Every month, Ryan Steck—aka The Real Book Spy—rounds up the best new political, action, legal, and crime thrillers arriving in bookstores this month.
Daughter of War by Brad Taylor
Release Date: January 8th (Dutton)
In Monaco to stop the sale of stolen data between North Korea and Syria, Pike Logan and the rest of his Taskforce team have been ordered to make sure that the top-secret information, which supposedly contains vital intelligence on a number of important members of the United States government, never changes hands. Instead, Pike and company discover that they’ve got the mission all wrong.
The good news is that North Korea isn’t hawking info stolen from the Chinese after all. The bad news, though, is that they’re moving something much worse: a deadly chemical called Red Mercury.
Extremely poisonous and nearly untraceable, Red Mercury poses a very real and present danger to America and the rest of the world. The story takes another turn, however, when Amena, a young Syrian refugee who relies on her skills as a petty thief to feed herself and her brother, accidentally lifts a new iPhone that contains the details of the attack from the pocket of a Syrian intelligence officer. Suddenly, everyone from the North Koreans to the Syrians and even the Russians are in pursuit of Amena, who has no clue that she’s in possession of the one thing that could cause the murderous plot to fail.
With the clock ticking down and bad guys closing in on her from every direction, it’s once again up to Pike Logan to find Amena and save the day before it’s too late … and this time, he’s got his work cut out for him.
While Pike Logan is the star of the series (and part-time narrator), Taylor has done an exceptional job developing a deep cast of characters over the years to compliment him. More specifically, he has always written smart, kickass women into his thrillers, a trend that continues here with the introduction of Amena. Readers have already taken to Shoshana and Jennifer Cahill (Koko gets plenty of screen time in this one), and without giving anything away, there’s a solid chance that Amena, who steals every scene she’s in, becomes the next fan-favorite in a long line of strong secondary characters occupying Pike’s universe. That’s not to say that Logan doesn’t shine here—he does—but with other authors suddenly scrambling to write strong female characters in their respective series, it’s worth noting that Taylor has done it better and longer than nearly everyone else.
Nobody delivers quite like Brad Taylor. Ripped from the headlines and packed with plenty of suspense and nonstop action every step of the way, Daughter of War is the first must-read action thriller of 2019. 
The New Iberia Blues by James Lee Burke
Release Date: January 8th (Simon and Schuster)
When Detective Dave Robicheaux knocks on the door of a Hollywood bigwig, he’s not sure what to expect. What he wants is to find out what Desmond Cormier, whom he first met twenty-five years ago when he was just a hardened kid on the tough streets of Louisiana, knows about repeated 911 calls made in the area in regard to a woman screaming for help the night before.
Cormier, it turns out, has no idea what Dave is talking about, or so he says. Neither does his buddy, actor Antoine Butterworth, who proves to be elusive and well versed in providing slippery answers when questioned by the police. Robicheaux, who’s been around the block and back more times than he can count, doesn’t trust either one of them, especially after he discovers the body of Lucinda Arceneaux, the daughter of a local pastor, who was crucified and dumped in Weeks Bay, still strapped to a floating cross.
While searching for Lucinda’s killer, a number of suspects turn up as past demons descend upon Louisiana. Most notably, Hugo Tillinger, a convicted murderer who recently escaped from a Texas prison, and the psychotic Chester “Smiley” Wimple show up, though Dave isn’t sure either is responsible for this particular crime. While he and longtime friend Cletus Purcel hunt for the real killer, their pursuit of justice leads them down a path that puts them on a collision course with a number of unsavory characters, including run-ins with members of the mob.
All of this, of course, takes place as Dave continues to deal with issues from his personal life, including his adjustment to his new partner and a thread involving his daughter, Alafair. Much like C.J. Box’s Joe Pickett series, the true magic of Burke’s series doesn’t take place in the mystery itself, but rather the moments between plot points when readers are able to spend time with Robicheaux and the rest the cast.
Of course, that’s not to say that the mystery isn’t a huge focal point or that Burke is phoning it in. In fact, he’s done just the opposite. Whereas most writers are losing steam this deep into their respective franchises, Burke can still twist plot threads together with the best of them—and just when you think you know how his latest offering is going to play out, he pulls out one surprise after another. 
The Night Agent by Matthew Quirk
Release Date: January 15th (William Morrow)
Saying you work at the White House sounds sexy—unless you’re FBI agent Peter Sutherland, whose entire job description requires spending eight hours a night in the Situation Room sitting at a desk that houses a single phone that never rings.
Until one night … when it actually does.
On the other end on the line, a frantic twenty-something-year-old woman named Rose Larkin tells Peter that someone has broken into her aunt and uncle’s home and killed them both. As Peter talks to her while local police and FBI agents race to the scene, she also relays a coded message her aunt and uncle had passed on to her indicating that something big is supposed to happen in six days. The message means nothing to Peter, who kicks the info up the chain to his boss, James Hawkins, a veteran agent with the FBI’s national security division, officially ending his involvement with the entire situation.
Though his job is done, Peter can’t seem to forget about Rose and what happened to her or the bond between them stemming from the call. After a series of truly innocent events, where Peter tried to offer his condolences to Rose and then be there for her after sensing she needed someone to lean on, he inadvertently finds himself present when the same people who killed her aunt and uncle tries to terminate Rose, too.
Following the would-be attack, Peter is finally read into what’s really going on, revealing a huge conspiracy that, if the FBI is correct, means that Russia has infiltrated the highest levels of the American government and is planning something massive that may go down in only a few days’ time … and it’s up to Peter to connect the dots and expose the truth before it’s too late.
For those who’ve followed Quirk’s career, The Night Agent is more on par with The 500 than Cold Barrel Zero. That said, it’s quite different from anything he’s ever written, though newcomers won’t be able to tell it just from this one. Quirk’s latest feels like he’s been churning out political thrillers for decades, hitting on a timely plot that starts out fast and only speeds up as the story unfolds. The characters, mainly Peter and Rose, are developed enough that readers will care about and relate to them, adding to the tension and suspense as their fate hangs in the balance throughout. While this novel is a standalone, it does signal a new direction for Quirk, a former journalist, and readers will no doubt hope he leaves the military and action thrillers behind for more politically relevant storylines like this one.
Tear it Down by Nick Petrie
Release Date: January 15th (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Always on the move, war veteran Peter Ash leaves Washington State, where he’d been staying with June Cassidy, and heads to Memphis to help an African American photographer named Wanda Wyatt, one of June’s friends.
A former war correspondent, Wanda has been receiving threats since she moved into her new home. Eventually, things escalate and take a more dangerous turn when a dump truck is driven through her living room, prompting Peter to double down on his efforts to find out who’s behind the threats and why she’s a target in the first place. However, things don’t exactly go according to plan. Soon after arriving in Memphis, Peter is carjacked by fifteen-year-old Eli Bell, who’s fallen into a bad way with some bad people.
A musical savant who’s using his extraordinary talents as a street musician, Bell’s part of a family of runaways who are just trying to get by, willing to do whatever it takes to survive. But after a jewelry store robbery that he never wanted to partake in goes sideways, Bell finds himself wanted by a notorious local crime lord and goes on the run, kicking off a series of events that leads to him pointing a gun in Peter Ash’s face.
Never one to turn his back on those in need, Peter decides to help the boy, adding one more thing to his growing to-do list, which now also includes fixing Wanda’s home. Though he’s juggled numerous tasks before and seems to thrive among chaos, Peter realizes he may have finally bitten off more than he can chew as a plethora of bad guys descend upon him at the same time … leading to a heart-pounding final act that delivers in a big and satisfying way.
Four books in, Nick Petrie is pitching a perfect game. Fans who’ve been following Peter’s movements from the beginning will notice subtle similarities to Petrie’s award-winning debut, The Drifter (2016). Ash is once again doing home repairs and trying to help a woman in need, only to inadvertently stumble upon a conspiracy that, as he chases it, pulls him further and further down the rabbit hole. Meanwhile, he’s still dealing with the “white noise,” the term Peter uses to describe his extreme PTSD-induced claustrophobia, that he’s battled since book one. Though he’s learning to live with it, it’s still an issue and contributes to Peter’s constant restlessness.
A lot of writers and their characters are compared to Lee Child and Jack Reacher, but Nick Petrie is the only one truly deserving of such lofty praise. If you’re not reading this series, start.
Crucible by James Rollins
Release Date: January 22nd (William Morrow)
What starts as a lighthearted opening set in Silver Spring, Maryland, soon morphs into something tragic. Commander Grayson Pierce and Monk, his best friend and colleague, talk over drinks at a small tavern on Christmas Eve. Monk, who was recently fitted with a newer, more advanced prosthetic, uses DARPA’s latest tech to earn the duo free drinks by flipping random coins and consistently predicting whether it’ll come up heads or tails.
While the shenanigans lead to a confrontation with a group of drunk patrons, it’s nothing compared to what they discover back home.
Returning to Pierce’s house—where Monk, his wife, and their kids are staying for the holidays—Gray discovers that his home has been ransacked. Worse, Monk’s wife, Kat, is found on the kitchen floor covered in blood after barely surviving a vicious attack that left her in a coma. Seichan, Gray’s pregnant lover, is gone. So too are Monk’s two girls—they all vanished without a trace into the night.
Just when it seems things can’t get worse for the duo, they’re called into the office by Sigma Force Director Painter Crowe, who has more bad news.
At the same time that Kat was attacked and Seichan and the girls were abducted, a group of female scientists were killed in a fiery attack in Portugal. Having come together after years of networking, the group had gathered to further the research of a genius twenty-something-year-old named Mara Silviera, a brilliant scientist who had made huge advances in the world of artificial intelligence research. Now she’s gone too, and Painter Crowe believes both events are somehow connected.
What few know is that an ancient group of religious zealots were behind the attack in Portugal, serving as the latest act in their quest to return the world back to a time when witches were burned at the stake. Now in possession of an unprecedented weapon capable of unleashing an evil onto humanity unlike anything the world has ever seen, the group must be stopped at all costs, and it’s up to Sigma to track them down before it’s too late.
For Pierce and the rest of the gang, their search relies on clues gathered from the days of the Spanish Inquisition, linked to the most “blood-soaked book in human history,” a mysterious text known as “The Hammer of Witches.” With the clock ticking and evil waiting for them at every turn, Pierce and company set out for their most dangerous and personal mission yet, only to find one horrifying reality after another.
With everything on the line, the stakes couldn’t possibly be higher … and this time, the Sigma Force gang, who are playing short-handed, may not have the resources to once again save the day when it matters most.
James Rollins has strung together a great run of top-notch thrillers the last few years, including 2017’s The Demon Crown, but nothing compares to his latest offering. Always careful to craft his stories around plausible scientific data, Rollins pulls out his most terrifying scenario yet—one that even Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, and Russian President Vladimir Putin have warned against. Crucible is a riveting thriller that’ll stay with readers for a very long time.
The Rule of Law by John Lescroart
Release Date: January 22nd (Atria)
Following last year’s Poison, Defense Attorney Dismas Hardy returns for his 18th case in the latest nail-biter from New York Times bestselling author John Lescroart.
Everything is running smoothly until Phyllis McGowan, Hardy’s longtime (and much beloved) secretary doesn’t show up for work. Not one to normally no-call no-show, Hardy goes to Phyllis’ apartment, only to discover that she’s been hiding a number of secrets, not to mention illegal immigrants.
In a present-day version of the runaway railroad, Phyllis has been helping to smuggle immigrants who are fleeing ICE into the US, providing shelter and safe harbor from those trying to round them up and send ’em back to where they came from. She’s also never let it slip that she has a younger brother, Adam, who was incarcerated for armed robbery, before walking free several weeks prior to her not showing up for work. Things only worsen once Phyllis re-emerges after she’s arrested for accessory to murder in the death of Hector Valdez, a dangerous human trafficker who deals in all kinds of shady businesses.
Celia Montoya, an illegal immigrant, is the one charged with actually killing Hector, but the police trace her back to Phyllis—whom she stayed with while recently on the run after coming to America. Complicating matters is the fact that the murder supposedly took place the same day that Dismas noticed Phyllis missing. Still, Hardy stands by his friend and secretary, though he doesn’t have the juice he once did.
New District Attorney Ron Jameson has an ax to grind with Hardy. Now that he has the man in his crosshairs, he’s hellbent on ending him and anyone else associated with him, including Phyllis and Dismas’ new legal team. As the story unfolds in typical fast-paced Lescroart fashion, readers are treated to a number of twists, turns, shocks, and reveals that set up a cat-and-mouse game between Hardy and Jameson, who happens to have a number of skeletons in his own closet . . .
Now nearly twenty books in, Lescroart has tried new ways to refresh his series over the past few years. He finally accomplished that here by giving Hardy a worthy adversary in the new DA, who replaced his old friend, Wes Farrell. Whereas before, when Dismas could pull strings and favors, he’s now on his own. Worse, he’s on his own and Jameson is using his position as the DA to go after him, and with few friends to turn to, Hardy has to go about his business in new ways. That adds a new element to the story, which works nicely and provides the kind of suspense that longtime fans look for with this series.
Likewise, Lescroart hits on timely themes, as immigration and sanctuary cities remain a controversial topic in today’s world of 24-hour news coverage. That said, while much of the undocumented immigration plot thread feels taken from the headlines, the story itself, which focuses plenty on the game between Hardy and Jameson, lends itself nicely to those on both sides of the political spectrum. So, no matter which side you lean towards, Lescroart offers enough right down the middle to satisfy anyone looking for fast-paced thrills.
Judgment by Joseph Finder
Release Date: January 29th (Dutton Books)
It all started with a one-night stand.
While attending a conference in Chicago, Juliana Brody, a Massachusetts Superior Court judge and married mother of two, made the regrettable decision to betray her marriage and sleep with a man she met at her hotel. Brody, who is rumored to be on multiple short-lists to climb the career ladder—possibly even all the way to the Supreme Court—left Chicago the next day, returning home to her family in hopes of forgetting the encounter altogether.
Instead, she learns the hard way that Chi-town doesn’t have the same rulebook as Vegas, and in this case, what happened in Chicago does not stay in there.
Back in her courtroom, Brody is stunned to find the man she slept with halfway across the country present and in possession of a videotape of their affair. What comes next is a carefully laid out plan to blackmail Brody, forcing her to rule in favor of an Uber-like company called Wheelz, who is being sued by a former employee claiming sexual discrimination—after dodging multiple advances made by the company’s CEO—as the reason for her being fired.
Targeted because of her position presiding over the case, Brody is quickly sucked into a sick and twisted game that she never wanted to play in the first place. Hoping to protect her family and her reputation, she begins complying with the demands, all the while looking for a way out. That proves difficult once the case receives national attention because of the #MeToo movement, and Brody isn’t able to keep all of her secrets hidden. As the truth slowly begins to unravel, creating serious hardships at home, the judge is pulled further and further down the rabbit hole, where an even darker and more surprising conspiracy involving Russia awaits her . . .
Joseph Finder is always a lock for an entertaining, rip-roaring thriller of suspense, and that is certainly the case here. The story kicks into overdrive when Finder lands the first real twist, shining the light on the Russians’ involvement in a way that somewhat mirrors scenarios playing out in real life with the Muller investigation. Once all the players are revealed, Finder puts the gas pedal to the floor and never lets up for a second, delivering a nail-biting final act that’s everything his fans expect and more.
Touching on a Russian conspiracy and the #MeToo movement, Judgment is as relevant as it is thrilling, and Joseph Finder shows once again that he knows how to keep readers off balance and guessing until the very end.
Out of the Dark by Gregg Hurwitz
Release Date: January 29th (Minotaur Books)
It was always going to come to this.
Evan Smoak, aka Orphan X, has spent years searching for the man who gave the order to have him terminated—after he broke from the off-the-books government program that made him a killer—hellbent on burning their operation to the ground.
Likewise, those in charge of the Orphan Program have been looking for Evan, the only asset to ever walk away, in an effort to tie up the exceptionally lethal loose end.
Over the years, Evan’s decision to retire from being a government assassin has cost him dearly. From being forced to live a nearly hermit-like lifestyle in his tricked-out penthouse, unable to form any real, normal relationships with others, to seeing the few people he does care about killed because of his past, Evan longs for revenge. Now, he finally knows who’s behind everything after unmasking Jonathan Bennett as the highest predator on the Orphan food chain, and Evan has vowed to kill him. There’s just one problem . . .
Jonathan Bennett is the president of the United States of America.
Decades before occupying the Oval Office, the horribly corrupt Bennett was the undersecretary of defense for policy at the Department of Defense. The Orphan Program was his brainchild, and he gave the mission orders, including an assignment in 1997 that proved to be especially problematic once his political career took off. In an attempt to erase any trace of that mission—and the Orphan Program as a whole—Bennett, who has strategically placed layers of insulation between himself and the operation, ordered the killings of anyone with direct knowledge, making Evan enemy number one.
As if taking out the most heavily guarded man on the planet wasn’t hard enough, things become more difficult for Evan when his RoamZone rings and a man named Trevon indicates that he needs help from the Nowhere Man, Smoak’s crime-fighting alter ego, after finding his entire family murdered. Unable to turn his back on Trevon, a fascinating new character who will steal readers’ hearts, Evan attempts to carry out both missions at once, splitting his focus and complicating things considerably. Also standing in his way is Naomi Templeton, the Secret Service agent in charge of protecting President Bennett. And readers will finally get to meet Orphan A, who, it turns out, has his own score to settle with Evan.
Still, none of that will stop Orphan X from attempting to carry out his mission.
Bennett has the advantage. Evan has plenty of motivation. Bennett is virtually inaccessible. Evan is highly trained. Bennett has the full command of the United States military at his disposal. Evan is a one-man army. It’s a heavyweight fight for the ages, and the stakes couldn’t possibly be any higher.
Everything that’s happened over the last three books has been building towards this, and Hurwitz delivers with a stunning, action-packed plot that will leave readers breathless with anticipation and begging for more.
When it’s all said and done, this is the book Hurwitz will be remembered for.
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Now Out in Paperback
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Hunt Them Down by Simon Gervais
Release Date: January 1st (Thomas and Mercer)
In the new age of up-to-the-minute media reports, one journalist chasing an exciting story shadows a group of DEA agents–covering their raid in real time on social media–and is the reason a major bust goes bad.
Former Army Ranger turned Special DEA Agent Pierce Hunt never wanted Luke Moore along for the ride, knowing that little to no good could come from the television reporter covering their actions as they happened. His instincts proved correct after Moore tweeted to his followers that they were about to hit a major drug cartel operation run by Valentina “the Black Tosca” Mieles, a notorious drug kingpin who had been on the DEA’s most wanted list for some time. With the cartel tipped off ahead of time, the raid takes a deadly turn and Moore–whom Hunt is responsible for protecting–is injured in the process. In the end, Pierce becomes the fall guy within the agency, even though the botched operation wasn’t his fault, and he’s placed on a six-month-long suspension.
Back on the job and re-assigned to Miami, where he’s closer to his ex and their daughter, Leila, Hunt tries to put things behind him and move on with his life. Instead, the past comes roaring back with a vengeance.
Years before, Hunt had successfully infiltrated another crime family, headed up by Vincente Garcia, and even testified against Garcia. Rather than spend his life behind bars, though, Garcia cut a deal–offering up information on the fiercely wanted Black Tosca. But during a routine prison transfer, Garcia is killed, along with everyone else, again leaving Hunt in the middle of a compromised op that resulted in everyone else dying. Worse, his daughter is kidnapped in the process.
It doesn’t take long for Hunt to realize that Mieles, the most brutal woman in the drug world, is behind the attack and kidnapping. Determined to take over the Garcia empire, Valentina gives Pierce seventy-two hours to bring her the head of the Garcia family’s new leader. If he doesn’t, she’ll execute Leila live on social media for the whole world to see.
Hellbent on saving his only child at all costs, Pierce is forced to team up with a former lover turned enemy as he races against the clock to hunt down a powerful drug lord and save his daughter before it’s too late.
Stepping away from his popular Mike Walton series to introduce readers to Pierce Hunt, Simon Gervais kicks off his new series with a thundering bang. While there’s a lot of moving parts to the story, everything essentially boils down to one thing: Hunt is a highly-trained, experienced, and devastatingly lethal killer who will stop at nothing to save his child. There’s nothing Hunt won’t do, and the blood flows knee-deep in this one as Gervais uses his background as a drug investigator for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to bring a gritty authenticity to his latest thriller.
Nonstop action meets relentless suspense in Hunt Them Down, the first book in Simon Gervais’ exciting new series.
