‘The Escape Artist’ is the new thriller by bestselling author Brad Meltzer.
Brad Meltzer is The New York Times’ bestselling author of thrillers including ‘The Inner Circle’ and ‘The Book of Fate.’ He is also the host of Brad Meltzer’s Decoded on the History Channel and Brad Meltzer’s Lost History on H2. ‘The Escape Artist’ is his latest novel and it tells the story of Nola Brown, a woman whose body is found on a plane that mysteriously fell from the sky as it left a secret military base in the Alaskan wilderness.
According to Amazon, in ‘The Escape Artist,’ Jim “Zig” Zigarowski works at Dover Air Force Base helping to put to rest the bodies of those who die on top-secret missions. He has just discovered the truth about Nola Brown. Even though her commanding officer verifies that she is dead, and the US government confirms it, Jim knows she is still alive and on the run. She was a childhood friend of Zig’s daughter and once saved her life, so he is determined to find her no matter what. As he digs into Nola’s past, he discovers that trouble follows her everywhere she goes. On her last mission she saw something she was not supposed to see. Together, she and Zig try to uncover the US Army’s most mysterious secret, a conspiracy that goes back to Harry Houdini, the greatest escape artist of all time.
‘All Systems Down’ is the debut novel by Sam Bousch. Courtesy photo: used with permission.
Sam Boush is a novelist and award-winning journalist who has worked as a wildland firefighter and as owner of a mid-sized marketing agency. He is a member of the Center for Internet Security, International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium and Cloud Security Alliance. ‘All Systems Down,’ his first novel, is a cyber war thriller that unites a group of strangers whose must depend on each other’s skills to survive the oncoming chaos.
‘All Systems Down’ begins aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford where Lieutenant Kelly Seong and Lieutenant Orion Bether are in the middle of 4a.m. drills. After their communication radios malfunction, they are forced to head back to the supercarrier and are shocked when its lights start shutting down and the instruments aboard their jets start to fail. This is only the beginning of mass cyber-attacks that cause electrical grids to fail, satellites to crash to earth and widespread cell phone and internet crashes. With massive black blackouts across America and a foreign enemy creeping up on its shores, survivors like Brendan Chogan, whose job interview was interrupted by an outage, and Ireana and Annalore, who were on a camping trip, will have to work together to get through the next few days. They are the innocent victims of the North Korean military determined to topple the enemy’s infrastructure.
With his debut novel, Sam Boush proves that he deserves to be listed with the likes of Tom Clancy, David Baldacci and Dan Brown. Right from the beginning, readers are in for a thrill ride as the lives of every day people are abruptly interrupted by a series of computer viruses. Both heroes and villains are well-developed and include various nationalities. The action flows easily from chapter to chapter and even though there is some military and computer jargon involved, it is easy to follow and understand. As cities fall, the scariest animal is a cornered and scared human. Despite being a work of fiction, it is not hard to envision a real-life scenario where worldwide destruction comes via a keyboard. It is a must-read and recommended for fans of thrillers and suspense novels with apocalyptic/disaster storylines. With a subtitle of ‘The Cyber War – Book 1’ hinting of more to come, this series, with its compelling characters and every-day heroes will keep readers asking for more.
*A copy of this book was given via NetGalley for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are solely the author’s.
The movie adaption of ‘The Snowman’ by Jo Nesbo will be out in theaters on Friday October 20.
Jo Nesbø is a Norwegian writer, musician, former economist and reporter. His books have sold more than 3 million copies in Norway and his work has been translated into over 40 languages and have sold 30 million copies worldwide. He has written several stand-alone novels and the Doctor Proctor series of children’s books but he is best known for his crime novels about Inspector Harry Hole. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Glass Key for best Nordic crime novel. “The Snowman” is the seventh book in the Harry Hole series and the movie adaptation will be released in theaters on Friday October 20, 2017. It stars J.K. Simmons, Val Kilmer, Rebecca Ferguson and Michael Fassbender as Detective Harry Hole.
According to Amazon, in “The Snowman,” Inspector Harry Hole tracks a Norwegian serial killer in a case that will test him to the very limits of his sanity. Harry is a brilliant and driven detective with the Oslo Crime Squad. His methods are unorthodox methods and that has made him a loose cannon in the police force. This case involves the murder of a woman whose son wakes up one day and discovers that she has disappeared. The only thing left behind is the pink scarf that he gave her as a Christmas present and the snowman that mysteriously appeared in their front yard is now wearing it. As Harry investigates, he uncovers a pattern over the past decade where eleven women have vanished all on the day of the first snow. All killed by someone who makes his own rules and is willing to break his pattern just to keep things interesting.
SA Examiner 