Action thrills
Dive into heart-pounding excitement with our top action books thrills! Explore adrenaline-fueled stories, gripping plots, and relentless heroes in the best action thrillers.
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The Nineveh Project
by Craig Alexander
THE ANSWER IS IN NAHUM... Disturbing visions of destruction haunt Aaron Henderson's dreams and inject turmoil into what was once a tranquil life in a quiet southern town, placing his family and friends in very real danger. An attack on the streets of his home town reveals that his dreams are more than the product of a vivid imagination-they're real. As the dreams continue, Aaron is led to an obscure book of Old Testament prophecy about the destruction of an ancient city: Nineveh. With growing accuracy, the dreams lead Aaron into the world of the CIA, Secret Service and a covert anti-terrorist team. He finds himself embroiled in a plot to shift the balance of power in the Middle East, in conjunction with a vicious attack on American soil. Relying on untried skills and newfound faith, he is forced to follow his dreams into the midst of chaos. ...AND DESTRUCTION IS NEAR.
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The Road
by Cormac McCarthy
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • A searing, post-apocalyptic novel about a father and son's fight to survive, this "tale of survival and the miracle of goodness only adds to McCarthy's stature as a living master. It's gripping, frightening and, ultimately, beautiful" (San Francisco Chronicle). A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other. The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation. Look for Cormac McCarthy's new novel, The Passenger, coming October '22.
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Snakehead
by Anthony Horowitz
While working with the Australian Secret Service on a dangerous mission, teenaged spy Alex Rider uncovers information about his parents.
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Halo: Contact Harvest
by Joseph Staten
On the distant colony world of Harvest, humankind experiences its first contact with the Covenant, forcing a desperate struggle for the very survival of all humankind, in a novel based on the video game series.
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Extras
by Scott Westerfeld
In the fourth book in the Uglies series, it's all about fame. In Extras, everyone's social status is constantly monitored and rated.
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The Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book Three: Titan's Curse
by Rick Riordan
In this third book of the acclaimed series, Percy and his friends are escorting two new half-bloods safely to camp when they are intercepted by a manticore and learn that the goddess Artemis has been kidnapped.
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The Dark Is Rising (Boxed Set)
by Susan Cooper
Susan Cooper's brilliant Dark is Rising sequence has enthralled readers since the first book, Over Sea, Under Stone, was published more than forty years ago. The second book, The Dark is Rising, was named a Newberry Honor Book and is now a major motion picture. The fourth, The Grey King, won the Newbery Medal. This handsome boxed set includes all five books in the celebrated sequence.
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How I Became a Pirate
by Melinda Long
"Pirates have green teeth when they have any teeth at all. I know about pirates, because one day, when I was at the beach building a sand castle and minding my own business, a pirate ship sailed into view."So proclaims Jeremy Jacob, a boy who joins Captain Braid Beard and his crew in this witty look at the finer points of pirate life by the Caldecott Honor winning illustrator David Shannon and the storyteller Melinda Long. Jeremy learns how to say scurvy dog, sing sea chanteys, and throw food . . . but he also learns that there are no books or good night kisses on board: Pirates don t tuck. A swashbuckling adventure with fantastically silly, richly textured illustrations that suit the story to a T. "
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The Mysterious Benedict Society
by Trenton Lee Stewart
For fans of Lemony Snicket and Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library, this first book in the bestselling, award-winning Mysterious Benedict Society Series is not to be missed! "Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?" Dozens of children respond to this peculiar ad in the newspaper and are then put through a series of mind-bending tests, which readers take along with them. Only four children--two boys and two girls--succeed. Their challenge: to go on a secret mission that only the most intelligent and inventive children could complete. To accomplish it they will have to go undercover at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, where the only rule is that there are no rules. But what they'll find in the hidden underground tunnels of the school is more than your average school supplies. So, if you're gifted, creative, or happen to know Morse Code, they could probably use your help.
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The Chronicles of Narnia Rack Box Set (Books 1 to 7)
by C. S. Lewis
Collection includes all seven of the novels in the series.
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Halo: Ghosts of Onyx
by Eric Nylund
Continuing the saga of the award-winning XboxTM game! The Spartan-II program has gone public. Tales of super-soldiers fending off thousands of Covenant attacks have become the stuff of legend. But just how many Spartans are left? While the Master Chief defends a besieged Earth, and the myriad factions of the Covenant continue their crusade to eliminate humanity, an ultrasecret cell of the Office of Naval Intelligence known as "Section Three" devises a plan to buy the UNSC vital time. They're going to need hundreds of willing soldiers, though . . . and one more Spartan to get the job done. The planet Onyx is virtually abandoned and the perfect place to set this new plan in motion. But when the Master Chief destroys Halo, something is triggered deep within Onyx: Ancient Forerunner technology stirs, and fleets of UNSC and Covenant race to claim it to change the course of the Human-Covenant War. But this reawakened and ancient force may have plans of its own . . . This novel is based on a mature-rated game. Microsoft, the Microsoft Game Studios Logo, Bungie, the Bungie Logo, Halo, the Halo logo, Xbox, and the Xbox logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries and are used under license from owner.
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The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
by Michael Chabon
This brilliant epic novel set in New York and Prague introduces us to two misfit young men who make it big by creating comic-book superheroes. Joe Kavalier, a young artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdiniesque escape, has just smuggled himself out of Nazi-invaded Prague and landed in New York City. His Brooklyn cousin Sammy Clay is looking for a partner to create heroes, stories, and art for the latest novelty to hit America the comic book. Inspired by their own fears and dreams, Kavalier and Clay create the Escapists, The Monitor, and Luna Moth, inspired by the beautiful Rosa Saks, who will become linked by powerful ties to both men. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is the winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
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The Golden Compass
by Philip Pullman
Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North.
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Warriors Super Edition: Firestar's Quest
by Erin Hunter
There is peace at last between the warrior Clans, and Firestar is proud of the strength and unity of the cats he leads in ThunderClan. All four forest Clans are thriving, training new warriors and keeping their boundaries without conflict. But Firestar's dreams are haunted by wailing cats fleeing a terrible disaster. With unexpected help from an old kittypet friend, he discovers a shocking secret: StarClan, the warrior ancestors who guide his paw steps, have lied to him. Firestar is faced with the hardest decision of his life. Can he really turn his back on the forest that has become his home and embark on a perilous quest to discover a dark truth—one that has been buried beyond the memory of living cats? Whatever he finds at the end of his journey, he knows that nothing can ever be the same again.
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The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
by Kate DiCamillo
The Newbery Medal-winning author of "The Tale of Despereaux" returns with this story about a toy rabbit named Edward Tulane. When he becomes lost, Edward takes an extraordinary journey and shows readers a true miracle. Illustrations.
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Double Cross
by James Patterson
Alex Cross returns in this high action, stunning murder mystery. Alex Cross and his new girlfriend Detective Brianna Stone are caught up in the terror.
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Book of the Dead
by Patricia Daniels Cornwell
Relocating to Charleston after a particularly grueling case, Dr. Kay Scarpetta opens a private forensic pathology practice but is quickly targeted by local politics and a covert saboteur before a series of violent deaths bring her skills into high view. 1,500,000 first printing. BOMC, Lit Guild, Doubleday, & Mystery Guild Main.
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The Chase
by Clive Cussler
The 1950 discovery of four bodies inside a sunken steam locomotive in a Montana lake gives way to the story of a murderous 1906 bank robber whose ruthlessness challenged Isaac Bell, a talented detective whose struggle to identify and capture the killer had been complicated by the great San Francisco earthquake. 750,000 first printing.
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Now and Then
by Robert B. Parker
Investigating a new client's unfaithful wife, Boston private eye Spenser finds himself in trouble when the case goes terribly wrong and three people wind up dead, a situation that reveals the wife's lover's ties to a terrorist organization.
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Third Degree
by Greg Iles
Pregnant with another man's child, Elizabeth Pike returns home to find her husband, already distraught over an IRS audit, with a letter from her lover and a gun in his hands.
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Dark of the Moon
by John Sandford
Virgil Flowers is sent to Bluestem, a small town where everyone knows everyone else, to investigate the murders of a man burned to death in his home and a doctor and his wife, unaware that he is tracking a murderer who may be targeting Virgil as his nextv
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The Pandora Prescription
by James Sheridan
Notorious unsolved mysteries author, Dan Travis is on another book tour when a cryptic message from a desperate stranger blows his life apart.
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World War Z
by Max Brooks
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Prepare to be entranced by this addictively readable oral history of the great war between humans and zombies.”—Entertainment Weekly We survived the zombie apocalypse, but how many of us are still haunted by that terrible time? We have (temporarily?) defeated the living dead, but at what cost? Told in the haunting and riveting voices of the men and women who witnessed the horror firsthand, World War Z is the only record of the pandemic. The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years. THE INSPIRATION FOR THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE “Will spook you for real.”—The New York Times Book Review “Possesses more creativity and zip than entire crates of other new fiction titles. Think Mad Max meets The Hot Zone. . . . It’s Apocalypse Now, pandemic-style. Creepy but fascinating.”—USA Today “Will grab you as tightly as a dead man’s fist. A.”—Entertainment Weekly, EW Pick “Probably the most topical and literate scare since Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds radio broadcast . . . This is action-packed social-political satire with a global view.”—Dallas Morning News
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Darkly Dreaming Dexter
by Jeff Lindsay
Meet Dexter Morgan, a polite wolf in sheep’s clothing. He’s handsome and charming, but something in his past has made him abide by a different set of rules. He’s a serial killer whose one golden rule makes him immensely likeable: he only kills bad people. • The Killer Character That Inspired the Hit Showtime Series Dexter And his job as a blood splatter expert for the Miami police department puts him in the perfect position to identify his victims. But when a series of brutal murders bearing a striking similarity to his own style start turning up, Dexter is caught between being flattered and being frightened–of himself or some other fiend.
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Dexter in the Dark
by Jeffry P. Lindsay
Miami cop Dexter Morgan and serial killer (the Dark Passenger), one-in-the-same, investigate a double murder on the University of Miami campus while the burned and beheaded body count continues to mount.
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Heart of Texas : Volume 1
by Debbie Macomber
Collects the novels in the "Heart of Texas" series, which are based in Promise, Texas, and star regular people with extraordinary love lives.
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Dearly Devoted Dexter
by Jeff Lindsay
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Life’s tough for Dexter Morgan. It’s not easy being the world’s only serial killer with a conscience, especially when you work for the Miami police. • The Killer Character That Inspired the Hit Showtime Series Dexter To avoid suspicion, Dexter’s had to slip deep into his disguise: spending time with his girlfriend and her kids, slowly becoming the world’s first serial killing couch potato. Then a particularly nasty psychopath starts cutting a trail through Miami — a killer whose twisted techniques leave even Dexter speechless. When his sister Deborah, a tough-as-nails cop, is drawn into the case, it becomes clear that Dexter will have to do come out of hiding and hunt the monster down. Unless, of course, the killer finds him first. . .
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Tree of Smoke
by Denis Johnson
Once upon a time there was a war . . . and a young American who thought of himself as the Quiet American and the Ugly American, and who wished to be neither, who wanted instead to be the Wise American, or the Good American, but who eventually came to witness himself as the Real American and finally as simply the Fucking American. That’s me. This is the story of Skip Sands—spy-in-training, engaged in Psychological Operations against the Vietcong—and the disasters that befall him thanks to his famous uncle, a war hero known in intelligence circles simply as the Colonel. This is also the story of the Houston brothers, Bill and James, young men who drift out of the Arizona desert into a war in which the line between disinformation and delusion has blurred away. In its vision of human folly, and its gritty, sympathetic portraits of men and women desperate for an end to their loneliness, whether in sex or death or by the grace of God, this is a story like nothing in our literature. Tree of Smoke is Denis Johnson’s first full-length novel in nine years, and his most gripping, beautiful, and powerful work to date. Tree of Smoke is the 2007 National Book Award Winner for Fiction.
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Blaze
by Richard Bachman
Originally written thirty-five years ago but never published, a crime novel chronicles the life and times of Clayton Blaisdell, Jr.--the crimes committed against him and the crimes he himself commits, including a kidnapping he is doomed to attempt.
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Brother Odd
by Dean Ray Koontz
Loop me in, odd one.The words, spoken in the deep of night by a sleeping child, chill the young man watching over her. For this was a favorite phrase of Stormy Llewellyn, his lost love, and Stormy is dead, gone forever from this world. In the haunted halls of the isolated monastery where he had sought peace, Odd Thomas is stalking spirits of an infinitely darker nature Through twoNew York Timesbestselling novels Odd Thomas has established himself as one of the most beloved and unique fictional heroes of our time. Now, wielding all the power and magic of a master storyteller at the pinnacle of his craft, Dean Koontz follows Odd into a singular new world where he hopes to make a fresh beginning—but where he will meet an adversary as old and inexorable as time itself. St. Bartholomew’s Abbey sits in majestic solitude amid the wild peaks of California’s high Sierra, a haven for children otherwise abandoned, and a sanctuary for those seeking insight. Odd Thomas has come here to learn to live fully again, and among the eccentric monks, their other guests, and the nuns and young students of the attached convent school, he has begun to find his way. The silent spirits of the dead who visited him in his earlier life are mercifully absent, save for the bell-ringing Brother Constantine and Odd’s steady companion, the King of Rock 'n' Roll. But trouble has a way of finding Odd Thomas, and it slinks back onto his path in the form of the sinister bodachs he has met previously, the black shades who herald death and disaster, and who come late one December night to hover above the abbey’s most precious charges. For Odd is about to face an enemy who eclipses any he has yet encountered, as he embarks on a journey of mystery, wonder, and sheer suspense that surpasses all that has come before. From the Hardcover edition.
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True Evil
by Greg Iles
"True Evil tells the story of a divorce attorney who may be orchestrating the deaths of his clients' spouses, bringing new meaning to the phrase "'til death do us part."" "Dr. Chris Shepard is thirty-six years old, newly married, and well on his way to a perfect life. Or so he believes. But that future is forever cast into doubt the day Special Agent Alexandra Morse walks into his office and drops a bombshell: Dr. Shepard's beautiful new wife is plotting his murder. Shepard is so shocked that he almost throws Agent Morse out of his office. Yet once he is alone, doubt begins to gnaw at him. Paranoia magnifies the small cracks in his marital relationship, and soon he can have no peace unless he knows the truth. When Agent Morse reappears, Chris agrees to act as bait to help her unravel the divorce lawyer's scheme, which may already have cost nine unsuspecting spouses their lives." "At the center of the mystery lies a maddeningly simple question: If these people really were murdered, why can't the FBI prove it? Rigorous autopsies have uncovered no forensic evidence of foul play, and the police believe no crimes have occurred. As Dr. Shepard and Agent Morse struggle against an invisible adversary, Shepard realizes that he's working with a desperate woman. The reason: the killer's last known victim was Alex Morse's sister, who from her deathbed accused her husband of murder and extracted a vow that Alex save her ten-year-old nephew from his father. This has driven Alex to risk both her life and her career to fulfill that vow. But Chris Shepard soon feels desperation of his own. As he probes his wife's hidden past, he is confronted by the probability that the woman he loves wants him dead."--BOOK JACKET.
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Dead Heat
by Dick Francis
With his rising culinary career threatened by an episode of food poisoning at a private affair that he had catered, Max Moreton caters an exclusive luncheon at the 2,000 Guineas horse race, a party devastated by a bomb blast that kills many of the guests.
