With his gift for crafting “a keep-you engaged- to-the-very-last-page thriller” ( USA Today ) at full throttle, Greg Iles brings back the unforgettable Penn Cage in this electrifying suspense masterpiece. A new day has dawned . . . but the darkest evils live forever in the murky depths of a Southern town. Penn Cage was elected mayor of Natchez, Mississippi—the hometown he returned to after the death of his wife—on a tide of support for change. Two years into his term, casino gambling has proved a sure bet for bringing new jobs and fresh money to this fading jewel of the Old South. But deep inside the Magnolia Queen , a fantastical repurposed steamboat, a depraved hidden world draws high-stakes players with money to burn on their unquenchable taste for blood sport and the dark vices that go with it. When an old high school friend hands him blood-chilling evidence, Penn alone must beat the odds tracking a sophisticated killer who counters his every move, placing those nearest to him—including his young daughter, his renowned physician father, and a lover from the past—in grave danger, and all at the risk of jeopardizing forever the town he loves.
From Publishers Weekly Iles's third addition to the Penn Cage saga is an effective thriller that would have been even more satisfying at half its length. There is a lot of story to cover, with Cage now mayor of Natchez, Miss., battling to save his hometown, his family and his true love from the evil clutches of a pair of homicidal casino operators who are being protected by a homeland security bigwig. Dick Hill handles the large cast of characters effortlessly, adopting Southern accents that range from aristocratic (Cage and his elderly father) to redneck (assorted Natchez townsfolk). He provides the bad guys with their vocal flair, including an icy arrogance for the homeland security honcho, a soft Asian-tempered English for the daughter of an international villain and the rough Irish brogue of the two main antagonists. One of the latter pretends to be an upper-class Englishman and, in a moment of revelation, Hill does a smashing job of switching accents mid-sentence. Views: 8
In the latest military thriller from the retired Delta Force Operator and New York Times bestselling author, a hostage situation places America’s most powerful political elite at the mercy of its worst enemies. When veteran operator Pike Logan and partner Jennifer Cahill receive a letter from Blaisdell Consulting—the umbrella cover company for their real employer, a top secret counterterrorist unit called the Taskforce—they expect orders for their next mission-impossible tasking. Instead, they learn that their latest actions have gotten them fired, despite having saved thousands of innocent lives. Pike’s shock and fury is redirected when their commander, Colonel Kurt Hale, asks him and Jennifer for help with a personal matter: His niece Kylie, an exchange student in England, has gone missing. Neither Pike nor Jennifer understands how critical her disappearance will become. Meanwhile, all Taskforce teams have been redirected to a developing situation. A terrorist organization has targeted military relatives of key members of the US government, including the vice president’s son. Their seizure of hostages was far-reaching and meticulously coordinated, and the full extent of the threat—and potential demands—has thrown the government into turmoil. They face a terrible choice: Cease counter-terrorist operations, or watch hostages die one by one. How much is a single life worth? Unless the Taskforce can decipher the web of lies devised by their enemies, the United States is about to find out. ReviewPraise for *No Fortunate Son* “[E]dge-of-your-seat thriller...nonstop action, intricate story line, and jaw-dropping plot twists.” -- Publishers Weekly "Smoothly switching between third-person narration and Pike's first-person point of view, Taylor skillfully unfolds the story until it feels like you're on a frenzied ride. A surefire page-turner that is nearly impossible to put down." - Kirkus“Fresh plot, great action, and Taylor clearly knows what he is writing about. . . . When it comes to tactics and hardware he is spot-on.”—Vince Flynn on All Necessary Force “Bestseller Taylor’s fifth Pike Logan thriller takes all the energy of the previous installments and multiplies it by a force factor of 10… A great premise, nonstop action, and one of the baddest villains in the genre... make this a winner.”— Publishers Weekly (starred review) on The Polaris Protocol "Taylor continues to tell exciting action stories with the authenticity of someone who knows the world of special ops. He also has the chops to create terrific characters whom readers will root for. This series just gets better and better."—Booklist on The Polaris Protocol "Admirers of the late Tom Clancy will enjoy this and other works in the series."— Kirkus Reviews on The Polaris Protocol** “The high violence level and authentic military action put Taylor, a retired Delta Force officer, solidly in the ranks of such authors as Brad Thor and Vince Flynn.”—*Publishers Weekly * “Readers of novels set in the world of Special Forces have many choices, but Taylor is one of the best.”—Booklist on Enemy of Mine “Satisfies from start to finish.”—Kirkus Reviews on Enemy of MineAbout the AuthorBRAD TAYLOR is the New York Times bestselling author of six previous Pike Logan novels. He served for more than twenty years in the US Army, including eight years in 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment'''Delta, commonly known as Delta Force. He retired as a Special Forces lieutenant colonel and now lives in Charleston, South Carolina. Views: 8
The Great Recession is in its tenth year and the Man rules in Old London Town. When conscription calls Ben Jackman flees and hides in the crime ridden streets, defying the Man's edict that all should help fight the War on Terror. When Ben's best friend turns up dead in his vagrant's squat, Ben is forced out of hiding by the warrant for his arrest and his need to revenge his friend. Views: 8
FORGED FROM THE RUINSA planet ravaged by the apocalyptic blast of 2001 gave birth to a new world of savagery--and a new breed of hero. In a land where violence rules with absolute authority, Ryan Cawdor and his wayfarer survivalists roam the strange, nascent twenty-second century, living by their own creed of honor as they continue their search for a sanctuary they can call home.ETERNAL QUESTIn what was once the nuclear testing ground of the predark world, the Marshall Islands are now the kingdom of the grotesque Lord Baron Kinnison. Here in this world of slavery and brutality the companions have fought a fierce war for survival, on land and sea--yet the crafty baron still conspires to destroy these interlopers. Activating a twentieth-century hot air balloon left untouched by the blast, they escape to the neighboring pirate-ruled Forbidden Island, with the baron's sec men in hot pursuit--and become trapped in a war for... Views: 8
Snowden Nastiuk has gone to Russia after the time of the fall of Communism to bury himself, a loser in a loser nation in a world that wants only winners.Buried in a job working as a Document Controller in a Russian oil camp near Noyabrsk, Snow is – not happy, but at least content sitting out his life in a setting where he thinks he won’t have to feel any more pain. He has a job where he only has to interact with paper, not humans; a setting far from family and friends; and enough vodka to dull anything that threatens to get in past his defences.Until the woman walks into his life, literally. Magda Perskanski – physicist, gulag survivor, brothel madame, overseer of the Deficit Exchange Club, psychic capable of reading people’s pasts, mathabeautician – simply barges into his porta-cabin one day when Snow refuses to answer her knocking and kicks the legs out the crutches he’s come to depend on; she recognizes something deep inside the chuzhie that she knows is inside herself and refuses to let another human being suffer the same way as she has done.Little by little, Magda draws Snow out, first the story of what has caused him so much pain – the suicide of his mother when he was a young boy and the mindless death of his young girlfriend by a falling tree in the forest on a camping trip – then out of his torpor and the start of his first tentative steps back into the landmine-filled world of personal relationships. Not only is there Magda, there is Kolya, the unrepentant Communist who works with Snow in Document Control. And there is Pig –Porfiry Makahonic – the camp boss who rules everything in “his” oil camp with an iron fist, including his pet Doctor.There is also the mysterious sickness that keeps affecting and even killing the labourers in the oil camp’s pipeline/pigging system and laboratory, something which concerns Magda deeply, but which Snow doesn’t care about until Kolya ends up dead protecting the integrity of “his” documents against the crimes going on in camp.Crawling out of his vodka bottle long enough to go digging inside the day-to-day documents of the oil camp, Snow and Magda find evidence that Pig and the Doctor are hijacking radioactive cesium used in oil well-bore reading equipment and medical instruments and smuggling it out of the camp through the pig in the pipeline to terrorists who plan to use it in dirty bombs in Manhattan, Manchester and Mumbai. Before they can get the information to the authorities – no one is sure whom to trust in a still-reeling Russia run by the siloviki and absent rule of law – Snow is found half-frozen outside of his cabin on a cold winter’s night. Did somebody try and kill him or did he decide to follow his mother and ex-lover into death? In the end, Magda manages to bring Pig to justice and guide Snow back to a life he deserved all along. Views: 8
