The Bottom Line: The best Eisler thriller in years. Over the past two decades, former intelligence operative-turned-novelist Barry Eisler has created some of the genre’s most compelling characters, most notably John Rain and Livia Lone. Eisler brings them together with great effect in The Killer Collective. When a joint FBI–Seattle Police investigation of an international […]
The Bottom Line: The brilliant first entry in a promising new YA adventure series. What do you get when you cross Star Wars with Top Gun and The Hunger Games? The answer is Skyward, a sci-fi military thriller that even Tom Clancy fans may love. In the action-packed Skyward, a girl dreams of becoming a […]
Our 2018 fall list of the best mystery and thriller books so far is incredibly diverse, ranging the gamut from political thrillers to crime thrillers and everything in between. If there’s one thing that distinguishes this excellent batch of books, it’s character development. While losing sleep is practically guaranteed with any of our mid-year picks, […]
The Bottom Line: Based on a true story, this World War II adventure is the American answer to All The Light We Cannot See. Highly recommended. The Rigel Affair tells the globetrotting adventure of impoverished orphan Charlie Kincaid, who escapes an abusive life on a Mississippi cotton farm. After surviving boxcars and dockyards, Charlie ends up in […]
This one is hardly new, but would could be more perfect for the holiday season? I for one, will be spending several hours with the legendary sleuth! Sometimes, you just want a classic. Agatha Christie, the acknowledged mistress of suspense—creator of indomitable sleuth Miss Marple, meticulous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, and so many other unforgettable characters—brings […]
The Bottom Line: Fans of serial killer fiction will find plenty of diabolical suspense in this engrossing thriller. Tailor-made for fans of Jo Nesbo and John Sandford. Somewhere in a corrugated metal shed, Washington University grad student Dina Levins wakes up from a chemically induced sleep. She recalls the horror of being taken from her […]
The Bottom Line: Magical, mysterious, sensual and utterly profound. One of the year’s best thrillers. When the dying star of a famous performance troupe goes missing right before show time, her standby, Miriam, prepares to take her place in the performance. As is their custom, Dune, the troupe’s leader, hypnotizes her before the curtain rises. […]
The Bottom Line: A mesmerizing FBI thriller set in the Alaskan wilderness. After the bodies of four murdered women are found on Alaska’s Kodiak Island, FBI Special Agent Nick Morgan flies to Kodiak to aid in the investigation. Morgan’s local contact, Alaska State Trooper Dan Patterson, fears a serial killer is at work. But finding […]
The Bottom Line: One of Grisham’s finest. The release of a new John Grisham book is like an annual holiday – reliable, full of intense strife, and in the end, sheer pleasure that you look forward to repeating. As usual, Grisham embraces his trademark southern gothic style here, packing the book with just enough courtroom […]
The Bottom Line: One of the year’s best thrillers. When Texas detective Barry Marshall receives an anonymous tip on a stolen Chevy truck, he knows that something is off. The caller urges him to come quickly, claiming to fear for his own life, and the truck description matches an active case Marshall is working. But […]
