Thriller

A nice comic styled novella just because.

From the Blurb:

A rookie spy. Europe on a knife edge. A distinct lack of coffee.

Eva Destruction is back in her first ever assignment. Straight out of the MI6 academy, Eva is on the trail of a supposedly dead fellow agent. It’s a nothing assignment given to a rookie, but when suicide bombers hit a NATO conference the mission is kicked into high gear. Eva chases a carnage of gunfire and explosions across Europe in search of the mysterious shadowy organization, ‘The Tempest’. 

Another from the currently reading pile.

From the Blurb:

Former Special Forces soldier Jeff Bradley is meeting with the mafia in Bari, Italy, to discover the whereabouts of his nemesis—criminal overlord Avni Leka—when he receives a message from an old friend. Barry is on board a tourist bus that has been hijacked by terrorists near Istanbul. Strapped with explosives, it is racing across Turkey to the northern borders of Syria, Iraq and Iran.

Another from the weekend pile

From the Blurb:

If art can capture a soul, what happens when one of those souls escapes?

When art appraiser Anita Cassatt is sent to catalogue the extensive collection of reclusive artist Leo Kubin, it isn’t only the chilly atmosphere of the secluded house making her shiver.

From the piles of reading, sod all blogging I've been doing recently.

From the Blurb:

From my weekend's reading, this thriller, first in a series based around US SEAL and a threat to the US mainland.

From the Blurb:

The fate of America lies in the hands of one team of US SEALs. The US mainland is under threat as never before. Osama bin Laden is dead, and the world can relax. Or can they? Remaining leaders of Al-Qaeda want revenge, and they want it against the USA. When good fortune smiles on them and the opportunity presents itself to use stolen weapons of mass destruction, it's Game On! 

I'm blatantly cherry picking from the piles now.

From the Blurb:

Terrorism, politics and betrayals collide in this unputdownable, fast-paced thriller from a highly recognisable political insider.

Second from this weekend's reading pile.

From the Blurb:

A fast-paced international thriller by top Melbourne author of fiction and non-fiction, Roland Perry. This is a sequel to Perry’s first book titled The Honourable Assassin (2015) in a new series of thrillers that incorporate actual events, criminal organisations and key figures in the underworld of Asia as they play out globally, involving international law enforcement and intelligence operations.

Another from the weekend's reading - thriller set in Columbia, written with a human rights perspective.

From the Blurb:

When Luzma’s brother Jair unwittingly uncovers the plan by Colombia’s most notorious drug cartel to smuggle an unprecedented cocaine shipment into the US, it puts their family in grave danger.

Read this one last week and spent most of the time reading it laughing.

From the Blurb:

"Him: But he did buy you a castle. 

Her: That's okay I can build my own castle out of the fucks I no longer give." 

Meet Eva Destruction, the only thing quicker than her mouth is her talent for getting into trouble. It’s true she’s always had an eye for a bad boy but when she falls for billionaire super-villain Harry Lancing, it seems that even Eva may have bitten off more than she can chew. 

Second from the weekend's reading.

From the Blurb:

Solikha Duong lives the carefree life of a village girl in northern Cambodia until her world is torn apart by ‘truck men’ from the south. But Solikha is tough, resourceful, and won’t give up without a fight ...

Alice Kwann is on vacation when she’s set upon by thugs at a stopover in northern Nevada. But Alice too is tough, resourceful, and won’t give up without a fight ...

So far, I'm really liking this one...

From the Blurb:

Bashir “Bish” Ortley is a London desk cop. Almost over it. Still not dealing with the death of his son years ago, as well as the break-up of his marriage. 

Across the channel, a summer bus tour, carrying a group of English teenagers is subject to a deadly bomb attack, killing four of the passengers and injuring a handful of others. Bish’s daughter is one of those on board. 

Having just had a week off to work on the property, didn't quite achieve the numbers of books to be read that I'd hoped.

From the Blurb:

Carly Townsend is starting over after a decade of tragedy and pain. In a new town and a new apartment she's determined to leave the memories and failures of her past behind. 

However that dream is shattered in the dead of night when she is woken by the shadow of a man next to her bed, silently watching her. And it happens week after week.

I've been wanting to see what the buzz was about - particularly as it's a debut and there have been some stonkingly good debuts around recently.

From the Blurb:

Sixteen years. That’s how long Clyde Barr has been away from Colorado’s thick forests, alpine deserts, and craggy peaks, running from a past filled with haunting memories. But now he’s back, having roamed across three continents as a hunter, adventurer, soldier of fortune, and most recently, unjustly imprisoned convict. And once again, his past is reaching out to claim him.

Another from this week's reading pile, which is, to be honest, from the very overdue section.

From the Blurb:

The Alo Release is a thriller exposing the potential for public opinion to be manipulated during an international crisis.

Nine days before the global release of a genetically modified seed coating set to make starvation history, the IT advisor for an environmental group receives a cryptic email from an old friend working for the seed corporation.

Last night I was all set for a watch of Le Tour de France. Love the stages in the mountains, for the scenery as much as the tactical team riding. But then I picked up DEVOUR, devoured the first 50 pages and lost track of the tour shenanigans completely. Fell asleep with the book on my nose.

From the Blurb:

Their greatest fear was contaminating an ancient Antarctic lake, buried beneath the ice for millions of years. They little knew about the catastrophe they were about to unleash.

Welcome to the high octane world of Olivia Wolfe.

It was, at best, mildly damp in these parts over the weekend (unlike some parts that got hammered) but the hell with it - got some reading done anyway.

From the Blurb:

USS Ulysses: State-of-the-art nuclear submarine. Deterrent. Target.

A Novella length outing with Alex Morgan that is just the thing for some escapist reading, with a very good message.

From the Blurb:

How far will Alex Morgan go to repay the man who saved his life?

Friends are a luxury that agents of INTERPOL's blacks ops division cannot afford, but Alex Morgan wasn't always a spy.

When a former US Army Ranger who saved Morgan's life in Afghanistan reaches out, convinced that Morgan is the only person who can help him, Morgan springs into action.

With a true story behind it, The Death Ray Debacle is set in New Zealand in the 1930's.

From the Blurb:

In June 1935 Takapuna inventor Victor Penny was attacked by foreign agents seeking what the newspapers dubbed a ‘death ray’. The government secretly shifted him to Somes Island in Wellington harbour to develop the weapon. The novel of this true story is told by Temporary Acting Detective Dan Delaney, seconded to Special Branch, forerunner of the Security Intelligence Service.

Figured while I was doing a little "outside the box" reading then something cross genre would fit the bill.

From the Blurb:

The Fifth Column: the world’s most powerful and secretive organization. They run our militaries. They run our governments. They run our terrorist cells.

Recruited as a child, Sophia is a deniable operative for the Fifth Column. Like all operatives, Sophia’s DNA has been altered to augment her senses and her mind is splintered into programmed subsets.

Love a good thriller, so jumped at the chance to read this new offering from Pantera Press.

From the Blurb:

Stepan Volkov forfeited his future when he was paid to forget his past.

Forced to adapt, he ultimately became the world's most wanted killer... feared, vicious and brutal.

A tool of the Organizatsiya, a Russian crime syndicate that forged him into 'The Wolf', he's pursued by American spies and Australian agents, torn between his need to survive and his desire to be free.

A new book from Crickey correspondent, set in the world of corporate / government cyber-terrorism.

From the Blurb:

Second in the Jack Emery series, I'm having a bit of a binge :)

From the Blurb:

A chance lightning strike. A reporter in the right place. A scandal that will rock America.

Journalist Jack Emery has seen it all. Embedded for the New York Standard with the 8th Marine Regiment in the heart of Afghanistan, he has covered everything from firefights to the opening of new schools. But nothing has prepared Jack for the story that is about to explode right in front of him.

Another book from the weekend's reading pile.

From the Blurb:

Miranda shrank away from him, arm pressed to the driver's door. ‘What's your name?' ‘I'm already dead. That's my name now. That's what they called me. I'm Already Dead.'

Journalist Miranda Jack is finally attempting to move on from the death of her husband by relocating up the coast with her young daughter, Zoe. Then a single event changes everything.

On a Monday afternoon as she waits at traffic lights, a stranger jumps into her car and points a gun at her chest.

First of my weekend's reading.

From the Blurb:

'Why do some people decide to get married when everyone around them would seem to agree that marriage, at least for the two people in question, is a terrifically bad idea?'

Debut book - high tech bank robbery!

From the Blurb:

A bank in Los Angeles, assumed to be impregnable, has its valuable taken. No idea how or when the crime was committed.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, a woman is kidnapped but her husband does not alert authorities for three days. Why?

A thriller from Australian writer Peter Carey, somebody who is more known for their "literary" output than their genre work. Interesting to see how a well known non-genre writer approaches something different like a thriller styled novel.

From the Blurb:

The third Mitchell Parker book from Helen Goltz, this is my first look at this series.

From the Blurb:

Number 1 read from the long weekend we granted ourselves. A thriller, set in Canberra. Very realistic (and that's even allowing for a bit of wish fulfilment hereabouts).

From the Blurb:

Fast-paced Australian political fiction, Challenge unfolds over three days in an atmosphere of treachery and deceit, amid a looming federal leadership challenge.

With hindsight possibly not a good choice right after a non-fiction book about the "war on terror"... a thriller set right in the middle of that territory :)

From the Blurb:

A nuclear device the size of a briefcase has been developed in Pakistan. The scientist responsible has disappeared with it. The CIA believes the target is on US soil.

Right, so I'm a rev-head and a massive fan of the yearly Mount Panorama race. So the opening sequence of QUICK not only appealed, it works. It describes the action on one of those mad opening laps like you were there.

From the Blurb:

Strap in for a breathtaking, tyre-peeling, high-octane adventure ride by rising star of action trillers.

Spent last night chasing bulls, ducks and geese around in circles in the dark and the rain - so it was a relief to get back inside, in front of the fire and read something that is much better than the blurb indicates.

From the Blurb:

Tony is worried. His wife, Anna, isn't coping with their newborn. Anna had wanted a child so badly and, when Jack was born, they were both so happy. They'd come home from the hospital a family. Was it really only six weeks ago?

Debut thriller from Australian based, New York born former violinist Diane Hester who now lives in Port Lincoln. Quite a bio :)

From the Blurb:

It's been two years since Shyler O'Neil's beloved son Jesse was killed - but his final moments are as vivid to her now as they were that dreadful day. Suffering from post-traumatic stress, and convinced she did not do enough to protect him, she retreats to an isolated cabin in the woods of northern Maine.

There's opening sequences in books, and then there's the opening sequence in this book!

From the Blurb:

David Forrester and Elle Nolan are sophisticated, mature people who don’t understand love. They live in a world where love is revered but marriages commonly end in divorce, or worse.

When jaded lawyer David meets Elle, he decides she’s his last chance of happiness and does everything he can to woo her and keep her. Everything, that is, except face his demons.

This book managed quite successfully to hold my attention for a one sitting read, despite the ebb and flow of visitors in and out of the place for the last couple of weeks.

From the Blurb:

Nick Smart is fresh out of school, a wet-behind-the-ears jackaroo on a gap year. But at Palmenter Station, nothing is what it seems. Nick is about to discover there’s a lot of grey between black and white, between legal and illegal and between right and wrong.

Really really really really really pleased to have a new book from J.R. Carroll. Really pleased...

From the Blurb:

When the past comes knocking, it will not be denied ...

Ex-cop turned criminal lawyer Tim Fontaine and his wife Amy are heading for their weekender – a restored farmhouse in remote bushland known as Black Pig Bend.

But even before they've eaten dinner, three outlaw bikers arrive on the scene. Suddenly Tim's house becomes a fortress. Who are these people? Why have they come? Who sent them?

Feeling a little bit guilty about the fact that we got through this dreadful weekend unscathed - I've spent most of the time listening to the scanner, wondering why on earth people think websites are the way to go with this sort of emergency level, and reading.

From the Blurb:

OSI Special Agent Vin Cooper is brought to the scene of an airport massacre in El Paso, Texas, to investigate the death of a USAF airman, AWOL from a nearby Air Force base.

It's too hot to sleep much anyway so why not frighten myself comprehensively as well...

From the Blurb:

Nature vs nurture turns out to be a bloodbath

The wide open outback offers plenty of space for someone to hide. Or to hide a body.

When wiry youngster Mick Taylor starts as a jackaroo at a remote Western Australian sheep station, he tries to keep his head down among the rough company of the farmhands. But he can't keep the devils inside him hidden for long.

Noticed this out of the corner of my eye a while ago and have been meaning to mention how excited I got when I saw Momentum Books listing some of my favourite J.R. Carroll books and one I've not read before. 8 Hours to Die. These books were unbelievably hard to find when I finally twigged to their existence and in the main I ended up getting copies at second hand bookshops from one end of Victoria to another. Which meant every new find was a thing of real joy. And now, thanks to Momentum I'll be able to start from scratch and reread every one of them. Released early next year.