THRILLS AND CHILLS
Final Girls Riley Sager (Dutton, July 11)
Stephen King declares this “the first great thriller of 2017,” and frankly, that’s good enough for us. Quincy Carpenter is a so-called “final girl,” the lone survivor of a deep-woods massacre that left her five friends dead. Ten years later, she’s moved on with her life, taking comfort in her baking blog and her fiance. But when another Final Girl (Lisa, the only sister left after a sorority house bloodbath) turns up dead, Quincy realizes her own nightmare is far from over.
Domina L.S. Hilton (GP Putnam’s Sons, July 11)
Murderous millennial Judith Rashleigh is back in the sequel to last summer’s raunchy bestseller “Maestra,” and she’s living the high life, having reinvented herself with some stolen money and her own art gallery in Venice. But when a person from her old London job recognizes her in Ibiza (awkward), she’s on the run again, fleeing through various fabulous international locales. Complete with lots of sex, killing, stolen art, Russian oligarchs and forged passports.
See What I Have Done Sarah Schmidt (Atlantic Monthly Press, Aug. 1)
Lizzie Borden is one of the most infamous killers of all time, having murdered her father and stepmother with an ax in their Fall River, Mass., home in August 1892. Schmidt’s debut novel reimagines the crime and tells the story of a family in chaos: an angry father, a spiteful stepmother and two spinster sisters who desperately want to break out of their
loveless home.
Yesterday Felicia Yap (Mullholland Books, Aug. 1)
It’s hard to solve a murder when no one can remember anything. In the stratified society of “Yesterday,” people are divided based on how much they can remember. Socalled “Monos” only retain one day’s’ worth of memory and are excluded from top jobs, while elite “Duos” possess two days’ worth of memory. Claire and Mark are a rare MonoDuo mixed marriage. When a beautiful woman is found dead, the main suspect is her lover — Mark.
Testimony Scott Turow (Grand Central Publishing, out now)
Master of the courtroom drama, Scott “Presumed Innocent” Turow returns with a legal thriller about the disappearance of an entire refugee camp. Former prosecutor Bill ten Boom has been called by the International Criminal Court to investigate a Roma encampment that mysteriously vanished after the Bosnian war. Years later, a witness has stepped forward, claiming that the refugees were marched into a cave and buried alive. Boom has to determine if the witness is telling the truth, and if so, who did it.
The Lying Game Ruth Ware (Gallery/Scout Press, July 25)
One morning in London, three women receive a text that simply says: “I need you.” The plea comes from Kate, the fourth member of their boarding school clique; back then, they were notorious for playing the Lying Game, which entailed telling lies to other students and faculty members, pretty much ensuring that everyone else steered clear of them. But the game had consequences, and Kate’s father, the school’s art teacher, ended up dead. From the author of “The Woman in Cabin 10” and “In a Dark Dark Wood.”