Happy Tuesday! Today TTT bloggers are posting random books from our shelves — either physical or digital. Sharing from either is really going to expose my lack of timely reading. 😉 My Kindle, physical shelves, and NetGalley shelf are filled with hopes and dreams — hope that I will finally choose a book and dreams of having all the time in the world to read! Sad for so many reasons. But I will play along anyway. I chose to go the physical book route — have you read any on my list? Tell me which should head to the top of the TBR pile.
For more random book goodness, please visit That Artsy Reader Girl.
10 Random Books from My Book Shelves
The Cairo Brief by Fiona Veitch Smith
Code of Valor by Lynette Eason
Version 1.0.0
Every Hour Until Then by Gabrielle Meyer
A Gardin Wedding by Rosey Lee
The Secret Book of Flora Lee by Patty Callahan Henry
If you liked the dark, twisting suspense/thriller Cold Dead Night by Lisa Phillips (or really didn’t like my book club 😉 ), then I have a couple of recommendations for you. These books are creepy, twisting, and have seriously bad bad guys. I read them with the lights off too. 😉 They all feature FBI agents — think Criminal Minds.
All of the Steven James’ Patrick Bowers series. Start with The Pawn.
Special Agent Patrick Bowers had only met one man who made him truly afraid. Until now. When he’s called to North Carolina to consult on the case of an area serial killer, he finds himself in a deadly game. Cunning and lethal, the killer is always one step ahead of the law, and he’s about to strike again. It will take all of Bowers’s instincts and training to stop this man who calls himself the Illusionist. And just when the pieces start to come together, Bowers realizes they’re not quite adding up. Can he unravel the pattern and save the next victim? Or will the Illusionist win the game by taking one of his opponent’s pieces? Thrilling, chilling, and impossible to put down, The Pawn will hold suspense lovers in its iron grip until the very last page.
All of Nancy Mehl’s books. I particularly liked her Kaeli Quinn Profiler series.
Kaely Quinn’s talents as an FBI behavior analyst are impossible to ignore, no matter how unorthodox her methods. But when a reporter outs her as the daughter of an infamous serial killer, she’s demoted to field agent and transferred to St. Louis.
When the same reporter who ruined her career claims to have received an anonymous poem predicting a string of murders, ending with Kaely’s, the reporter’s ulterior motives bring his claim into question. But when a body is found that fits the poem’s predictions, the threat is undeniable, and the FBI sends Special Agent Noah Hunter to St. Louis.
Initially resentful of the assignment, Noah is surprised at how quickly his respect for Kaely grows, despite her oddities. But with a brazen serial killer who breaks all the normal patterns on the loose, Noah and Kaely are tested to their limits to catch the murderer before anyone else–including Kaely herself–is killed.
Tom Threadgill’s Jeremy Winter series
Catherine Mae Blackston has vanished without a trace. She is not the first.
FBI Agent Jeremy Winter’s investigation into Blackston’s disappearance uncovers a disturbing pattern: a string of missing persons, all linked to state parks. His superiors dismiss it as another case of a lost hiker, but Winter knows better. Defying orders, he teams up with a determined local officer to dig deeper.
As chilling clues surface, so does a sinister figure from Winter’s past—someone with the power to destroy his career. Now faced with an impossible ultimatum, Winter must keep his girlfriend, fellow agent Maggie Keeley, out of a dangerous political web. But the clock is ticking, and as the body count rises, the trail leads to an unexpected and terrifying suspect.
The missing are out there.
And Jeremy Winter must find them—before his own demons close in.
I liked the twisting, turning, fast-paced suspense novel my book club read this month. I Think I Was Murdered by Colleen Coble and Rick Aker had the added bonus of a challenging AI element that was both intriguing and chilling. If you liked it too, I have a three recommendations for you to consider. Check them out!
Network of Deceit by Tom Threadgill
After her rescue of nearly fifty kidnapped children made international headlines, Amara Alvarez gets what she’s worked for: a transfer to San Antonio’s Homicide Division. Reality sets in quickly, though, as her first case, the suspicious death of a teenager at a crowded local water park, brings chaos to her personal life.
As the investigation moves forward and she increases the pressure on the suspects, Amara finds herself under attack by cybercriminals. Her every move is being potentially watched online, and she’s forced to resort to unconventional methods to find the killer. With few leads, she fights to keep her first murder investigation from ending up in the cold case files.
Tom Threadgill is back with another riveting page-turner featuring the detective who is willing to put everything on the line to see that justice is served and lives are protected.
State of Lies by Siri Mitchell
Someone wants Georgie Brennan dead. And the more she digs for the truth, the fewer people she can trust.
Months after her husband, Sean, is killed by a hit-and-run driver, physicist Georgie Brennan discovers he lied to her about where he had been going that day. A cryptic notebook, a missing computer, and strange noises under her house soon have her questioning everything she thought she knew.
With her job hanging by a thread, her son struggling to cope with his father’s death, and her four-star general father up for confirmation as the next secretary of defense, Georgie quickly finds herself tangled in a web of political intrigue that has no clear agenda and dozens of likely villains.
Only one thing is clear: someone wants her dead too. And the people closest to her might be the most dangerous of all.
Synapse by Steven James
Thirty years in the future, when AI is so advanced that humans live side by side with cognizant robots called Artificials, Kestrel Hathaway must come to terms not just with what machines know, but what they believe. Is hope real for them, or merely an illusion?
Soon after experiencing a personal tragedy, Kestrel witnesses a terrorist attack and is drawn into a world of conspiracies and lies that she and Jordan, her Artificial, have to untangle. With a second, more brutal attack looming on the horizon, their best chance of stopping it is teaming up with federal counterterrorism agent Nick Vernon.
But the clock is ticking — and all the while, Jordan is asking questions that Artificials were never meant to ask.
Deftly weaving suspense and intrigue into a rich, resonant tale that explores faith and what it really means to be human, Steven James offers us a glimpse into the future and into our own hearts.
Synapse is an unforgettable, gripping story of dreams shattered, truth revealed, and hope reborn.
Happy Halloween TTT! Today’s freebie is courtesy of the letters S and K, which stand for SERIAL KILLERS! I have been posting a Halloween TTT for years now and have exhausted all the hooks I can think of. So today I am listing books that feature serial killers. I know it seems extreme to choose this theme, but Halloween movies almost always involve some knife/chainsaw/gun-wielding killer. But rest assured, the killers in the books listed are (eventually) taken care of.
Happy Tuesday! I am little late posting today, but as they say, better than never! I twisted today’s topic to give you 10 books that are examples of what keeps me reading suspense novels — they kept me guessing! I loved that. I read A LOT of suspense and I often figure out whodunit before the main characters. So if an author can surprise me, I count that as a big reading win. If you like suspense too, then check out my list. Please note, I reviewed all of these books here on the blog and I did not have to give a positive review. But they were so good, that I did! 😉
Happy Tuesday! I don’t have a book wishlist primarily because my family and friends look around my house and proclaim I already own too many. What do they know!? LOL! But if I did keep a wishlist these books would be on it.
Happy Tuesday! Today’s TTT topic is all about buying books and then not reading them. I have that issue across formats! Today my list contains 10 (there are more) audiobooks that I have acquired, but have not listened to yet. Most were either on sale or included with my Audible subscription. If you have read/listened to any on my list, let me know what you thought.
Happy Halloween! Today’s TTT topic is a Halloween Freebie. While some might find zombies, vampires, and werewolves frightening, I find books that present chillingly realistic plots truly scary! So today I give you novels with scenarios that just might induce nightmares — cyber attacks, pandemics, lab accidents, AI gone wrong, terrorists. I hope you find one that will send shivers down your spine. 😉
In her new role as Emergency Operations Center director for Fairbanks, Alaska, Darcie Phillips prevents disasters. But none of her training can prepare her for the terror that’s coming.
As a cybersecurity specialist, Jason Myers is determined to ferret out any threats to the town he now calls home–and that includes his reckless brother and his ecoterrorist friends.
When an old woman’s wild prediction–widespread destruction as soon as the Fairbanks temperature falls to 26 below–hits national headlines, neither Darcie nor Jason sees a real risk to anything but tourism.
Then the bodies start dropping.
Darcie is relying on her experience and intelligence to stop a killer; Jason is relying on God to guide the way. They’ll have to work together to find the truth and prevent their Alaskan town from becoming a city of nightmares. The first in a thrilling new suspense series from best-selling author Kimberley Woodhouse, 26 Below will delight fans of Lynnette Eason, Irene Hannon, and Lynn Blackburn.
Airborne by DiAnn Mills
Heather Lawrence’s long-awaited vacation to Salzburg wasn’t supposed to go like this. Mere hours into the transatlantic flight, the Houston FBI agent is awakened when passengers begin exhibiting horrific symptoms of an unknown infection. As the virus quickly spreads and dozens of passengers fall ill, Heather fears she’s witnessing an epidemic similar to ones her estranged husband studies for a living ― but this airborne contagion may have been deliberately released.
While Heather remains quarantined with other survivors, she works with her FBI colleagues to identify the person behind this attack. The prime suspect? Dr. Chad Lawrence, an expert in his field . . . and Heather’s husband. The Lawrences’ marriage has been on the rocks since Chad announced his career took precedence over his wife and future family and moved out.
As more victims fall prey days after the initial outbreak, time’s running out to hunt down the killer, one who may be closer to the victims than anyone ever expected.
An Air That Kills by Christine Poulson
The atmosphere in the lab is toxic.
It is only a matter of time before there is a flu pandemic with the potential to kill billions. Or so wealthy entrepreneur Lyle Lynstrum believes. That is why he is funding research into transgenics – the mechanism by which viruses can jump the species barrier — at a high security lab on a tidal island off the North Devon coast.
A suspiciously rapid turnover of staff has him worried. He sends in scientist Katie Flanagan as an undercover lab technician. Something is clearly very wrong, but before Katie can get to the bottom of what is going on, a colleague is struck down by a mysterious illness.
Has the safety of the facility been compromised, allowing a deadly virus to escape? Katie begins to suspect that the scientists are as deadly as the diseases – and that her cover has been blown.
Then the island is cut off by high seas and a terrifying game of cat-and-mouse begins . . .
Fatal Code by Natalie Walters
In 1964, a group of scientists called the Los Alamos Five came close to finishing a nuclear energy project for the United States government when they were abruptly disbanded. Now the granddaughter of one of those five scientists, aerospace engineer Elinor Mitchell, discovers that she has highly sensitive information on the project in her possession–and a target on her back.
SNAP agent and former Navy cryptologist Kekoa Young is tasked with monitoring Elinor. This is both convenient since she’s his neighbor in Washington, DC, and decidedly inconvenient because . . . well, he kind of likes her.
As Elinor follows the clues her grandfather left behind to a top-secret nuclear project, Kekoa has no choice but to step in. When Elinor learns he has been spying on her, she’s crushed. But with danger closing in on all sides, she’ll have to trust him to ensure her discoveries stay out of enemy hands.
Natalie Walters sucks you into the global race for space domination in this perfectly paced second installment of her SNAP Agency romantic suspense series.
The Influenza Bomb by Paul McCusker and Walt Larimore
Masses of people are dying from a mysterious flu. While the TSI team searches for a cure, a notorious eco-terrorist group, Return to Earth, uses an influenza bomb to poison the water. It’s a race against time — with the outcome impacting the entire world.
By the time the team discovers that the terrorists are using the water supply to infect people, the sickness is spreading worldwide and no one has a cure. When Return to Earth makes off with a mysterious device called the influenza bomb with the intent to destroy all of mankind, Dr. Hutchinson must stop the contamination from being spread before it’s too late.
Outbreak by Davis Bunn
The waters off the West African coast are a menacing red, full of algae thick enough to stand on in places. In nearby villages, mysterious deaths start to occur — and the panic mounts. But before an alarm can be sounded, the sea currents shift, the algae vanishes, and the deaths stop. Everyone is relieved when things return to normal, and local government officials are happy to sweep the publicity nightmare under a rug.
An American biological researcher, Avery Madison, is dispatched by his employer to piece together exactly what happened, having long feared an ecological disaster just like this could occur. He’s had little evidence to go on before now, and what he finds in West Africa is rapidly disappearing. But Avery knows the danger hasn’t disappeared — it has just moved on.
The Paris Betrayal by James R. Hannibal
After a rough mission in Rome involving the discovery of a devastating bioweapon, Company spy Ben Calix returns to Paris to find his perfectly ordered world has collapsed. A sniper attack. An ambush. A call for help that brings French SWAT forces down on his head. Ben is out. This is a severance–reserved for incompetents and traitors.
Searching for answers and anticipating a coming attack, Ben and a woman swept up in his misfortunes must travel across Europe to find the sniper who tried to kill him, the medic who saved his life, the schoolmaster who trained him, and an upstart hacker from his former team. More than that, Ben must come to grips with his own insignificance as the Company’s plan to stop Leviathan from unleashing the bioweapon at any cost moves forward without him–and he struggles against the infection that is swiftly claiming territory within his own body.
Synapse by Steven James
Thirty years in the future, when AI is so advanced that humans live side by side with cognizant robots called Artificials, Kestrel Hathaway must come to terms not just with what machines know, but what they believe. Is hope real for them, or merely an illusion?
Soon after experiencing a personal tragedy, Kestrel witnesses a terrorist attack and is drawn into a world of conspiracies and lies that she and Jordan, her Artificial, have to untangle. With a second, more brutal attack looming on the horizon, their best chance of stopping it is teaming up with federal counterterrorism agent Nick Vernon.
But the clock is ticking — and all the while, Jordan is asking questions that Artificials were never meant to ask.
Deftly weaving suspense and intrigue into a rich, resonant tale that explores faith and what it really means to be human, Steven James offers us a glimpse into the future and into our own hearts.
Synapse is an unforgettable, gripping story of dreams shattered, truth revealed, and hope reborn.
A Steven James novel never disappoints! I found Broker of Lies to be a fast-paced, edge-of-the-seat suspense with a chillingly realistic plot. If you liked it too, here are a few more reading recommendations.
Critical Reaction by Todd M. Johnson
After turning out plutonium for the Cold War, the shuttered Hanford Nuclear Facility’s poisoned buildings may be a bigger risk than ever. The men who guard the facility from sabotage or monitor its buildings are told the dangers are under control. But then the worst happens–a thunderous explosion in the dead of night.
Kieran Mullaney survived the blast, but when threats and silence meet his attempts to discover what really happened, he reconnects with an old friend–inexperienced lawyer Emily Hart. Convinced Hanford is hiding something, they also realize their case is sunk without more help.
Emily’s estranged father, Ryan, has the courtroom experience they need, but he’s grown jaded and weary of the profession. Still, it’s a chance to rebuild ties to Emily, and the deeper he digs, the stranger — and more dangerous — the case gets.
Operation Joktan by Amir Tsarfati and Steve Yohn
“It was the perfect day—until the gunfire.”
Nir Tavor is an Israeli secret service operative turned talented Mossad agent.
Nicole le Roux is a model with a hidden skill.
A terrorist attack brings them together, and then work forces them apart—until they’re unexpectedly called back into each other’s lives. But there’s no time for romance. As violent radicals threaten chaos across the Middle East, the two must work together to stop these extremists, pooling Nicole’s knack for technology and Nir’s adeptness with on-the-ground missions. Each heart-racing step of their operation gets them closer to the truth—and closer to danger.
In this thrilling first book in a new series, authors Amir Tsarfati and Steve Yohn draw on true events as well as tactical insights Amir learned from his time in the Israeli Defense Forces. For believers in God’s life-changing promises, Operation Joktan is a suspense-filled page-turner that illuminates the blessing Israel is to the world.
Port of Origin by Lisa Harris and Lynne Gentry
When virus-infected pirates hijack a humanitarian medical ship from an African port, they trigger the threat of a global pandemic.
How do you keep hope alive in a sea of darkness?
An African fisherman.
Foreign exploitation of Africa’s natural resources has destroyed the fishing business of Dabir Omar. Hijacking oil tankers brings cash to his family in their remote village, but it doesn’t buy the medical care needed to stop the deadly sickness attacking his people. When Dabir’s son becomes ill, the desperate pirate sets sail for the Liberty, an international humanitarian medical ship ported on the coast.
An American surgeon.
Against his better judgment, Dr. Josiah Allen agrees to work a two-week surgical stint on the Liberty, moored in Douala, Cameroon. Shortly after he arrives with his precocious six-year-old daughter, Josiah is sent ashore to investigate a mysterious illness at the ship’s post-op clinic. While he’s gone, Ebola-infected pirates hijack the medical ship where Josiah left his daughter.
The woman compelled to save them all.
When pirate negotiations fail, Mackenzie Scott’s privately-owned extraction unit comes in for the rescue. But when the medical ship where Mac had taken a wounded comrade is hijacked by pirates, the former military pararescue jumper becomes the pirate’s key hostage.
Both fathers go to war to save their children. If Mac can’t convince them to work together, the winner of this conflict will be a deadly virus intent on destroying the world.
My book club chose Broker of Liesby Steven James as our October selection. I always think of mystery/suspense/thriller when I think of October reading, and James’ latest novel delivered that in plenty! I can’t recommend this book enough!
The man who knows all our secrets has a secret of his own.
When Travis Brock, a high-level Pentagon redactor with an eidetic memory, finds a clue to solving the tragic arson that took his wife from him, he risks everything to find the truth—and chances losing himself in the process.
With a terror attack looming on the horizon and a pair of assassins on his tail, Brock drops off the grid and joins forces with a disavowed Homeland Security operative. Together they race to stop the attack before Brock is neutralized by the people he trusts the most.
From critically acclaimed, bestselling novelist Steven James comes a smart, wire-tight, and emotionally resonant thriller that asks just how far across the line we might go to see justice carried out.
Steven James’s latest thriller, BROKER OF LIES, is a smart, wire-tight, and emotionally resonant thriller that launches a new series featuring a world of intrigue and espionage where truth can be a commodity or a weapon. The second in the series, FATAL DOMAIN, releases in 2024 and is available for pre-order now!
As an acclaimed keynote speaker and in-demand storyteller, Steven is equipped with a unique master’s degree in storytelling and has taught writing and storytelling on five continents, speaking more than 2000 times at events spanning the globe.
He is also the critically acclaimed author of eighteen suspense novels. His sci-fi novel, SYNAPSE, a near-future thriller, received starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Library Journal and was a finalist for an International Book Award.
When Steven isn’t writing or speaking, you’ll find him playing basketball or hiking near his home in the Appalachian Highlands of eastern Tennessee.
Broker of Lies introduces slightly nerdy, emotionally broken, and physically wounded Travis Brock. A Department of Defense redactor with eidetic memory (the nerdy part), Travis has been dealing with the loss of his wife in an arson (the broken and wounded part). He wants answers and justice. When a mysterious FOIA request comes across his desk he is swept up in a conspiracy that goes farther than the murder of his wife. Travis is a complex character with both weaknesses and strengths, making him sympathetic, interesting, and relatable. Other characters — good and bad and very bad — are equally compelling. And while the book is mostly plot-driven, I loved that James gave attention to what makes them all tick. The action is fast-paced with twists and turns galore. It sure kept me on my reading toes. I never knew what to expect or whom to trust. The ending is a race against time with a very intriguing cliffhanger. Yes, a cliffhanger, the bane of many readers. But this one is so thrilling, and I’m dying to get my hands on the next installment. Justice vs. vengeance vs. revenge is an overriding theme. Just where do we fit in the role that is rightfully God’s? I look forward to a lively discussion of this novel at my book club meeting.
Well-drawn characters, an edge-of-the-seat plot, and spiritual questions make Broker of Lies a good choice for readers of suspense and for a book club discussion. Grab this book and a reading buddy!
Highly recommended.
Good for Book Clubs.
Audience: Adults.
(I received a complimentary copy from NetGalley. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)
Many of the books I review are provided to me free of charge from publishers, authors, or other groups in return for a review. The opinions expressed in the reviews are mine and mine alone. No monetary consideration is given. This disclaimer is in accordance with FTC rules.
I am an Amazon.com affiliate, which means that I earn a small percentage of the sales from products purchased through links on my site. I NEVER recommend a book in order to receive a profit. Proceeds from affiliate sales help to defray operating costs of the blog.
Giveaways are open to persons 18 years or older. All winners are picked randomly. No purchases are necessary to enter a giveaway. All giveaways are for US entries only and are void where prohibited.
GDPR compliance -- the email address you leave when you subscribe to the blog or leave a comment, is used only to notify winners of giveaways or to send an email whenever a post goes live. That's it.
For a more detailed privacy policy for Wordpress sites, go to https://wordpress.org/about/privacy/.
Recent Comments