Mystery Mike and Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine

Best Thrillers of 2011

            2011 has been a banner year for action-packed, well-written thrillers.  If you like real page-turners, here are our recommendations.  We really enjoyed these books and are confident that you will like them too.  Mike Bursaw and George Easter, Editor of Deadly Pleasures

ADRENALINE, Jeff Abbott.  Sam Capra -- brilliant CIA agent, loving husband, expectant father - loses everything that matters to him in a horrifying moment in London. An unknown enemy has set him up as a traitor. But that enemy has targeted the wrong man. Escaping from the CIA, Sam goes on a desperate hunt for the killer who stole his family and to save his kidnapped wife and child. His best book and the first of a series.

THE SILENCED, Brett Battles. Professional “cleaner” Jonathan Quinn has a new client and an odd job: find and remove the remains of a body hidden twenty years ago inside the walls of a London building, before the building is demolished. But Quinn and his team are being watched. Suddenly caught in the cross fire between two dangerous rivals, Quinn must unravel the identity of the body and why it still poses so great a threat even in death. Because a plot stretching from the former Soviet Union to Hong Kong, from Paris to London, from Los Angeles to Maine, is rapidly falling apart. And Quinn hasn’t been hired just to tie up loose ends—he is one. (Paperback original in U.S. and a hardcover in the U.K.)

CARVER, Tom Cain (U.K. edition only). The collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 sent shockwaves around the financial world. Never before had such a large and prestigious organization been allowed to fail, and to fail so quickly. It began a domino effect, hitting banks and economies around the world. Theories abound as to the cause of the collapse - the sub-prime bubble, bad management, even good old fashioned greed. But what if it was none of the above. What if Lehman Brothers had been brought to its knees by the deliberate and wilful act of one man bent on a course of financial terrorism? Moreover, what if it was only a dry run for a bigger and even bolder attack on the financial capital of the world, the City of London? Samuel Carver is about to find himself on the biggest mission of his life.

COUP D’ETAT, Ben Coes. A radical cleric has been elected president of Pakistan and, upon taking power, sets off a rapidly escalating conflict with India.  Eventually it becomes clear that India is only days from resorting to a nuclear response, one that will have unimaginably disastrous results for the world at large.  With only days to head this off, the President sends in his best people, including Jessica Tanzer, to do whatever it takes to restore the fragile peace to the region.  Tanzer has only one viable option -- to set up and execute a coup d'etat in Pakistan - and only one man in mind to lead the team that will try to pull off this almost unimaginable task in the nerve-wrackingly short time frame, Dewey Andreas.  A new star in the thriller field.

SPYCATCHER (in the U.K., SPARTAN), Matthew Dunn. Will Cochrane, the CIA’s and MI6’s most prized asset and deadliest weapon, has known little outside this world since childhood. And he’s never been outplayed. So far…Will’s controllers task him with finding and neutralizing one of today’s most wanted terrorist masterminds, a man believed to be an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general. Intending to use someone from the man’s past to flush him out of the shadows, Will believes he has the perfect plan, but he soon discovers, in a frantic chase from the capitals of Europe to New York City, that his adversary has more surprises in store and is much more treacherous than anyone he has ever faced—and survived—up to now.

BALLISTIC, Mark Greaney. A Gray Man novel. Ex-CIA assassin Court Gentry thought he could find refuge living in the Amazon rain forest. But his bloody past finds him when a vengeful Russian crime lord forces him to go on the run once again. Court makes his way to one of the only men in the world he can trust - and arrives too late. His friend is dead and buried.

Years before, Eddie Gamboa had saved Court's life. Now, Eddie has been murdered by the notorious Mexican drug cartel he fought to take down. And Court soon finds himself drawn into a war he never wanted. But in this war, there are no sides - only survivors.... (Trade Paperback original)

THE PAYBACK, Simon Kernick (U.K. edition only). Dennis Milne is a man with a past, and a past that involves murder. A former cop, he’s earned his living killing the bad guys – drug-dealers, corrupt business men - people who, in his opinion, deserve to die.  DI Tina Boyd is a woman on a mission. Tough, spiky and determined, she’s looking for the man she holds responsible for the death of her lover. She knows he’s dangerous. Two cops with pasts that haunt them -- and a present that could see them both dead. They are about to meet for the first

HOUSE DIVIDED, Mike Lawson. With his boss out of commission, DeMarco is on his own, a sacrificial pawn in a lethal game between a master NSA spy and a four-star army general. DeMarco learns all too well just what the NSA is capable of, but he doesn’t like being used, so he fights back.

PORTRAIT OF A SPY, Daniel Silva.  For Israeli spy Gabriel Allon and his wife, Chiara, it was supposed to be the start of a pleasant weekend in London—a visit to a gallery in St. James’s to authenticate a newly discovered painting by Titian, followed by a quiet lunch. But a pair of deadly bombings in Paris and Copenhagen has already marred this autumn day. And while walking toward Covent Garden, Gabriel notices a man he believes is about to carry out a third attack. Before Gabriel can draw his weapon, he is knocked to the pavement and can only watch as the nightmare unfolds. Haunted by his failure to stop the massacre of innocents, Gabriel returns to his isolated cottage on the cliffs of Cornwall, until a summons brings him to Washington and he is drawn into a confrontation with the new face of global terror. At the center of the threat is an American-born cleric in Yemen to whom Allah has granted “a beautiful and seductive tongue.” A gifted deceiver, who was once a paid CIA asset, the mastermind is plotting a new wave of attacks.

THE INFORMATIONIST, Taylor Stevens.  Vanessa “Michael” Munroe deals in information—expensive information—working for corporations, heads of state, private clients, and anyone else who can pay for her unique brand of expertise. Born to missionary parents in lawless central Africa, Munroe took up with an infamous gunrunner and his mercenary crew when she was just fourteen. As his protégé, she earned the respect of the jungle's most dangerous men, cultivating her own reputation for years until something sent her running. After almost a decade building a new life and lucrative career from her home base in Dallas, she's never looked back. Until now.