fb2Edited by Lee Child, this is the follow-up to FaceOff, but this time 11 female thriller writers with 11 male thriller writers.
Discover the thriller series that The New York Times calls "utterly addictive". After 11 straight global number one best sellers, Lee Child sends listeners back to school with the most explosive Jack Reacher novel yet.
It's 1996, and Reacher is still in the army. In the morning they give him a medal, and in the afternoon they send him back to school. That night he's off the grid. Out of sight, out of mind.
Two other men are in the classroom – an FBI agent and a CIA analyst. Each is a first-rate operator, each is fresh off a big win, and each is wondering what the hell they are doing there.
Then they find out: A jihadist sleeper cell in Hamburg, Germany, has received an unexpected visitor – a Saudi courier seeking safe haven while waiting to rendezvous with persons unknown. A CIA asset undercover inside the cell has overheard the courier whisper a chilling message: "The American wants a hundred million dollars."
For what? And who from? Reacher and his two new friends are told to find the American. Reacher recruits the best soldier he has ever worked with: Sergeant Frances Neagley. Their mission heats up in more ways than one, while always keeping their eyes on the prize: If they don't get their man, the world will suffer an epic act of terrorism.
From Langley to Hamburg, Jalalabad to Kiev, Night School moves like a bullet through a treacherous landscape of double crosses, faked identities, and new and terrible enemies as Reacher maneuvers inside the game and outside the law.
From Publishers Weekly
At the start of bestseller Child's solid 12th Jack Reacher novel (after Bad Luck and Trouble), the ex-military policeman hitchhikes into Colorado, where he finds himself crossing the metaphorical and physical line that divides the small towns of Hope and Despair. Despair lives up to its name; all Reacher wants is a cup of coffee, but what he gets is attacked by four thugs and thrown in jail on a vagrancy charge. After he's kicked out of town, Reacher reacts in his usual manner-he goes back and whips everybody's butt and busts up the town's police force. In the process, he discovers, with the help of a good-looking lady cop from Hope, that a nearby metal processing plant is part of a plan that involves the war in Iraq and an apocalyptic sect bent on ushering in the end-time. With his powerful sense of justice, dogged determination and the physical and mental skills to overcome what to most would be overwhelming odds, Jack Reacher makes an irresistible modern knight-errant.
Review
“As I was reading this latest book, I was trying to understand why I like the Reacher series so much…The Jack Reacher books are all revenge fantasies. By the time the reader encounters the first fight, the reader is already mad… Reacher doesn't go looking for trouble, but trouble usually finds him.”- San Francisco Chronicle
“Explosive and nearly impossible to put down.”-People
From Publishers Weekly
At the start of bestseller Child's solid 12th Jack Reacher novel (after Bad Luck and Trouble), the ex-military policeman hitchhikes into Colorado, where he finds himself crossing the metaphorical and physical line that divides the small towns of Hope and Despair. Despair lives up to its name; all Reacher wants is a cup of coffee, but what he gets is attacked by four thugs and thrown in jail on a vagrancy charge. After he's kicked out of town, Reacher reacts in his usual manner-he goes back and whips everybody's butt and busts up the town's police force. In the process, he discovers, with the help of a good-looking lady cop from Hope, that a nearby metal processing plant is part of a plan that involves the war in Iraq and an apocalyptic sect bent on ushering in the end-time. With his powerful sense of justice, dogged determination and the physical and mental skills to overcome what to most would be overwhelming odds, Jack Reacher makes an irresistible modern knight-errant.
Review
“As I was reading this latest book, I was trying to understand why I like the Reacher series so much…The Jack Reacher books are all revenge fantasies. By the time the reader encounters the first fight, the reader is already mad… Reacher doesn't go looking for trouble, but trouble usually finds him.”- San Francisco Chronicle
“Explosive and nearly impossible to put down.”-People
A lone gunman unleashes pandemonium when he shoots into a crowd of people in a public plaza in Indiana. Five people are killed in cold blood, shot through the head. But he leaves a perfect trail of evidence behind him, and soon the local police chief tracks him down. After his arrest, the shooter’s only words are, “Get Jack Reacher for me.” What could possibly connect this psychopath and the wandering dropout ex army cop?
Amazon.com Review
Jack Reacher, the taciturn ex-MP whose adventures in Lee Child's six previous solidly plotted, expertly paced thrillers have won a devoted fan base, returns in this explosive tale of an undercover operation set up by the FBI to rescue an agent investigating Zachary Beck, a reclusive tycoon believed to be a kingpin in the drug trade. The novel begins with a bang as Reacher rescues Beck's son from a staged kidnapping in order to get close to his father-and trace the connection between Beck and Quinn, a former army intelligence officer who tried to sell blueprints of a secret weapon to Iraq but was murdered before he could pull it off. Or so Reacher thinks, until he spots Quinn in the crowd at a concert in Boston. As usual, Child ratchets up the tension and keeps the reader in suspense until the last page, although his enigmatic hero hardly ever seems to break a sweat. In the tough guy tradition, Reacher and his creator are overdue for a breakout, and this muscular, well-written mystery might be the one.
From Publishers Weekly
The promo copy on the ARC of Child's new thriller proclaims, "We dare to make this claim: Lee Child is the best thriller writer you're probably not reading-yet." Hopefully the "six-figure" marketing campaign promised by Child's new publisher will make that statement obsolete, because readers will be hard-pressed to find a more engaging thriller this spring season. Child is a master of storytelling skills, not least the plot twist, and the opening chapter of this novel spins a doozy, as a high-octane, extremely violent action sequence sees Child hero Jack Reacher rescue a young man, 20-year-old Richard Beck, from an attempted kidnapping before the rug is pulled out from under the reader with the chapter's last line. The rest of the novel centers on the Beck family's isolated, heavily guarded estate on the Maine coast where Reacher takes Richard. Richard's father is suspected by Feds of being a major drug dealer and the kidnapper of another Fed, and also seems to have ties to a fiend who killed Reacher's lady 10 years before, someone Reacher thought he'd killed in turn, in a vengeance slaying. Tension runs high, then extremely high, as Reacher, ingratiating himself with the dealer and hired on as a bodyguard, pokes around the estate, looking for the kidnapped Fed and evading and/or disposing of in-house bad guys as they begin to suspect he's not who he seems. But then little in Child's novels is as it at first seems, and numerous further plot twists spark the story line. What makes the novel really zing, though, is Reacher's narration-a unique mix of the brainy and the brutal, of strategic thinking and explosive action, moral rumination and ruthless force, marking him as one of the most memorable heroes in contemporary thrillerdom. Any thriller fan who has yet to read Lee Child should start now.
Lee Child, Diana Gabaldon, James Sallis, and others reveal how, in Phoenix, sunshine is the new noir.
Sierżant Amy Callan i porucznik Caroline Cook miały ze sobą wiele wspólnego. Obie służyły w armii, obie stały się ofiarami napastowania seksualnego, obie musiały zrezygnować ze służby – obie nie żyją. Ich ciała znalezione we własnych łazienkach, zanurzone w wojskowej farbie maskującej. Żadnych śladów przemocy, żadnych oznak walki. Jack Reacher znał każdą z kobiet. FBI zmusza go do współpracy z grupą dochodzeniową, w skład której wchodzi Julia Lamarr, specjalistka od portretów psychologicznych. Reacher kwestionuje opracowany przez nią motyw zbrodni – zemstę – uważa, że jej przyczyn należy szukać zupełnie gdzie indziej. Jego teoria bierze w łeb, gdy w podobny sposób ginie następna dziewczyna.
Jack Reacher is back, dragged into what looks like a series of grisly serial murders by a team of FBI profilers who aren't totally sure he's not the killer they're looking for, but believe that even if he isn't, he's smart enough to help them find the real killer. And what they've got on the ex-MP, who's starred in three previous Lee Child thrillers (Tripwire, Die Trying, Killing Floor), is enough to ensure his grudging cooperation: phony charges stemming from Reacher's inadvertent involvement in a protection shakedown and the threat of harm to the woman he loves.
The killer's victims have only one thing in common-all of them brought sexual harassment charges against their military superiors and all resigned from the army after winning their cases. The manner, if not the cause, of their deaths is gruesomely the same: they died in their own bathtubs, covered in gallons of camouflage paint, but they didn't drown and they weren't shot, strangled, poisoned, or attacked. Even the FBI forensic specialists can't figure out why they seem to have gone willingly to their mysterious deaths. Reacher isn't sure whether the killings are an elaborate cover-up for corruption involving stolen military hardware or the work of a maniac who's smart enough to leave absolutely no clues behind. This compelling, iconic antihero dead-ends in a lot of alleys before he finally figures it out, but every one is worth exploring and the suspense doesn't let up for a second. The ending will come as a complete surprise to even the most careful reader, and as Reacher strides off into the sunset, you'll wonder what's in store for him in his next adventure.
Lee Child's Reacher series (15 books in all) is a thundering force among modern thrillers. For the uninitiated, it follows the stoic, hulking, and streetwise Jack Reacher, a former military policeman who's now a drifter with a vast capacity for protective and retributive violence. The short story "Second Son" is a snapshot of the life of Reacher and his family circa 1974, while they're stationed on a military base in Okinawa. Upon arriving they immediately get into deep trouble that's compounded by some bad news. For those new to Child's writing, the action is interspersed with contemplative moments, such as when Jack's grandfather, a prosthetic-limb maker in Paris, recounts that "… a great war leaves a country with three armies: an army of cripples, an army of mourners, and an army of thieves." This tightly constructed story pulls readers right to the end and is sure to find new fans for the series. -Paul Diamond
Everything starts somewhere…
For elite military cop Jack Reacher, that somewhere was Carter Crossing, Mississippi, way back in 1997. A lonely railroad track. A crime scene. A coverup.
A young woman is dead, and solid evidence points to a soldier at a nearby military base. But that soldier has powerful friends in Washington.
Reacher is ordered undercover – to find out everything he can, to control the local police, and then to vanish. Reacher is a good soldier. But when he gets to Carter Crossing, he finds layers no one saw coming, and the investigation spins out of control.
Local sheriff Elizabeth Deveraux has a thirst for justice – and an appetite for secrets. Uncertain they can trust one another, Reacher and Deveraux reluctantly join forces. Reacher works to uncover the truth, while others try to bury it forever. The conspiracy threatens to shatter his faith in his mission, and turn him into a man to be feared.
A novel of unrelenting suspense that could only come from the pen of #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child, The Affair is the start of the Reacher saga, a thriller that takes Reacher – and his readers – right to the edge… and beyond.
New Year’s Day, 1990. The Berlin Wall is coming down. Soon America won't have any enemies left to fight. The army is under pressure to downsize. Jack Reacher is the duty Military Police officer on a base in North Carolina when he takes a call reporting a dead soldier. The body was found in a sleazy motel used by local hookers. Reacher tells the local cop to handle it – it sounds like the guy just had a heart attack. But the dead man turns out to have been a two-star general on a secret mission. And then, many miles away, when Reacher goes to the general’s house to break the sad news, he finds a battered corpse: the general’s wife. Lee Child’s new stomach-churning, palm-sweating thriller turns back the clock to Jack Reacher’s army days. For the first time we meet a younger Reacher, a Reacher not yet disillusioned with military life. A Reacher with family. A Reacher in dogtags and starched uniform who imposes army discipline, if only in his own pragmatic way. A Reacher as far from the no-credit card, no-last-known-address drifter of the previous novels as is possible to imagine.
New Year’s Day, 1990. The Berlin Wall is coming down. Soon America won't have any enemies left to fight. The army is under pressure to downsize. Jack Reacher is the duty Military Police officer on a base in North Carolina when he takes a call reporting a dead soldier. The body was found in a sleazy motel used by local hookers. Reacher tells the local cop to handle it – it sounds like the guy just had a heart attack. But the dead man turns out to have been a two-star general on a secret mission. And then, many miles away, when Reacher goes to the general’s house to break the sad news, he finds a battered corpse: the general’s wife. Lee Child’s new stomach-churning, palm-sweating thriller turns back the clock to Jack Reacher’s army days. For the first time we meet a younger Reacher, a Reacher not yet disillusioned with military life. A Reacher with family. A Reacher in dogtags and starched uniform who imposes army discipline, if only in his own pragmatic way. A Reacher as far from the no-credit card, no-last-known-address drifter of the previous novels as is possible to imagine.
In Lee Child’s astonishing new thriller, ex-military cop Reacher sees more than most people would… and because of that, he’s thrust into an explosive situation that’s about to blow up in his face. For the only way to find the truth – and save two innocent lives – is to do it the way Jack Reacher does it best: the hard way…
Jack Reacher was alone, the way he liked it, soaking up the hot, electric New York City night, watching a man cross the street to a parked Mercedes and drive it away. The car contained one million dollars in ransom money. And Edward Lane, the man who paid it, will pay even more to get his family back. Lane runs a highly illegal soldiers-for-hire operation. He will use any amount of money and any tool to find his beautiful wife and child. And then he’ll turn Jack Reacher loose with a vengeance – because Reacher is the best man hunter in the world.
On the trail of a vicious kidnapper, Reacher is learning the chilling secrets of his employer’s past… and of a horrific drama in the heart of a nasty little war. He’s beginning to realize that Edward Lane is hiding something. Something dirty. Something big. But Reacher also knows this: he’s already in way too deep to stop now.
An anthology of stories
Be prepared to be thrilled as you've never been before
Featuring North America's foremost thriller authors, Thriller is the first collection of pure thriller stories ever published. Offering up heart-pumping tales of suspense in all its guises are thirty-two of the most critically acclaimed and award-winning names in the business. From the signature characters that made such authors as David Morrell and John Lescroart famous to four of the hottest new voices in the genre, this blockbuster will tantalize and terrify.
Lock the doors, draw the shades, pull up the covers and be prepared for Thriller to keep you up all night.
***
"Thriller will be a classic. This first-ever collection of thriller stories, from the best in the business, has it all. The quality blew me away." – Greg Iles
"The best of the best storytellers in the business. Thriller has no equal. Action, intrigue, and entertainment at the highest level. Adventure on a grand scale you won't forget." – Clive Cussler
"Thriller is entertaining, fast-paced, and just plain fun. It will take you to the most terrifying heights of suspense." – Tess Gerritsen
Digging a swimming pool by hand in Key West, former military policeman Jack Reacher is not pleased when Costello, a private detective, comes nosing around asking questions about him. Determined to keep out of trouble, Reacher conceals his identity. But when he finds Costello dead with his fingertips sliced off, he realizes it is time to move on – and move on fast. Yet two questions worry him: who was Costello's employer, the mysterious Mrs Jacobs? And why is she determined to find Reacher? Moreover, who is Hook Hobie, the vicious and amoral manipulator in a Wall Street office who preys on other people's assets?
As Reacher follows the trail, it becomes clear that the stakes are high: the livelihood of a whole community; the fate of the soldiers missing in action in Vietnam; and, not least, the reappearance of a woman from Reacher's own troubled past with a key to his destiny.
The best USA-based stories in the Akashic noir series, compiled into one volume and edited by Johnny Temple!
When a different kind of justice is needed---swift, effective, and personal---a new type of avenger must take action. VENGEANCE features new stories by bestselling crime writers including Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane, and Karin Slaughter, as well as some of today's brightest rising talents.
The heroes in these stories include a cop who's seen too much, a woman who has been pushed too far, or just an ordinary person doing what the law will not. Some call them vigilantes, others claim they are just another brand of criminal.
Edited and with an introduction by Lee Child, these stories reveal the shocking consequences when men and women take the law into their own hands.
Full list of contributors:
Alafair Burke
Lee Child
Michael Connelly
Mike Cooper
Brendan DuBois
Jim Fusilli
Michelle Gagnon
Darrell James
C.E. Lawrence
Dennis Lehane
Steve Liskow
Rick McMahan
Adam Meyer
Dreda Say Mitchell
Michael Niemann
Twist Phelan
Zoë Sharp
Karin Slaughter
Orest Stelmach
Anne Swardson
Janice Law Trecker
From International Thriller Writers comes WATCHLIST: two powerful novellas featuring the same thrilling cast of characters in one major suspenseful package. THE CHOPIN MANUSCRIPT and THE COPPER BRACELET are collaborations of some of the world’s greatest thriller writers, including Lee Child, Joseph Finder, Lisa Scottoline, and Jeffery Deaver, who conceived the characters and set the plots in motion. The other authors each wrote a chapter and Deaver then completed what he started, bringing both novellas to their startling conclusions.
In the first novella, THE CHOPIN MANUSCRIPT, former war crimes investigator Harold Middleton possesses a previously unknown score by Frederic Chopin. But he is unaware that, locked within its handwritten notes, lies a secret that now threatens the lives of thousands of Americans. As he races from Poland to America to uncover the mystery of the manuscript, Middleton will be accused of murder, pursued by federal agents, and targeted by assassins. But the greatest threat will come from a shadowy figure from his past: the man known only as Faust.
Harold Middleton returns in THE COPPER BRACELET -- the explosive sequel to THE CHOPIN MANUSCRIPT -- as he’s drawn into an international terror plot that threatens to send India and Pakistan into full-scale nuclear war. Careening from Nice to London and Moscow to Kashmir to prevent nuclear disaster, Middleton is unaware that his prey has changed and that the act of terror is far more diabolical than he knows. Will he discover the identity of the Scorpion in time to halt an event that will pit the United States, China, and Russia against each other at the brink of World War III?