New York Times bestselling author Lee Child and the International Thriller Writers, Inc. present a collection of remarkable stories in First Thrills. Showcasing many of the organization's bestselling authors as well as rising stars in the genre, here are twenty-five brand-new, never-before published, stories packed with murder, mystery, and mayhem.
A cunning criminal thinks he can use a child to take the rap for his crimes.
A hospital intern turned body-snatcher.
A priest who comes face to face with his wife's murderer on death row.
A confederate soldier comes home to his love, but changed by more than just the war - he comes back wrong.
The discovery of a flying saucer in the deep sea brings one man to the brink of a massive revelation.
A dying man's last request proves to his ex-wife that he's still rotten to the core.
A clandestine operative finds himself caught in a wicked game of confusion - but who is calling the shots?
No matter what type of thriller you read, you'll find something here that will entertain you - and perhaps a new writer you'll cherish for years to come.

ORDER # U817-1   $13-90   ISBN 9780765398222

General Bob Underwood - a special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL - is en route to the Syrian city of al-Bukamal when a rocket-propelled grenade strikes the side of his Humvee and the heavily armored convoy comes under attack. The general's bodyguard is brutally murdered, and Underwood himself is kidnapped. Hours later, the President and top officials watch in horror from the Oval Office, as the general is viciously beheaded by an ISIL leader - broadcast on live television through a direct feed from Al Jazeera. The world is stunned by the bloody scene, but even more so that this supposedly loose-knit terrorist organization was able to orchestrate a lethal attack on the world's most powerful military. American forces goes into high gear on land and sea to retaliate, but when the ISIS leader's son is killed in an American bombing raid, his rage knows no bounds and he determines to wreak vengeance on the American homeland itself.

ORDER # U817-2   $13-90   ISBN 9781250130228

An arsonist is targeting schools in Birmingham, Alabama - with devastating effect. Detective Devereaux - a man you can't quite trust and should never ignore - must put a stop to the elusive pyromaniac's reign of terror before more damage is done. Or worse, before students' lives are lost. But as Devereaux sifts through the ashes of the case, a grisly discovery at a burned-out school sends the investigation spiraling in a new, terrifying direction. The detective and his partner are dragged into a nightmare world by revelations of gruesome rituals, the disappearance of local citizens, and allegations against city officials of shocking crimes that stretch back decades. With innocent lives on the line, progress is hampered by friction between the police department and the FBI, and interference from factions of the local underworld complicate matters further. Devereaux doesn't make excuses for his willingness to work outside the lines, but just as he needs to be at the top of his game, he's rocked by echoes from his troubled past that threaten to engulf his daughter and girlfriend - and fracture the life he's only recently begun to rebuild.

ORDER # U817-3   $13-90   ISBN 9780399594328

When teenage Internet bully Ivy Lake fell off a cliff, few people cared - except her developmentally-challenged eighteen-year-old step-brother, Tommy. In spite of her occasional cruelty, Tommy loved her. Now it's been a year since Ivy's disappearance and the police still have no answers: Was it suicide, an accident, or something more sinister?This isn't the type of case investigative reporter Maxine Revere normally takes on, but when she receives a heartbreaking plea from Tommy, Max feels driven to help. At first, the police are willing to cooperate as she looks for clues about what happened to Ivy. But once Max delves deeper into the investigation, and learns more about Tommy and his dysfunctional family, the more she thinks she's taken on an impossible task: this may be the one case she can't solve. If Ivy was murdered, it was exceptionally well-planned - and that kind of killer could be hiding in plain sight and plotting the next act of violence. Max believes the truth is the only path to justice. Will finding it get her killed?

ORDER # U817-4   $13-90   ISBN 9781250066855

The CIA's headquarters should be the safest place on Earth, but a highly professional, violently psychopathic assassin is on the loose. A series of murders extends as far as a prison outside of Athens, Greece. These gruesome crimes are not performed at random; a code carved into four copper panels of the legendary statue in a courtyard at CIA headquarters predicts the manner of the killings and their terrible necessity. Before the first Iraq war, something horrifying was buried in the foothills above the oil city of Kirkuk. It will not remain hidden forever. Only Pete Boylan, retired CIA assassin Kirk McGarvey, and the CIA's odd-duck genius, Otto Rencke, can uncover the truth in the four copper panels and find the terrifying device interred in Iraq. This devastating truth could well ignite the entire Middle East into an unstoppable, apocalyptic war. This may be the most dangerous assignment of McGarvey's long and storied career yet.

ORDER # U817-5   $13-90   ISBN 9780765369994

Two years after vanishing into the Sudanese desert, the leader of a British archeological expedition, Professor Harold McCabe, comes stumbling out of the sands, frantic and delirious, but he dies before he can tell his story. The mystery deepens when an autopsy uncovers a bizarre corruption: someone had begun to mummify the professor's body - while he was still alive. His strange remains are returned to London for further study, when alarming news arrives from Egypt. The medical team who had performed the man's autopsy has fallen ill with an unknown disease, one that is quickly spreading throughout Cairo. Fearing the worst, a colleague of the professor reaches out to a longtime friend: Painter Crowe, the director of Sigma Force. The call is urgent, for Professor McCabe had vanished into the desert while searching for proof of the ten plagues of Moses. As the pandemic grows, a disturbing question arises.

ORDER # U817-6   $13-90   ISBN 9780062381699

It's a race against time to both find a vaccine and unravel a bio-terrorist conspiracy when a terrifying new tick-borne virus is traced to an extremist group in Southeast Asia. Government epidemiologist Mariah Rossi must leave the safety of her lab behind to help CIA agent Curt Kennedy track the disease to its source. Their harrowing journey from one hot zone to another takes them from the jungles of the Philippines to the coral reefs near Malaysian Borneo, then back to the United States where martial law has been declared to keep the deadly disease contained.

ORDER # U817-7   $11-95   ISBN 9781501161926

Survival. It's all down to who you trust. Aiden O'Hara has been head of the family since he was kid, and he's going to keep it that way. Jade Dixon is the one who watches his back. Mother of his son. The one who makes him invincible. But Jade's been in the game a lot longer than Aiden. She knows no one's indestructible. And when you're at the top, that's when you've got to watch the hardest.
Especially the ones closest to you.

ORDER # U817-8   $13-90   ISBN 9781472241559

Following an extended leave, Louise Rick returns to work at the Special Search Agency, an elite unit of the National Police Department. She's assigned a case involving a fifteen-year-old who vanished a week earlier. When Louise realizes that the missing teenager is the son of a butcher from Hvalsoe, she seizes the opportunity to combine the search for the teen with her personal investigation of her boyfriend's long-ago death. Louise's investigation takes her on a journey back through time. She reconnects with figures from her past, including Kim, the principal investigator at the Holbaek Police Department, her former in-laws, fanatic ancient religion believers, and her longtime close friend, journalist Camilla Lind. As she moves through the small town's cramped network of deadly connections, Louise unearths toxic truths left unspoken and dangerous secrets.

ORDER # U817-9   $11-95   ISBN 9781455598458

Tensions between America and Russia are the highest they've been since the Cold War. As the countries' Presidents travel to the United Nations to iron out their differences, a fashionable husband and wife team of lethal assassins prowls the streets of Manhattan hunting their prey - a professor hiding a scandalous secret. Their next target: the extremely popular President of the United States of America. Pulled away from his family and pressed into service, Detective Michael Bennett must trace the source of a threat that could rip the country apart - and what he finds may turn the Cold War red hot once again. With allegiances constantly in doubt and no one above suspicion, only Bennett can step into the line of fire to save the President before the deadly kill shot hits its mark.

ORDER # U817-10   $13-90   ISBN 9781455585298

Mourning the passing of her mother, Sage Singer decides to attend a grief support group. She doesn't expect to start an unlikely friendship with an elderly man also attending. Josef Weber is a beloved, retired teacher and Little League coach. Together they attempt to heal. But one day he asks Sage for a favor: to kill him. Shocked, Sage refuses but then he confesses his darkest and long-buried secret, one that irrevocably changes Sage's worldview. She suddenly finds herself facing questions she never expected, such as what do you do when evil lives next door? Can someone who's committed a truly heinous act ever atone for it with subsequent good behavior? Should you offer forgiveness to someone if you aren't the party who was wronged? And most of all, if Sage even considers his request, is it murder or justice?

ORDER # U817-11   $12-90   ISBN 9781501174995

Meg and Hawk are part of the FBI's elite K-9 unit. Hawk can sniff out bodies anywhere - living or dead. When a bomb rips apart a government building in Washington D.C., it takes all of the team's extensive search-and-rescue training to locate and save the workers and visitors buried beneath the rubble. But even as the duo are hailed as heroes, a bomber remains at large, striking terror in a widening spiral of unpredictability. As more bombs are detonated and the body count escalates, Meg and Hawk are assigned to a task force dedicated to stopping the unseen killer. It will come down to a battle of wits and survival skills between Meg, Hawk, and the bomber they're tracking to rescue a nation from the brink of chaos.

ORDER # U817-12   $13-90   ISBN 9780786041480

On its surface, life in 1950s Houston is as you'd expect; stoic fathers, restless teens, drive-in movies, and souped-up Cadillacs. But underneath that surface lies a world shifting under high school junior Aaron Holland Broussard's feet. The underlying class war between the haves and have nots is growing steadily, along with the menace of conflict overseas in Korea, providing a harrowing backdrop to his growth to manhood. But when Aaron spots the beautiful Valerie Epstein at a drive-in, he steps in when he sees her fighting with her boyfriend, Grady Harrelson. Aaron's newfound confidence helps catch Valerie's eye, and the two begin dating. Grady is a live wire though, and presents a looming problem for Aaron. You will recall the feelings and inspirational power of your first love, and empathize with Aaron's extraordinary challenges to protect himself and the ones he loves in "this dark, atmospheric story" (Publishers Weekly). The Jealous Kind illustrates how first loves, friendship, violence, and power can alter what traditional America means for the people trying to find their way in a changing world.

ORDER # U817-13   $13-90   ISBN 9781501107412

When a young Thai girl overdoses smuggling drugs, all signs point to the one criminal MMA-trained public prosecutor Jana Berzelius most wants to destroy - Danillo. Eager to erase any evidence of her sordid childhood, Berzelius must secretly hunt down this deadly nemesis with whom she shared a horrific past. Meanwhile, the police are zeroing in on the elusive head of the long-entrenched Swedish narcotics trade, who goes by the name The Old Man. No one has ever met this shadowy mastermind. Berzelius craves to know his identity, even as she clandestinely tracks down Danillo, who threatens to out her. She must kill him first, before he can reveal her secrets. As she prepares for the fight of her life, Berzelius discovers an even more insidious betrayal - one that will entangle her inextricably in this deeply entrenched network of crime.

ORDER # U817-14   $13-90   ISBN 9780778330295

Afraid or not, Detective Bobbie Gentry has a monster to confront. The pain of losing her family and nearly her life to a criminal's vile hunger is still fresh, but now the landscape is different. Now she's not alone. Now she has Nick Shade to trust. Nick treats the terror of his past with vengeance. He's dedicated his life to hunting serial killers, and he'd give up his last breath to save Bobbie. When a string of killings bloodies Savannah's elite society and causes cold cases to resurface, Bobbie is captured in a city more haunted than Nick's inescapable nightmares. And as the murderer strikes close, Nick and Bobbie will need to become even closer if they're going to survive.

ORDER # U817-15   $13-90   ISBN 9780778330301

Victor is the ultimate predator. He surfaces to kill, then disappears into thin air. But he's a disposable commodity for the powerful people he works for - both the good guys and the bad. And no one has his back. Especially now that doing black bag jobs for the CIA has put a target on his head. Antonio Alvarez, a high-ranking US intelligence official, is determined to clean house and find the legendary killer who slipped away from him during an operation in Paris. There's only one person Victor can turn to for help: a lethal female assassin whose life he once saved. And now Victor wants her to return the favor - by killing him.

ORDER # U817-16   $13-90   ISBN 9780399584886

The Taskforce has stopped countless terrorist threats across the globe, operating outside of U.S. law to prevent the death of innocents. But now, along the fault lines of the old Iron Curtain, the danger is far greater than a single attack. With Russia expanding its influence from Syria to the Baltic States, the Taskforce is placed on stand-down because of the actions of one rogue operator. Meanwhile, Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill travel to Poland, hired to verify artifacts hidden for decades in a fabled Nazi gold train, only to find themselves caught amid growing tensions between East and West. A Russian incursion into Belarus under the facade of self-defense is trumped by a horrific attack against the United States, driving NATO to mobilize even as it tries to determine who is behind the strike. On the brink of war, Pike and Jennifer discover that there is a separate agenda in play, one determined to force a showdown between NATO and Russia. With time running out, and America demanding vengeance, Pike and Jennifer race to unravel the mystery before a point of no return is reached. Unbeknownst to them, there is another attack on the way - one that will guarantee World War III.

ORDER # U817-17   $13-90   ISBN 9780451477200