Whether you’re looking for gritty military action, spooky artifacts, time-traveling mysteries, newly discovered works by old favorites, serial killers, or psychological suspense, there’s plenty here to keep you flipping pages all month long.
Badlands by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child are back with the quintessential summer read in Badlands (Grand Central), a scorcher of a tale that straddles the lines between science and superstition.
The stalwart team of FBI agent Corrie Swanson and archaeologist Nora Kelly is back in their most scintillating adventure yet, following the trail of skeletal remains found in a New Mexico desert under inexplicable circumstances. The reason somehow lies in a pair of artifacts the victim was holding in the form of mystical stones once used by an ancient native tribe to bring forth the gods. That’s where the line between science and superstition gets muddled, and it’s left to Corrie and Nora to determine which is which, coming to the unavoidable conclusion that they are, in fact, dealing with forces truly not of this world.
Preston and Child are long-proven masters of such speculative tales. But in Badlands, they take that one step further by leaning more toward Stephen King and less toward Michael Crichton. The result is a no-holds-barred, seismic stunner of pitch-perfect storytelling. Just make sure to apply plenty of sunscreen before digging in if you pack it in your beach bag.
Death at a Highland Wedding by Kelley Armstrong
Kelley Armstrong continues her sterling “Rip Through Time” series with Death at a Highland Wedding (Minotaur), once again featuring modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson, who finds herself whisked back in time 150 years to Victorian Scotland.
The good thing about that killer premise is that Armstrong is once again equal to the task at every turn. The wedding of the title serves as the book’s primary setting as, in a fashion worthy of Agatha Christie, one of the guests is murdered. Leave it to Mallory and her usual team of undertaker Duncan Gray and Detective Hugh McCreadie to save the day and more lives at the same time. All without any assistance whatsoever from anything approaching contemporary forensics.
This series is pure fun, and Death at a Highland Wedding might be the best of the four. It’s almost like Armstrong has grown more comfortable with her blisteringly original concept at the same time Mallory has with her new surroundings. Fantastic reading entertainment for those who love suspending their disbelief.
Kaua’i Storm by Tori Eldridge
Tori Eldridge shows us a different side of Hawaii that’s not quite paradise in Kaua’i Storm (Thomas & Mercer), a beautifully crafted tale of the darkness lurking beneath the beauty.
Makalani Pahukula returns to Kaua’i after a ten-year absence to find it’s not so easy to go home again. Especially when she learns two of her younger cousins have disappeared. Good thing she happens to be a park ranger comfortable working in the great outdoors — in this case, the Kealia Forest Reserve. Along the way, she learns firsthand how right William Faulkner was when he said, “The greatest conflict is the human heart at war with itself,” as she struggles to find her place in a world she still loves but isn’t sure she belongs in anymore.
Eldridge writes exceptionally well about her homeland, serving up a smorgasbord of local color and lore that blends seamlessly with masterful plot mechanizations that strike close to home. Richly atmospheric and deeply drawn, Kaua’i Storm is not to be missed.
Die Trying by Alan Jacobson
Alan Jacobson has crafted a terrific jolt of an international thriller in Die Trying (Open Road). And with the Middle East so much in the news these days, his timing couldn’t be better.
Joint Terrorist Task Force Chief Aaron Uziel faces a career conundrum when he’s ordered not to act upon intelligence he’s just received that could devastate the Middle East. No stranger to breaking the rules to do what’s right, Aaron ventures outside the box to enlist a crack team of specialists to secretly head off to the region to deal with the potential mess. That team includes recurring Jacobson hero FBI profiler Karen Vail, among other top operatives who are destined to prove Aaron right at the potential ruin of his career.
Die Trying is thriller writing of the highest order. Classically structured and beautifully paced, Jacobson’s latest never lets up or lets us down.
Jill Is Not Happy by Kaira Rouda
Kaira Rouda has fashioned a stunningly effective psychological thriller in Jill Is Not Happy (Scarlet). Think long-time love affair gone bad or romance gone to hell.
Jack and Jill (yes, those are their real names) Tingley have it all. A perfect relationship dating back to college that is the envy of all. That is, until they embark on a road trip to rekindle the old flame after their daughter goes off to college, leaving them empty-nesters. That trip morphs from a cross-country drive into a journey into their own sordid paths. A kind of Long Day’s Journey Into Night that takes the metaphor literally, as we’re left to ponder what exactly love is and how far you will go to hold onto your version of it.
This is bold and bracing writing, and Rouda is to be celebrated for maintaining suspense and pacing with really only two characters, and their respective maneuvers and manipulations, to follow. Truly great stuff that leaves you in awe of Rouda’s talent and daring. Jill may not be happy, but you will be for digging in.
Ceylon Sapphires by Mailan Doquang
Ceylon Sapphires (Mysterious Press) by Mailan Doquang reads like a sophisticated, more literary-inspired version of classic caper tales like The Thomas Crown Affair or Donald Westlake’s John Dortmunder series in books like The Hot Rock.
Doquang’s version of Dortmunder is jewel thief Rune Sarasin, only with a twist. See, Rune is in debt to a brutal crime lord and has to keep stealing to keep all her body parts. So when the opportunity arises to steal the sapphires of the title that can get her out of hock, she races across Europe to pocket them, pulling out all the stops in her burglarious trade. Mix in some history, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Paris’ Louvre Museum, and you’ve got the recipe for the best caper novel I’ve read this year.
Ceylon Sapphires also makes great use of its international settings, cementing Doquang’s reputation as one of those rare writers who can make the world seem large and small at the same time. A jewel of a mystery-thriller.
The Rambo Report: Five Films, Three Books, One Legend by Nat Segaloff
Not too long ago, a pop culture survey found John Rambo to be more universally known than even James Bond or Jack Reacher, holding firm at the top of the list. And the reasons for that are brilliantly captured by Nat Segaloff in The Rambo Report: Five Films, Three Books, One Legend (Kensington).
Spanning nearly a half century, Segaloff effectively chooses the route of societal analysis to frame Rambo as a creature of the various times he inhabits, both a zeitgeist for jingoism and totem for America’s rugged, solitary heroism. He places Rambo in a context that allows us to understand why he has endured and, even, evolved in rising to the level of a cultural icon, while similarly evoking the reasons why he has no true peers inhabiting the mainstream with him.
This splendid entertainment industry tome is further distinguished by a foreword penned by none other than David Morrell, who birthed the legend of Rambo himself in his stunning 1972 novel First Blood. Segaloff’s wondrously analytical, thoughtful and incisive The Rambo Report rivals The Devil’s Candy and The Big Goodbye as masterworks of entertainment industry tales that make us all feel like insiders.
Strand Magazine May 2025 Issue
More kudos to Andrew Gulli, legendary editor of the Strand Magazine, the latest (May 2025) issue of which contains short stories from not one, but two literary masters in Ian Fleming and Graham Greene.
Greene’s “Reading at Night” is chock-full of the same kind of irony and nuance showcased in longer masterpieces like The Third Man and Our Man in Havana. A man roiled by a tortuous past reads a story he seems to be living out in reality while flipping the pages. James Bond, meanwhile, is nowhere to be found in Fleming’s “A Shameful Dream,” but the sparse prose and efficient style that brought Bond to life remain very much present. Caffery Bone, literary editor of the upscale magazine Our World, uneasily straddles the delicate line between commercial and creative concerns, as well as his own professional survival, in trying to please his employer.
Both Greene’s “Reading at Night” and Fleming’s “A Shameful Dream” are packed with the very ingredients that defined the books that made them household names. Reading these stories is like running into old friends you thought you’d never see again. Leave it to Andrew Gulli to bring them back into our lives.
Buy the May 2025 issue of Strand Magazine here.
Dark Justice and Dark Divide by J.L. Hughes
A new trend in publishing is releasing multiple titles, especially by a new author, within a few months of each other. That’s the marketing plan behind a darkly delicious trilogy from J.L. Hughes that currently includes a pair of sumptuous titles, Dark Justice and Dark Divide (both from Rough Edge Press).
Branded as the “Broken Jade” series, thanks to its New York City homicide detective Jade Carmichael, the first entry, Dark Justice, introduces us to a fiendish serial killer known as The Redeemer who bears a shadowy connection to Jade’s past and will test her investigative mettle at every turn. Dark Divide serves up an even more horrifying villain in The Occultus, a predator who has already claimed at least a dozen victims.
Dark Justice and Dark Divide set a whole new standard for postmodern horror novels in which the monsters are every bit as flesh and blood as you and me. We have Hannibal Lecter to thank for that redefinition, but few books have matched the power of The Silence of the Lambs. Now we have two, with a third on the way. Edge-of-your-seat thrillers for readers who’d like to have an old friend for dinner.
