Thriller

Excerpt: THE TRAP by Ava Glass (Cornerstone)

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GlassA-EM3-TrapUKPBA few days ago (August 1st), Penguin Cornerstone published the latest novel by Ava Glass, The Trap. It’s the third novel starring investigator Emma Makepeace (after Alias Emma and The Traitor). As part of the blog tour to mark the release, the publisher has provided CR with an extract, drawn from Chapters 2 and 23 of the novel. (See full tour details at the end of this post.) First, here’s the synopsis:

How far would you go to catch a killer?

This is the question UK agent Emma Makepeace must ask herself when she is sent to Edinburgh for the upcoming global G7 Summit.

The Russians are in town and Emma and her team know a high-profile assassination is being planned.

But who is their target?

There is only one way to find out. Emma must set a trap using herself as bait.

As the most powerful leaders in the world arrive and the city becomes gridlocked, Emma knows the clock is ticking

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Excerpt: STORM WARNING by David Bell (Berkley)

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BellD-StormWarningUSHCNext week, Berkley is due to publish the latest novel from thriller author David Bell: Storm Warning. To mark the occasion, we have an excerpt to share. Here’s the synopsis:

A man living on a Florida barrier island must protect his family from both an approaching hurricane and a relentless killer.

Jake Powell is racing to get off the island as a powerful hurricane approaches. When he finds his best friend Dallas, the building manager, dead from a blow to the skull, Jake realizes there’s more than the storm to fear. There’s a murderer on the island, maybe even still inside the nearly abandoned building.

Dallas had repeatedly run afoul of the wealthy owners of the building by complaining about code violations and the precarious state of the condos. But he’d also once told Jake that every resident had a secret they’d come to Florida to escape. Had one of them killed to conceal their sins? As a dozen people shelter together in hopes of surviving the deadly hurricane, a second murder makes it all too clear: one of them is a dangerous killer.

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Quick Review: THE EDGE by David Baldacci (Grand Central)

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BaldacciD-TD2-EdgeUSHCTravis Devine returns, in a strange mystery in small-town Maine

The 6:20 Man is back, dropped by his handlers into a small coastal town in Maine to solve the murder of a CIA agent who knew America’s dirtiest secrets — can Travis Devine uncover the truth before his time runs out?

When CIA operative Jenny Silkwell is murdered in rural Maine, government officials have immediate concerns over national security. Her laptop and phone were full of state secrets that, in the wrong hands, endanger the lives of countless operatives. In need of someone who can solve the murder quickly and retrieve the missing information, the U.S. government knows just the chameleon they can call on.

Ex-Army Ranger Travis Devine spent his time in the military preparing to take on any scenario, followed by his short-lived business career chasing shadows in the deepest halls of power, so his analytical mind makes him particularly well-suited for complex, high-stakes tasks. Taking down the world’s largest financial conspiracy proved his value, and in comparison, this case looks straightforward. Except small towns hold secrets and Devine finds himself an outsider again.

Devine must ingratiate himself with locals who have trusted each other their whole lives, and who distrust outsiders just as much. Dak, Jenny’s brother, who’s working to revitalize the town. Earl, the retired lobsterman who found Jenny’s body. And Alex, Jenny’s sister with a dark past of her own. As Devine gets to know the residents of Putnam, Maine, answers seem to appear and then transform into more questions. There’s a long history of secrets and those who will stop at nothing to keep them from being exposed. Leaving Devine with no idea who he can trust… and who wants him dead.

The second novel in Baldacci’s 6:20 Man/Travis Devine series takes the action from New York to a small town in Maine; a town of secrets that stretch back a decade. This novel is a marked improvement on The 6:20 Man, and I think this character could stick around for a while. Continue reading →

Very Quick Review: THE 6:20 MAN by David Baldacci (Grand Central)

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BaldacciD-620ManUSHCA cryptic murder pulls a former soldier turned financial analyst deep into the corruption and menace that prowl beneath the opulent world of finance…

Every day without fail, Travis Devine puts on a cheap suit, grabs his faux-leather briefcase, and boards the 6:20 commuter train to Manhattan, where he works as an entry-level analyst at the city’s most prestigious investment firm. In the mornings, he gazes out the train window at the lavish homes of the uberwealthy, dreaming about joining their ranks. In the evenings, he listens to the fiscal news on his phone, already preparing for the next grueling day in the cutthroat realm of finance. Then one morning Devine’s tedious routine is shattered by an anonymous email: She is dead.

Sara Ewes, Devine’s coworker and former girlfriend, has been found hanging in a storage room of his office building — presumably a suicide, at least for now — prompting the NYPD to come calling on him. If that wasn’t enough, before the day is out, Devine receives another ominous visit, a confrontation that threatens to dredge up grim secrets from his past in the army unless he participates in a clandestine investigation into his firm. This treacherous role will take him from the impossibly glittering lives he once saw only through a train window, to the darkest corners of the country’s economic halls of power… where something rotten lurks. And apart from this high-stakes conspiracy, there’s a killer out there with their own agenda, and Devine is the bull’s-eye.

I’ve decided to get caught up on David Baldacci’s novels — he’s one of my favourite authors, but for some reason I’ve allowed myself to fall very far behind (he’s increased his output, lately, which is partly to blame for this). The 6:20 Man is the first in his Travis Devine series, and it’s an interesting, timely mystery set in the world of New York finance. Continue reading →

Excerpt: ROGUE SEQUENCE by Zac Topping (Tor Books)

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ToppingZ-RogueSequenceUSHCRogue Sequence is the latest near-ish future thriller from Zac Topping. Due to be published by Tor Books in June, it promises more of the action-packed intensity of the author’s previous novel, Wake of War (which I have, and is rapidly climbing my TBR mountain). The publisher has provided CR with an excerpt to share with our readers, to whet your appetite for the upcoming novel. Here’s the synopsis:

It’s 2091 and independent contract companies around the world are producing genetically modified soldiers… to be sold to the highest bidders.

Ander Rade is a super-soldier, a genetically engineered living weapon, and has been dutifully following orders since he gave himself to Xyphos Industries’ Gene-Mod Program several years ago. But when a mission goes sideways, he’s captured, imprisoned, and forced into brutally violent fighting pits for the better part of the next decade… until agents from the Genetic Compliance Department of the United American Provinces appear in the visiting room.

Things have changed since Rade was captured. Shortly after his incarceration, the World Unity Council banned human genetic engineering and deemed all modified individuals a threat to society. Overnight, an entire subculture of people became outlaws simply for existing. But instead of leaving Rade locked behind bars, the GCD agents have come with an offer: Freedom in exchange for his help tracking down one of his former teammates from that ill-fated mission all those years ago.

It’s an offer Rade can’t refuse, but he soon realizes that the situation is far more volatile than anyone had anticipated, and is forced to take matters into his own hands as he tries to figure out whose side he’s really on, and why.

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Excerpt: STILL WATERS by Matt Goldman (Forge)

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GoldmanM-StillWatersUSHCStill Waters, the latest thriller from Matt Goldman, is due to be published on May 21st. To celebrate the pending release, Forge Books has allowed CR to share the first two chapter from the book! Before we get to that, check out the synopsis:

If you’re reading this email, I am dead. I know this will sound strange, but someone has been trying to kill me.

Liv and Gabe Ahlstrom are estranged siblings who haven’t seen each other in years, but that’s about to change when they receive a rare call from their older brother’s wife. “Mack is dead,” she says. “He died of a seizure.” Five minutes after they hang up, Liv and Gabe each receive a scheduled email from their dead brother, claiming that he was murdered.

The siblings return to their family run resort in the Northwoods of Minnesota to investigate Mack’s claims, but Leech Lake has more in store for them than either could imagine. Drawn into a tangled web of lies and betrayal that spans decades, they put their lives on the line to unravel the truth about their brother, their parents, themselves, and the small town in which they grew up. After all, no one can keep a secret in a small town, but someone in Leech Lake is willing to kill for the truth to stay buried.

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Excerpt: EXTINCTION by Douglas Preston (Forge)

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PrestonD-ExtinctionUSHCIn a couple of weeks, Forge Books are due to publish Extinction, the latest thriller by best-selling author Douglas Preston. A thriller that is “in the Michael Crichton mode”, it “explores the possible and unintended dangers of the very real efforts to resurrect the woolly mammoth and other long-extinct animals.” To whet readers’ appetite for the book, we have an excerpt to share — comprised of the first two chapters! Before we get to that, though, here’s the synopsis:

Erebus Resort, occupying a magnificent, hundred-thousand acre valley deep in the Colorado Rockies, offers guests the experience of viewing woolly mammoths, Irish Elk, and giant ground sloths in their native habitat, brought back from extinction through the magic of genetic manipulation. When a billionaire’s son and his new wife are kidnapped and murdered in the Erebus back country by what is assumed to be a gang of eco-terrorists, Colorado Bureau of Investigation Agent Frances Cash partners with county sheriff James Colcord to track down the perpetrators.

As killings mount and the valley is evacuated, Cash and Colcord must confront an ancient, intelligent, and malevolent presence at Erebus, bent not on resurrection — but extinction.

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Quick Review: THE FURY by Alex Michaelides (Celadon)

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MichaelidesA-FuryUSHCA satisfying, twisty tale

This is a tale of murder.

Or maybe that’s not quite true. At its heart, it’s a love story, isn’t it?

Lana Farrar is a reclusive ex-movie star and one of the most famous women in the world. Every year, she invites her closest friends to escape the English weather and spend Easter on her idyllic private Greek island.

I tell you this because you may think you know this story. You probably read about it at the time ― it caused a real stir in the tabloids, if you remember. It had all the necessary ingredients for a press sensation: a celebrity; a private island cut off by the wind… and a murder.

We found ourselves trapped there overnight. Our old friendships concealed hatred and a desire for revenge. What followed was a game of cat and mouse ― a battle of wits, full of twists and turns, building to an unforgettable climax. The night ended in violence and death, as one of us was found murdered.

But who am I?

My name is Elliot Chase, and I’m going to tell you a story unlike any you’ve ever heard.

I hadn’t read either of Michaelides’s best-selling and acclaimed previous novels — The Silent Patient and The Maidens — but the premise for this third novel really caught my attention: a reclusive ex-movie star and a few of her famous friends take a spontaneous trip to a private Greek island, and it’s a trip that ends in murder. I dove in pretty much as soon as I received the review copy, and I very much enjoyed the ride. Continue reading →

Quick Review: TOXIC PREY by John Sandford (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

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Sandford-P34-ToxicPreyUSHCLucas and Letty Davenport face a potentially horrifying terrorist attack of unprecedented scale

Lucas Davenport and his daughter, Letty, team up to track down a dangerous scientist whose latest project could endanger the entire world…

Gaia is dying.

That, at least, is what Dr. Lionel Scott believes. A renowned expert in tropical and infectious diseases, Scott has witnessed the devastating impact of illness and turmoil at critical scale. Society as it exists is untenable, and the direct link to Earth’s death spiral; population levels are out of control and people have allowed disarray and disorder to run rampant. While most are concerned about deadly disease, Scott knows that it is truly humanity itself that will destroy Gaia. It’s only by removing the threat then the planet can continue to prosper, and luckily, Scott is just the right man for the job…

When Scott then disappears without a trace, Letty Davenport is tasked with tracking down any and all leads. Scott’s connections to sensitive research into virus and pathogen spread has multiple national and international organizations on high alert, and his shockingly high clearance levels at various institutions, including the Los Alamos National Laboratory, make him the last person they’d like to go missing. As the web around Scott becomes more tangled, Letty calls in her father, Lucas, help her lead a group of specialists to find Scott as soon as possible. But as Letty and Lucas begin to uncover startling and disturbing connections between Scott and Gaia conspiracists, their worst fears are confirmed, and it quickly becomes a race to find him before the virus he created becomes the perfect weapon.

In this, the 34th novel in John Sandford’s Prey series, Lucas teams up with his daughter, Letty, to hunt down a scientist who plans to launch a globally-devastating terrorist attack. Exhibiting all of the hallmarks of what has made Sandford’s novel so popular, this is an engaging, gripping read. Continue reading →

Upcoming: WHAT WE’LL BURN LAST by Heather Chavez (Mulholland)

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ChavezH-WhatWellBurnLastUSHCI very much enjoyed Heather Chavez‘s 2023 novel, Before She Finds Me — it was a fast-paced thriller, with well-drawn and engaging characters. This summer, Mulholland Books are due to publish the author’s next novel, What We’ll Burn Last. When I spotted it in a catalogue, it went right onto my (metaphorical) Must Read/Most Anticipated list for the year. Here’s the synopsis:

Two entangled families in a California neighborhood must race to find answers about a missing teenage girl as a wildfire crackles to life nearby…

Three women.

When she was twelve, Leyna Clarke watched her older sister, Grace, walk away from their Sierra Nevada foothills home with her boyfriend, Adam Duran. Neither was ever seen again. Sixteen years later, a stranger who looks like Grace shows up at the restaurant where Leyna works — and vanishes soon after. When it comes out that Leyna was one of the last people to have talked with the young woman, Leyna’s childhood crush Dominic, who is also Adam’s brother, pleads with her to do the last thing she wants to do: come home.

Three secrets.

But Leyna isn’t the only one who hasn’t been able to leave that fateful night behind. Her mother, Meredith, still lives in the family’s old home — even if she claims to believe the police’s theory that Grace and Adam were willing runaways. Down the street, Adam and Dominic’s mother Olivia has also stayed, determined to be there when her son finally returns… and to prove that Meredith and Leyna have been hiding something all these years. But the past isn’t the only threat to the two families, or the missing girl. As a wildfire sparks, tempers flare and intentions turn deadly. Because someone in the neighborhood knows what really happened that night — and just how good the forest is at keeping its secrets.

Who will you trust?

Heather Chavez’s What We’ll Burn Last is due to be published by Mulholland Books in North America and in the UK, on July 23rd.

Also on CR: Review of Before She Finds Me

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