As a result of the 4th of July falling right in the middle of it, there aren’t too many new books coming out this week. We do have 6 exciting mystery, suspense and historical fiction novels to help keep you reading while you’re waiting for the barbecue to start, so happy reading everyone, and happy Independence Day!
MYSTERY & SUSPENSE
Spymaster by Brad Thor
Across Europe, a secret organization has begun attacking diplomats. Back in the United States, a foreign ally demands the identity of a highly placed covert asset. In the balance hang the ingredients for all-out war.
With his mentor out of the game, counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath must take on the role he has spent his career avoiding. But, as with everything else he does, he intends to rewrite the rules—all of them.
Description from Goodreads.
“Timely, raw, and filled with enough action for two books, Spymaster is this summer’s must-read thriller and the most gripping novel of Brad Thor’s iconic career.” – The Real Book Spy
Available Formats:
Print Book | Audiobook | eBook
The Banker’s Wife by Cristina Alger
On an early morning in November, a couple boards a private plane bound for Geneva, flying into a storm. Soon after, it simply drops off the radar, and its wreckage is later uncovered in the Alps. Among the disappeared is Matthew Lerner, a banking insider at Swiss United, a powerful offshore bank. His young widow, Annabel, is left grappling with the secrets he left behind, including an encrypted laptop and a shady client list. As she begins a desperate search for answers, she determines that Matthew’s death was no accident, and that she is now in the crosshairs of his powerful enemies.
Meanwhile, ambitious society journalist Marina Tourneau has finally landed at the top. Now that she’s engaged to Grant Ellis, she will stop writing about powerful families and finally be a part of one. Her entry into the upper echelons of New York’s social scene is more appealing than any article could ever be, but, after the death of her mentor, she agrees to dig into one more story. While looking into Swiss United, Marina uncovers information that implicates some of the most powerful men in the financial world, including some who are too close to home. The story could also be the answer to Annabel’s heartbreaking search—if Marina chooses to publish it.
Description from Goodreads.
“Buckle up—The Banker’s Wife is an international thriller that moves at a breakneck pace, keeping you on the edge of your seat.” – PopSugar
“Alger perfectly nails her twisty plot, wrapping everything up in a completely satisfying ending. Readers will be eagerly turning the pages of this fast-paced financial thriller.” – Booklist
“Readers riding this international financial roller coaster will be kept on edge through its many twists and turns. Highly recommended for fans of fast-paced thrillers in the tradition of John Grisham.” – Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
Available Formats:
The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager
Two Truths and a Lie. The girls played it all the time in their tiny cabin at Camp Nightingale. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and first-time camper Emma Davis, the youngest of the group. The games ended when Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out of the cabin in the dead of night. The last she–or anyone–saw of them was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, hushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips.
Now a rising star in the New York art scene, Emma turns her past into paintings–massive canvases filled with dark leaves and gnarled branches that cover ghostly shapes in white dresses. The paintings catch the attention of Francesca Harris-White, the socialite and wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale. When Francesca implores her to return to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor, Emma sees an opportunity to try to find out what really happened to her friends.
Yet it’s immediately clear that all is not right at Camp Nightingale. Already haunted by memories from fifteen years ago, Emma discovers a security camera pointed directly at her cabin, mounting mistrust from Francesca and, most disturbing of all, cryptic clues Vivian left behind about the camp’s twisted origins. As she digs deeper, Emma finds herself sorting through lies from the past while facing threats from both man and nature in the present.
And the closer she gets to the truth about Camp Nightingale, the more she realizes it may come at a deadly price.
Description from Goodreads.
“Sager’s second thriller is as tense and twisty as [his] best-selling Final Girls (2017), but this one is even more polished, with gut-wrenching plot surprises skillfully camouflaged by Emma’s paranoia and confusion, the increasingly creepy setting, and a cast of intriguingly secretive characters.” – Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“No review will do this book justice. The author has done a fantastic job creating a tale that leaves you breathless. If not a fan yet, read this and you will be one for life!” – Suspense Magazine
“If you liked Final Girls, you will love Sager’s latest novel, which is a touch better and nearly impossible to put down…Even veteran readers of psychological suspense will be blindsided by the jarring conclusion.” – The Real Book Spy
Available Formats:
White River Burning by John Verdon
Tensions have been running high in White River as it approaches the anniversary of a fatal shooting of a black motorist by a local police officer. The racially polarized city is on edge, confronted with angry demonstrations, arson, and looting. In the midst of the turmoil, a White River police officer is shot dead by an unknown sniper. As the town spirals out of control, local authorities approach Dave Gurney to conduct an independent investigation of the shooting.
The situation in White River becomes truly explosive as more killings occur in what appears to be an escalating sequence of retaliations. But when Gurney questions the true nature of all this bloodshed, and zeroes in on peculiar aspects of the individual murders, his involvement is suddenly terminated. Obsessed with evidence that doesn’t support the official version of events, Gurney cannot let go of the case. Despite intense opposition from the police, as well as from dangerous fanatics lurking in the shadows, he begins to uncover an astonishing structure of deception—learning that nothing in White River is what it seems to be.
White River Burning is the most provocative and timely book yet by the author hailed by The New York Times as “masterly.”
Description from Goodreads.
“Outstanding . . . The twisty plot builds up to a logical and satisfying reveal. Verdon expertly combines a baffling whodunit with thoughtfully drawn characters in this timely examination of racial tensions.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Compelling . . . Verdon’s gripping, fast-paced police procedural will appeal to crime fiction readers with an interest in current events who enjoy David Baldacci, Michael Connelly, and Carrie Smith.” – Library Journal
Available Formats:
Safe Houses by Dan Fesperman
West Berlin, 1979. Helen Abell oversees the CIA’s network of safe houses, rare havens for field agents and case officers amidst the dangerous milieu of a city in the grips of the Cold War. Helen’s world is upended when, during her routine inspection of an agency property, she overhears a meeting between two people unfamiliar to her speaking a coded language that hints at shadowy realities far beyond her comprehension. Before the day is out, she witnesses a second unauthorized encounter, one that will place her in the sightlines of the most ruthless and powerful man at the agency. Her attempts to expose the dark truths about what she has witnessed will bring about repercussions that reach across decades and continents into the present day, when, in a farm town in Maryland, a young man is arrested for the double murder of his parents, and his sister takes it upon herself to find out why he did it.
Description from Goodreads.
“Prolific spy novelist Fesperman delivers another winner, this one as fiendishly clever as it is richly entertaining.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“This one is a doozy.” – Entertainment Weekly
Available Formats:
HISTORICAL FICTION
Dear Mrs. Bird by A.J. Pearce
London 1940, bombs are falling. Emmy Lake is Doing Her Bit for the war effort, volunteering as a telephone operator with the Auxiliary Fire Services. When Emmy sees an advertisement for a job at the London Evening Chronicle, her dreams of becoming a Lady War Correspondent seem suddenly achievable. But the job turns out to be typist to the fierce and renowned advice columnist, Henrietta Bird. Emmy is disappointed, but gamely bucks up and buckles down.
Mrs. Bird is very clear: Any letters containing Unpleasantness—must go straight in the bin. But when Emmy reads poignant letters from women who are lonely, may have Gone Too Far with the wrong men and found themselves in trouble, or who can’t bear to let their children be evacuated, she is unable to resist responding. As the German planes make their nightly raids, and London picks up the smoldering pieces each morning, Emmy secretly begins to write letters back to the women of all ages who have spilled out their troubles.
Prepare to fall head over heels with Emmy and her best friend, Bunty, who are spirited and gutsy, even in the face of events that bring a terrible blow. As the bombs continue to fall, the irrepressible Emmy keeps writing, and readers are transformed by A.J. Pearce’s hilarious, heartwarming, and enormously moving tale of friendship, the kindness of strangers, and ordinary people in extraordinary times.
Description from Goodreads.
“Fans of Jojo Moyes will enjoy Pearce’s debut, with its plucky female characters and fresh portrait of women’s lives in wartime Britain.” – Library Journal
“Clever… The novel has a wonderfully droll tone, a reminder of the exuberance of youth even under dire circumstances. Headlined by its winning lead character, who always keeps carrying on, Pearce’s novel is a delight.” – Publishers Weekly
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