Holy Ghost (A Virgil Flowers Novel) - by John Sandford

Pinion, Minnesota: a metropolis of all of seven hundred souls for which the word “moribund” might have been invented.

Nothing ever happened there and nothing ever would–until the mayor of sorts (campaign slogan: “I’ll Do What I Can”) and a buddy come up with a scheme to put Pinion on the map.

They’d heard of a place where a floating image of the Virgin Mary had turned the whole town into a shrine, attracting thousands of pilgrims. And all those pilgrims needed food, shelter, all kinds of crazy things, right? They’d all get rich! What could go wrong?

When the dead body shows up, they find out, and that’s only the beginning of their troubles–and Virgil Flowers’–as they are all about to discover all too soon. - Author's Website

There are many more books by John Sandford in the the Mount Michael Library

Scourged (The Iron Druid Chronicles)

New York Times bestselling author Kevin Hearne returns with the finale to his wildly popular action-adventure series, The Iron Druid Chronicles.

Two-thousand-year-old Druid Atticus O'Sullivan travels to Asgard and faces off against the Norse gods to try and prevent Ragnarok in the final battle for the fate of mankind.

The entire Series if available in the Library

Author's Website

Series Finale 

Release Date: April 3, 2018

One of Us is Lying

Pay close attention and you might solve this.

On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.

Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.

Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.

Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.

Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.

And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app.

Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he’d planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who’s still on the loose?

Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.

End Game (Will Robie #5) by David Baldacci

Will Robie and Jessica Reel are two of the most lethal people alive. They're the ones the government calls in when the utmost secrecy is required to take out those who plot violence and mass destruction against the United States. And through every mission, one man has always had their backs: their handler, code-named Blue Man.

Will Robie Series All available in the library
The Innocent
The Hit
The Target
The Guilty

End Game

Never Say Die (An Alex Rider Book)

The world’s greatest teen spy is back in action in a thrilling new mission: destroy once and for all the terrorist organization SCORPIA. Americans may have purchased more than 6 million copies of Alex's adventures, but now, more than ever, we all need his heroics.

Following the events of Scorpia Rising, Alex relocates to San Francisco as he slowly recovers from the tragic death of his best friend and caregiver, Jack Starbright, at the hands of terrorists working for SCORPIA. With Jack gone, Alex feels lost and alone, but then, out of the blue, he receives a cryptic email--just three words long, but enough to make Alex believe that Jack may be alive. Armed with this shred of hope, Alex boards a flight bound for Egypt and embarks on a dubious quest to track Jack down.

Yet SCORPIA knows Alex's weakness. And the question of whether Jack is alive soon takes a backseat to a chilling new terrorist plot--one that will play with Alex’s mind as he grasps the magnitude of what is at stake.

The complete set of books is available in the Library

House of Spies

Four months after the deadliest attack on the American homeland since 9/11,  a terrorist plot leaves a trail of carnage through London’s glittering West End. The attack is a brilliant feat of planning and secrecy, but with one loose thread.

The thread leads Gabriel Allon and his team to the south of France and to the gilded doorstep of one of the richest men in the country, Jean-Luc Martel, and his companion, Olivia Watson. A beautiful former British fashion model, Olivia pretends not to know the true source of Martel’s enormous wealth. And Martel, likewise, turns a blind eye to the fact he is doing business with a man whose objective is the very destruction of the West. Together, under Gabriel’s skilled hand, they will become an unlikely pair of heroes in the global war on terrorism. - Author's Website

Use of Force by Brad Thor

As a storm rages across the Mediterranean Sea, a terrifying distress call is made to the Italian Coast Guard. Days later, a body washes ashore. Identified as a high value terrorism suspect (who had disappeared three years prior), his name sends panic through the Central Intelligence Agency. Where was he headed? What was he planning? And could he be connected to the “spectacular attack” they have been fearing all summer? In a race against time, the CIA taps an unorthodox source to get answers: Navy SEAL turned covert counterterrorism operative, Scot Harvath. Hired on a black contract, Harvath will provide the deniability the United States needs, while he breaks every rule along the way.

Teeming with fascinating characters and electrifying intrigue, Brad Thor does it again and proves why he is known around-the-world as the “Master of Thrillers - Author's Website

NEED by Joelle Charbonneau

"In this exploration of the dark side of social media, and government control and manipulation, the teenagers in a small town are drawn deeper and deeper into a social networking site that promises to grant their every need-regardless of the consequences"-

Also by Charbonneau:  "The Testing Trilogy"

Perry's Killer Playlist

Several months after Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick (2011), Gobi, the foreign-exchange student and trained killer who led Perry on a whirlwind prom night, is out of Perry's life-but certainly not off his mind. Perry and his band, Inchworm, get the chance of a lifetime with a European tour, but he doesn't even make it to the Venice hotel before thugs, guns, a dead priest, and, yes, Gobi derail his rock-star dreams.

The last time he saw Gobi, five people were assassinated one crazy night in New York City. Well . . . Gobi shows up, and once again Perry is roped into a wild, nonstop thrill ride with a body count. Double crossings, kidnappings, CIA agents, arms dealers, boat chases in Venetian canals, and a shootout in the middle of a Santa Claus convention ensue.

Perry's parents insist that he take Gobi, their Lithuanian exchange student, to senior prom but after an incident at the dance he learns that Gobi is actually an assassin who needs him as a henchman on a mission in Manhattan

Joe Ledger: Special Ops by Jonathan Maberry

Captain Joe Ledger. Former cop. Former Army Ranger. Currently the top-kick of Echo Team, an elite squad of first-class shooters who roll out to face down the world's most dangerous terrorists. Not fanatics with explosive vests or political hostage takers. Joe and his team square off against terrorists who have the most advanced and exotic weapons of mass destruction. Designer bioweapons. Cutting edge transgenics. Real mad scientist stuff. If they have to call Joe Ledger, it's already hit the fan.

Short Stories:

Countdown		13	(8)
Zero Tolerance		21	(20)
Deep Dark		41	(22)
Material Witness		63	(32)
Changeling		95	(42)
Mad Science		137	(28)
Artifact		165	(26)
The Handyman Gets Out		191	(28)
Borrowed Power		219	(34)
Inside the DMS (character profiles)		253	(12)

The Final Day (One Second After Trilogy Conclusion)

The highly-anticipated follow-up to William R. Forstchen’s New York Times bestsellers, One Second After and One Year After, The Final Day immerses readers once more in the story of our nation’s struggle to rebuild itself after an electromagnetic pulse wipes out all electricity and plunges the country into darkness, starvation, and terror.

Since the detonation of nuclear weapons above the United States more than two years ago, the small town of Black Mountain, North Carolina has suffered famine, civil war, and countless deaths. Now, after defeating a new, tyrannical federal government, John Matherson and his community intend to restore their world to what it was before the EMP apocalypse. For the most part, they are succeeding.

This period of relative stability doesn’t last long. A new, aggressive government announces that it’s taking over and ceding large portions of the country to China and Mexico. The Constitution is no longer in effect, and what’s left of the U.S. Army has been deployed to suppress rebellion in the remaining states. John fears he and his town will be targets.

Fallout (The Hot War #2)

A second entry in an alternate-world 1950s finds General MacArthur igniting a nuclear war that nearly destroys the planet, placing once-untouched survivors in the middle of an escalating showdown between Russia and the U.S. By the Hugo Award-winning author of Bombs Away.

The novels of Harry Turtledove show history balancing on single moments: One act of folly. One poor decision. One moment of rage. In his astounding new series, the unthinkable has come to pass. The Cold War turns hot--and the United States and the Soviet Union unleash their nuclear arsenals upon each other. Millions die. Millions more are displaced. Germans battle side by side with Americans, Polish freedom fighters next to Russian fascists. The genie is out of the bottle. And there's no telling what fresh hell will come next. At the heart of Fallout are Harry Truman and Josef Stalin. Even as Joe McCarthy rises in power, the U.S. president is focused elsewhere, planning to cut off the head of the Soviet threat by taking out Stalin. It's a daring gambit, but the Soviets have one of their own. Meanwhile, Europe's weak sisters, France and Italy, seem poised to choose the winning side, while China threatens to overrun Korea. With Great Britain ravaged and swaths of America in ruins, leaders are running out of options. When the United States drops another series of bombs to slow the Russian advance in Europe, Stalin strikes back--with horrifying results. These staggering events unfold through the eyes of a sprawling cast of characters: a Holocaust survivor in a displaced persons camp in Washington; the wife of a bomber pilot and her five-year-old daughter starting a new existence; a savage Soviet fighter waging war by his own rules; a British pub owner falling in love with an American pilot. In the masterly hands of Harry Turtledove, this epic chronicle of war becomes a story of human struggle. As the armies of the world implode, the next chapter will be written by the survivors--those willing to rise up for an uncertain future. (Follett Catalog)

Also available in the library: Bombs Away  (The Hot War #1) 

Rampage (The Singular Menace #3)

Shay Remby and her band of renegade activists have got the corrupt Singular Corporation on the run. Their expose is finally working. Or is it?
 
 Even as revelations about the human experimental subjects break in the news, Singular’s employees are slithering out of sight. And then their CEO is killed in a plane crash... Was it a freak accident?  Or a cover-up?
 
 Shay’s gang begins to see signs that there may be even more powerful figures than they knew managing events—publicly expressing outrage and mopping up the mess, but secretly gathering up their scientists and moving the operation further out of sight.
 
 It will take nothing short of a rampage to stop the Singular menace for good...

Also in the Series:

Foreign Agent by Brad Thor

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor comes Foreign Agent—a thriller as current as tomorrow’s headlines.

In a safe house near the Syrian border, a clandestine American operations team readies to launch a dramatic mission months in the making. Their target: the director of Social Media for ISIS, Abu Muslim al-Naser.

Multiple analysts, as well as a senior Congresswoman, are in the country to monitor the raid, but before the team can launch, the safe house is attacked.

Four other Action Thrillers by Brad Thor also available in the library

Kill Switch: A Joe Ledger Novel

What do you do when the power goes off?
Terrorists have acquired a terrible new weapon that can crash the power grid and plunge America into a new dark age. A coordinated attack is planned to shut out all lights and emergency services to ten major cities. Planes will fall, hospitals will go dark, no help will come.

And in that terrible darkness, a dreadful plague will be released. If the lights go off, nothing can stop the bioweapon from killing millions.

At the same time, the intelligence services are being torn apart from within by a plague of betrayal, murder, and suicide. Even the Department of Military Sciences is stumbling in its response to the growing threat.

Time is running out, and Joe is being hunted by a terrifying new kind of assassin. A team of remote viewers have the ability to take over any person and turn ordinary citizens into killers. Where can you turn when there’s nobody left to trust?

Joe Ledger faces his deadliest challenge as friends and allies become enemies and all of the lights begin to go out…

War Hawk (Tucker Wayne #2)

Former Army Ranger Tucker Wayne and his war dog Kane are thrust into a global conspiracy that threatens to shake the foundations of American democracy in this second exciting Sigma Force spinoff adventure from New York Times bestselling authors James Rollins and Grant Blackwood

Tucker Wayne’s past and his present collide when a former army colleague comes to him for help. She's on the run from brutal assassins hunting her and her son. To keep them safe, Tucker must discover who killed a brilliant young idealist—a crime that leads back to the most powerful figures in the U.S. government.

From the haunted ruins of a plantation in the deep South to the beachheads of a savage civil war in Trinidad, Tucker and Kane must discover the truth behind a mystery that leads back to World War II, to a true event that is even now changing the world . . . and will redefine what it means to be human.

With no one to trust, they will be forced to break the law, expose national secrets, and risk everything to stop a madman determined to control the future of modern warfare for his own diabolical ends. But can Tucker and Kane withstand a force so indomitable that it threatens our very future? (Goodreads)

Joe Steele & Bombs Away Two Alternate Histories

Harry Turtledove envisions the election of a United States President whose political power will redefine what the nation is—and what it means to be American….

President Herbert Hoover has failed America. The Great Depression that rose from the ashes of the 1929 stock market crash still casts its dark shadow over the country. Despairing and desperate, the American people hope one of the potential Democratic candidates—New York governor Franklin D. Roosevelt and California congressman Joe Steele—can get the nation on the road to recovery.

But fate snatches away one hope when a mansion fire claims the life of Roosevelt, leaving the Democratic party little choice but to nominate Steele, son of a Russian immigrant laborer who identifies more with the common man than with Washington D.C.’s wealthy power brokers.

Achieving a landslide victory, President Joe Steele wastes no time pushing through Congress reforms that put citizens back to work. Anyone who gets in his way is getting in the way of America, and that includes the highest in the land. Joe Steele’s critics may believe the government is gaining too much control, but they tend to find themselves in work camps if they make too much noise about it. And most people welcome strong leadership, full employment, and an absence of complaining from the newspapers—especially as Hitler and Trotsky begin the kind of posturing that seems sure to drag America into war.

_______________________________________________________________

In an era of nuclear posturing, what if the Cold War had suddenly turned hot?

 Bombs Away begins with President Harry Truman in desperate consultation with General Douglas MacArthur, whose control of the ground war in Korea has slipped disastrously away. MacArthur recognizes a stark reality: The U.S. military has been cut to the bone after victory over the Nazis--while China and the USSR have built up their forces. The only way to stop the Communist surge into the Korean Peninsula and save thousands of American lives is through a nuclear attack. MacArthur advocates a strike on Chinese targets in Manchuria. In actual history, Truman rejected his general's advice; here, he does not. The miscalculation turns into a disaster when Truman fails to foresee Russia's reaction.

Almost instantly, Stalin strikes U.S. allies in Europe and Great Britain. As the shock waves settle, the two superpowers are caught in a horrifying face-off. Will they attack each other directly with nuclear weapons? What countries will be caught in between?

The fateful global drama plays out through the experiences of ordinary people--from a British barmaid to a Ukrainian war veteran to a desperate American soldier alone behind enemy lines in Korea. For them, as well as Truman, Mao, and Stalin, the whole world has become a battleground. Strategic strikes lead to massive movements of ground troops. Cities are destroyed, economies ravaged. And on a planet under siege, the sounds and sights of nuclear bombs become a grim harbinger of a new reality: the struggle to survive man's greatest madness.

Death Weavers (Five Kingdoms #4) by Brandon Mull

Trapped in a world where magic is powerful and dreams are real, Cole’s epic adventure continues in book four of the New York Times bestselling “fanciful, action-packed adventure” series (Publishers Weekly, starred review), from the author of the Fablehaven and Beyonders series.

Cole and his friends have made it to the fourth of the five kingdoms that comprise the Outskirts—Necronum, land of the dead. New allies and new dangers await...

Five Kingdom's Website 

Off the Grid by C.J. Box

Nate Romanowski is off the grid, recuperating from wounds and trying to deal with past crimes, when he is suddenly confronted by a small team of elite professional special operators. They’re not here to threaten him, but to make a deal. They need help destroying a domestic terror cell in the Red Desert, and in return, they’ll make Nate’s criminal record disappear.

But they are not what they seem, as Joe Pickett discovers. They have a much different plan in mind, and it just may be something that takes them all down, including Nate and Joe. And if there is other collateral damage? That’s just the fortunes of war.

Author's Website

 Other C. J. Box books in the Mount Michael Library

Double Switch (Johnny Adcock, #2)

Johnny Adcock, the aging major-league relief pitcher who moonlights as a private investigator, returns in the thrilling follow-up to The Setup Man.

      Johnny Adcock doesn’t have an office; he has the bullpen. That’s where he’s sitting shelling sunflower seeds after a game, when up walks Tiff Tate, the enigmatic, career-making PR/stylist behind the most highly marketable looks in baseball. Tiff needs Adcock’s special brand of expertise. Her new client is Yonel Ruiz, the rookie phenom who courageously risked life and limb in shark-infested waters to flee his native Cuba for fame, fortune, and freedom in Major League Baseball. Now that Ruiz has signed a record-setting contract, the Venezuelan cartel that smuggled him out is squeezing him for a bigger slice of the action and they’ve unleashed a ruthless assassin, known only as La Loba, to collect. Adcock takes the case, even though the front office wants to shut down his side job and has sent its no-nonsense corporate fixer and “director of security” to keep a close eye on him. Adcock is immediately swept up in a high-pressure game full of surprising twists, double crosses, and deadly gambits that will leave him fighting for his life and in danger of losing more than the heat off his fastball or a spot in the playoffs.

Also by T.T. Monday: Setup Man