Category: cont1970-1990

First Blood (The novel that inspired Rambo)

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First Blood (The novel that inspired Rambo)
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From New York Times bestselling author, David Morrell, comes a classic thriller that introduced the character of Rambo, one of the most iconic action heroes of the twentieth century.

Called “the father of the modern action novel,” FIRST BLOOD changed the genre. Although the book and the film adaptation have similarities, they are very different, especially its unexpected ending and its greater intensity.If you’ve only experienced the film, you’re in for a surprise.

Once they were soldiers. Rambo, the ragged kid whose presence in town is considered a threat. And Teasle, the Chief of Police of Madison, Kentucky. Both have been trained to kill: Rambo in Vietnam, Teasle in Korea. They learned different military tactics, different ways of death and survival in two different wars.

Now, without warning, they are enemies in a civilian combat that becomes a chase through the woods and mountains and caves above the town. As we follow them, we understand that once a man has been trained as a killer, perhaps he is changed forever.

Award-winning FIRST BLOOD was published in 1972, was translated into 26 languages, and has never been out of print. It was one of the first novels to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Dirk Pitt Adventure Series by Clive Cussler

Pacific Vortex! (Dirk Pitt Adventure Series Book 1)
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Fully armed and with all hands on board, the nuclear submarine Starbuck sailed into the calm Pacific Ocean for sea trials – and vanished. No wreckage, no signals, no survivors: nothing . . . until ace maritime troubleshooter Dirk Pitt finds a single, chilling clue in the shark-torn surf off Hawaii – the log of the Starbuck.

‘Do not search for us, it can only end in vain . . . ‘ A crazed journal of madness and death is all that remains. And the Captain’s final, scrawled, fear-crazed note locates the Starbuck’s grave hundreds of miles from her last known position! The search for the Starbuck plunges Dirk Pitt into his most shattering assignment to date – a whirlpool of deep-sea mystery and terror – the Pacific Vortex!

‘Clive Cussler is the guy I read’ Tom Clancy

The first novel in Dirk Pitt series introducing this heroic protagonist, the number one on amazon has been written after and available only in audio here


‘Cussler is hard to beat’ Daily Mail

The thrilling first Dirk Pitt classic from multi-million-copy king of the adventure novel, Clive Cussler.

 

The Keep (The Adversary Cycle Book 1)

The Keep (The Adversary Cycle Book 1)
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The Keep is the first book in the Adversary Cycle from best-selling author F. Paul Wilson

“Something is murdering my men.”

Thus reads the message received from a Nazi commander stationed in a small castle high in the remote Transylvanian Alps. Invisible and silent, the enemy selects one victim per night, leaving the bloodless and mutilated corpses behind to terrify its future victims.

When an elite SS extermination squad is dispatched to solve the problem, the men find something that’s both powerful and terrifying. Panicked, the Nazis bring in a local expert on folklore – who just happens to be Jewish – to shed some light on the mysterious happenings. And unbeknownst to anyone, there is another visitor on his way – a man who awoke from a nightmare and immediately set out to meet his destiny.

The battle has begun: On one side, the ultimate evil created by man, and on the other…the unthinkable, unstoppable, unknowing terror that man has inevitably awakened.

The Tomb (Adversary Cycle/Repairman Jack Book 1)

The Tomb (Adversary Cycle/Repairman Jack Book 1)
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The Tomb kicks off the Repairman Jack series that Stephen King calls “one of the best all-out adventure stories I’ve read in years.”

Much to the chagrin of his girlfriend, Gia, Repairman Jack doesn’t deal with appliances. He fixes situations—situations that too often land him in deadly danger. His latest fix is finding a stolen necklace which, unknown to him, is more than a simple piece of jewelry.

Some might say it’s cursed, others might call it blessed. The quest leads Jack to a rusty freighter on Manhattan’s West Side docks. What he finds in its hold threatens his sanity and the city around him. But worst of all, it threatens Gia’s daughter Vicky, the last surviving member of a bloodline marked for extinction.

“One of the all-time great characters in one of the all-time great series.” –Lee Child

Eye of the Needle

Eye of the Needle
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The worldwide phenomenon from the best-selling author of The Pillars of the Earth, World Without End, A Column of Fire, and The Evening and the Morning

His code name was “The Needle.” He was a German aristocrat of extraordinary intelligence – a master spy with a legacy of violence in his blood, and the object of the most desperate manhunt in history….

But his fate lay in the hands of a young and vulnerable English woman, whose loyalty, if swayed, would assure his freedom – and win the war for the Nazis….

The Scarlatti Inheritance: by Robert Ludlum

The Scarlatti Inheritance: by Robert Ludlum
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First Robert Ludlum (the Bourne identity, Jason bourne)) novel

Her weapons: money and power. Her target: the most dangerous man in the world—her own son. Elizabeth Wyckham Scarlatti has a plan, a desperate, last-minute gamble designed to save the world from her son, Ulster, an incalculably cruel man who is working for the Third Reich under the name of Heinrich Kroeger. If Elizabeth cannot stop him, Ulster will give Hitler the most powerful instrument on earth.

Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

Salem's Lot by Stephen King
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Ben Mears has returned to Jerusalem’s Lot in hopes that exploring the history of the Marsten House, an old mansion long the subject of rumor and speculation, will help him cast out his personal devils and provide inspiration for his new book.

But when two young boys venture into the woods, and only one returns alive, Mears begins to realize that something sinister is at work.

In fact, his hometown is under siege from forces of darkness far beyond his imagination. And only he, with a small group of allies, can hope to contain the evil that is growing within the borders of this small New England town.

With this, his second novel, Stephen King established himself as an indisputable master of American horror, able to transform the old conceits of the genre into something fresh and all the more frightening for taking place in a familiar, idyllic locale.

The Sins of the Fathers (Matthew Scudder Mysteries)

The Sins of the Fathers (Matthew Scudder Mysteries)
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The pretty young prostitute is dead. Her alleged murderer—a minister’s son—hanged himself in his jail cell. The case is closed.

But the dead girl’s father has come to Matthew Scudder for answers, sending the unlicensed private investigator in search of terrible truths about a life that was lived and lost in a sordid world of perversion and pleasures.

The Day of the Jackal

The Day of the Jackal
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One of the most celebrated thrillers ever written, The Day of the Jackal is the electrifying story of an anonymous Englishman who in, the spring of 1963, was hired by Colonel Marc Rodin, operations chief of the O.A.S., to assassinate General de Gaulle.

France was infuriated by Charles de Gaulle’s withdrawal from Algeria, and there were six known attempts to assassinate the general that failed. This novel dramatizes the seventh, mostly deadly attempt, involving a professional killer for hire who would be unknown to the French Police. His code name was Jackal, his price half a million dollars, and his demand total secrecy, even from his employers.

Step by painstaking step, we follow the Jackal in his meticulous planning, from the fashioning of a specially made rifle to the devising of his approach to the time and the place where the general is to meet the Jackal’s bullet. The only obstacle in his path is a small, diffident, rumpled policeman, who happens to be considered by his boss the best detective in France: Deputy Commissaire Claude Lebel.

Kolchak novels by Jeff Rice + 2 new by C. J. Henderson

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The 2 original kolchak novels by Jeff Rice inspired the night stalker 1970 tv show

also supposedly inspired Chris Carter to create The X-Files

after more than three decades out of print, Kolchak’s creator Jeff Rice has released the original novels, The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler are together in one volume

the 2 original can be found here and here on kindle or both together as audiobook here

the 2 by C. J. Henderson can be found here and here

there is also a short stories collection by various authors here

edit : found a new one, Kolchak: Penny Dreadful Double Feature