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Feeling the Heat? Chill Out by the Pool with Two Brilliant Female Detectives
We write songs about it, plan our whole year around it, and retire to places where it never ends. But for book lovers, summer often means lounging by the pool (or in a dark, air-conditioned room-cave) and getting caught up on our reading. This summer, instead of reading about a bunch of men in bulletproof vests busting down doors, protecting the President, or hunting spies across the globe, why not beat the swelter with some very, very cool women, who also happen to be cunning detectives? Here are two books about women who are smarter, tougher, and more resilient than most—and thus ideal cool companions for a deep read during a heat wave.
Badlands, by C.J. Box
Anyone familiar with Box’s Joe Pickett series knows this man can write a thrilling mystery, and Badlands offers the opportunity to explore a whole new cast of characters. In this novel, Box creates a realistic scenario for a deadly mystery: Grimstad, North Dakota, is a small town that used to be the sort of place kids dreamed of escaping, but is now suddenly awash in oil money as America’s energy boom soars. But with sudden money comes sudden problems, in the form of a booming drug trade.
Into this powder keg disguised as a quaint town comes detective Cassie Dewell, the new deputy sheriff. Cassie grabs the new job because it lets her flee her old life, a life marked by a dead husband and professional stagnation. But in a place where the temperatures can hit minus thirty degrees, Cassie is unprepared for the weather and for the situation she finds herself in: brought in by the Sheriff to handle an investigation he doesn’t trust his own department to run, and slowly revealing a vicious war between rival drug gangs.
And if that setup isn’t enough for you, Box introduces a complicating wrinkle in the form of a twelve-year-old boy whose mental development has been impaired since birth by fetal alcohol syndrome. Kyle Westergaard witnesses a car crash that’s far from accidental, and plucks from the wreckage a stash of money and meth that he hides away. As Kyle’s and Cassie’s paths keep crossing, the tension creeps toward unbearable as the various moving parts in this thrilling story come closer and closer to impact. Grab a cold one to hold against your forehead when you read this one: you’ll need it.
Speaking in Bones, by Kathy Reichs
How do you keep a long-running series of books exciting? It’s all about continuing to challenge your character—and, by proxy, your readers. In the 18th Temperance Brennan book, Kathy Reichs does this by putting the scientific and highly-trained forensic anthropologist Brennan next to Hazel “Lucky” Strike, leader of a group of amateur “websleuths” whose hobby is solving cold case crimes over the internet. Brennan’s initially unimpressed with Hazel and her crowd, but the case is intriguing: Hazel has a recording of a young girl obviously being held prisoner, and believes the voice belongs to Cora Teague, a young girl who went missing a few years earlier—and whose bones may already be in Brennan’s lab.
The intriguing part? No one actually reported Cora as missing. Her family tells a story of a young man Cora ran off with, but Brennan’s investigation leads her in more disturbing directions, directions that point towards a strange religious sect, legends and myths about cults in the backwoods, and possibly several other murders. Meanwhile, Brennan’s personal life reflects the complexity of her professional one, with a marriage proposal on the table that will need answering eventually.
Brennan’s not your typical tough “action girl,” but her no-nonsense approach and dedication to investigation and the scientific procedure make her tough in a way that remains refreshing after eighteen novels. As the story grows in complexity and horrific details, the conflict between her and Strikes’ team of armchair detectives fades into a tension-filled third act that leads to one surprise after another. You’ll definitely need a dip in the pool after Speaking in Bones gets your pulse pounding.