411 results for "Thriller"

Dynamite Road

Andrew Klavan
Jim Bishop is a hard man, as cold as the wind off the water and tough to the point of brutality. Scott Weiss is Bishop's boss, a world-weary ex-cop who runs a private detective agency out of a concrete tower in the heart of San Francisco. In this powerfully original series debut by award-winning and bestselling author Andrew Klavan, Weiss sends Bishop to investigate corruption at a Northern California airport-and so sets events in motion that will lead both men on a desperate hunt for a master assassin. Bishop's assignment is to investigate the airport and report back to Weiss. But Bishop prefers to make up the rules as he goes along. He's willing to beat any man into the ground and draw any woman into his bed in order to get the answers he's after. A pilot himself, he takes to the air to check out the illegal flights of a thug names Chris Wannamaker. Then he coolly seduces Wannamaker's lonely wife in order to find out more. Back in the city, as Weiss struggles to rein Bishop in, he begins a connected investigation of his own. A death in a mansion in Presidio Heights, a seemingly random murder South of Market, an apparent suicide off the Golden Gate Bridge, all seem to bear the mark of Weiss' old nemesis, an expert gun-for-hire who goes by the name of the Shadowman. It's a trail of blood, and each step of it seems to bring Weiss closer to Julie Wyant, a mysterious beauty who captures the imagination of every man she meets. Soon Bishop has found his way into the center of a massive criminal conspiracy, a plan set to climax with an act of audacious violence and a murder that would be impossible for any killer but one. And with his operative's wife in danger, Weiss begins a race against time to outsmart the murderer who stalks his nightmares and to rescue the woman who haunts his dream. If you like your tough guys really tough, your femme fatale and your action explosive-welcome to Dynamite Road.
Macmillan 2004-08 317 pages

We Are Holding the President Hostage

Warren Adler
Aging Mafia Don Salvatore Padronelli, a.k.a. the Padre, is furious when fanatical terrorists capture his beloved daughter and grandson on a trip to Egypt. Fed up with diplomatic caution that prolongs their captivity, the Padre and his loyal henchman cleverly insinuate themselves into the White House and hold the President and his wife hostage. Now the Padre calls the shots on getting the President to take steps to release his family. This classic confrontation between two men on utterly opposite sides of the law is laced with humor and illustrates how fierce paternal love can motivate even the most ruthless of gangsters into reckless acts of courage and bravery.
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform 2016-06-20 356 pages

Where the Dead Lay

David Levien
When Frank Behr’s friend and mentor is murdered without any apparent motive, he thirsts for answers and retaliation. But before he can make headway in the dead-end investigation, a private firm approaches him with a delicate proposition: two of its detectives have gone missing, and the firm wants Behr to find out what happened to them. The search for the missing detectives takes Behr into the recesses of Indianapolis’s underworld, a place rife with brutality and vice where Behr uncovers a shocking thread connecting the missing detectives to his friend’s brutal murder, and, in the process, an ominous, deadly new breed of crime family.
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group 2010-06-22 416 pages

Heart of Gold

Warren Adler
"Warren Adler writes with skill and a sense of scene." -The New York Times Book ReviewA new thriller from the critically acclaimed novelist Warren Adler, well known for his iconic novel turned box office hit, The War of the Roses, and many more notable titles including Random Hearts, Target Churchill and Trans-Siberian Express... Milton Gold is a fringe operating "hustling lawyer," barely making it in the cutthroat chaos of 1970s New York City. His world is suddenly turned inside out when he meets the mysterious and beautiful Karla Smith, a Polish-American woman, who approaches him with an assignment that will test his skills beyond anything he has ever experienced. Karla hires him to find what he thinks will lead to his biggest payout yet: her inheritance of one-hundred million dollars in gold coins hidden by her banker father from the Nazis during World War II. Despite his skepticism he joins Karla in a fantastic, dangerous and adventurous trek through communist dominated Europe to Auschwitz where the treasure has been hidden in an unsuspecting place. Milton and Karla discover things along the way that profoundly change their relationship and ultimately test their moral view of the world and society. Balanced with humor and tragedy, Heart of Gold explores the brutality of life behind the iron curtain and the boundaries of morality during the darkest days of the Cold War.
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform 2017-03-07 378 pages

The October Circle

Robert Littell
"An explosive story of friendship and sacrifice in the depths of the Cold War era. Connoisseurs of the literary spy thriller rank Robert Littell with John le Carre, Graham Greene, and Alan Furst in the first tier of the genre's pantheon. Set against the backdrop of the 1968 Russian invasion of Prague, The October Circle is one of Littell's most riveting early works. Seven of Bulgaria's cultural elite -- close friends and all true communists -- find their beliefs shattered by the roar of Russian tanks thundering toward the defenseless Czechoslovakian capital. Driven by conscience, the group -- 'The October Circle' -- join forces with an American drifter to stage an extremely dangerous protest that will set off a wave of repression and threatens to repay their heroism with death"--P. [4] of cover.
Penguin Books 2008 193 pages

Girls

Frederick Busch
Frederick Busch has built a reputation as a master storyteller, a magician with words, and a writer who deserves to be a household name. In his new novel, Girls, he once again treats readers to the "ice-clear, dagger-sharp" (Seattle Times) writing he's become known for and a story that's deeply affecting, terrifying, and tragic. Jack is a security officer at an upstate New York college. When 14-year-old Janice Tanner vanishes from a neighboring town, he reluctantly becomes involved in the search as a favor to a friend of the girl's parents. A suicidal young woman, a teenage runaway, and two more missing girls make it impossible for Jack to drive resurfacing memories of his own daughter's death from his mind. In the course of the investigation, as he comes to confront Janice's murderer, Jack comes to realize just how dangerous it is to be a girl: "I wondered if girls had been kidnapped, murdered, preyed upon for years. Maybe it was the times, and therefore everything human and otherwise from when we began might not be at fault." Girls is a novel that is both a thriller and a stylistic wonder, and, like its protagonist, is tender and tough at the same time.
Random House Value Publishing 1999-03-16

Residue

Warren Adler
A firebombing of a black church in Brooklyn that was once a synagogue sets off a chain reaction of international intrigue and bloody violence. The fire bombers are young men of Arab extraction who mistakenly believe that this church whose stain glass windows illustrate the Stars of David is still a synagogue. In the wake of the bombing a prominent "white shoe" Wall Street firm sends its young token Jewish lawyer to help the church pro bono in their insurance claim. In a walled off area exposed by the fire in the basement of the Church the pastor has found three huge trunks filled with gold and precious jewels worth multimillions. The bizarre journey of this treasure, where it has come from and how it got in the basement of a black church is the heart of this tantalizing story which deals with both the origin and the aftermath of the discovery, and the impact it has on the lives of the young lawyer, his family, the pastor of the Church and numerous other interlocking characters who suddenly surface with claims to its provenance. It makes for a compelling and suspenseful story of terror and greed and illustrates how the long tail of the past can reach into the present with life altering results.
Stonehouse Press 2010-10-31 376 pages

Mourning Glory

Warren Adler
Grace Sorentino has never known the good life: from childhood hardships, to a marriage that began with lofty dreams and ended with all hopes shattered. Dealt bad hand after bad hand. Grace and Jackie, her rebellious teenage daughter, are now stuck in Florida, on the verge of poverty. Grace is underpaid and under appreciated cosmetician at Saks Fifth Avenue, and Jackie-when she is not spending her time with questionable boys-balances school and two jobs. Just when Grace things couldn't get any worse, Grace is fired after accidentally insulting a snobby customer. However, it is a blessing in disguise. As she walks out the door, her boss offers her an invaluable piece of advice: don't look for a new job, but a vulnerable old rich widower who has just lost his wife; comfort him, and once his guard is down, seduce him. The keys to success and fortune are not a name tag and uniform, but a new last name and a ring on your finger. Marriage should be the number-one priority. At first Grace is appalled by the idea, but as rent, car payments, and credit card bills pile up, her despair turns to desperation. She begins looking through the obituaries for her last chance at a good life-after all, isn't that something everyone deserves?
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform 2016-06-17 326 pages

Finding Grace Captured by a Cult

Warren Adler
The chilling new drama from Warren Adler, the bestselling author of 'The War of the Roses, ' gets to the heart of brainwashing and its power to corrupt and control. A father. A mother. A daughter. A cult. When their twenty-three-year-old daughter goes missing, divorcees Harry and Paulie are forced to leave behind their newly constructed lives to track Grace down. But Grace isn't lost, not physically at least. They find her seemingly unharmed in California on a sunny farm the other residents call "Camp Star." But nothing is as it seems... Sinister motives lurk behind the smiles of those at the camp and the two soon learn that Grace is in the clutches of a notorious cult. Under the spell of mind control, she denies Harry and Paulie as her family and shuns their love, leaving them to search for answers in the most desperate of places. Scrambling to piece together their shattered lives, Harry and Paulie race against the clock to bring Grace back home - but will she ever be able to return? How do you help someone who doesn't know they're lost? Readers are at the end of their seats reading Finding Grace! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ This book will have you flipping pages late into the night wondering what will be the outcome of two parents trying to rescue their daughter from a cult. - Ashly, Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The characters pulled me in and emotions were so raw that I could not put it down. - Ellie M., Goodreads Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Once I started reading this book, I could not put it down. It was intriguing. Absolutely worth reading! - J.A., Amazon Reviewer
Stonehouse Productions 2017 286 pages

Banquet Before Dawn

Warren Adler
After serving his Brooklyn district for years, Congressman Sullivan discovers that his once comfortable Irish-American majority has given way to a diverse district of blacks and Hispanics. Challenged by a more liberal opponent, he tries everything possible to maintain his seat only to painfully learn that he and his views are outdated and irrelevant to today's world. But he doesn't bow out of the race gracefully, and the fierce ensuing campaign brings new insights to the meaning of democracy and the terrors of a swiftly changing world. If, as it is said, all politics are local, this compelling story transcends politics and puts a human face on how the American democratic system really operates. Unforgettable characters and a powerful plot offer a remarkable and tense story of how tragic endings affect new beginnings.
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform 2016-09-22 350 pages

The Mutant Season

Robert Silverberg,Karen Haber
There are mutants living among us. People with golden yellow eyes, extraordinary powers and strange abilities. For centuries they have hidden themselves, fearing persecution. After rising tensions in recent decades, the mutants find new hope in the twenty-first century, with one of their own holding high political office. *** But underlying prejudices are hard to eradicate completely. And even as the mutants find greater acceptance in society, a single event threatens to undo everything. *** In 2017, the murder of a prominent politician sets off a series of events that will bring the mutants into direct conflict with "normal" humans, and the world may never again be the same.
Arc Manor 2013-07 264 pages

Conflict in the City

Philip M. Cohen
Conflict in the City is a fast-paced, lively, "can't wait to keep reading" novel in the tradition of Donald Westlake's Parker novels by wayof Roddy Doyle's The Commitments.Mixing and blending the genres of detective noir and music, Conflict in the City takes place in greater Los Angeles, home to both classic and modern fictional L.A. detectives like Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe and Michael Connolly's Harry Bosch. Los Angeles is also the center of the music universe, where the Doors, Van Halen, and N.W.A., among so many others, got their starts.It's in this world that we find Johnny "Whoops" Watson and Billy Bates, young guitarists/singers and their band, Conflict, playing clubs in modern LA, where the days of rock's zenith and ascendance in the 1960s and 1970s has faded but the hopes and dreams of aspiring musicians haven't. Conflict is struggling and chaos ensues when someone linked closely to the band is killed. Billy and Johnny become swept up in the mystery, ill-prepared as they are to confront it. The novel is the first in a series.
Luminare Press 2022-01-20 206 pages

Wicked Water

MacKinlay Kantor
Basis for the film Hannah Lee: An American Primitive MACKINLAY KANTOR Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Andersonville "Well," Montgomery challenged him, "how many people have you killed?" The young man stopped laughing. His face turned into black stone. "Sixty-seven." To Western cattle barons in 1899 the encroaching homesteaders were like cinders eyes. But they were legal. Even the rustlers among them seldom were brought to justice for lack of evidence. There seemed to be only one way to pry loose those on the land, and discourage others from settling: scare them off. To do just that some of the ranchers met in Pearl City in secret conclave. They agreed to hire the most notorious professional killer then known-Bus Crow. They figured that a small dose of Bus Crow would quickly clear the ranges, and keep them clear. WICKED WATER is the story of the bloody descent of Bus Crow on the homesteaders of Pearl County. It is the story, too, of the woman who loved him in spite of herself, who bowed to justice in spite of her love. Against a background of driving action, MacKinlay Kantor probes the mysteries of a killer's mind, of the dark rebellion that made him cry: I'll always kill. I'll shoot them down ... get a gun and keep killing and killing. A NOVEL ABOUT A KILLER-BY THE AUTHOR OFMIDNIGHT LACE & GENTLE ANNIE
Speaking Volumes, LLC 2017-10-26 228 pages

Signature Kill

David Levien
An unidentifiable body is found in an Indianapolis park, deliberately arranged so that police know it's not just a random crime. Former cop Frank Behr, now a P.I. with no cases, no money and no options, finds himself chasing down the disappearance of a wayward young woman who's been missing for months in a futile attempt to collect a reward. With assistance from his few remaining contacts on the force, Behr follows the tenuous thread of his case into the world of small-time prostitution-and discovers a possible connection to the body in the park. When another murder victim turns up, it's clear there's a serial killer at work, but this predator seems to be invisible, camouflaged by his perfectly normal-looking life. Behr's relentless quest for the missing girl and his parallel pursuit of the killer become entangled with the official police investigation. Ultimately, Behr's obsession with the truth will lead him into the darkest places, and force him to make an unavoidable and devastating decision.
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group 2016-04-05 288 pages

Reaper

Ben Mezrich
You cannot escape. No place is safe. Not even your home. Turn on your television...boot up your computer...and meet Reaper, a brilliantly lethal man-made virus that travels the electronic highway, infecting its victims with the flick of a switch. Within seconds of exposure you turn chalk-white. You crash in pain. Then you die. The terrorists behind this plague have the money, the power, and the access to every office and house in America. And no one is immune. It's up to a pair of medical sleuths, virologist Samantha Craig and paramedic Nick Barnes, to match wits and wizardry with this monstrous creation, its creator, and a high-powered cabal with a master plan to save the world-'even if it means annihilation.
HarperCollins 1998-10-10 416 pages

Lust for Death

Arthur Marx
Jack Faith, world-renowned superstar entertainer, would stoop to anything—even murder—to prevent an unauthorized biography about him and his adulterous romantic escapades with countless beautiful Hollywood starlets (sometimes underaged) from being published. How he gets caught by his own nefarious schemes and exposed as the charlatan he is, is the story of not only his life, but at the same time gives the reader an inside peek at what the real Hollywood is like.
America Star Books 2008-12 240 pages

Empty Treasures

Warren Adler
The corruptible power of money and ambition in American politics begins in Venice where a Washington woman reporter trying to repair a bad marriage suddenly spots a professional jeweler, a key figure in the world of Washington’s powerful social and political elite. When she returns to Washington she is shocked to discover that the jeweler has not returned and has, in effect, disappeared. This piques her curiosity and what she uncovers goes to the heart of political corruption on a grand scale; deals with diamonds smuggled into the country to finance a Presidential political campaign and how money and politics impacts on family, children, friends and lovers. This tantalizing and complex thriller deals with the dark side of ambition and the lengths people will go in an effort to attain political power.
Stonehouse 2010 410 pages

Treadmill

Warren Adler
Jack Cooper is an unhappy man-mind, body, and spirit. He has lost his longstanding job to the economy, his mother to illness, and his wife to her secret lover. All in the blink of an eye. Beaten, broken and crippled by tragedy, Jack withdraws into total isolation, narrowing his life down to the simplest routines to block out the pain. His day begins with a strenuous workout at the Bethesda Health Club, his oasis. There, his mind and body can be free. His day ends in his tiny apartment, where he escapes from reality with his books until he can lose himself in sleep. Rinse and repeat. That is until he meets the enigmatic Mike Parrish. Parrish has no official identification. He was stolen from the hospital as a newborn and passed around from household to household. To the government and the world at large, he does not exist. He is an anonymous drifter but also the first person who breaks through Cooper's emotional confinement. Cooper finds solace in his friendship with Parrish, a man who understands his plight and is sympathetic to his pain. But then Parrish suddenly disappears, leaving Cooper to search for a virtually invisible man. As he looks for clues as intangible as ghosts and chases down leads as fleeting as shadows, his search leads him back to the one place he called his refuge: the Bethesda Health Club. How much can be taken from a man before he has nothing to lose?
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform 2016-06-17 272 pages