Red Sky Mourning by Jack Carr
Jack Carr is back and better than ever in the riveting, relentless, and aptly titled Red Sky Mourning.
Think Tom Clancy’s The Hunt for Red October mixed with the classic 1964 film Fail Safe. An odd combination spurred by a rogue Chinese nuclear submarine steaming toward the United States with the most hostile intentions imaginable. Speaking of odd combinations, the country’s only hope for survival lies in the tenuous connection between one man and one machine. The man is the stalwart James Reece who has withdrawn from the fight he’s been part of too long, and the machine is an AI supercomputer of questionable loyalties. With the clock ticking down to doomsday, Reece finds himself, quite literally, the only man who can save the world.
I can’t remember the last time I read a doomsday thriller this searing or scintillating, though Stephen Hunter’s The Day Before Midnight way back in 1989 comes to mind. As he was in his much-lauded career as a Navy SEAL, Carr is more than up to the task in crafting a tale that will leave your back sore from sitting so long on the edge of your seat.
The Next Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine
The Next Mrs. Parrish cements Liv Constantine’s status as a post-modern Patricia Highsmith with her dual quasi-heroes, sisters Amber and Daphne Parrish every bit as talented as Highsmith’s Mr. Ripley.
The toney, exclusive community of Bishops Harbor once again reigns supreme with Amber holding court and Daphne in self-imposed exile. That is until one of her daughters tests the old adage that you can’t go home again by running away to see her conniving father, forcing Daphne to follow in her trail. The resulting collision of duplicitous and self-absorbed individuals results in suburban big bang of an explosion that drives the book to an unexpected, but wholly appropriate conclusion.
The Next Mrs. Parrish reminded me in all the right ways of Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities with just enough of Nelson DeMille’s The Gold Coast thrown in for good measure. This is splendid storytelling that’s flat-out fun to read.
Assassins Anonymous by Rob Hart
Speaking of fun reads, look no further than Rob Hart’s Assassins Anonymous which gives a whole new meaning to the Twelve-step Program.
That’s because righteous assassin Mark (only first names in the program, remember!) is trying to kick his killing habit. AKA “Pale Horse” Mark’s body count rivals John Wick’s from at least one of the four Keanu Reeves films, so he understandably is ready to hang up his guns as opposed to the bottle. Unfortunately, his past won’t let him and the result is a frantic, nonstop, blood-splattered global romp in which Hart’s well-placed humor hits the bulls-eye as neatly as Mark’s bullets.
If Carl Hiaasen decided to pen a high-action thriller, this would be it. The blend is perfect and the sparse prose and snappy dialogue give Hart a refreshing and welcome voice. There’s some Donald Westlake bite lurking here, along with a touch of Don Winslow cool.
The Nature of Disappearing by Kimi Cunningham Grant
With The Nature of Disappearing Kimi Cunningham Grant serves up the archetypal haunted heroine but with a new twist: That haunted heroine is Emlyn who works as a high-end hunting and fishing guide, catering somewhat to high-end clients.
That’s a great setup in its own right, but not exactly the direction the book ends up taking. Instead, Emlyn gets a visit from Tyler, the boyfriend who quite literally abandoned her. Speaking of abandoned, she’s also estranged from her former best friend Janessa. Turns out Tyler has shown up to give her the news that Janessa is missing, leading to a tense recoupling of sorts as they join forces to find Janessa amid the wild landscape that Emlyn knows better than practically anyone. Of course, in the best psychological thrillers, little is as it appears to be and The Nature of Disappearing fits that bill perfectly.
The tension crackles on every page in this slow burn of a thriller that heats up and then catches fire. Grant proves herself a worthy addition to territory staked out by C. J. Box in a tale where the whims of actual nature are matched every step of the way by the storms of human nature.
Fatal Domain by Stephen James
Stephen James is back with a new thriller, a new series and a new hero in Fatal Domain.
That hero, Travis Brock, takes this year’s prize for most original profession: He’s a “redactor” for the Department of Defense, a role that leaves him much more comfortable chasing bad guys with a keyboard than a gun, a cerebral as opposed to physically gifted hero. Those bad guys here are terrorists looking to blow up databases instead of buildings, in this case targeting the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies with a techno-weapon stolen from under the DOD’s nose. It’s up to Brock to prevent the planned global calamity.
James, known as something of a guru in teaching how to write in the thriller genre, proves adept at practicing all that he preaches. He has staked claim to new genre ground in Fatal Domain, a blisteringly original tale that’s as scary as it is prescient.
Double Tap by Cindy Dees
Cindy Dees puts her own military and intelligence experience to great use in the beautifully told Double Tap, the second book to feature former CIA assassin, Helen Warwick.
As in the worlds of Vince Flynn, Brad Taylor, and Brad Thor, Helen is a former operative who’s done her best to hang up her guns and put her past behind her, which doesn’t stop it from continuing to catch up. This time, that happens when a sniper takes a shot at her politician son. Helen saves the day, but what about tomorrow? With no other choice, she returns to her former life to track down the Russian sleeper agent behind the attempt on her son’s life which turns out to be part of a much more wide-ranging and nefarious plot with nothing less than the fate of the country hanging in the balance.
Dees has a great sense of pace and action, both enhanced by the quality of her writing which is every bit the match for her storytelling. A must-read summer thriller.
The Vicar by A. J. Chambers
The Vicar, the debut novel from A. J. Chambers, is a classic spy thriller in every sense of the word.
Terry Nolan, “the Vicar” of the title, is a former British intelligence operative now enjoying a peaceful and pleasant retirement across the pond in Boston, his past quite literally dead. That is, until he’s marked for actual death by mysterious, unknown assassins who are also after the entire network of spies he was once a part of. That sets Nolan on the trail of a missing protégé, even as he’s forced to return to his old haunts to prevent a catastrophic attack on his native land.
Chambers puts his own military experience to great use in a book that will remind spy thriller faithful of the best from the likes of Len Deighton, Frederick Forsyth, and Alistair McClean with even some John le Carre thrown in for good measure. And with The Vicar he stakes his claim to the territory they owned for so long. This brilliantly told tale is a can’t miss for spy thriller aficionados and a major debut.
