July’s Best New Thrillers

The Black Widow, by Daniel Silva
Silva’s signature creation, Israeli spy and art restorer Gabriel Allon, is one of modern literature’s greatest treasures. Returning for his 16th adventure, Allon is about to be promoted to head up Israel’s Intelligence Service when a horrific terrorist attack in Paris lures him back into the field. A man known only as Saladin orchestrated the massacre—a master of encryption and deception, he’s a ghost no one knows how to track. Knowing that Saladin is plotting something apocalyptic, Allon makes the only move he can—inserting beautiful, brilliant doctor Natalie Mizrahi into ISIS itself in order to get close to the killer. She is the black widow, lying in wait until the moment is right to strike, and as Saladin’s plot is slowly revealed, readers will be at turns horrified and compelled to keep reading.

Guilty Minds, by Joseph Finder
Finder’s third Nick Heller novel finds the former Special Forces soldier-turned private detective working for a powerful Washington-insider attorney to clear the name of Jeremiah Claflin, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, after a website runs a story about the judge frolicking with a prostitute paid for by a casino owner. Heller easily disproves the story—but when the prostitute involved winds up dead of an apparent suicide, he begins to have misgivings about how easily it all went down. Launching his own investigation, Heller and a writer from the dubious website itself begin to unravel a web of deceit that leads directly to into danger.

The Trap, by Melanie Raabe
Raabe’s debut is a dense thriller starring Linda Conrads, a celebrated novelist who hasn’t left her fortress-like home in more than a decade—ever since her sister Anna’s murder. Linda glimpsed the murderer on that fateful night and never recovered from the loss, but when she sees a successful television journalist who looks just like the man leaving the scene of Anna’s murder, she launches a complex plot to get him to confess: she announces she’s writing a crime thriller based on her sister’s murder, and offers an irresistible interview to Victor Lenzen, the very man she believes is the killer. Victor can’t turn down the opportunity, and as Linda begins assembling her trap, the two engage in a war of wits that will have readers losing sleep as they race to see who wins.

The Woman in Cabin 10, by Ruth Ware
Ware proves that sometimes the classic approach still has modern bite in a thriller that recalls Agatha Christie in the best way. Laura “Lo” Blacklock is a travel writer who jumps at the chance to sub in for her boss on a cruise of the Norwegian Fjords onboard the luxury ship Aurora. Days before the voyage, her apartment is broken into; Lo is traumatized, and arrives for her trip sleep-deprived and suffering from PTSD. When sleepless Lo hears what she thinks is a body hit the water at night, she insists the woman in the cabin next to hers is missing—but everyone else asserts there was no one in the cabin next to hers. Even uncertain of her own perceptions, Lo proves to be a resourceful, defiant character who doggedly pursues the mystery even as the boat becomes increasingly claustrophobic, despite the elegant appointments and her wealthy fellow travelers. Readers will gladly follow Ware wherever she leads them in order to get to the bottom of the mystery.

All is Not Forgotten, by Wendy Walker
A 15-year old girl named Jenny survives a brutal rape in the woods after she gets drunk at a party attended by nearly every kid from her high school. Her parents have opposing reactions: mother Charlotte wants to put the attack behind them and keep up appearances, but her father Tom seethes for revenge and launches a stuttering investigation. Meanwhile, narrator Dr. Forrester begins treating Jenny and her parents, and offers a unique option: an experimental drug cocktail that will erase Jenny’s memories of the attack. Charlotte jumps at the chance, and Jenny enters treatment—but nothing is quite as it seems in this dark and twisty thriller. Walker spares readers none of the details of the attack or its aftermath, crafting a uniquely affecting story that will have readers gasping at unexpected revelations.

Night and Day, by Iris Johansen
The conclusion of a trilogy within Johansen’s long-running Eve Duncan series sees Duncan’s charge, 11-year old Cara, kidnapped from her hiding place in Scotland by her sociopathic mother Natalie. Natalie brings Cara to her father in Moscow, where Eve fears Cara will wind up dead just like her twin sister—who Natalie killed. Assisted by her lover Joe Quinn (formerly of the FBI) and Scottish ally Jock Gavin, Eve rushes into a final confrontation with Natalie that is riddled with unexpected twists and unpredictable events that threaten not just Eve and her friends, but the unborn child within her.

Baby Doll, by Hollie Overton
Overton offers up a surprising story that lands as a sort of alternative-universe version of Emma Donoghue’s Room; in Overton’s version, the story begins when Lilly Riser escapes from the basement she’s been held in for eight years, her six-year old daughter Sky in tow. After years of rape and abuse, she discovers she’s not far from her own house—but when she arrives, the real story begins. Lilly’s family has changed: her father is dead, her mother is a promiscuous wreck, and her twin sister Abby, once her closest friend, is a recovering addict and suicide survivor. Overton cleverly takes what might be a familiar story of healing and recovery and turns it into a completely unpredictable tale that twists and turns with revelations that will have readers continually revising what they think they know.

You Will Know Me, by Megan Abbott
Abbott skillfully explores the family and community dynamics that surround an exceptional child in this intense story about Devon Knox, a star gymnast with an Olympic future. Devon is pushed hard, and pushes herself hard, and her parents and coach put everything into ensuring her athletic future. When a hit-and-run death strikes her gym’s extended family, however, everything begins to go sideways at the worst possible moment for its star gymnast, who needs structure and concentration as she prepares for the Elite Qualifiers. Abbott believably portrays the phenom, from the way her parents are blinded by her talent to the way everyone bends around her like light around a black hole, as she serves up a tense, surprising tale.

Little Girl Gone, by Gerry Schmitt
Schmitt takes a break from writing cozies under the name of Laura Childs to pen this tense and absorbing breakout thriller featuring Afton Tangler, a family liaison officer with the Minneapolis police. When a three-month old baby is abducted from a home in an affluent area of the city, Afton is assigned to assist the distraught family through the investigation. She can’t help but become increasingly involved with the case, coming to suspect that this isn’t the first—or last—such abduction. Schmitt has imagined a terrifying antagonist for her first thriller while bringing a dash of romance to what could be an unremittingly grim story, ultimately serving up a first-class nail-biter starring an fascinating new heroine who adds welcome empathy to the genre.

Dark Matter, by Blake Crouch
Crouch, the devious mind behind the Wayward Pines books and TV series, returns with a fantastic sci-fi thriller that veers nicely from a “take the road not traveled” premise. Jason Dessen once had a promising future on the cutting edge of physics; his work on multiverse theory should have been his ticket to fame and glory. Instead, an unplanned pregnancy sees him working a humble professorship—but loving his quiet family life. Jason wouldn’t change a thing. And then someone takes it all away. Jason is whisked to an alternate universe where his family doesn’t exist. Instead of being thrilled, he’s horrified—and sets about investigating who’s behind it and why this has happened. As anyone who’s read Crouch before can tell you, the answers are wholly unexpected.