Fair Weather Finds

My Kirkus Reviews column this week examines eight crime, mystery, and thriller works--all of them due for release between now and September 1--that I think would be particularly worth investing your time to read, either at home or on a much-needed vacation. Of course, that’s only a small taste of what U.S. publishers have waiting for fans of this genre over these coming summer months.

In order to ensure that I had a solid handle on the wide range of books soon to become available, I spent considerable time perusing catalogues and Web sites that track coming releases. (The Bloodstained Bookshelf and Euro Crime’s future releases page do an especially fine job of that.) And even though, in the end, I restricted my Kirkus choices to books that will be peddled by American retailers, my original inventory of works featured more than 200 titles, scheduled for printing on both sides of the Atlantic.

Rather than round-file that overabundance of research, I am posting below my full rundown of crime and thriller books due out (in English) in June, July, and August of this year. This is not an exhaustive compilation; instead, it’s a selective sampler of the fiction that looks most promising to me, or that comes from authors whose prose I’ve enjoyed in the past. Now, if I only had time to read all of these ...

JUNE (U.S.):

• Always Watching, by Chevy Stevens (St. Martin’s Press)

• Bad Monkey, by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf)

• Baskerville: The Mysterious Tale of Sherlock’s Return, by John O’Connell (Atria/Marble Arch Press)

• Blood From a Stone, by Dolores Gordon-Smith (Severn House)

• The Boy Who Said No, by Patti Sheehy (Oceanview)

• The Child Thief, by Dan Smith (Pegasus)

• Choke Point, by Ridley Pearson (Putnam)

• Circle of Shadows, by Imogen Robertson (Pamela Dorman)

• Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway, by Sara Gran
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

• Classic Mistake, by Amy Myers (Severn House)

• The Confessions of Al Capone, by Loren D. Estleman (Forge)

• Corrupt Practices, by Robert Rotstein (Seventh Street)

• Crime of Privilege, by Walter Walker (Ballantine)

• Death of a Dyer, by Eleanor Kuhns (Minotaur)

• Death of the Demon, by Anne Holt (Scribner)

• The Doll, by Taylor Stevens (Crown)

• Enigma of China, by Qiu Xiaolong (Minotaur)

• Escape from Paris, by Carolyn Hart (Seventh Street)

• Evil and the Mask, by Fuminori
Nakamura (Soho Crime)

• The Execution of Noa P. Singleton, by Elizabeth L. Silver (Crown)

• The Flinch Factor, by Michael A. Kahn (Poisoned Pen Press)

• The Fort, by Aric Davis (Thomas & Mercer)

• Gift Wrapped, by Peter Turnbull (Severn House)

• Green-Eyed Lady, by Chuck Greaves (Minotaur)

• Grey Dawn, by Clea Simon (Severn House)

• The Hanging, by Søren Hammer (Minotaur)

• The Heist, by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg (Bantam)

• Her Boyfriend’s Bones, by Jeanne Matthews (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Her Last Breath, by Linda Castillo (Minotaur)

• Hour of the Rat, by Lisa Brackmann (Soho Crime)

• House Odds, by Michael Lawson (Atlantic Monthly Press)

• The Ides of April, by Lindsey Davis (Minotaur)

• If You Were Here, by Alafair Burke (Harper)

• Joyland, by Stephen King (Hard Case Crime)

• The Kill Room, by Jeffery Deaver (Grand Central)

• The King’s Deception, by Steve Berry (Ballantine)

• The Last Conquistador, by Michael Elias (Open Road)

• The Last Kind Word, by David Housewright (Minotaur)

• Lexicon, by Max Barry (Penguin Press)

• Lost, by S.J. Bolton (Minotaur)

• Masaryk Station, by David Downing (Soho Crime)

• Missing in Machu Picchu, by Cecilia Velastegui (Libros)

• Mr. Monk Helps Himself, by Hy Conrad (NAL)

• The Navigator, by Michael Pocalyko (Forge)

• Night Fall, by Frank Smith (Severn House)

• No Show, by Simon Wood (Thomas & Mercer)

• Peril in the Royal Train, by Edward Marston (Allison & Busby)

• Play Dead, by Bill James (Creme de la Crime)

• The Rules of Wolfe, by James Carlos Blake (Mysterious Press)

• Shadow People, by James Swain (Tor)

• Sherlock Holmes and Frankenstein’s Diary, by Barry Grant
(Severn House)

• The Shining Girls, by Lauren Beukes (Mulholland)

• Slingshot, by Matthew Dunn (Morrow)

• Stoker’s Manuscript, by Royce Prouty (Putnam)

• Summer Death, by Mons Kallentoft (Atria/Emily Bestler)

• Swimming with Sharks, by Nele Neuhaus (AmazonCrossing)

• The Trojan Colt, by Mike Resnick (Seventh Street)

• Until She Comes Home, by Lori Roy (Dutton)

JUNE (UK):

• Already Dead, by Stephen Booth (Sphere)

• The Anarchist Detective, by Jason Webster (Chatto & Windus)

• Bad Blood, by Arne Dahl (Harvill Secker)

• Blood and Stone, by Chris Collett (Creme de la Crime)

• Bricks and Mortality, by Ann Granger (Headline)

• The Crocodile, by Maurizio de Giovanni (Abacus)

• Dead Man’s Time, by Peter James (Macmillan)

• The Devil and the River, by R.J. Ellory (Orion)

• Everyone Lies, by A.D. Garrett
(C & R Crime)

• The Feast of Artemis, by Anne Zouroudi (Bloomsbury)

• The Gift of Darkness, by V.M. Giambanco (Quercus)

• The Good Suicides, by Antonio Hill (Doubleday)

• Inquest, by Paul Carson (Matador)

• Killman, by Graeme Kent (C & R Crime)

• The Lost Abbot, by Susanna Gregory (Sphere)

• Love Story, With Murders, by Harry Bingham (Orion)

• Never Fuck Up, by Jens Lapidus (Pantheon)

• The Obituary Writer, by Lauren St John (Orion)

• Pray for the Dying, by Quintin Jardine (Headline)

• The Resistance Man, by Martin Walker (Quercus)

• Secrets, by Jane A. Adams (Severn House)

• The Vanishing, by John Connor (Orion)

• Waiting for Wednesday, by Nicci French (Michael Joseph)

JULY (U.S.):

• Bad Tidings, by Nick Oldham (Severn House)

• The Bat, by Jo Nesbø (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

• Brilliance, by Marcus Sakey (Thomas & Mercer)

• Close My Eyes, by Sophie McKenzie (St. Martin’s Press)

• Countdown City, by Ben H. Winters (Quirk)

• The Dark Man: An Illustrated Poem, by Stephen King
(Cemetery Dance)

• Death and the Olive Grove, by Marco Vichi (Pegasus)

• Death Was in the Blood, by Linda L. Richards (Five Star)

• The Devil’s Cave, by Martin Walker (Knopf)

• Downfall, by Jeff Abbott (Grand Central)

• Drift, by Jon McGoran (Forge)

• The English Girl, by Daniel Silva (Harper)

• The Executioner’s Heart, by George Mann (Tor)

• Eye for an Eye, by Ben Coes (St. Martin’s Press)

• Fallout, by Garry Disher (Soho Crime)

• The Fame Thief, by Timothy Hallinan (Soho Crime)

• The Fire Witness, by Lars Kepler (Sarah Crichton)

• First Frost, by James Henry (Minotaur)

• Full Ratchet, by Mike Cooper (Viking)

• Gridlock, by Byron L. Dorgan and David Hagberg (Forge)

• The Hen of the Baskervilles, by Donna Andrews (Minotaur)

• The Highway, by C.J. Box (Minotaur)

• The Homecoming, by Carsten Stroud (Knopf)

• The Last Whisper in the Dark, by Tom Piccirilli (Bantam)

• Let It Burn, by Steve Hamilton (Minotaur)

• Light of the World, by James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster)

• The Man From Berlin, by Luke McCallin (Berkley)

• A Marker to Measure Drift, by Alexander Maksik (Knopf)

• Massacre Pond, by Paul Doiron (Minotaur)

• Mystery Girl, by David Gordon (New Harvest)

• Nemesis, by Bill Pronzini (Forge)

• The Never List, by Koethi Zan (Pamela Dorman)

• No Regrets, Coyote, by John Dufresne (Norton)

• Not the Killing Type, by Lorna Barrett (Berkley)

• Please Don’t Tell, by Elizabeth Adler (Minotaur)

• The Right Side of Wrong, by Reavis Z. Wortham (Poisoned Pen Press)

• The Seventh Trumpet, by Peter Tremayne (Minotaur)

• The Silent Wife, by A.S.A. Harrison (Penguin)

• Skinner, by Charlie Huston (Mulholland)

• Stranded, by Alex Kava (Doubleday)

• Sunrise, by Al Lamanda (Five Star)

• Sugar Pop Moon, by John Florio (Seventh Street)

• The Terrorist Next Door, by Sheldon
Siegel (Poisoned Pen Press)

• These Mortal Remains, by Milton T.
Burton (Minotaur)

• Visitation Street, by Ivy Pochoda
(Dennis Lehane/Ecco)

JULY (UK):

• An Act of Kindness, by Barbara Nadel (Quercus)

• Atonement of Blood, by Peter Tremayne (Headline)

• A Bitter Taste, by Annie Hauxwell (William Heinemann)

• Broken Homes, by Ben Aaronovitch (Gollancz)

• Crimson Rose, by M.J. Trow (Creme de la Crime)

• Dandy Gilver and a Deadly Measure of Brimstone, by Catriona McPherson (Hodder & Stoughton)

• The Double Silence, by Mari Jungstedt (Doubleday)

• The Extremist, by Roger Pearce (Coronet)

• Holy Orders, by Benjamin Black (Mantle)

• How a Gunman Says Goodbye, by Malcolm Mackay (Mantle)

• I Am Pilgrim, by Terry Hayes (Bantam Press)

• Kitty Peck and the Music Hall Murders, by Kate Griffin
(Faber and Faber)

• The Long Shadow, by Mark Mills (Headline Review)

• The Norfolk Mystery, by Ian Sansom (Fourth Estate)

• Ostland, by David Thomas (Quercus)

• The Red Road, by Denise Mina (Orion)

• Soho, 4 a.m., by Nuala Casey (Quercus)

• Solid Citizens, by David Wishart (Creme de la Crime)

• The Stranger You Know, by Jane Casey (Ebury Press)

• The Tudor Conspiracy, by Christopher Gortner (Hodder & Stoughton)

• The Unquiet Grave, by Steven Dunne (Headline)

• The Ways of the World, by Robert Goddard (Bantam Press)

AUGUST (U.S.):

• Bait, by J. Kent Messum (Plume)

• The Beast, by Faye Kellerman (Morrow)

• Beyond the Bridge, by Tom MacDonald (Oceanview)

• Blind Justice, by Anne Perry (Ballantine)

• Blood of the Lamb, by Sam Cabot (Blue Rider Press)

• Bones of the Lost, by Kathy Reichs (Scribner)

• The Bride Box, by Michael Pearce (Severn House)

• A Cold White Sun, by Vicki Delany (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Compound Fractures, by Stephen White (Dutton)

• Compound Murder, by Bill Crider (Minotaur)

• Dark Prairie, by John D. Nesbitt (Five Star)

• Dark Waters, by Robin Blake (Minotaur)

• The Dead and the Beautiful, by Cheryl Crane (Kensington)

• Death Canyon, by David Riley Bertsch (Scribner)

• Devil’s Night, by Todd Ritter (Minotaur)

• Downtown Strut, by Ed Ifkovic (Poisoned Pen Press)

• The Dying Hours, by Mark Billingham (Atlantic Monthly Press)

• Eva’s Eye, by Karin Fossum (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

• A Fatal Likeness, by Lynn Shepherd (Delacorte Press)

• Flashpoint, by Ed Gorman (Severn House)

• Going Home Again, by Dennis Bock (Knopf)

• Good As Gone, by Douglas Corleone (Minotaur)

• The Good Thief’s Guide to Berlin, by Chris Ewan (Minotaur)

• Guilt Edged, by Judith Cutler (Severn House)

• The Hanging of Samuel Ash, by Sheldon N. Russell (Minotaur)

• Heirs and Graces, by Rhys Bowen (Berkley)

• How the Light Gets In, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)

• It Happens in the Dark, by Carol O’Connell (Putnam)

• Kwik Krimes, edited by Otto Penzler (Thomas & Mercer)

• Land of the Silver Dragon, by Alys Clare (Severn House)

• The Last Alibi, by David Ellis (Putnam)

• Let Me Go, by Chelsea Cain (Minotaur)

• The Memory Key, by Conor Fitzgerald (Bloomsbury)

• Middle Man, by David Rich (Dutton)

• The Mojito Coast, by Richard Helms (Five Star)

• Night Film, by Marisha Pessl (Random House)

• 101 Nights, by Christoph Spielberg (AmazonCrossing)

• Out of the Black, by John Rector (Thomas & Mercer)

• A Place of Confinement, by Anna Dean (Minotaur)

• A Question of Honor, by Charles Todd (Morrow)

• Runaway Man, by David Handler (Minotaur)

• Sandrine’s Case, by Thomas H. Cook (Mysterious Press)

• Save Yourself, by Kelly Braffet (Crown)

• A Spider in the Cup, by Barbara Cleverly (Soho Crime)

• Strong Rain Falling, by Jon Land (Forge)

• Tamarack County, by William Kent Krueger (Atria)

• A Tap on the Window, by Linwood
Barclay (NAL)

• Tell No Lies, by Gregg Hurwitz
(St. Martin’s Press)

• You Make Me Feel So Dead, by Robert J. Randisi (Severn House)

AUGUST (UK):

• The Black Life, by Paul Johnston
(Creme de la Crime)

• Brother Kemal, by Jakob Arjouni
(No Exit Press)

• Children of the Revolution, by Peter Robinson (Hodder & Stoughton)

• The Corporal’s Wife, by Gerald Seymour (Hodder & Stoughton)

• Dead Line, by Chris Ewan (Faber and Faber)

• Death at the Clos du Lac, by Adrian Magson (Allison & Busby)

• Death in Florence, by Marco Vichi (Hodder & Stoughton)

• The Death of Lucy Kyte, by Nicola Upson (Faber and Faber)

• The Disappeared, by Kristina Ohlsson (Simon & Schuster)

• Flesh Wounds, by Chris Brookmyre (Little, Brown)

• The Funeral Owl, by Jim Kelly (Creme de la Crime)

• Light in a Dark House, by Jan Costin Wagner (Harvill Secker)

• Never Go Back, by Lee Child (Bantam Press)

• No Man’s Nightingale, by Ruth Rendell (Hutchinson)

• The Riot, by Laura Wilson (Quercus)

• The Siege, by Arturo Perez-Reverte (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

• A Song from Dead Lips, by William Shaw (Quercus)

• Strange Shores, by Arnaldur Indridason (Harvill Secker)

• Watching You, by Michael Robotham (Sphere)

• Worse Can Happen, by Niamh O’Connor (Transworld Ireland)

So, did I miss mentioning any books that you’re looking forward to reading? In the Comments section below, please feel free to recommend other works in this genre due out over the coming three months. Maybe we can all learn something.