The Bottom Line: Hands down, Brad Meltzer’s best novel. Whether in his novels or in his short-lived TV show, Decoded, Brad Meltzer has always favored using historical events as the basis for implausible but entertaining conspiracy thrillers. In The Escape Artist, Meltzer demonstrates that he can also invent a truly magnificent character that, in virtually […]
The Bottom Line: An explosive police procedural with an endearing hero at its core. Readers will be longing for another Craig Hooper novel. Shamed federal agent Garrison Chase is dealing with some first day on the job jitters. After facing legal issues because of his somewhat unorthodox collection of assault weapons, Chase just landed a […]
The Bottom Line: A first-rate crime thriller with plenty to say about the rise of artificial intelligence. Futurists predict that robots are coming for many of our jobs in the near future, but in Brian Parker’s New Orleans, that threat even extends to the sex trade. Easytown’s erotic robots are nearly always better than the […]
The Bottom Line: Author L.J. Martin had me at “secret mission into North Korea.” North Korean ambassador to China Kim Hyun-hee has indicated that he’s willing to defect and spill the country’s nuclear secrets. There’s only one thing standing in his way: doing so would be a veritable death sentence for his entire family. American […]
The Bottom Line: Livia Lone proves why she’s Barry Eisler’s best protagonist yet. Like many longtime Barry Eisler fans, my entry point was A Clean Kill in Tokyo. To be honest, I never truly loved Eisler’s John Rain, whose dispassionate outlook on life added little narrative thrust. But Eisler’s insider knowledge of spycraft was blatantly […]
The Bottom Line: only word word will suffice: Epic! For the uninitiated, Oathbringer is the third volume of the New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive. The epic fantasy series began its live on a website and is now a runaway bestseller. Roshar is the native name for the planet on which The Stormlight Archive is set. It is […]
Our 2017 list of the best mysteries and thrillers is incredibly diverse, ranging the gamut from psychological thrillers such as Rose Edmunds’ second Crazy Amy book to Douglas E. Richards’ latest sci-fi mindbender. Unlike previous years, we’re highlighting exceptionally read audiobooks in our list as well – a nod to the growing popularity of the […]
When Dr. Julian Hemmings agrees to apply the controversial techniques of his mentor Sigmund Freud to the deeply troubled Lucy Westenra, he begins a descent into a world of gothic horror that prompts his own self-analysis and a confrontation with long-suppressed passions that have affected his life since adolescence. Set in London during the fall […]
The Bottom Line: A smart, morally complex and quintessentially American crime thriller. An IRS auditor is found dead at work from a gunshot wound with a small-caliber pistol. Was it suicide, or murder? That’s the question posed to FBI agent Dick Hartmann, head of San Francisco’s Violent Crime Squad. Readers know far more from the […]
In a world violated by terror, the old lines have blurred. Meet the next generation of covert ops. John Dempsey’s life—as an elite Tier One Navy SEAL named Jack Kemper—is over. A devastating terrorist action catapults him from a world of moral certainty and decisive orders into the shadowy realm of espionage, where ambiguity is […]
