Brad Thor. Jack Carr. Dan Brown. AND MORE! In this special 2025 Year-in-Review, we break down every thriller novel that kept us turning pages this year. From blockbuster releases and hidden indie gems to unexpected disappointments, we’re ranking, debating, and revisiting the best (and worst) of 2025’s thriller fiction.
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📚 ABOUT NO LIMITS:
• The Mitch Rapp Podcast: Deep dives into Vince Flynn & Kyle Mills' Rapp series.
• The Scot Harvath Podcast: Exploring Brad Thor's high-octane Harvath universe.
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CHAPTERS
00:00 2025 Year in Review: A Look Back at the Books
02:55 The Thrill of Book Discussions and Community Engagement
05:33 Highlighting Notable Reads: A Deep Dive into 2025's Best
11:33 The Impact of Adaptations: Books to Screen
14:11 Looking Ahead: Anticipations for 2026
29:58 Exploring Modern Thrillers
32:04 Ranking the Best in the Series
37:21 Evaluating Recent Reads
43:11 Cover Art and Its Significance
51:46 Celebrating Milestones and Community Support
55:02 Looking Ahead: Plans for 2026
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KEYWORDS:
Best thrillers 2025, book reviews, thriller podcast, reading list, book recommendations, author interviews, book rankings
#NoLimitsPodcast #ThrillerPodcast #SpyThrillers
00:00:17
Hey, guys, I'm Chris. And I'm Mike.
00:00:20
And welcome back to this week's No Limits the Thriller podcast.
00:00:24
How you doing today, Mike? I'm great.
00:00:27
Something special for the people.
00:00:28
An end of the year 2025 in review, talking about all the
00:00:34
books we read this year. Can't wait to do it with you
00:00:36
Chris. I know it's hard to hard to
00:00:39
imagine that 2025 coming to a close.
00:00:41
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.
00:00:44
We have a potted in a minute. Hope you guys whenever this is
00:00:47
coming out. Happy holidays, Merry Christmas,
00:00:50
happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, happy New year.
00:00:53
And yeah, like I just, this is, I always look forward to these
00:00:56
episodes because one, we can like kind of like recollect
00:01:00
about what we actually accomplished, you know, because
00:01:02
sometimes it's, it's hard to like, oh, wow, we we actually
00:01:07
did a lot. You know, like when you're in
00:01:09
the grind, you know, you're like, sometimes I feel like I'm
00:01:12
not doing a lot. But then when you actually look
00:01:14
back on it, it's like, whoa, we read a lot of books.
00:01:17
Yeah, I've been looking back as fun.
00:01:18
We are in the doldrums. So you guys probably noticed.
00:01:21
Missed a few weeks there or some scheduling mishaps.
00:01:24
Just busy with Thanksgiving like you said, so maybe haven't had a
00:01:29
few episodes, a couple episodes the last few weeks, but we want
00:01:32
to give you something, some banter to take into the
00:01:34
holidays. Enjoy over your break and some
00:01:36
good old book talk. Looking back on the 30 books,
00:01:41
trying to count these up. Here. 30 is it 30 even books
00:01:46
that we covered and read this year on the pod so well, 30
00:01:49
episodes. We had 30 episodes.
00:01:52
A lot of that was Dark Wolf, so 22 books, 30 episodes because we
00:01:56
had the whole Dark Wolf TV series.
00:01:59
So we get to talk a little bit about that.
00:02:00
But you know where the book talk never stops?
00:02:03
That's the Thriller Pod Book Club.
00:02:05
We have a fantastic group of patrons.
00:02:07
They're the ones who make this podcast possible.
00:02:10
So if you want to help support the podcast, be the reason we
00:02:13
can make more podcasts and constantly talk books with us in
00:02:16
the group chat, head on over to thrillerpod.com, click the
00:02:19
Patreon tab, and we'd love to have you over there.
00:02:21
So this kind of chat tonight is ongoing in the group chat with
00:02:25
the Thrillerpod Book Club year round.
00:02:28
Yeah. And you know we may have trailed
00:02:30
off a little bit towards the end of 2025, just just a couple
00:02:33
weeks, but we are going to come at you hard in 2026.
00:02:37
We've already we already started scheduling.
00:02:40
This is not going to be our last pod of well, I actually, I don't
00:02:43
know when you're going to post this, but we are still going to
00:02:45
be covering two more books this year as well as we've elusive
00:02:52
Tyler Reuer. We we want to get his take on
00:02:55
Cry Havoc. So that episode will be dropping
00:02:57
as soon as we're able to record it.
00:02:59
Unfortunately. It was so funny tonight.
00:03:02
We were supposed to record that when you said, hey, can you do
00:03:05
830? I was just jokingly going to
00:03:07
text, sorry I can't. Do that.
00:03:10
I'm in. Cancel the 4th time.
00:03:12
I'm in the ER like, and then like just jokingly and then, you
00:03:17
know, unfortunately, we, we hope that everything is OK with Tyler
00:03:20
and his family. But like literally the two other
00:03:22
times I had to record, I had something come up.
00:03:26
And then last time we were in the urgent care with my
00:03:29
daughter, it's 2 staples in the head.
00:03:31
So I don't know, but something the universe does not want this
00:03:35
cry havoc trifecta to to happen. But it it will I, I'm almost for
00:03:40
certain it will. The universe may not want it
00:03:42
because of all these cancellations, but the people
00:03:44
want it. We got a couple of comments.
00:03:45
I had a YouTube comment and other social media comment.
00:03:48
People are like, how do you not bring on Tyler to talk about Cry
00:03:51
Havoc, new Jack R book? We're trying, we're trying,
00:03:54
we're trying and it'll come and and waiting this long, it will
00:03:57
make it all the sweeter to bring him in and get his thoughts.
00:04:00
But the book she referenced we still want to cover between now
00:04:04
and the new year. The Persian by David McCloskey,
00:04:07
a 2025 release came out I think a month or two or two ago and
00:04:11
most recently came out just this month in December.
00:04:13
Dead Ringer by Chris Audi. That'll be really interesting.
00:04:18
JFK assassination plot, a thriller.
00:04:22
As far as I know, no Haley Chill.
00:04:24
Think it's outside of that series.
00:04:25
So something different for him and he has such a unique writing
00:04:28
style with his screenplay background, screen writing
00:04:30
background. I just you always love when you
00:04:33
hear about a Chris Howdy book. So if we squeeze those in, it
00:04:36
may kind of upset the apple cart with what we discussed today
00:04:40
with our rankings and superlatives of of the books we
00:04:42
covered. But we'll we'll address that
00:04:44
when we record those podcasts if we think it does crack in any of
00:04:47
those lists. Because ultimately end of the
00:04:49
pod, Chris, we've got to turn determine best book of 2025 that
00:04:52
we read on the pod. Very true, very true.
00:04:56
All right, yeah, we're we're doing this live.
00:04:57
We're kind of kind of weighing it.
00:04:58
But I think, you know, it's looking back on 2025.
00:05:03
It's been an interesting year. You know, I feel like Teddy's
00:05:07
grown a lot, like my 4 kids have grown a lot.
00:05:13
Patron Mark shout out to him with his second we've had.
00:05:16
A lot of new additions to the No Limits podcast family.
00:05:21
We had our very own Recoil of Justice.
00:05:25
We got to talk about a patrons book right with him.
00:05:30
We did a a a book club on it. That was great.
00:05:34
And we hope to have another one, whether it's 2026 or beyond.
00:05:36
We know a couple of other works from the Patron Book Club are
00:05:40
coming out and really looking forward to hearing that. 10 And
00:05:43
Speaking of a meet up, I got to meet Chris and Sherry.
00:05:46
Yeah, what an absolute joy that they were in town.
00:05:49
And we have another meet up planned for 2026.
00:05:52
And then the big one, Boucher Con 2027 in Washington DCI.
00:05:58
Think it's Labor Day weekend or just around early September.
00:06:01
You betcha Thriller Pod will be going hard in that one because
00:06:04
DC is the boost in the hometown. We should get a booth, a table,
00:06:08
a session. I'm going to reach out to the
00:06:09
organizers, see what we can get going.
00:06:11
Imagine a live pod from the event.
00:06:13
I'd be sick. I'm, I'm sure there's a lot of
00:06:16
costs involved in this, but we'll, we'll try, we'll see what
00:06:18
we can do. Can we get like some press
00:06:20
credentials or something, you know, just so we can like walk
00:06:22
around, talk to people? Something on a panel maybe would
00:06:25
be nice, but we got to figure out something.
00:06:28
We got to go big. And we, we hope the patrons can
00:06:30
make it into town. We'll we'll obviously take care
00:06:32
of them if they do make it over, but we've got some time to plan
00:06:36
that so that I think that's what we aim for as a big thriller pod
00:06:39
bash. Yeah, for sure.
00:06:41
Yeah. Tonight, though, what books do
00:06:45
we cover? Should we just go through the
00:06:46
list, lay them all out, the ones that we're going to be
00:06:48
discussing and going through, and then maybe pick it apart?
00:06:51
Which ones really stand out to you and what you liked?
00:06:54
Yeah, let's do it. Yeah.
00:06:56
So just to go through the list, 14 different authors, 22 books
00:07:00
we covered. Started off the year with Dark
00:07:03
Vector, Ward Larson, good friend of the pod, Plum Island.
00:07:07
Something a little different went to Nelson DeMille, my first
00:07:10
Nelson DeMille book. To get ready for denied access
00:07:14
later in the year, we replayed our American Assassin episodes
00:07:17
and our Kill Shot episodes. So we reran our pods on those
00:07:21
books. Vince Flynn, of course, the 7th
00:07:24
floor, David McCloskey. Good spy tale, good espionage
00:07:27
tale. The Templar Legacy, Steve Berry,
00:07:31
our first Steve Berry. We're covering on the Berry.
00:07:34
Yep. Then we went on our little run.
00:07:37
This was memorable to me. The Dark Intercept run, Andrews
00:07:41
and Wilson. Week after week we did Dark
00:07:43
Intercept, Dark Angel, Dark Fall and the latest release, Dark
00:07:47
Rising. That was a lot of fun.
00:07:50
I remember that kept us busy for a solid month.
00:07:53
I was a little sceptical going into that and it, it, it really
00:07:57
rewarded, you know, it's, it's, it's a, it's a nice read.
00:08:00
Dude, completely. Especially the first few in that
00:08:03
series. Just incredible.
00:08:05
I think Dark Angel might be my favorite.
00:08:07
Dark Angel was so good. Is that the one with Saint
00:08:09
Peters on the cover? Yeah.
00:08:12
The thing about those books was I read the, I read the first one
00:08:16
years ago when it came out, and it's one of those series that
00:08:18
immediately I was looking forward to each year.
00:08:20
And Andrews and Wilson, this was like while they were peeking
00:08:23
because Sons of Valor was coming out, while the Dark Falls books
00:08:26
were coming out. So you're having a Dark book,
00:08:28
Sons of Valor book, dark book, Sons of Valor book.
00:08:31
They were just hitting you with the 1-2 punch and that that was
00:08:33
awesome. And, and look at the doors that
00:08:35
open for them. So I know I'm putting the carpet
00:08:37
before the horse, but they're getting into the Clancy verse.
00:08:40
They have their own publishing house now.
00:08:41
I don't know if you heard about this.
00:08:43
Yeah, they're supporting other authors.
00:08:45
They're kind of promoting and pushing them kind of like a
00:08:48
media empire with these two. And they have a number of short
00:08:50
stories. So 2026, No shortage Avengers
00:08:54
and Wilson. I think it's 4 short stories on
00:08:56
the docket coming out a tier one book.
00:08:59
I haven't heard anything about Sons of Valor.
00:09:00
I don't, I don't know if that what if that's planned, but
00:09:04
those guys are great. So that brought us into the
00:09:07
summer. And then in the summer it's
00:09:08
always time for Brad Thor, Edge of Honor.
00:09:12
That is going to be high up the list for me this year.
00:09:15
That was a fun book. But the summer also continued
00:09:18
with Fade In from Kyle Mills. We had him on the pod.
00:09:22
You mentioned Brad Elder Patreon.
00:09:24
Yeah reporter of the pod recoil of justice, his first book whole
00:09:29
lot of fun. King of Ashes.
00:09:31
We went back to SA Cosby who always delivers that man.
00:09:35
You can call him the postman because he delivers Sons of
00:09:39
Valor 4 Andrews and Wilson Alexandria link again a Steve
00:09:43
Berry deception point. We really branched out again
00:09:46
into a new genre that's sci-fi stuff and that the Dan Brown
00:09:51
Dark Wolf did the whole TV show. That was a lot of fun.
00:09:54
We had Tyler on TV. We had Jack Carr himself.
00:09:57
What a what a time it was talking to him before denied
00:10:01
access. We got a Mitch rap book this
00:10:03
year. Thank goodness.
00:10:04
You know, they're keeping that going.
00:10:06
Don Bentley keeping the series alive, Project Hail Mary outside
00:10:11
of our wheelhouse, but one heck of a great book.
00:10:15
We're going to have to definitely talk about that on
00:10:17
the spot. We rounded out with Secret of
00:10:19
Secrets and Cry Havoc, Jackhar Got We had some thriller pod
00:10:23
classics, all of our main authors, but I feel like we also
00:10:26
diversified a little bit. Yeah.
00:10:29
And. Also included not included on
00:10:31
your list is our We finished up the Brad Thore season 2 of No
00:10:36
Limits this year. You know what?
00:10:39
I didn't even consider that. I was wondering.
00:10:40
I was like 22 episodes. Seems pretty low.
00:10:44
Yeah, no, that I was like, wait, we're we're missing something
00:10:47
right here. The Scott Harvath pod all right,
00:10:48
how many were on the Scott Harvath pod and.
00:10:50
Right, so we we kicked off the year January with two episodes
00:10:55
of Use of Force. OK, then we did 2 episodes on
00:10:58
Spymaster. OK, 2 episodes on Backlash.
00:11:04
We did we I guess we just did a long episode on Near dark, a
00:11:07
long episode on Black Ice. We also covered the 12th man
00:11:12
that moved that sick movie. Oh dude, you're right.
00:11:16
Yeah. Then we revisited the path of
00:11:20
Assassin because we had not, would we?
00:11:26
Is it because we didn't give it a scorecard?
00:11:28
Was that before we did the scorecard?
00:11:29
We did a different scorecard? Why do we revisit that one?
00:11:33
Maybe just as book 2? Was that book 2?
00:11:37
It was book 2. It could have been that that had
00:11:40
a storyline that I think very much influenced something else.
00:11:45
Well, we must have also revisited lines of Lucerne, no?
00:11:49
Oh yes, we also, yeah, it's not listed here, but it yeah, we did
00:11:54
revisit lines of Lucerne. Oh, that's what it is.
00:11:56
It's because we had started to wrap up, we hadn't quite
00:12:02
fine-tuned our our scorecard yet for the first two episodes of
00:12:06
the Brad Thorpe Podcast. And so we wanted to go back and
00:12:09
redo both of those, revisit those and then we finished it
00:12:12
with our final rankings superlatives, so.
00:12:16
Yeah. Oh, OK.
00:12:19
So that adds at least another we probably just said.
00:12:21
Another 12. That's another 1212 episodes and
00:12:25
another 123-4567 books. OK, so we got 40 something
00:12:33
episodes, 30 books total. Those numbers sound more correct
00:12:36
than before. Thank you, Chris.
00:12:38
Totally. For God's sake.
00:12:39
It's not. Quite an episode a week.
00:12:41
It's like an episode, like 3 episodes a month.
00:12:43
We we tried. Yeah, 3 episodes a month and I
00:12:46
remember being very heavy on Scott Harvath to start the year.
00:12:50
Yes, we just wanted to. We just wanted to finish it.
00:12:53
Get it done. Yeah.
00:12:54
And and I got to say I it was so perfect that we finished the
00:12:58
series, got to Edge of Honor because one of the categories I
00:13:02
want to talk about tonight. I don't know if you saw this in
00:13:04
the notes, these superlatives. Best overall book, Sure, But I
00:13:08
want to go with most enjoyable because I stand by when Brad
00:13:12
Thor comes out. That is just it's so smart to
00:13:15
put it in the summer because it's such an easy read.
00:13:17
But it's also, you know, somewhat cerebral.
00:13:20
You got to think about it. It's grounded in history, it's
00:13:24
teaching you all these things, while it's also just a a really
00:13:27
fun adventure. So I don't know, I it might not
00:13:29
be my favorite book that we read this year, but I still think it
00:13:33
stands out as the most enjoyable read.
00:13:35
I go on to revisit it every summer, 4th of July.
00:13:38
I mean, it just sounds it's that kind of book.
00:13:42
That's interesting. Now I I, I'm looking back at our
00:13:45
notes on that to see like what how we let's see how we scored
00:13:50
it and we had a lot of a couple episodes talking about it and
00:13:57
you had you had Brad on we Yep, we talked spoilers.
00:14:03
Why can't I? For me, I'm going to say it was
00:14:05
probably 46. Oh, we both gave it a 48 1/2. 48
00:14:12
1/2 Wow. OK, yeah, maybe prisoner of the
00:14:15
moment, But to be honest, another thing is I look at this
00:14:18
list of books and maybe you guys do this as well at home.
00:14:21
I'm kind of thinking like, what's memorable from that book?
00:14:24
What stands out? Was it a particular action
00:14:27
scene, a villain and an edge of honor?
00:14:29
I can remember the salvy side of the highway scene.
00:14:33
I can remember the house where they were hiding out with that
00:14:35
diplomat. They were at his house and they
00:14:37
booby trapped it and all the guys.
00:14:39
I remember the boat scene with like some some old Colonel or
00:14:42
some Old Navy Admiral or something.
00:14:45
It was just, it had some real memorable moments and was was a
00:14:50
fun ride. Even the opening, My goodness,
00:14:51
at the Norwegian Embassy and the ambassador's residence, the
00:14:55
whole bomb explosion outside the Naval observatory, there's so
00:14:58
much of that book that is like crystal clear in my mind, and
00:15:00
some of the other ones I'm looking at didn't quite rise to
00:15:03
that occasion. No, I remember like when we
00:15:07
talked about it, it was definitely high on our
00:15:10
anticipation list. Definitely has one of the
00:15:15
highest scores of the year for sure.
00:15:17
Yeah. To me, like, I don't know, I
00:15:21
maybe it's the the fact that we kind of just sprung this episode
00:15:25
on it, but I remember liking it a lot, but I I can't remember a
00:15:30
lot of facts about it for some reason.
00:15:33
I don't know why. Yeah, I I remember those
00:15:36
individual scenes, but I maybe don't remember the storyline
00:15:38
that linked them together. So I think that's why it's not
00:15:41
like best in the series or best book we read this year.
00:15:44
Maybe some of that connective tissue of like the plot.
00:15:46
I don't know what was really driving the plot, thinking back
00:15:49
to it, but I remember all those scenes sticking out.
00:15:51
So it was definitely, it was definitely action heavy I would
00:15:54
say. If we had a category for book
00:15:57
that I want to most revisit out of everything, I I think edge of
00:16:02
honor would be would be my choice.
00:16:04
Like I think I I want to go back.
00:16:07
You know, Brad gives us like these wild rides and it's just
00:16:13
it's it that one I remember being so enjoyable, but for some
00:16:16
reason it's just escaping me right now.
00:16:18
I don't know all these other ones are are I'm remembering
00:16:22
more things about them for some reason.
00:16:24
Interesting, interesting. So what would you put on that
00:16:26
list if we stick with the most enjoyable?
00:16:28
Which one? When you were reading it was
00:16:30
just you were all in just love in the moment.
00:16:35
Probably probably a bunch, but. That's really tough for some
00:16:41
reason, the the Templar legacy to me, like diving into Steve
00:16:44
Berry and getting that itch and that that kind of like spurred
00:16:51
the the one to now go down the go to deception point, go to,
00:16:58
you know, I, I since reread the Da Vinci Code, you know, like
00:17:04
those kind of like you watch the national treasure, like I, I,
00:17:07
for some reason, I guess I'm pulled to those kind of stories
00:17:12
and I don't know, it was like the perfect mix of everything I
00:17:18
wanted. Like we you have the whole, you
00:17:22
know, he's like a, an operative per SE, you know, in, in the
00:17:27
Department of Justice, like in this, you know.
00:17:31
Magellan Billet. Magellan Billet.
00:17:34
A lawyer, but also like an operative, like it's a very
00:17:36
interesting like concept. And then you, you tie in this
00:17:39
whole like national treasure, you know, treasure seeker, you
00:17:42
know, and then get pounded with a lot of history, get pounded
00:17:48
with questions of like, all right, I'm going to give you
00:17:51
like the historical facts. But at the end, there's going to
00:17:54
be like a question of like, do what do you believe?
00:17:56
You know, like, kind of like what some of the best
00:17:58
documentaries do in terms of a lot of these ones that go back
00:18:01
and like look at the shroud of Turin or look at, you know,
00:18:04
these different historical artifacts.
00:18:05
And they pose a question that they they lay out all the facts
00:18:08
of what they want to show you and then leave it.
00:18:11
They don't try to tell you like one way or the other.
00:18:13
Leave it up to you and to me. Like I was just on a wild ride
00:18:16
with that book. Like for me, that one is
00:18:19
sticking out to be one of the most enjoyable.
00:18:22
I'll agree with you. It's almost like you take the
00:18:24
best parts of Brad Thore that sometimes you want him to lean
00:18:27
into even more and Steve Berry just goes hog on it.
00:18:31
Or you take the best parts of a Dan Brown book and Steve Berry
00:18:34
can pull that off. And his character kind of echoes
00:18:37
a Robert Langdon with a Scott Harvath.
00:18:40
You know, you're kind of getting shades of all these guys in
00:18:43
Cotton Malone, but he blazes his own path.
00:18:45
And then not to mention his family drama, you know, how his
00:18:48
ex-wife is involved in this. And ultimately Gary, his son.
00:18:52
That was book 2, I think where he really comes into it.
00:18:55
Stephanie Nell, right, his boss, who also becomes a very maternal
00:18:58
figure, best friend figure to him.
00:19:00
So I think there's just so much to love about a Steve Berry
00:19:05
book. And if that was your first one,
00:19:07
you were getting a taste of it. I that must have been a great
00:19:10
feeling just to know what's to come and how much, how many more
00:19:14
of these stories you could take? Because I mean, what do you want
00:19:18
to read about? You want to read about?
00:19:19
He has one on Queen Victoria, one on MLK, one on the Mormons.
00:19:22
He's got like he just goes through all these waves of
00:19:25
history, Venice and the Doges, like any, any period in history.
00:19:29
I feel like he's tried and attempted to cover and you just
00:19:33
go through the catalog and skip around and just enjoy the heck
00:19:35
out of those books. So him and Dan Brown, I mean, I
00:19:39
would also say when we decided to do Deception Point, we were
00:19:43
both huge Dan Brown fans. But I know for me it had been
00:19:46
years considering the last book, Origin came out eight years ago.
00:19:50
And I actually don't even think I finished that one.
00:19:52
So that means I honestly had it read a full Dan Brown book in
00:19:55
over a decade. And I grew up with him and I
00:19:58
loved him my teenage years in my 20s.
00:20:00
So it's like going back to that for me was just as fun As for
00:20:03
you meeting and getting introduced to a Steve Berry book
00:20:06
and Robert and Cotton Malone. So.
00:20:09
I think those are definitely memorable parts of the year.
00:20:12
All of our Steve Berry and Dan Brown stuff and I want to keep
00:20:15
them going. 2 authors I want on our 2026 list.
00:20:20
Let's do it, man, you know, like not, not, not necessarily.
00:20:24
I don't want to cover everything and maybe we can jump around
00:20:27
like we can look at like the the little list of what the topics
00:20:33
are, but I I definitely want to would love to sprinkle some of
00:20:36
those in in for sure 2026. Now another series that we we
00:20:42
could maybe go back to and revisit.
00:20:45
We didn't do anything this year with Gray Man.
00:20:50
We definitely want to keep going on that.
00:20:52
We haven't read another Nelson DeMille.
00:20:54
We start off with Plum Island. Not exactly like a series.
00:20:57
I know there's more John Corey books, but I feel like there's
00:20:59
some other topics we could do as well with him.
00:21:03
And we didn't do the follow up to the kill artist Daniel Silva.
00:21:06
So a couple things just we didn't squeeze in and have time
00:21:09
for, but that I don't want to totally ignore.
00:21:12
So maybe all those names we try to work in.
00:21:16
That and I'd love to you know, we still haven't covered Lee any
00:21:19
Lee Child on this on this pod with with me and you.
00:21:22
I've read a bunch of those and the apparently the series is I
00:21:28
haven't watched any of it, but apparently like my father loves
00:21:32
it. My father-in-law really likes it
00:21:33
too. So.
00:21:34
Yeah, I haven't watched it either.
00:21:36
With the real. Series we also have to think
00:21:38
what TV shows we can maybe cover because now the dark wolf stun.
00:21:41
I don't think true believers hitting screens in 2026.
00:21:46
Potentially could be could be off on that.
00:21:48
But I feel like oh, oh, I'm about to watch the night manager
00:21:53
season 2. Did you watch season 1?
00:21:56
I did not, but I heard it was really good.
00:21:57
Dude, it's so good. It's so it's so good that if
00:22:01
season 2 is as good, I'd want to cover them both on the pod and
00:22:05
maybe even read the book. It's a Lake Hurray book, so.
00:22:07
Yeah, I know it's a Lake Hurray book, so.
00:22:08
Yeah, dude, that's. Tom Hiddleston's.
00:22:11
Tom Hiddleston. Season 2, too.
00:22:14
I believe so. Yeah, I think so.
00:22:15
OK, he is the night manager, right?
00:22:17
He is the night manager. Yeah, I'm not too up on it.
00:22:19
I don't know much about the universe, but man, can't wait
00:22:25
for that show. All right, Speaking of these
00:22:27
different authors throwing out names, we covered essay Cosby
00:22:30
King of ashes. That was a surprise to me.
00:22:34
I don't know why I was a surprise.
00:22:36
Like, you know what you're getting with Sean Cosby, and it
00:22:38
was very much Sean Cosby it. Was a little different than his
00:22:42
last one. It was a little different,
00:22:44
right? The last one was they were, they
00:22:45
were both so intense though, and they both get at issues in
00:22:49
America, right, the social fabric of America.
00:22:52
But this one just, I thought it was really great, especially
00:22:55
because it was a family drama story and, and there were some
00:22:58
twists and turns and reveals towards the end that really
00:23:01
highlighted the issues in and among this family.
00:23:06
I thought that was a great book. No, I know you, you put this
00:23:10
category of like biggest surprise.
00:23:12
I I was thinking of that as as one of them because and probably
00:23:20
doesn't, doesn't do him, like you said, doesn't do him justice
00:23:22
because most, most of his book, all of his books that we've
00:23:25
covered have been, you know, rock solid.
00:23:29
But I guess just the transition from, you know, the last one
00:23:34
only. Only sinners.
00:23:35
What was it? Yeah.
00:23:38
All the sinners bleed all the sinners.
00:23:39
Bleed, you know, that one just had like a certain edge to it
00:23:44
and then to jump to this where the main character you know is
00:23:50
this lawyer who another lawyer who is thrust into this family
00:23:55
situation. Financial planner, I think.
00:23:58
Like, yeah, like fun. Yeah.
00:23:59
Lawyer, financial planner, like, you know, some fancy big shot,
00:24:03
big shot guy in Atlanta has to come home and just like dealing
00:24:09
with those dynamics and showing us like, you know, this rural,
00:24:15
he loves to go rural Virginia, like that area.
00:24:18
And, you know, this whole story behind like his family owning
00:24:23
Crematory. And I don't know, it was just,
00:24:25
it was really good. Yeah, I remember some of those
00:24:30
scenes at the Crematory, the family business.
00:24:32
And it's also just he hits on these themes of what does it
00:24:36
mean to write be a man to, you know?
00:24:38
Yeah, his parents are dying. I think it was his father,
00:24:40
right? Died.
00:24:41
And it's like, what does it mean to take over and step into those
00:24:44
shoes and fill that role? If it's not who you are, you're
00:24:48
kind of between 2 worlds, caught between the the big city life,
00:24:51
glam, going home to the sticks, being an outsider, but having
00:24:55
also take care of business. Look, you know, stand up for
00:24:58
your sister. Yeah.
00:25:01
I mean, that one might have been the biggest surprise.
00:25:04
I don't know why I should have known.
00:25:06
When you read a Sean Cosby book, it's just going to rock your
00:25:08
world. I should have been prepared for
00:25:10
that. But it rocked my world even
00:25:11
harder than I thought it would. Now other one for biggest
00:25:15
surprise, which if it moves into my best overall book of the
00:25:20
year, I might want to try to give something else biggest
00:25:22
surprise, but project Hail Mary, it caught me off guard.
00:25:28
I'm like, I remember the Martian being great.
00:25:30
I know there's this movie coming out.
00:25:32
Maybe I saw a trailer or something for it and I was like,
00:25:35
let me read it. I'm a buddy at work who we
00:25:37
brought onto the pod my friend out of he had been talking about
00:25:40
a few years back. So I was like, maybe it's time
00:25:42
to pick it up, read it. And I was like, Chris read this
00:25:44
book right now, like right now. So I just enjoyed that adventure
00:25:49
into sci-fi and I think with Andy Weir you're getting some of
00:25:51
the best modern sci-fi there is. I I don't know if the movie is
00:25:55
going to disappoint because the book was so good, but if the
00:25:58
movie can even come close to the book, we're in for an absolute
00:26:02
treat. Yeah, I'm, I'm super like
00:26:07
worried about the movie because, you know, I'm just going to say
00:26:13
that Project Kilomary is my my best overall book we read this
00:26:16
year. I think it is.
00:26:18
I don't know. It's the one that sticks out the
00:26:20
most. It's the one that I was most
00:26:23
engaged with. It had me thinking a lot.
00:26:27
It brought me back to when I first read The Martian and and
00:26:30
had that like it, it captured that same experience I had like
00:26:34
Andy Weir, like did it again. I feel like, you know, I would I
00:26:39
have not read his his other book, Artemis.
00:26:42
So. No, me neither.
00:26:43
Would be interesting to cover that one on on the pod together
00:26:46
with you. But yeah, I'm, I'm very worried
00:26:51
about the about the movie just because, you know, I don't know,
00:26:56
I've, I've seen the trailer. I think it's cool how they've,
00:26:59
like, captured Rocky and you know what, what we've seen so
00:27:02
far and yeah, you know, I think Ryan Reynolds, not Ryan
00:27:05
Reynolds, Ryan Gosling, you know, can be he has a kind of
00:27:10
smarmy, like smart, funny, kind of cocky attitude that a a
00:27:19
riling grace could have. But yeah, I don't know.
00:27:24
It's just there's a cause. Most of this, this book is like
00:27:28
in this guy's head, right? Yeah, and they even said they're
00:27:32
going to open up with him waking up from the coma, being on the
00:27:35
ship. And there's clearly flashbacks
00:27:37
to Strat and and the team home and how he gets brought into it.
00:27:41
So they'll have to interweave him as a teacher and he gets
00:27:44
pulled into this mission and large parts of it, though he's
00:27:48
must be talking to himself. I I think in the trailer they
00:27:50
also are doing like a video recording.
00:27:52
He's like video blogging. Exactly.
00:27:54
So maybe that's why you can get away with some dialogue and him
00:27:57
talking, but I don't know why. My favorite thing about the book
00:28:02
is the first contact when he sees the ship, when they throw
00:28:06
the football, you know the the canister back and.
00:28:08
Forth, they show that in the trailer.
00:28:10
I'm like what? They give it away.
00:28:13
Oh, and then when they tap, when Rocky makes the wall and he's
00:28:16
tapping 1, you see Rocky's fingers.
00:28:18
Yeah. Like, that meant so much to me
00:28:20
in the book. And one, it being given away in
00:28:23
a trailer was just like disappointing 'cause I wanted
00:28:26
that moment like in the theaters.
00:28:28
But the other thing is it just doesn't exactly look how I was
00:28:31
picturing it. And, and I guess that's, that's
00:28:34
the eternal problem with like adapting books for TV and film
00:28:38
is that books allow you an imagination.
00:28:41
And it's kind of magical in a sense when every reader has
00:28:44
their own imagination, their own version of it, and it's special
00:28:48
to them, but it's also a shared thing.
00:28:50
So you're sharing that story, but everyone has the freedom to
00:28:55
imagine and illustrate that in their mind in their own way.
00:28:58
Yet you can socialize and talk with others about the story, yet
00:29:01
you get a hold on to the special moment of how you picture it.
00:29:04
And that's unique from how anyone else pictures it.
00:29:07
It's a very unique thing. Film and movies almost take that
00:29:10
away, you know, almost degrade that and force a common
00:29:14
universal experience on everyone.
00:29:16
And it could be good if it's great, like Harry Potter, right?
00:29:18
Like Hogwarts, I think you get it.
00:29:20
Like everything in the books is pictured that way and almost
00:29:23
everybody who read it pictured it that way.
00:29:25
Going to the village, going to the shops, the the platform, 93
00:29:29
quarters, like everything hit. I'm a little nervous.
00:29:32
Most movies can't pull that off. And what I've seen in the
00:29:35
trailer, it's like, oh, that looks a little suspect from what
00:29:38
I was thinking. Yeah, I was going to say like
00:29:40
when it when a book adaptation does, you know, hit like maybe
00:29:47
it doesn't exactly mimic what you have in your imagination,
00:29:50
but it does enough to satisfy you or like, you know, like, oh,
00:29:55
wow, like I thought of that, but that's even more like what?
00:29:58
It better. Yeah, it's even better.
00:30:00
That's when it excels, right? Exactly.
00:30:02
And I'm just, I'm just worried, I don't know.
00:30:04
We should cover it on the pod. I think we should watch the
00:30:06
movie and cover it on the pod. Yeah.
00:30:09
Now we talked a lot of great books and you brought up the
00:30:15
Scott Harvath stuff, so I didn't initially factor it in.
00:30:18
We can't forget backlash. You read backlash this year?
00:30:23
I know and. Spymaster and Spymaster but I
00:30:26
Stand by Backlash is one of the greatest all time thrillers ever
00:30:30
written. So like modern thrillers may
00:30:33
maybe not like classic literature in the history books,
00:30:37
but in the modern thriller genre that Vince Flynn started, Brett
00:30:40
Thore and others, you know, operate in, I think that's a
00:30:43
textbook perfect example. Backlash stands out to me in the
00:30:48
Scott Harvard series like Memorial Day stands out to me
00:30:53
in. Completely.
00:30:55
The Vince Lynn series. Completely.
00:30:58
You know, it is such a memorable, non-stop, you know,
00:31:04
propulsive story. You know, literally from the
00:31:07
beginning, he's on the plane and it's it's going down.
00:31:12
And you know, from there all the way to the, you know, getting
00:31:16
back in this revenge story, like he's having to deal with like
00:31:20
what happened at the end of the last book.
00:31:22
And like, you know, imagine like you, you're waiting an entire
00:31:26
year off that cliffhanger and then you get that book and it,
00:31:30
dude, breaking rocks, dude. Especially after what happened
00:31:36
in Spymaster. Yeah, exactly.
00:31:39
Yeah, OK, this is tough. Now, does it knock off Project
00:31:44
Hail Mary? They're such different books,
00:31:46
such different reading experiences.
00:31:49
Maybe it comes down to which one we like enjoyed living in the
00:31:52
moment of it more, but damn, even that would be tied neck and
00:31:57
neck. That's interesting.
00:32:03
Let me go back. I want to see where did we rank.
00:32:09
Yeah. What are our scores?
00:32:10
I don't know if it's valid to do this, but I feel like our scores
00:32:12
for backlash in Project Tail Mary might just be 40, eights,
00:32:16
48 or 49. You put backlash is #1.
00:32:21
Number one in the series did I? Wow, what did?
00:32:24
I have lions. As #2 I have.
00:32:26
Lions. I had Lions as one, you had I.
00:32:29
I think those are the clear 2 the best books in the series.
00:32:32
Agreed the hands down, yeah. Then the next you can fill your
00:32:36
top five with like a whole host of other ones that are very
00:32:39
good. You got to have those two
00:32:40
though. Those two have to be in there.
00:32:43
We both put the apostle at #3 I think that's, you know, very
00:32:49
good 3. Through five, yeah.
00:32:50
I put deadfall at 4. You put State of the Union, I
00:32:55
put takedown. That one's very I don't know.
00:32:58
I'm not The New Yorker. Of the two of us, there's some
00:33:00
reason that one really resonates with me.
00:33:02
You put foreign influence so. I think I like that Italian guy
00:33:07
Largento and yeah. Would would Edge of Honor crack?
00:33:15
Do you remember if we said when we did Edge of Honor, did we say
00:33:17
where we think we'd go back and slot it in on rankings?
00:33:21
I would need to go back and listen to that episode, but
00:33:24
yeah, because we we, we covered it before Edge of Honor because
00:33:27
in your Limerick it said Edge of Honor this summer, so it won't.
00:33:30
Be a bummer. It was not a bummer.
00:33:34
I think it could possibly knock off foreign influencer State of
00:33:37
the union although dude. State of the Union man.
00:33:43
What's? His name?
00:33:44
Helmut Draeger, the villain helmet and the and that was the
00:33:47
Russian woman. Was it Alexandra?
00:33:51
Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of
00:33:53
memorable stuff in there. So I know I think Edge of Honour
00:33:56
is flirting with top five in the series.
00:33:57
If in our episode, we probably went into a much more detailed
00:34:01
discussion of it, but I think it could.
00:34:04
Again, it's just more of a fun read.
00:34:06
So if you compare it to like a Vince Flynn story, I'm trying to
00:34:10
think of which Vince Flynn ones were like more fun and jolly,
00:34:14
but maybe don't stand up as like the best he's ever written.
00:34:17
Maybe like in extreme measures, you know, you enjoy the book.
00:34:20
It's doing something a little different outside the norm.
00:34:22
Like this one is a very heavy Solvy book, a little less Scott
00:34:25
book. So it's almost like that one's a
00:34:27
little more Mike Nash book, a little less Mitch Rap book.
00:34:30
It's just fun. But I don't think people are
00:34:32
putting extreme measures in their top five.
00:34:34
Most people not even top ten. But when you read it, it's like,
00:34:37
oh damn. Especially the ending scene.
00:34:40
So yeah, would want to revisit Edge of Honor, but one of the
00:34:45
more enjoyable books of the of the year, but maybe not the best
00:34:48
overall where backlash could be. Over here I have our Edge of
00:34:54
Honor episode. Your your notes with Brad, you
00:35:00
put hot take. This is the most enjoyable Brad
00:35:03
Thorpe book. Stand by it, stand by it.
00:35:06
Hot take #2 This is the most Flinnian Brad Thorpe book.
00:35:09
He did not agree with that. Hot Tech 3 You once owned a dark
00:35:17
blue 2020 2010 Malibu and it was your favorite car that you ever
00:35:21
owned. Yeah, you remember that?
00:35:23
Oh, man, when Scott's driving that that clanker around, that
00:35:26
was funny. Didn't Nicholas set him up with
00:35:28
it or something? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:35:30
And then you. Said Hot tech #4 This is easily
00:35:33
in my top five of the. I said it OK.
00:35:37
I, I would. I think so.
00:35:39
I think so, yeah. Four or five slot for sure.
00:35:43
I want you to revisit it. I feel like I remember it a
00:35:46
little better than you do. I do, but I mean, oh, I I need
00:35:49
to go like and listen to our pot on it because obviously I gave
00:35:51
it a 48 1/2 so. Yeah, so you must have loved it
00:35:54
at the time, too. Yeah, you're right.
00:35:56
That's the one to most revisit. Yeah.
00:35:58
Now there's a couple of books thrown in here which are like, I
00:36:03
remember they were good. They were fun reading
00:36:05
experiences. They kind of just kind of wallow
00:36:08
in that middle area. Like, for example, Sons of Valor
00:36:10
4 huge Sons of Valor fans. We love the series.
00:36:14
I just think one through three had a great arc.
00:36:16
It was a trilogy. You know, it was that Kasim
00:36:19
Nadar the the drone guy trilogy. This one kind of felt like, OK,
00:36:24
I got to adjust now with the NASCAR race and saw right and
00:36:28
what happens, what's going on with him and his family.
00:36:31
It was just an adjustment and I don't know if I got into it.
00:36:33
I think if Sons of Valor 5 continues that and almost feels
00:36:37
like, oh, we're well into the second trilogy of this this
00:36:40
bunch, then that could work. Same thing with Dark Rising, the
00:36:45
most recent dark books. So while we're on Andrews Wilson
00:36:47
again, it was like we're doing the stuff with was it Haiti and
00:36:51
the the voodoo and the priestess who captured the kids.
00:36:56
You know, with Dark Fall there was a clear culmination of that
00:37:02
trilogy, right? And so it.
00:37:03
Was the Victor arc, yeah. And having to follow that up, I
00:37:08
guess that's that's tough for them.
00:37:09
They had two of their, their books, they they decided to do a
00:37:14
somewhat of a, a three story arc and now they're restarting it.
00:37:17
So yeah, yeah, I, I reserve like waiting to like fully judge
00:37:23
those books until we get the next one to see how it goes.
00:37:26
But you know, for me, like dark intercept and Dark Angel are
00:37:33
incredible. Are, are incredible.
00:37:35
And I, I will say Dark fall is still very good too.
00:37:37
Also very I think I think it had it's, you know, it had it's
00:37:40
flaws, but it to me was was still a a nice ending to the.
00:37:46
Story yeah, I'll agree with you completely.
00:37:50
Another one that's like that you're kind of going outside
00:37:53
what you've established the 7th floor.
00:37:55
David McCluskey, you know, you kind of had Sam Joseph.
00:38:02
You already knew him, but he starts kind of in a cell.
00:38:06
He starts in he's he's captured, right?
00:38:09
Like you have, what's her name? Artemis Proctor.
00:38:12
Artemis not even working in intelligence anymore.
00:38:15
She's on the out. So it was also a book that
00:38:17
opened up with like, whoa, what are we doing here?
00:38:19
Like this is different. Not what I'm used to with these
00:38:20
guys. I want them in the Ciai want
00:38:23
them running the show. I want them figuring out the OP.
00:38:25
I want them planning things. But instead, they kind of had to
00:38:28
hodgepodge together this safe house in Crystal City where
00:38:31
they, you know, went off the deep end kind of doing their own
00:38:34
spy stuff and really great tail in the end.
00:38:37
And that's all. Dude, that scene in France, I
00:38:39
don't even remember what they were doing, but I remember they
00:38:42
were, they were in the South of France and they were like in a
00:38:45
van or something. And then the van drove off and
00:38:47
ditched them in a field. Meanwhile, the house is getting
00:38:50
hit. I think there was like a hostage
00:38:51
or an interrogation in this country house and in the South
00:38:55
of France. I loved all that.
00:38:57
Like there was some scene there that I remember being, oh, when
00:38:59
you find out who the mole is, I think that's it.
00:39:01
They're listening to a wire, and on the wire they hear the mole
00:39:05
is one of their friends. That was a fun spy story, but it
00:39:09
was a. Big drive at the end you find
00:39:11
out it's like you know her very, you know very, very like
00:39:15
probably her her best friend in in the group.
00:39:17
Right. Yep.
00:39:18
And confidant. Yeah.
00:39:21
Again, very good book. Is it David Mccloskey's best?
00:39:25
Best novel? Not.
00:39:27
Sure. No, it's it's really hard to to
00:39:30
top Damascus station, Damascus station and we still have yet to
00:39:33
cover. I don't I think you covered
00:39:34
Moscow acts with Moscow with him, but we haven't talked to
00:39:38
the Moscow X on the pod together.
00:39:40
That's true. And so I would like to do that
00:39:43
at some point. We should put on the rest.
00:39:46
But 7th floor very good. It was it was enjoyable read.
00:39:53
What else on the list have something you maybe want to
00:39:56
cover or comment on before we oh we give the most important
00:40:00
important discussion and superlative?
00:40:03
Best cover? So before we get there, any
00:40:05
other books that you wanted to comment on?
00:40:10
I think, you know, denied access and we we we gave it its praise,
00:40:14
I think like it was a very solid culmination of that trilogy.
00:40:21
Again, had his flaws, but something that we enjoyed.
00:40:26
Cry Havoc, another good installment like this.
00:40:30
We have yet to talk with Tyler Brewer as we mentioned at the
00:40:33
top, but you know a lot of things I really liked about that
00:40:36
book this year. That book might just have and
00:40:39
when we talked to Tyler, I want his take on it.
00:40:42
It might just have my favorite action sequence of the year, the
00:40:45
escape on the Ho Chi Minh Trail after he finds his friend Quinn
00:40:49
in in the capture of Dvorakov and the Russians.
00:40:53
And he can't take the shot right?
00:40:55
And then he has to escape from this camp and you float down the
00:40:57
river and go over the waterfall and get to that border.
00:41:01
Everything from when he's first dangling on the helicopter early
00:41:04
in the book when he cuts himself free, finds himself on the Ho
00:41:08
Chi Minh trail has to be like I think like knock off.
00:41:10
This bicyclist guy honestly might be one of my favorite,
00:41:16
most memorable sequences I've read 100%.
00:41:26
What else? We talked.
00:41:32
Secret of Secrets that I mean, got me thinking.
00:41:34
We love the topic, that we love the execution and the plotting.
00:41:38
Maybe not villains. I think a few of these books
00:41:40
from Cry Havoc, Secret of Secrets, some of the villains,
00:41:44
If you had an amazing villain that drove the plot a little
00:41:47
more more directly, maybe they could have risen to the greats.
00:41:51
But if you don't nail the villain, a lot of else kind of
00:41:56
falls apart, unravels. Plum Island.
00:42:00
I know you, you mentioned it briefly, but that was a good
00:42:03
story. I'd love to revisit some more.
00:42:05
Nelson, DeMille. Went a little long.
00:42:08
Did it go a little long in the treasure hunting stuff?
00:42:10
Yeah, little one too many. Treasure clues a little bit,
00:42:14
but. It was like a mystery.
00:42:16
It also had that mystery element.
00:42:17
The secret siege is is interesting.
00:42:20
I know we didn't cover origin. We we kind of like talked about
00:42:23
doing it, but ultimately we just up to secrets.
00:42:29
I think secrets is better than origin.
00:42:32
You do? Wow.
00:42:32
OK, I. Don't know what?
00:42:35
What do you remember? Origin.
00:42:36
Like what? And is origin outdated as well
00:42:40
because I remember. It's all about the AI some.
00:42:42
Computer AI stuff comes up and yeah, yeah yeah.
00:42:45
And if that book was written 8-9 years ago, I I just wonder how
00:42:48
it would fare in a pre ChatGPT world like open air.
00:42:50
I was probably very young and not a consumer product yet.
00:42:54
I mean, it's almost like predict trying to predict what what we
00:42:57
are in now, you know? Right, So I don't know if that
00:42:58
helps the book age or not. So I I don't remember.
00:43:01
I'm interesting to. Revisit that then, yeah.
00:43:03
Yeah, yeah. I don't know, but Dark Wolf.
00:43:11
Oh dude. I know, I know we don't we don't
00:43:15
we're not like ATV podcast, but we had to cover it because it
00:43:18
dropped. I mean, I have to say, like
00:43:22
coming off of our reservations of how the terminalist, I would
00:43:28
say I think it started well and then it kind of it didn't finish
00:43:33
quite like how we wanted to the Dark Wolf series, like came back
00:43:38
with a vengeance and like was just amazing.
00:43:41
Like I'm, I'm kind of sad or I don't know, but like the fact
00:43:46
that this is the only season we might get of this show, like
00:43:48
it's kind of kind of frustrating.
00:43:51
Yeah, it maybe it is, but it also so many opportunities to
00:43:54
tie into true believer and maybe do other spin offs and go, you
00:43:57
know, play in the sandbox a little more.
00:44:00
Just from that episode 1, a huge military op on the bridge in
00:44:05
Iraq going to Mosul. It was everything you wanted it
00:44:10
to be right from the jump. Having Doran, was that his name?
00:44:13
The local, you know, Iraqi and his family involved.
00:44:17
We're doing like guerrilla warfare in the cities.
00:44:20
Like it. It was just wow.
00:44:24
It was not what I was expecting. And it was like watching a war
00:44:28
movie, a classic war movie. And it was ATV show that was
00:44:31
teeing up some James Reese stuff, which is just wild.
00:44:35
Expertly done, great decisions, what a team.
00:44:39
So get me true believer We're a terminalist.
00:44:42
TV show did not quite give me that level of buy in.
00:44:46
Dark Wolf absolutely gives me the buy in to the entire
00:44:49
universe. Yeah, I think it also helps that
00:44:56
Dark Wolf didn't have a a text to have to follow.
00:44:59
I think. I think that was like one of our
00:45:01
biggest conservators, our biggest gripes, I guess with the
00:45:08
in the first season in the, in the fact that how much they they
00:45:11
did kind of stray from the source text and so not being
00:45:16
encumbered by that definitely helped the Darkwell series.
00:45:19
Completely. Just being like of, of an
00:45:21
essence and like trying to capture that essence, but not
00:45:24
have to like follow a strict guideline because you know, he's
00:45:27
just making up the story as he goes.
00:45:29
So. But still being Jack Carr, but
00:45:30
still being a Jack Carr story for sure.
00:45:33
Completely, yeah. Excited for true believer?
00:45:36
Absolutely. And MO MO stole the show, as you
00:45:39
remember. I thought MO was dominant.
00:45:42
Now, now he's going to be, you know, he'll potentially be back.
00:45:44
More MO Yeah, I hope so. I hope so.
00:45:48
Well, they wouldn't be Thriller Pod if we don't judge a cover by
00:45:53
the book. So let's go to thrillerpod.com.
00:45:57
We've got a feed of all of our episode thumbnails.
00:46:00
You can just click Load More on the main splash page at Thriller
00:46:03
Pod so when you load more you'll see all the thumbnails.
00:46:08
Anything stand out as you're browsing through some of these?
00:46:12
Hold on, let me go to thepod.com.
00:46:17
Yep, check out our new website. By the way, if you haven't seen
00:46:21
it yet, Cry Havoc covers dope. So what do I do?
00:46:28
Go to scorecard. You can see the scores there
00:46:32
pretty easily, but if you go on the homepage and just Scroll
00:46:34
down you'll see all the episode thumbnails.
00:46:38
You'll have to keep hitting load more but.
00:46:41
Oh, gotcha. Gotcha.
00:46:45
All right. Denied access Hail Mary secret
00:46:52
secrets. Edge of Honor again with the
00:46:55
flag. It's very classic.
00:46:58
Oh, I haven't been on this website in a while.
00:47:00
It's a nice, nice website here, Michael.
00:47:02
Yeah, rolled this out a couple of months ago.
00:47:07
Deception Point Alexandria Link. OK, Sons of Valor are not my
00:47:15
favorite. Oh, King of Ashes, that's a.
00:47:19
King of Ashes is nice. Oh Alexandria link.
00:47:22
It's a nice classic one. Fade in recoil of justice.
00:47:31
Dude I love the recoil of justice cover.
00:47:35
It is a nice cover. I even you know we have a face
00:47:38
problem on the pod or a silhouette problem, but to be
00:47:42
honest, this is the way to do it right the.
00:47:47
Helicopter, everything around it, like with the helicopter and
00:47:50
the city like yeah. Yeah, because he is a lawyer,
00:47:54
you know, working in the firm and a lot of it's in the office
00:47:56
place. But then you can jump to the
00:47:58
ranches with the helicopter and some things that they were doing
00:48:01
out of the helicopter. You know, who do I see a wild
00:48:04
hog in the background there, you know, like a wild boar?
00:48:08
Is Brad Elder's Recoil of Justice my favorite cover of
00:48:12
2025? It's it's entirely possible.
00:48:19
About the assassin lines of Lucerne the 12th Man Black Black
00:48:27
Ice. Black ice was nice.
00:48:32
Near dark is another good cover. I like the 7th floor cover.
00:48:39
Sure, Yeah, yeah. Back backlash.
00:48:42
Backlash is OK. Spymaster Plum Island with skull
00:48:48
and crossbones. That's a nice touch.
00:48:49
But. We got kill shot this year.
00:48:53
American Assassin. Well, we did a rewind of those.
00:48:56
Can we include them because it was just a revisited I maybe we
00:49:00
could. All right, Alexandria link is
00:49:02
out there. So I think I'm ready to settle
00:49:06
on my top three. Alexandria Link, Cry Havoc and
00:49:16
I'm going to say it, Recoil of Justice by Brad Elder I those
00:49:20
are my 3 covers. I'm standing by it.
00:49:24
All right, all right, let me see and go through these one more
00:49:29
time. Don't forget Cry Havoc man, the
00:49:31
Southeast Asia stuff. All right, Lions is a revisited
00:49:37
right, So that doesn't count. Yeah.
00:49:40
I mean, I guess you could if you want, but yeah, it was
00:49:43
revisited. I do like the dark intercept.
00:49:53
Sure, All right. Edge of Honor.
00:49:55
Edge of Honor is good. Yep.
00:49:56
I love Edge of Honor King, the King of Ashes is is really good.
00:50:02
It is. Who am I going to do?
00:50:12
You're right. I think it's going to be recoil
00:50:15
of justice. Wow, wow.
00:50:17
In the top three. That's a really good cover, man.
00:50:20
And he, he, you know, Brad talked about it.
00:50:22
He he, he had a, you know, wanted to have a good cover, so.
00:50:28
And you know, we have to judge the cover by the book.
00:50:30
I mean, you got the helicopter, you got the office buildings,
00:50:32
the downtown cityscape. It's split diagonally in two.
00:50:35
Which makes perfect sense for how Reinwolf is, you know, torn
00:50:39
between 2 worlds. His old job and his new thriller
00:50:42
action saved the day he's been brought into.
00:50:45
It's just so believable and and it and it captures that.
00:50:48
I don't need it to be artsy, you know, like I feel like the
00:50:50
Secret of Secrets, a little going, going too much for that
00:50:53
artsy side of things. And then a couple others as
00:50:56
well, like this one's just straightforward about the story.
00:51:01
I think if I had to choose, of those three, I think King of
00:51:03
Ashes is my favorite cover of this of this year.
00:51:07
Also captures the metaphorical, you know, kind of space that the
00:51:10
main character is in and the training.
00:51:13
Yep. The train tracks, The yeah, the
00:51:17
Crematory, the fire, the ash. Yeah.
00:51:19
All of it. Yeah.
00:51:21
Everything burns. Everything burns.
00:51:23
Everything burns. Well the people are burning for
00:51:28
a Limerick to close out the air, you know they are so.
00:51:31
Let's give it to them. Many authors this year we
00:51:35
esteemed, but which thriller will reign supreme?
00:51:39
SA Cosby or Carr? Steve Berry or Thor?
00:51:42
These guys are the cream of the cream.
00:51:45
Oh, I like how yeah, car and Thor right there.
00:51:48
I like that. Yeah.
00:51:50
And then there's going for Creme de la Creme, but Creme de la
00:51:52
Creme. So what Creme of the Creme?
00:51:55
Creme Delic, the supreme to the Creme.
00:51:58
There we go. All right, very good, Mike.
00:52:01
Well, I just want to say thank you to you.
00:52:03
This is another fun year. This is year five of the POD,
00:52:09
Holy Year 5. Dude, we are up to 310 episodes
00:52:16
310 Can you believe that? Seems like we should have a lot
00:52:21
more, but it that's a lot too. You know, dude, it's a lot.
00:52:26
It doesn't seem like it should be more when you account for all
00:52:28
the editing that this guy has to do so.
00:52:30
Very true, very true, very true. But I don't think we would have
00:52:34
made it this actually. I know for sure we would not
00:52:36
have made it this far without our patrons.
00:52:38
It's all thanks to you. You know who you are.
00:52:41
Don and Sherry, some of the Ogs, Chris and Mark who joined us and
00:52:44
are always sticking around, Daryl, the Godfather, Brad, Thor
00:52:49
or Brad, Brad Elder, all these Brads, Brad Elder, the Elder
00:52:52
Statesman. I mean, we just got so many
00:52:54
great personalities over there. So I know for a fact when we
00:52:59
finished the Mitch Rap series, we definitely would not have
00:53:02
been keeping the pot alive. When we finished the Scott
00:53:05
Harvest series, we would not have wanted to start a third
00:53:07
one. We wouldn't be doing 2-3,
00:53:09
sometimes four books and episodes a month if it wasn't
00:53:12
for you guys. So more to come in 2026.
00:53:16
We will promise you 2 books and two episodes a month.
00:53:19
That will be our baseline minimum.
00:53:21
And then on top of that, whatever comes up, whatever
00:53:23
books we're we're wanting to dig into, we'll add.
00:53:27
But minimum two books a month. One will be a new release.
00:53:30
I mean, look at all the authors you got coming out.
00:53:33
There's going to be another Mitch rap we know around
00:53:35
September that's. 24 books. Next month, dude, there's yeah,
00:53:40
as a minimum. As a minimum.
00:53:42
There's multiple Jack Carr books.
00:53:43
He's doing something with MP Woodward.
00:53:45
They're going to have a collab coming out.
00:53:47
Ward Larson, Nebraska Cold Zero. There it is Cold 0.
00:53:53
Yeah, this one. Andrews and Wilson are doing a
00:53:55
ton of short stories. Yeah.
00:53:58
I just think there's so much to come.
00:53:59
So we're going to keep the pod rolling.
00:54:01
And completely, it's thanks to you guys in the Patreon Book
00:54:03
club, thrillerpod.com. Join the book club.
00:54:06
We'd love to have you over there.
00:54:07
So what a year it's been. Thank you, Chris.
00:54:10
You said 310 episodes total. All right, divide that by 5.
00:54:14
That's at 62 episodes a year. That's more than an episode of
00:54:18
week. That's kind of crazy.
00:54:19
Yeah. I guess we're not quite at,
00:54:21
we're not quite at five years because five years will be April
00:54:25
Ish, April, May. So, all right, roughly an
00:54:29
episode a week. Yeah, yeah, dude, keep it
00:54:34
rolling. Great.
00:54:34
Let's keep it rolling. Good stuff.
00:54:36
As Mike said, got to thank our patrons.
00:54:39
Shout out to deputy director Sherry F, Brad E, special agents
00:54:43
Adam, Mike, Ben, Daryl, George, Matt, Dawn and Chris.
00:54:49
Love you guys. Happy New Year, Merry Christmas,
00:54:54
Hope you guys have a great holiday and just let Mike and
00:55:00
Chris be Mike and Chris. Let thriller pod be thriller
00:55:04
pod. There you go.