May is finally here, which means that summer is right around the corner—along with some of the year’s biggest releases, like Brad Thor’s next Scot Harvath thriller, Mike Maden’s latest Clancy book, and the latest from Daniel Silva, Jack Carr, Matthew Betley, Stephen Hunter, and others.
But, before those names flood bookstores in June and July, there are a few notable releases set to come out in the coming weeks—including the can’t-miss thriller from Nick Irvin and Anthony J. Tata, Reaper: Threat Zero.
Browse my list of the best books set to come out in May, then get ready … because while this month is really solid in terms of how many great books are coming out, the next two months are going to be really special.
The Kremlin Strike by Dale Brown
Release Date: May 7th (William Morrow)
Set several years in the future, Russian President Gennadiy Gryzlov has one goal—to conquer the world.
To help him overthrown the United States, Gryzlov and the Russians have commissioned a new state of the art space station, code-named Thunderbolt, capable of taking out satellites and delivering a strike to America.
John Dalton Farrell, the newly sworn-in American president, reverts back to Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative program, launching his own plan to get the United States back up to speed and ready for the kind of war the Russians are hellbent on starting. Enter pilots Patrick McLanahan and his son, Brad, who heads up America’s Iron Wolf Squadron. Together, the father-son duo are charged with leading Farrell’s vision for beefing up the country’s space defenses, and they get to work right away, looping in Nadia Roz, Maj, and the rest of the gang. But with little time to prepare and organize, the countdown is on, and it’s one again up to the Iron Wolf Squadron to save the day before it’s too late.
Though it does feature a futuristic plot, Brown doesn’t go full-blown sci-fi here. Instead, he dials up the action, hitting on a timely threat that delivers one of the first stories mirroring President Trump’s real-life Space Force. As longtime fans of the franchise know, Brown has been building the Russian angle for a while now, and while his last book didn’t build to the hype readers might have expected, his latest doesn’t disappoint. Actions junkies will delight in the over-the-top fighting sequences, which are some of Brown’s finest to date. The one negative, and it’s minor, is the over usage of military terms and acronyms. Even veteran readers of the genre may struggle to pick up everything, though he’s still nowhere near the early days when Tom Clancy was pretty much writing a thriller around a submarine instruction manual.
Dale Brown doesn’t reinvent the wheel here, but he doesn’t need to. He knows what his fans want, and he gives it to ‘em—mixing in action and innovative Nextgen weapons along the way.
The Paris Diversion by Chris Pavone
Release Date: May 7th (Crown)
In Paris, Mahmoud Khalid, standing before the Louvre, is ready to strike another blow to the once peaceful city. Khalid, an assumed jihadist armed with a suicide vest strapped to his body, is ready to die—taking countless lives with him. The question, though, is why?
On the ground is Kate Moore, a deep-cover CIA operative whose job is a secret even to her husband, Dexter, and their children. After dropping her kids off at an international school, she goes about her morning as she normally would, making plans for a dinner party all the while actually working for the American government as a plant in Europe. And when Paris once again breaks out in sirens—just as similar bomb threats pop up across the globe—she’s once again called to action and tasked with figuring out just what in the heck is going on.
As Kate begins looking into the attacks on Paris, her husband, who has plenty of his own secrets that he hopes to keep hidden, is planning another get-rich scheme in hopes of digging them out of the hole his last sketchy business venture left them in. So too is businessman Hunter Forsyth, who planned to vastly increase his fortune that morning before he was hit with a tech blackout, knocking out his phones and other communication devices. Worse yet, Hunter’s police protection detail were all forced to leave their posts at his home in order to respond to the situation unfolding at the Louvre Museum.
As Kate races to do her job, tapping her plugged-in and well-connected sources along the way, she discovers a link between Dexter and Hunter, which may be possible to connect to the attacks … and may even signal that something bigger is about to go down.
As the title alludes to, not everything is what it first seems in Pavone’s latest. A solid all-around writer, Chris Pavone brings the Paris setting to life on the page, allowing readers to feel part of the chaos on the ground. Kate Moore is a solid character and fine protagonist, though some may find the relationship between her and her husband unbelievable due to Dexter’s apparent aloofness and the fact that he can’t figure out his wife is hiding a major secret. That said, Pavone does continue developing her nicely (she first appeared in his 2012 thriller The Expats), and mixes in a number of colorful secondary characters too. The story itself is full of misdirection and surprises, and even those who do see the final twist coming—will likely still enjoy the ride getting there.
The Never Game by Jeffery Deaver
Release Date: May 14th (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Sophie Mulliner, a well-liked college student, has suddenly gone missing, and her father, Frank, is offering $10,000 to anyone who can help find her. Enter Colter Shaw, a non-private detective who thinks like a detective but travels the country aiding police and other investigators for cash rewards.
Genius-level smart and in need of 10k, Colter heads to Silicon Valley and agrees to help look for Sophie, even though he claims the math suggests she’s already dead, and quickly links her abduction to a series of other missing person reports.
As it turns out, two other victims also need saving, and it’s Shaw who connects the kidnapper’s actions to that of a video game called The Whispering Man, in which the player must find a way to survive being dumped and left in an inhospitable setting with nothing but five random objects to help them along the way. Realizing that someone has brought the game to life in horrifying, disturbing detail, Colter is frustrated that the local detective, Dan Wiley, and Bay Area police didn’t follow the same leads he did—causing him to question their methods.
As his search for the missing women jumps between real life and the dark web, Shaw suddenly finds himself sucked into a game of cat-and-mouse with the madman behind it all, and he’s not the only one in hot pursuit. Unbeknownst to Colter, a bigger reveal is waiting—and if he’s not careful, he could lose everything . . . including his life.
Rarely do perennial New York Times bestselling authors leave their fan-favorite franchises (like Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme), especially after fourteen books, to step away and kick off a new one. Generally, the move is considered too risky. However, in Colter Shaw, Deaver has created one of the year’s best characters … and he might even be more intriguing and entertaining than Lincoln Rhyme.
A wanderer at heart, Shaw is the son of a recently deceased survivalist, and his unorthodox upbringing lends itself nicely to the story. Deaver knows just how much background to provide, offering enough about Colter’s past to flesh him out and explain how he became such an experienced tracker—while leaving enough on the table to keep you wanting more, which he’ll no doubt touch on in future books. As for the gaming stuff, some of the descriptions get a little tech-heavy, but Deaver proves good at re-explaining things in layman’s terms, making it easy to understand. So, whether you’re a hardcore gamer or total newb to the tech scene, readers will be just fine following along.
Fast, compelling, and full of twits, The Never Game is one of Jeffery Deaver’s best books in years.
The Night Window by Dean Koontz
Release Date: May 14th (Bantam)
Jane Hawke is finally ready to finish what she started.
Ever since they messed with the wrong guy, her husband, Jane Hawke has had her sights set on the ruthless cabal known as the Techno Arcadians. Years back, The Arcadians, a powerful group of people hellbent on using manipulation and persuasion to gain power, used nanoparticles—injected into their victims—to brainwash Jane’s husband, who eventually went so mad that he took his own life. Since then, Jane has worked tirelessly to complete two objectives: protect her son, Travis, and expose the Arcadians before burning them to the ground.
Here, following the events of The Forbidden Door (2018), Jane has stashed Travis with friends out west and teamed up with former FBI agent turned hacker extraordinaire Vikram Rangnekar, who managed to obtain valuable intelligence about the Arcadians. Jane believes the group is funded by billionaire Warwick Hollister, a certified psychopath who proves his evilness by hunting helpless individuals for sport at his Colorado compound, and wants to go after him. However, news that someone has identified Travis changes everything, leaving Jane in an impossible situation that, if she’s not careful, could lead to her failing both of her objectives … and everything she’s worked so hard for.
Over the last few years, Dean Koontz has quickly established Jane Hawke as one of the best protagonists in the genre. And fans have rooted for her since book one, no matter how high the odds were stacked against her. Whether it was feeling for her loses or cheering her on as she figured out ways to dodge facial recognition software at every turn in order to evade Arcadian forces, readers have longed to see her expose the conspiracy that’s claimed countless lives.
Now, the story’s come full circle, and while it’s unclear whether or not Koontz intends this to be the final book in the series or just the final book under this story arc, Hawke fans will no doubt appreciate the thrilling yet satisfying ending. My only wish is that the structure—which is a bit choppy at times—was more consistent. In the end, it feels a bit like Koontz may have tried to fit one too many storylines into the fold, taking away from Jane’s screen. Even so, many questions are finally answered, and Vikram Rangnekar (who crushed hard on Hawke) proves to be a fun addition to the cast.
Hopefully, this isn’t the last of Jane Hawke … but if it is, at least Koontz gives her a worthy sendoff.
Reaper: Threat Zero by Nicholas Irving and A.J. Tata
Release Date: May 21st (St. Martin’s Press)
What should have been a memorable weekend of fun quickly becomes unforgettable for all the wrong reasons. To log some much-needed relaxation and time with loved ones, President Bob Smart hosts his first ever “Family Day” at Camp David for members of his cabinet and their immediate family members. But just as the convoy of black SUVs rounds a secluded bend close to the president’s home away from home, a team of gunmen ambushes them—mercilessly slaughtering innocent men, women, and children.
Following the blood bath in Maryland, Harwood, one of the deadliest snipers in the history of the United States military is sitting at home, helping Monisha—his foster sister of sorts—get ready for school when a Facebook notification pings on his phone. His old spotter, Sammie Thurmont, fires up Facebook Live, where he’s seen holding a gun to the bottom of his chin. Hoping it’s all some kind of sick joke, Harwood frantically tries to call his friend, who responds only by looking into the camera and saying, apologizing to Vick before shooting himself.
Harwood, too stunned to move, is pulled from his paralyzing disbelief when a noise at the backdoor brings him back to the here and now. And when a gunman breaks through the door, Vick is waiting, his trusty Beretta at the ready.
After dispatching two unidentified hitters, Harwood calls on Command Sergeant Major Murdoch to help clean up the mess—who informs him of the attack on the president’s cabinet members, before dropping telling him that Sammie is the alleged shooter behind the attack. Refusing to believe that Sammie was the killer, Harwood pulls some strings to get himself involved in the investigation, where he links up with FBI agent Valerie Hinojosa, who secretly sets out to help him try and prove Thurmont’s innocence after finding potential exonerating evidence at the scene.
Meanwhile, the president wants revenge—and a group of special ops soldiers is quickly assembled to take the fight back to the terrorists and anyone else who had a hand in the attack on his cabinet members. Designated Team Valid, the president wants Harwood and his lethal set of skills to join the group, and he obliges, ready to avenge the fallen families. But when controversial orders send them to Crimea, Iran, and Azerbaijan, Harwood becomes uncomfortable with the mandate, prompting him to question what they’re really being used for.
Caught between obeying orders and following his own sense of right and wrong, Vick discovers an explosive conspiracy brewing beneath the surface … and one wrong move could cost him everything.
While both Irving and General Tata bring plenty of grit and boots-on-the-ground authenticity to the plot, it’s Tata’s steady growth as a writer that shapes the story here—and this is by far the most daring thing he’s ever written. Harwood, a fictionalized version of Irving, the real-life “Reaper” and the first African American in his battalion to deploy in the G.W.O.T. as a sniper before serving in the Army’s Special Operations 3erd Ranger Battalion 75th Regiment as a Sniper Team Leader, combines the physicality of Jack Reacher with long gun skills of Bob Lee Swagger, making him one of the best new characters the thriller genre has to offer.
Irving and Tata cram a surprising amount of action and intrigue into this one—and while the fighting sequences are still the main attraction here, the tightly-wound conspiracy is expertly plotted and bigger in scope than the previous book, making Reaper: Threat Zero one of the top thrillers hitting store shelves this spring.
Keep You Close by Karen Cleveland
Release Date: May 28th (Ballantine Books)
FBI agent Stephanie Maddox, who heads up the bureau’s Internal Investigations division, takes her job and her career seriously, but it’s nothing compared to her role as a single mom to her seventeen-year-old son, Zachary. So when she discovers a loaded gun in his bedroom, her world spins as grief and confusion fill her mind, causing her to wonder how and why her son would have a weapon in his possession—and what he might be using it for.
Before she can get to the bottom of what’s going on, trying to figure out if the gun could be a link to drugs or some kind of gang activity, Stephanie’s world is rocked once again when Scott, an agent with the FBI’s domestic terrorism squad and someone she has a history with, knocks on her door. From awaiting college acceptance letters and talking about life after high school with Zachary to hearing that her only child is believed to have plotted the murder of various government officials, the blows keep coming for Stephanie, who isn’t willing to immediately believe the worst about her kid.
As the story unfolds, Stephanie risks everything to protect her son—but as things move from possible anti-government group connections and a murder plot into a possible Russian conspiracy, she realizes that they’re both in over their heads … and that the whole truth may be impossible to uncover.
Much like her bestselling debut, Cleveland’s latest—which is not a sequel to her hit 2018 novel Need to Know—follows a strong, smart women who is confronted with the unthinkable reality that a loved one (a husband, or here, a son) might actually be a monster. The problem, and main difference between the two books, though, is that Keep You Close lacks the same urgency that made her first book so nerve-wracking and unputdownable.
What it does have is a more emotionally-driven protagonist, who sometimes lets her feelings dictate her responses and actions, which comes off as genuine and relatable for the most part. On the other hand, it makes her look undisciplined and not very smart, which doesn’t fit her background as an FBI official. Still, Cleveland excels at stripping down characters in high-stakes government careers and putting their backs against the wall while their worlds come crashing down around them, which is certainly the case here. And just when you think you know where the story’s going, she pivots hard, zipping readers in a different direction fueled by conspiracies and secrets, leading to an explosive final act.
While it’s not as good as her first book, Karen Cleveland proves that she still knows how to keep readers guessing, and after a somewhat slower start—kicks things up a notch when it matters most.
