books tagged “thriller”

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24 Hours
by Greg Iles

ISBN 0451203593 (0-451-20359-3)
Softcover, Signet

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Book summary:
This explosive suspense thriller gets off to a blistering start: the kidnapping of a little boy--in eight breathless pages--that culminates with the child's safe return and the disappearance of the successful kidnappers. That sets the stage for the book's centerpiece, the abduction of little Abby Jennings, daughter of Will, a successful physician, and Karen, a slightly dissatisfied suburban woman who's wondering where the passion in her marriage went. The criminals' modus operandi is established early on. They target the progeny of Mississippi doctors, demand a reasonable (to an affluent M.D.) ransom, release the child after it's paid, and promise the victim parents that if they ever breathe a word of the incident to anyone, their kids will be taken again and killed. The kidnappings are carefully set up, targeted to take place when one parent is out of town at a medical meeting or convention, thus ensuring the cooperation of the other. And the victim is held by a sweet, slightly retarded but humongous and powerful man whose loyalty to his cousin, the mastermind, is unquestioned.
24 Hours is a version of the locked room school of kidnap mysteries and a very good one indeed, especially when Will turns the tables on the kidnapper and takes control of the situation. Abby's diabetic condition (she needs lifesaving injections on a regular basis) notches the suspense up one last turn. It's a well worked-out plot, the pacing is terrific, and the characters likable and attractive. Iles is a master storyteller, and this one has big screen written all over it--with Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer as the Jennings, if we're lucky. --Jane Adams [via]
More editions of 24 Hours:
- 24 Hours: ISBN 0399146245 (0-399-14624-5)
  Hardcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
- 24 Hours: ISBN 0451203593 (0-451-20359-3)
  Softcover, Signet
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The 5th Horseman
by James Patterson, Maxine Paetro

ISBN 0446699314 (0-446-69931-4)
Softcover, Grand Central Pub

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Book summary:
The most puzzling Medical thriller in years- The most gripping Legal thriller in years- A young mother is recuperating in a San Francisco hospital when she is suddenly gasping for breath. Help doesn't come in time. [via]
More editions of The 5th Horseman:
- The 5th Horseman: ISBN 0446699314 (0-446-69931-4)
  Softcover, Grand Central Pub
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Absolute Power
by David Baldacci

ISBN 0446603589 (0-446-60358-9)
Softcover, Grand Central Pub

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Book summary:
Can the President get away with murder? The fictional answer to this question results in a fast-paced page turner that combines political intrigue with gritty, hard-boiled suspense [via]
More editions of Absolute Power:
- Absolute Power: ISBN 0446603589 (0-446-60358-9)
  Softcover, Grand Central Pub
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Bag of Bones
by Stephen King

ISBN 067102423X (0-671-02423-X)
Softcover, Pocket Books

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Book summary:
No longer content to be the prolific provider of text, King grabs the audio reigns to recount this haunted tale of grief, young love, and otherworldly visits. When 40-year-old bestselling novelist Mike Noonan returns to his lakeside cabin to process his wife's death, he finds the place a beacon for nightmares and ghoulish visits. But there's hope in Kingsville, as this struggling writer falls in love with a young widow named Mattie and her 3-year-old psychic daughter, Kyra. If you've never heard King speak, be warned: 19-plus hours of his western Maine, nasal-drenched tones may be more than some listeners can bear. But there's a certain warmth and believability to King's voice--after all, it's his book and he is a middle-aged bestselling novelist--that jive well with Noonan's character. And since King rarely reads his own work, perhaps his doing so indicates that he's especially pleased with Bag of Bones; most listeners should be as well. (Running time: 19.5 hours, 14 cassettes) --Rob McDonald [via]
More editions of Bag of Bones:
- Bag of Bones: ISBN 067102423X (0-671-02423-X)
  Softcover, Pocket Books
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Blood Work
by Michael Connelly

ISBN 0446602620 (0-446-60262-0)
Softcover, Grand Central Pub

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Book summary:
Michael Connelly has been attracting fans by the droves with his hard-boiled, edgy thrillers. A former crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times, Connelly combines a poet's ear for language with a deep understanding of the criminal mind to create dark, dramatic stories that raise the thriller genre to a new level.
In Blood Work, Connelly introduces a new character, Terry McCaleb, who was a top man at the FBI until a heart ailment forced his early retirement. Now he lives a quiet life, nursing his new heart and restoring the boat on which he lives in Los Angeles Harbor. Although he isn't looking for any excitement, when Graciela Rivers asks him to investigate her sister Gloria's death, her story hooks him immediately: the new heart beating in McCaleb's chest is Gloria's.
As McCaleb investigates the evidence in the case, the suspected randomness of the crime gives way to an unsettling suspicion of a twisted intelligence behind the murder. Soon McCaleb finds himself on the trail of a killer more horrifying than anything he ever encountered before. [via]
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Breakheart Pass
by Alistair MacLean

ISBN 0816149828 (0-8161-4982-8)
Softcover, Thorndike Pr

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More editions of Breakheart Pass:
- Breakheart Pass: ISBN 0385041209 (0-385-04120-9)
  Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
- Breakheart Pass: ISBN 0816149828 (0-8161-4982-8)
  Softcover, Thorndike Pr
The Camel Club
by David Baldacci

ISBN 0446615625 (0-446-61562-5)
Softcover, Grand Central Pub

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Circus
by Alistair MacLean

ISBN 044920412X (0-449-20412-X)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group

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Book summary:
Reissue of the classic tale of espionage set in Cold War Europe, where the worlds greatest circus acrobat must break into an impenetrable fortress, from the acclaimed master of action and suspense.Bruno Wildermann of the Wrinfield Circus is the worlds greatest trapeze artist, a clairvoyant with near-supernatural powers and an implacable enemy of the East European regime that arrested his family and murdered his wife.The CIA needs such a man, and recruits Bruno for an impossible raid - on the impreganble Lubylan fortress, where his family his held.Under cover of a circus tour, Bruno prepares to return to his homeland. But before the journey even begins a murderer strikes twice. Somewhere in the circus there is a communist agent with orders to stop Bruno at any cost& [via]
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Contest
by Matthew Reilly

ISBN 0732910323 (0-7329-1032-3)
Hardcover, Pan Macmillan Australia

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More editions of Contest:
- Contest: ISBN 0732910323 (0-7329-1032-3)
  Hardcover, Pan Macmillan Australia
Cross Bones
by Kathy Reichs

ISBN 0743453026 (0-7434-5302-6)
Softcover, Pocket Books

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A gripping and explosive new thriller from internationally acclaimed forensic anthropologist and new york times bestselling author kathy reichs, featuring temperance brennan and detective andrew ryan on the trail of a modern murder and an ancient biblical mystery... When an orthodox jewish man is found shot to death in montreal, temperance brennan is called in to examine the body and to figure out the puzzling damage to the corpse. Unexpectedly, a stranger slips her a photograph of a skeleton and assures her it is the key to the victim's death. Before she knows it, tempe is involved in an international mystery as old as jesus, and one that could lead to the rewriting of two thousand years of religious history. As tempe investigates, she learns that the stranger's picture shows bones uncovered during an archaeological dig. She discovers the montreal shooting victim ran an import business that just might have been a front for the trading of black market antiquities. Along with detective andrew ryan and biblical archaeologist jake drum, tempe travels to israel to probe the origins of the skeleton and the ancient crypt in which it was found. Together they make a startling discovery that raises radical questions about christ's death and places them squarely in the middle of a swirling controversy. Could one of the tombs really be christ's last resting place? are the bones in the ancient ossuary the last remnants of james, the brother of jesus, as the inscription claims? or has someone concocted an elaborate hoax? using her skills as a forensic scientist, tempe plunges into the most controversial case of her career. The stakes have never been higher -- the more she learns, the greater the danger. And though ryan is sexier and more engaging than ever, he may not be able to protect tempe in this place where there seem to be so many foes. [via]
More editions of Cross Bones:
- Cross Bones: ISBN 0743233484 (0-7432-3348-4)
  Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
- Cross Bones: ISBN 0743453026 (0-7434-5302-6)
  Softcover, Pocket Books
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The Day After Tomorrow
by Allan Folsom

ISBN 0446600415 (0-446-60041-5)
Softcover, Grand Central Pub

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Book summary:
In a Paris cafe, American surgeon Paul Osborn looks across the room and spots the man who murdered his father thirty years before. In London, a grizzled L.A. homicide cop named McVey joins Scotland Yard to unravel the mystery of a severed head and seven headless corpses. Neither American knows the link between the long-ago killing and the recent murders. But Paul's obsession to catch his father's killer will send him careening across Europe at breakneck speed, his life in the balance, his heart in the hands of a beautiful woman who may be his lover-or his downfall. Shadowing his every move is the relentless McVey. And haunting them both is a secret organization larger and more embracing than any the world has ever seen, preparing for an apocalypse to begin... [via]
More editions of The Day After Tomorrow:
- The Day After Tomorrow: ISBN 0446600415 (0-446-60041-5)
  Softcover, Grand Central Pub
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Death Du Jour
by Kathy Reichs

ISBN 0671011375 (0-671-01137-5)
Softcover, Pocket Books

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Book summary:
"In Quebec, winters can be slow for the forensic anthropologist. The temperature rarely rises above freezing. The rivers and lakes ice over, the ground turns rock hard, and snow buries everything. Bugs disappear, and many scavengers go underground. The result: Corpses do not putrefy in the great outdoors. Floaters are not pulled from the St. Lawrence... and some of last season's dead are not found until the spring melt."
Readers of Kathy Reichs's cool and clever first forensic thriller Déjà Dead will recognize the ironic voice of Tempe (short for Temperance) Brennan, the North Carolina-born scientist who winds up working at the Laboratoire de Médicine Légale in Montreal. Here she bristles at the conservative attitudes of some of her Canadian colleagues.
Despite the cold weather, Tempe's workload quickly becomes heavy: the bones of a long-dead nun now up for sainthood have been moved and tampered with; a deadly house fire turns out to be arson; and a university teaching assistant disappears after joining a cult. Tempe must figure out where (and why) all the bodies are buried in the hard Canadian ground. Her investigations take her home to North Carolina, and to a strange colony living on an offshore island.
Unlike certain other writers who specialize in forensic pathology, Reichs doesn't revel in the horror of death or rub our noses in gore: she uses the science of death to reveal rather than to shock or startle. It definitely makes for easier reading--especially at mealtimes. --Dick Adler [via]
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The Devil's Code
by John Sandford

ISBN 0425179885 (0-425-17988-5)
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group

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Book summary:
Before Lucas Davenport and the brilliant Prey novels, there was Kidd-artist, computer whiz, and professional criminal-and his sometime partner/sometime lover, LuEllen. The Army had left Kidd with a dislike for bureaucratic organization and the skills to do something about it, but it hadn't prepared him for the day a woman appeared at his door and told him that his colleague Jack Morrison had vanished, and that Kidd and his friends were the target of a national manhunt. It wasn't the official agencies that worried Kidd so much as the very
dangerous men with the very different agenda that he suspected were acting behind the scenes. And he knew that unless he and LuEllen found what had really happened to Jack, and quickly-the next people to vanish might very well be themselves.

Filled with the atmosphere, characters, and exceptional drama that have made Sandford one of the America's best-loved thriller writers, The Devil's Code is a masterpiece of suspense. [via]
More editions of The Devil's Code:
- The Devil's Code: ISBN 0399146504 (0-399-14650-4)
  Hardcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
- The Devil's Code: ISBN 0425179885 (0-425-17988-5)
  Softcover, Berkley Pub Group
Devil's Teardrop
by Jeff Deaver

ISBN 0671038443 (0-671-03844-3)
Softcover, Pocket Books

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More editions of Devil's Teardrop:
- Devil's Teardrop: ISBN 0684852926 (0-684-85292-6)
  Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
- Devil's Teardrop: ISBN 0671038443 (0-671-03844-3)
  Softcover, Pocket Books
Final Target
by Iris Johansen

ISBN 0553582135 (0-553-58213-5)
Softcover, Bantam Books

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Book summary:
Jessica Riley is a psychiatrist whose experience with catatonic trauma is personal as well as professional: she brought her beloved sister Melissa back from total mental withdrawal with her patience and skill. When the daughter of the president retreats into blankness after seeing her nanny and her Secret Service protector murdered, Jessica is summoned to treat the little girl. Although Jessica can't reach into her young patient's frightened mind, Melissa can--and only Melissa understands why Cassie's so afraid. When Michael Travis, the mysterious and not totally benign stranger who rescued Cassie from the kidnap-assassination that traumatized her, arrives at Jessica's Virginia estate, he's able to stop the child's nightmares long enough for Melissa to join Cassie in her self-imposed darkness and pull her back into the light. But the price he asks for his continued presence is one that Jessica, Melissa, and the president may not be able to meet. Is he an ally or an enemy? Even Melissa isn't sure--and her complicated feelings for Travis and Cassie are especially tortured because her unusual gifts allow her to see a bloody future for both of them, one she may not be able to prevent.
Iris Johansen (The Killing Game, The Search) ratchets up the suspense in this fast-moving thriller, which ranges across international borders from Washington to Amsterdam to Paris with the help of Air Force One and Two. While the president isn't very satisfactorily developed except as a frightened father who'll do almost anything to save his daughter, Travis and Melissa are fascinating characters who linger in the mind after the last explosive page; hopefully, Johansen will revisit them in a future adventure. Meanwhile, this is her best and most engaging read in years. --Jane Adams [via]
More editions of Final Target:
- Final Target: ISBN 0553800949 (0-553-80094-9)
  Hardcover, Bantam Books
- Final Target: ISBN 0553582135 (0-553-58213-5)
  Softcover, Bantam Books
Flood Tide
by Clive Cussler

ISBN 0671000314 (0-671-00031-4)
Softcover, Pocket Books

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Interview With the Vampire
by Anne Rice

ISBN 0394498216 (0-394-49821-6)
Hardcover, Alfred a Knopf Inc

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Book summary:
This is the book that started it all. We are in a small room with the vampire, face to face, as he speaks--as he pours out the hypnotic, shocking, moving, and erotically charged confessions of his first two hundred years as one of the living dead. [via]
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Isle of Dogs
by Patricia Cornwell

ISBN 039914739X (0-399-14739-X)
Hardcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated

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More editions of Isle of Dogs:
- Isle of Dogs: ISBN 039914739X (0-399-14739-X)
  Hardcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
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Isle of Dogs
by Patricia Daniels Cornwell

ISBN 0425182908 (0-425-18290-8)
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group

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Book summary:
Be aware: this is not your typical Patricia Cornwell novel. Not only is there no Kay Scarpetta, but Isle of Dogs is a comic romp, a real departure for this author. It does center around a couple of characters from past books--police chief Judy Hammer and reporter-turned-cop Andy Brazil of Hornet's Nest and Southern Cross. But the plot, style, and tone will remind you more of Carl Hiaasen's dark comedies.
The madcap doings get underway when the addled, nearly blind governor of Virginia confusedly launches a speed-trap program on isolated Tangier Island, whose prickly, eccentric residents promptly attempt secession. Cornwell adeptly interweaves other crisscrossing plot lines involving a gang of street-stupid thugs gunning for Hammer and Brazil, an angel-faced serial killer, a kidnapped dog, and more. She does miss a few beats: the pacing sags during certain episodes, and at times the writing strains so hard for laughs that instead it draws winces. Nonetheless, Isle of Dogs is for the most part a funny, diverting read and a refreshing departure for Cornwell. --Nicholas H. Allison [via]
More editions of Isle of Dogs:
- Isle of Dogs: ISBN 0425182908 (0-425-18290-8)
  Softcover, Berkley Pub Group
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Killing Me Softly
by Nicci French

ISBN 0446608386 (0-446-60838-6)
Softcover, Grand Central Pub

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Book summary:
Alice Loudon has it all: a devoted boyfriend, a marvelous circle of friends, a challenging job as a research scientist. Then one morning, on her way to work, she exchanges a lingering look with a man so devastatingly attractive he takes her breath away. Adam Tallis is the essence of every female fantasy -- a daring mountain climber who has been hailed as a hero. As a lover, he is more passionate than Alice's wildest imaginings. Soon there isn't anything or anyone she wouldn't give up to stay by his side. Now all she has is Adam, and life with this stranger will take her to new heights of madness...and fear.

From internationally acclaimed author Nicci French comes a shattering tale that's being called one of the best psychological thrillers of the year... [via]
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Labyrinth
by Kate Mosse

ISBN 0425213978 (0-425-21397-8)
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group

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Book summary:
In this extraordinary thriller, rich in the atmospheres of medieval and contemporary France, the lives of two women born centuries apart are linked by a common destiny. July 2005. In the Pyrenees mountains near Carcassonne, Alice, a volunteer at an archaeological dig stumbles into a cave and makes a startling discovery-two crumbling skeletons, strange writings on the walls, and the pattern of a labyrinth; between the skeletons, a stone ring, and a small leather bag. Eight hundred years earlier, on the eve of a brutal crusade to stamp out heresy that will rip apart southern France, Alais is given a ring and a mysterious book for safekeeping by her father as he leaves to fight the crusaders. The book, he says, contains the secret of the true Grail, and the ring, inscribed with a labyrinth, will identify a guardian of the Grail. As crusading armies led by Church potentates and nobles of northern France gather outside the city walls of Carcassonne, it will take great sacrifice to keep the secret of the labyrinth safe. In the present, another woman sees the find as a means to the political power she craves; while a man who has great power will kill to destroy all traces of the discovery and everyone who stands in his way. [via]
More editions of Labyrinth:
- Labyrinth: ISBN 0399153446 (0-399-15344-6)
  Hardcover, Putnam Pub Group
- Labyrinth: ISBN 0425213978 (0-425-21397-8)
  Softcover, Berkley Pub Group
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The Lake House
by James Patterson

ISBN 0446615145 (0-446-61514-5)
Softcover, Grand Central Pub

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Book summary:
The memorable story begun in When the Wind Blows continues in this thrilling new novel, and it's one that really soars! Frannie O'Neil, a Colorado veterinarian, knows a terrible secret that will change the history of the world. Kit Harrison, an FBI agent under suspension has seen things that no one in his right mind would believe. A twelve-year-old girl named Max and five other incredible children have powers we can only dream of. These children can fly. And the only place they will be save is the Lake House. Or so they believe...
[via]
More editions of The Lake House:
- The Lake House: ISBN 0446696587 (0-446-69658-7)
  Softcover, Grand Central Pub
- The Lake House: ISBN 0446615145 (0-446-61514-5)
  Softcover, Grand Central Pub
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The Manchurian Candidate
by Richard Condon

ISBN 1417650389 (1-4176-5038-9)
Hardcover, Bt Bound

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Book summary:
Richard Condon's 1959 Cold War thriller remains just as chilling today. It's the story of Sgt. Raymond Shaw, an ex-prisoner of war (and winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor) who, brainwashed with the rest of his unit by a Chinese psychological expert during his captivity in North Korea, has come home programmed to kill. His primary target is a U.S. presidential nominee. Made into a controversial 1962 movie with Laurence Harvey, Frank Sinatra, and Angela Lansbury. [via]
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The Osterman Weekend
by Robert Ludlum

ISBN 0553264303 (0-553-26430-3)
Softcover, Bantam Books

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Prince of Fire
by Daniel Silva

ISBN 0451215737 (0-451-21573-7)
Softcover, Signet

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Book summary:
Product Description
Gabriel Allon faces his most determined enemy-and greatest challenge-in the stunning novel from the world-class practitioner of spy fiction.

Amazon Exclusive Essay: Daniel Silva on Gabriel Allon and the "Accidental Series"

Writers tend to be solitary creatures. We toil alone for months on end, then, once a year, we emerge from our dens to publish a book. It can be a daunting experience, especially for someone like me, who is not gregarious and outgoing by nature. But there is one aspect of promotion I truly love: meeting my readers and answering their questions. During each stop on my book tour, I reserve the bulk of my time for a lively conversation with the audience. I learn much from these encounters-indeed, some of the comments are so insightful they take my breath away. There is one question I am asked each night without fail, and it remains my favorite: "How in the world did you ever think of Gabriel Allon?" The answer is complicated. In one sense, he was the result of a long, character-construction process. In another, he was a bolt from the blue. I'll try to explain.
In 1999, after publishing The Marching Season, the second book in the Michael Osbourne series, I decided it was time for a change. We were nearing the end of the Clinton administration, and the president was about to embark on a last-ditch effort to bring peace to the Middle East. I had the broad outlines of a story in mind: a retired Israeli assassin is summoned from retirement to track down a Palestinian terrorist bent on destroying the Oslo peace process. I thought long and hard before giving the Israeli a name. I wanted it to be biblical, like my own, and to be heavy with symbolism. I finally decided to name him after the archangel Gabriel. As for his family name, I chose something short and simple: Allon, which means "oak tree" in Hebrew. I liked the image it conveyed. Gabriel Allon: God's angel of vengeance, solid as an oak.

Gabriel's professional résumé-the operations he had carried out-came quickly. But what about his other side? What did he like to do in his spare time? What was his cover? I knew I wanted something distinct. Something memorable. Something that would, in many respects, be the dominant attribute of his character. I spent many frustrating days mulling over and rejecting possibilities. Then, while walking along one of Georgetown's famous redbrick sidewalks, my wife, Jamie, reminded me that we had a dinner date that evening at the home of David Bull, a man regarded as one of the finest art restorers in the world. I stopped dead in my tracks and raised my hands toward the heavens. Gabriel Allon was complete. He was going to be an art restorer, and a very good one at that.

Over my objections, the book was entitled The Kill Artist and it would go on to become a New York Times bestseller. It was not, however, supposed to be the first book in a long-running series. But once again, fate intervened. In 2000, after moving to G.P. Putnam & Sons, my new publishers asked me what I was working on. When I mumbled something about having whittled it down to two or three options, they offered their first piece of advice. They really didn't care what it was about, they just wanted one thing: Gabriel Allon.

I then spent the next several minutes listing all the reasons why Gabriel, now regarded as one of the most compelling and successful continuing characters in the mystery-thriller genre, should never appear in a second book. I had conceived him as a "one off" character, meaning he would be featured in one story and then ride into the sunset. I also thought he was too melancholy and withdrawn to build a series around, and, at nearly fifty years of age, perhaps a bit too old as well. My biggest concern, however, had to do with his nationality and religion. I thought there was far too much opposition to Israel in the world-and far too much raw anti-Semitism-for an Israeli continuing character ever to be successful in the long term.

My new publishers thought otherwise, and told me so. Because Gabriel lived in Europe and could pass as German or Italian, they believed he came across as more "international" than Israeli. But what they really liked was Gabriel's other job: art restoration. They found the two opposing sides of his character-destroyer and healer-fascinating. What's more, they believed he would stand alone on the literary landscape. There were lots of CIA officers running around saving the world, they argued, but no former Israeli assassins who spent their spare time restoring Bellini altarpieces.

The more they talked, the more I could see their point. I told them I had an idea for a story involving Nazi art looting during the Second World War and the scandalous activities of Swiss banks. "Write it with Gabriel Allon," they said, "and we promise it will be your biggest-selling book yet." Eventually, the book would be called The English Assassin, and, just as Putnam predicted, it sold twice as many copies as its predecessor. Oddly enough, when it came time to write the next book, I still wasn't convinced it should be another Gabriel novel. Though it seems difficult to imagine now, I actually conceived the plot of The Confessor without him in mind. Fortunately, my editor, Neil Nyren, saved me from myself. The book landed at #5 on the New York Times bestseller list and received some of the warmest reviews of my career. After that, a series was truly born.

I am often asked whether it is necessary to read the novels in sequence. The answer is no, but it probably doesn't hurt, either. For the record, the order of publication is The Kill Artist, The English Assassin, The Confessor, A Death in Vienna, Prince of Fire, The Messenger, The Secret Servant, and Moscow Rules, my first #1 New York Times bestseller. The Defector pits Gabriel in a final, dramatic confrontation with the Russian oligarch and arms dealer Ivan Kharkov, and I have been told it far surpasses anything that has come before it in the series. And to think that, if I'd had my way, only one Gabriel Allon book would have been written. I remain convinced, however, that had I set out in the beginning to create him as a continuing character, I would surely have failed. I have always believed in the power of serendipity. Art, like life, rarely goes according to plan. Gabriel Allon is proof of that.
[via]
More editions of Prince of Fire:
- Prince of Fire: ISBN 0399152431 (0-399-15243-1)
  Hardcover, Putnam Pub Group
- Prince of Fire: ISBN 0451215737 (0-451-21573-7)
  Softcover, Signet
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Queen of the South
by Arturo Perez-Reverte, Andrew Hurley

ISBN 0452286549 (0-452-28654-9)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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Book summary:
This tale take place in Mexico to the Strait of Gibraltar and Spain. The heroine is Teresa Mendoza whose boyfriend is a pilot for the narcos of Sinaloa, Mexico. He can get a plan full of cocaine off the ground in three hundred yards. Because of his business, life becomes short. Teresa has a special phone that if it ever rings means her boyfriend is dead. The call comes and she has to become a ruthless and tough woman in order to survive the ugly and dangerous world of the narcos. [via]
More editions of Queen of the South:
- Queen of the South: ISBN 0399151850 (0-399-15185-0)
  Hardcover, Putnam Pub Group
- The Queen Of The South: ISBN 0452286549 (0-452-28654-9)
  Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Salems Lot
by Stephen King

ISBN 1417718153 (1-4177-1815-3)
Hardcover, Bt Bound

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Book summary:
Stephen King's second book, 'Salem's Lot (1975)--about the slow takeover of an insular hamlet called Jerusalem's Lot by a vampire patterned after Bram Stoker's Dracula--has two elements that he also uses to good effect in later novels: a small American town, usually in Maine, where people are disconnected from each other, quietly nursing their potential for evil; and a mixed bag of rational, goodhearted people, including a writer, who band together to fight that evil.
Simply taken as a contemporary vampire novel, 'Salem's Lot is great fun to read, and has been very influential in the horror genre. But it's also a sly piece of social commentary. As King said in 1983, "In 'Salem's Lot, the thing that really scared me was not vampires, but the town in the daytime, the town that was empty, knowing that there were things in closets, that there were people tucked under beds, under the concrete pilings of all those trailers. And all the time I was writing that, the Watergate hearings were pouring out of the TV.... Howard Baker kept asking, 'What I want to know is, what did you know and when did you know it?' That line haunts me, it stays in my mind.... During that time I was thinking about secrets, things that have been hidden and were being dragged out into the light." Sounds quite a bit like the idea behind his 1998 novel of a Maine hamlet haunted by unsightly secrets, Bag of Bones. --Fiona Webster [via]
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Shattered
by Dean R. Koontz

ISBN 0425099334 (0-425-09933-4)
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group

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Book summary:
As Alex and Colin speed toward their new home in San Francisco where Courtney awaits them, they are pursued by a madman who is also eager to see Courtney. [via]
More editions of Shattered:
- Shattered: ISBN 0425075176 (0-425-07517-6)
  Softcover, Berkley Pub Group
- Shattered: ISBN 0425099334 (0-425-09933-4)
  Softcover, Berkley Pub Group
Shattered
by K. R. Dwyer

ISBN 0394485297 (0-394-48529-7)
Hardcover, Random House

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- Shattered: ISBN 0394485297 (0-394-48529-7)
  Hardcover, Random House
Shock Wave
by Clive Cussler

ISBN 0671000306 (0-671-00030-6)
Softcover, Pocket Books

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Simple Truth
by David Baldacci

ISBN 0446607711 (0-446-60771-1)
Softcover, Grand Central Pub

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Book summary:
Rufus Harms is rotting in a Virginia military prison. As readers learn in the terse opening of The Simple Truth, he was convicted 25 years ago of the brutal killing of a young girl. Readers also learn that Rufus did not commit the crime; out of a haze of memories and with fragments of evidence, he has reconstructed the truth about the horrid event that ruined his life. He knows his discovery could cost him his life, so he breaks from prison after sending an appeal to the Supreme Court that details a massive conspiracy tied into the foundations of Washington.
The complex drama of Rufus Harms is only one of the interwoven threads in this massive, violent legal thriller that also draws from the vocabulary of hard-boiled crime fiction. Baldacci offers glimpses into the arcane politics of the high court, where Justice Elizabeth Knight wages war with the manipulative Chief Justice Harold Ramsay. And while Harms struggles to keep out of harm's way and the justices duke it out, Supreme Court law clerk Sara Evans toils with ex-cop John Fiske to discover the import of Harms's appeal (and, simultaneously, to uncover the murderer of Mike Fiske, John's law clerk-brother and the original holder of the appeal). Their interest in the document apparently draws the attention of the same deadly conspirators who manipulated Harms over two decades earlier. While the armed mayhem sometimes rises to the point of excess, Baldacci's novel continues to offer new surprises until the final pages. --Patrick O'Kelley [via]
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Thunderball
by Ian Fleming

ISBN 0425086348 (0-425-08634-8)
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group

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More editions of Thunderball:
- Thunderball: ISBN 0851191630 (0-85119-163-0)
  Hardcover, Chivers North Amer
- Thunderball: ISBN 0425086348 (0-425-08634-8)
  Softcover, Berkley Pub Group
Valhalla Rising
by Clive Cussler

ISBN 0425185710 (0-425-18571-0)
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group

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The Woman in White
by Wilkie Collins, Cynthia Johnson

ISBN 1416509798 (1-4165-0979-8)
Softcover, Pocket Classics

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Book summary:
But the Law is still, in certain inevitable cases, the pre-engaged servant of the long purse; and the story is left to be told, for the first time, in this place. As the Judge might once have heard it, so the Reader shall hear it now. No circumstance of importance, from the beginning to the end of the disclosure, shall be related on hearsay evidence. [via]
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The Zero Game
by Brad Meltzer

ISBN 0446612111 (0-446-61211-1)
Softcover, Grand Central Pub

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Book summary:
The New York Times bestselling author of The Millionaires and The First Counsel returns to Wash-ington, D.C., with the story of an insider's game that turns deadly. Matthew Mercer and Harris Sandler are best friends who have plum jobs as senior staffers to well-respected congressmen. But after a decade in Washington, idealism has faded to disillusionment, and they're bored. Then one of them finds out about the clandestine Zero Game. It starts out as good fun-a simple wager between friends. But when someone close to them ends up dead, Harris and Matthew realize the game is far more sinister than they ever imagined-and that they're about to be the game's next victims. On the run, they turn to the only person they can trust: a 16-year-old Senate page who can move around the Capitol undetected. As a ruthless killer creeps closer, this idealistic page not only holds the key to saving their lives, but is also determined to redeem them in the process. Come play The Zero Game-you can bet your life on it. [via]
More editions of The Zero Game:
- The Zero Game: ISBN 0446530980 (0-446-53098-0)
  Hardcover, Grand Central Pub
- The Zero Game: ISBN 0446612111 (0-446-61211-1)
  Softcover, Grand Central Pub