Stieg Larsson’s extremely popular Millenium trilogy comes to an end with this week’s release of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. Will the ending satisfy?
It took 23 years but Scott Turow has finally published the sequel to his bestselling first novel, Presumed Innocent. In the new book, Innocent, Rusty Sabich is a 60-year-old chief justice, accused of killing his wife. Though the chances of Sabich being accused of murder for a second time may strain belief, Turow delivers with suspense-filled courtroom drama that will keep you turning the pages.
Can’t get enough of Grisham and Turow? Try some of the authors on this legal thrillers list.
Jessica Conant-Park and her mother, Susan Conant, team up once again for a 5th Gourmet Girl mystery – Cook the Books.
Reeling from her breakup with her boyfriend Josh, foodie Chloe Carter works as an assistant cookbook writer in Boston, until the mysterious death of one of Josh’s friends brings him back into her life.
For more series mysteries that feature food and/or recipes, check out our page, Cooking Up Crime.
British author Dick Francis died today at the age of 89. Francis penned over 40 bestselling novels, the last three co-written with his son, Felix. He began writing when his career as a championship steeplechase jockey ended. From the very first book (Dead Cert, 1962) to the last (Even Money, 2009, co-written with son Felix), Francis never failed to entertain.
Already read all of Francis’s works? Try these read-alike suggestions from NoveList:
With several well-rounded standalone Mystery/Thrillers that feature appealing resilient heroes, intricate plotting, family dynamics, romance, and lucid prose that skillfully conveys a wealth of detail about an intriguing milieu, it is small wonder that Sam Llewellyn is becoming known as Dick Francis’s nautical equivalent. In compelling novels of murder and intrigue such as Dead Reckoning and Blood Orange, devoted sport sailor Llewellyn pushes his capable male leads to the limit and beyond, in their struggle to prevail against the odds and overcome perfidious villains and the cruel, inconstant sea.
Gerald Hammond has parlayed his personal interest in hunting the Scottish countryside into two winning mystery series featuring plenty of thrills, spills and sports lore. In over a score of titles like Fair Game, roguish gunsmith Keith Calder has deepened and matured into a respectable hero. A somewhat more downbeat series featuring retired soldier and dog breeder John Cunningham and his wife Beth — their specialty is Springer spaniels — made its debut in Dog in the Dark. Just as with Francis, one needn’t care much about game hunting or dogs per se to get caught up in the pursuit.
England’s second most famous jockey-turned-author is the dashing John Francome, whose several stand-alone thrillers are packed with authentic details about the race world. The standard elements and situations of several page-turners such as Inside Track, in which ambitious young trainer Pippa Hutchinson and her brother Jamie, a jockey and ex-con, struggle against enemies known and unknown to make a name in the racing world, will be familiar to Francis’s fans. Francome relies less on character than on the rapid progress of multiple storylines with many surprising revelations, reversals, and spicy romantic interludes. The reader’s taste must decide whether Francis wins by a nose, or a country mile.
It was reading a Dick Francis novel that first inspired Kit Ehrman to start working with horses as a lowly stable hand. After twenty years as a groom, veterinary technician and barn manager, she brings her wealth of equine experience to a gripping series that owes its inspiration to Francis as well. With a complex, sympathetic male hero facing family drama and beset and pummeled by brutal enemies bent on cruelty to animals and people, amidst authentic behind the scenes trappings that reveal the less glamorous side of racing, Ehrman’s At Risk is well calculated to please the multitude of fans going through withdrawal from their annual Francis fix.
With their combination of daring, decency and skill, Francis’s protagonists are reminiscent of heroic men of honor found in great thrilling adventure writers of the previous generation, such as Nevil Shute. Many of Shute’s heroes bring integrity and expertise to the fight against desperate odds, such as smuggling a group of children out from under the Nazis’ noses in Pied Piper. Shute draws heavily on his own background as an aviator and aeronautical engineer to provide intriguing and informative background material, while never losing sight of the human pathos and compassion that make his thrilling tales so powerful.
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David Wright is a librarian and readers’ advisor with the Seattle Public Library Fiction Department. He is co-chair of the Public Library Association’s Readers’ Advisory Committee, a member of the Readers’ Advisors of Puget Sound, and reviews fiction for Booklist and Library Journal.
G.M. Malliet enters the mystery field with an Agatha Award-winning story, Death of a Cozy Writer.
“When millionaire and mystery author Adrian Beauclerk-Fisk sends out wedding announcements to his ex-wife and children, the family descends on Waverly Court, their father’s large estate in Cambridgeshire. Family tensions soon break out into murder, and Detective Chief Inspector St. Just and Sergeant Fear are called in. In her series debut, Malliet, who won a Malice Domestic Grant to write this novel, lays the foundation for an Agatha Christie-like murder mystery, although the plot lacks direction and could have used a few more red herrings. Traces of humor add to a story enhanced by the detection skills of St. Just and Fear. This will appeal to Christie fans and readers who enjoy British cozies.” (Jo Ann Vicarel – Library Journal)
“In Henry Porter‘s outstanding near-future thriller The Bell Ringers, David Eyam, the former head of Britain’s Joint Intelligence Committee, is killed by a bomb in Colombia that was apparently aimed at others. His recently estranged close friend and former colleague in the spook business, Kate Lockhart, is surprised to learn she’s the main beneficiary of Eyam’s will. Her suspicions that the story behind his death is more complex than officially reported are heightened when Eyam’s lawyer is gunned down soon after thugs break into his office. While the basic plot—an attempt to uncover a broad government conspiracy against daunting odds—is familiar, Porter (Brandenburg Gate) invests it with urgency and power by taking current legislation drawn up to combat terrorism and projecting how it would play out if special interests and unscrupulous leaders used it to destroy the privacy of individuals. Shaken U.S. readers will wonder how much of the fiction might soon become fact on this side of the Atlantic.” –Publishers Weekly
Bond and DeFelice launch a four-book series with an adrenaline-fueled, multilayered thriller that cuts right to the chase. In 2014, China must cope with widespread riots and a devastating drought; the U.S., where gas costs $14.39 a gallon, is suffering through a recession and a housing crisis; Europe has problems just as serious. When China decides to invade Vietnam in an effort to save its starving populace, the U.S. determines to aid Vietnam to insure the world order. Compelling characters include CIA operative Mara Duncan, who’s based in Bangkok, Thailand; Maj. Zeus Murphy, who simulates a war game called Red Dragon (which pits China against the U.S. under code names) and proudly drives a gas-guzzling Corvette; and American scientist Josh MacArthur, who’s on the run in Vietnam from a Chinese commando and martial arts master, Lt. Jing Yo. Constant action makes this a must read for military adventure fans.
Alex Kava gives us another page-turning Maggie O’Dell thriller, Black Friday. Robert Asante, an accomplice in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, sets his sights on Minnesota’s Mall of America on the busiest shopping day of the year – the day after Thanksgiving.
Marcia Muller delivers another compelling Sharon McCone crime story – Locked In. Late one night, McCone is shot in her office and wakes up in the hospital to discover she is severely paralyzed and can only communicate by blinking her eyes. She’ll have to rely more than ever on friends, colleagues, and her husband to solve his very personal crime.
William Bernhardt’s 17th legal thriller featuring Ben Kincaid puts Ben back in Tulsa, Oklahoma, after finishing his term as an appointed U.S. senator. Despite needing to plan his political campaign, Ben is drawn into yet another impossible legal case in Capitol Offense.
LCPL Mysteries & Thrillers 