Mystery

Title: Ghosts of Babylon
Author: R. A. Mathis
Genre: Thriller/Mystery
Reviewer: Cathryn J. Prince

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1478130091

Set against a backdrop of escalating terror, Ghosts of Babylon is a fast-paced military thriller that features an intense, gritty, and powerful cast of characters. In a desperate attempt to salvage both his career and a wrecked personal life, archaeologist Stuart Knight volunteers to serve in Iraq as a translator, but his real objective is to get his hands on Babylon's ancient treasures. Once on the ground, he meets Captain Allen, a battalion intelligence officer determined to catch Al-Khayal, the insurgent who blew off his leg and annihilated his entire crew with an IED.

Entangled in the grisly web of Allen's private war, Knight's quest for redemption turns into a struggle for survival with deadly enemies on both sides of the wire. Stuart soon finds himself staring into the face of terror, his own mortality, and an evil as old as Babylon itself.

Title: Mistletoe, Merriment, and Murder
Author: Sara Rosett
Genre: Thriller/Mystery
Reviewer: Betsy Beard

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0758269218

.Super organizer Ellie Avery could really use some Christmas cheer when Gabrielle Matheson, a grinchy professional rival, sets up shop in the same small Georgia town. But before the halls are even halfway decked with holly, someone uses Ellie's terrifically tasteless white elephant swap gift as ...a murder weapon! Ellie's now a suspect. Besides playing Mrs. Santa for her Air Force pilot husband and their two kids, shielding her eyes from the garishly over-decorated house down the street, and helping a client who's a hardcore hoarder, Ellie also has to solve this ho-ho-homicide ...and find a killer who wishes her a very deadly Christmas.

Title: Beware the Jabberwock
Author: Chester D. Campbell
Genre: Thriller/Mystery
Reviewer: Lee Boyland

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0984604464

As the Cold War sputters to a close and the Soviet Union disintegrates, international telephone intercepts trigger a CIA investigation into the nebulous codeword "Jabberwock." Burke Hill, whose tarnished FBI career ended years earlier after dismissal by a surly J. Edgar Hoover, is recruited to help an old CIA buddy, Cameron Quinn, whose superiors doubt Jabberwock's dangerous potential. When an accident stops Quinn in Hong Kong, the CIA brass warns Hill to drop the investigation. Knowing Quinn's fears about the operation, Hill and Quinn's daughter, Lorelei, continue the chase. Rogue elements on both sides of the old Iron Curtain work to stop them, along with a relentless Federal bureaucracy. As the clock ticks down on Jabberwork, Burke and Lori realize they alone are the only hope of stopping a plot to assassinate the American and Russian presidents.

Title: The Complicity Doctrine
Author: Matt Frick
Genre: Thriller/Mystery
Reviewer: Joe Epley

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1479222070

Three bombs explode in Manhattan. The targets: a church, a synagogue, and a deli. On the surface, there is no ready explanation for the bomber's objectives, but when Casey Shenk, an analyst for the private geopolitical consulting firm Intelligence Watch Group discovers an altered report from the Congressional Research Service, he begins to put the pieces together. A murdered Government employee, the rantings of a presidential candidate, and a Senate resolution to take the People's Mujahideen of Iran off of the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations all point to something sinister at work inside the Washington power structure. With the help of a New York Police Department detective and the other analysts at IWG, Casey works to uncover the truth behind a network of conspiracy that is operating outside the law, where the ends always justify the means...no matter how many people die.

Title: The Renegades
Author: Tom Young
Genre: Mystery
Reviewer: Joyce M. Gilmour

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0399158464

A catastrophic earthquake ravages Afghanistan, and American troops rush to deliver aid. In his new role as an adviser to the Afghan Air Force, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Parson faces one of the biggest challenges of his career, aided by his interpreter, Sergeant Major Sophia Gold. The devastation facing them is like nothing they've ever seen--and it's about to get worse. A Taliban splinter group, Black Crescent, is conducting its own campaign--shooting medical workers, downing helicopters, slaughtering anyone who dares to accept aid. With the U.S. drawing down and coalition forces spread thin, it's up to Parson, Gold, and Parson's Afghan aircrews to strike back. But they're short of supplies, men, experience, and information--and the terrorists seem to be nowhere...and everywhere.