Books like 26 Below

I could not put this book down. Lavish settings, exotic locales, hardened professionals—this book has it all—and that describes the good guys. Each chapter introduces a new, fully-developed character with his or her justifiable motivation for engaging in a sinister plot to disrupt Singapore’s financial system.

Cyber-attack expert Wendy Chen and her spy-lover Guy Anderson must thwart the attack before it happens, but will her computer expertise and his secret agent skills accomplish it before they are killed? I loved the fast-paced and colorful description done in the best Ian Fleming fashion. Added bonus: Kinsey’s narrative increased my cyber-thriller writer vocabulary.

This book’s narrative zooms from the get-go. When Crouch introduces the controlled and calculating master villain, Michael Jeter, plotting his revenge in the first chapter, the tension never disappears.

Detective Tanner Dempsy’s marriage proposal to computer security expert Bree Daniels takes a back seat to their preventing murders by slow drowning that they witness over the Internet. I was thrilled at how the author filled each page with tension, terror, and repressed longing as his hunters became the hunted.

The plot twist at the beginning delighted me. Anti-heroine and computer hacker Nina Walker plays Robin Hood on behalf of her grandmother and pays the price—a mysterious man named Carter kidnaps and forces her to return the money she stole to the other unpaid claimants. But Carter, too, has been blackmailed by the gangster Dante to retrieve the funds and has other personal motivations for dealing with him.

This twist sets up unique moral dilemmas for both characters. Though needing each other to survive, each must decide whether their growing attraction for each other outweighs their family bonds. It is a fine thriller that operates on several levels; my sole reservation is how the book’s character descriptions provide only shadowy outlines instead of fully-fleshed individuals.

This book grabbed my attention by literally plunging me into the middle of the action. As she often does, special agent Sophie Ang defies FBI protocol by breaking through a closet ceiling to rescue a nine-year-old kidnap victim.

Her computer skills protect her from professional reprimand; however, a mysterious figure called the Ghost challenges her to the fullest by using Sophie’s childhood trauma against her to pull off his next caper. The narrative starts fine, slows a bit while establishing her budding romance with her Tae Kwon Do instructor, then returns her cat-and-mouse game with the Ghost center stage in a nail-biter ride all the way to the end.

Janowitz’s romp of a story centers on twelve-year-old Tristan, who loves reading cookbooks and making desserts. Life is sweet—until Tristan’s parents announce they’re leaving New York City and moving to the middle of nowhere. When he learns there are zero bakeries in his new town, Tristan pledges to bring back the famous Petersville chocolate cream doughnut, which sets him on an unexpected and entertaining adventure. He learns how to craft a business plan, buy ingredients in bulk, and manage demanding customers.

Spoiler alert number one: l like that even though Tristan nails the renowned doughnut, he puts his own delicious spin on things. Spoiler alert number two: this book will make you very hungry. Prepare accordingly.

This heartfelt but bitingly satiric novel explores the ridiculousness informing how tech companies operate.

This novel hit me in a surprisingly deep way. It follows a young woman trying to maintain her connection to humanity—and stay employed—in an increasingly technologized world. The joke is that she’s the driver of an autonomous taxi. Yeah, it’s about a tech company with a fleet of autonomous vehicles and human drivers hidden inside.

It felt so true to me, the perfect symbol for the uselessness of so much tech, the desire of tech bros to replace humans with machines, and the toll on those of us who want to live lives of meaning and connection.

I love this thriller based on real events several years ago when a whistleblower, later to become my friend, exposed a plot by Russian mafia and KGB elements to defraud a Latvian bank of billions of dollars. When the book was published, I expected an expose type of book but what surprised me was the facts from the real case were intertwined with a story that had me turning page after page.

John Christmas is a banker and what I found fascinating was the way his knowledge of the financial world is explained for the reader to understand. Moving from one country to another with characters involved in dangerous situations, this book is an excellent read for thriller connoisseurs.

I loved how the author took multiple “minor characters” in the Bible and connected their stories, causing me to take a closer look at these lesser-known individuals.

In this book, Angela Hunt identifies the Lydia mentioned in Acts 16 as the same person called Euodia in Philippians 4 and presents a compelling argument as to why in her Author’s Note. The slave girl Paul liberates from a demon in Acts 16 is also given a prominent role as Euodia attempts to rescue her from a cruel master who seeks to restore her “gift.”

I enjoyed the quick pace and ever-changing setting as Euodia travels throughout Macedonia. Rich cultural details coupled with a marriage of convenience that blossoms into more made this a satisfying adventure!

This new novel from Libyan writer Matar is mainly a story about the love between friends, especially male friends, but that love is set against displacement and trauma and the psychological difficulties of being separated from one's country, family, culture, and identity.

A contemplative, deeply thoughtful novel, it is totally engaging and searingly honest, just as much about being a human being as it is about political ideologies or survivor guilt. 

Thirsty for more buff orc lesbians? Legends & Lattes serves up a mug of warm, cozy queer fulfillment. Viv was an adventurer, but she no longer wants to be. Despite her battle scars and intimidating looks, she longs to open her own quiet coffee shop.

The journey to small-business success has challenges, but her determination to live on her own terms brews up a staff of misfits that become a queer-found family. This quiet, low-stakes novel is as sweet as an almond croissant and will leave you hungry for more.