Utah Bob #35998 Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 Thinking of some action/mystery books. 1. Jack Reacher series by Lee Child. 2. Quinn Colson series by Ace Atkins. 3. Peter Ash series by Nick Petrie. Reacher - Veteran Colson - Veteran Ash - Veteran Remember when about the only veterans portrayed in fiction, both books and movies, were not heroes but drooling psycho murderers? I do. Times change eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Riot Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 I thought this was going to be a thread about certain cable news channels... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Father Kit Cool Gun Garth Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 Nancy Drew as a last resort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 I'm re-reading Stephen Coonts "Jake Grafton" series; Flight of the Intruder, The Intruders, Final Flight, The Minotaur, Under Siege, The Red Horseman.... and a slew of others. Definitely no shortage of action. Coonts was an A-6 pilot himself, and is quite a good writer - in my not so humble opinion. His first book, Flight of the Intruder, was made into a movie. The book was much better. I have an old friend who was a Command Master Chief with an Intruder squadron, and he got to do some "technical advising" for the film. No offense, Mike, but the book was still better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tex Jones, SASS 2263 Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 Stephen Leather, a British writer I believe, has written a series of books about an SAS trooper, which are fun. I haven't seen them in book stores (only one B&N near me), but they are on Amazon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LawMan Mark, SASS #57095L Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 Been on a L'Amour binge lately. A lot of his heroes are veterans. Callaghen, Chantry, Tell Sackett... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irish Pat Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 Stephen hunter writes a series of sniper fictions with the main character being a former Vietnam man era marine sniper. They’re all great. Also Robert Parker has a series based on two Marshall’s in the 1870 s . The movie Appaloosa was based on one of these Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joke 'um Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 Try Marshall Harrison's books if you get the chance. A USAF FAC in Vietnam, his autobiographical A Lonely Kind of War reads as fast as the best novels. Leaving Borgado is fiction but as realistic as the bio book. He occasionally falls for the usual foibles like; "the smell of cordite . . " in the air, changing clips in the M-16, and A/3/5 as a Marine rifle company. You can ignore those and have a great read. Highly recommended. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dantankerous Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 Stephen Hunter series with the Bob Lee Swagger character... great stuff. Vietnam Vet. Netflix has taken the book story and adapted it to work with an Iraqi War veteran. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyrel Cody Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 Brad Thor's Scott Harvath series is good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utah Bob #35998 Posted September 21, 2019 Author Share Posted September 21, 2019 My point was..... Never mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpo Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 19 hours ago, Utah Bob #35998 said: Remember when about the only veterans portrayed in fiction, both books and movies, were not heroes but drooling psycho murderers? Was you thinking of Mack Bolan, The Executioner? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 Posted September 22, 2019 Share Posted September 22, 2019 4 hours ago, Alpo said: Was you thinking of Mack Bolan, The Executioner? I always liked him. There was always a LARGE selection of him in the Base Exchange. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utah Bob #35998 Posted September 22, 2019 Author Share Posted September 22, 2019 2 hours ago, Alpo said: Was you thinking of Mack Bolan, The Executioner? No Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Harley, #14153 Posted September 22, 2019 Share Posted September 22, 2019 Stephen Hunter’s been mentioned already. Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan is a vet who became president through the books’ run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Rick Posted September 22, 2019 Share Posted September 22, 2019 23 hours ago, Utah Bob #35998 said: Thinking of some action/mystery books. 1. Jack Reacher series by Lee Child. 2. Quinn Colson series by Ace Atkins. 3. Peter Ash series by Nick Petrie. Reacher - Veteran Colson - Veteran Ash - Veteran Remember when about the only veterans portrayed in fiction, both books and movies, were not heroes but drooling psycho murderers? I do. Times change eh? Well, Sly is still trying to milk Rambo... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utah Bob #35998 Posted September 22, 2019 Author Share Posted September 22, 2019 My initial point was that in the years following Vietnam, vets were almost always portrayed as psychotic blood lust-crazed villains. I remember how pissed off I used to get every time the cops on a show would be tracking down an ex-Green Beret weapons expert whacko who had karate chopped a bunch of nuns on his way to blow up the Statue of Liberty. Meanwhile I remembered all the film noir movies of the late 40s and 50s where the dashing private eyes were all vets and brought the killers to justice. Times have changed thank goodness. I hope they don’t swing back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tex Jones, SASS 2263 Posted September 22, 2019 Share Posted September 22, 2019 10 hours ago, Utah Bob #35998 said: My initial point was that in the years following Vietnam, vets were almost always portrayed as psychotic blood lust-crazed villains. I remember how pissed off I used to get every time the cops on a show would be tracking down an ex-Green Beret weapons expert whacko who had karate chopped a bunch of nuns on his way to blow up the Statue of Liberty. Meanwhile I remembered all the film noir movies of the late 40s and 50s where the dashing private eyes were all vets and brought the killers to justice. Times have changed thank goodness. I hope they don’t swing back. I get your point. Nowadays, the go to bad guy is a PO or fed agent or a military officer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rye Miles #13621 Posted September 22, 2019 Share Posted September 22, 2019 Read The Reckoning by John Grisham, the main character is a WW2 hero. Something goes terribly wrong though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dusty Wyatt Posted September 22, 2019 Share Posted September 22, 2019 Let us not forget about good old Walter Longmire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt. James H. Callahan Posted September 23, 2019 Share Posted September 23, 2019 I like Tom Clancy's character John Clark/Kelly. SSSSNNNAKE! JHC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Harley, #14153 Posted September 23, 2019 Share Posted September 23, 2019 1 minute ago, Capt. James H. Callahan said: I like Tom Clancy's character John Clark/Kelly. SSSSNNNAKE! JHC One of the only books I’ve read three times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shootin' Shu Posted September 23, 2019 Share Posted September 23, 2019 Daniel Silva.. You won't be disappointed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yul Lose Posted September 23, 2019 Share Posted September 23, 2019 Ben Coes books featuring Dewey Andreason are pretty good page turners also. He’s a veteran also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-BAR #18287 Posted September 23, 2019 Share Posted September 23, 2019 I guess John Sandford’s “Prey” series (Rules Of Prey, Eyes Of Prey, etc). featuring Lucas Davenport as an LEO in Minnesota is an exception; Davenport is not a veteran. But these are all good reads. Do them in order of publication so the background makes sense. Sandford is better than most authors on gun stuff. Not perfect, but better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shotgun Willie Nelson Posted September 24, 2019 Share Posted September 24, 2019 On 9/21/2019 at 11:14 AM, Dantankerous said: Stephen Hunter series with the Bob Lee Swagger character... great stuff. Vietnam Vet. How about Bob Lee's Pop, Earl? Another great Hunter character. Tough nut (WWII Marine First Sargent) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shotgun Willie Nelson Posted September 24, 2019 Share Posted September 24, 2019 On 9/21/2019 at 9:54 PM, Chief Rick said: Well, Sly is still trying to milk Rambo... The newest is Rambo, Last Blood... Saw the trailer [insert puke emoticon here.] Hopefully it is the LAST... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yul Lose Posted September 24, 2019 Share Posted September 24, 2019 1 hour ago, Shotgun Willie Nelson said: How about Bob Lee's Pop, Earl? Another great Hunter character. Tough nut (WWII Marine First Sargent) Dirty White Boys is one of my favorite Hunter books. I met my sons ship coming back from the D Day 50th anniversary for a Tiger Cruise and was just finishing the book and gave it to him to read. He passed it around to his shipmates and said a few of them became Hunter fans after reading it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Constable Nelson #11784 Posted September 27, 2019 Share Posted September 27, 2019 The book is almost always better.... for fairly obvious reasons....(movies can't be 11 hours long lol) BUT... my current favourite movie... which started as a book..is "The Martian". One can go from book to film and back without anguish..... helps that the author was one of the screenwriters I suppose.. IMO they did a GREAT job of harnessing the SPIRIT of the book and putting it onscreen..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Four-Eyed Buck,SASS #14795 Posted September 27, 2019 Share Posted September 27, 2019 I read an awful lot of the Executioner books at one time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarge Posted September 28, 2019 Share Posted September 28, 2019 I like the Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series by Robert Crais. Also veterans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pulp, SASS#28319 Posted September 28, 2019 Share Posted September 28, 2019 I liked Dirty White Boys, but living in Lawton for several years makes me think he didn’t do a lot of research on the area. For example there were no tattoo shops in Oklahoma in that time frame. If you wanted a tat you either went out of state, or had it done illegally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yul Lose Posted September 29, 2019 Share Posted September 29, 2019 17 hours ago, Pulp, SASS#28319 said: I liked Dirty White Boys, but living in Lawton for several years makes me think he didn’t do a lot of research on the area. For example there were no tattoo shops in Oklahoma in that time frame. If you wanted a tat you either went out of state, or had it done illegally. It is fiction. Probably trying to add a little color to the story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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