7 Action-Packed Political Thrillers to Help You Relax and Unwind

Set against the assassination of JFK, a poignant and evocative crime novel that centers on a desperate cat-and-mouse chase across 1960s America—a story of unexpected connections, daring possibilities, and the hope of second chances from the Edgar Award-winning author of The Long and Faraway Gone.

The first of a trilogy, this dazzling debut is centered on the suspicious death of the Garland family patriarch, a disgraced judge who was considered for the Supreme Court. It's up to his son to uncover the truth, even if it means risking everything he holds dear.

On his last combat deployment, Lieutenant Commander James Reece’s entire team was killed in a catastrophic ambush that also claimed the lives of the aircrew sent in to rescue them. But when those dearest to him are murdered on the day of his homecoming, Reece discovers that this was not an act of war by a foreign enemy but a conspiracy that runs to the highest levels of government.

Now, with no family and free from the military’s command structure, Reece applies the lessons that he’s learned in over a decade of constant warfare toward avenging the deaths of his family and teammates. Reece targets his enemies in the upper echelons of power without regard for the laws of combat or the rule of law.

The Terminal List cautions against the seduction of absolute power and those who would do anything to achieve it. This book is perfect for fans of Vince Flynn, Brad Thor, Stephen Hunter, and Nelson DeMille.

Master spy George Smiley must uncover a Soviet operative in the British Secret Intelligence Service. This is considered one of the greatest political thrillers of all time. John Le Carré actually worked for MI6, so he knows his stuff!

Most people still don't realize that before House of Cards was a Netflix series, it was a BBC series. And before that, it was an intense novel about power and corruption at the highest levels of the British government, with Francis Urquhart stopping at nothing to become the prime minister.

Francine Mathews takes the genre to a whole new level and introduces Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, as the main character of his own novel, one in which he is a British Naval Intelligence Officer who must foil a Nazi plot to assassinate FDR, Churchill, and Stalin.

Amazon is rolling out its second season of the Jack Ryan series on August 31st. But before he was the star of several novels (and played by several actors in the adaptations), Jack Ryan first appeared in Clancy's debut novel about a rogue Russian submarine captain and the CIA analyst who believes the captain is attempting to defect to America.

Eric Van Lustbader continues Robert Ludlum's classic series about Jason Bourne with this high-adrenaline thriller about how the death of a Russian operative reveals his secret plot to steal the nuclear codes from the United States government. It's up to Bourne to discover who is continuing the plot before it is too late.