worthy additions to the best of Andrews and Wilson’s action sequences. You’ll be compelled to re-read a few pages just to play the action sequences in your head at least a couple of times.

4 Minutes is an enthralling beginning of a new saga that amplifies high-stakes storytelling with a cutting-edge premise that will grip you with its talons and shock you with its unexpected deviations and twists. I am so excited for more to unravel in this new series going forward. The cliffhanger won’t make it easy to wait.

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Guns And Almond Milk By Mustafa Marwan

Mustafa Marwan’s debut is one I’d been itching to read ever since I heard about its plot. It seemed like a fresh change of pace in the thrillerverse, almost seeming more like a literary novel than a straight-up thriller and even before I reached halfway in the novel, I knew I’d gotten that part right.

Guns and Almond Milk tells the narrative from the eyes and ears of Luke Archer, a British Egyptian doctor who is hiding from his demons and troubled past in war-ravaged Yemen. When the hospital he’s working at gets taken over by Western security contractors, he realizes he must face his past head-on because fate has brought it to doorstop no matter how far he thought he had run away from it.

If that description sounds a little vague, it’s on purpose. As you dive into this book unprepared for what’s to come, you deeply resonate with the world Mustafa Marwan has created, one that mirrors ours with characters that feel inspired and relatable, none more so than Luke Archer. Marwan captures the essence of a Muslim who feels the tidal pulls of staying true to his religion versus the lure of following his impulses. Not only is the protagonist well-informed about his religion but he also practices it in a realistic manner in keeping with his upbringing, leading to healthy respect for his character as the protagonist upon whom this entire narrative depends on. This plays an essential role in developing his character as someone whom readers can genuinely relate to in the difficult decisions he faces throughout the course of the narrative. The setting may be familiar as a war-ravaged middle eastern landscape but Luke’s odyssey as he navigates both his tormenting past and the perilous nature of his present with bullets flying around and explosions swirling around is absolutely captivating and enthralling, with tones of old-school character-driven stories that I easily fall in love, all flaws of protagonists intact.

The action hits you with a pang of overwhelming energy just as it impacts Luke Archer and his friends who may be versed in dealing with bullet wounds and injuries but not the deer-in-the-headlights panic of being in the gun-toting action themselves. As the characters get trapped in the hospital, there’s sustained gunfire and combat that never loses its momentum.

Guns and Almond Milk is an awe-striking debut by Mustafa Marwan as he zeroes in on what makes people tick and crafts a superb story that not only transforms its protagonist by the end, but also brings alive a warmth in the hearts of readers who at times may feel just as lost as the protagonist but sure enough find their footing in the most unexpected of ways. It’s a thriller but above all else, it’s an engrossing journey across faiths and cultures and different meanings of life.

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City In Ruins By Don Winslow

There’s a lot to be said about City in Ruins. But it’s best to start off by acknowledging it’s not only the bittersweet ending of a beautifully haunting trilogy, but it’s also the final book of a phenomenal author who is closing his writing career with the perfect crime thriller that leaves nothing more to be desired and all that is left to do is appreciate its sheer excellence. Don Winslow has written a genuine masterpiece.

Danny Ryan has made it in life. He’s rich, he has gone legit, he’s in love, and he’s got his son and mother with him to enjoy the luxury that comes with being a respected businessman – a Las Vegas casino mogul and billionaire silent partner in a group that owns two lavish hotels. However, he wants more. It’s the pursuit of this desire for a bigger and better life that puts him in a shooting war against a competitor who himself is no saint and thus begins the fall of the dream Danny has worked so hard to build. Danny doesn’t want to go back to his old ways, but when your back is against the wall, is there any other choice? Will there be anything left to salvage by the time all the blood has dried?

Don Winslow’s trilogy is epic. He set up a fascinating introduction to this world, populated it with believably flawed heroes and despicable villains, drove the large narrative to a tipping point and then brought readers full circle. With so much going on in City in Ruins, it could have been easy for things to get lost in the mix. But not for the master of crime drama; Winslow gives each character a pivotal role to play and it’s because of such powerful roles that you not only begin to empathize with the plight of the characters but you begin to feel for them as you would for someone you’d know intimately. One moment you’re cheering for Danny to achieve his dream and in the next you’re chilled to the bone as you realize what the consequences of such desire would be. You don’t want to unlock the darkness, but the writing is too good to let you get away from its grasp and you tumble down the rabbit hole of misery and pain all passionately described to evoke your most inhibited expressions of love, joy and disgust.

Don Winslow has written many great crime thrillers and while it’s a big decision to pick his best, City in Ruins is his tour de force. Danny Ryan serves as a frayed, but solid beacon of goodness and hope and his arc will forever be remembered as a story of compassion, danger, and redemption in ways that can only be attributed to life’s little mysteries. Winslow ends his auspicious writing career with a finale that couldn’t have been more perfect. I wish we could have more of his thrillers to look forward to, but it has been a hell of a journey growing and maturing as a reader with his impeccable stories.

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Lethal Horizon By Jason Kasper

Jason Kasper brings some closure to the long-time fans of this series as our favorite kickass team of gunslingers finally hone in on their elusive target after gunning their way through a gazillion dead combatants on their uncompromising journey towards seeking justice.

Lethal Horizon kicks off with the Shadow Strike team finding themselves in a very difficult and morally compromising situation. After a sharp and clinical strike on an enemy compound in Yemen, the team comes to know of the whereabouts of the dangerous terrorist, Erik Weisz, who they’ve been scorching earth for all this time. Just as they’re about to close in, their CIA handler orders them to stand down. Why? That’s the million-dollar question that the team will need answered as they hurtle towards fierce gunfights and hardcore combat to finally get their target once and for all.

Lethal Horizon is a jarring resolution to a burning quest for revenge and justice across badlands all over the globe. Kasper nails the trepidation of characters as they close in on their prey while grappling with the nasty gray area that comes with choosing between saving a few and saving many. In the midst of meticulously-crafted chaotic action sequences, Kasper injects a healthy dose of drama to help visualize the team in a vulnerable light, not simply in terms of the mortal danger but also in the demons hidden within each of the gunslingers. It’s a somber and cathartic experience for both the heroes in this narrative and the readers who follow the characters into the heart of combat with Kasper’s illustrious writing that leaves nothing more to be desired from an action-packed military thriller.

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Lethal Action By Andrew Warren & Aiden Bailey

Andrew Warren and Aiden Bailey are masters of the cinematic espionage-action thriller genre. They constantly up the ante when it comes to badass action sequences and they’ve really outdone themselves with Lethal Action. From the memorable roster of heroes and anti-heroes to hoot-worthy car chases and shootouts, this book doesn’t miss.

Thomas Caine is no stranger to violence. He frequently undertakes the most dangerous missions to save the world from one audacious evil plan at a time. This time he’s tasked with stopping a corrupt bureaucrat from spilling secrets to a foreign service in the name of greed. That operation quickly spirals into a chaotic mess with Chinese and Russian agents muddying the waters along with the CIA and a mysterious assassin with a deadly reputation. Racing across the European countryside and over the snowcapped glaciers of Norway with bullets and blood chasing Thomas Caine, he must get the upper hand against all those in his way, especially those on his own side. 

Warren and Bailey cut no corners in presenting a grand and epic narrative that bursts alive with smooth storytelling that puts Caine front and center along with the mysterious assassin who by the end will become unexpectedly difficult to say goodbye to. I certainly hope the character comes back in future stories. That’s the charm of Warren and Bailey’s duo as they write characters that feel real in the most harrowing situations. Augmenting the adventurous story and the multi-layered characters is sharp action. It’s not just the lethality of the combat that stands out but the way it’s woven together with the scenery that makes each action sequence come to life in your mind with all the synapses firing with precise timing to make the action grand and powerful.

Lethal Action is the kind of adrenaline-pumping thriller that’s perfect for an escape from all the chaotic and tiring moments in your day, propelling you into the hot seat within the narrative as you dodge bullets, helicopter crashes, and fast cars in an epic ride.  

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Cape Rage By Ron Corbett

Ron Corbett brings the thunder with the second entry in the Danny Barrett series as the undercover agent infiltrates a dangerous crime family with a killer on the loose hunting the ones in the family who betrayed him.

When convictions have a chance of high chance of failing, Danny Barrett is called in. He’s hand-picked to tie a bank robbery in Seattle to a criminal organization with little evidence going against it. It’s up to Danny to break the ground on investigating the crime through the family. On top of that, he’s gonna have to watch his back from an in-law of the family who’s coming to exact his vengeance after he was wronged. 

Cape Rage is a sucker-punch of a thriller that comes out of nowhere laced with somber dilemmas and vicious beatdowns and topped off with a fast pace to keep the readers hooked from the get-go. It’s a bona-fide crime thriller in that it disgusts you with its brutality and impresses you with its surprising change of tone in those bright moments that offset the darkness of this world. Danny Barrett is no doubt the leading character but Ron Corbett shines the character-spotlight superb across multiple folks in the story for a fantastic blend between character-driven and story-driven read.

Cape Rage is exciting, cool, dark, intriguing, and thought-provoking with some memorable moments and fast-paced crime drama to keep you hooked and turning the pages. The ending merits a long pause to just ponder the blood-filled events of the whole story and contemplate life in a different light. 

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To Kill A Shadow By Julia Castleton

To Kill A Shadow reads like an eerie behind-the-scenes factual account of a grand conspiracy that may very well be taking place before our eyes as we’re too caught up in the hype of the social media and digesting all that we see and read, regardless of its authenticity. 

Julia Castleton is a dogged investigator and a champion for truth and justice. When an anonymous source with information about a brand-new conspiracy reaches out to her, she’s hesitant at first but decides to pursue it. Her suspicion that there may be more to the picture proves right when the source ends up murdered and her life starts getting derailed by unseen forces pulling the strings to discredit and even harm her. Her salvation and her son’s safety just may lie in digging deeper into the military and political conspiracy that’s going to shock and awe her as much as you, the readers.

The beauty of the narrative is its seamless integration with the world we live in currently. Because of the descriptive nature of the world-building and events in the story, it’s quite hard at times to distinguish between fact and fiction. To Kill A Shadow reads like a factual event masquerading as a fictional one rather than the opposite. Julia Castleton is a complex and layered character whom you’ll rally behind right from the page she’s introduced. At the same time, you can’t help but feel there’s a darkness to her, lurking underneath the surface. The mystery that revolves around her past is one the author has masterfully sustained throughout the length of the narrative. As she works to break open the case, the investigative nature of her work feels so gripping and pulse-pounding that it feels straight out of the headlines where brave journalists crack sinister conspiracies behind the scenes. 

To Kill A Shadow is an intense conspiracy thriller that takes you on a slick and smart investigation with a bold protagonist who instills in readers a sense of great admiration for her real-life counterparts who risk their lives in the pursuit of truth and justice. I can’t wait to read where the author takes this protagonist next!  

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Outlaw By Jack Stewart

Jack Stewart takes to the skies again with a spectacular aviation thriller that’s gonna scratch that itch you have after watching Top Gun Maverick for the 100th time. Outlaw is a high-speed narrative that builds upon its predecessor to be bigger, better, and bolder in all the ways a reader wishes to see in the evolution of a series. 

Top Gun pilot Colt Bancroft is no stranger to dealing with cutting-edge threats. As a volatile situation regarding the abduction of a CIA case officer by a rogue Chinese military faction brews up a storm, a SEAL team is sent for the rescue operation. Providing aerial support in his FA-18E Super Hornet, Bancroft gets a firsthand look at the devastation the rogue military faction can present to the US military through the use of a dangerous new weapon. While Bancroft handles the skies, NCIS Agent Emmy King, aka, Punky, works her investigation on the ground to weed out hidden Chinese agents working surreptitiously to launch a multi-fold attack on US assets. It’s up to the both of them to work out the major game plan before the attack is successful, by working their own leads in their own ways.

Stewart puts you right in the cockpit of the FA-18E Super Hornet along with Bancroft as he pulls some high-Gs straight out of the most cinematically-pleasing aviation sequences across all media. The action is breathtakingly awesome whether it’s Bancroft in the air or Punky on the ground chasing down leads, getting into shootouts and car chases. The narrative is a marriage of various plotlines each propelling forward at light speed with a singular sinister force at the heart of the web that threatens our favorite pilot and NCIS agent. You won’t see the twist coming and by the time you do, it’ll be too late to do anything but stare wide-eyed at the unraveling of a disaster. 

From witty dialogue to grounded storytelling, Stewart outdoes himself with this superb follow-up. Outlaw is one of the most engaging and visually-compelling thrillers you’ll read this year and it fills that niche of aviation thrillers actually taking place in the air quite nicely with detailed descriptions of aerial combat.  

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The Chaos Agent By Mark Greaney

The Gray Man is back in action, this time facing off against the mighty threat of Artificial Intelligence and it may just be his most dangerous mission yet. Buckle up and get ready for 500+ pages of heart-thumping action, nail-biting suspense, and a wild cliffhanger ending that will zap you like a cattle prod.

When world’s leading artificial intelligence experts start meeting their demise in rapid succession, all intelligence agencies are thrown in a disarray to quickly find who or what is responsible for this chain of disasters. After having fallen off the grid, Court Gentry and Zoya Zakharova are living the quiet life until a former contact of Zoya comes knocking on their peaceful life to ask for help extracting a Russian scientist targeted for termination in the same kill list as the others. Putting both Court and Zoya in hot waters, they must now get back into the light from the shadows and uncover the formidable and omnipotent threat that now has them in the crosshairs as well.

The Chaos Agent spices up the narrative for The Gray Man as he now finds himself exposed to the incredible and terrifying new possibilities brought forth by the expansion of Artificial Intelligence. Gone are the days when Gentry had to simply outthink and outmaneuver human beings. It’s this acclimation to the new threat environment that goes a long way in keeping The Gray Man series fresh and exciting with something new always in the fold to keep our protagonist on his toes. Battling killer drones and killer robot dogs in addition to the hired guns, Gentry has his work cut out for him with lots of action sequences to sweeten the pot for readers looking for a huge adrenaline kick. Good thing he’s got backup with Zoya Zakharova and Zack Hightower as well as some other surprising faces in the series to bring the extra firepower.

I particularly enjoyed the resonance of Gentry’s inner turmoil as the book opens up. His battle between avoiding danger and secretly wishing for it to find him is an interesting and quite realistic perspective for an operative who has lived by the sword and perhaps wishes to die by it too even if he doesn’t realize it fully at the moment. It makes for a fascinating tug of war between his love for Zoya and his desire for ridding the world of evil folks. But it all comes at a cost.

By the last page, you are not only going to be gasping for breath after such a strenuous climax showdown with tons of hand-to-hand combat and shootouts, you’re also going to be worrying about that cliffhanger that shakes up Gentry’s world big-time. If you’re like me and wonder what it would be like to see Gentry go unhinged, I have a feeling we may see that soon enough. The Chaos Agent is a top-tier narrative that is as timely as it is adventurous and entertaining.

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Lone Wolf By Gregg Hurwitz

Gregg Hurwitz puts Orphan X through an emotional wringer that genuinely shakes the usually unflappable protagonist to his core. Just when we think Evan Smoak has been through it all, Hurwitz rains supreme chaos over the brief tranquility that is scarcely associated with Smoak.

What starts off as a very banal mission for Orphan X, locating a runaway dog for his step brother's daughter, explodes into a whole different dimension when he’s caught in the crossfire of a sinisterly femme fatale working down her hit list. Putting his maxims in perspective, he doesn’t really need the victim to ask for his help, he steps in regardless, just as a good man would. But this all comes in the midst of an unraveling revelation and experience for Smoak that knocks him off his game. Can he recover fast enough to take down an Orphan-level threat?

Lone Wolf is another notch in Evan Smoak’s character development, this time as he struggles with his newfound family. The narrative serves as somewhat of a re-awakening of Orphan X as he does a timely evaluation of why he really does what he does. Gregg Hurwitz balances strong drama with just as strong action propelling the turn of events at high speed with brutal car chases and swift violence. Hurwitz also pairs up the fast-paced narrative with well-timed subtle humor and some rays of positivity that wonderfully lighten the mood at times when it’s beginning to get super grim.

Just when you reach the last page, exhilarated by the knuckle-busting action, Hurwitz introduces a delightfully clever cliffhanger and takes a huge gamble by pinning a fan-favorite character in Evan’s crosshairs. While the Orphan X books are wonderfully unpredictable, this twist takes the cake for the best and most distressing one yet. Even with the surplus of thrillers out next year, you can’t miss out on Lone Wolf. It’s a non-stop thrill ride and a powerful step in the right direction for Evan Smoak’s journey.

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Crosshairs By James Patterson and James O. Born

James Patterson and James O. Born strike again to thrill readers with a fast-paced extremely suspenseful story that kicks off with a bang and ends with one as well. Once the book’s got you in its crosshairs (pun warranted), there’s no escaping; you’re in for a roller coaster of a ride.

When a sniper employs deadly precision in dispatching seemingly unconnected civilians from a distance, Detective Michael Bennett is paired up on a time-sensitive investigation with Officer Rob Trilling, a former Army Ranger and sniper with NYPD’s Emergency Services Unit. As Bennet and Trilling chase leads, the latter seems to know a lot about the way the crimes were perpetrated. Experience with rifles or something more sinister? Detective Bennett must figure out if he can trust his new partner and how to stop the mysterious sniper from taking more lives.

Crosshairs is an uncannily simple and effective thriller in its mission to pack limitless amounts of suspense in its pages. Patterson and Born make sure readers are wracking their heads in anticipation of the grand reveal about the identity of the sniper, casting suspicion on many characters including the seemingly straight-shooting Rob Trilling. It’s this nail-biting intensity of the narrative that propels the story ahead at full speed. The dialogue is sprinkled with witty banter from Bennett as he brings a realistic tone to the grim tale, sidestepping the impossible to stay in the intersecting realms of plausible and entertaining.  Even if you haven’t followed Detective Bennett’s journey, you’ll easily gel with the easy-going characters and fast-paced investigation. 

Crosshairs is a gripping race against time narrative with bodies piling up faster than you can guess who the killer really is. It hits you fast and hard. 

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Black Cordite, White Snow By Nate Granzow

Black Cordite, White Snow is just what the doctor prescribed if you’re feeling restless for a remarkable crime thriller that is hilariously dark and captivating from the opening salvo of elegant prose that Nate Granzow has penned in his traditional style of facts interspersed in between a mesmerizing story.

In the chilly city of St. Paul, Minnesota, known to the criminal underworld as Crooks' Haven, Niklas and Kessler Kristofferson seek a fortune by offloading some of the most fearsome weaponry that had been witnessed with tremendous ardor by the soldiers on the battlefields of France. The two brothers, leveraging their expertise as military gunsmiths, know that the criminal enterprises in the city will pay top dollar for these weapons of destruction. But before they can get away with their riches, they will need to contend with unsavory characters of all disciplines, from double-crossing gangsters to corrupt police officers. Finding themselves in the crosshairs of one decent detective who has gotten a scent of the Danish brothers’ dangerous plan, the Kristofferson brothers must think and fight their way out of the tightening noose from all sides of the equation.

Nate Granzow excels at the art of blending fact with fiction to the point where it’s hard to clearly say which parts may indeed be fictional. He brings to life the detailed minutiae of life in the Prohibition Era from the streets of St. Paul, Minnesota, to the deep-reaching underworld that existed in those days, all with rooted characters who struggle with their varying shades of grey as they entangle with each other. Kristofferson brothers are so dynamically intriguing that I felt bad reaching the end of the book because it meant I’d have to wait a while before I could meet them again in their next chapter (fingers crossed). Granzow holds a steady hand on building the tension through the pages, keeping the conflicts simmering with veiled threats and hidden agendas until the climactic event where we see the brothers go to war with cool old-school weapons. The pace never lets up for you to feel anything but thoroughly invested and excited in finding out what happens at the end.

I never thought I’d say it but Granzow somehow makes me nostalgic for a time I had no inclination to go back to until I dove into Black Cordite, White Snow. It’s awesome in all ways but especially for reminding you that reading can be a lot of fun as well as intellectually stimulating.

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The Year Of The Locust By Terry Hayes

Terry Hayes has made us wait long enough for a grand narrative after his enticing debut, I Am Pilgrim. I will say that Hayes has endeavored to bring something different to the thrillerverse with The Year of the Locust. It’s a fresh and exciting epic story told across waves of time and destiny that is nothing like what one might expect.

Kane is a weathered asset in the Denied Access Area department of the CIA that operates in the shadows to safeguard American interests across the globe by whatever means necessary. He’s trained to go up against all odds and come out alive. When he’s sent to a desolate region bordering Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran to exfiltrate a source claiming to have vital information of a threat against the West, he is inexplicably tied to a showdown that will persist across time and all that we know to be possible.

The Year of the Locust is a prime example of Terry Hayes’ versatility in imagining and putting in words very different visuals of what a thriller can be. The narrative can’t be neatly categorized in just one bin for sub-thriller genres because it ripples across many. It kicks off with an espionage theme as we see Kane operating in enemy areas with his cool mission-impossible inspired weapons disguised as weathered equipment and before we know it, we’re entangled along with Kane on a personal calling that reaches out to him from beyond what we can comprehend, gelling philosophical conundrums with science-fiction elements on a race against time in more than just one way to stop a dangerous terrorist from unleashing a plague of biblical scale. Throughout all these developments, Hayes deftly drives the narrative with exciting twists and pushes Kane to his physical and psychological limits with cool bloody action and devastating consequences that hang in front of him if he fails in his mission. Normally there’s a disconnect when a narrative goes from grounded to fantastical but Hayes handles the jump masterfully and as a result, the story never loses its footing or heart.

The Year of the Locust was a decade in the making, but it was worth the wait. It has the ingredients of its predecessor, but with new spices ground deep into the bones of the book that make it just as memorable and awesome.

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The Price You Pay By Nick Petrie

Nick Petrie puts Peter Ash and his friends in a sticky situation as Lewis’s dangerous past comes back to haunt him and everyone in his orbit.

When Peter is roused from a peaceful slumber by his old friend Lewis, he couldn’t have imagined it would be for stopping criminals who crossed paths with Lewis and his team back in the day and are now out for blood after retrieving a book full of incriminating notes from a former partner of Lewis. This chain of events sets Peter and Lewis down a dangerous path that can only end in more bloodshed and a revelation that will give readers and fans pause in their judgments for the good and bad guys and gals alike.

What I appreciated tremendously about The Price You Pay is Petrie’s skillful handling of recompense and vengeance from both sides of the equation. The way Petrie frames the action beckons you to think deeply in the midst of bloody carnage and bullets blazing and rockets exploding. There’s a heavy gravitas to the consequences of every action, good and bad, that our favorite characters take and it’s the emphasis on repercussions that truly makes the narrative stand out as memorable not just in the series but in the thrillerverse as a whole. That’s not to take away from the superb action sequences in this entry, bursting with energy and tactical details that add to the much-appreciated visualization of the combat in crisp quality.

The Price You Pay is an exquisite way to kick off 2024, with some of the most-interesting characters you’ll read in the genre, as well as a memorable storyline and pulse-pounding action.

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The Trigger Man By Aiden Bailey

I love all works of Aiden Bailey for he pushes beyond the norms of thriller plots and characters to create divergent characters and fascinating stories set in the world we live in. That’s why when I came across his new work featuring an enigmatic assassin with a moral compass, I knew it would be a winner. The Trigger Man is exactly what you’d want to read when you pick up a thriller expecting copious doses of adrenaline to the drums of fast-paced car chases, shootouts, and explosions hitting you like one freight train after another. You won’t need caffeine to keep you up for it, The Trigger Man does that well enough on its own.

CIA operator Mark Pierce, codenamed Trigger Man, is hunting a despicable arms dealer across the Saharan desert when he stumbles upon a twisted conspiracy that not only pins Pierce and his handler in the bullseye but also traces back to a dark moment in their collective past. When a crazy religious fanatic and warlord is thrown into the mix along with shady mercenaries with a personal vendetta against Pierce, you’ve got the ingredients of a gritty adventure paced wonderfully to completely immerse you into a story that ensures you wouldn’t want to step off the ride at any point.

Bailey masterfully blends tactical action with grand set-pieces that remind you a bit of Cussler’s Sahara mixed with modern day emphasis on technical accuracy. From bullet-ridden car chases involving AK-47 drive-by style-shootings to cinematic battles in moving trucks, there’s a barrage of high-caliber action sequences to get your blood pumping and your energy levels higher than the clouds. It works so much better though because Bailey wisely invests in building up the characters behind the weapons to be quite life-like while still having the aspirational qualities of good men and women stuck in bad situations. The believability of characters doesn’t leave room for any distractions to ruin your reading experience. Pierce himself is an enigmatic character with origins unknown and his warrior-persona more human and vulnerable than one imagines in an action-heavy read. Not only does this make Pierce someone to resonate with, it makes for a compelling intrigue around his background which is bound to be explored bit by bit in the sequels.

If you’re a fan of The Gray Man, then get ready to love The Trigger Man. Intense action, mysterious hero, and twists after twists centered around a grim conspiracy will keep you enticed for what’s to follow, which I can assure you, is greatness.

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The Poisoned Pen

The Mountain King By Anders de la Motte

The Mountain King is an exotic atmospheric dark thriller that delves into the human psyche, while tackling the grim horrors that are ever present in this world.

Criminal inspector Leonore Asker is a tenacious dogged investigator who doesn’t rest until she’s caught her culprit. When she is relegated to the Department of Lost Souls—the unit for odd, cold cases in the midst of investigating a high profile kidnapping, some might think she is going to fade away into obscurity. But Asker has other plans. Perusing the old and banal cases, she finds a chilling link to the kidnapping case, and that it may not have been an isolated incident. The Mountain King has been busy.

Andres De La Motte’s riveting thriller keeps the mental cogs racing as you fly through the pages with utmost ease. Motte knows how to engage the readers with mysterious characters with shady pasts and unflinching horrors that exist in the shadows waiting to prey on the innocent. One couldn’t ask for a better protagonist to lead this intense story than Asker who immediately charms readers in a very unconventional manner. Her disturbing past gives way to her tenacity in protecting others from the evils of this world. It’s a delight watching her work the clues in the most unexpected places, like watching a master of a craft at work going through the motions with vigor and passion for the art. Asker puts up a much needed formidable challenge to the dangerous Mountain King, building up a superb showdown between light and dark.

If you’re itching for a dark investigative thriller that’ll haunt you for days to come, you can’t go wrong with The Mountain King. Packed with bursting intensity, solid characters, scary situations and one twist after another, it’s a great way to kick off 2024.

Follow Kashif on Twitter or contact him via the site.

Purchase The Mountain King
(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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