coolreads # Retro Books # The Bombmaker

The Bombmaker

Author: Stephen Leather

Publisher: Hodder

ISBN: 9780340689561

Year Published: 2000

The book starts off with a scene of two Belfast terrorists trying to blow up the underground tunnel by placing a bomb at the entrance. Unfortunately, the bomb was discovered by a group of four children playing football nearby. When one of them accidentally kicked the ball that landed at the mouth of the tunnel, he ran over to pick up the ball, followed by the others. One of the kids saw a blue holdall nearby. He grabbed it and opened it just when the terrorists detonated the bomb.

coolreads # Retro Books # Dark Horse

Dark Horse

Author: Gregg Hurwitz

Publisher: St Martin's Paperbacks

ISBN: 9781250253248

 

As Orphan X, Evan Smoak was an off-the-books government assassin. However, after a while, he broke with the Orphan Programme and adopted a new mission - helping the most desperate people in their times of trouble. Having just survived an attack on his life and the destruction of his base of operations at the condo at Castle Heights where he resides, Evan is not keen on taking on a new mission. But one finds its way to him anyway.

coolreads # Retro Books # Ballistic

Ballistic

Author: Mark Greaney

Publisher: Berkley Books

ISBN: 9781101544921

Year Published: 2011

The central character in the Gray Man series is Court Gentry - a legend in the covert ops world (also known as Violator), who has been disavowed by the CIA.

coolreads # Retro Books # Capitol Conspiracy

Capitol Conspiracy

Author: William Bernhardt

Publisher: Ballantine Books

ISBN: 9780345487575

Year Published: 2008

William Bernhardt is well known for his high-powered legal thrillers. In this third novel starring Ben Kincaid as a senator, he has created another suspenseful plot with just the right pace and style.

coolreads # Retro Books # Simple Genius

Simple Genius

Author: David Baldacci

Publiser: Grand Central

ISBN: 9781455550807

Year Published: 2007

This is a Sean King and Michelle Maxwell adventure by David Baldacci. The story opens with Michelle experiencing a breakdown.

coolreads # Retro Books # Treasure

Treasure

Author: Clive Cussler

Publisher: HarperCollins

ISBN: 0007205597

Year Published: 2005

The story starts off in the past when the great Library of Alexandria which housed the knowledge of the Egyptian, Greek and Roman empires as well as those little known civilisations that rose and fell far beyond the shores of the Mediterranean, was ransacked, burned and destroyed by some fanatics after being ordered by the Christian Emperor Theodosius in 391 AD.

coolreads # Retro Books # Agent in Place

Agent in Place

Author: Mark Greaney

Publisher: Berkeley

ISBN: 9780451488909

Year Published: 2018

This is the seventh in the high-powered Gray Man series by Mark Greaney. The book opens with the Islamic State group about to execute Courtland Gentry, also known as the Gray Man and leave his body floating with others shot in the head in a bloody lake. Then the story backs up a week earlier to show how Gentry got into this unholy mess.

coolreads # Retro Books # Crescent Dawn

Crescent Dawn

Authors: Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler

Publisher: Penguin Books

ISBN: 9780241951316

Year Published: 2011

Throw in a band of mixed terrorists, Roman artefacts, with delusions of dynasty by deranged siblings and the irrefutable physical evidence that Jesus of Nazareth lived, then include water - from the Mediterranean Sea - and from this exotic mixture, you get another aquatic adventure starring Dirk Pitt and his colleagues at NUMA (National Underwater and Marine Agency).

coolreads # Retro Books # Dead Eye

Dead Eye

Author: Mark Greaney

Publisher: Berkley Books

ISBN: 9780425269053

Year Published: 2013

With Court Gentry also known as the Gray Man still on the run from US authorities, including a number of "handlers" whom he has burned, the CIA hires one of its most covert private operations, Townsend Government Services, to find and kill him. They turn to the one man who is just as skilled as Gray Man in order to do the job for them, a man code-named Dead Eye, which is also the title of the fourth thriller in this series by Mark Greaney.

coolreads# Conviction @definitelybooks

Conviction

Author: Jack Jordan

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

ISBN: 9781398505711

AS an ambitious lawyer, 38-year-old Neve Harper has been handed a controversial murder case which has made the headlines. Her new client, Wade Darling has been accused of killing his wife and children, and then burning down the family home, injuring himself in the process. But Wade professes his innocence, claiming a mystery man killed them all instead before leaving him to die in the fire.

coolreads# The Accomplice @definitelybooks

The Accomplice

Author: Steve Cavanagh

Publisher: Orion

ISBN: 9781409198741

The book opens with FBI agent Paige Delaney together with a SWAT team approaching a brick colonial-style house in upscale Old Westbury in New York State. They are there on an urgent mission. For 14 months and 12 days, a serial killer who calls himself The Sandman has murdered 17 victims. Now they are at his home to make the arrest.

coolreads # Retro Books # Gray Mountain

Gray Mountain

Author: John Grisham

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

ISBN: 9781473613003

Year Published: 2014

Gray Mountain is set during the 2008 recession. The protagonist, Samantha Kofer, is a third-year associate in one of the major law firms in New York - Scully & Pershing.

coolreads# 1989 @definitelybooks

1989

Author: Val McDermid

Publisher: Little, Brown

ISBN: 9780751583113

Billed as the “Queen of Crime”, Val McDermid has a devoted readership base since her debut with 1979 in 2021. The new novel, 1989, showcases her as an author who likes to keep in touch wIth people and events. It chronicles the life of Scottish investigative reporter Allie Burns, as she navigates the ever-changing landscape of the newspaper industry, as well as highlighting major landmark events in both Scotland and the world at large.

coolreads # Retro Books # Hot Blood

Hot Blood

Author: Stephen Leather

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

ISBN: 9780340921692

Year Published: 2007

Hot Blood is Stephen Leather's 18th novel, the fourth in a series featuring undercover cop Dan 'Spider' Shepherd. It is based on a formulaic rescue drama, centred on present-day Iraq.

coolreads# Escape @definitelybooks

Escape

Authors: James Patterson & David Ellis

Publisher: Century

ISBN: 9781529125405

ESCAPE is the third instalment in James Patterson and David Ellis’ series featuring Billy Harney, a Chicago detective who works in an elite unit that focuses exclusively on what are  called "heater" cases, those high-publicity crimes that lead the evening news broadcasts.

coolreads # Retro Books # Greed

Greed

Author: Chris Ryan

Publisher: Arrow Books

ISBN: 0099432226

Year Published: 2003

Greed is a poignant story of what happens when you mix terrorism, money, love and when all these elements combust into a thriller as written by Chris Ryan. It starts with five men, one robbery and then revenge and betrayal set in to destroy what originally begins as a covert operation, sanctioned and helped by MI5.

coolreads# My Father's House @definitelybooks

My Father's House

Author: Joseph O'Connor

Publisher: Harvill Secker

ISBN: 9781787300835

Joseph O'Connor returns with another superb, compelling and brilliant read. My father's House is set in wartime Rome, occupied by the Nazis and led by Gestapo commander Paul Hauptmann, who rules with terror and takes a hands-on approach to his work. But there’s one place he can’t touch or reach - the Vatican City.

coolreads # Retro Books # The Resurrection Key

The Resurrection Key

Author: Andy McDermott

Publisher: Headline

ISBN: 9781472236937

Year Published: 2019

In this thrilling instalment in the  Nine Wilde and Eddie Chase series, the intrepid pair must once again race against time to stop a deadly power being unleashed on the world.

coolreads # Retro Books # The Bourne Betrayal

The Bourne Betrayal

Author: Eric Van Lustbader

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

ISBN: 9780446580373

Year: 2007

Jason Bourne takes on nuclear-armed Muslim fundamentalists in this thrilling adventure.

coolreads# Winter Work @definitelybooks

Winter Work

Author: Dan Fesperman

Publisher: Head of Zeus

ISBN: 9781804540572

Winter Work is a brilliant addition to Dan Fesperman's magnificent oeuvre about a society turned upside down.

coolreads # Retro Books # They’re Watching

They’re Watching

Author: Gregg Hurwitz

Publisher: St Martin Press

ISBN: 9780312534905

Gregg Hurwitz has written an impressive list of thriller novels, scripted screenplays for a who’s who list of producers and studios, and written story arcs for some of the most iconic figures in comic books, including Wolverine and The Punisher.

coolreads# Sparring Partners @definitelybooks

Sparring Partners

Author: John Grisham

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

ISBN: 9781399708432

Taking a respite from writing long novels, John Grisham’s Sparring Partners offers readers three short stories that are easy to read. Grisham’s work often revolves around issues that he considers important and compelling to him. Early in his career, he took on capital punishment as a personal crusade and wrote novels decrying the demerits of the death penalty in the United States. He even serves on the board of directors of the Innocent Project, an organisation devoted to helping those wrongfully convicted of crimes.

coolreads # Retro Books # Osama

Osama

Author: Chris Ryan

Publisher: Coronet

ISBN: 9781444706451

Year Published: 2012

This is Chris Ryan’s 17th novel and it is filled with great action, thrills and also inside knowledge of the working of the Al Qaeda group. The book starts with the time of Osama bin Laden's death. His killing, sanctioned by the President of the United States, is the culmination of years of efforts to hunt him down immediately after the September 11 attack on the United States.

coolreads # Retro Books # Prodigal Son

Prodigal Son

Author: Gregg Hurwitz

Publisher: Minotaur Books

ISBN: 9781250252289

Prodigal Son is the sixth book in Gregg Hurwitz’s Orphan X series and is a revealing and special edition because it has been written to bring newcomers into the Orphan X circle while providing for fans answers to questions that have been hanging for some years now.

coolreads # Retro Books # Agent 21 Codebreaker

Agent 21: Codebreaker

Author: Chris Ryan

Publisher: Random House

ISBN: 9781849410090

Year Published: 2013

Chris Ryan's third book on 17-year-old Zak Darke, also known as Agent 21 and working undercover for a UK shadowy government agency, has him taking on another dangerous assignment. As a highly trained agent, he has to intercept the terrorist who is planning to bomb several locations in London.

coolreads# The Last Orphan @definitelybooks

The Last Orphan

Author: Gregg Hurwitz

Publisher: Minotaur Books

ISBN: 9781250252333

Evan Smoak returns for another adventure in this hard-hitting thriller from Gregg Hurwitz.

coolreads # Retro Books # Blood Oath

Blood Oath

Author: Christopher Farnsworth

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton 

ISBN: 9780340998151

Christopher Farnsworth’s debut thriller, Blood Oath introduces Nathanial Cade, a vampire sworn to eternal service to the office of the President of the United States, and his new handler, Zach Barrows.

coolreads# Outcast @definitelybooks

Outcast

Author: Chris Ryan

Publisher: Zaffre

ISBN: 9781838777623

Outcast traces the journey of Officer Jamie ‘Geordie’ Carter, a likeable fellow but unfortunately, he’s ruffled some feathers along the way and has found himself out of favour with his superiors.

coolreads# The Last Kingdom @definitelybooks

The Last Kingdom 

Author: Steve Berry

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

ISBN: 9781399706377

The Last Kingdom offers readers some surprises, a myriad of mysterious moments, and a combination of historical events. And Steve Berry manages to create an exciting thriller with the fusion of the authentic and the absurb. His ability to connect and create seemingly random events of the past into an exciting treasure hunt of the present, continues to entertain his legion of fans.

coolreads# The Treadstone Transgression @definitelybooks

The Treadstone Transgression

Author: Joshua Hood

Publisher: Zeus Head

ISBN: 9781803285788

Joshua Hood’s third contribution to this spin-off series from the late Robert Ludlum’s legendary Jason Bourne franchise opens in Haiti, where gutsy DIA agent Dallys Carver is on a mission to acquire an encrypted flash drive from a disgruntled bank manager, Toussaint, proving that the director of the Haitian intelligence service is working with a foreign conglomerate to skirt international sanctions.

coolreads # Retro Books # High Treason

High Treason
Author: Sean McFate
Publisher: William Morrow and HarperCollins
ISBN: 9780062843661
Year Published: 2020

High Treason is a realistic tour through political intrigue mixed with plenty of excitement from the frontline operators. It is a story of a military contractor who must unravel the mysterious assassination of the US vice president.

coolreads# Omega Rules @definitelybooks

Omega Rules

Author: Eric Van Lustbader

Publisher: Head of Zeus

ISBN: 9781803282107

Evan Ryder returns in Omega Rules, the third and latest instalment. It is a continuation of her two previous adventures - The Nemesis Manifesto and The Kobalt Dossier - all by Eric Van Lustbader. So you’ll need to read these earlier two books in order to understand the characters’ relationships and how each individual relates to the others.

coolreads # Retro Books # The Target

The Target
Author: David Baldacci
Publisher: MacMillan
ISBN: 9781447225294
Year Published: 2014

In The Target, David Baldacci picks up where he's left off, featuring CIA assassins Will Robie and Jessica Reel in this no-holds-barred tale of perfidy and murder sanctioned at the highest level.

coolreads # Retro Books # Shadow War

Shadow War 

Author: Sean McFate & Bret Witter
Publisher: William Morrow
ISBN: 9780062403704
Year Published: 2016

Unlike many new authors trying to make a name for themselves in the political and military-thriller genres, Sean McFate has actually lived the life he is now writing about.