25 KILLER THRILLERS

This summer’s packed with suspense. Pick your poison and buckle up for a sensational ride

“Our Kind of Cruelty: A Novel” (MCD) by Araminta Hall, out now

A man finds true love, except she loves another. Or does she? A game of passion turns twisted. Hall initially considered telling this depravedpraved love story, inspired by both the public treatment of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election and the trial of Amanda Knox, from shifting perspectives. In the end, she decided that telling it from the man’s point of view was the bolder choice. “Switching perspectives almost would have been the easy thing to do,” she told Publishers Weekly. “And then I just thought, what I’m writing about is how society judges women, and we still live in a very male society.”

“The Death of Mrs. Westaway” (Gallery/ Scout Press) by Ruth Ware, out now

An attempt to scam a family out of an inheritance leads to shocking secrets. This is Ware’s fourth novel, and since her first three have all been signed or optioned for films — Reese Witherspoon is producing the film version of her debut, “In a Dark, Dark Wood,” one of NPR’s Best Books of 2015 — expectations for this latest thriller are high. Kirkus Reviews called “Mrs. Westaway” “gripping,” and The Washington Post wrote that the novel is “superb” and that it “recovers the ageless beauty of the traditional.”

“The Speed of Sound (Speed of Sound Thrillers)” (Thomas & Mercer) by Eric Bernt, out now

An autistic savant’s talent for “acoustic archeology” — the ability to create never-recorded sounds from the past — threatens to divide the world. Bernt, screenwriter of films including Denzel Washington’s “Virtuosity” and the 2007 remake of “The Hitcher,” was driven to write this after learning about acoustic archeology two decades ago and becoming “obsessed” by it. “Every now and then, I come across a new technology, approach or advance that utterly captivates me. Acoustic archeology was one,” he told the website The Page 69 Test. “This was a book I had to write.”

“Thehe Thinnest Air” (Thomas & Mercer) by Minka Kent, out now

An affluent wife and mother disappears. The search for her uncovers dark revelations, leading her own sister to wonder if she knew her at all. Kent’s third novel has already hit The Washington Post’s best seller list and No. 1 on the Kindle list. Kent’s romance novel “Royal” also hit #1 on Kindle in 2016 under her pen name Winter Renshaw.

“A Killer’s Mind (Zoe Bentley Mystery),” (Thomas & Mercer) by Mike Omer, out now

A mismatched detective team must find a serial killer who, they learn, has deep connections to one of the detectives. Omer is the author of the Glenmore Park Mystery Series. The idea for his new book, like most of his work, came to him in the shower. “Final twist in next book thought of in the shower. Seriously, if I didn’t shower, my books would have been very mediocre,” he wrote on his Facebook page in early 2017. “I would have also stank, so I guess showers are a win-win thing.”

“The Outsider: A Novel” (Scribner) by Stephen King, out now

A respected father and Little League coach is accused of a boy’s brutal murder in a small town, and the ensuing investigationtigation un-uncovers both supernatural and human evil. It should come as no surprise to learn that “The Outsider” is already headed to the screen — more than 100 of King’s works have been adapted for film or television. The book, which hit No. 1 on the New York Times best seller list, will be turned into a 10-episode limited series for a network to be named later. Richard Price, a teleplay writer on “The Wire” and author of “Lush Life,” will write the script.

“The President Is Missing: A Novel” (Little, Brown and Company and Knopf) by James Patterson, Bill Clinton, out now

Taking place over threethree days, the fate of the country is at stake when the president disappears. This collaboration between a former president and the most successful novelist of our time is doing predictably bang-up business. Soon to be turned into a TV series for Showtime, the book sold 250,000 copies its first week, the highest first-week sales for any adult fiction book since 2015’s Harper Lee comeback “Go Set a Watchman.” It’s currently at 835,000 copies sold across the US and Canada, and has spent five weeks at No. 1 on the Times list, the longest No. 1 streak in two years according to the publisher.

“Shelter in Place” (St. Martin’s Press) by Nora Roberts, out now

In the years following a mass shooting in a mall, another conspirator lies in wait, hoping to finish the job. While this book topped the Times bestseller list and receivedeceived fa-favorable reviews — Kirkus called the book’s characters “fascinating” — some of Roberts’ readers, used to her more romantic fare, took objection to characters who cuss and screw. “Readers don’t get to dictate. They don’t get a vote,” Roberts wrote on her blog, later adding, “Reading the book doesn’t give anyone the right to hurl personal insults at the writer of the book. That’s not a critique on the work.”

“The Captives: A Novel” (Ecco) by Debra Jo Immergut, out now

A prison psychologist is shocked to find his latest patient is his high-school crush who doesn’t remember himhim. Their lives then become dangerously intertwined. The book marks a point of pride for Immergut, who had a short story collection, “Private Property,” published by Random House in 1992. Unable to sell her follow-up, a novel, she left writing behind. She didn’t start her new book until 2015, when she sensed her idea about complex gender relations was right for the cultural moment. And a strong comeback it is — Ecco bought “The Captives” just two days after receiving it from her agent.

“The Word Is Murder: A Novel” (Harper) by Anthony Horowitz, out now

The author imagines himself as the beleaguered Watson to a modern-day Sherlock Holmes-type as a chancee meeting ig-ignites a toxic friendship defined by obsession. Horowitz, author of two Sherlock Holmes mysteries and two James Bond adventures, is no stranger to literary challenges, but this might be his furthest reach yet. “I wanted to do something completely new and different with the whodunit genre,” Horowitz told Entertainment Weekly, noting that by placing himself next to the detective in the book, “The whole perspective changes, radically.”

“Three Days Missing” (Park Row) by Kimberly Belle, out now

The search for a missing child unites two very different mothers. Belle has called the story of Kat, a mother enmeshed in a bitter divorce from her abusive husband whose life is upended when her son goes missing, “one part fiction, two parts true.” She based parts of the story on a real-life friend who had been abused by her husband and gave her blessing for her story to be the inspiration for this book. “She’s one of the strongest people I know, and it’s this strength that I gave to my character Kat,” Belle wrote for the website Women Writers, Women’s Books. “In my own, small way, I got to give my girlfriend the ending she deserved.”

“Rough Animals: An American Western Thriller” (Arcade Publishing) by Rae DelBianco, out now

After a young girl slaughters his cattle, destroying his livelihood, a rancher embarks on a quest for revenge and finds himself enmeshed in a horrifying underworld. DelBianco, a 25-year-old first-time novelist, has been compared to Cormac McCarthy for her portrayal of the brutal West — not bad for a novel that was rejected by over 50 publishers before finally landing a deal.

“Safe Houses: A Novel” (Knopf) by Dan Fesperman, out now “Lying in Wait: A Novel” (Gallery/ SScout Press) by Liz Nugent, out now

A respectable judge’s fam-family is torn apart when the son discovers his father murdered a woman in this new novel, a No. 1 hit in the author’s native Ireland. Nugent, who once told Publishers Weekly she takes character inspiration from obituaries, is on her third career as a full-time novelist. This former soap opera writer in Ireland also spent 15 years as the stage manager for “Riverdance.” A CIA agent accidentally overhears dangerous secrets, setting a decades-long conspiracy in motion. This tale, much of which takes placee in CIA safe houses in West Berlin, is well-informed by Fesperman’s experience as a foreign correspondent, as he served as the Berlin bureau chief for The Baltimore Sun in the 1990s. But as it deals heavily with the travails of women in the CIA, it was also based largely on firsthand accounts from women who’ve been there. “One woman . . . was talking to her station chief. She thought she was going into the field,” Fesperman told NPR. “And [he] said, ‘Oh no, I can’t put you into the field. I can’t put women out there because they’ll get pregnant.’ ”

“The Pharaoh Key (Gideon Crew)” (Grand Central Publishing) by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child, out now

Tragedy ensues when a centuries-oldld stone tab-tablet suddenly reveals its secrets. Early in his career, Preston managed publications for the American Museum of Natural History. His writing for them attracted the attention of book editor Child, who hired him to write about the institution. The writer/ editor relationship soon evolved into one of the most successful co-author collaborations in publishing. This new effort was influenced by Preston’s past reporting on Egypt for The New Yorker.

“Caged: A Novel” (Minotaur Books) by Ellison Cooper, out now

An FBI neuroscientist helps search for a killer after a kidnapped girl, a senator’s daughter, is found starved to deathh in a cage. Cooper, who has a Ph.D. in anthropology, traveled the world and secured her dream job as a tenuretrack professor before giving birth to her son, who was burdened with unrevealed medical issues. After devoting her life to his care for several years, she found, as he began to recover, a desire for intellectual stimulation. She started writing fiction, and her many efforts led her to “Caged.” “Writing gave me something totally my own,” she wrote on her website. “Writing gave me something to think about, something to do in those rare stolen moments when I wasn’t driving to the park, playing with finger paint or sitting in doctors’ waiting rooms.”

“Providence: A Novel” (Lenny) by Caroline Kepnes, out now

A student is kidnapped. When he mysteriously reappears four years later, he has special powers p but no memoryy of his time away. Meanwhile, people are dying. There is a connection. This is the third novel for Kepnes, a former reporter for Entertainment Weekly, and her first for Lena Dunham’s Random House imprint Lenny. Kepnes’ debut novel, “You,” was turned into a Lifetime series that premieres in September. The real mystery for this on-the-rise author is whether the association with Dunham, who’s been doing appearances for “Providence” with Kepnes, can help make lightning strike twice.

“Hope Never Dies: An Obama Biden Mystery (Obama Biden Mysteries)” (Quirk Books) by Andrew Shaffer, out now

Joe Biden and Barack Obama team up to solvee the murder of Biden’s favorite Amtrak conductor. Seriously. Veteran author Shaffer — who calls this “the first published work of Obama/Biden fan fiction” — was inspired to write Biden as an action hero after seeing a picture of him in sunglasses. After struggling with a Biden novel for years, memes about his “bromance” with Obama gave the tale a crucial new direction, adding “President Obama as the Sherlock to Joe’s Watson.” “The first time I saw Joe Biden in his Ray-Ban aviators, I thought, ‘that guy’s an action hero.’ The sunglasses, the suit, the dead-serious stare — you think you’re looking at James Bond,” said Shaffer. “And then he opens his mouth and sticks his foot in it, and you realize he’s closer to Leslie Nielsen.”