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Before She Disappeared by isa Gardner
Prodigal Son by Gregg Hurwitz
Deep into the Dark by P. J. Tracy
The FBI Way: Inside the Bureau’s Code of Excellence by Frank Figliuzzi
Alaska Mountain Rescue, by Elizabeth Heiter
When Force Meets Fate by Jamison Hill
Before She Disappeared by isa Gardner

Before She Disappeared by isa Gardner

Before She Disappeared is former Rhode Island resident Lisa Gardner’s first standalone thriller in years, and, boy, does it stand out as a masterpiece of post-modern noir in the vein of the great Dennis Lehane.

Gardner is also at home in Lehane’s backyard of the working-class Boston suburbs, Mattapan in this case. The book introduces us to Frankie Elkin, a woman with more than her share of skeletons in the closet, who’s dedicated to finding lost souls — literally in the form of often long-missing persons. The “disappeared” in this case is a high school student who’s been missing for a year when Frankie takes up the case. Speaking of skeletons, she’s going to rattle a whole bunch in peeling back the dark layers to reveal the terrifying truth buried in this particularly insular community.

It’s great to see a writer of Gardner’s stature reaching for more, especially when she captures it in such a firm grasp. Before She Disappeared is a riveting stunner of a tale where the rare appearance of the sun shines down on what is certain to be one of the best thrillers of 2021. (Read also BookTrib’s review here.)


Prodigal Son by Gregg Hurwitz

Prodigal Son by Gregg Hurwitz

Gregg Hurwitz continues his Orphan X series in a spectacularly successful fashion with Prodigal Son.

This time out, in the most personal entry so far, assassin-turned-avenger Evan Smoak meets his (supposed) birth mother who gave him up for adoption, setting the stage for a secret government agency to turn him into their deadly play toy. That meeting sets Smoak, a.k.a. “The Nowhere Man,” on the protective trail of the downtrodden Andrew Duran who had the additional misfortune of seeing something he wasn’t supposed to. And that places Smoak in the crosshairs of a deadly assassin team who’d like nothing better than to claim him as their trophy.

Six books in, this series shows no sign of tiring, and neither does Hurwitz whose manic writing energy is keenly on display. He’s simply the best all-out action writer in the business, to which he adds a shrewd sense of character akin to David Morrell who redefined the genre with First Blood a half-century ago. Not to be missed.


Deep into the Dark by P. J. Tracy

Deep into the Dark by P. J. Tracy

The great John D. McDonald, author of the Travis Magee series, once defined story as “stuff happening to people you care about,” phrasing that perfectly describes P. J. Tracy’s aptly titled Deep into the Dark.

Troubled war vet Sam Eaton, just back from serving in Afghanistan, finds himself a murder suspect simply for agreeing to help a friend. Good thing LAPD homicide detective Margaret Nolan is on the job since she knows all too well the price those who serve overseas must often pay. Nolan refuses to take things at face value, a good thing since little is as it appears to be, something that becomes abundantly clear as she assembles this jigsaw puzzle of a plot.

Tracy writes like a female Raymond Chandler, owning the modern streets of Los Angeles in this noir-steeped tale. At its heart, though, Deep Into the Dark features the perfect blend of social commentary and narrative tension, making it a read as entertaining as it is enlightening.


The FBI Way: Inside the Bureau’s Code of Excellence by Frank Figliuzzi

The FBI Way: Inside the Bureau’s Code of Excellence by Frank Figliuzzi

Frank Figliuzzi has lived the life of a typical crime-thriller hero, in this case rising to the level of head of counterintelligence for the FBI. He wondrously chronicles his exploits in The FBI Way: Inside the Bureau’s Code of Excellence, a book that takes us inside a world we witnessed first-hand just a few weeks back at the Capitol Building.

Figliuzzi knows what makes real-life villains like that tick, and his anecdote-rich tale of climbing the Bureau’s ranks, and the bad guys he took down along the way, is told with fiction-like levels of suspense and intrigue. Almost like reading something by Catherine Coulter or even Thomas Harris, thanks to his FBI agent protagonists Clarice Starling and Will Graham. In this case, though, the monsters that go bump in the night are real, and it’s left to men like Figliuzzi to keep us safe from them.

The FBI Way is a sterling achievement in narrative nonfiction, thrilling without being a thriller. It’s one of those books people will be referencing for decades to come as a definitive tome for the times in which we live.


Alaska Mountain Rescue, by Elizabeth Heiter

Alaska Mountain Rescue, by Elizabeth Heiter

Alaska Mountain Rescue, Elizabeth Heiter’s latest in her terrific K-9 Alaska series, is easily her most ambitious and fully realized effort yet, a perfect amalgam of emotion and action.

Alanna Morgan could use a break. Raised by parents who turned out to be kidnappers, she attempts to erase the scars left on her psyche by helping others in the company of her St. Bernard therapy dog. Good thing he’s by her side when the woman who called herself Alanna’s mother breaks out of prison, leading to a reunion that brings Alanna’s life full circle. And that’s before the rugged and treacherous Alaskan wilderness becomes a character in its own right.

Alaska Mountain Rescue packs a punch on every page but features an emotional wallop that makes it truly stand out. A suspenseful and conflict-riddled blend of Jack London and James Rollins, it’s as visceral as it is visual.

 


When Force Meets Fate by Jamison Hill

When Force Meets Fate by Jamison Hill

When Force Meets Fate is nonfiction and not a thriller per se. But Jamison Hill’s pulse-pounding narrative of his own struggle to first survive and then recover after a devastating car accident at the age of twenty-two, which somehow leaves him with an even more devastating disease called ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome), feels like a thriller.

He ends up bedridden, unable to walk, feed himself or perform even the simplest of everyday tasks. A prisoner in many respects, but one who refuses to accept his fate and fights to escape. Hill’s book chronicles those efforts in a deliberate, painstaking and often agonizing fashion, taking us along for a hellish ride down a road we can only hope we’ll never have to travel ourselves.

This is the best book of its kind I’ve read since When Breath Becomes Air, a kind of Tuesdays With Morrie in which Morrie gets to live. Hill chronicles his heroic recovery with the skill and aplomb of a penner of page-turners, leading to a thrilling and inspiring tale par excellence.


Jon Land

Jon Land is the bestselling author over 25 novels. He graduated from Brown University in 1979 Phi Beta Kappa and Magna cum Laude and continues his association with Brown as an alumni advisor. Jon often bases his novels and scripts on extensive travel and research as well as a twenty-five year career in martial arts. He is an associate member of the US Special Forces and frequently volunteers in schools to help young people learn to enjoy the process of writing. Jon is the Vice-President of marketing of the International Thriller Writers (ITW) and is often asked to speak on topics regarding writing and research. In addition to writing suspense/thrillers, Jon is also a screenwriter with his first film credit in 2005. Jon works with many industry professionals and has garnered the respect and friendship of many author-colleagues. He loves storytelling in all its forms. Jon currently lives in Providence, Rhode Island and loves hearing from his readers and aspiring writers.

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