Online Books - EBooks Online

The Lost Symbol

In this stunning follow-up to the global phenomenon The Da Vinci Code , Dan Brown demonstrates once again why he is the world's most popular thriller writer. The Lost Symbol is a masterstroke of storytelling—a deadly race through a real-world labyrinth of codes, secrets, and unseen truths .

Altar of Eden

Following the fall of Baghdad, two Iraqi boys stumble upon armed men looting the city zoo. The floodgates have been opened for the smuggling of hundreds of exotic birds, mammals, and reptiles to Western nations, but this crime hides a deeper secret. Amid a hail of bullets, a concealed underground weapons lab is ransacked—and something even more horrific is set free. Seven years later, Louisiana state veterinarian Lorna Polk stumbles upon a fishing trawler shipwrecked on a barrier island. The crew is missing or dead, but the boat holds a frightening cargo: a caged group of exotic animals, clearly part of a black market smuggling ring. Yet, something is wrong with these beasts, disturbing deformities that make no sense: a parrot with no feathers, a pair of Capuchin monkeys conjoined at the hip, a jaguar cub with the dentition of a saber-toothed tiger. They also all share one uncanny trait—a disturbingly heightened intelligence. To uncover the truth about the origin of this strange cargo and the terrorist threat it poses, Lorna must team up with a man who shares a dark and bloody past with her and is now an agent with the U.S. Border Patrol, Jack Menard. Together, the two must hunt for a beast that escaped the shipwreck while uncovering a mystery tied to fractal science and genetic engineering, all to expose a horrifying secret that traces back to humankind's earliest roots. But can Lorna stop what is about to be born upon the altar of Eden before it threatens not only the world but also the very foundation of what it means to be human?

The Ghost War

CIA agent John Wells returns, in a novel that reaches beyond today's headlines to foretell dangers yet to come, from the author of The Faithful Spy- "one of the best spy stories ever told" (The Wall Street Journal). Alex Berenson's 2006 debut was one of the most acclaimed suspense novels of the year, "the best spy thriller in a long, long while" (The Kansas City Star). The Ghost War proves that he is no longer a brilliant newcomer but a master of the art. In The Faithful Spy, John Wells became the only American CIA agent ever to penetrate al-Qaeda, but his handlers became distrustful of him, and he of them. He had to stop a devastating terrorist attack nearly alone. Now Wells is back in Washington. His wounds have healed, but his mind is far from clear. He is restless, uneasy in his skin, and careless with his safety. When the CIA finds evidence of a surge in Taliban activity, backed by an unknown foreign power, it takes little to convince Wells to return to Afghanistan to investigate. But what he discovers there is far from what he expected. A deadly power play in China, a mission to North Korea gone terribly wrong, an Iran determined to go nuclear, a mole within the ranks of the CIA who is about to light a fuse, the consequences of which he cannot possibly understand-the world is hurtling toward confrontation. And, this time, there may be nothing John Wells can do to stop it. Real-world threats, authentic details, a scenario as dramatic as it is plausible-The Ghost War is another "timely reminder of the extremely precarious way we live now" (The Washington Post).

The Orpheus Deception

CIA cleaner Micah Dalton returns for another go-round of international espionage, government cover-ups, and high-intensity pursuit that has cemented this series in the best of spy fiction. The Orpheus Deception opens with a breathtaking assassination attempt on the rainy streets of Venice that sets CIA agent Micah Dalton on a collision course with a vengeful Serbian warlord. Picking up where The Echelon Vendetta left off-with Dalton on the run from the CIA-this "Venetian incident" with the Serbian attackers ultimately leads to a tangled web of conspiracies. Dalton tries to uncover the links between an act of brutal piracy in the South China Sea, a missing CIA agent, and the real nature of an elusive hospital ship known only as The Orpheus. As he seeks to unlock the shattering secret that binds such deceptions together, Dalton is once again ensnared in an international chase that takes him from Venice to Bangkok to Washington, D.C., and finally to a violent confrontation with Serbian terrorists in the Port of Chicago.

The Lucifer Gospel

In the desert of North Africa, Finn Ryan stumbles upon a seventy-year-old plane wreck—and a shocking revelation that threatens to unravel an entire faith... Young archaeologist Finn Ryan and charismatic pilot and photographer Virgil Hilts are scouring the Sahara for the long-lost tomb of an apostle. But they find something they weren’t looking for: signs of a decades-old murder, along with an ancient Roman medallion bearing the infamous name of a fallen archangel. It doesn’t take long for them to realize that they’ve found a piece of a much bigger puzzle—and a trail of clues that could get them killed. Forced to flee from a relentless enemy, Finn and Virgil are pursued across the globe. From the sinister ruins of an ancient monastery to a sunken ship in the Caribbean, the two desperately search for a truth that can save their lives, but might shake the foundations of history...

Excavation

The South American Jungle Guards Many Secrets... and a remarkable site nestled between two towering Andean peaks, hidden from human eyes for thousands years. Dig Deeper... through layers of rock and mystery, through centuries of dark, forgotten legends. Into Ancient Catacombs... where ingenious traps have been laid to ensnare the careless and unsuspecting; where earth-shattering discoveries -- and wealth beyond imagining -- could be the reward for those with the courage to face the terrible unknown. Something is Waiting here where the perilous journey ends, in the cold, shrouded heart of a breathtaking necropolis; something created by Man, yet not humanly possible. Something wondrous. Something terrifying.

Sandstorm

Nationally bestselling author James Rollins has transported readers to the dark heart of the Amazon, the bowels of the earth, far below the ocean, and the top of the world. Now he embarks upon his most gripping and terrifying adventure yet: to a nightmare buried beneath a treacherous desert wasteland. An inexplicable explosion rocks the antiquities collection of a London museum -- a devastating blast that sets off alarms in clandestine organizations around the world, as the race begins to determine how it happened, why it happened, and what it means.

Opening Atlantis

New York Times bestselling author Harry Turtledove has intrigued readers with such thought-provoking "what if..." scenarios as a conquered Elizabethan England in Ruled Britannia and a Japanese occupation of Hawaii in Days of Infamy and End of the Beginning. Now, in the first of a brand-new trilogy, he rewrites the history of the world with the existence of an eighth continent... Atlantis lies between Europe and the East Coast of Terranova. For many years, this land of opportunity lured dreamers from around the globe with its natural resources, offering a new beginning for those willing to brave the wonders of the unexplored land.