What We’re Reading This Summer
From mystery & thriller authors you’ll recognize to stunning debuts, we’ve curated a list of books perfect for summer reading.
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June
Halfway across the globe, sequestered in the lap of luxury and cutting-edge technology, one of the world’s most mysterious men requires unconventional medical assistance. Desperate, and one of the few surgeons in the world skilled enough to take this job, Maggie enters his realm of unspeakable opulence and fulfills her end of the agreement. But when the patient suddenly disappears while still under her care, Maggie must become a fugitive herself—or she will be the next one who is … Gone Before Goodbye.
It’s 1992, and in the heat of Texas, camp Summer Fun rests by a crystalline lake surrounded by a shady forest. The counselors have set out the kayaks, prepped the kitchens, and refurbished the cabins. Now, on the night before camp begins, a bonfire and the teenage counselors’ rites of passage await.
But the camp has a horrifying history. In the ’80s, there was a massacre that left a sole survivor. One final girl. The killer never caught.
Deputy Tom Bailey is always on edge this time of year. There are rumors that the woods are haunted. That the killer might one day return. Tom has deeply personal ties to the ’80s massacre, and those ties have plagued his dreams.
Then Tom gets a call reporting bloodcurdling screams coming from the camp. The real nightmare is just beginning . . . .
With her heightened senses, honed in the dark before she regained her eyesight in a cutting-edge surgical procedure, Kendra knows she can do what the federal agents cannot. So along with private investigator Jessie Mercado, Kendra is soon following the first intriguing clue to London.
What they find there will lead to a chase with deadly stakes because Lynch is willing to risk it all to protect something he believes is bigger than himself. Something that could change life for everyone on the planet…if only they live long enough to share the truth.
Our new life together is perfect.
He’s perfect.
But am I good enough for him? I never seem to get anything right. And I’m starting to feel a little afraid of the man I married. He’s taken away my bank card and my phone. I don’t know what to think or what to do. I gave up everything for him and now I’m trapped. Then a stranger comes to our door. She tells me that I can’t trust my husband.
That I should ask him what happened to his first wife.
“My name is Juan Planchard. I’m twenty-nine years old, and I have five million dollars in my account. I own a house in Caracas, another in Madrid, and a high-rise apartment in New York. I run a sportsbook at the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas. I share a private jet with a friend’s frontman. And I’m convinced—down to my bones—that every decision I made during the revolution was the right one. My descendants will thank me.”
So begins The Adventures of Juan Planchard, the story of a middle-class nobody turned millionaire by weaponizing the very corruption that swallowed Venezuela. He dines with oligarchs, sleeps with models, and navigates a world where power is the only currency—and morality is a luxury no one can afford.
Hamilton, Massachusetts is one of those suburban towns that appears untouched by the outside world where stay-at-home moms wear 2ct diamond studs to the playground, where a million-dollar property is “affordable,” and where the Parent Teacher Organization is a hotbed of controversy. Sure, some people struggle to make ends meet, but residents would say discussing such ugly matters is impolite. Hamilton has been like this forever, and everyone likes it that way. Or: almost everyone.
It’s not that Anna Plummer doesn’t like Hamilton, but she never thought she’d be married with two young kids, comfortable, complacent…and growing more bored by the minute. So, when she realizes her second grader won’t be able to attend the “Ziti with Your Sweetie” school dance because she didn’t pay for a “Premium” membership, she snaps. She sends an email to the terrifying president of the PTO—and all hell breaks loose.
One year later, Anna is found dead in the frozen Ipswich River. Left to pick up the pieces, her husband, Denny, is shaken to his core. He’s no expert, but he’s seen enough Dateline to know that the police think he’s the main suspect. If they aren’t going to get justice for Anna, he will.
Years earlier, Alicia’s father, the then-Sheriff, had arrested a teenage occultist for a nearly identical murder, believed to be driven by the suspect’s worship of demonic entities. Now, with Jake’s murder mirroring that past crime, doubts arise about whether the true culprit was ever caught. The mystery deepens with the arrival of Lucas Masterson, a Criminology PhD student studying the confluence between religious trauma and occult crime, who is eager to lend his expertise to the investigation. As Lucas delves into the case, his profound knowledge of the town’s grim history and his outsider perspective strain the local social fabric, while Alicia grapples with her suspicion towards his unsettling familiarity with the crimes. Caught between her strained relationship with her father, the community’s watchful eyes on a female deputy, and her own harrowing ties to the case, Alicia must navigate a maze of potential occultists, convicts, corrupt officials, and clergy to prevent a gruesome history from repeating itself once again.
July
Carson immediately seduces her, but things get complicated when Carson’s wife, Vera, arrives home from her trip, and the love/hate relationship between the two spouses erupts, leaving Brett caught in the middle. Brett, starved for attention, craves Carson’s affection and yet is oddly drawn to Vera’s seductive and destructive charms.
As Brett becomes an unwitting pawn and weapon, she questions how far husband and wife will go to wound the other. With nowhere else to turn, she has no choice but to stay—even as her hold on reality begins to slip. Can she survive her employers’ dark appetites?
Then Silas is pulled into a deadly battle with the Southern Mafia who control drugs, trafficking and murder. As the suspense crescendos, Silas follows one rule for survival: you don’t ride these country roads alone, or in the dead of night.
Imogen enlists the help of her first crush, next-door neighbor Rory, to uncover the truth about her mother’s death and the traumatic event she experienced as a child. But is the boy who got away really the man with something to hide? Or is the suspicious neighbor in the house across the lake behind it all?
When Imogen’s own family’s tragedies lead her to question the disappearance of a local young woman the previous year, her persistent unease becomes terrifyingly real and suddenly nowhere feels safe …
Dix’s main accomplishment as a dad was finding new ways to disappoint his daughter, but even Lila knows he’s not behind this. And when they uncover a $250,000 deposit to Mattie’s bank account, and someone slips a threatening note under Lila’s motel door, they realize Mattie may be in real danger. Now they’re heading down a trail marked by unsavory Russian thugs, fat-cat farmers, and an unseen enemy who’s always a step ahead.
As suspicions mount, Gwen’s protective instincts go into overdrive, triggering a dangerous chain of events no one is prepared for. The last thing Columbia Mansions wants is a scandal on its hands … Let alone a murder.
This is the story of Moth, who earned her name working for the Winter Folk.
Every year, the mythical Winter Folk gather at a secret lodge, a place known only as Deerhaven.
Moth was a housekeeper there once. A trusted confidant of Mr. Oslin, the enigmatic master of the house.
But Deerhaven is dangerous. The rules are exacting. The consequences for break them are dire.
Moth has not been allowed back in decades. Still, she feels its call. She will finder her way back. She needs to see him again. No matter the cost.
Julia Pritzker loves her new life as a wife and mother in beautiful Tuscany—except that she misses her best friend Courtney, back in the States. One night, Julia calls Courtney and reaches her as she’s arriving at her grandmother’s farm in Pennsylvania. Then the unthinkable happens. A dreadful premonition overwhelms Julia moments before Courtney enters the house—and makes a heartbreaking discovery. Her beloved grandmother has been murdered, and the killer is escaping out the back door. Julia flies home the next morning to support Courtney in her grief. The local police believe the murder was a botched burglary, but the women suspect something much more sinister and enlist hotshot Philly lawyer Bennie Rosato to assist. In addition, Courtney entreats Julia to trust her psychic intuition to point her to the missing pieces of this dark puzzle. But in a town filled with explosive secrets, events take a deadly turn, and Julia becomes the target of a murderous conspiracy. She ends up fighting for her life, with no one to save her … but herself. Only a blockbuster talent like Lisa Scottoline can tell this gripping and layered of a story, combining a woman’s search for truth with the revelation of her own empowerment, as well as the enduring strength and joys of female friendship.
August
He was curious. It was the cop in him. That flame was still alive.
The neon “Strange Investigations” sign may be flickering in disrepair outside his office, but private investigator Derek Strange is still accepting new cases. When a flashy drug lawyer hires him to prove an alibi for an accused murderer, Strange can’t help getting drawn into the darkness.
In his hunt for answers, he stands his ground against some of Washington, D.C.’s most dangerous criminals, and a police department that doesn’t entirely welcome his interference. As the violence escalates and claims another victim, the raised stakes force Strange to question his own moves. Are his instincts still intact?
Now, twenty years later, Rex has long vanished. Dinah is married with a baby and a job at the local zoo. But she is not at peace, and it seems as if someone from the past won’t let her go quietly. When mysterious clues start appearing, animals at the zoo go missing, and an old conspirator barely survives a suspicious fire, Dinah’s paranoia gets the best of her, and she takes the baby and drives back to her hometown to investigate. Although Dinah reunites with old friends, the forces out to get her make it painfully clear: Dinah must repent and face her enemies alone.
Perched on a ledge with stunning views, the Dixon’s family lodge was once a crown jewel of the mountains. Until late one August night, when both parents and their four children vanished, leaving behind a trail of bloody footprints, and a mystery that has endured for thirty years. Now, its latest occupants, the Collinses, are arriving, and the former grand lodge is once more stirring to life.
For Amanda Grady, following in her father’s footsteps as the recently appointed Shereford police chief, it’s good to see a fresh start for the derelict Dixon place. However, not everyone is happy about a new family in the old home and its hidden past may have returned with a vengeance.
When a stray dog leads to the discovery of a skeleton on the property, Raquel and Theo face a daunting choice of what to believe, who to trust, and how to survive. Because in the tiny village of Shereford the time has come. The local residents, the new neighbors, and the fledgling police chief must work together to unravel the terrifying events that happened one night thirty years ago, or …
You’ll be sorry.
After a tense birthday celebration in Haddley, journalist Ben Harper watches his boss, Madeline, get into the car that has come to collect her. He walks home, never imagining that by the next morning, Madeline will be missing.
To find Madeline, Ben will have to return to the now infamous murder case that made her journalism career over a decade ago. A case which, Ben quickly discovers, was never as simple as it seemed. But time is of the essence, and soon it’s not just Madeline’s life on the line …
When Elias’s family reaches out—his incredibly wealthy family, from whom he was estranged—and invites Claire to a three-day wake at Harrow Point, their family home on a private island, Claire is given the chance to find family again. To belong to something, just like she’s always wanted. Just like Elias knew she was desperate to have.
Even if that family is a little strange. Even if their coastal home stirs up memories of the accident that killed her parents and sister. Even if Ash, Elias’s older brother, seems insistent on Claire leaving as soon as possible.
As she dives deeper into the world of Harrow Point, she will uncover the nature of her own traumatic connection to the ocean. There is something swimming in the bowels of Harrow Point, and it is hungry…
Bennett, Trilling, and the ATF investigate. A single-minded group angry with the government keep turning up in unexpected places, insisting that they’re only trying to make the world a better place. To law enforcement, their claims seem delusional.
Will words or gunpowder light the next fuse?
Detective Jeanette Palacio has spent decades promising justice to the ghosts of her murdered cousins—alongside the memory of the other women she couldn’t avenge. When a new body turns up in Fortuna’s backyard, both women are pulled into a dangerous, ancient plot. Are the Sleeping Sisters awakening—or has someone in Fortuna’s family set a trap?
Billy Trask is a weathered and charismatic sociopath, who thinks nothing of quietly killing whomever may come in his way, and carefully guards the coordinates for a truck loaded with $10 million dollars-worth of Canadian pharmaceuticals.
Jimmy, Theo, and Sarah are the not-so-innocent locals poised to stand in Billy’s way, none more so than Sarah, a local party girl with the heart and will of a colossus, and who will leave her own trail of mayhem and carnage in her 75-mile-per-hour wake.
Riddled with debt she’ll never be able to pay off and guilt over her mother’s death, Marian made her first lucrative deal with a demon and never looked back. Never mind that being a Hell-diver means that she must voluntarily drown herself or that the human body wasn’t meant to die more than once—and she’s definitely feeling it.
Unfortunately, the last time Marian went to Hell, she came back wrong. Memories of that night are missing, and she’ll do anything she can to find them, including teaming up with one of her mysterious (and oddly alluring) demonic patrons, Mr. Vale. But when their tenuous alliance thrusts Marian even deeper into a world of betrayal, humans with strange powers, and demonic politics, she’ll have to decide if allying with Mr. Vale is her ticket to freedom or damnation in disguise.
Yet as they unpack their boxes, she senses something is wrong. Fresh flowers dry up, store-bought eggs are inexplicably hollow, and her daughter’s favorite toy disappears. Claire soon confronts a series of impossible truths: The house is hungry. It’s devouring anything that was once alive. And only Claire and Tom, the owners of the house, will remember that this “food” ever existed.
When Claire exploits the house’s power in a moment of weakness, she and the house forge a fragile bond. But as its hunger intensifies and Claire loses control, she fears who else might be drawn to her home—and what sinister appetites they’ll bring.
Twenty-five years ago in Seaside, Washington, a charming drifter named Sam met three inseparable teenage girls at the local amusement park. Days later, one of them was found dead, her body surfacing in a flooded cranberry bog not far from where she was murdered.
Barb and Nicolette were shocked to learn that the man they all met at Wonderland was the Carnival Killer. After he’s arrested for the murders of five young women—one of whom was their best friend, Lorelei—Nicolette moved to the city to pursue her dreams of being famous. Barb stayed behind in Seaside, eventually becoming a reporter for the local paper. Their past safely behind them, they’ve both moved on with their lives.
But when the Carnival Killer recants his confession and a new body washes ashore on the eve of Wonderland’s grand reopening, the secrets that Barb and Nicolette have worked so hard to bury begin to resurface, threatening to destroy everything in their carefully constructed lives.
September
Coltrane Davis is at once a knight and a hustler. He has risen to wealth and success, graduating from San Diego’s back alleys to the halls of power through his partnership with Saul Sollman, a crooked kingmaker among the city’s elite. Running multimillion dollar scams with Saul, he has been Saul’s fixer, but now he wants out of the hustle so that he can focus on his teenage daughter’s burgeoning tennis career and finally be the dad he has always wanted to be. But when the Los Angeles Chargers’ star running back vanishes one evening before a big game, Coltrane is drawn into an investigation of what happened by Saul and his protégé, the player’s agent; the stakes escalate with a gut-punch when the trail leads into San Diego’s underworld of drugs and prostitution and reveals clues to the disappearance of his daughter’s best friend, whose loss has haunted him. Torn by the unreconcilable demands of the life he can’t seem to quit and the fierce desire he has to protect his own, Coltrane brings himself and his loved ones to the brink of destruction in his quest to free himself once and for all of Saul’s control—and focus on what really matters: family.
A determined detective, Thomas Bauer, obsessively pursues Hitler—putting Bauer’s Jewish wife and children in grave danger. A courageous journalist, Fritz Gerlich, writes story after story detailing the murder—making Gerlich a target for Hitler’s Gestapo. An American professor, Eleanor Robbins, picks up the trail of evidence from present-day Neo-Nazis guarding the Führer’s long-held secrets to the death.
Fifteen years ago, Audrey Figg’s little brother, Benny, vanished on a family vacation to Devil’s Den state park, a day that split her life in two. Now, Audrey is a park ranger in the very same woods with expertise in wilderness search and rescue. Audrey has found a rhythm to her days: training new rangers, tending to injured hikers, protecting the backcountry, and still, searching.When a little girl, Ivy, suddenly goes missing on the trails, Audrey can’t help but notice the similarities to her own brother’s case. As Audrey widens the scope of her search, she begins to believe Ivy wasn’t merely lost; it looks like she was taken by something—and maybe Benny was too. Yet the closer Audrey comes to answers, the more old memories push to the surface. Audrey is haunted not only by her brother’s loss, but a terrible secret from that day. A secret she has never shared with anyone.
In a postapocalyptic world, four men and one woman are all that remain of the human race, brought to near extinction by an artificial intelligence named A.M. Programmed to wage war on behalf of its creators, the AI has become self-aware and has now turned against all humanity. The five survivors struggle for survival in a vast prison created by A.M. in a deeply personal war between hope and despair.
Desperate to save her tarnished career, journalist Jenny Kaplan arrives at Black Swan Farm to profile Mia. Jenny is ready to write a scathing exposé, determined to expose the deception behind Mia’s curated life. But soon, Jenny has more to contend with than staged videos and picture-perfect poses. There’s something wrong at the farmhouse. Something slithers through Jenny’s dreams, and at night, the children sing strange nursery rhymes.
She’s losing time. She’s losing her hair. She starts to worry that she’s losing her mind.
There is a horror at the heart of Black Swan, and it’s waiting just for Jenny.
The only person who truly sees him is Lex, a logger in the camp near town and the love Dominic must keep secret. Together they dream of escaping Aplin Shade, a place where isolation breeds judgment and every kindness hides a cost.
But the forest is no refuge. The Fanteur dwell there, shadowed beings who come at night to drain the dead of their blood and return them for burial by dawn.
They’ve never touched the living.
Until now.
