With Father’s Day just three days away, you might be feeling a jolt of panic as you suddenly realize you’ve yet to pick up a gift for your dad (or husband, if you have children). Fear not, because here at The Real Book Spy we’ve done all the hard work and heavy lifting for you.
Browse through our list of last minute book ideas, all of which are sure to make your dad a happy camper this weekend, and purchase either by clicking on one of the links (if you buy today, Amazon will have your order here by Saturday) or finding the selected title in a bookstore near you!
Foreign Agent – Brad Thor
This is the easiest, best-case scenario book on the list, and for several reasons. First of all, Foreign Agent just came out Tuesday, so the timing is right. There’s a strong chance he hasn’t read it and, even if he’s never read any of Thor’s books before, he can jump right in without missing a beat.
When a CIA safe-house in Iraq is ambushed, a leak somewhere inside the world’s most notorious spy agency is suspected. For Scot Harvath, Thor’s protagonist, it’s personal. It was, after all, Harvath’s informant who gave the information that sent the CIA operatives to Iraq in the first place.
Fueled by guilt and anger, Harvath sets out to avenge the fallen Americans and soon finds himself squaring off with one of Russia’s most deadly players. Meanwhile, ISIS continues their barbaric acts, and even manage to carry out an attack on the front steps of the White House.
With bodies piling up at an alarming rate, Scot Harvath must work against the clock to find the leak and shut them up, permanently.
Trust me, this is a can’t-miss story that will thrill your dad and buy you a few brownie points in the process. Best of all, you can get it right now (while the sale lasts) on Amazon for less than $15.00!
Liberty’s Last Stand – Stephen Coonts
The president of the United States stands on an outdoor stage, flanked by powerful members of his administration and party. Television crews are preparing for broadcast. High above the stage, on a nearby rooftop, a decorated sniper adjusts the scope on his rifle.
Afterwards, America will never be the same.
Jake Grafton and Tommy Carmellini suddenly find themselves on the wrong side of the law when a public act of violence throws the country into chaos just before a presidential election. After martial law is declared and rioting begins, Grafton and Carmellini must risk everything to unravel a massive conspiracy and help a new resistance movement rise up against an unimaginable enemy…
This is, without question, the most politically charged, provocative and politically incorrect book I’ve ever read…and I loved every single page. If your dad loves thrillers and is into politics, especially if he’s conservative, make sure to grab him a copy of Liberty’s Last Stand.
Off The Grid – C.J. Box
Not sure what kind of books your dad enjoys? That’s fine, C.J. Box has you covered. His latest novel, Off The Grid, will thrill a wide and diverse group of readers. Box is one of the premier storytellers alive today, and everything he writes is must-read material.
Nate Romanowski, a former special forces soldier, is living on the run and off the grid. Past events landed Nate on the FBI’s radar, and now he’s a wanted fugitive.
Staying in a small cabin with his girlfriend, smack-dab in the middle of nowhere, Nate shuns electricity and lives off the land in an effort to evade all means of government tracking. One slip up costs him, though, as government agents eventually locate and come after him.
To Nate’s surprise, the agents don’t want to arrest him, though they will if he rejects their offer. Instead, they give Nate a chance to clear his name. But to do that, he has to find a person of interest and figure out whether or not he’s a viable threat to national security. Nate sets off into the Red Desert, the last known location of his target, having had a vivid premonition of the dangerous events that are about to unfold.
Meanwhile, Joe Pickett, a Wyoming Game Warden, and everyday family man, gets called into a meeting with Governor Rulon–whom Joe used to work for as a “special Liaison To The Executive Branch.” As it turns out, Rulon heard about the Feds strongarming Romanowski, Joe’s close friend, into doing them a favor.
Upset that they didn’t get permission from him to come into Wyoming and act like cowboys, Rulon wants Joe to go find Nate and figure out what’s going on.
As Joe wonders around the vastness of the Red Desert, searching tirelessly for his friend who, unbeknownst to him is tracking a potential terrorist, neither man knows just how much danger their in. Their only chance at surviving is to find each other before it’s too late, and team up to stop the bad guys from carrying out a highly planned, coordinated attack on U.S. soil.
If your dad is the outdoorsy type, he has to read this book! And even if he’s not, well, get it for him anyways. I’ve never camped a day in my life, and C.J. Box is still one of my very favorite authors.
Overwatch – Matthew Betley
When Logan West impulsively answers a dead man’s ringing phone, he triggers a global race against the clock to track down an unknown organization searching for an Iraqi artifact that is central to a planned attack in the Middle East—one that will draw the United States into a major conflict with Iran.
Logan, a former Marine officer, is quickly contracted as a “consultant” to assist the FBI as part of a special task force bent on stopping the shadowy operatives, whatever the cost. The battles are nonstop, from the plains of the Midwest, to mansions in northern Mexico, to the war-torn Al-Anbar province, pitting an international team against trained mercenaries employed by the world’s largest private security contractor…whose owner has a personal vendetta against the US government. Meanwhile, Logan is battling his own demons, especially the trauma of the ambush that his Force Recon unit suffered at an insurgent torture compound in Fallujah in 2004, which threatens to destroy everything he holds dear.
With high-stakes and fully-realized characters, Overwatch is a thriller unlike any you’ve read before: deftly plotted, up-to-the-minute, and impossible to put down.
While Overwatch is only Betley’s first novel, it’s already taken the political thriller genre by storm. if you’re looking to start your dad on a new series, here you go!
Fool Me Once – Harlan Coben
Personally, Coben’s Fool Me Once is my favorite book of the year–and I cannot imagine anyone topping it. If you’re looking for a book that your dad will love and talk about for months on end, this is it.
When Maya, a black-ops pilot, returns home from serving in the Middle East, she struggles with a bout of PTSD from one of her last missions. Already struggling to adjust to civilian life, things take a dark turn when her husband, Joe, is murdered in cold blood.
Two weeks after Joe’s funeral, Maya is trying to hold it all together for her two-year-old daughter… and then the unthinkable happens. While watching footage from a newly installed nanny cam, which was recorded a day prior, Maya see’s Joe sitting in her living room and playing with their daughter.
Unable to trust her own eyes, Maya sets out to uncover the truth about Joe. But to do that, she has to face her own demons and deal with the skeletons in her closet.
Fool Me Once is a blistering, nail-biting thriller that will have you (or your dad) fooled far more than once. Oh, and as a bonus, tell him the book is going to be made into a major motion picture, starring Julia Roberts as Maya.
Into The Lions Mouth – Larry Loftis
On a cool August evening in 1941, a Serbian playboy created a stir at Casino Estoril in Portugal by throwing down an outrageously large baccarat bet to humiliate his opponent. The Serbian was a British double agent, and the money―which he had just stolen from the Germans―belonged to the British. From the sideline, watching with intent interest was none other than Ian Fleming…
The Serbian was Dusko Popov. As a youngster, he was expelled from his London prep school. Years later he would be arrested and banished from Germany for making derogatory statements about the Third Reich. When World War II ensued, the playboy became a spy, eventually serving three dangerous masters: the Abwehr, MI5 and MI6, and the FBI.
On August 10, 1941, the Germans sent Popov to the United States to construct a spy network and gather information on Pearl Harbor. The FBI ignored his German questionnaire, but J. Edgar Hoover succeeded in blowing his cover. While MI5 desperately needed Popov to deceive the Abwehr about the D-Day invasion, they assured him that a return to the German Secret Service Headquarters in Lisbon would result in torture and execution. He went anyway…
Into the Lion’s Mouth is a globe-trotting account of a man’s entanglement with espionage, murder, assassins, and lovers―including enemy spies and a Hollywood starlet. It is a story of subterfuge and seduction, patriotism, and cold-blooded courage. It is the story of Dusko Popov―the inspiration for James Bond.
If your dad is into nonfiction, this should be your top target on the list. Loftis wrote this like a thriller, but it’s actually a biography of the double-agent who’s the real-life inspiration for James Bond!