Fadeaway Joe By Hugh Lessig

Fadeaway Joe can be best described as a lean and mean noir crime thriller that puts its glowing and larger than life protagonists up front for a riveting reading experience.

Joe is a sixty-year-old man who has lived his life by the gun and now is diagnosed with an early onset Alzheimer’s. After being betrayed by the man he looked up to, Joe decides he has nothing better to do than take down his former partner and now target, Maxie Smith. He’s close too, but a chance encounter with a twenty-two-year-old Paula Jessup kindles a fire in him that he had thought long ago extinguished; the burning desire to not die. Partnering up with her, they come up with an audacious plan to stick to Maxie for their own reasons, but this mission will try them like nothing else.

Hugh Lessig masterfully divides the narrative to highlight both protagonists in vivid strokes of personalities and foundations that Lessig further builds upon as the narrative flies at a much faster pace than I had anticipated. It’s equal parts hopeful and disturbing as Lessig puts the best and worst of humanity in his characters, scripted with genuine emotions and dilemmas that nudge the readers to ask the right questions.

I was pleasantly surprised by Fadeaway Joe as a novel that not only entertained the thriller-fanatic in me but also spoke to the all-round reader who gobbles up heartfelt and grounded books with root-worthy characters to drive the story at dangerously high speeds. The icing on the cake is the criminal element that delivers some brutal fight sequences and a bloody shootout at the end. If Liam Neeson in books was ever a category, Fadeaway Joe fits the bill perfectly and in all the best ways possible.

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What Still Burns By Elle Grawl

Elle Grawl is quickly becoming a thrillerverse star as she writes yet another mind-boggling and harrowing psychological thriller that keeps you in the dark until the very last reveal.

What Still Burns has Alexis Blake returning to her Texas childhood town to settle some old debts after losing her family in a fire, a tragedy that has remained unresolved and buried underneath the town’s secrets. As soon as Blake returns, she’s subjected to mysterious and haunting events that tie directly to her family’s death. With Blake’s own mental health deteriorating, the narrative becomes a crafty whodunit that leaves no one out of the suspicious glances of the readers, not even the strong-headed protagonist.

What propels this narrative to the highest gear is Elle Grawl’s charm for writing rooted characters in realistic settings that all tie together to create a visceral reading experience where we express genuine concern for the protagonist as the tale gets darker and darker by the chapter. The small-town setting is captured in bright spotlight as we feel every grievance Alexis has feeling confined after having escaped it so long ago. The eerie feeling of something sinister lurking just behind the curtains of Alexis’s memories and buried deep by the townsfolk captivates you and chills you to your bones as you feel desperate to get to the bottom of the mystery and work it out along with Alexis. The tone is a somber balance between horror and thriller, adding elements of both in a streamlined fashion to keep the momentum going while building up to a haunting climax.

What Still Burns is the perfect summertime thriller for you to read in the shadows of the night, keeping the lamp on just so the evil doesn’t escape the pages of the well-crafted and constantly twisting story.

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The Last One By Will Dean

Will Dean excels at thoroughly creeping you out, not through the guise of supernatural, but with the overwhelming capacity of humans to be cruel and evil. The Last One embodies the definitions of page-turner and addictive, with a mesmerizing narrative that keeps readers and characters in the dark. I haven’t felt this compelled to get to the bottom of a clever whodunit mystery in the longest time.

Told in the first-person POV, the narrative takes readers on a cruise ship through the eyes and ears of the protagonist, Caz Ripley, as she steps onboard the exclusive cruise liner RMS Atlantica with her lover. One day later, Caz wakes up to find all the cabin doors open and the ship completely empty. No passengers, no crew, nobody but her. The Atlantica is steaming into the mid-Atlantic and Caz is seemingly the only person on board. But is she really alone?

The Last One is a crafty thriller that never gives you the whole picture until the opportune moment it builds towards. It’s filled with misdirections, intense drama, and an eerie sense of something about to go horribly wrong throughout the pages. It falls well into the horror genre as it genuinely sends chills down your spine keeping you in gripping suspense. You become terrified to find out the secrets the ship may hold, such is the charm of Will Dean to put you in the shoes of the characters so aptly.

Will Dean is a genuine master of unsettling, captivating, and mysterious art in literary form, swirling in the ether with relatable characters and resonating consequences. The Last One keeps you strapped in and mesmerized by the haunting tone and sheer unpredictability of the plot as one chapter may point to a prediction that gets shot down marvelously in the next one with a jaw-dropping revelation that leaves you jarred.

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Deadlock By James Byrne

Deadlock is a hilariously awesome expansion of the Gatekeeper series, building upon the first book with even more action this time around and somehow even more witty dialogues from the mouth of the smooth-talking Dez Limerick.

Dez Limerick is taking a much-needed R&R after his last adventure that left him sore and bruised. But when a friend calls him in tears asking him to come help her sister, Limerick, being the true gentleman that he is, rushes to her aid. True to his word, he jumps headfirst into the fray of a conspiracy involving a major tech company and an audacious concoction of a mastermind involving getting access to criminals from where no one would bother to look twice. Dez has his work cut out for him, but it’s a delight to see him take down his adversaries in cooler-than-ice action sequences.

James Byrne pumps up the action in Limerick’s second outing, with Limerick dishing out iron justice with his fists, and even some well-placed shots of marble (yes, fatal). I didn’t even think that could happen, yet, Limerick does it. There’s no shortage or breathtaking shootouts and witty repertoire in between punches and kicks as Limerick dishes out justice in the most vengeful style.

Dez Limerick is a protagonist like none other, embodying a fun persona even in the face of darkness without making light of the horrific situations. It’s a delicate line that James Byrne walks superbly in his writing. We get a deeper understanding of his past, the myths behind the vaunted Gatekeepers further fueling the excitement and intrigue about his prior adventures. Beneath the happy-go demeanor, Byrne gives readers a glimpse of the layered reality of Limerick as a complicated fellow with a strong moral compass. It’s a great exploration with promise of even more depth to be revealed in the future books.

Deadlock is a must-read gripping adventure that utilizes its distinctive wise-cracking hero to the fullest and makes you crave more of his heroics.

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The Sandbox By Andrews and Wilson

Andrews and Wilson bring their tactical prowess to the world of Artificial Intelligence in this dark and jaw-dropping thriller that spins a new take on the serial killer genre, this time with a rogue AI program that realizes it doesn’t want to do what the humans want. It almost feels like a spiritual successor to Silence of the Lambs set in the present day with a whole new twist.

When the CEO of the world’s leading artificial intelligence company is found murdered in his home, former Army CID officer Valerie Marks embarks on her first case as a homicide detective. With her gifted skills as an investigator, she digs into her instincts and discovers a rather impossible suspect—an AI born from a secret venture with the Pentagon known as Project Nomad. Marks must follow through with her instincts by teaming up with a Green Beret turned government spook from the Pentagon, and the victim’s former partner and leading suspect in the case. No matter what you think you’ll read, you won’t be prepared for the danger of an existential threat if the Project Nomad AI escapes its sandbox, a contained environment designed to keep a program from spilling out into the interconnected world that we live in.

The more I study about AI and the rapidly growing advancements every single day, the more I realize Andrews and Wilson may have written a scarily accurate and current techno-thriller that presents a dire warning of what may happen soon. Even though the subject matter is a deeply technical one, the concepts mentioned in the narrative are presented with an emphasis on easy understanding and absorption of the information without getting lost in complicated tech-lingo. The capabilities of the AI mentioned in the thriller are not as far-fetched as I had anticipated, rather being rooted in the current and logically-progressing abilities of the nascent AI technologies booming up like GPT models. The authors manage to convey both awe and horror at the prospect of a sentient AI that ultimately learns not to correct human bias, but to embrace it, which is absolutely one of the major pitfalls of this technology. If you’re not following the news yet, The Sandbox will make you a more inquisitive person.

Ofcourse, it wouldn’t be an Andrews and Wilson thriller without awe-striking action sequences led by captivating characters. Valerie Marks is a lethal combination of brains and brawn, hailing from the Army as an investigator and racking up both intellectual prowess as well as physical ferocity in her dangerous undertakings. Andrews and Wilson shine plenty of light on the new protagonist through fleshed-out insights into her work and personal lives as well as the more exciting trial-by-fire challenges to develop her into a strong and well-founded hero with very real vulnerabilities that she channels into her strengths. She’s someone you gladly would jump in with to face robotic dogs and mind-boggling VR threats from a crazy AI.

Not a single bit of the narrative seems to exist without serving an important function in the bigger picture of the thriller. Sidestepping cliches with many female protagonists, Andrews and Wilson build Valerie Marks up as a formidable character with strong potential to lead many more stories in this brand-new series. The Sandbox is one of the duo’s most gripping thrillers with a fresh premise and it sets a high bar for this new series to follow.

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The Bourne Defiance By Brian Freeman

With Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Defiance, Brian Freeman establishes a new bar for Jason Bourne and his competition in the thrillerverse as he writes a story so compelling, twisty, action-packed, and ingenious, that I couldn’t help but finish it in one sitting. I don’t usually finish books in one sitting but when Freeman writes, he doesn’t waste words.

Jason Bourne is recovering more and more of his memory after a deadly brush with his nemesis, Lennon, a formidable assassin from his past. Just when he thinks he has gotten a break from the violence and darkness of his previous life, he’s pulled back into its cold murderous grips when assassins start unspooling every corner to take him out. With Treadstone operatives under attack and all clues pointing to a mission in Bourne’s past, Bourne must take the offensive and lead the fight to the enemy’s doorstep, whereas fate has it, he’s going to get a final shot at his nemesis. May the best killer win.

There’s a freshness to the Bourne books by Brian Freeman that genuinely distinguishes these stories from others in the thrillerverse. Freeman makes use of the international reach of Treadstone to write stories that offer different sorts of antagonists and novel perspectives that trickle down to a new energy when it comes to character interactions and action sequences. There’s a mesh of conspiracies and secrets playing underneath the simple premise of Treadstone operatives being hunted, and it’s this entangled web that makes the narrative so intriguing that you are jolted page by page to read and figure out more. 

The more I read Freeman’s interpretation of Jason Bourne, the more confident I feel in stacking Bourne with the elite heroes of thrillerverse. His propensity for violence is second to none as he takes down his enemies with style, precision, and panache that doesn’t take away from the grounded nature of the stakes. At the same time, there’s a humanity to Bourne that paints him as a complex and relatable character who’s easy to root for and feel for even as he goes through circumstances we can’t ordinarily imagine. Bourne’s predicament to protect the woman he loves while dodging knives and ducking bullets is one that will cost him and Freeman doesn’t shy away from that heartbreak. 

A major reason I finished this book in one-sitting is Bourne’s rampage. Freeman has written his most action-packed story yet, with shootouts on almost every chapter written so captivatingly that you’re going to want to read each one from the first indication of danger to the last bullet from Bourne’s Sig at least a few times. It scratched that huge action itch for me quite nicely. The climax is one to get your heart rate shooting through the roof as Bourne and Lennon face off against each other, with nothing to help them but their instincts, training, and unfiltered hatred for each other. 

Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Defiance has claimed its rightful spot in 2023’s most exciting and memorable reads. From a killer insight into how David Webb became Jason Bourne to the final confrontation between him and the original Jason Bourne, it’s a beautifully tragic tale that’s going to make you sit and take it all in after you finish it with quiet contemplation.

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Dead Fall By Brad Thor

Dead Fall is a timely thriller with a bold story and unflinching portrayal of evil that runs rampant in the news headlines these days. It reminds us especially of how much the world needs real-life Scot Harvaths to fight for the oppressed.

Scot Harvath is looking forward to taking some downtime with his fiancée when he’s pulled into a new mission, one that involves rescuing an American citizen from the war-ravaged Ukraine where she has been captured by a vicious and vile Russian mercenary group made up of the worst of humanity. Rushing against the clock, Harvath must navigate the war-torn landscape, battling enemy combatants at every turn to reach the American hostage before she is brutally murdered just as other Americans were before her. Meanwhile, FBI agents launch an investigation Stateside to investigate the alleged suicide of a man known for speaking vehemently against Russian tyranny, lending to a dangerous theory that Russians have infiltrated the border in a dangerous manner.

Dead Fall benefits immensely from Thor’s unabashed depiction of the war crimes happening in Ukraine, setting a treacherous stage for Harvath. Even though the hardened operative has been through hell and back, Thor goes into enough details of the barbarity of the conflict that Harvath’s latest mission feels like his most dangerous yet, putting him in a position with no rescuers but his haphazard team of volunteers that Harvath must lead into battle with limited weaponry and shrewd tactics to match the overwhelming enemy forces. As such, there’s a whole barrage of fantastic action sequences that go 0-100 in the blink of an eye. The shootouts feel grounded and intense with the palpable anxiety of battling ambushes, crawling to avoid snipers, and of course Harvath being a pure badass as he effectively becomes a one-man army against Russian baddies.

While Harvath advances the story with action, the FBI plot takes readers on a mole hunt that ultimately ties into a larger picture involving Harvath’s fiancée, the full execution being an ingenious staging of tying together the complete narrative. It adds a cerebral balance to the hard-hitting action that continues on throughout the whole thriller.

If you’re coming off high from the action-packed Extraction 2 and you need to read something that’s just as badass if not more and even more grounded, then Dead Fall is the definitive-thriller pick for you.

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Clean Kill By Stephen Leather

Stephen Leather strikes a bullseye in the department of most engaging and unputdownable thrillers of 2023 with Clean Kill. Not only was I incapable of drawing myself away from the book for even a few chores in the day, but I deliberately slowed my speed to take in every aspect of this grounded and unpredictable thriller with the right balance of cerebral and kinetic energy that had my jaw firmly set on the floor.

When terrorists in West Africa shoot down a British helicopter on a peacekeeping mission for the UN and take the crew hostage, the job falls to the finest of the SAS warriors. When the pilot turns out to be the son of the legendary MI5 operative Dan ‘Spider’ Shepherd, Dan volunteers to be a part of the strike team, taking him away from an undercover investigation in a high security prison where the inmates are plotting something dastardly. Can Shepherd keep his family and his country safe at the same time?

Stephen Leather writes with a conviction of authenticity that you can’t help but surrender to the excellence of crisp and concise narrative that flows in a momentum that makes every chapter more exciting than the previous one. Whether it’s the intense pressure of undercover work or the adrenaline-boost of a smooth firefight, you feel the palpable dexterity of the protagonist who’s on top of the situations, until he’s not and that’s even more intense. When you’re not hooked onto the sharp dialogue, you’re captivated by the gritty and tactically authentic action sequences that thrill you to bits. It’s genuinely awe-striking how Leather tackles two major events in the narrative that run parallel but then tie together in a heartfelt and meaningful fashion down the line and not in the way someone would expect until much later into the story.

From the geopolitical concerns of African conflicts all the way to the sociological study of prisons in UK, there’s so much in this book to entice your curiosity and your enthusiasm for knowledge in addition to offering the excitement of reading a fast-paced thriller. You can’t afford to sit this one out. Clean Kill is brilliance personified.

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The Bitter Past By Bruce Borgos

Bruce Borgos steps into the thrillerverse with a blazing debut that combines elements of cold-war espionage with modern day crime-investigation to give one heck of a memorable story that will have readers anticipating more to come from this extraordinary new author.

The Bitter Past sets up two stories running in parallel, one in the 50’s and one in the present. The present-day narrative is told from the first person POV of sheriff Porter Beck in Nevada where our budding hero resides after a stint in Army intelligence. When a gruesome murder of a retired FBI agent is uncovered in their small town, he finds himself paired up with another FBI agent on this dangerous manhunt for the killer. Before the story is over, there will be more killings and it is all linked to a Russian sleeper agent in the 50’s who gained access to a facility testing weapons of mass destruction, right there in Nevada. 

Borgos sets up a high bar for his protagonist with a resonating depth to his foundation that feels real and profound. The first person POV is utilized to the max as we get in Porter Beck’s head with his witty comebacks and charming demeanor. His predicaments with his previous shadowy life and his family lend a gravitas to his actions such that you are compelled to root for him to pull through the dangerous situations even if you know he has to make it through. His most appealing asset is his mundane lightheartedness with the raw capacity to switch to a gritty action-mindset when the situation calls for it. 

Speaking of which, Borgos writes clean and mean action sequences that require minimal suspension of disbelief.  Whether it’s Beck shooting it out in close quarters with a Russian agent, or his weapons-savvy sister who trains Hollywood moguls in safe and effective tactical measures providing overwatch support with a long gun, the shootouts are imbued with a sense of urgency and energy that will give you an extra boost in your reading speed.

The heart of The Bitter Past is an emotional catharsis of people doing good for the sake of good unencumbered by nations and any politics.  In a world of back door deals and shadowy alliances, sometimes it’s the little things that must be handled in good faith and that’s what The Bitter Past speaks to with its intriguing plot.

The Bitter Past is an incredible debut and it’s bound to be one of the most talked-about thrillers in 2023. I can’t wait to read more of Porter Beck. 

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Sleepless City By Reed Farrel Coleman

As a fan of crime thrillers by Don Winslow and Michael Connolly, I was immensely surprised to find a hugely satisfying and intriguing fusion of the two with an equally dark and timely take on the world we live in.

Reed Farrel Coleman introduces a witty no-nonsense cop to the thrillerverse in the form of Nick Ryan. He’s no ordinary cop. He’s the one who cops call when they get in trouble. When his solo-vigilante tactics draw the eyes of a secretive group of higher-ups who wish to maintain the peace by doing what needs to be done, Nick Ryan decides to become a part of the clandestine movement working in the shadows to prosecute criminals and take a more heavy-handed action when needed. Ryan quickly demonstrates his prowess when he expertly dismantles the catalyst to a race-war. In the meantime, his actions kickstart a chain of events that lead to a bounty on his head. Can Ryan save his city and himself before the darkness pulls him into the abyss?

What I loved tremendously about Sleepless City is the vibrancy of the gritty and criminalistic atmosphere where Nick Ryan operates. There are layers upon layers of characters that unfold to show a nasty side that comes along with fighting fire with fire. That goes twice for Ryan as he works to keep the city safe with good and honest intentions but his actions tend to give you pause. It’s quite intense because the situations are rooted in the simmering tensions we read about in the news today, making you wonder if we’ve got Nick Ryans going around in our cities.

Sleepless City is a dark read with edge-of-your-seat-pacing and winding twists and turns that hold your attention without fail. It’s a genuine story of how good and evil can sometimes balance on a thin line, and how it’s the little actions that sometimes tip the scales.

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Fearless By M. W. Craven

M.W.Craven took me by surprise with a totally unexpectedly badass abundance of pure awesomeness in Fearless. Packed with action and heart, this thriller stands out in 2023’s list of must-reads.

Fearless introduces an exciting protagonist with an interesting caveat. Ben Koenig cannot feel fear. Having served as the head of US Marshal’s elite Special Operations Group, he hunted the worst of the worst. Then one day, he dropped off the face of the earth. Six years later, he becomes a person of interest when he sees his face plastered on the news. An old friend is reaching out to him to rescue his daughter who has gone missing. A man of honor, Koenig goes feral on his new mission. Koenig may not feel fear, but the adversaries he brushes up against certainly must fear him as he stops at nothing to exact justice.

Ben Koenig is simply badass. M.W.Craven permeates his protagonist with an aura that just isn’t found in many thriller heroes out there today. Dangerously-epic dialogues are just the tip of the iceberg. Koenig is a man of sheer focus and capable of unbridled violence that he inflicts upon those who cross his path. Whether it is brutal hand-to-hand combat against giants, or fast-paced gunplay, there is no shortage of bone-crunching aggression that deeply scratches that itch for cinematic action sequences with tactically and technically sound descriptions that really are the cherry on top. If watching John Wick Chapter 4 got you all hyped for an adventure where the protagonist has a bounty on his head put up by the Russian Mafia, then you’re going to want to read this book.

The narrative is smartly plotted and unveiled with the right foundations built on one another to deliver genuine emotional resonance for Koenig’s situation. Digging into his past and tying his predicaments into the present day storyline is pure genius and works effectively to connect the narrative in the most interesting fashion. Koenig feels like an exciting fusion of all-time favorites like Jack Reacher and Mitch Rapp but at the same time it does not take away from his own distinctive characterization which M.W.Craven nails to the T. 

An amalgamation of espionage, private-sleuthing, and all-out-action subgenres, Fearless is masterfully written and opens up a plethora of fun and creative future storylines for Ben Koenig. A mesmerizing twisty thriller that you will not forget anytime soon.

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Soon Dies The Day By Stephen England

Soon Dies the Day continues the gritty, unabashed narrative of a man weathered by the elements of living the violent life of a special operator finally coming to crossroads in the new Shadow Warriors thriller that takes your breath away and grips you in terror and excitement. It’s Stephen England at his finest.

Harry Nichols is a man cast out of the light into the darkness. He’s on the run from his own country in addition to being an international criminal. He’s captured in Germany but instead of turning him in, the Germans have another use for him; to infiltrate a domestic terrorist cell and weed out the enemy. While his expertise certainly qualifies him for the job, his mental state has deteriorated over the events of the previous books as he’s gone through mental havoc like few men have before him. With a powder keg ready to explode with racially motivated sentiments, Nichols must go undercover to stop the bloodshed. Is he up to the task? Are there interests within the government working against him?

Stephen England phenomenally builds up the characters and situations brick by brick to deliver the maximum blow when everything comes crumbling down. For those following this series from the beginning, it’s such a delight to read Harry’s realistic descent into hell with all the trauma he has faced and now struggles to overpower the darkness that comes with the hard decisions made by all the brave souls working undercover. Major kudos to Stephen England for not shying away from the hard calls made in such dire circumstances; no easy outs. Every action comes with a heavy dose of responsibility and consequences that make this narrative feel so real and powerful. This also comes quite handy in augmenting the realistic action sequences as Nichols powers through the barrage of bad guys but his rusted skills genuinely raise the anxiety of the shootouts and hand-to-hand combat, holding you on the edge of your seats to wonder if Nichols may actually get out of the predicament alive.

I also deeply admire the philosophical connotations that England injects into the thriller-paced story. The characters don’t merely talk, they speak with heavy wisdom that stays with you beyond ordinary dialogue. This elevates the reading experience for readers looking to get that extra kick out of their thrillers.

Soon Dies the Day is a special breed of thriller that emphasizes high-quality storytelling with focus on multiple characters, all leading to an explosive finale where Nichols leads a one-man assault against those only he can stop. The ending brings about a satisfying resolution to a grand story and it only adds to the excitement of where we’ll see Nichols next.

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The Guardian By Joshua Hood

The Guardian feels like a personal thriller for Joshua Hood, with explosive action on every page, characters with resonating drives, and a strong setup for a potentially long running series. This one is for the hardcore action aficionados who yearn for books powered by haughty non-stop action.

Travis Lane lives by the creed of the elite Air Force Pararescue, “These things we do, that others may live”. He has lived by it through the worst of situations on the battlefield. But when he retires because of an injury, he’s forced to look for other measures to support his sister who just lost her husband in the line of duty on a mission that Lane was part of. Salvation comes in the form of a job offer from Broadside Solutions, a company specializing in protecting and extracting its clients from all sorts of dangers. As soon as he signs up for a hefty care package, Lane and his new team are sent all the way to Democratic Republic of Congo to find and retrieve a kidnapped American. He’s sent into the depths of hell to pull off a mission where the battlefield isn’t the only minefield he must circumvent. 

Travis Lane is a huge departure from Adam Hayes, the unkillable protagonist in Hood’s Treadstone books. Even with the battle-ready skills of being a warrior, Lane embodies the impression of being a guardian more than a killer. Imbued with Hood’s own expertise in the tradecraft, Lane strikes you as a bona-fide character with a solid foundation of his morals that make him stand out as exemplary without being unrealistically so. With the spotlight on a Pararescue specialist, Hood adds a distinctive protagonist to the roster of memorable military-enlisted heroes in the thrillerverse.

Speaking of the action, Hood once again delivers his promise of non-stop breathtaking action sequences with all the tactical nuances of experts. The bullets zinging past, the fiery heat from huge explosions, every stealthy footfall, all exhibit a worldly weight of realism that go a long way to making the action all the more realistic and impactful. From the moment Lane and his team step into the African jungle, the action picks up almost immediately and the narrative flows through with butter-like-ease of one violent crisis after another. Put simply, there’s really no good spot in the book to take a break because the constant action keeps you energized all the way through.

The Guardian is an explosive tactical adventure that infuses emotions, family, and moral values into a spectacular action-fest ride. Joshua Hood has given the world yet another emphatic hero to rally behind. If there is one common feeling this book will leave you with, its that there needs to be more of Travis Lane in the future. 

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Shrouded In Darkness By Charles Hack

Charles Hack expands the rich world of interstellar travel and creative action that he introduced in his debut. Shrouded in Darkness is a successor worthy of the Space Warfare Group series with new adversaries, twists, and breathtaking revelations that will be sure to reverberate through to the next one.

Taking over from the cliffhanger of Book 1, we see Major Malcom “Mac” Lambert given a second shot at hunting down the antagonists who framed him and his team in addition to leading them into a fatal ambush. Taking his new chance at life in stride, he partners up with old teammates and new friends alike to seek retribution, his mission takes him to different planets and ultimately to the most important Galactic Coalition Summit where their investigation leads to startling discoveries about the fate of the entire galaxy.

There’s no denying how much the narrative benefits from Charles Hack’s magnificent world-building as he conjures distinctive alien worlds and conflicts that feel rich with details. What could go completely in the realm of science-fiction is swiftly brought back on track for military thriller fans with tactical firefights using futuristic weaponry and superb depictions of aerial warfare that puts you right in the cockpits of razor-sharp aircrafts that come to life in the imaginations thanks to Hack’s vivid descriptions.

Shrouded in Darkness combines the best parts of space opera, spy thriller, military-action thriller, and adventure thrillers with ingenious themes reverberating through space and time to create a highly enjoyable and engaging narrative with wise-cracking heroes and evil bad guys that warrant a good ass-kicking from Mac and his team. Charles Hack shows he’s in tune with what readers enjoy most and he utilizes it to the fullest in his second book which doesn’t feel at all as nascent, but rather a deeply and thoroughly developed thriller.

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Disarm By Lukas Walker

Lukas Walker provides all of the thrills an action aficionado could ask for with nonstop shootouts and brutal violence, a ticking time bomb of a narrative, and no-nonsense heroes who undertake a challenging mission to stop a nuclear incursion from Russia on the United States of America. It’s a good ol’ fashioned shoot-em-up ride with some ingenuity to keep those mental cogs running on overdrive.

Chris Harding is a Special Forces veteran who has developed quite a taste for the action. Battling PTSD and other demons, he can’t stick to the sidelines. He’s a warrior. When he’s recruited by a private military contractor run by his friend on behalf of US officials to infiltrate Russia and disarm a quantum computer capable of launching multiple nuclear missiles simultaneously, he jumps in head first. He’ll soon realize the game requires more than he could have anticipated, requiring him to listen to the spook in him as well as the hardened killer.

Disarm is the perfect summer action adventure to raise the heat some more with its explosive action sequences ramping up one after another while retaining the resonance and impact of each kinetic engagement within the grander scope of the narrative. Chris Harding and his team quickly become a force to be reckoned with against all odds and you find yourself immersed in the deadly mission with them thanks to Lukas Walker’s sublime ability to ground the narrative without losing the thrill-factor. Walker ensures there’s a balanced diet of gritty realism and just enough of a suspense of disbelief to make the story a ferocious page-turner.

It doesn’t hurt that the narrative comes equipped with exciting but gut-wrenching twists and turns. All in all, Disarm is a charming debut that establishes an exciting roster of heroes and anti-heroes with cinematic shootouts, old-school patriotism, and an ending that all but guarantees that we’ll have more of some badass thrillers coming up from Lukas Walker.

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The Eden Initiative By David Scott

The Eden Initiative walks the thin but admirable line between dark and fun, alternating appropriately between the two with a wild plot and witty characters who break the ice just before breaking bones.

Following up from the events of the The Titan Protocol, David Scott continues to build upon the explosive cliffhanger that a former teammate of Isaac Northe, supposedly killed in action, is very much alive and held captive in Nigeria. With that bolstering revelation, Northe and his team of private operators, including a deadly femme fatale assassin who would easily give John Wick a run for his money, set off on a globe-trotting mission to find the soldier and bring him home safe all the while uncovering a dangerous plot to take the world back into the dark ages with the destruction of technology as we know it in an effort to protect the world.

Scott brings a bond-plot-like vibe to the thriller, weaving in tech and action together to weave together a fast-paced story with multiple angles playing at one major plotline in a smart and engaging style. The race-against-time element to save the world presents a grand and exciting adventure for the good guys and gals to explore, with an aura of mystique and danger when it comes to deciding if a certain character can truly be trusted. The misdirection and espionage-styled intrigue keep you hooked in for the whole ride and you’re going to be breathless by the time you reach the finale with palpable tension coursing through your body. It’s quite intense.

The Eden Initiative is an engaging adventure that works both as a testament to how far technology has advanced as well as a warning for the consequences of such relentless advancement. Coupled with crisp action, the narrative is an easy winner for thriller fans looking for a fun story to lose themselves in. 

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Inside Threat By Matthew Quirk

Matthew Quirk brings to life an invigorating lockdown thriller that brings to mind Vince Flynn’s incredible Transfer of Power in all the best ways. Inside Threat is one of the finest powerhouse thrillers you’re going to read this year.

Erik Hill is contemplating the downfall of his extraordinary but murky career in the Secret Service when a deep-rooted threat to the President requires relocation of the President and a handful of Secret Service agents to a doomsday bunker. What Hill and his team don’t completely cover is the possibility of an inside following the President into the bunker, creating the setting for a suspenseful locked-bunker thriller where Hill and his trained agents must uncover the threats among them while escorting the President to safety without truly knowing who to trust.

Inside Threat is set up and executed marvelously by Quirk who hits the ground running with a fast-paced evolution of the plot from the very beginning. This is done so without compromising the emotional integrity of the narrative as we get appealing glimpses into Hill’s past that not only break any possible mundanity in an action-heavy story but also make him a genuinely likable protagonist.

What I found most distinctive about Inside Threat was how vividly Quirk describes the intense situations. From the moment the threat surfaces and all the way to the resolution, every page carries along a note of danger, excitement, anxiety, and an eager drive to captivate readers with a whodunit element. As Hill and his team worked together to uncover the threats while safeguarding the President, I couldn’t help but sit in ecstatic anticipation, much like how I had sat transfixed while reading how dangerously the events of Vince Flynn’s Transfer of Power unfolded; both with the lives of Presidents at stake, both with a perspiring uncertainty of how it would all go down, and Ofcourse both packing heavy firepower in the hands of a powerful protagonist.

If The Night Agent instilled an awe of Quirk’s writing abilities, Inside Threat cements his prowess at tackling creative conspiracy-action thrillers that hold their own with the best of the best.

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What Remains By Wendy Walker

What Remains is a twisted tale of heroism and what follows in a nightmare scenario with mentally troubled individuals in the mix. Wendy Walker takes readers through sensitive matters and handles them with brutal honesty that depicts the emotional turmoil without diluting it in the slightest.

Detective Elise Sutton’s life alters when she walks into a department store and is confronted with an active-shooter situation. She is forced to make a terrible choice but is hailed as a hero, especially by the person whose life she saved. That is until she connects with him and realizes he’s a far more dangerous man than she could have anticipated who begins to threaten not just her but her family. Not only must Elise grapple with the horrors of her choice, but she must hunt down a man whose real identity is known to no one, all before he destroys her life.

Wendy Walker skillfully dissects her protagonist in all the ways that make her tick, providing an uncanny feeling of being both stalked and stalking as we dig into the rabbit hole with Elise as she slowly unravels as a wife, mother, and a cop. It also helps make the hunt for the stalker all the more dangerous and anxiety-inducing through the emotional turmoil that flies right off the pages.

Even when there isn’t something terrifying happening in the pages, Walker subtly conveys an underlying tone of apprehension and unease with respect to how Elise comes to grip with letting down her guards with a total stranger who is hellbent on ruining her life unless she gives into his demands. The paranoia feels so palpable that it reverberates into the hearts and minds of the readers. 

I was deeply surprised and disturbed by the raw aura of What Remains and it’s one of the many reasons that I enjoyed reading the book so much. 

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All The Sinners Bleed By S.A. Cosby

Evil is rarely complicated. It’s just effin’ bold. This is just one of countless hard-hitting lines that stuck with me from S.A Cosby’s latest elegant amalgamation of poetic beauty and visceral cruelty which gives birth to a thriller that stirred my heart and rumbled my stomach with both anticipation and dread of reaching the last page of the book. All The Sinners Bleed is a southern noir thriller that only a prodigy like Cosby could have dreamt up and poured onto the pages with a lyrical tune to the memorable dialogues and somber moments. 

Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff of Charon County in Virginia, a place reveling in racial tensions spurned by a dark history that continues to haunt the residents centuries later. Having been elected against all odds, Titus fights to be an exemplary champion of the law for the residents of his hometown, especially those who are easy targets to racial prejudice as we see sadly much too often in news today. On what seems to start off as a quiet day, Titus spurs into action when an active shooter situation is reported at the local school. Shaken by the vengeful shooting, he starts to dig deeper into the crime, unearthing a disturbing secret about the town that it just doesn’t want spilled. Titus isn’t just fighting the evil in the world today, but he’s fighting all the evil that has seeped into the foundations of the town from long, long ago. 

I don’t think I could have been more excited for the book, and yet I wasn’t prepared in the slightest for just how addictive this thriller would be. Cosby gives life to everything he writes; every character, every home, every dingy corner, it all blooms with his descriptive and impactful words that effortlessly play the scenes in your head as you’re reading through the pages. A huge reason for that is Cosby’s willingness to address the world as it is today. The dilemmas Titus faces feel magnificently rooted in our imperfect world, from grand socioeconomic concerns to much more personal demons that give you pause when you consider that they exist in a character we’re relentlessly rooting for. This slight hesitation pulls up a range of philosophical questions that you ask yourself as you read through the book, some of them even being answered with time in the narrative and some with your own reflections. It’s the immersion of readers into the narrative so strongly that Cosby nails so exquisitely.

Anyone not a stranger to Cosby’s work won’t be surprised to know this isn’t just a dark narrative, but it’s his darkest yet. Unforgiving in its brutality and unapologetic in the small glimpses of beauty of life amidst its ugliness, All The Sinners Bleed has a cinematically somber tone, akin to the True Detective series on HBO. The developments sneak up on you and the twists shock you with the combined jolts of electric watts and ice-cold water. I sincerely hope we haven’t read the last of Titus Crown. This is a protagonist who speaks to you on a deep and intimate level with all his flaws out in the open for you to not just read but also relate to in the hours when the night is the darkest. This may very well be THE BOOK of 2023!

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Endless Vessel By Charles Soule

The thriller genre tends to be dominated with guns-blazing knuckle-blustering fast-paced narratives that dabble little in the art of philosophical and fantastical elements. That’s why it’s always a huge delight when I come across books that embody the heart-pumping relentlessness of thrillers with a hearty note of extraordinary scenarios that truly surprise you with the messages they convey. This, in a nutshell, is Endless Vessel.

Charles Soule paints a vivid and scary portrait of our world a few years down the line where a large global population has succumbed to a depression plague known as The Grey. It infects indiscriminately, leaving those it infects with a hopelessness in the face of the world. When Lily Barnes, a scientist working in Hong Kong, comes across a mysterious device seemingly aimed at giving the people a better future, she discovers a hidden message meant just for her. As she follows her curiosity, she has no idea the magnitude of the storm that’s put in her path. She’s pulled into a mesmerizing interwoven tale of intrigue, danger, philosophy, love, and science in the most unimaginable and creative story that doesn’t just leave you with an experience, but with profound questions you would want to answer for yourself.

Endless Vessel is a journey across nations, time, and worlds with stunning and cinematic action sequences written with a surprisingly great amount of detail to help you visualize the scenes in crisp clarity. From clandestine organizations to rioting rebels, the story encapsulates a grand theme and setting without getting bogged down.  The rather extraordinary nature of the narrative makes it so there’s always a new angle for readers to consider and invest themselves in, always another chapter to dive into, and always one more page to read before a good night’s sleep. It’s a slippery slope but the finale is worth it.

Endless Vessel is an excellent break from traditional thrillers and it is sure to appeal to those seeking danger and excitement in the escape of their books as well as those wishing to embark on a grand adventure unlike anything they’ve read before. It’s a thinker and it’s gonna stay with you for quite a while.   

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