Any good gun related novels?

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mpmarty,

I with you 100% on Clive Cussler. After so many novels, you'd think someone might have told him about his mistakes...I guess not. All of his books are going downhill, fast!
 
Thank you very much for your interest. I could have saved you the trouble of looking for Reckless Faith in the store, as it's available only on Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, and Borders.com, or by special order through any bookstore.

I'm one of the little fish in a very big pond, and I don't have the clout to put books on shelves. Yet.

I would be remiss not to also mention Paid In Full, by THR's own Stephen. A Camp, available through his website:

http://www.hipowersandhandguns.com/Products5.html
 
"Term Limits" by Vince Flynn is the first in a series of 8 or so novels. I've read 6 of them since 4th of July weekend... and I haven't read a book since college!
He has become my favorite writer. Yup, my first was Memorial Day, not knowing it was a series. Since it was one of the best books I had ever read, I decided to read everything the man had written. I did, and they've all been great, especially Executive Power. The wife is now reading the whole set while I have been patiently waiting for Flynn's latest, Consent to Kill. Just got it a couple days ago and can't wait to read it.

Maybe even before I finish Unintended Consequences, which has also been excellent.
 
I heartily recommend "Enemies Foreign and Domestic" even if I didn't write it. :)

Matt has just released the sequel also.
 
Mitch Rapp/Flynn/Marcus Wynn

I read the novel Memorial Day by V Flynn. I did not care for his main character: CIA officer Mitch Rapp. I read some of the books by former FAA Air Marshal/spec ops operative Marcus Wynn. His characters came off as brash and mean spirited. Wynn knows a lot about weapons/tactics and his action scene writing is well done.

RS
 
Mitch Rapp mean spirited?!! Come now!

Vince Flynn's books beginning with Term Limits are fantastic reads! You will not be able to put them down. Rapp is a teriffic character. Buy the books. You will not be disappointed.
 
+1 to Brother Bracken! Am readng DOMESTIC ENEMIES, the sequel, right now, and it is riviting! He is a fine, fine writer,

Also +1 to anything by Steve Hunter...he and I have spent my happy hours at sleazy bars, and he rocks.

+1 to UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES...and DO NOT MISS the exclusive SHOOTING GALLERY interview with John Ross next season!

And if you've got a little money left over, let me refer you to my first novel, ALL NIGHT RADIO, as I use the money to buy more ammunition. And yes, heaven knows, I'm working on the sequel!

Michael B
 
the wheat field by steve thayer

background of the book, It is written as an old man recollecting an 'adventure' from his past. A slightly off beat local wisconson boy who can shoot real well goes off to WWII, acts as a sniper, and comes back. The local sherrif who is also a vet, takes the kid on as a deputy and helps him adjust back into life. 5-10 years later the story begins. A mysterious murder...with big implications.

The guns and shooting are top rate, but only occupy a very small aspect of the book. The facets of the main character really fit well with his being picked as a sniper by the army, even the bad ones, and fit well with his ability to never quite fit back into his local town after seeing war.

The mystery itself is darned good in my opinion, and the writing is excellent.

I must note, however, that he takes a very adult view of sexuality, it is a driving force of humanity after all.

here is a snippet from amazon

The narrator is Deputy Pennington, who takes us back to the year 1960 and the wheat field murders. Pennington has been in love with Maggie since they were in school together, but Maggie fell in love with Michael Butler and married him, so it is a shock to everyone when Michael and Maggie are found together, shot to death in that wheat field. At first glance it would appear to be a murder-suicide. Michael has been shot between the legs and Maggie's face has been shot off. The murder weapon is lying next to Maggie's outstretched hand, and the wheat around the bodies has been pressed down in a perfect circle with no shoe or car marks going in or out of that circle.

But there are some odd things about the murder scene, even apart from that perfect circle of wheat. Neither Michael nor Maggie is wearing clothes, yet there are no clothes on the ground. The only clue is the butt of a Lucky Strike lying near the bodies and three perfect holes in the flattened wheat. In addition, Maggie is wearing her wedding ring but not the class ring she always wore.
 
You could try 'The Shadow' books - lots of them converted to etext for free reading. All 1911 lovers should read them - it shows that only the good tote 45 automatics, all the BGs have revolvers and can't hit the side of a barn.
Still, the Shadow is a two-pistol man who uses the New York reload as opposed to extra mags (he's got a trenchcoat - but I do wonder how he carries four 1911s. Maybe a bandoleer of some kind).
The Shadow had a gun fired at him while it was underwater - and decided that the gun would either fire and kill him or blow up in the face of the shooter. Similar to the results of the Mythbusters. No safety-catch revolvers that I've seen.
 
akodo mentioned "The Wheat Field" by Steve Thayer. I have not read that book yet but I have read "Wolf Pass", also by Steve Thayer, which is the sequel in a sense to "The Wheat Field". If I had known about "The Wheat Field" I would have read it first. But better late than never...

Several more authors in that genre that I can recommend:

Marcus Wynne: "No Other Option", "Warrior In The Shadows", "Brothers in Arms". Of these you should read "Brothers in Arms" last as the protaganists are introduced in the first two novels.

Lee Child: There is a whole slew of "Jack Reacher" novels. I'm about half way through them and have not noticed any drop off yet. Sometimes somebody hits a home run with their first book and then slacks off but I've been pleasantly surprised by the "Jack Reacher" series.

The following authors are all good reading in a more "Tom Clancy" type presentation. Again many of the books are chronological based around a single protagonist:
Harold Coyle,
Ed Rugerro,
Larry Bond.
For those three authors I would suggest visting either amazon.com or the authors websites to determine the proper order in which the books should be read.
 
Elmore Leonards Cuba Libre is pretty good, not as far out as some of his other novels - it is set in Cuba around the time of the sinking of the Main.
An American cowboy gets caught up in some stuff. I always liked that the character used a S&W Topbreak (model 3?) in the .44 russian caliber.
 
Clay Harvey writes some gun-oriented books.

I've read A Flash of Red, and also A Whisper of Black. The Red one is first, the Black one is a continuation.
 
Every Elmore Leonard book ever written.

From Pagan Babies

THE CHURCH HAD BECOME a tomb where forty-seven bodies turned to leather and stains had been lying on the concrete floor the past five years, though not lying where they had been shot with Kalashnikovs or hacked to death with machetes. The benches had been removed and the bodies reassembled: men, women and small children laid in rows of skulls and spines, femurs, fragments of cloth stuck to mummified remains, many of the adults missing feet, all missing bones that had been carried off by scavenging dogs.

Since the living would no longer enter the church, Fr. Terry Dunn heard confessions in the yard of the rectory, in the shade of old pines and silver eucalyptus trees.

"Bless me, Fatha, for I have sin. It has been two months from the last time I come to Confession. Since then I am fornicating with a woman from Gisenyi three times only and this is all I have done.

They would seem to fill their mouths with the English words, pronouncing each one carefully, with an accent Terry believed was heard only in Africa. He gave fornicators ten Our Fathers and ten Hail Marys, murmured what passed for an absolution while the penitent said the Act of Contrition, and dismissed them with a reminder to love God and sin no more.

"Bless me, Fatha, for I have sin. Is a long time since I come here but is not my fault, you don't have Confession always when you say. The sin I did, I stole a goat from close by Nyundo for my family to eat. My wife cook it en brochette and also in a stew with potatoes and peppers."

"Last night at supper," Terry said, "I told my housekeeper I'd enjoy goat stew a lot more if it wasn't so goddamn bony."

The goat thief said, "Excuse me, Fatha?"

"Those little sharp bones you get in your mouth," Terry said, and gave the man ten Our Fathers and ten Hail Marys. He gave just about everyone ten Our Fathers and ten Hail Marys to say as their penance.

Some came seeking advice.

"Bless me, Fatha, I have not sin yet but I think of it. I see one of the men kill my family has come back. One of the Hutu Interahamwe militia, he come back from the Goma refugee camp and I like to kill him, but I don't want to go to prison and I don't want to go to Hell. Can you have God forgive me before I kill him?"
 
Clay Harvey writes some gun-oriented books.

I've read A Flash of Red, and also A Whisper of Black. The Red one is first, the Black one is a continuation
The third is Dwelling in the Gray and unfortunately, Harvey hasn't written one since. All 3 were outstanding.
 
Don't pass up FIRST BLOOD

Don't pass up FIRST BLOOD by David Morrell. A very famous book. Author's first one. It was made into a movie with Sly Stallone but the book is much better. I don't know if it qualifies as having gun fights but I think it comes close and is actually much better. It is not that long and a very good read. Another book that does not have gun fights but is a very, very good hard-boiled novel that was made into a film with Robert Mitchum in 1973 is THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE. It is extremely good with great dialogue. Maybe not gunfights but there is some shooting and gun stuff. I know you want action, not dialogue perhaps but I suggest you read it. It is not that long a book and an easy read. In case you want to know the story is about Eddie Coyle, a small time hoodlum and the people with whom he comes in contact, on both sides of the law. Another classic, that has one good gun fight in is an older western, a classic, SHANE, by Jack Sheaffer. Good book and touching. Also, just about anything by Elmore Leonard is highly recommended. If you want a western, read HOMBRE. That was also a movie with Paul Newman back about 1971 or so. Or read some of Elmore Leonard's current stuff. Not westerns, but crime fiction, etc. Not so many gunfights but people do get shot and killed. However, the stories are a lot of character development and dialogue. Okay. enough. Moe
 
A couple more that I'm looking at on my shelf right now:

A Rifleman Went To War - H.W. McBride
Marine Sniper - Charles Henderson
 
A lot of good ones posted here, no bad choices. "Unintended Consequences" is an absolute must, no question.

But for something small, fast paced and brutally effective that had a pretty big impact on me personally, I would recommend Steve Perry's "The Man Who Never Missed". It's part of a series but was the first and stands well on it's own. It is shockingly good.

http://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Never...1349/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-6629513-7198359?ie=UTF8
 
Morrell's novel: Protector/Mitch Rapp-waterboarding

I enjoyed Morrell's novel Protector. It's an interesting plot about a former US Army "D-boy" ;) , who goes into EP(executive protection). Morrell writes about weapons, places and equipment in detail.

As far as Flynn's Rapp character. I don't think someone like that would be a CIA officer for very long, :scrutiny: . He water boarded a terror suspect and later sends this guy on a "rendition". These acts are illegal under US law and have had real world counter-terrorist operators brought up on criminal charges. Rapp also bad mouths the US Dept of Homeland Security. :rolleyes:

I'm not a big fan of action/police novels where the main character-hero is a complete a-hole.

Rusty
 
Lots of suggestions for Unintended Consequences. I didn't think it was an especially well written book but it is a must read.
 
Black Light

I would second the recommendation of Black Light. Just don't judge it until after you have read more than the first 40 pages.
 
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