How Can It Be July Already?

Summer always strikes me as a splendid time to sit out on my front porch with a book in hand, reading every day until I grow tired of having my nose between crisp pages. But I rarely succeed in getting through all the yarns I wish to tackle while summer reigns.

This latest sunny season seems likely to challenge me in similar fashion. When I compiled The Rap Sheet’s list of new mystery, crime, and thriller fiction due out between the start of June and the end of August, I came up with more than 450 titles of interest. Those include fresh releases from Chris Whitaker (All the Colors of the Dark), Wanda M. Morris (What You Leave Behind), Mark Billingham (The Wrong Hands), Kate Atkinson (Death at the Sign of the Rook), Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins (Baby, It’s Murder), Adele Parks (First Wife’s Shadow), Daniel Silva (A Death in Cornwall), Ann Cleeves (The Dark Wives), and Ragnar Jónasson (Death at the Sanatorium).

There are far more new works that have caught my attention than I can hope to finish reading during these three months. But at least I am armed with a good sense of what is scheduled for publication. You can be equally savvy, by clicking here to see our summer book picks.