Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 02/12/2013
ISBN-13: 9781250021342
ISBN-10: 1250021340

Technothriller. Fans of Michael Crichton's exciting blend of science and fast-paced action won't be disappointed by this near-future thriller, which combines a terrifying artificial intelligence, military secrets, and a father's race to save his daughter's life. Jim Pierce was once an NSA analyst who now designs bionic prosthetic limbs for wounded veterans; he even wears one himself. When he learns that his estranged daughter, a skilled hacker, has been targeted by Chinese security, he and a China expert with the NSA may be the only ones who can stop a malevolent China-based AI network that has been reprogramming and controlling humans, with an end goal of destroying mankind. The action ramps up to a series of nail-biting scenes, so you may want to set aside enough time to finish this book in one sitting.

First Chapter  

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 02/12/2013
ISBN-13: 9780399159725
ISBN-10: 039915972X

Suspense Fiction. When four Americans volunteering at a giant Somali refugee camp in Kenya are kidnapped, John Wells reluctantly goes undercover in a country he knows little about (his expertise is the Middle East). Meticulously researched (details abound about refugee camps, drone technology, and Somali culture) and incredibly tense, The Night Ranger is the 7th in a consistently nerve-wracking series. The 6th (The Shadow Patrol) made it onto the 2012 Crime Writers Association Steel Dagger long-list, and if you enjoy this series for its honorable hero, fast-paced plotting, and believable enemies, you may want to try Jack Higgins' series featuring Sean Dillon, an ex-IRA terrorist turned (eventually) British anti-terrorist agent.

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 02/12/2013
ISBN-13: 9780307959966
ISBN-10: 0307959961

Thriller. Like Reacher in Lee Child's popular novels, the protagonist of Roger Hobbs' debut novel is a cipher who lives off the grid and is always on the move. But where Reacher uses his skills for good, our unnamed "hero" spends his time cleaning up after high-level heists. But a botched one in his past means that not only is the guy who organized it on his trail, but so are the FBI and a rival -- meaning that "Jack Delton" has to use all his skills to remove himself from their cross-hairs. Plenty of action, well-realized characters, an incredible amount of research, and a "tornado of a plot" (Booklist) bode well for this likely series opener, which has been praised by everyone from The New York Times to O Magazine.

Publisher: Pegasus Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/09/2013
ISBN-13: 9781605984001
ISBN-10: 1605984000

Suspense Fiction. During a post-Katrina fundraising event in New Orleans, British bodyguard Charlie Fox is tasked with guarding a wealthy donor. She's also re-training her former lover, Sean Meyer, whose memory of their relationship has been destroyed due to a gunshot wound to the head. This is his first job back, but their working relationship is tested by another man from Charlie's past who's filling Sean's head with lies -- and what promised to be an easy job turns into a deadly shoot-out. Charlie, as always, is a fierce fighter and Die Easy is an action-packed, gritty story. Though it's the 10th in the Charlie Fox series, newcomers can start here before heading back to the library for #1, Killer Instinct.

Publisher: Soho Crime
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/10/2012
ISBN-13: 9781616950682
ISBN-10: 1616950684

Thriller. In this series debut (followed this month by a sequel, The Leviathan Effect), a pandemic virus is sweeping through the Third World, wiping out entire villages in a single day. After receiving the severed head of a colleague in the mail, former CIA operative Charlie Mallory -- who has plenty of skeletons in his closet -- discovers worrying links between the spread of the disease and humanitarian aid to the area. But sending his journalist brother to learn more may be the end of both of them. Fast-paced and suspenseful, this novel keeps things moving with "vivid, direct prose and a skillfully developed plot" (Kirkus Reviews).

First Chapter  

Publisher: Other Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/01/2012
ISBN-13: 9781590515273
ISBN-10: 1590515277

Historical Spy Fiction. Marian Sutro is only 19 when she is recruited by the British Special Operations Executives and, thanks to her fluency in French, parachuted into German-occupied France. There to help the local resistance, she has another quarry -- a scientist on whom she once had a childhood crush, and who might be persuaded to leave France to help the Allies build an atomic bomb. Though the novel takes a while to pick up the pace, readers interested in Marian's efforts may wish to read about the real women her exploits are based on -- try Sarah Helm's A Life in Secrets.

First Chapter  

Publisher: Kensington Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 02/01/2012
ISBN-13: 9780758246653
ISBN-10: 075824665X

Suspense Fiction. Former Navy SEAL Tom Hawkins's past is returning to haunt him, but it's really his present that's the problem. Now a soccer coach, Tom's been implicated in a child pornography ring, accused of his ex-wife's murder AND of sleeping with one of his soccer players, and is unsurprisingly the current target of his high-school daughter's hatred. Meanwhile, that past? It takes the form of a former buddy and his drug-smuggling operation. And his former high school nemesis is the cop in charge of the case surrounding his ex-wife's death. Someone's clearly out to get him -- but who? And why? Figuring it out is half the fun -- while the other half is a plot so intricate (but terrifyingly plausible) that your head will spin.

First Chapter  

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/03/2012
ISBN-13: 9781464200113
ISBN-10: 1464200114

Noir Fiction. Since the events in Drive, Driver has been living clean with a new name (Paul West), a successful business, and a fiancée. But one Saturday morning all that changes when they are attacked; he survives, but she doesn't -- and neither do the attackers. Called "perhaps the most genuinely poetic crime writer alive" (Booklist), author James Sallis doesn't bother too much with plot. Rather, as Driver returns to the business of revenge, it'll be the precise and brutal prose that you'll notice. Fans of the cult favorite film version of Drive will not want to miss this sequel any more than fans of true noir writing would.

First Chapter  

Publisher: Overlook Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 02/16/2012
ISBN-13: 9781590206997
ISBN-10: 1590206991

Spy Fiction. When the USSR collapsed, KGB officers lost their jobs, and at least one used his position to prepare for the future -- in this case, by stealing a portable nuclear device. Fifteen years later, in need of cash, he intends to sell it. Meanwhile, a British Secret Intelligence Service operative has caught wind of the prospective sale -- and the fact that a middleman in the deal has employed a chauffeur who's actually an undercover London cop. Though he and his putative boss are under increasing pressure and scrutiny from the distrustful mafioso brokering the deal, the cop now has to answer to the Secret Service too. Compared to the work of such spy fiction greats as John le Carré, Gerald Seymour's Timebomb is "intricately crafted and clocklike in its controlled release of psychological and geopolitical tension" (Kirkus Reviews).