Spring has finally arrived, and with it comes a number of lights-out thrillers from some of the best authors in the genre.
For starters, Lisa Scottoline kicks things off with a twisting thriller about a group of friends who play a prank that goes terribly wrong, resulting in the death of teenager. Twenty years later, their secret comes back to haunt them, along with a number of troubling unanswered questions, in what might be Scottoline’s most suspense-filled novel yet.
Then there’s Philip Kerr’s final novel, completed just before his passing last year after battling cancer. Much like how Vince Flynn went back, after more than a decade of churning out bestsellers, to tell Mitch Rapp’s origin story, Kerr’s last book takes readers back to the beginning of Bernie Gunther’s career—providing a true origin story for the beloved character. Without giving anything away, it’s some of his finest work, and everything his fans could hope for.
Alafair Burke is back, following up last year’s hit novel The Wife, with another thriller that draws on real-life themes of family and betrayal, all rolled into one up-all-night thriller that’s too good to put down. While new offerings from David Baldacci, Robert Dugoni, Brian Panowich, and John Sandford round things out, ensuring there’s a little something for everyone hitting bookstores this month.
Happy reading!
Someone Knows by Lisa Scottoline
Release Date: Aril 9th (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
When a group of teenagers find a gun near their Philadelphia neighborhood one summer, they decide to use it to pull a harmless prank on a new kid, forcing him to play Russian Roulette with the unloaded pistol as a form of “initiation,” into their clique.
Instead, tragedy strikes when Kyle Gallagher dies from the self-inflicted .38 round gunshot to the head—an accident that haunts the remaining members twenty years later as they each guard their dark secret … until new evidence surfaces suggesting that Kyle’s death might not have been an accident, after all.
It’s years later, after a funeral, that Allie Garvey finally decides she can no longer carry the burden of what they did and have been hiding for so long, and confronts the other remaining members of the group, a move that has swift consequences for everyone. Worse yet, it becomes clear that somebody knows what actually happened, and as Allie searches for the truth, she inadvertently digs up other secrets in the process, exposing one horrific, ugly truth after another—leading to a jaw-dropping ending that readers will never see coming.
Alternating between the 1990s and the present day, Scottoline rotates character POVs, slowly revealing what really happened through the eyes of everyone involved, including the parents. It’s hard nowadays, in the post-Gone Girl era, to truly catch readers off-guard. From unreliable narrators to unforeseen twists out of left field that offer more shock than substance, today’s reader has pretty much seen it all, which is why Scottoline’s latest offering is so special—she lands that coveted haymaker, one that’ll leave her fans reeling and have people talking about her book for a long, long time.
The queen of suspense is back, and Someone Knows is one of Lisa Scottoline’s best novels to date.
Metropolis by Philip Kerr
Release Date: April 9th (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
It’s summer in Berlin, and someone is killing prostitutes in gruesome, torturous fashion. After catching the eye of his higher-ups, who think he could one day blossom into a gifted detective, Bernie Gunther is finally called up the big leagues. Upon receiving his summons from Bernard Weiss, Bernie vacates his vice position to join the prestigious Berlin Murder Commission, where he’s handed the prostitution case and is tasked with bringing the killer, who has a fondness for scalping his victims, to justice.
Though he nabs a killer his first day on the job, it’s not the killer he’s desperately searching for. And tension only rises when another victim is found, prompting Bernie to consider alternative methods for tracking down the murderer.
Meanwhile, another killer by the name of Dr. Gnadenschuss has been taunting investigators, sending letters to the police to toy with them. Gnadenschuss, who targets WWI vets, and the prostitute killer have the city on edge, but it’s Gunther who blows the case wide open when he realizes the two killers may be one and the same—and agrees to go undercover in order to help apprehend the madman.
Without giving anything away, this story provides a fitting end to Kerr’s storied career which, in many ways, has now come full circle. Obviously, Bernie’s bosses were right in that he would one day go on to become a brilliant detective, but readers know that going into this one, having already followed him for thirteen previous cases. This one’s special, though, and while readers will certainly recognize Bernie’s wise-cracking voice and trademark banter, Kerr still managed to bring an innocent-like element to him not previously seen on the page until now.
In addition to the character development, Kerr’s writing is beautiful and, as always, he nailed the setting, which is brought to life with vivid descriptions throughout. There’s also a number of real-life historical characters weaved in, one of which explains the book’s title, and plenty of intrigue throughout. It’s incredibly sad that this is the end of the line for Bernie Gunther, but there’s no question—Kerr saved some of his best work for last.
Beloved New York Times bestselling author Philip Kerr—who passed away suddenly last year after battling cancer—takes readers back one last time, providing an origin story of sorts for Bernie Gunther … and his final novel is one readers will be talking about for a very long time.
The Eighth Sister by Robert Dugoni
Release Date: April 9th (Thomas and Mercer)
Trained from birth with one goal—to penetrate Russia’s foreign intelligence service and report back to the CIA—the most promising spy cell America has ever positioned inside Russia has suddenly come under attack.
They’re known as the Seven Sisters. Seven women, all exceptionally skilled and capable of infiltrating various parts of the Russian government, have been exposed. Nobody knows how, or why, but three of the Sisters are dead, and it’s up to Charles Jenkins to save the remaining four. There’s just one problem . . .
Jenkins, now in his early sixties and living on Camano Island, Washington, hasn’t worked at the Central Intelligence Agency in forty years. Married and desperately trying to keep his security consulting business afloat, Charles is gearing up to welcome a new baby when he’s approached by Carl Emerson, his former bureau chief, and offered the chance to return to the agency for one last go-around. Though reluctant at first, Jenkins eventually accepts, eager to score one more hefty payday, and is officially reactivated and sent to Moscow in search of the assassin killing the agents in place, codenamed the Eighth Sister.
Once in theatre, Jenkins begins scouring Moscow for intel on the assassin, only to make a shocking discovery—the Eighth Sister isn’t anything like what he expected. Realizing that both he and the woman he was sent to kill were set up, Jenkins finds himself abandoned by the CIA and those who sent him and left completely on his own in hostile territory. Things worsen when he finds out that a Russian intelligence officer is hot on his heels, forcing Jenkins to attempt a bold escape plan in hopes of returning to his family.
Unwilling to go quietly, Charles fights back, but with surprises waiting for him at every turn, he quickly realizes that nothing—and no one—are quite what they seem.
Dugoni has outdone himself here, serving up a thriller unlike anything else he’s ever written before. While readers may initially feel bummed out that this isn’t the next book in his Tracy Crosswhite series, most will warm to Charles Jenkins within the first few pages. Nicely developed, Jenkins comes across as an everyday Joe, displaying plenty of relatable qualities readers can identify with. Without giving anything away, the Eighth Sister is also a fantastic character, as are the rest of the supporting cast, including those who end up playing the villainous role.
Treason, moles, and plenty of misdirection … Robert Dugoni’s The Eighth Sister is a high-stakes game between spies that’s perfect for fans of Jason Matthews and Mark Henshaw.
The Better Sister by Alafair Burke
Release Date: April 16th (Harper)
On the surface, Chloe Taylor is living a glamorous life, happily married and raising her stepson while working as the editor-in-chief of a prominent women’s magazine that has helped give way to the #MeToo movement. However, not everything in her life is perfect, and when her husband turns up dead, she’s forced to form an awkward alliance with her son’s biological mother … who happens to be her estranged sister.
Growing up, though she was younger, Chloe was always more mature than her older sister, Nickey, who spent her younger days partying. Not much changed as Nickey grew older, either, continuing her ways well into adulthood. She married Adam McIntosh, a successful lawyer, and they had a son together named Ethan, but their marriage quickly fell apart and Adam fought for, and received, full custody of Ethan.
Years later, Adam moved to New York City, where he began connecting with Chloe, a popular feminist whose hard work has landed her a solid career and comfortable bank account, and the two wed despite the fact that he’d divorced her big sister. Things were going great until Chloe returns home from a night in Hamptons to find Adam murdered in their home, prompting a police investigation that exposes a darker home life than the couple projected to those around them.
For starters, police like someone close to Adam for his murder, and with Chloe providing a rock-solid alibi, detectives turn their attention to Ethan, now a big, strong, strapping teenager. Turns out, Ethan and his dad had somewhat of a rocky relationship, full of arguing, yelling, and the occasional threat of being sent to military school. Chloe doesn’t believe for a second that Ethan is capable of murder, but his less than forthright answers to police questioning eventually makes him the prime suspect, leading to his arrest.
Hearing all of this, Nickey travels from Cleveland to the Big Apple in an effort to help Ethan, where she reunites with her little sister who’s been raising her son while playing the mother and wife role she always wanted for herself. The two sisters try to set their differences aside, but their shaky alliance threatens to crumble as old family secrets are brought to light, and in the end, they’ll each be tested in ways they never imagined.
Alafair Burke delivers one hell of a whodunit, wrapped around a brilliant drama about family, relationships, and sister rivalry. Careful not to hit readers over the head with all their backstory at once, Burke’s latest thriller starts fast, pulling readers in from the get-go, before she skillfully and slowly pulls the curtain back a little more with each passing page. The main characters, especially Chloe and Nickey, are developed nicely, as Burke wades through their unique relationship without ever taking her foot off the gas pedal. And just when you think you have this one figured out, she lands her best twist yet.
Burke brings her A-game here, drawing on real-life themes that add a timely and relevant feel to The Better Sister … but the real magic lies in the mystery at the heart of this powerful family drama that packs a major twist and an ending that’ll leave readers stunned.
Redemption by David Baldacci
Release Date: April 16th (Grand Central)
By now, readers know his story. Years back, the Hulk-sized Amos Decker suffered a bone-crushing helmet-to-helmet hit during his first play in the NFL, rendering him unable to forget anything, ever.
Abandoning the playing field for police work, Decker’s condition is both a gift and a curse. While he’s able to remember endless important details pertaining to various investigations, he can never forget the murders of his wife, daughter, and brother-in-law—the images of their dead bodies forever, painfully, preserved in his memory. Now, though, Decker is working cold cases with an elite FBI unit, a job that takes him all across the country in search of justice for those who deserve it most. This time, after narrowly escaping death in Pennsylvania following the events of last year’s The Fallen, Decker is back in his hometown of Burlington, Ohio.
After swearing to never go back, Decker, accompanied by his partner, Alex Jamison, makes his return to Burlington in order to visit the grave of his daughter, Molly, on what would have been her fourteenth birthday. While mourning his loss in the cemetery, a man approaches and introduces himself as Meryl Hawkins. The name does more than just ring a bell for Decker, causing the big guy’s jaw to drop ever so slightly. Years back, Decker put him away for murder—the first murder investigation of his career as a cop, in fact.
Though sentenced to life in prison with no parole, it turns out that Hawkins was recently released after being diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. From day one, he’s professed his innocence, and he’s sticking to it in his final hour. Moreover, he wants Amos to help him prove it once and for all. As it turns out, Decker’s former partner, Mary Lancaster, thinks there might be something to his claim. After all, why would a man on his deathbed go to such lengths to have his name cleared if he was, in fact, really guilty?
Still not sold on the idea that Hawkins might really be telling the truth, a skeptic Decker agrees to give the case another look—only to realize that the clear-cut investigation might be a little too clear-cut. Then comes another twist, when Meryl Hawkins is found dead with a bullet hole in his head. Figuring that the only reason to kill a dying man is to keep him quiet, Decker finally realizes he may have gotten it all wrong years ago and sets out to right his wrong, no matter the cost . . . even if it means digging up a dangerous old secret that someone’s willing to kill in order to keep it buried in the past.
Even just a few years back, Amos Decker was arguably Baldacci’s third-best protagonist, behind Will Robie and John Puller. Now, after several really strong books, you could make the case that he’s the author’s top hero, a dramatic turnaround for a character whose origin book, The Memory Man, wasn’t all that well received. As always, Baldacci’s writing is smooth, and his commitment to fleshing out his cast of characters continues to pay off in this one. The story is solid, with a couple of strong twists, and while some readers might see the ending coming, Baldacci still provides a fun, entertaining journey getting there.
The Neon Prey by John Sandford
Release Date: April 23rd (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Things aren’t always what the first appearance in the latest novel from New York Times bestseller John Sandford, who brings back his fan-favorite hero, Lucas Davenport, for his 29th go-around.
When he was first arrested and booked for federal racketeering charges, the feds had no idea who they were dealing with. As it turns out, though, Clayton Deese, a hired killer with a taste for human flesh, is actually one of the most wanted men in the country—and by the time the police realize who he really is, he’s already slipped away, leaving behind a sliced-off GPS tracker and a makeshift gravesite of innocent victims who’ve been partially cannibalized before dumped in the woods.
Needing help, local law enforcement turns to the U.S. Marshals, and soon thereafter Lucas Davenport is dispatched to New Orleans to help find Deese and bring him in before he can kill again.
While things don’t go according to plan early on, as Deese manages to leave a trail of bodies in his wake as he flees the law, Davenport is able to follow the bloodshed to Las Vegas, where he quickly realizes that the FBI and U.S. Marshal’s office aren’t the only ones looking for him. Worse, Lucas is forced to question the motives of those around him, complicating things further, giving him one more thing to think about as he tries to navigate his way around the obstacle course of corruption and crime in Vegas, leading to a slightly predictable, yet still satisfying ending.
By now, longtime readers have likely adjusted to Davenport’s new role with the Marshal’s office, and Sandford certainly continues to use the change to his advantage, having Lucas take on bigger, more dangerous criminals each time out, which raises the stakes for the series as whole, even if readers have little fear that their hero is ever in any real danger. Whereas other writers take a formulaic approach this deep into their careers, Sandford has shown a willingness to take risks in the name of freshening up his series, and it’s paid off in spades.
This far into the series, readers pretty much know what they’re getting with Sandford, who keeps on delivering the goods year after year.
Like Lions by Brian Panowich
Release Date: April 23rd (Minotaur Books)
Four years after the release of his brilliant debut novel, Bull Mountain, Brian Panowich finally delivers a sequel that was worth waiting for.
Following the deaths of his brothers, Clayton Burroughs, sheriff of Bull Mountain, is still recovering from injuries and emotional scars that he’s accepted might never heal when outsiders attempt to run OxyContin through Georgia—hoping that Burroughs will follow family tradition and look the other way.
Though he comes from a long line of outlaws, Clayton locks horns with the group known as the Leek clan, who, it turns out, has another motive for wandering around Bull Mountain. Though it wasn’t that long ago when nobody dared to mess with the Burroughs, times are a-changing, made of worse by Clayton’s fragile mental state and self-medicating with pills and alcohol, making him ripe for an overthrow on the mountain his family has run for decades.
Though he wants to do the right thing and uphold the oath he swore as sheriff, Clayton’s judgment is compromised, both by the pills and booze and the growing tension between him and his wife, who are trying to hold it together in order to raise their infant son when the Leek crew makes their presence felt in more ways than one—leaving a trail of dead bodies in their wake. Suddenly, Clayton is confronted with the ugly reality that in order to do his job and survive the onslaught, he must embrace the ways of his family, getting down in the mud with the bad guys … even if it means getting a little dirt on his hands in the process.
Though it’s very much on the dark and gritty side, falling somewhere between Don Winslow and some of C.J. Box’s standalone novels, Panowich skillfully mixes in a number of touching scenes and moments, some even from the villainous characters, creating incredible balance throughout. The emotionally-charged opening sets the tone perfectly for what’s to follow—capped off with an explosive ending that tops even the much-talked-about conclusion to Bull Mountain. That said, the heart of the story isn’t in the tone or message, but rather the characters, as Panowich continues to create a memorable, relatable cast and shows that he knows how to get the most out of his characters. Clayton, a bona fide star-in-the-making, is a wounded soul, the depth of which is described in such detail that readers won’t help but feel his pain, anguish, and anger as the story charges along—creating the type of hypnotic, page-turning experience that doesn’t come around too often.
Dark, raw, and honest, Brian Panowich’s Like Lions is a beautifully written, powerful crime thriller that’ll have readers begging for more.
