Publisher: Grand Central
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 08/12/2010
ISBN-13: 9780446195614
ISBN-10: 0446195618

Corporate Thriller. In this up-to-the-minute thriller, a small, struggling company has developed a game-changing paint. Game-changing paint, you say? Sounds as fun as watching the stuff dry, right? But you'd be wrong--this is an armor-reinforcing polymer that makes Humvees indestructible, meaning billions of dollars in profits from U.S. military contracts. So Jack Wiley, a veteran and senior V.P. at a private equity firm, convinces a larger corporation to start a takeover with himself at the helm. Unsurprisingly, with such a big payoff, there are other interests and other agendas...which is where spying, blackmail, and other dirty tricks come into play. Suspenseful and page-turning, The Capitol Game is likely to be the 1st in a new series.

Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 08/03/2010
ISBN-13: 9780307393999
ISBN-10: 0307393992

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Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 08/03/2010
ISBN-13: 9780307269775
ISBN-10: 0307269779

Corporate Thriller. On a wintry evening in Manhattan in 2003, 12-year-old Kyle Wallace was abducted on his way to the video store. Seven years later, his still-grieving family is no closer to learning what happened to him when his father, successful oil-industry analyst Mark Wallace, is presented with several important pieces of information, a new natural-gas pipeline is sabotaged, and a lead opens up in the search for Kyle. Somehow, these seemingly unrelated bits and pieces are all tied together, but getting to the bottom of it all might cost Mark his life--or his family. As the tension mounts, so does the danger, making The Garden of Betrayal a great choice for thriller fans.

Publisher: Crown Publishers
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/06/2010
ISBN-13: 9780307588920
ISBN-10: 0307588920

Suspense Fiction. Former NYPD detective Dave Gurney has retired to rural New York to please his wife, who's really had it up to here with his dedication to his job. But the peace and quiet is doomed to be short-lived, as Dave gets pulled back into service when an old friend reaches out after receiving terrifying threats from an angry and anonymous individual who seems to have an uncanny ability to read minds. Needless to say, Dave's wife's not too happy when he becomes a consultant on the case after the psycho's first victim meets a gruesome end. With a strong sense of place, vivid characterizations, and "a wonderfully baffling crime" (Booklist), this is one of those debuts you won't want to miss.

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South African writer Deon Meyer is known for page-turning crime novels that capture a society in flux; bold plots, complex social issues, racial tensions, well-drawn and often likable protagonists, and the ability to bring Cape Town to life are all part of his appeal. Other South Africa-set novels like those by Richard Kunzmann, Sam Cole, and Roger Smith are obvious choices, but there are other authors who might be equally appropriate, though not always for such clear reasons. Read on to find a few--and keep an eye out for Meyer's latest, Thirteen Hours.

Publisher: Grand Central
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/02/2006
ISBN-13: 9780446699532
ISBN-10: 0446699535

Police Procedural. Michael Connelly doesn't set his books in South Africa, so you'd be forgiven for wondering how this book got on this list. It turns out that Deon Meyer is a huge fan of Connelly's, calling City of Bones "the most perfect crime novel I've ever read" and Connelly himself "the best in the world, absolutely." City of Bones, which is the award-winning 8th in the series starring maverick LAPD detective Harry Bosch, deals with child abuse and with Harry's reaction to the case of a 12-year-old boy murdered after a lifetime of abuse, and buried for 20 years. Check out Meyer's website for more of his favorite books.

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Publisher: Harcourt
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/02/2007
ISBN-13: 9780151011827
ISBN-10: 0151011826

Psychological Suspense. Much like Deon Meyer's South Africa, Karin Fossum's Norway is a society in transition--it (like other Scandinavian countries) is facing the opening of its borders and the influx of outsiders. This is crystal clear in The Indian Bride, as people in the tiny town of Elvestad are waiting to meet local bachelor Gunder Jomann's new bride--whom he married after a two-week trip to India. But the girl never makes it to town--and Inspector Konrad Sejer (this is his 4th appearance) is asked to investigate the brutal murder of a mystery woman just outside town. If you can face a drastically different setting, you might want to give Karin Fossum--or Swedish author Henning Mankell--a try.

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Publisher: Soho
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/01/2010
ISBN-13: 9781569476291
ISBN-10: 1569476292

Suspense Fiction. Like Deon Meyer, debut author Jassy Mackenzie has set her gritty novel (published earlier this year) in post-apartheid South Africa. Female PI Jade de Jong has returned to Johannesburg (after ten years in England following her policeman father's murder), where her father's former partner has hired her to look into a violent car-jacking that ended in a woman's execution-style death. As Jade gets closer to the truth, she's harassed by several interested parties, adding to the tension. Fans will look forward to the next installment, due out next year.

Publisher: Henry Holt
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 03/03/2009
ISBN-13: 9780805088755
ISBN-10: 080508875X

Crime Fiction. Jack Burn fled to Cape Town, South Africa, after a bank robbery he was forced to participate in went horribly wrong and a police officer was killed. He, his pregnant wife, and their four-year-old son are settling in well until their home is broken into by gang members, whom Jack is forced to kill in order to protect his family. Since Jack's a wanted man, calling the cops is out, so he hides the bodies, which in turn puts him in the sights of a psychopathic and very corrupt cop. If you like Deon Meyer's South Africa-set novels, you're sure to appreciate Roger Smith's skill at bringing Cape Town's racial tensions and menacing underworld to life.

Publisher: Bantam Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/31/2005
ISBN-13: 9780553804157
ISBN-10: 0553804154

Suspense Fiction. For five years, bartender Billy Wiles has waited patiently for his comatose girlfriend Barbara to wake up. His quiet life, however, comes rapidly to an end when he discovers a note under his car's windshield wiper that offers him a choice: take the note to the police and the note's author will kill an elderly charity worker, or do nothing and a pretty young schoolteacher will die. When Billy does nothing more than show the note to a friend (who happens to be a cop), a schoolteacher is beaten to death. More notes appear, asking Billy to make more and more difficult choices--and these choices are hitting closer to home. This nail-biting story is "genuinely terrific" (Booklist).

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Publisher: Little, Brown
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 08/01/2008
ISBN-13: 9780316016766
ISBN-10: 0316016764

Suspense Fiction. Working as an interpreter and translator for British Intelligence as well as several corporations, Bruno "Salvo" Salvador, the son of an Irish father and Congolese mother, is doing well enough in a British society that didn't necessarily welcome him with open arms. But he finds himself in a dicier-than-usual situation when he's asked to work in the field, translating for a group of mysterious Africans. And that's before he realizes that mineral wealth is really why so many people are interested in stabilizing the Congolese region politically. Along with his Congolese mistress, Salvo is determined to do what's right--but determining what that is is no easier than doing it.

Publisher: Signet
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 02/03/2009
ISBN-13: 9780451226112
ISBN-10: 0451226119

Crime Thriller. By day, Suzanne Jones is a middle school history teacher, but by night she uses a mask and a derringer to rob and plunder with glee (she gives part of her haul to charity, as she believes she's descended from a 19th-century Mexican version of Robin Hood). The public loves it, but things go sour when she witnesses the bloody slaying of ten gangsters, takes off with their (stolen) diamonds, and is stopped by a cop. The head gangster wants his diamonds back, the assassin knows he had a witness, and the cop? Well, that's complicated. This fast-paced, jam-packed tale "may well be Parker's best" (Publishers Weekly).

Publisher: Penguin Group USA
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 03/06/2007
ISBN-13: 9780451220714
ISBN-10: 0451220714

Psychological Thriller. Although Kill Me features clinical psychologist Alan Gregory in his 4th appearance, the real focus of this story is on one of his patients, a wealthy adventure-seeker who has taken the unusual step of hiring a shadowy organization to end his life should that life become a burden to him or his family due to illness or injury. Sounds great, if a little murky--until the unnamed patient is given a medical diagnosis that triggers the nonnegotiable contract but still leaves him healthy enough to try to evade his own hired hitmen long enough to put his life in order. His ordeals are "bizarre, thrilling, and oh so much fun" (Booklist).