Marines in Fiction

The United States Marine Corps were founded on November 10th, 1775 - 244 years ago today.  Here are ten novels that feature marines as characters.

Carolina Man by Virginia Kantra - Marine Luke Fletcher is determined to do his duty-first to his country and now to his ten-year-old daughter, the unexpected legacy of a high school girlfriend. But his homecoming to Dare Island in North Carolina's Outer Banks challenges his plans for the future and forces him to face everything that's missing in his life. He wasn't prepared to lose his heart to this child he never knew. Or to fall hard for coolly reserved small town lawyer Kate Dolan.
Former military brat Kate knows Marines can make lousy fathers . . . and she's got the scars to prove it. Giving her heart to a man who's bent on leaving seems one sure way to have it broken.
Now, no matter what it takes, Luke must prove to Kate and to his daughter that Semper Fi is more than a motto-and to himself that there's more than one way to be a hero.  Book 3 of 5 in the Dare Island series

Collateral by Ellen Hopkins - Meet Ashley, a graduate student at San Diego State University. She was raised in northern California reading poetry and singing backupin her best friend's band. The last thing she ever expected was to end up a military wife. But one night, she meets a handsome Marine named Cole. He doesn't match the stereotype of the aggressive military man she'd always presumed to be true; he's passionate and romantic, and he even writes poetry. Their relationship evolves into a deeply felt, sexually charged love affair that goes on for five years and survives four deployments. Cole desperately wants Ashley to marry him, but when she meets another man, a college professor, with similar professional pursuits and values, she begins to see what life might be like outside the shadow of war.

Deadly Catch by E. Michael Helms - After twenty-four years in the marines, Mac McClellan is happy to be a civilian again and let others take charge, but that's not going to happen until he clears his name as the number one suspect in a murder. When recently retired U.S. Marine Mac McClellan hooks a badly decomposed body while enjoying a leisurely fishing vacation in the Florida panhandle, and then a bag of rare marijuana is discovered stashed aboard his rental boat, he realizes someone is setting him up to take the fall for murder and drug smuggling. Mac and Kate Bell, a feisty saleslady at the local marina with whom he has struck up a promising relationship, launch an investigation to clear his name. Along the way Mac must butt heads and match wits with local law enforcement officials, shady politicians, and strong-armed thugs from the Eastern Seaboard to sniff out and bring the real smugglers and killer to justice.  Book 1 of 4 in the Mac McClellan Mysteries 

Fives and Twenty-Fives by Michael Pitre - It's the rule--always watch your fives and twenty-fives. When a convoy halts to investigate a possible roadside bomb, stay in the vehicle and scan five meters in every direction. A bomb inside five meters cuts through the armor, killing everyone in the truck. Once clear, get out and sweep twenty-five meters. A bomb inside twenty-five meters kills the dismounted scouts investigating the road ahead. Fives and twenty-fives mark the measure of a marine's life in the road repair platoon. Dispatched to fill potholes on the highways of Iraq, the platoon works to assure safe passage for citizens and military personnel. Their mission lacks the glory of the infantry, but in a war where every pothole contains a hidden bomb, road repair brings its own danger. Lieutenant Donavan leads the platoon, painfully aware of his shortcomings and isolated by his rank. Doc Pleasant, the medic, joined for opportunity, but finds his pride undone as he watches friends die. And there's Kateb, known to the Americans as Dodge, an Iraqi interpreter whose love of American culture--from hip-hop to the dog-eared copy of Huck Finn he carries--is matched only by his disdain for what Americans are doing to his country. Returning home, they exchange one set of decisions and repercussions for another, struggling to find a place in a world that no longer knows them.

Free-Fire Zone by Chris Lynch - Morris, Rudi, Ivan, and Beck are best friends for life. So when one of the teens is drafted into the Vietnam War, the others sign up, too. Although they each serve in a different branch, they are fighting the war together -- and they promise to do all they can to come home together.
Rudi is perhaps the most concerned about whether or not he'll be able to keep that promise. After all -- and he'd be the first to admit this -- he's not the most capable guy. He's not smart like Beck, or brave like Ivan. He lacks the strength of Morris's moral convictions.
But once Rudi is pulled kicking and screaming into the Marines, he at last finds something he's good at: following orders. Will that be enough to keep him alive? And if he does survive the war, will his best friends even recognize him on the other side?  Book 3 of 5 in the Vietnam series 

Island of Sweet Pies and Soldiers by Sara Ackerman - Hawaii, 1944. The Pacific battles of World War II continue to threaten American soil, and on the home front, the bonds of friendship and the strength of love are tested. Violet Iverson and her young daughter, Ella, are piecing their lives together one year after the disappearance of her husband. As rumors swirl and questions about his loyalties surface, Violet believes Ella knows something. But Ella is stubbornly silent. Something--or someone--has scared her. And with the island overrun by troops training for a secret mission, tension and suspicion between neighbors is rising. Violet bands together with her close friends to get through the difficult days. To support themselves, they open a pie stand near the military base, offering the soldiers a little homemade comfort. Try as she might, Violet can't ignore her attraction to the brash marine who comes to her aid when the women are accused of spying. Desperate to discover the truth behind what happened to her husband, while keeping her friends and daughter safe, Violet is torn by guilt, fear and longing as she faces losing everything. Again.

Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter - He was one the best Marine snipers in Vietnam. Today, twenty years later, disgruntled hero of an unheroic war, all Bob Lee Swagger wants to be left alone and to leave the killing behind. But with consummate psychological skill, a shadowy military organization seduces Bob into leaving his beloved Arkansas hills for one last mission for his country, unaware until too late that the game is rigged. The assassination plot is executed to perfection--until Bob Lee Swagger, alleged lone gunman, comes out of the operation alive, the target of a nationwide manhunt, his only allies a woman he just met and a discredited FBI agent. Now Bob Lee Swagger is on the run, using his lethal skills once more--but this time to track down the men who set him up and to break a dark conspiracy aimed at the very heart of America. Book 1 of 11 in the Bob Lee Swagger series 

Raid by Kristen Ashley - Hanna Boudreaux has lived in the small town of Willow all her life. She's sweet, cute and quiet.Hanna has a moment of epiphany when she realizes her crush for forever, Raiden Ulysses Miller, is not ever going to be hers. She sees her life as narrow and decides to do something about it.Raiden Miller is the town's local hero. A former Marine with the medal to prove his hero status, he comes home, shrouded in mystery. It takes a while, but eventually Hanna catches his eye.After all these years of Raid and Hanna living in the same town, the question is why? Is Raid interested in Hanna because she's sweet and cute? Or does Raid have something else going on? Book 3 of 5 in the Unfinished Hero series 

Semper Fido by C. Alexander London - When Gus Dempsey joins the US Marine Corps, he knows without a doubt that he will make a great dog handler. He's always been good with dogs. In fact, he's often better with dogs than he is with people.
But Loki is not the dog that Gus was expecting. Fun-loving and playful, Loki acts more like a pet than the well-trained, bomb-sniffing Marine that he's supposed to be.
When Gus and Loki deploy to Afghanistan, though, they have no choice but to learn to work together. Because in war, getting along is a matter of life and death.  Book 1 of 4 in the Dog Tags series 

Splintered Silence by Susan Furlong - Among the Irish Travellers living in the Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee, no one forgets and no one forgives. And as former Marine MP Brynn Callahan finds out when she returns home, it's hard to bury the past when bodies keep turning up . . . After an IED explosion abruptly ends her tour of duty, Brynn arrives stateside with PTSD and her canine partner, Wilco--both of them bearing the scars of battle. With a mix of affection, curiosity, and misgivings, she goes back to Bone Gap, Tennessee, and the insular culture she'd hoped to escape by enlisting in the Marine Corps. Marginalized and wary of outsiders, the Irish Travellers keep to themselves in a secluded mountain community, maintaining an uneasy coexistence with the "settled" townspeople of McCreary. When Wilco's training as a cadaver dog leads Brynn to discover a body in the woods, the two worlds collide. Soon it's clear that Brynn and Wilco are in danger - and they're not the only ones. After the police identify the dead woman, Brynn is shocked to learn she has a personal connection--and everything she's been told about her past is called into question. Forming a reluctant alliance with local sheriff Frank Pusser, Brynn must dig up secrets that not only will rattle her close-knit clan to its core, but may forever change her perception of who she is . . . and put her back in the line of fire. Book 1 of 3 in the Bone Gap Travelers