The Bottom Line: Koontz’ experiment with short-format fiction is a spectacular success. In a departure not only for Koontz but also for the publishing industry, the legendary author has just dropped six books in the new “Nameless” series. In the audiobook version, narrated by Edoardo Ballerini, the length is just about long enough for an […]
The Bottom Line: An electrifying military thriller reminiscent of Mark Greaney and Brad Thor, with a plot worthy of a blockbuster movie. When a suspected CIA operative is captured by the North Korean government, the man’s father, an American General, repeatedly asks the White House to intervene. The White House does nothing, and the alleged […]
The Bottom Line: One of the year’s best thrillers. In The Courier’s intense opening pages, four thugs are gunned down by an assassin in Bangkok, a businessman’s contract is brutally terminated in Tokyo, and a DEA agent saves an overdose victim in Charleston, West Virginia. What’s the connection between these seemingly disparate tragedies? Debut novelist Gordon J. Campbell […]
The Bottom Line: A psychic thriller that ranks among King’s best. Stephen King’s latest thriller The Institute is in no way a sequel to Dr. Sleep (which itself was a sequel to The Shining), but thematically speaking, it’s a close cousin. As in Dr. Sleep, villains with terrifying psychic powers are hell bent on leveraging […]
The Bottom Line: A mesmerizing medical thriller about the consequences of humanity’s quest for immortality. In Matthew Mather’s The Dreaming Tree, Royce Lowell-Vandeweghe wakes up after a nearly fatal car crash to find that his mind has been transferred into a new body. Suffice to say his recover is “complicated,” with side effects that include […]
The Bottom Line: A believable thriller about the lengths to which parents will go to protect their children. You’d never know by looking at her, but drug addict Paige Green is the daughter of a Wall Street financial adviser and a pediatrician. When her father, Simon, spots her playing guitar and panhandling in Central Park, […]
The Bottom Line: Big Little Lies meets The Big Chill. A thoroughly engaging whodunnit. Ah, reunions. They are always filled with both anticipation and dread. But in Claire McGowan’s new novel, the 20th anniversary get together of six college friends is also a deadly one. Host Ali finally has the life she always wanted: a career […]
The Bottom Line: A haunting psychological thriller that will stick with you long past the final chapter. Wyoming high school senior Branson Kovac hears voices. Sometimes, he sees entities that he calls “the shadow people” carry out violent acts. And sometimes, they kill people. Including his mother. Told in alternating points of view, A Divided […]
The Bottom Line: The Russians are back in this full-throttle revenge thriller. Brad Thor proves that even after 19 entries, his Scot Harvath series still has plenty of fuel left in the tank. The cliffhanger ending in Brad Thor’s previous Scot Horvath entry, Spymaster, made Backlash one of the year’s most hotly anticipated books. The […]
The Bottom Line: Get in on the ground floor of this engrossing small-town crime thriller. Highly recommended for fans of C.J. Box and Craig Johnson. In B.D. Smith’s second Detective Douglas Bateman series novel, Bateman is called to investigate multiple axe murders in northern Maine. Bateman, who serves with Maine’s Major Crimes Unit, soon discovers […]
