Reading Ahead: January 2017, part 2

January is brimming with great thrillers sure to get your blood pumping!

Below the Belt, by Stuart Woods. Fans of Woods's long-running Stone Barrington series will be delighted with a new installment so close on the heels of 2016's Sex, Lies, and Serious Money. Newly ensconced in his Santa Fe abode with a lovely female companion, Stone Barrington receives a call from an old friend requesting a delicate favor. A situation has arisen that could escalate into an explosive quagmire, and only someone with Stone’s stealth and subtlety can contain the damage. At the center of these events is an impressive gentleman whose star is on the rise, and who’d like to get Stone in his corner. He’s charming and ambitious and has friends in high places; the kind of man who seems to be a sure bet. But in the fickle circles of power, fortunes rise and fall on the turn of a dime, and it may turn out that Stone holds the key not just to one man’s fate, but to the fate of the nation.

Ring of Fire, by Brad Taylor. In this, book eleven in Taylor's popular Pike Logan series (following 2016's Ghosts of War), readers are plunged into the desperate tale of a defense contractor, who panics when the
 the Panama Papers burst onto the public scene. Providing insight into the illicit deeds of offshore financing, they could prove his undoing. To prevent the exposure of his illegal activities, he sets in motion a plan to interdict the next leak, but he is not the only one worried about spilled secrets. The data theft has left the Taskforce potentially vulnerable, leaving a trail that could compromise the unit. Back in the good graces of the new president, Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill are ordered to interdict the next leak as well, in order to control the damage.