By G. Robert Frazier

If you’re looking for edge-of-your-seat thrillers or tough-as-nails private investigators, these books have you covered.

A-List

When A-list actor Kirk Ford wakes up next to a deceased woman in a New Orleans hotel, his arrest for her murder threatens to derail his career and ruin a multi-million dollar Hollywood film series. Enter Jake Longly and a team of investigators determined to find the truth behind the murder.

A-List, written by cardiologist and forensics expert D.P. Lyle, is billed as a thriller, but more accurately is an old-school whodunit mystery. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Longly and company – his father, Ryan, girlfriend and fellow investigator Nicole Jamison, and computer expert/muscle Tommy Jeffers, aka Pancake – are more than up to the challenge, whether it comes from the begrudging police detective in charge Troy Doucet  to the less-than-friendly assistance of the local mafia don, Tony Guidry, whose niece was the victim.

Read the full review at Killer Nashville

Operator Down

An American arms dealer trying to move nuclear weapons components and a planned coup in a small South African country intersect in Brad Taylor’s newest thriller, Operator Down. But it’s the kidnapping of former Israeli agent Aaron Bergman that really ups the ante for Taskforce member Pike Logan and company.

Logan, as usual, is calm, cool, and calculating regardless of the circumstances and the odds against him. He takes great care in planning each action and subsequent reaction. What he can’t plan for, however, is the desperate, and at times reckless, actions of Aaron’s partner, Shoshana, who is hell-bent to rescue him, consequences be damned.

If Logan can’t control her temper, the whole mission and Aaron’s life itself could be at risk…

We know Logan’s team will prevent the nuclear sale…and we expect him to save Aaron, who has become one of the series’ most popular characters. But it’s fun getting there all the same.

Read the full review at Killer Nashville

Order to Kill

Vince Flynn’s CIA agent Mitch Rapp is in good hands with author Kyle Mills, who takes Rapp to the limit in his latest novel, Order to Kill ($28.99, Atria Books). This time around, Rapp is called upon to ferret out the location of nuclear fuel stolen from a half dozen Pakistani warheads and prevent the fissile material from being detonated in a series of dirty bombs.

Rapp goes deep undercover, taking on the identity of an American ISIS recruit. In doing so, he subjects himself to a ferocious beating at the hands of a friend in order to mimic the wounds inflicted on the actual recruit by interrogators.

Mills writes with authority and skill, making him a worthy successor to Flynn, who died in 2013. His prose literally puts you in the middle of the action so that you feel like you are ducking bullets right alongside Rapp.

Read the full review at Killer Nashville

Blood Truth

Private investigator Rick Cahill’s latest case becomes his most personal to date in Blood Truth, the fourth novel in the thrilling Cahill series by Matt Coyle.

This time around, Cahill’s world is turned upside down when he is presented with a long-hidden wall safe found in his father’s home that, when opened, yields secrets that could confirm his father’s corruption and reasons for being kicked off the police force. Inside the safe: a stash of $15,000 in cash, a gun, and two bullet casings, all possibly tied to a murder twenty years ago.

Cahill, along with PI friend Moira McFarlane, turn over every stone in his father’s past, interviewing his old acquaintances, co-workers, and the reporter who covered the case in search of clues. Their investigation soon draws the attention of others who want to keep the truth buried at all costs, even if that means eliminating Cahill and McFarlane in the process.

If you’re looking for a fast-paced mystery packed with emotional punch, this one’s a winner.

Read the full review at Killer Nashville