5 thrilling selections for summer shivers
On summer road trips when my children were little, we’d often play “Would You Rather?” to pass the time. Would you rather eat worm soup or ants on toast? Worm soup, duh! Here’s my literary version of this game to help you choose the mystery to suit your taste.
1. If you like Val McDermid’s serial killer novels, you’ll love “Unsub” by Meg Gardiner (Dutton, publishes June 27).
In the late ’90s, after leaving a trail of bodies with the symbol of Mercury, the messengers of the gods, etched horribly on their skin, the Prophet disappeared. San Francisco detective Caitlin Hendrix’s father failed to catch the killer, and now she’s forced to confront the unsub’s diabolical second act. I love a good serial killer novel, and Gardiner has written one of the most accomplished ones I’ve read in a while. Gardiner has created the perfect balance of vulnerability and violence in her main characters, all of whom are damaged in their own ways. When the killer becomes a “hot knife through the center of (Caitlin’s) head,” “Unsub” will already have a cold grip on your heart. 2. If you like William Kent Krueger’s wilderness mysteries, you’ll love “The Marsh King’s Daughter” by Karen Dionne (Putnam).
Set in the wild of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Dionne’s captivating psychological thriller is a fairy tale writ large. Once, years ago, a charismatic man lured a naïve girl into the marshes of “the Soo.” He locked her away in a cabin deep in the woods where he taught her to cook and sew and cater to his every need. One day the girl gave birth to a daughter who was everything the man wanted. Strong and obedient, nimble of foot and of mind, and, most importantly, the daughter idolized her father, the Marsh King. Years passed and the Marsh King molded the daughter in his image. Eventually the Marsh King is captured, and this is where the real story begins, on the day the daughter, Helena, learns of the father’s escape from prison and the walls of her “carefully constructed second life come tumbling down.” 3. If you like Karen Slaughter’s Atlanta mysteries, you’ll love “The Silent Corner” by Dean Koontz (Bantam).
Rogue FBI agent Jane Hawk is the newest character in Koontz’s immense and acclaimed repertoire, and she is as fierce and focused as her surname implies. She uncovers an insidious techno conspiracy that’s inciting seemingly welladjusted men and women to commit suicide, and the discovery sends her on a chase that’s as action-packed as any of this summer’s blockbuster films. Hawk’s tenacity is hard-wired and her toughness hard-earned. This is a chilling thriller for a hot day. 4. If you like Anne Cleeves’ Shetland novels, you’ll love “Death on Nantucket” by Francine Mathews (Soho Crime).
This accomplished traditional mystery with Nantucket detective Merry Folger explores if “real love abides all things” even murder, especially a crime that reaches back to the Vietnam war and what was left behind. The victims are an iconic war journalist and his adopted daughter, the suspects his closeknit but unraveling family.
5. If you like Stephen King’s “The Stand,” you’ll love “Afterlife” by Marcus Sakey (Thomas & Mercer, publishes July 18).
“It’s amazing what someone with a sense of theater and a rifle can do to a civilization,” notes FBI agent Will Brody while tracking a spree killer in a terrified Chicago only to become one of the victims. Suddenly Brody is tracking something worse in the afterlife, a dystopian Chicago that’s an “echo” of itself. It’s “like someone took the batteries out of the world” and populated it with the walking, talking, living and loving dead. Chicago in the afterlife is an “echo” of itself, and Brody navigates its horrors while struggling to keep his humanity. Sakey has crafted a compulsive thriller drawing on motifs of multiple genres — mystery, mythology, scifi and romance. His world-building is epic and the community of characters Brody connects with are fully realized and compelling. It’s amazing what a skillful writer with a “sense of theater” and a brilliant imagination can do.
Carole E. Barrowman is a professor of English at Alverno College and co-author of several novels, including the “Hollow Earth” trilogy. Info: www.barrowmanbooks.com.