“Crime novelist Raymond Chandler was widely acknowledged in his day as the Poet Laureate of The Dark Side (he looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food cake). He died in 1959 and ever since there have been many pretenders to his throne. Among the best are James M. Cain, Elmore Leonard, Robert B. Parker, James Lee Burke—all masters of the craft, all wordsmiths of the first order, but none of them had Chandler’s gifts. After half a century of being on the lookout for a crime fiction writer with a voice that rivals Chandler’s, one has finally appeared, quietly chugging his way up the bestseller lists with Darkness Bound, Whisper of the Seventh Thunder, Serpent’s Dance, and Bait and Switch. His name is Larry Brooks. The guy has a slick tone and a crackling, cynical wit with lots of vivid descriptions (of both interior and exterior landscapes), and the sparkling figures of speech dance off the page and explode in your inner ear. Though as modern as an iPad 5S, he is truly and remarkably Chandleresque. He’s dazzling. ”
—James N. Frey, author of How to Write a Damn Good Novel
Winner: Best Thriller 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Awards
When committed agnostic Gabriel Stone’s wife dies in an unlikely airline disaster, he pours himself into the writing of a story that has haunted him since his youth―a novel his devout wife had warned him never to finish. Inspired by a visit to the island of Patmos, he is fascinated with the visions beheld there by St. John The Divine while in political exile for his beliefs. Those visions included terrifying events delivered by what John described as “seven thunders,” which he was instructed to withhold, to seal up and “write them not” (Revelation 10:4). As Stone becomes entrenched in his speculative interpretation of what those visions might have been, an embedded code within the Book of Revelation itself reveals startling connections to covert operations that are about to tear the world’s political landscape to shreds, perhaps signaling the beginning of the prophesied end of times.
As Stone’s novel nears publication, he finds himself the pawn in a war between superpowers and supernatural forces, each hoping to control the book, each driven by hidden agendas beyond Stone’s comprehension. Facing choices that are at once spiritual and life-dependent, with global stakes pivoting on his ability to accept the unbelievable and stop the unthinkable,
The Seventh Thunder is a secular thriller that stops at nothing short of our very souls hanging in the balance, while ringing frighteningly relevant to today’s headlines.
2017 Turner Publishing
Deadly Faux
The Sequel to the Critically-Acclaimed Bait and Switch.
Wolfgang Schmitt is back, is biding his time, unsure how to spend the millions he scored after his recent undercover mission for the FBI. Complicating matters is the fact that he might be called in for a new case. If it’s off the books and calls for a touch of seduction, Wolf is the man for the job.
But, in Wolf’s words, shit-storms come in threes. On the same day Wolf is visiting his mother in a nursing home, he makes three troubling discoveries: the place is going under and he may need to step in; the stash in his offshore account has completely vanished; and the promising new woman in his life is actually a Fed, vetting him for another undercover gig. His mission: to entrap a casino-owning couple suspected of involvement with the organized crime factions piping untold amounts of money through the gambling mecca’s glamorous underworld. All of this seems nearly impossible to pull off, probably illegal as hell, and if this is anything like his last gig, nothing is as it seems.
Full of crime, passion, and betrayal, Deadly Faux finds Wolf cornered in a dangerous undercover mission in Sin City, forced to use his wits, charm, and gambler’s luck to survive in the dark underbelly of Las Vegas.
“An absolute must read, Deadly Faux is guaranteed entertainment. In Wolfgang Schmitt, Larry Brooks has created a wise-cracking protagonist who is witty, resourceful, intelligent, and, most surprisingly, vulnerable. Brooks plunges Wolf into a seemingly unwinnable caldron involving Las Vegas casinos, the mob, and femme fatales, then turns the heat up high. I finished Deadly Faux in one sitting, couldn’t put it down, and can’t wait to read the next book. Step aside Nelson DeMille and Stuart Woods—Schmitt happens!”” —Robert Dugoni, New York Times bestselling author of The Jury Master
2013 Turner Publishing
Bait and Switch
Publishers Weekly Raves:
Starred Review
Best Books of the Month
Best Books of 2004
Wolfgang Schmitt, ex-underwear model, self-proclaimed wisecrack, and cynical copywriter turned undercover agent, is biding his time, unsure how to spend the millions he scored after his recent undercover mission for the FBI. Complicating matters is the fact that he might be called in for a new mission; if it’s off the books and calls for a touch of seduction, Wolf is the man for the job.
But, in Wolf’s words, shit-storms come in threes. On the same day Wolf is visiting his mother in a nursing home, he makes three troubling discoveries: the place is going under and he may need to step in; the stash in his offshore account has completely vanished; and the promising new woman in his life is actually a Fed, vetting him for another undercover gig. His mission: to entrap a casino-owning couple suspected of involvement with the organized crime factions piping untold amounts of money through the gambling mecca’s glamorous underworld. All of this seems nearly impossible to pull off, probably illegal as hell, and if this is anything like his last gig, nothing is as it seems.
Full of crime, passion, and betrayal, Deadly Faux finds Wolf cornered in a dangerous undercover mission in Sin City, forced to use his wits, charm, and gambler’s luck to survive in the dark underbelly of Las Vegas.
2004 Signet/Penguin-Putnam
2013 Turner Publishing (trade paperback)
Serpent's Dance
“I can’t do this book justice in a review. Serpent’s Dance is roller coaster thrill ride of intrigue, betrayal, and deceit. Highly recommend.”
-Sue Coletta, award-winning novelist and fiction blogger
This sexy thriller delves into the dark relationship between a vengeful woman and her sister’s possible murderer.
Bernadette Kane never believed that her sister committed suicide. And what she heard about her sister’s mysterious lover, Wesley Edwards, made her suspect the worst. With his good looks, private jet, and successful career, he could turn a girl’s head. And get away with murder.
Bernadette plans to seduce Wesley, using her wits to gain his confidence, and discover the evidence she needs to bring him down. First, she will have to submit to whatever Wesley wants and become a willing pawn in his twisted games.
Buried inside the millionaire’s inner sanctum are secrets that go farther than Bernadette could ever have imagined, plunging her into the same nightmare that trapped her sister. The choice between revenge and survival will decide the outcome of Bernadette’s final—and most dangerous—game.
2003, Signet/Penguin-Putnam
2013 Turner Publishing (trade paperback)
Pressure Points
A review by Publishers Weekly
Performance seminars have long been the bane of the corporate world, yet few authors have explored them in fiction to the candid degree that Brooks (Darkness Bound) does here. The first third of this addictive thriller introduces Brad Teeters, Mark Johnson and Pamela Wiley, three dedicated yet bitter senior employees at Wright & Wong, a successful Seattle-based ad agency. When the trio propose to buy out the firm, Wong agrees, stipulating that all three employees must first attend The Seminar, a week-long retreat for executives at a secluded site in northern California. In detailed prose, Brooks captures the first 60 hours of The Seminar, during which facilitators simulate airplane crashes and hostage takeovers in an effort to teach inner strength and trust. But when one of The Seminar’s mind games goes awry, Teeters, Johnson and Wiley become unwittingly ensnared in an evil scheme masterminded by Wong and Beth, Teeters’s sexy, manipulative wife. Beth, who up to this point has been a secondary character, becomes the focal point of an intricate conclusion involving betrayed friendships, apparent suicides and kinky sex games. A master of terror and suspense, Brooks crafts his characters with care, lending them opaque dimensions that make them appear both sympathetic and loathsome.
2002 Onyx/Penguin-Putnam
2013 Turner Publishing (trade paperback)
Darkness Bound
The USA Today Bestseller
A review by Publishers Weekly
Teasingly erotic, Brooks’s first novel is that rarest of sexual thrillers, in which the sex isn’t gratuitous but a convincing means to an end. Unfortunately, the book’s erotic cover may cause horror/thriller fans to overlook this title on the bookshelf. What begins as a way for Seattle stockbroker Dillon Masters to live out his sexual fetishes turns into a high-stakes game of strategy and deceit, in which the prize is life. The players in this game are few–including Masters, his wife, his mysterious lover (whom he calls the “”Dark Lady””), her husband, a detective, a psychiatrist and a lawyer friend of Masters–but the many extremes each takes to destroy the others are shocking. Midnight phone calls, secret dalliances and dangerous play-acting ensue until Masters realizes he’s caught in a complex scam and could be pegged for murder. The novel’s final scenes burst with the intensity of a first-rate horror film, and it’s difficult to detect a loophole in the intricate plot.
2000 Onyx/Penguin-Putnam
2013 Turner Publishing (trade paperback)