What started as settling a debt for Rapp suddenly turns into more when CIA Director Irene Kennedy receives preliminary reports that Krupin has pulled an old warmonger named Andrei Sokolov from retirement, making the general his top aide and closest confidant. That mission earned Azarov an IOU, and Rapp settles the bill by showing up in Costa Rica just as Krupin’s men open fire on Azarov’s home-just in time for them to barely escape the assault. Already one of the only men to ever go toe-to-toe with Rapp and live to talk about it, Grisha later joined another exclusive club when he lent Rapp a hand after Mitch took on an especially dangerous assignment that required him to go outside his normal circle of backup operators for support and forgo all ties to the CIA. While still strong enough to take action, Krupin preemptively begins assassinating powerful enemies, sending his henchman Nikita Pushkin to kill those he suspects might stand up and oppose him when he’s too weak to fight back.įormerly, Grisha Azarov, the world-class athlete turned deadly assassin, served as Krupin’s errand boy, a job that once put him on a collision course with Mitch Rapp. So too do the neurological issues plaguing him, forcing him to rely on more drastic methods in order to conceal his rapidly declining health from the many threats he faces both at home-where the backlash and constant threat of being overthrown is growing by the day-and abroad.

Though his symptoms are minor at first, the cancer quickly worsens. Maxim Krupin, Russia’s fearless president, has inoperable brain cancer. Kyle Mills opens his fourth Mitch Rapp thriller (since taking over the series following the passing of Vince Flynn in 2013) with a bang. Red War by Kyle Mills (Atria/Emily Bestler Books)

There was the return of Lord Alex Hawke-one of the genre’s best heroes, in Ted Bell’s Overkill, his first book in three years-and an infusion of young talent, led by debut author Jack Carr, who blew readers away with his masterful first thriller, The Terminal List … and those guys are just the tip of the iceberg.īrowse my picks (in no particular order) for the best 15 thrillers of 2018 below, then get ready for an even more action-packed year in 2019-with plenty of new content coming soon. Joel Rosenberg reminded everyone why he’s one of the premier writers in the genre today by kicking off a timely new series built around the showdown between the United States and Russia.

Likewise, other best-sellers chipped in with epic books, including Jason Matthews, who brought his Red Sparrow trilogy to a close. Readers were treated to new books from some of the biggest names in the publishing world-including Brad Thor, Anthony Horowitz, and Daniel Silva-who each outdid themselves with career-best novels. As I said in my December column, 2018 was a special year for thrillers.

Bloody sunday a thriller ben coes