Action-Packed Military & Procedural Books Perfect For Thrill Seekers

When a justice of the Supreme Court is killed by the police officer assigned to protect him, the country is shocked. Hayley Chill’s superiors suspect the assassination is part of a major conspiracy.

In Maui, where one member of the Supreme Court owns a vacation home, a busload of children is taken hostage with the justice’s death as ransom. Together with a deputy US marshal, Hayley embarks on the monumental task of rescuing the children while also protecting the justice. “

In Brad Meltzer’s military thriller The Escape Artist, we follow the story of mortician Jim "Zig" Zigarowski, who works in the mortuary for the U.S. government's most top-secret and high-profile cases. Zig has always prided himself in keeping his work life and personal life separate. But when a new body arrives and he’s told it’s the body of sergeant Nola Brown, Zig knows right away it’s not really Nola. He knows because he and Nola were childhood friends. Which means Nola is still alive. And on the run.

During the Arab Spring, an American spy’s final mission goes dangerously awry in this explosive and “remarkable debut” (Joseph Kanon, New York Times bestselling author) from a former CIA officer that is perfect for fans of John le Carré, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Alan Furst.

Shane Collins, a world-weary CIA spy, is ready to come in from the cold. Stationed in Bahrain off the coast of Saudi Arabia for his final tour, he has little use for his mission—uncovering Iranian support for the insurgency against the monarchy. He certainly has no use for his naïve and ambitious twenty-eight-year-old station chief. Then Collins meets Almaisa, a beautiful and enigmatic artist, and his eyes are opened to a side of Bahrain most expats never experience, to questions he never thought to ask.

When his trusted informant becomes embroiled in a murder, Collins finds himself drawn deep into the conflict, his growing romance with Almaisa—and his loyalties—upended. In an instant, he’s caught in the crosshairs of a revolution. Drawing on all his skills as a spymaster, he must navigate a bloody uprising, earn Almaisa’s love, and uncover the murky border where Bahrain’s secrets end and America’s begin.

Author Don Mann is a Navy SEAL Team Six commando, and in his novel Hunt the Wolf: A SEAL Team Six Novel, Mann brings his insider knowledge about Special Ops into a thrilling debut novel, with the help of co-author Ralph Pezzullo. United States Navy officer Thomas Crocker is in the middle of a training exercise climbing up the K2 when he comes across terrorist activity that leads from the K2 to cities across Europe and the Middle East. Now with the help of special forces trained for intense combat and extreme environments, Crocker will hunt down a dangerous terrorist.

Word of Honor by Nelson DeMille is the story of Vietnam veteran Ben Tyson. Tyson is now a corporate executive and a family man. But sixteen years ago, he was a  lieutenant in Vietnam, and the decisions of his past are coming back to haunt him in his present. In 1968, Tyson and the men under his command did something horrible that they vowed to never tell anyone about. But now that the truth of his past has caught up with him, everything Tyson holds dear—his career, his wife, his kids, his sense of honor—hangs in the balance. And only one person can set him free.

Related: How Nelson DeMille Began His Writing Career

For the first time, John Sampson is on his own. 
 
The brilliant crime-solving duo of Washington, DC’s, Metro PD and the FBI has a proven MO: Detective Alex Cross makes his own rules. Detective John Sampson enforces them.
 
When military-style attacks erupt, brutally sidelining Cross, Sampson is sent reeling. The patterns are too random—Sampson’s friend, his partner, his brother—have told him. Don’t trust anyone. 
 
As a shadow force advances on the nation’s capital, Sampson alone must protect the Cross family, his own young daughter, and every American, including the president.

Related: Which James Patterson Book Should You Read First?

SFPD Sergeant Lindsay Boxer has guns on her mind.
 
There’s buzz of a last-ditch shipment of drugs and weapons crossing the Mexican border ahead of new restrictive gun laws. Before Lindsay can act, her top informant tips her to a case that hits disturbingly close to home.
 
Former cops. Professional hits. All with the same warning scrawled on their bodies:
 
You talk, you die.
 
Now it’s Lindsay’s turn to choose.

Simon Riske sits in sun-dappled Napa Valley, toasting the record hundred-million-dollar sale of a rare 1963 Ferrari which he restored himself. The buyer, a sophisticated French woman, Sylvie Bettencourt, has purchased the car for an unnamed client whose anonymity she will guard at all costs. Riske enjoys her company and the flowing champagne until Sylvie’s formidable Russian bodyguard storms in, claiming the vehicle is a fake. Riske is given an ultimatum. Prove the car is the real thing…or else.
 
Meanwhile, in Lugano, Switzerland, Carl Bildt, banker to the rich and nefarious, is killed by a powerful car bomb, moments before he can deliver evidence to the authorities and disappear into witness protection. His beautiful and headstrong daughter, Anna, rushes to Switzerland to investigate her father’s violent death.
 
As Simon Riske strives to prove the Ferraris’ authenticity and look deeper into Sylvie’s past–and the identity of her client—he crosses paths with Anna Bildt and discovers they have an enemy in common.  From the bustling streets of London to a secret outpost high in the French Alps, from the freeports of Corsica to the glittering beaches of the Costa Smeralda, the Emerald Coast, of Sardinia, Riske and Anna find themselves players in a deadly game, where billions of dollars change hands and knowledge is paid for with your life.