Time for a Time Out

Because of other editorial obligations and my need to take a small recuperative break in advance of the summertime rush, I must put The Rap Sheet on hiatus this week. I’ll resume blogging soon.

Revue of Reviewers, 6-11-21

Critiquing some of the most interesting recent crime, mystery, and thriller releases. Click on the individual covers to read more.

It’s a Start

Never a company to miss opportunities for promoting its products, Amazon has published an inventory of what it proclaims are the “Best Books of the Year So Far.” Among those top 20 are several works of crime fiction: We Begin at the End, by Chris Whitaker; The Plot, by Jean Hanff Korelitz; The Other Black Girl, by Zakiya Dalila Harris; The Good Sister, by Sally Hepworth; and Girl A, by Abigail Dean.

A companion selection seeks to identify the “Best Mysteries and Thrillers of 2021 So Far.” Those novels include four of the five works mentioned above, plus The Last Thing He Told Me, by Laura Dave; The Sanatorium, by Sarah Pearse; Northern Spy, by Flynn Berry; Later, by Stephen King; Mirrorland, by Carole Johnstone, and others.

I haven’t yet given serious thought to which works might appear on my own “Best Crime Fiction of the Year So Far” list, but the following would all be worthy candidates:

• Blackout, by Simon Scarrow (Headline UK)
• Daughters of Night, by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Mantle UK)
• In the Garden of Spite, by Camilla Bruce (Berkley)
• Nightshade, by E.S. Thomson (Constable UK)
• The Royal Secret, by Andrew Taylor (HarperCollins UK)
• The Trawlerman, by William Shaw (Riverrun UK)
• We Begin at the End, by Chris Whitaker (Henry Holt)
• Wedding Station, by David Downing (Soho Crime)

I still need to tackle a number of new releases from the opening six months of 2021, so this tally of “favorites” may change as time progresses. For now, though, it’s a good preliminary tally.

(Hat tip to In Reference to Murder.)

An Unexpected Pandemic Casualty

This marks the end of a looooong era. From The Guardian:

Oxford University’s right to print books was first recognised in 1586, in a decree from the Star Chamber. But the centuries-old printing history of Oxford University Press will end this summer, after the publishing house announced the last vestige of its printing arm was closing.

The closure of Oxuniprint, which will take place on 27 August subject to consultation with employees, will result in the loss of 20 jobs. OUP said it follows a “continued decline in sales”, which has been “exacerbated by factors relating to the pandemic”.

Oxuniprint’s closure will mark the final chapter for centuries of printing in Oxford, where the first book was printed in 1478, two years after Caxton set up the first printing press in England. There was no formal university press in the city over the next century, but the university’s right to print books was recognised in a decree in 1586, and later enhanced in the Great Charter secured by Archbishop Laud from Charles I, entitling it to print “all manner of books”.

You can read the piece in its entirety here.

Let’s Call It a Tie(-in)

The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers, “dedicated to enhancing the professional and public image of [movie, TV, and video game] tie-in writers,” today announced the nominees for its 2021 Scribe Awards. There are six prize categories, but the one that may be of foremost interest to Rap Sheet readers—“General Original Novel and Adapted Novel”—features the following contenders:

• Masquerade for Murder, by Mickey Spillane and
Max Allan Collins (Titan)
• Mindgame, by David J. Howe (Telos)
• Day Zero: Watchdogs Legion, by James Swallow and
Josh Reynolds (Aconyte)
• The Rise of Skywalker, by Rae Carson (Del Rey)

Scribe winners are to be declared on Friday, July 2, on the IAMTW’s Facebook page, beginning at 4 p.m. Pacific time.

Meanwhile, Iowa author Max Allan Collins reports in his blog that he’s been chosen to receive this year’s Faust Award for lifetime achievement from the IAMTW, an organization he co-founded with Lee Goldberg back in 2006. Collins notes that this is his “third lifetime achievement award (preceded by the Eye from the [Private Eye Writers of America] and the Grand Master Edgar from [Mystery Writers of America]), which is either an incredible honor bestowed upon me by my peers, or an indication that they think I’ve lived long enough.”

A Season of Reading and Recovery

Last summer, when we were all so hungry to escape from our locked-down pandemic existences, we grabbed for pretty much any book that could transport us to another place or time. This summer, with the dangers of COVID-19 apparently more in check (at least in Biden-era America), and with publishing schedules back on track once more, our reading choices can be made with slightly more deliberation than desperation. That’s good, because there seems to be an even greater number of forthcoming titles from which to choose.

After poring over publisher catalogues, bookstore Web sites, and reading-related blogs, I came up with a preliminary list of more than 360 crime, mystery, and thriller works, all scheduled for release between now and September 1—on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean—and all well worth investigating. These range from hard-boiled detective novels and cop yarns, to lighthearted traditional mysteries and classic crime reprints, to volumes of non-fiction that I suspect will draw the eye of anybody interested in the history of crime.

You should be on the lookout for fresh fiction by Laurie R. King, Stephen King, Megan Abbott, James Ellroy, Laura Lippman, Dan Fesperman, Hilary Davidson, Mark Billingham, Karin Slaughter, Brad Parks, Lyndsay Faye, Alex Michaelides, Camilla Läckberg, John Connolly, Naomi Hirahara, Michael Robotham, Elly Griffiths, Martin Edwards, Sujata Massey, James Lee Burke, and so many others. These next three months will introduce the first entries in new series by John McFetridge and Val McDermid; a long-awaited new Phryne Fisher mystery from Kerry Greenwood, Death in Daylesford; S.A. Cosby’s Razorblade Tears, his follow-up to last year’s Blacktop Wasteland; the UK edition of Anthony Horowitz’s third Daniel Hawthorne mystery, A Line to Kill (set for an October U.S. premiere); a second collaboration between former President Bill Clinton and James Patterson, The President’s Daughter; the British debut of Peter Lovesey’s 20th Peter Diamond novel, Diamond and the Eye (also due out out in the States come October); an opening crime tale from Chris Offutt, The Killing Hills; a gripping alternative history, Widowland, penned by Philip Kerr’s widow, Jane Thynne, under the pseudonym C.J. Carey; an 1870s San Francisco-set thriller from J.D. Rhoades, The Killing Look; plus Martin Walker’s 16th Bruno Courrèges puzzler, The Coldest Case. Oh, and expect, too, the 40th-anniversary reprint of John Gardner’s first James Bond continuation novel, Licence Renewed.

Books marked below with an asterisk (*) are non-fiction; the remainder are fiction, either novels or short-story collections.

JUNE (U.S.):
• The Abduction of Pretty Penny, by Leonard Goldberg (Minotaur)
• The Art of Betrayal, by Connie Berry (Crooked Lane)
• Bad Moon Rising, by John Galligan (Atria)
• Barcelona Dreaming, by Rupert Thomson (Other Press)
• Bath Haus, by P. J. Vernon (Doubleday)
• Beneath Devil’s Bridge, by Loreth Anne White (Montlake)
• Black Ice, by Carin Gerhardsen (Scarlet)
• Body Zoo, by J.D. Allen (Severn River)
• The Bombay Prince, by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)
• Bones of Hilo, by Eric Redman (Crooked Lane)
• Canaryville, by Charlie Newton (Blacktype Press)
• Castle Shade, by Laurie R. King (Bantam)
• The Cat Saw Murder, by Dolores Hitchens (American
Mystery Classics)
• Collectibles, edited by Lawrence Block (Subterranean)
• Confess to Me, by Sharon Doering (Titan)
• The Constant Man, by Peter Steiner (Severn House)
• Crime Cop / Body of the Crime, by Lorenz Heller (Stark House Press)
• A Cut for a Cut, by Carol Wyer (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Damage, by Caitlin Wahrer (Pamela Dorman)
• A Dark and Secret Place, by Jen Williams (Crooked Lane)
• Darkness Beyond, by Marjorie Eccles (Severn House)
• Dead by Dawn, by Paul Doiron (Minotaur)
• Dead Dead Girls, by Nekesa Afia (Berkley)
• The Dead Letter, by Seeley Regester (Poisoned Pen Press)
• Death in Daylesford, by Kerry Greenwood (Poisoned Pen Press)
• Death on the Night of Lost Lizards, by Julia Buckley (Berkley)
• The Disappearing Act, by Catherine Steadman (Ballantine)
• A Distant Grave, by Sarah Stewart Taylor (Minotaur)
• Dominus, by Steve Saylor (St. Martin’s Press)
• Double Down, by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime)
• Dream Girl, by Laura Lippman (Morrow)
• Dust Off the Bones, by Paul Howarth (Harper)
• An Empty Grave, by Andrew Welsh-Huggins (Swallow Press)
• Every City Is Every Other City, by John McFetridge (ECW Press)
• Far Gone, by Danielle Girard (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Fatal Picnic / Their Nearest and Dearest, by Bernice Carey
(Stark House Press)
• The Fiancée, by Kate White (Harper)
• Forest of Secrets, by Fiona Buckley (Severn House)
• A Good Kill, by John McMahon (Putnam)
• The Great Mistake, by Jonathan Lee (Knopf)
• Gumshoe in the Dark, by Rob Leininger (Oceanview)
• Hairpin Bridge, by Taylor Adams (Morrow)
• Hardcastle’s Secret Agent, by Graham Ison (Severn House)
• The Hive, by Gregg Olsen (Thomas & Mercer)
• Hostage, by Clare Mackintosh (Sourcebooks Landmark)
• The Keepers, by Jeffrey R. Burton (Minotaur)
• Kennedy’s Avenger: Assassination, Conspiracy, and the
Forgotten Trial of Jack Ruby, by Dan Abrams and David Fisher (Hanover Square Press)*
• The Killing Hills, by Chris Offutt (Grove Press)
• The Lammas Wild, by Alys Clare (Severn House)
• Lesson in Red, by Maria Hummel (Counterpoint)
• Lie Beside Me, by Gytha Lodge (Random House)
• The Maidens. by Alex Michaelides (Celadon)
• Mr. Campion’s Coven, by Mike Ripley (Severn House)
• Moon Lake, by Joe R. Lansdale (Mulholland)
• Moonlighting: An Oral History, by Scott Ryan (Fayetteville
Mafia Press)*
• Murder at Beaulieu Abbey, by Cassandra Clark (Severn House)
• Mystic’s Accomplice, by Mary Miley (Severn House)
• The Night Hawks, by Elly Griffiths (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Night, Neon: Tales of Mystery and Suspense, by Joyce Carol Oates (Mysterious Press)
• The North Face of the Heart, by Dolores Redondo (Amazon Crossing)
• The Old Enemy, by Henry Porter (Atlantic Monthly Press)
• The Other Black Girl, by Zakiya Dalila Harris (Atria)
• Our Woman in Moscow, by Beatriz
Williams (Morrow)
• Palace of the Drowned, by Christine Mangan (Flatiron)
• A Past That Breathes, by Noel Obiora
(Rare Bird)
• A Place for Snakes to Breed, by Patrick Michael Finn (Down & Out)
• The President’s Daughter, by Bill Clinton and James Patterson (Little, Brown/Knopf)
• Resistance, by Val McDermid and Kathryn Briggs (Atlantic Monthly Press)
• River, Sing Out, by James Wade (Blackstone)
• Runner, by Tracy Clark (Kensington)
• The Secrets of Us, by Lucinda Barry (Thomas & Mercer)
• Shadow Target, by David Ricciardi (Berkley)
• The Shape of Darkness, by Laura Purcell (Penguin)
• Sirens of Memory, by Puja Guha (Agora)
• Somebody’s Voice, by Ramsey Campbell (Flame Tree Press)
• Sons of Valor, by Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson (Blackstone)
• A Study in Crimson, by Robert J. Harris (Pegasus Crime)
• Suburban Dicks, by Fabian Nicieza (Putnam)
• Survive the Night, by Riley Sager (Dutton)
• Their Man in the White House, by Tom Ardies (Brash)
• These Tangled Vines, by Julianne MacLean (Lake Union)
• The Third Grave, by Lisa Jackson (Kensington)
• The Transparency of Time, by Leonardo Padura (Farrar,
Straus and Giroux)
• Trouble at the Brownstone, by Robert Goldsborough
(Mysterious Press/Open Road)
• An Unlikely Spy, by Rebecca Starford (Ecco)
• The Wake, by Jeremy Brown (Wolfpack)
• Walking Through Needles, by Heather Levy (Polis)
• Warn Me When It’s Time, by Cheryl A. Head (Bywater)
• The Wedding Night, by Harriet Walker (Ballantine)
• What’s Done in Darkness, by Laura McHugh (Random House)
• What to Do When Someone Dies, by Nicci French (Morrow)
• Who They Was, by Gabriel Krauze (Bloomsbury)
• Widespread Panic, by James Ellroy (Knopf)
• Wolf Kill, by Cary J. Griffith (Adventure Publications)
• A Writer Prepares, by Lawrence Block (LB Productions)*

JUNE (UK):
• The Blood Divide, by A.A. Dhand (Bantam Press)
• The Bones of Wolfe, by James Carlos Blake (No Exit Press)
• Brass Lives, by Chris Nickson (Severn House)
• Brazilian Psycho, by Joe Thomas (Arcadia)
• Consolation, by Garry Disher (Viper)
• The Cursed Girls, by Caro Ramsay (Black Thorn)
• The Dartmoor Murders, by Stephanie Austin (Allison & Busby)
• Dead Ground, by M.V. Craven (Constable)
• A Death on Stage, by Caroline Dunford (Headline Accent)
• The Family Tree, by Steph Mullin and Nicole Mabry (Avon)
• The First Day of Spring, by Nancy Tucker (Hutchinson)
• For Any Other Truth, by Denzil Meyrick (Polygon)
• The Forever Home, by Sue Watson (Bookouture)
• Fragile, by Sarah Hilary (Macmillan)
• The Girl Who Died, by Ragnar Jónasson (Michael Joseph)
• Guilty Creatures: A Menagerie of Mysteries, edited by Martin Edwards (British Library)
• Her Ocean Grave, by Dana Perry (Bookouture)
• The Hiding Place, by Helen Phifer (Bookouture)
• Hour of the Assassin, by Matthew Quirk (Head of Zeus)
• I Am Vengeance, by Ethan Cross (Head of Zeus/Aries)
• I Know What I Saw, by Imran Mahmood (Raven)
• In Harm’s Way, by Anthony Mosawi (Penguin)
• In the Shadow of the Fire, by Hervé Le Corre (Europa Editions)
• The Lies We Tell, by Jane Corry (Penguin)
• Mammon in Malmö, by Torquil MacLeod (McNidder & Grace)
• Mrs. England, by Stacey Halls (Manilla Press)
• Murder at Madame Tussauds, by Jim Eldridge (Allison & Busby)
• Murder at the Piccadilly Playhouse, by C.J. Archer (C.J. Archer)
• The Murder of Graham Catton, by Katie Lowe (HarperCollins)
• One Child Alive, by Ellery A. Kane (Bookouture)
• One Way Street, by Trevor Wood (Quercus)
• The Other Mother, by Michel Bussi (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• Phone for the Fish Knives, by Daisy Waugh (Piatkus)
• Right to Kill, by John Barlow (HQ)
• Scorpion, by Christian Cantrell
(Michael Joseph)
• Sleepless, by Romy Hausmann (Quercus)
• Strictly Murder, by Julie Wassmer (Constable)
• Strange Tricks, by Syd Moore (Point Blank)
• True Crime Story, by Joseph Knox (Doubleday)
• Truth or Dare, by M.J. Arlidge (Orion)
• A Wake of Crows, by Kate Evans (Constable)
• When You Are Mine, by Michael Robotham (Sphere)
• Widowland, by C.J. Carey (Quercus)
• Widow’s Island, by L.A. Larkin (Bookouture)

JULY (U.S.):
• After You Died, by Dea Poirier (Agora)
• An Ambush of Widows, by Jeff Abbott (Grand Central)
• Antiques Carry On, by Barbara Allan (Severn House)
• April in Paris, by John J. Healey (Arcade)
• Arrowood and the Meeting House Murders, by Mick Finley (HQ)
• The Basel Killings, by Hansjörg Schneider (Bitter Lemon Press)
• The Bone Code, by Kathy Reichs (Scribner)
• The Bucket List, by Peter Mohlin and Peter Nyström (Overlook Press)
• The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream: The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer, by Dean Jobb (Algonquin)*
• The Cellist, by Daniel Silva (Harper)
• Choose Me, by Tess Gerritsen and Gary Braver (Thomas & Mercer)
• City Problems, by Steve Goble (Oceanview)
• A Comedy of Terrors, by Lindsey Davis (Minotaur)
• The Comfort of Monsters, by Willa C. Richards (Harper)
• The Cover Wife, by Dan Fesperman (Knopf)
• Dear Miss Metropolitan, by Carolyn Ferrell (Henry Holt)
• Fallen, by Linda Castillo (Minotaur)
• Falling, by T.J. Newman (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster)
• False Witness, by Karin Slaughter (Morrow)
• Fierce Little Thing, by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore (Flatiron)
• For Your Own Good, by Samantha Downing (Berkley)
• Golden Age Detective Stories, edited by Otto Penzler
(American Mystery Classics)
• A Good Day for Chardonnay, by Darynda Jones (St. Martin’s Press)
• Her Last Breath, by Hilary Davidson (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Heathens, by Ace Atkins (Putnam)
• The Heretic’s Mark, by S.W. Perry (Atlantic)
• The Hollows, by Mark Edwards (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Hollywood Spy, by Susan Elia MacNeal (Bantam)
• How to Find Your Way in the Dark, by Derek B. Miller
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• The Hunted, by Gabriel Bergmoser (HarperCollins)
• An Irish Hostage, by Charles Todd (Morrow)
• Island of Thieves, by Glen Erik Hamilton (Morrow)
• Just One Look, by Lindsay Cameron (Ballantine)
• Kill All Your Darlings, by David Bell (Berkley)
• The Last Commandment, by Scott Shepherd (Mysterious Press)
• Look What You Made Me Do, by Elaine Murphy (Grand Central)
• The Lords of Time, by Eva García Sáenz (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)
• The Man with the Silver Saab, by Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon)
• Midnight, Water City, by Chris McKinney (Soho Crime)
• My Mistress’ Eyes Are Raven Black, by Terry Roberts (Turner)
• Nantucket Penny, by Steven Axelrod (Poisoned Pen Press)
• Not a Happy Family, by Shari Lapena (Pamela Dorman)
• One Half Truth, by Eva Dolan (Raven)
• The Only Good Secretary / The Man With the Cane, by Jean Potts (Stark House Press)
• Palm Springs Noir, edited by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett (Akashic)
• People Like Them, by Samira
Sedira (Penguin)
• Razorblade Tears, by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron)
• Red Traitor, by Owen Matthews (Doubleday)
• Seat 7A, by Sebastian Fitzek (Head of Zeus)
• Shadow Hill, by Thomas Kies
(Poisoned Pen Press)
• The Shadow People, by Joe Clifford (Polis)
• Silence in the Library, by Katharine Schellman (Crooked Lane)
• Silver Tears, by Camilla Läckberg (Knopf)
• Sleeping Bear, by Connor Sullivan (Atria/Emily Bestler)
• Sleep with Strangers, by Dolores Hitchens (Library of America)
• The Storytellers: Straight Talk from the World’s Most Acclaimed Suspense & Thriller Authors, edited by Mark Rubinstein (Blackstone)*
• The Stranger Behind You, by Carol Goodman (Morrow)
• The Stranger in the Mirror, by Liv Constantine (Harper)
• Such a Quiet Place, by Megan Miranda (Simon & Schuster)
• The Temple House Vanishing, by Rachel Donohue (Algonquin)
• The Therapist, by B.A. Paris (St. Martin’s Press)
• The Thing Beyond Reason / Echo of a Careless Voice / Blotted Out, by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding (Stark House Press)
• The 22 Murders of Madison May, by Max Barry (Putnam)
• Unthinkable, by Brad Parks (Thomas & Mercer)
• UTube, by Rozlan Mohd Noor (Arcade Crimewise)
• We Were Never Here, by Andrea Bartz (Ballantine)
• Woman in Shadow, by Carrie Stuart Parks (Thomas Nelson)
• The Wonder Test, by Michelle Richmond (Atlantic Monthly Press)

JULY (UK):
• All Her Fault, by Andrea Mara (Bantam Press)
• Amber, by Heather Burnside (Aria)
• Ascension, by Oliver Harris (Little, Brown)
• Ask No Questions, by Claire Allan (Avon)
• A Beginner’s Guide to Murder, by Rosalind Stopps (HQ)
• The Beresford, by Will Carver (Orenda)
• Bloody Foreigners, by Neil Humphreys (Muswell Press)
• Bryant & May: London Bridge Is Falling Down, by Christopher
Fowler (Doubleday)
• Cabin Fever, by Alex Dahl (Head of Zeus)
• The Cottage, by Lisa Stone (HarperCollins)
• The Crooked Shore, by Martin Edwards (Allison & Busby)
• A Cursed Place, by Peter Hanington (Two Roads)
• Death and Croissants, by Ian Moore (Farrago)
• Diamond and the Eye, by Peter Lovesey (Sphere)
• The Doll, by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Dog Rose Dirt, by Jen Williams (HarperCollins)
• Down By the Water, by Elle Connel (Wildfire)
• The Dying Day, by Vaseem Khan (Hodder & Stoughton)
• The Dying Squad, by Adam Simcox (Gollancz)
• Elena Knows, by Claudia Piñeiro (Charco Press)
• Farewell to the Liar, by D.K. Fields (Head of Zeus/AdAstra)
• Fast Track, by Stephen Leather (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Girls Who Lie, by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir (Orenda)
• The Guest House, by David Mark (Head of Zeus/Aries)
• The House of Death, by Peter Tremayne (Headline)
• How to Kill Your Family, by Bella Mackie (Borough Press)
• The Hunt and the Kill, by Holly Watt (Raven)
• I Know What You’ve Done, by Dorothy Koomson (Headline Review)
• Into the Dark, by Stuart Johnstone (Allison & Busby)
• Karolina, or the Torn Curtain, by Jacek Dehnel (Point Blank)
• The Killer Inside, by Matthew Frank (Michael Joseph)
• The Killing Tide, by Lin Anderson (Macmillan)
• Kyiv, by Graham Hurley (Head of Zeus)
• Midsummer Mysteries: Secrets and Suspense from the Queen of Crime, by Agatha Christie (HarperCollins)
• Mother Midnight,
by Paul Doherty (Headline)
• The Murder Box,
by Olivia Kiernan (Riverrun)
• My Best Friend’s Murder,
by Polly Phillips (Simon & Schuster)
• The Nameless Ones,
by John Connolly (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Our Friends in Beijing,
by John Simpson (John Murray)
• Pretty as a Picture,
by Elizabeth Little (Pushkin Vertigo)
• Rabbit Hole, by Mark Billingham (Little, Brown)
• Red Wolves, by Adam Hamdy (Pan)
• The Rising Tide, by Sam Lloyd (Bantam Press)
• Risk of Harm, by Lucie Whitehouse (Fourth Estate)
• Rogue Asset, by Andy McDermott (Headline)
• The Runner, by P.R. Black (Head of Zeus/Aries)
• The Second Woman, by Charlotte Philby (Borough Press)
• The Secret Life of Writers, by Guillaume Musso
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• The Shetland Sea Murders, by Marsali Taylor (Headline Accent)
• The Stalker, by Sarah Alderson (Avon)
• That Night, by Gillian McAllister (Penguin)
• The Therapist, by Helene Flood (MacLehose Press)
• The Trenches, by Parker Bilal (Black Thorn)
• The Truth-Seeker’s Wife, by Ann Granger (Headline)
• Where the Missing Gather, by Helen Sedgwick (Point Blank)
• Whitethroat, by James Henry (Riverrun)

AUGUST (U.S.):
• Another Kind of Eden, by James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster)
• The April Dead, by Alan Parks (World Noir)
• Autumn Leaves, 1922, by Tessa Lunney (Pegasus Crime)
• The Barrister and the Letter of Marque, by Todd M. Johnson
(Bethany House)
• Before the Storm, by Alex Gray (Sphere)
• Billy Summers, by Stephen King (Scribner)
• The Bitter Taste of Murder, by Camilla Trinchieri (Soho Crime)
• Bullet Train, by Kotaro Isaka (Overlook Press)
• The Cannonball Tree Mystery, by Ovidia Yu (Constable)
• Chasing the Boogeyman, by Richard Chizmar (Gallery)
• Clark and Division, by Naomi Hirahara (Soho Crime)
• The Coldest Case, by Martin Walker (Knopf)
• Danger at the Cove, by Hannah Dennison (Minotaur)
• The Darkness Knows, by Arnaldur Indriðason (Minotaur)
• Dark Roads, by Chevy Stevens (St. Martin’s Press)
• A Different Dawn, by Isabella Maldonado (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Double Mother, by Michel Bussi (World Noir)
• Dust to Dust, by Audrey Keown (Crooked Lane)
• The Family Plot, by Megan Collins (Atria)
• Felonious Monk, by William Kotzwinkle (Blackstone)
• 56 Days, by Catherine Ryan Howard (Blackstone)
• A Gingerbread House, by Catriona McPherson (Severn House)
• Gone By Morning, by Michele Weinstat Miller (Crooked Lane)
• Gone for Good, by Joanna Schaffhausen (Minotaur)
• Graveyard Fields, by Steven Tingle (Crooked Lane)
• The Guide, by Peter Heller (Knopf)
• The Guilt Trip, by Sandie Jones (Minotaur)
• The Husbands, by Chandler Baker (Flatiron)
• In My Dreams I Hold a Knife, by Ashley Winstead
(Sourcebooks Landmark)
• The Irish Assassins: Conspiracy, Revenge and the Phoenix Park Murders that Stunned Victorian England, by Julie Kavanagh
(Atlantic Monthly Press)*
• The Island, by Ben Coes (St. Martin’s Press)
• The Killing Look, by J.D. Rhoades (Polis)
• The King of Infinite Space, by Lyndsay Faye (Putnam)
• The Last Mona Lisa, by Jonathan Santlofer (Sourcebooks Landmark)
• Lightning Strike, by William Kent Krueger (Atria)
• The Madness of Crowds, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
• Murder Most Fair, by Anna Lee Huber (Kensington)
• Murder Most Fowl, by Donna Andrews (Minotaur)
• Murder on Principle, by Eleanor Kuhns (Severn House)
• The Night Singer, by Johanna Mo (Penguin)
• The Other Me, by Sarah Zachrich Jeng (Berkley)
• The Perfect Ruin, by Shanora Williams (Dafina)
• The Perfume Thief, by Timothy Schaffert (Doubleday)
• Rabbit Hole, by Mark Billingham (Atlantic Monthly Press)
• The Receptionist, by Kate Myles (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Return of Sherlock Holmes: Further Extraordinary Tales of the Famous Sleuth, edited by Maxim Jakubowski (Mango)
• Say Goodbye, by Karen Rose (Berkley)
• The Sister-in-Law, by Pamela Crane (Morrow)
• A Slow Fire Burning, by Paula Hawkins (Riverhead)
• Then She Vanishes, by Claire Douglas (Harper)
• Tokyo Redux, by David Peace (Knopf)
• The Turnout, by Megan Abbott (Putnam)
• An Unreliable Truth, by Victor Methos (Thomas & Mercer)
• Velvet Was the Night, by Silvia
Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)
• Where I Left Her, by Amber Garza (Mira)
• Where the Truth Lies, by Anna
Bailey (Atria)

AUGUST (UK):
• The Body on the Moor, by Nick
Louth (Canelo)
• Celtic Cross, by Sara Sheridan (Constable)
• The Chancellor’s Secret, by Susanna Gregory (Sphere)
• Cold Sun, by Anita Sivakumaran (Dialogue)
• A Corruption of Blood, by Ambrose Parry (Canongate)
• The Dark, by Emma Haughton (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Death Comes to Bishops Well, by Anna Legat (Headline Accent)
• Deep Cover, by Leigh Russell (No Exit Press)
• The Devil’s Advocate, by Steve Cavanagh (Orion)
• End of Summer, by Anders de la Motte (Zaffre)
• The Ex-Husband, by Karen Hamilton (Wildfire)
• The Good Death, by S.D. Sykes (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Graveyard to Hell, by Jack Higgins (HarperCollins)
• The Great Shroud, by Vera Morris (Headline Accent)
• The Great Silence, by Doug Johnstone (Orenda)
• Half-Past Tomorrow, by Chris McGeorge (Orion)
• The Heights, by Louise Candlish (Simon & Schuster)
• Hell and High Water, by Christian Unge (MacLehose Press)
• I Shot the Devil, by Ruth McIver (Tinder Press)
• Licence Renewed, by John Gardner (Orion)
• A Line to Kill, by Anthony Horowitz (Century)
• Many Deadly Returns: 21 Stories Celebrating 21 Years of Murder Squad, edited by Martin Edwards (Severn House)
• The Midas Game, by Abi Silver (Lightning)
• Mimic, by Daniel Cole (Trapeze)
• Missing, by Erin Kinsley (Headline)
• Murder After Midnight, by Lesley Cookman (Headline Accent)
• Murder at the Seaview Hotel, by Glenda Young (Headline)
• My Name Is Jensen, by Heidi Amsinck (Muswell Press)
• A Narrow Door, by Joanne Harris (Orion)
• 1979, by Val McDermid (Little, Brown)
• The Origins of Iris, by Beth Lewis (Hodder Studio)
• Replace You, by Andrew Ewart (Orion)
• The Saboteur, by Simon Conway (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Say Goodbye, by Karen Rose (Headline)
• The Secrets of Thistle Cottage, by Kerry Barrett (HQ)
• The Soul Breaker, by Sebastian Fitzek (Head of Zeus)
• Stolen, by Tess Stimson (Avon)
• The Stone Chamber, by Kate Ellis (Piatkus)
• Unholy Murder, by Lynda La Plante (Zaffre)
• The Unwelcome Guest, by Amanda Robson (Avon)
• The Vacancy, by Elisabeth Carpenter (Orion)
• The Wedding Party, by Tammy Cohen (Black Swan)
• The White Devil, by Paul Hoffman (Michael Joseph)
• Who Took Eden Mulligan? by Sharon Dempsey (Avon)
• Wolf at the Door, by Sarah Hawkswood (Allison & Busby)

As incredible as it may seem, this inventory is nowhere near comprehensive. There are plenty more crime, mystery, and thriller works hoping to join your to-be-read pile this summer. If you wish to recommend other new or forthcoming releases, please do so in the Comments section at the end of this post.