Top Five Thriller/Espionage Books of 2023!
Which books should you read?
2023 will see the release of several big name authors and series. The list is long, but I narrowed it down to the top five books releasing in 2023 that I am anxiously awaiting to read! While difficult to choose, it is hard to go against the authors that have hooked and reeled me in! While these won’t be the only books I will read in 2023, nor are they the only ones I am looking forward to, I whittled down the list to share with you!
The Devil’s Ransom by Brad Taylor
Released: January 24th – Get it ASAP!
KB’s Thoughts:
Brad Taylor always knows how to write a page turner! Pike Logan is his leading man and can stand the ground with the best of them. What I like most about Brad’s series is that he provides a realistic take on the genre that feels accurate, thanks to his service, and capabilities to push the plots just far enough to show us the actual threats that exist in this world. Brad pulls no punches! He certainly knows how to write convincing characters and relationships. Surprisingly his skillset is not found in every action/espionage/military thriller. Bring on more Pike Logan… and thankfully… you can pick up a copy right now!
Official Synopsis:
In the latest explosive thriller from New York Times bestselling author and former special forces officer Brad Taylor, Pike Logan races to stop an insidious attack orchestrated by a man who knows America’s most treasured secrets.
Conducting a routine cover development trip to Tajikistan, Pike and Jennifer learn that Afghanistan has fallen, and there’s a man on the run. One that has done more for the United States in Afghanistan than anyone else. Pulled in to extract him, Pike collides headlong into a broader mystery: His covert company, along with every other entity in the Taskforce, has been hit with a ransomware attack, and there’s some connection between the Taliban and the hack. Given the order to track down the perpetrators, he has no idea that the problem set is much, much larger, and more dangerous than a simple attack on his organization. That hack was just a test-run, and the real one is coming soon, engendered by a former NSA specialist in the U.S. government.
A man who wants to return to the bipolar world of the Cold War, the turncoat has cloaked his attack behind hackers from Serbia and Russia, and if successful, his target will alter the balance of power on the global stage. So far, the specialist has remained one step ahead of the Taskforce, but he has just made one massive mistake: hitting Pike Logan.
Wolf Trap by Connor Sullivan
Release: March 14th
KB’s Thoughts:
If the other three on the list ahead of Connor were not authors I absolutely loved and connected with, this novel may have been my most anticipated book of 2023. Sullivan’s first novel, Sleeping Bear, launched his career and immediately made his writing the type of eye candy we readers truly love. Wolf Trap will turn his success into a streak! Unlike Sleeping Bear, this book will launch a new series revolving around a highly trained operative known as Brian Rhome. I cannot wait to see what twists and turns Brian will encounter, all while Connor creates another hero to root for!
Official Synopsis:
“A must-read thriller from a brilliant new talent in the genre.” —Jack Carr, #1 New York Times bestselling author
The acclaimed author of Sleeping Bear, “one of those rare novels that keeps getting better and better and better” (James Patterson), returns with another action-packed thriller following a shadow operative in the midst of a conspiracy with worldwide implications.
Under the direction of the Special Activities Center in the Operations Directorate of the CIA, over three hundred highly trained agents operate in the darkest shadows of the country’s covert wars. Plucked from the highest echelons of America’s special mission units, these individuals go through rigorous training by the Agency to perfect the arts of assassination, sabotage, infiltration, and guerrilla warfare.
According to the United States government, this Ground Branch of the CIA does not exist. But when diplomacy and military intervention fails, the President of the United States calls upon it to solve America’s most dangerous crises.
Brian Rhome, a former Ground Branch paramilitary officer, thought his time within this elite group was over. But now, he’s on a desperate race against time around the globe as he confronts the traumas of his past and unravels a deadly conspiracy that threatens the highest levels of American democracy.
Burner by Mark Greaney
Release: February 21st
KB’s Thoughts:
Court Gentry a.k.a. Sierra Six is back in action! I only started this series last year and immediately fell in love! Funny enough, I read the first book in anticipation of the Netflix film starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans. Quickly I realized like many adaptations, reading was not a prerequisite! But like many adaptations, the books tend to be better than the film version. Either way, The Gray Man series is a top notch, punch to the gut, thrill ride. Burner is surely going to continue Mark Greaney’s fiery streak of hard hitting novels!
Official Synopsis:
Court Gentry is caught between the Russian mafia and the CIA in this latest electrifying thriller in the #1 New York Times bestselling Gray Man series.
When you kick over a rock, you never know what’s going to crawl out.
Alex Velesky is about to discover that the hard way. He’s stolen records from the Swiss bank that employs him, thinking that he’ll uncover a criminal conspiracy. But he soon finds that he’s tapped into the mother lode of corruption. Before he knows it, he’s being hunted by everyone from the Russian mafia to the CIA.
Court Gentry and his erstwhile lover, Zoya Zakharova, find themselves on opposites poles when it comes to Velesky. They both want him but for different reasons.
That’s a problem for tomorrow. Today, they need to keep him and themselves alive. Right now, it’s not looking good.
Lethal Range by Ryan Steck
Release: August 8th
KB’s Thoughts:
I absolutely loved the introduction of Mathew ‘Matty’ Redd in ‘Fields of Fire’ that was released last year. The sequel, ‘Lethal Range’ would have been my number one of 2023 if another hot author didn’t have another book on the horizon. No hard feelings Ryan, but readers when you see what I slotted in my most anticipated book of 2023, you will understand.
Ryan Steck a.k.a. The Real Book Spy has gone from reviewing the latest thriller novel to writing the latest thriller novel… while still continuing to be the go-to reviewer for this genre. I don’t know how someone can read and write all that much but kudos! Plus after this release… there is more in the pipeline for Mathew Redd and I couldn’t be more happy for Ryan and his series he writing!
Needless to say… I can’t wait for the return of Mathew Redd in ‘Lethal Range’!
Official Synopsis:
From the Real Book Spy, Ryan Steck, comes another riveting Matthew Redd thriller.
On an island off the coast of Spain, Matthew Redd and his FBI fly team surveil a luxury villa in hopes of catching a high-value fugitive. But when Redd leads an unauthorized raid on the villa, he discovers they’ve been set up, and he is sent home to face the consequences of defying orders.
Meanwhile, Redd’s wife, Emily, is on a remote stretch of Montana road driving their sick baby to the doctor when she finds her SUV surrounded by a biker gang intent on harassing her. As the bikers pound her fenders and her infant son screams, Emily fights to keep the SUV on the road . . . and then suddenly the bikers back off, leaving her safe but shaken.
Redd returns home, suspended from his team and certain that he is to blame for Emily’s harassment after his run-in with the local biker gang the year before. Fearing that there is more to come, he prepares to defend his family. But Redd soon learns the gang is stronger in numbers than he could’ve imagined, and there is more behind their vendetta than he could’ve guessed. As his son’s condition worsens and his beloved ranch faces financial ruin, he finds himself fighting a war on multiple fronts―one he can’t win on his own.
Only The Dead by Jack Carr
Release: May 16th
KB’s Thoughts:
If you are big into reading political thriller/espionage thrillers, then you know Jack Carr is the hottest author on the scene! Coming off the success of five previous novels in the James Reece series and the success of Amazon Prime’s series based on the first novel ‘The Terminal List’ starring Chris Pratt, Jack Carr continues to push the action. With high stakes, he pits his hero James Reece into another twisted mess.
With several of Carr’s books making my all-time favorites list, ‘The Terminal List’ and ‘Savage Son’, well really all his books are great I just figured I’d show some restraint and only pick two for my all-time favs list! I digress… anyway my hands cannot crack open the hardcover of ‘Only The Dead’ quick enough!
The previous book, ‘In the Blood’, the plot of the book concluded, but the ongoing story arc dished out a nice twist at the end. With a perfect set up for the ‘Only The Dead’, you won’t want to wait to see how James Reece gets himself out of the predicament and how he gets ahead of the foes who wish him six feet under.
Official Synopsis:
Navy SEAL James Reece faces a devastating global conspiracy in this high-adrenaline thriller that is ripped from the headlines—from the #1 New York Times best-selling author Jack Carr.
In 1980, a freshman congressman was gunned down in Rhode Island, sending shockwaves through Washington that are still reverberating over four decades later.
Now, with the world on the brink of war and a weakened United States facing rampant inflation, political division, and shocking assassinations, a secret cabal of global elites is ready to assume control. And with the world’s most dangerous man locked in solitary confinement, the conspirators believe the final obstacle to complete domination has been eliminated. They’re wrong.
From the firms of Wall Street to the corridors of power in Washington, DC and Moscow, secrets from the past have the uncanny ability to rise to the surface in the present.
With the odds stacked against him, James Reece is on a mission generations in the making. Unfortunately for his enemies, the former SEAL is not concerned with odds. He is on the warpath. And when James Reece picks up his tomahawk and sniper rifle, no one is out of range.
From “a master novelist” (Ballistic Magazine), Jack Carr brings his signature authenticity to “create an incredibly vivid, emotional, action-packed tapestry of carnage and death” (Coffee or Die Magazine) in a plot that just might predict the headlines of tomorrow.
Thank you all for reading and I hope you snag some of these books to read. I would love to chat more about these and any other books you are excited about in 2023.
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