Political Crime

Former Marine, brilliant hacker, and wanted fugitive Gibson Vaughn is off the grid in the Caymans. Until the ice-cold assassin Tinsley draws him out of the shadows. Complying with the man who murdered his father and left Gibson for dead? In the war against terror, never say never. Especially when half a million lives are at stake. Tinsley's in possession of a heavily encrypted thumb drive. But the details of the plot - the motive, the targets, and the day of execution - are a mystery.

What would be the "right" price for your loved one - and can you avoid putting others at risk by paying it? What prevents criminals from maltreating hostages? How do you (safely) pay a ransom? Kidnap: Inside the Ransom Business uncovers how a group of insurers at Lloyd's of London have solved these thorny problems for their customers. Based on interviews with industry insiders (from both sides), as well as hostage stakeholders, it uncovers an intricate and powerful private governance system ordering transactions between the legal and the criminal economies.

Julia Rodriguez and her teenage daughter, Beatriz, escaped bloodthirsty gangs, random violence, and Julia's abusive husband back in El Salvador. Arriving in Miami, mother and daughter struggled to carve their own piece of the American dream. While life in the States is hard, it is safer, until Julia rejects her boss' unwanted sexual advances. Suddenly - thanks to an "anonymous" tip to US immigration authorities - she is arrested, locked in detention with criminals, and slated for deportation. Attorney Jack Swyteck's only viable legal move to save her is asylum.

On September 26, 2014, 43 male students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College went missing in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico. According to official reports, the students commandeered several buses to travel to Mexico City to commemorate the anniversary of the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre. During the journey, local police intercepted the students and a confrontation ensued. By the morning, they had disappeared without a trace. Hernández reconstructs almost minute-by-minute the events of those nights in late September 2014, giving us what is surely the most complete picture available.

The White House is the home of the president of the United States, the most guarded, monitored, closely watched person in the world. So how could a US president vanish without a trace? And why would he choose to do so? An unprecedented collaboration between President Bill Clinton and the world's best-selling novelist, James Patterson, The President Is Missing is a breathtaking story from the pinnacle of power.

Special Agent Matthew Roarke has abandoned his rogue search for serial killer Cara Lindstrom. He's returned to the FBI to head a task force with one mission: to rid society of its worst predators. But as the skeletal symbols of Santa Muerte, "Lady Death," mysteriously appear at universities nationwide, threatening death to rapists, Roarke's team is pressured to investigate. When a frat boy goes missing in Santa Barbara, Roarke realizes a bloodbath is coming - desperate teenagers are about to mete out personal, cold-blooded justice.

Peru, the 1980s and 1990s: It was a cruel, bloody and terrifying era. The rebels of Sendero Luminoso ("Shining Path"), founded by philosophy professor, Abimael Guzman, slaughtered vilagers in the mountains and hung dogs from power lines, their carcasses canvases for Maoist slogans. The government responded with a corrosive mix of assasination, bribery and intrigue which brought down the rebel leader but triggered the fall of the president.

Tarifa, Spain. A man's body washes up on the beach. No-one seems to care. Patrick Cornwall is a highly acclaimed investigative journalist. His latest project: to uncover the plight of migrants trying to start new lives in Europe. Patrick's wife, Ally, is used to him being out of contact. But she's just discovered she's pregnant. Unable to reach him and starting to worry, she flies across the ocean to get answers. Unable to find him, Ally delves into the secrets Patrick was determined to expose and is drawn into an ever-deadlier web.

No one saw the first attack coming. A perfectly orchestrated assault on a mass-transit railroad line that left countless Americans dead. Intelligence experts are convinced this is no ordinary terrorist attack. To pull off something like this, it would take a deep-state traitor with dark foreign connections. And to stop them, it will take someone who isn't afraid to shed blood. Enter Barry Rivers, the Rig Warrior. An urban legend in the intelligence community, he has been living off the radar for years. But when he sees his country under attack, he contacts his nephew, an FBI agent.

Michael Tanner is on his way home from a business trip when he accidentally picks up the wrong MacBook in an airport security line. He doesn't notice the mix-up until he arrives home in Boston, but by then it's too late. Tanner's curiosity gets the better of him when he discovers that the owner is a US senator and that the laptop contains top secret files. When Senator Susan Robbins realizes she's come back with the wrong laptop, she calls her young chief of staff, Will Abbott, in a panic.

When terrorists try to shoot down a plane carrying Libyan prince Ibrahim al-Senussi, it is clear that someone wants him dead. But the CIA has its own plot for the prince: Now that Qaddafi has been overthrown, al-Senussi is their best bet to set up a constitutional monarchy and stem the Islamist tide in Libya. The CIA, which needs Malko as much as he needs them, sends the Austrian aristocrat to Cairo to learn more about al-Senussi’s plans by seducing his companion, a ravishing British model.

In The Assassin’s Accomplice, historian Kate Clifford Larson tells the gripping story of Mary Surratt, a little-known conspirator in the plot to kill Abraham Lincoln, and the first woman ever to be executed by the federal government. A Confederate sympathizer, Surratt ran the boarding house where the conspirators met to plan Lincoln’s assassination. Set against the backdrop of the Civil War, The Assassin’s Accomplice tells the intricate story of the Lincoln conspiracy through the eyes of its only female participant, offering a fresh perspective on America’s most famous murder.

The sixth novel in the Ryan Lock series. Ryan Lock and Ty Johnson are in Los Angeles and on the trail of an unlikely cult who are planning on taking their message to the world in the most devastating fashion imaginable.

The charismatic Boko Haram leader Ratty Festus, also known as the Leopard, has been terrorizing drought-ridden Northeastern Nigeria: raiding villages, blowing up government buildings, and kidnapping schoolgirls. When Thomas Crocker and his Black Cell team, who are in the country on a special training mission, hear about a possible arms-for-schoolgirls exchange between Boko Haram and a Russian arms dealer on the Cameroon border, they convince a Nigerian Special Forces unit to join them in trying to stop it. The operation quickly goes south, with a deadly helicopter crash and an ambush.

When a cryptographer is murdered, Thomas Charles is sent on a secret mission to uncover the killer – and it’s the perfect opportunity to rekindle his romance with Cat Carlisle, the woman who helped uncover a double agent and solve her own husband’s murder. The victim’s niece – and the police’s top suspect – is Cat’s childhood friend and she begs Cat for help.

While transporting a woman to an insane asylum, Deputy Kopp discovers something deeply troubling about her story. Before she can investigate, another inmate bound for the asylum breaks free and tries to escape. In both cases, Constance runs instinctively toward justice. But the fall of 1916 is a high-stakes election year, and any move she makes could jeopardize Sheriff Heath's future - and her own. Although Constance is not on the ballot, her controversial career makes her the target of political attacks.

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.

After a showdown with the notorious Yemeni terrorist known as The Panther, John Corey has left the Anti-Terrorist Task Force and returned home to New York City, taking a job with the Diplomatic Surveillance Group. Although Corey's new assignment with the DSG-surveilling Russian diplomats working at the U.N. Mission - is thought to be "a quiet end", he is more than happy to be out from under the thumb of the FBI and free from the bureaucracy of office life.

Over the years, former military bodyguard Ryan Lock has made more than his fair share of enemies. It was only a matter of time before one of them came looking for payback. A serial rapist brutally murdered inside California's highest-security prison for women. A frantic gun battle in the middle of downtown Los Angeles. A beautiful, young defense attorney violently abducted from her office. A series of apparently random events that are anything but. Someone is hell bent on revenge, and their target's name is Ryan Lock.

This book says outright what many have merely hinted at: that President George W. Bush knowingly misused the findings of the erroneous and incompetent U.S. intelligence community to provide a pretext for war with Iraq. The author hones in on the systematic weaknesses of the intelligence agencies that caused them to ignore the crucial signs leading up to the attacks of 9/11.