Holiday Thriller/Mystery Gift Recommendations

These books will make great gifts on Christmas morning for the reader in your family. 

1. Billy Boyle by James R Benn

Great murder mystery that takes place during WWII.  If you're a fan of mysteries or the WWII era, you'll really like this book.

Plot Summary:  Billy Boyle is the youngest member of the Boyle clan in the Boston Police Department. A tightly knit Irish family, their fierce loyalties extend little beyond each other, Ireland, and the police force where Billy’s father and uncles also serve. The year is 1941, and they have paved the way for Billy’s promotion to Detective through the time-honored traditions of politics and patronage. Then World War II breaks out. The family’s political connections secure Billy a commission and post with a distant relative of Mrs. Boyle’s, a general serving with the War Plans Department in Washington D.C. where Billy is to safely sit out the war. Unfortunately for the Boyles, that unknown general is Dwight David Eisenhower, who whisks Billy off to England when he is appointed Commander of U.S. forces in Europe . This is definitely not what Billy expected, nor is really qualified for. He must rely on his native wits to keep himself alive and avoid humiliating his family as he conducts his first investigation into the death of an official of the Norwegian government in exile (http://www.jamesrbenn.com/works.htm).

2.  American Assassin by Vince Flynn

Prequel to Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp series.  If you haven't yet read any of the Mitch Rapp series this is a great place to start.  Espionage, assassins, terrorists and more make this one of Vince Flynn's best yet.

Plot Summary:  Before he was considered a CIA superagent, before he was thought of as a terrorist's worse nightmare, and before he was both loathed and admired by politicians on Capitol Hill, Mitch Rapp was a gifted college athelete without a care in the world.....and then tragedy struck (http://www.vinceflynn.com/).

3.  The Athena Project by Brad Thor

Ladies and men alike will be interested in this latest installment by Brad Thor.  

Plot Summary: 

 
From behind the rows of razor wire, a new breed of counterterrorism operator has emerged. 
 

Just as skilled, just as fearsome, and just as deadly as their colleagues, Delta Force’s newest members have only one thing setting them apart—their gender. Part of a top-secret, all-female program codenamed The Athena Project, four of Delta’s best and brightest women are about to undertake one of the nation’s deadliest assignments. 

When a terrorist attack in Rome kills more than twenty Americans, Athena Team members Gretchen Casey, Julie Ericsson, Megan Rhodes, and Alex Cooper are tasked with hunting down the Venetian arms dealer responsible for providing the explosives. But there is more to the story than anyone knows (http://www.bradthor.com/).

Go ahead and pick one of these books up for the thriller/mystery reader in your family.  I promise they won't be disappointed finding one of these novels under the Christmas tree.

Top Ten Thrillers of All-Time

Here are my Top Ten Thrillers.  In my opinion these were the best of the best and if you haven't read them then you definitely should if you're a fan of the thriller genre.

10.  The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker (2010).  This was an excellent read with great characters, disturbing plot, and startling twists.  Great make-up of a top thriller.  I also have to admit that since I recently finished reading this one it's still fresh in my mind and made the list.   

9.  Along Came a Spider by James Patterson (1993).  All thriller lists will usually have at least one title of the hundreds that Patterson has written.  He is certainly one of the best writers of the thriller genre in modern times.  This was adapted into to film starring Morgan Freeman.

8.  The Hound of Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1902).  Great Sherlock Holmes book that I read as a kid.  One of the books responsible for making me a fan of thrillers.

7.  State of Fear by Michael Crichton (2004).  Chrichton created a niche for scientific thrillers.  Here he didn't disappoint as he delved into the world of environmentalism.  As a result of this book he once appeared before Congress to testify on the possibilities and consequences of conducting policy on what he viewed was "junk" science. 

6.  The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon (1959).  What's there not to like?  Political thriller where a corporation brain washes a former Soldier to be an unwitting assassin.  Adapted to film twice, first starring Frank Sinatra, and then again starring Denzel Washington.

5.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (2005).  Great characters and a disturbing plot helped this thriller make the list. 

4.  The Charm School by Nelson DeMille (1988).  DeMille has written so many great books.  This one in my opinion topped them all.  Russian spies trained to infiltrate the United States.  I couldn't put this one down.

3.  Term Limits by Vince Flynn (1999).  This was Flynn's debut novel that he originally self-published that went on to make the NY Times Bestseller List.  Fed up with your Senators/Congressmen?  So were the characters in this book and they made the "Distinguished Gentlemen" pay.

2.  The Pelican Brief by John Grisham (1992).  The king of legal suspense hit a home run with this thriller.  Assassinated Supreme Court Justices, and a grad student's thesis stirs up a great book with a lot of twists and turns.  The book was definitely better than the movie that starred Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington.

1.  The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris (1988).  How can this not be considered the greatest thriller of all-time?  A sadistic serial killer, a locked up cannibal, and a trainee FBI Agent combine to set the standard that all thrillers can only hope to live up to.  The movie with Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins was great, but it still didn't come close to the chills you get from reading the novel. 

In my opinion those are the Top Ten Thrillers of all-time.  Let me know how your list would differ.  Did I miss any good thrillers that make your top ten? 

Thriller Recommendations

The great thing about thrillers is that they have plot twists and distortions that throw you off and keep you guessing.  This week’s recommendations either came close to throwing me off or did so brilliantly.  If you have not yet read any of these then you should definitely pick one up today.

1.  Executive Privilege:  Political Thriller by Phillip Margolin.  Private Detective Dana Cutler is hired by an attorney with powerful connections.  The assignment is simply to trail a pretty college student and report on where she goes and whom she sees.  The trouble arises when Dana follows her to a secret meeting with the President of the United States in rural Virginia.  The following morning the student’s dead body turns up and Dana has to run for her life. 

-Tim’s Note:  After a certain point I started to see where this one was going, but the ride there was excellent.

2. The Third Option: Espionage/Spy Thriller by one of my favorite authors Vince Flynn.  Battle-scarred protagonist Mitch Rapp returns to take on a sensitive new assignment in Europe, only to have things go awry when his two CIA colleagues turn on him following the assassination of a wealthy German count that has been selling arms to Saddam Hussein. Rapp survives their double-dealing, but he is forced to go underground to decipher the labyrinthine chain of political connections and to learn who was trying to have him killed. Back in Washington, a similar game of spy-versus-spy is being conducted by the elderly, dying director of the CIA and his chosen successor. Rapp eventually surfaces to help his bosses, but things get personal for the ace counterterrorist when Rapp's bride-to-be is kidnapped as part of the ongoing political maneuvers (from Publisher’s Weekly).

-Tim’s Note:  Mitch Rapp makes Jack Bauer look like a little league tee-ball player. Author Vince Flynn actually became a guest writer for the show 24.

3. The Lions of Lucerne: Action Thriller by another one of my favorite authors Brad Thor.  Thirty secret service agents are executed on the snowy slopes of Utah and the vacationing President of the United States is abducted.  Former Navy-Seal turned Secret Service Agent breaks all the rules to avenge his fallen agents and to recover the President

  -Tim’s Note:  Again, if you’re a fan of 24 this book is right up your ally in a violent way. 

4. The General’s Daughter:  Military Thriller by Nelson DeMille.  This book was adapted to film starring John Travolta.  The movie was good, but as usual the book was far better and much more thrilling.  US Army CID Agent Paul Brenner investigates the unusual murder of CPT Campbell, the daughter of the General who commands the post. 

-Tim’s Note:  I read this back before the movie came out and the ending definitely threw me off.  I never saw it coming.  If you’ve never seen the movie nor read the book, definitely pick it up.

5.  The Bride Collector:  Supernatural Thriller by Ted Dekker.  FBI Special Agent Brad Raines is chasing a serial killer who murders beautiful young women and leaves behind a wedding veil.  Unable to catch the killer, Raines recruits the help of a young woman who has the ability to experience the final moments of a victim’s life by touching their body.

   -Tim’s Note:  I’m currently halfway through this one.  The characters are excellent and I’m clueless as to how this one will end.