Recommendations based on "Crescent Dawn (Dirk Pitt Adventure)"

Once again, Tom Clancy manages to add new twists to the alternate U. S. history he initiated in The Hunt for Red October. In The Sum of All Fears, the center of conflict is the perpetual hot spot the Mideast, where a nuclear weapon falls into the hands of terrorists just as peace seems possible. Clancy realistically paints an almost unthinkable scenario-the bomb is planted on American soil in the midst of an escalation in tension with the Soviet Union; the terrorists hope to rekindle cold war animosity and prevent reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians.Despite such a dramatic story line, Clancy doesn't neglect the individuals who drive his tale. Jack Ryan's problems are as much domestic as they are part of the international crisis that is the ostensible narrative: National Security Director Elizabeth Elliot has the president's ear, and she has convinced him that Ryan's ethics are questionable. She hints at marital infidelity and an insider-trading scandal. Of course, both accusations are false, but her arguments have enough evidence behind them (e. g. some photographs of an innocent embrace with a friend) to cause a strain in the Ryans' marriage and a flurry of media attention. While "Mr. Clark" tracks the terrorists, he also provides some needed intelligence to heal the Ryan family.The Sum of All Fears is the stuff of nightmares but contains enough verisimilitude to terrify sober minds. Ryan has matured into a complex protagonist as Clancy's writing, too, has matured. Ryan is plagued by stress and self-doubts that test even his dauntless moral compass and make him a more interesting subject for readers' attention. Those fascinated by military hardware, from nuclear submarines to atomic weapons, will find almost enough here to start their own army. And Clancy's understanding of international politics seems chillingly correct. -Patrick O'Kelley

"Suspense writing at its best."—HUFFINGTON POSTIt was supposed to be the start of a pleasant weekend in London for master art restorer and spy Gabriel Allon and his wife, Chiara. But a deadly pair of bombings in Paris and Copenhagen has already marred this lovely autumn day. Then, before he can stop a man he suspects is about to launch a third attack in Covent Garden, Gabriel is knocked to the pavement—and he can only watch helplessly as the nightmare unfolds.The haunting memory of his failure to stop the massacre of innocents is still fresh when Gabriel is summoned to Washington—and plunged into a deadly confrontation with the new face of global terror. An elusive American-born cleric in Yemen—once a paid CIA asset whom Allah has granted "a beautiful and seductive tongue"—stands at the center of the explosive plague of death and destruction. And the worst is yet to come. . . .

"Haunting . . . Heart-pounding suspenseful."--People Now available with a contemporary look for a new generation, New York Times bestselling author Dennis Lehane's classic tale of working-class dignity, darkness, and redemption featuring private investigators Kenzie & Gennaro. Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro's latest client is a prominent Boston psychiatrist running scared from a vengeful Irish mob. The private investigators know something about cold-blooded retribution. Born and bred on the mean streets of blue-collar Dorchester, they've seen the darkness that lives in the hearts of the unfortunate. But an evil for which even they are unprepared is about to strike as secrets long-dormant erupt, setting off a chain of violent murders that will stain everything--including the truth.

In the race to save one of their own, Sigma Force must wrestle with the deepest spiritual mysteries of mankind in this mind-expanding adventure from #1 New York Times bestselling author James Rollins, told with his trademark blend of cutting edge science, historical mystery, and pulse-pounding action. Arriving home on Christmas Eve, Commander Gray Pierce discovers his house ransacked, his pregnant lover missing, and his best friend’s wife, Kat, unconscious on the kitchen floor. With no shred of evidence to follow, his one hope to find the woman he loves and his unborn child is Kat, the only witness to what happened. But the injured woman is in a semi-comatose state and cannot speak—until a brilliant neurologist offers a radical approach to "unlock" her mind long enough to ask a few questions. What Pierce learns from Kat sets Sigma Force on a frantic quest for answers that are connected to mysteries reaching back to the Spanish Inquisition and to one of the most reviled and blood-soaked books in human history—a Medieval text known as the Malleus Maleficarum, the Hammer of Witches. What they uncover hidden deep in the past will reveal a frightening truth in the present and a future on the brink of annihilation, and force them to confront the ultimate question: What does it mean to have a soul?

From New York Times bestselling author James Rollins comes an electrifying short story, in which the battle over a lost treasure leads to murder, betrayal, and the revelation of a shocking mystery hidden aboard the . . . Ghost Ship The discovery of a burned body sprawled on a remote Australian beach shatters the vacation plans of Commander Gray Pierce. To thwart an ingenious enemy, he and Seichan are pulled into a centuries-old mystery surrounding a lost convict ship, the Trident. The vessel—with a history of mutiny and stolen treasure—vanished into the mists of time, but nothing stays lost forever.  A freak storm reveals clues scattered across the Great Barrier Reef, but following those clues will lead to bloodshed and savagery, for where this ghost ship is hidden is as shocking as the mystery behind its disappearance. It will take all of Gray’s ingenuity and Seichan’s deadly skills not only to survive—but to stop an enemy from destroying everything in his path. Included with this short story is a sneak peek at the upcoming Sigma Force novel, The Demon Crown, where events here lead to Sigma’s most harrowing adventure to date.

The #1 New York Times-bestselling author and master of the modern day thriller returns with his All-Star team.There’s a new strong man in Russia but his rise to power is based on a dark secret hidden decades in the past. The solution to that mystery lies with a most unexpected source, President Jack Ryan.

Stone Barrington lands in hot water in this thrilling adventure in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.   Newly ensconced in his Santa Fe abode with a lovely female companion, Stone Barrington receives a call from an old friend requesting a delicate favor. A situation has arisen that could escalate into an explosive quagmire, and only someone with Stone’s stealth and subtlety can contain the damage. At the center of these events is an impressive gentleman whose star is on the rise, and who’d like to get Stone in his corner. He’s charming and ambitious and has friends in high places; the kind of man who seems to be a sure bet. But in the fickle circles of power, fortunes rise and fall on the turn of a dime, and it may turn out that Stone holds the key not just to one man’s fate, but to the fate of the nation.

‘Extraordinarily entertaining and fiendishly suspenseful’ (Stephen King). The stunning new Penn Cage thriller in which a shocking murder from the 1960s finds new life – and victims – in the present. The sins of the past never die... Raised in Natchez, Mississippi, former prosecuting attorney Penn Cage learned all he knows of honour and duty from his father, Dr. Tom Cage. But now Tom stands accused of murdering on African-American nurse with whom he worked in the 1960s, when racist violence was at its peak. As he hunts for the truth, Penn uncovers a long-buried secret that could place his family in mortal danger- a conspiracy of greed and murder connected to a vicious sect of the KKK. Up against the most powerful men in the state, Penn faces an impossible choice: does a man of honour choose his father or justice?

‘Extraordinarily entertaining and fiendishly suspenseful’ (Stephen King). The stunning new Penn Cage thriller in which a shocking murder from the 1960s finds new life – and victims – in the present. The sins of the past never die... Raised in Natchez, Mississippi, former prosecuting attorney Penn Cage learned all he knows of honour and duty from his father, Dr. Tom Cage. But now Tom stands accused of murdering on African-American nurse with whom he worked in the 1960s, when racist violence was at its peak. As he hunts for the truth, Penn uncovers a long-buried secret that could place his family in mortal danger- a conspiracy of greed and murder connected to a vicious sect of the KKK. Up against the most powerful men in the state, Penn faces an impossible choice: does a man of honour choose his father or justice?

In the new edge-of-your-seat adventure from national bestselling author Nick Petrie, Peter Ash pursues one case--and stumbles into another--in the City of the Blues. Iraq war veteran Peter Ash is restless in the home he shares with June Cassidy in Washington State. June knows Peter needs to be on the move, so she sends him to Memphis to help her friend Wanda Wyatt, a photographer and war correspondent who's been receiving peculiar threats. When Peter arrives in Memphis, however, he finds the situation has gone downhill fast--someone has just driven a dump truck into Wanda's living room. But neither Wanda nor Peter can figure out why. At the same time, a young homeless street musician finds himself roped into a plan to rob a jewelry store. The heist doesn't go as planned, and the young man finds himself holding a sack full of Rolexes and running for his life. When his getaway car breaks down, he steals a new one at gunpoint--Peter's 1968 green Chevrolet pickup truck. Peter likes the skinny kid's smarts and attitude, but he soon discovers that the desperate musician is in far worse trouble than he knows. And Wanda's troubles are only beginning. Peter finds himself stuck between Memphis gangsters--looking for Rolexes and revenge--and a Mississippi ex-con and his hog-butcher brother looking for a valuable piece of family history that goes all the way back to the Civil War.