Government Thrillers

When forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod is brought in to analyse a shallow grave on Scotland’s west coast, she is disturbed by a bundle of twigs crafted into a stickman and left in the victim’s mouth. Then, when a young woman is reported missing from a nearby campsite with another sinister figurine left in her van, it seems that someone is targeting wild campers. An idyllic coastline known for providing peace and serenity, now the area is a hunting ground.

For decades, the Left has been putting on a play with themselves as heroes in an ongoing civil rights move­ment - which they were mostly absent from at the time. Long after pervasive racial discrimination ended, they kept pretending America was being run by the Klan and that liberals were black America’s only protectors. It took the O. J. Simpson verdict - the race-based acquittal of a spectacularly guilty black celebrity as blacks across America erupted in cheers - to shut down the white guilt bank.

On an otherwise normal morning, former Special Forces operative Sam Dryden is the target of an unsuccessful attempted abduction. Using his attacker's cell phone, he learns that another person, a woman named Danica Ellis, is also being targeted. Dryden arrives just in time to save Danica from the assault team sent after her. But neither of them recognizes the other or has any idea why they are being targeted. The only clue is a heavily redacted, official-looking document given to Danica by her stepfather before he was killed.

Almost everything has been invoked to account for Trump's victory and the rise of alt-right, from job loss to racism to demography - everything, that is, except popular culture. In The Sky Is Falling best-selling cultural critic, Peter Biskind, dives headlong into two decades of popular culture - from superhero franchises such as the X-Men and the Avengers and series like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones to thrillers like Homeland and 24 - and emerges to argue that these shows are saturated with the values that are currently animating our extreme politics.

Stephanie Patrick is devastated after her whole family dies in a plane crash. But when she discovers that the downing of flight NE027 wasn’t an accident but an act of terrorism, Stephanie enters the fight of her life to achieve her one goal: revenge. When she’s recruited by a covert intelligence organization, Stephanie sees a means to an end. Now, with nothing and no one left to lose, Stephanie undergoes rigorous training to become “Petra,” a mercenary terrorist based out of Germany, and “Marina,” an international businesswoman based in London.

After taking out a sleeper network, Devin Gray and Marnie Young are picking up the pieces of their disrupted lives. But the gravity of the conspiracy they helped to cripple is sucking them right back into the black hole of violence and subterfuge that nearly consumed them. Another sleeper network is awake. A progressive congresswoman dies in a car explosion, vaporized by an American kamikaze drone—the beginning of the mayhem to come. What Devin dismantled is being rebuilt. The plan: ignite a civil war in the United States and burn America to the ground.

A half-century after its original publication, Edward Abbey's classic 1962 novel, Fire on the Mountain, still retains its beauty, power, and relevance. This extraordinary tale by the legendary icon of the environmentalism movement and author of The Monkey Wrench Gang proudly celebrates rugged American individualism, as it tells the story of one tough old loner's stand against the combined, well-armed forces of government that are determined to clear him from his land.

An unnamed country is leaving the darkness of a decade at war, and to commemorate the armistice, the government commissions a new road connecting two halves of the state. Two men, foreign contractors from the same company, are sent to finish the highway. While one is flighty and adventurous, wanting to experience the nightlife and people, the other wants only to do the work and go home. But both men must eventually face the absurdities of their positions and the dire consequences of their presence.

As one of just a few judges licensed to try murder cases at the Old Bailey, the author has presided over many of the high-profile cases that all too often grab our attention in dramatic media headlines—for every unlawful death tells a story. But, unlike most of us, a judge doesn't get to turn the page and move on. Nor does the defendant, or the family of the victim, nor the many other people who populate the court room. Peeling apart six dramatic murder and manslaughter cases, Unlawful Killings removes this distinction between 'them' and 'us'.

Between 1910 and 1920, vigilantes and law enforcement-including the renowned Texas Rangers - killed Mexican residents with impunity. The full extent of the violence was known only to the relatives of the victims. The Injustice Never Leaves You offers an invaluable account of why these incidents happened, what they meant at the time, and how a determined community ensured that the victims were not forgotten.

For the last 60 years, fear has seeped into every area of American life: Americans own more guns than citizens of any other country, sequester themselves in gated communities, and retreat from public spaces. And yet, crime rates have plummeted, making life in America safer than ever. Why, then, are Americans so afraid - and where does this fear lead to? In this remarkable work of social history, May demonstrates how our obsession with security has made citizens fear each other and distrust the government, making America less safe and less democratic.

Rodrigo Duterte was elected President of the Philippines in 2016. In his first 18 months in office, 12,000 people were murdered on the streets, gunned down by police officers and vigilante citizens - all with his encouragement. Duterte is a serial womanizer and a self-confessed killer, who has called both Barack Obama and Pope Francis "sons of whores." He is on record as saying he does not "give a shit" about human rights. Yet he is beloved of the 16.6 million Filipinos who voted for him, seen as vulgar but honest, a breath of fresh air, and an iconoclastic, anti-imperialist rebel.

Assassinating the Palestinian negotiators was the beginning. The Middle East is at a tipping point when Palestinian peace negotiators are assassinated in Jerusalem. And when Mossad is accused of the killings, the region explodes. Israel's enemies threaten war. Islamic terrorists vow revenge. Zeb Carter has to take on the deadliest operatives in the world, the Israeli agency's kidon. He has to find out which of them, if any, turned rogue and killed the Palestinians. Time is against him, because the assassins will strike again.

Deep in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, a huge protected tract of rain forest in Northern Guatemala, lies the mythical Temple of Priests. Only one man knew of the temple's location, but he was killed before he could relay the coordinates. Now, newly reinstated Taskforce operator Pike Logan has the grid location of the ruins, and he's convinced Jennifer Cahill to travel to Guatemala in search of the Mayan temple her uncle died trying to find. But Pike and Jennifer are not the only ones heading into the rain forest in search of hidden treasure.

With more than a dozen kills under her belt, ex-Marine Mara Roberts is one of the Agency's most reliable assassins. But her latest target - a convicted traitor about to be released from prison - is different than her other marks. He's a former agent who betrayed his country. He's responsible for the death of Mara's mother. And he happens to be Mara's father. Scott Roberts knows that his daughter was sent to kill him. He realizes he has only one chance to convince her that he's been framed for treason - and that every member of their family are pawns to be sacrificed, one by one.

On the surface, Anna Witherall has the perfect life. Married to her university boyfriend David, she has an enviable job, beautiful home, and gorgeous three-year-old twin daughters, Stella and Rose. Their competent and capable nanny, Maria, is practically part of the family. But beneath the veneer of success and happiness, Anna is hiding a dark secret, one that threatens to unravel everything she has worked so hard to create. Only one thing is certain: to protect her children, she must betray them.

Based on true events, but unlike anything you've ever read before, #1 New York Times best-selling author Nelson DeMille has created what may be his finest work to date.

The year is 2032. The NRA has been outlawed; the U.S. military has been gutted; Conservative Christians, dubbed ANARKS, have been labeled a global conspiracy and have been largely driven underground. The Caliphate is now a superpower, residing in Israel. The White House is occupied by a repressive Progressive regime, obsessed with the upcoming presidential election.

What Paige Campbell saw when she opened a door into 70 years from now scared the hell out of her. She and her Tangent colleagues brought their terrible discovery to the President and were met with a hail of automatic gunfire after leaving the White House. Only Paige survived.

Sam Dryden lives quietly in a small coastal town in Southern California, buying and fixing up old houses. It's good physical work that he's come to love. But his peaceful life is shattered when he gets a phone call from an old friend in trouble. A phone call that pulls Dryden into the middle of a situation that's as violent as it is baffling.