Overkill by Sandra Brown
I don’t know how she does it. After all the years, all the books, and all the bestsellers, Sandra Brown just keeps getting better. And the reasons for that are all on display in the aptly titled “Overkill” (Grand Central).
This might be the first thriller ever to cast a Super Bowl winning quarterback as a hero in the form of Zach Bridger. At the book’s outset, he learns the ex-wife, Rebecca, that he hasn’t seen in years is on life support after suffering a brutal beating. Four years later, she’s still in a vegetative state when the man responsible is released from prison. An ambitious and driven prosecutor argues for Rebecca to be taken off life support so that attacker can be retried, only for murder this time. The resulting moral quagmire is exceeded only by plot mechanization that draws previously obvious conclusions into question, casting Zach in the role of amateur detective charged with getting to the elusive truth.
“Overkill” is storytelling par excellence, weaving complex societal issues into the fabric of a thriller to create a terrific tapestry of emotionally wrought tension. The best book of the summer.
Heat 2 by Michael Mann, Meg Gardiner
Calling Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner’s relentlessly entertaining “Heat 2” (William Morrow) is kind of a misnomer, since it’s a sequel to a movie, not a book. But who cares?
“Heat” was arguably the best film ever directed by Michael Mann, known primarily as the creator of the seminal television cop show “Miami Vice.” The Los Angeles-set “Heat” was as gritty and urban as that show was glitzy and bright, considered by many to be one of the finest crime films ever made. Mann and Gardiner’s “Heat 2” picks up pretty much exactly where the film left off, with Chris Shiherlis (played by Val Kilmer) hiding out while LAPD detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) is hot on his trial. Then we flashback eight years to Chicago where the two had a previous encounter far broader and more complex than the events portrayed in the film.
Mann and Gardiner have taken a classic crime noir and morphed it into a splendid thriller of rare depth and pathos. You don’t need to have seen the film to enjoy “Heat 2,” but reading the book will definitely make you want to and for good reason.
Girl, Forgotten by Karin Slaughter
Karin Slaughter’s having a really good month. First, her Will Trent, Georgia Bureau of Investigation series got picked up for television by ABC. And now she’s out with a new book, “Girl, Forgotten” (William Morrow) that ranks with her best ever.
In another tale that spans time, the book opens in 1982 with the murder of Emily Vaughn on the night of her senior prom, because of a secret her killer can’t let be revealed. Fast-forward forty years to the arrival of US Marshal Andrea Oliver who’s come to the town of Longbill Beach on the pretext of protecting a judge who’s been threatened. The real reason she’s there, though, is to find Emily’s killer at long last, driven by personal reasons and stakes.
Closeted, cloistered small towns holding secrets close to the vest have long been fodder for great stories from the classic Spencer Tracy film “Bad Day at Black Rock” to Grace Metalious’ groundbreaking book “Peyton Place.” “Girl, Forgotten” goes both of those one better as an elegantly structured psychological thriller and delightfully delicious mind snack that’s as riveting as it is relentless.
The Neighborhood by Matthew Betley
With “The Neighborhood” (Blackstone) Matthew Betley may well have written the perfect summer thriller, high concept escapist fiction of the absolute highest order.
Hidden Refuge is just an ordinary American small town with no distinguishing characteristics at all—at least not on the surface. One night the town is besieged by the kind of men who usually arrive in black helicopters, telling the residents they’ve been ordered to evacuate for their own good. What appears to be an elaborate crime caper tale ramps up into high gear when we meet Zach Chambers, a man who is not at all what he appears to be. In the pop culture tradition of the John Wick movies, Zach just wants to be left alone to hide from his violent and deadly past, until the skills he thought he’d put behind him are desperately needed to save the town he’s come to call home.
Call this one “Die Hard” in a small town, to continue with the pop culture references, as Zach becomes a one-man army against the invading enemy. Action thrillers don’t get better, or more fun, than this and Betley, an Army vet himself, remains a literary force to be reckoned with.
The Hidden One by Linda Castillo
“The Hidden One” (Minotaur) is the first book I’ve read by Linda Castillo, but it definitely won’t be the last, as she treats us to a solid mystery that takes us deep inside a culture we know little about.
That culture is a particular Amish and local chief of police Kate Burkholder is in for a rude awakening when she ventures into rural Pennsylvania to investigate the murder of a long missing Amish bishop who turns up dead. How do you solve a mystery when no one will talk to you within an insular world you were once a part of? But Kate’s memories of growing up Amish are nothing like what she witnesses now, even as she finds her own life in danger from members of the sect who believe secrets are best buried with the bodies of men like the late bishop.
“The Hidden One” is a stunningly effective literary mystery. Short on action, but rich in story, character and culture, Castillo’s latest straddles the line between novel and thriller with effortless aplomb.
Fields of Fire by Ryan Steck
There’s a lot we’ve seen before in Ryan Steck’s tumultuous thriller “Fields of Fire” (Tynedale), but all of it is done exceptionally well.
Steck’s debut actually gives us two bangs for the buck, hitting on a pair of classic thriller tropes in the same volume. First, we follow special ops Marine Matthew Redd dealing with the aftermath of a massacre he may or may not have perpetrated. That’s due not to the fog of war, or combat, but the fact Redd is suffering from amnesia and can’t remember what happened. We’re also treated to the angst-riddled Redd’s return home to Montana to deal with a deadly threat to his hometown in a fashion that would make Lee Child’s Jack Reacher proud.
A veteran reviewer with one of the genre’s most popular blogs, the Real Book Spy, Steck is understandably well versed in the genre. But his command of battle scenes and the warrior mindset is exceptional. “Fields of Fire” reads like Nelson DeMille seamlessly blended with the likes of Brad Thor, Brad Tayler or Jack Carr, and is not to be missed.
Red Flags by Lisa Black
Leave it to Lisa Black to turn a good story into a great one with “Red Flags” (Kensington), her latest to feature Washington, DC crime scene analyst Ellie Carr.
Bad enough that Ellie’s latest case involves a kidnapped baby. The fact that the mother is her cousin ramps up a tale that’s already revving close to the emotional red. Reluctantly paired again with fellow crime expert Rachel Davies, who’s moved on teaching what she knows instead of practicing it, Ellie has to put that conflict, and her own demons, aside to sort through the political morass to find the infant, who’s become a pawn in high stakes power game.
Black, who writes elegantly from personal experience as a criminologist herself, has fashioned a wondrously structured tale with the pace and energy of a great crime film. Ellie and Rachel make for a great team, whose struggles are trumped by their mutual respect and common purpose.
All the Broken Girls by Linda Hurtado Bond
Emmy Award winning Tampa, Florida television reporter Linda Hurtado Bond has penned a terrific debut crime-thriller in “All the Broken Girls” (Entangled Amara).
Crime reporter Mari Alvarez, Hurtado’s literary doppelganger, has long been haunted by her mother’s unsolved murder. She gets a shot at redemption when a serial killer stakes his/her claim to the Tampa turf, leaving dolls behind at the murder scenes of two women and on consecutive days. That would make for a great story in itself, before we even get to the fact this might be the very culprit who murdered Mari’s mother ten years ago.
Beautifully conceived and brilliantly plotted, “All the Broken Girls” echoes strongly of the Thomas Harris classic “The Silence of the Lambs.” This is the best serial killer tale of the year so far, as harrowing as it is haunting.
