83 books like The Twelfth Imam

By Joel C. Rosenberg,

Here are 83 books that The Twelfth Imam fans have personally recommended if you like The Twelfth Imam. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Operation Joktan

Luana Ehrlich Author Of One Night in Tehran: A Titus Ray Thriller

From my list on international espionage intertwined with faith.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was eleven years old when I read my first adult spy novel. I was only able to get my hands on it after receiving permission from my father, who brought home three to four espionage books from the library every week. By the time I was halfway through the book, I was hooked on the genre forever. Since faith plays an important role in my life, I’m always delighted to discover authors whose books reflect a strong belief system yet who can tell a compelling, action-packed adventure without sounding preachy.

Luana's book list on international espionage intertwined with faith

Luana Ehrlich Why did Luana love this book?

I love thrillers with in-depth character development and realistic situations involving clandestine operations, and this book hits both of those marks.

This is the first book in a three-book series featuring the Mossad, the Israeli foreign intelligence service. I’ve always been fascinated by books that give me a behind-the-scenes look at how an intel agency operates and the tech gadgets that make the business of spying possible, and these authors describe both extremely well while giving me insights into how a Messianic Jew lives out his faith. 

By Amir Tsarfati, Steve Yohn,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Operation Joktan as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A USA Today and Publishers Weekly Bestseller
#1 Fiction (ECPA) Christian Bestseller

"It was the perfect day-until the gunfire."

Nir Tavor is an Israeli secret service operative turned talented Mossad agent.

Nicole le Roux is a model with a hidden skill.

A terrorist attack brings them together, and then work forces them apart-until they're unexpectedly called back into each other's lives.

But there's no time for romance. As violent radicals threaten chaos across the Middle East, the two must work together to stop these extremists, pooling Nicole's knack for technology and Nir's adeptness with on-the-ground missions. Each heart-racing step of…


Book cover of Shadow Operative

Luana Ehrlich Author Of One Night in Tehran: A Titus Ray Thriller

From my list on international espionage intertwined with faith.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was eleven years old when I read my first adult spy novel. I was only able to get my hands on it after receiving permission from my father, who brought home three to four espionage books from the library every week. By the time I was halfway through the book, I was hooked on the genre forever. Since faith plays an important role in my life, I’m always delighted to discover authors whose books reflect a strong belief system yet who can tell a compelling, action-packed adventure without sounding preachy.

Luana's book list on international espionage intertwined with faith

Luana Ehrlich Why did Luana love this book?

I love thrillers with a bit of romance mixed in with them, although I don’t want the romantic elements to overwhelm the story, and this book’s focus is definitely on the story’s intense action, with the romance only adding depth to the characters.

This book is the first book in the Shadow Agency series and introduces the protagonist, an agency operative, and a female employee of a tech firm who could possibly be a murderer but who ultimately helps the operative find the real killer by relying on her faith in God. While the plot sounds predictable, it wasn’t, which is something I really enjoy in a thriller.

What keeps me reading past midnight is an unanticipated twist—this novel had several of those—along with another one of my favorites, an unpredictable ending. 

By Christy Barritt,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Shadow Operative as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

She woke with blood on her hands, a dead man beside her, and no memory of how she got there . . .

As CEO of a successful technology firm, Nia Anderson routinely makes split-second decisions. But now, every choice she makes could lead to life in prison or to her own untimely death. She knows freedom lies in finding the real killer. But the evidence is stacked against her, and just when Nia thinks things can’t get any worse, everything spins even more out of control.

Trained by the military in a top-secret program and now an operative for…


Book cover of The Warrior Spy

Luana Ehrlich Author Of One Night in Tehran: A Titus Ray Thriller

From my list on international espionage intertwined with faith.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was eleven years old when I read my first adult spy novel. I was only able to get my hands on it after receiving permission from my father, who brought home three to four espionage books from the library every week. By the time I was halfway through the book, I was hooked on the genre forever. Since faith plays an important role in my life, I’m always delighted to discover authors whose books reflect a strong belief system yet who can tell a compelling, action-packed adventure without sounding preachy.

Luana's book list on international espionage intertwined with faith

Luana Ehrlich Why did Luana love this book?

I love thrillers that tell the story of a group of operatives who must work together under the leadership of a strong central figure in order to accomplish a difficult mission, and from the opening chapter, I knew this novel would be exactly that.

This is the first book in the Warrior Spy Thriller Series. While I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the hero of the story, Delta Force operator, Reagan Rainey, who is temporarily assigned to a CIA entity, I was also fascinated by the other members of his special ops team, not only because of their unique personalities, but also by the way Rainey was able to share his faith with them without sounding preachy and to remind me of how grateful I am to live in America.

By Dony Jay,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Warrior Spy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The CIA has a problem. Its best clandestine operatives keep turning up dead. And now, as if things couldn't get any worse, a Defense Department scientist, specializing in high-energy lasers, has gone missing. America needs answers. And fast. Delta Force operator Reagan Rainey, on temporary duty assignment with a secret CIA entity known as Directorate Twelve, is tasked to do just that--get answers. But to do so, he not only has to outwit and outmaneuver a dangerous cabal of foreign actors believed to be at the center of it all, he must contend with a deadly assassin who is bent…


Book cover of Lion of Babylon

Luana Ehrlich Author Of One Night in Tehran: A Titus Ray Thriller

From my list on international espionage intertwined with faith.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was eleven years old when I read my first adult spy novel. I was only able to get my hands on it after receiving permission from my father, who brought home three to four espionage books from the library every week. By the time I was halfway through the book, I was hooked on the genre forever. Since faith plays an important role in my life, I’m always delighted to discover authors whose books reflect a strong belief system yet who can tell a compelling, action-packed adventure without sounding preachy.

Luana's book list on international espionage intertwined with faith

Luana Ehrlich Why did Luana love this book?

I love thrillers that teach me about the culture of the Middle East, but it’s rare to find a novel that also includes how Christianity can be shared with such cultures. However, both of these are present in this novel, which is what makes the story so enjoyable.

This is book one in the Marc Royce Thriller Series and features intel officer, Marc Royce who’s sent on a secret mission to Iraq. Since I don’t like too much description in a novel, I admire Davis Bunn’s ability to portray the setting in this story, while not neglecting the characters and dialogue. There’s also a faith element to the narrative, which adds a lot of depth to the plot.

By Davis Bunn,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Lion of Babylon as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Marc Royce works for the State Department on special assignments, most of them rather routine, until two CIA operatives go missing in Iraq--kidnapped by Taliban forces bent on generating chaos in the region. Two others also drop out of sight--a high-placed Iraqi civilian and an American woman providing humanitarian aid. Are the disappearances linked? Rumors circulate in a whirl of misinformation.

Marc must unravel the truth in a covert operation requiring utmost secrecy--from both the Americans and the insurgents. But even more secret than the undercover operation is the underground dialogue taking place between sworn enemies. Will the ultimate Reconciler…


Book cover of On the Beach

Justin Oldham Author Of Crisis at the Kodiak Starport

From my list on the environmental impacts of war.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was a child of the Cold War. When the 20th Century ended, many of my peers and I thought we’d put the specter of annihilation behind us. As much as I’ve always been a fan of all things post-apocalyptic, I must acknowledge that we now face new threats that are just as much of our own making as the nuclear nightmare was. When I think about the future, I don’t see or foresee a dark and dismal end. I envision a bright future that will be a lot harder to achieve than we ever thought. I look forward to creating heroes and heroines who can make that future possible.

Justin's book list on the environmental impacts of war

Justin Oldham Why did Justin love this book?

As dark and depressing as this Cold War cautionary tale is, the author’s use of creeping ecological doom in the aftermath of a world-shattering war was profound to me. The story is told from several points of view by characters who have different motivations. I found their choices to be just as understandable as they were heartbreaking. This isn’t a “happily ever after” story. Even so, I found myself appreciating the whole story, from start to end.

By Nevil Shute,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked On the Beach as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Pearson English Readers bring language learning to life through the joy of reading.



Well-written stories entertain us, make us think, and keep our interest page after page. Pearson English Readers offer teenage and adult learners a huge range of titles, all featuring carefully graded language to make them accessible to learners of all abilities.



Through the imagination of some of the world's greatest authors, the English language comes to life in pages of our Readers. Students have the pleasure and satisfaction of reading these stories in English, and at the same time develop a broader vocabulary, greater comprehension and reading…


Book cover of The Explorers

Theodore Irvin Silar Author Of Five Moral Tales

From my list on short story novel collections.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have a Ph.D. in English from Lehigh University, where I studied and published articles on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, one of the greatest short fiction collections. I have written and published a number of short stories myself. I even won a contest for one of them. The tale told around the campfire is probably the oldest literary form there is, much older than the novel. The best short fiction, I believe, can “pack everything that a novel can hold into a story,” as Jorge Luis Borges said, and this is the kind of short fiction I believe I have found.

Theodore's book list on short story novel collections

Theodore Irvin Silar Why did Theodore love this book?

I first read The Explorers when I was a child. I delighted in it then and still do. Its style got to me first. A real literary style. Some of the stories are hard-boiled, Raymond Chandler in space. Some poetic. But so much better than most clunky SF. And also, so unconventional This is not Azimov. Rather than space opera, we get a scientist drunk, bemoaning his “contributions” to space flight. Instead of wondrous inventions, we get cheesy computer art. Brainless generals celebrate nuclear war. Well-written, unusual, simultaneously funny and sad, The Explorers is a masterpiece of 50s SF.

By C.M. Kornbluth,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Explorers as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Ballantine Books, 1963. Mass market paperback, stated 2nd printing (with cover exactly as shown here, cover code #F708, and 50 cent cover price). Collects 9 stories: Gomez (1954); The Mindworm (1950); The Rocket of 1955 (1939); The Altar at Midnight (1952); Thirteen O'Clock (1941); The Goodly Creatures (1952); Friend to Man (1951); With These Hands (1951); That Share of Glory (1952). Foreword by longtime collaborator Frederik Pohl.


Book cover of The Camel Club

Rick Simonds Author Of Operation: Midnight

From my list on thrillers revealing government conspiracies.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have long had an interest in government conspiracies and have spent hundreds of hours researching the many experiments our government has foisted upon an unsuspecting populous. When the Church Committee released info on Projects MK Ultra, Bluebird, Artichoke, and others, people were stunned to realize what had been going on. Movies such as The Matrix dealt with mind control and the attempt to create the perfect soldier, and I am convinced such research and experimentation continues today.

Rick's book list on thrillers revealing government conspiracies

Rick Simonds Why did Rick love this book?

Because I enjoy reading about government conspiracies, I love this book, which features a group that has been assembled to study conspiracies. When a murder is committed, it leads to their own conspiracy machinations with government involvement.

As usual in Baldacci’s writing, the characters are unique and engaging. In many books, there is one protagonist that drives the action, but in this book, it is this eclectic group that strives to find the truth.

By David Baldacci,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Camel Club as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

After witnessing a shocking murder, four conspiracy theorists team up with a Secret Service agent to uncover the government corruption that threatens to cause an international terrorism crisis in this New York Times bestselling thriller.

Welcome to THE CAMEL CLUB.

Existing at the fringes of Washington, D.C., the Club consists of four eccentric members. Led by a mysterious man known as "Oliver Stone," they study conspiracy theories, current events, and the machinations of government to discover the "truth" behind the country's actions. Their efforts bear little fruit--until the group witnesses a shocking murder...and becomes embroiled in an astounding, far-reaching conspiracy.…


Book cover of The Revolution that Failed: Nuclear Competition, Arms Control, and the Cold War

Paul C. Avey Author Of Tempting Fate: Why Nonnuclear States Confront Nuclear Opponents

From my list on nuclear weapons’ implications for politics.

Why am I passionate about this?

It’s common to talk about why you love the subject you research. I have no love for nuclear weapons. They are, however, central to understanding international politics since 1945. The nuclear age is one of inconsistencies. Nuclear weapons drive many crises but may make major wars between nuclear states less likely. They generate reassurance and anxiety among allies in almost equal measure. The books in this list all grapple with the nuclear shadow’s shape and scale. Most combine an analytical framework with historical study, but all are attuned to theory and strategy. As for me, I’m an associate professor at Virginia Tech, where I research and teach on international relations. 

Paul's book list on nuclear weapons’ implications for politics

Paul C. Avey Why did Paul love this book?

I got this book for the incisive presentation and critique of the nuclear revolution thesis. I stayed for the original theory and detailed history. The chapters on the Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations provided me with a new understanding of that era. For the nuclear revolution, the superpower behavior of the late Cold War was either irrational or driven by domestic pathologies. Green shows that there was a cold strategic logic and domestic political awareness behind U.S. policy. American leaders tailored arms control in ways that allowed them to continue competing and indeed gain an advantage against the Soviet Union.

By Brendan Rittenhouse Green,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Revolution that Failed as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The study of nuclear weapons is dominated by a single theory - that of the nuclear revolution, or mutual assured destruction (MAD). Although such theorists largely perceive nuclear competition as irrational and destined for eventual stalemate, the nuclear arms race between superpowers during the second half of the Cold War is a glaring anomaly that flies in the face of this logic. In this detailed historical account, Brendan Green presents an alternate theoretical explanation for how the United States navigated nuclear stalemate during the Cold War. Motivated by the theoretical and empirical puzzles of the Cold War arms race, Green…


Book cover of Down to a Sunless Sea

Justin Oldham Author Of Crisis at the Kodiak Starport

From my list on the environmental impacts of war.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was a child of the Cold War. When the 20th Century ended, many of my peers and I thought we’d put the specter of annihilation behind us. As much as I’ve always been a fan of all things post-apocalyptic, I must acknowledge that we now face new threats that are just as much of our own making as the nuclear nightmare was. When I think about the future, I don’t see or foresee a dark and dismal end. I envision a bright future that will be a lot harder to achieve than we ever thought. I look forward to creating heroes and heroines who can make that future possible.

Justin's book list on the environmental impacts of war

Justin Oldham Why did Justin love this book?

The concept of life and death after a world war is given a twist when cold and darkness are more lethal than nuclear, chemical, or biological residues. Many of the most prominent characters are civilian airline pilots and other aviation professionals. I’ve spent much of my life around military and civil aviation. I don’t encounter characters like these very frequently. I like the way the author drew upon the knowledge and skills of these people to save humanity’s future.

By David Graham,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Down to a Sunless Sea as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The six hundred passengers and crew members aboard a jumbo jetliner are left without a destination and a country when nuclear war breaks out and spreads devastation around the world.

A collapsed economy and an increasingly savage society were causing thousands to abandon America. Captain Jonah Scott was a pilot, hired to fly some lucky refugees to London. But once in the air, nuclear war broke out, and Scott became responsible for the entire human race!


Book cover of Warday

Justin Oldham Author Of Crisis at the Kodiak Starport

From my list on the environmental impacts of war.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was a child of the Cold War. When the 20th Century ended, many of my peers and I thought we’d put the specter of annihilation behind us. As much as I’ve always been a fan of all things post-apocalyptic, I must acknowledge that we now face new threats that are just as much of our own making as the nuclear nightmare was. When I think about the future, I don’t see or foresee a dark and dismal end. I envision a bright future that will be a lot harder to achieve than we ever thought. I look forward to creating heroes and heroines who can make that future possible.

Justin's book list on the environmental impacts of war

Justin Oldham Why did Justin love this book?

As much as I enjoy the imagery and metaphors associated with large-scale devastation, I also like to imagine how we mere mortals could survive what we have caused. This author takes the time to depict a very humane post-apocalyptic struggle in ways that I still admire. Once you get past the pain and suffering, there’s a lot of hope and optimism on these pages.

By Whitley Strieber, James Kunetka,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Warday as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Five years after a "limited" nuclear war, two survivors journey across America. They — and you — will discover what is left of our way of life: the depth of the devastation — and the hopes of a new society desperately struggling to be born.

From Edward Kennedy to Playboy magazine, readers have praised Warday as an absorbing, suspenseful novel — and an important book for every American to read.

"A first-rate novel, as real as snapshots of tomorrow. And as scary." — New York Daily News

"Haunting … horrifying … engrossing … an all too believable look at what…


Book cover of Operation Joktan
Book cover of Shadow Operative
Book cover of The Warrior Spy

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