"Everyone dies. What difference does it make if a few bad apples get pushed along a little sooner than God intended? And your wife, for example, seems like the kind worth killing." ~ from Peter Swanson's The Kind Worth Killing |
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| The Second Life of Nick Mason: A Novel by Steve HamiltonCrime Fiction. Rumors abound that this intriguing novel is a series debut; fans of brooding anti-heroes are likely to hope the rumors are true. Imprisoned for a crime he didn't actually commit, Nick Mason has accepted a dubious offer: get out 20 years early and live a life of comfort...if he agrees to follow the orders of an incarcerated criminal without question. As the demands placed on him get ever more unconscionable, and more dangerous, Nick is increasingly ready to go straight. But of course it's not that easy. Set in Chicago, this novel "moves like a bullet train," with "gin-clear prose that all but sucker punches the reader" (Booklist). |
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| I Let You Go by Clare MackintoshPsychological Suspense. This twisty debut offers the sort of surprises that make it easy to say too much, so let's stick with the set-up: a mother's life falls apart after her five-year-son is hit and killed by a driver who doesn't stop. The novel, which opens here, follows a devastated Jenna Gray as she leaves Bristol, England, for a small Welsh village, where she isolates herself in her grief. But though it's considered a cold case, DI Ray Stevens and rookie detective Kate Evans can't seem to let Jacob's death go either. Jumping between the ongoing investigation and Jenna's tentative life in Wales, this novel will appeal to Sophie Hannah's Simon Waterhouse and Charlie Zailer novels. |
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| Shadow War: A Tom Locke Novel by Sean McFate with Bret WitterMilitary Thriller. In this white-hot debut, private military contractor (read: mercenary) Tom Locke is ordered to abandon his arms-dealing in Libya for Ukraine, where he's to lead an assault against Russian forces and place a rich businessman in a position of power -- within five days. Without leading to a war between the U.S. and Russia, or getting himself and his team killed. Oh, and his boss has a secret agenda that doesn't take Locke's safety into account. Not surprisingly, things get hairy quickly. Fast-paced and action-packed, Shadow War offers plenty of realism -- author Sean McFate has a background in both the U.S. Army and in private contract work. |
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| An Honorable Man: A Novel by Paul VidichSpy Fiction. In this leisurely paced historical spy novel, it's 1953, the Cold War is underway, and the USSR has made dangerous inroads into the CIA, causing the deaths of several American agents. George Mueller is tasked with unearthing the double agent, code-named Protocol. But his investigation -- which includes making contact with a Soviet agent -- causes suspicion to fall on him, too. Inspired by the life of troubled spy James Speyer Kronthal, this debut is one for fans of John le Carré or Charles Cumming. |
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| Keep You Close: A Novel by Lucie WhitehousePsychological Suspense. As teenagers, Rowan Winter and Marianne Glass were best friends, but a terrible argument led to a complete estrangement. When Rowan hears that Marianne has died from a fall from her rooftop, she knows in her bones that the death could not have been accidental -- Marianne's vertigo meant she never would have gone near the edge. Determining whether it was suicide or murder forces Rowan to face her past -- and all she didn't know about Marianne. "Nail-biting," says Publishers Weekly. |
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| The Rules of Wolfe by James Carlos BlakeThriller. Eddie Wolfe's family is involved in a lot of shady activities across the Texas/Mexico border, but they do have a few rules -- no smuggling of drugs or people, and every family member must have a college degree before joining the family business. Impatient Eddie isn't willing to wait for the degree, so he heads to Mexico, where he gets a job working security for a drug cartel and falls for a beautiful girl. His imprudent actions soon have the lovers fleeing into the Sonora Desert with half the cartel hot on their heels, and help from the family whose rules he broke may not be forthcoming. "Violent, sexy and exciting," says Kirkus Reviews of this shortlist title for the Gold Dagger Award in 2015. |
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| Mr. Mercedes: A Novel by Stephen KingSuspense Fiction. Stephen King might be better known as a horror writer, but he's no slouch when it comes to crime fiction, either. In this trilogy opener (followed by Finders Keepers and the recently published End of Watch), an unhappy retired detective is given a reason to live by the very killer he was never able to capture. Bored by his own inactivity, the killer threatens to do even worse in a crazed letter, and a high-stakes game of cat and mouse, played out in American suburbia, quickly ensues. The 2015 winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award, Mr. Mercedes was also shortlisted for the Gold Dagger Award in that same year. |
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| Pleasantville by Attica LockeLegal Thriller. Fifteen years have passed since the events in Black Water Rising, when lawyer Jay Porter was anticipating the birth of his first child. Now, grieving his wife and caring for two kids while his law practice falls apart, Porter is barely scraping by. That's when he agrees to represent murder suspect Neal Hathorne. Neal's the nephew and campaign manager of a black mayoral candidate whose opponent just happens to be the DA whose office is prosecuting Neal. With nuanced characters, shifting and manipulative political allegiances, and a powerful black community, this is a sophisticated and satisfying legal thriller; it was shortlisted for the Gold Dagger Award in 2015. |
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| Free Falling, As If In a Dream: The Story of a Crime by Leif G.W. PerssonScandinavian Crime Fiction. Lars Martin Johansson is head of Sweden's National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, and he is obsessed with the unsolved murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986. Now, in 2007, he has reopened the case, perhaps to the detriment of his career, if not his life. The concluding volume in a trilogy that started with Between Summer's Longing and Winter's End, this exhaustively researched novel (based on a real crime) was shortlisted for the International Dagger in 2015. |
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| The Kind Worth Killing: A Novel by Peter SwansonPsychological Suspense. In this updated take on Patricia Highsmith's classic novel Strangers on a Train, an unhappily married man shares his secrets with a beautiful woman at an airport bar, never expecting to see her again. She, in turn, shares her unnerving theory that some people really are worth killing. What results is a twisted game of cat-and-mouse. Longlisted for the Gold Dagger and shortlisted for the Steel Dagger in 2015, this chilling novel is a great read if you like unreliable narrators, unlikeable characters, and multiple points of view (as in Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl). |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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