The Chaos Agent by Mark Greaney
It’s lucky number 13 in the Gray Man series and Mark Greaney’s stalwart hero shows no sign of slowing. In fact, “The Chaos Agent” (Berkley) is one of the best and timeliest in the series yet.
This time out Court Gentry shares center stage with Artificial Intelligence, specifically how A.I. might be employed in battlefield as well as geopolitical scenarios. Gentry, of course, is expert at both but he may have met his match this time, when all over the world experts in the groundbreaking technology are being murdered so that someone can corner in the market. The problem is the Gray Man has pulled away from his old game and has no desire to be a spy coming in from the cold.
Greaney has never been better and Gentry never more conflicted. The result is a superb, scintillating and seminal thriller that echoes as much of John le Carre as Robert Ludlum. Had Alistair McClean been alive in these times, “The Chaos Agent” is the kind of book he would have written as well, because it reads like a contemporary version of the classic “Ice Station Zebra.”
Three Inch Teeth by C. J. Box
Joe Pickett finds himself with adversaries galore, one of them standing more than ten-feet tall, in C. J. Box’s “Three Inch Teeth” (Putnam).
A murderous grizzly bear is leaving its mark in blood amid Pickett’s Montana territory as a game warden. Call it wildlife’s revenge for the steady encroachment by man on land that was once unspoiled and untamed. Meanwhile, a human animal is on the prowl as well, only with a list of victims already prepared. Pickett was the one who arrested Dallas Cates which places him at the very top, the biggest question being whether he will cross paths with Cates or the bear first.
Box’s simple, Hemingway-like style and language helps “Three Inch Teeth” unfold at a blistering pace that never lets up, just as the book never disappoints, not even for a page. Like the aforementioned Mark Greaney, he just keeps getting better, making his latest yet another must read.
The Atlas Maneuver by Steve Berry
It’s easy to take perennial bestselling authors like Steve Berry for granted, but we shouldn’t in large part because he keeps coming up with incredible, historically-based speculative tales and “The Atlas Maneuver” (Grand Central) rises straight to the top of that list.
This time out, the historical artifact in question dates back to the World War II era and the search for an incalculable amount of funds, gold and jewels stashed away by the Japanese. Fast forward to the present and it’s left the ever-reliable Cotton Malone to sort through an increasingly frantic morass as to how that missing loot is connected to the potential collapse of the world economy. In that respect (spoiler alert!) this is very likely the best thriller yet, if not the first ever, to master both the potential and inherent risks involved in the cryptocurrency market.
Like other top authors in the thriller genre, Berry is content to partner with our imaginations in bringing his work to life. And with “The Atlas Maneuver,” he has hoisted us up on his sturdy shoulders, high enough to yet again see future threats no one else has envisioned yet. Superb in all respects.
One Wrong Word by Hank Phillippi Ryan
Nobody does psychological suspense better than Hank Phillippi Ryan and all the reasons are plainly on display in the aptly titled “One Wrong Word” (Forge).
The set-up is pure gold, right from the point we meet crisis management expert Arden Ward. It should come as no surprise to readers that Arden faces a crisis herself, when she’s falsely accused of having an affair with a client. Ryan adds to that already splendid premise by giving us a ticking clock, since Arden only has fourteen days to clear her name. Cast brilliantly in the desperate role of the people she normally steers, Arden makes a deal with the devil that just might cost her soul.
Ryan, a long-time Boston TV news reporter, knows how to make every word count without ever mincing them. That helps make “One Wrong Word” as on point as a thriller can get, packed with a minefield of duplicitous, double-dealing characters Arden will have to navigate to save her career and, potentially, her life.
Lone Wolf by Gregg Hurwitz
There’s little in Gregg Hurwitz’s Nowhere Man series we haven’t seen before; we just haven’t seen it done nearly as well or with as much bracing consistency. And the reasons why are on evident from the first page of “Lone Wolf” (Minotaur).
To refresh your memory, Evan Smoak is a trained assassin known originally as the Nowhere Man because he literally had no identity. He continues the remaking (or making) of himself in this latest series entry in supremely effective fashion. Smoak is two parts Jack Reacher and one part Equalizer with just a dash of Travis Magee thrown in. John D. MacDonald’s Magee was famous for doing favors for friends, while Smoak does them for strangers. It’s what has always defined him, as it does here when he finds himself searching for a little girl’s lost dog. That simple setup sounds conjured from a Norman Rockwell painting, but in this case blood splashes on the canvas and Smoak finds himself in familiar territory fighting really bad villains and one bloodthirsty assassin who is every bit his equal.
The random nature of events has become one of the defining and most outstanding attributes of this superb series that features the perfect blend of action and character. In that respect, Smoak is most like Reacher, except that he fights his battles on larger grounds with an entirely different skillset that helps make him the most intriguing character in the genre today. “Lone Wolf” is thriller writing of the absolute highest order.
The Guest by B. A. Paris
B. A. Paris has become the definitive master of neo-gothic noir and all her talents are front and center in “The Guest” (St. Martin’s).
A la Goldilocks, happy couple Iris and Gabriel return home from a vacation to find out someone has quite literally been sleeping in their bed. One of their closest friends, Laurie, has taken the liberty of moving in. Now, there’s clearly something wrong with anyone who does such a thing and a great deal of the fun here lies in finding out what that is exactly and how it led to a split with her husband, who is also close to Iris and Gabriel. There’s tragedy in the past and a new couple moving into the neighborhood as well, all apparently innocent occurrences, but in books like this nothing is ever innocent or random.
I’d forgotten how much fun suburban nightmare thrillers like this can be. Nelson DeMille might not have had that moniker in mind when he practically invented the sub-genre in “The Gold Coast,” but close enough. “The Guest” is a terrific tale from the school of Lisa Gardner and Harlan Coben, Paris proving herself to be every bit their equal.
The Rumor Game by Thomas Mullen
Historical thrillers aren’t for everyone, but if they fit your model, look no further than Thomas Mullen’s latest “The Rumor Game” (Minotaur).
The book does a masterful job highlighting the competing interests and movements when World War II first rears its ugly head in America—Boston, specifically, where newspaper reporter Anne Lemire is left to sort through it all, separating fact from fiction and, of course, rumor. Especially pressing is the notion of support building for the Nazis, enough to lead to an insurrection if Hitler’s American backers don’t get their way.
Mullen’s pitch-perfect grasp of history, combined with his ability to weave any number of actual historical elements into a coherent and riveting narrative makes “The Rumor Game” a must read for fans of Jack Higgins and Fredrick Forsyth. And it’s no rumor that this is a tale told in terrific fashion.
The Crown of Light by Rivera Sun
So why am I including a nearly two-year-old book aimed mostly at younger readers in this column? It’s simple. Because Rivera Sun’s “The Crown of Light” (Rising Sun Press), at its heart, is about kids coming together to do what adults have failed to do since time immemorial: stop war.
Set primarily in the Border Mountains of a distant, fictional land, we meet Ari Ara, leader of a group of youths who’ve seen enough suffering and dying and are committed to doing something about it. Essentially, they’re the adults in the room, able to envision a different and better world while the adults are too busy trying to destroy the one they’ve got. Ari, in her fourth appearance in the series of that many books, Ari has become the classically reluctant leader, charged with the kind of impossible quest that defined legendary heroes of lore who often sacrificed everything that made them human in order to save humanity.
More impressively, Sun has fashioned a world reminiscent of both Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” and Frank Herbert’s “Dune” saga, introducing us to a new lexicon where the Way Between, the Peace Force, Market Day, and the Old Tongue become part of everyday existence. “The Crown of Light” shines on every level for all ages, a brilliant allegorical depiction of the problems confronting us today and a metaphor that applies to the front page of any newspaper on any given day.
