July’s Top Picks in Thrillers

The English Spy, by Daniel Silva
Silva’s popular Gabriel Allon character—Israeli art restoration expert, spy, and assassin—returns here to investigate the murder of an estranged member of the British Royal Family. Teaming up with British commando Christopher Keller, Allon pursues master bomb-maker Eamon Quinn, but the pursuit quickly uncovers a much deeper and far-reaching conspiracy that requires Allon to go to lengths even this master spy has never faced before. The character of Allon has achieved the same rarefied air occupied by Smiley, Ryan, and other master spies, and the team-up between Allon and Keller is the perfect recipe for action and suspense in a book that delivers thrills and smart plot dynamics in equal measure.

Naked Greed, by Stuart Woods
Part of the pleasure of Stone Barrington is that he’s the ideal hero: worldly, smart, with a deep well of internal and external resources, and dedicated to using his position, power, and experience in order to defend what’s right. Don’t let the fact that this is Woods’ 34th Barrington novel scare you off: it’s a story that stands easily on its own, as the retired cop and successful attorney tries to do a favor for a businessman starting a brewery in New York—running afoul of two bent cops and their underworld associates in the process. Barrington brings his usual panache and style to setting things right, and the story keeps scaling up as the number and power of Barrington’s enemies grows, until a complex but satisfying denouement ties everything together.

Code of Conduct, by Brad Thor
In a story involving one of the deepest conspiracies ever conceived, all it takes is four seconds of video to set in motion a global crisis that activates counter-terrorism agent Scott Harvath, setting him on a path that will require every ounce of his physical, mental, and spiritual strengths to survive. What Thor does in this book is nothing short of electric: the plot doesn’t just twist, it spins as new revelations, challenges, and sideways events come at the reader in a breathless, rapid-fire succession. If you’ve ever heard the phrase “page turner” and thought you knew what it meant, think again: Thor never sacrifices sense and intelligence while still managing to surprise you at every turn, keeping the tension and sense of forward motion at a constant boil. This is the ideal book to read if you want to try more than one from this list, because you’ll likely read it in one heart-stopping session.

The Insider Threat, by Brad Taylor
Taylor and his character Pike Logan—a key member of the “extralegal” counter-terrorist organization known as “the Taskforce”—have always been in the moment, tearing stories from the headlines and exploring up-to-the-minute plots. In this eighth Logan book, Taylor has Pike go up against nothing less than the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria—a.k.a. ISIS—as the world’s most famous and most deadly terrorist organization concocts a brilliant and deadly scheme to surprise the world and bring the battle into the supposedly safe and secure bastions of Western Civilization. Globe-trotting, racing against time, and dealing with a plot that gets deliciously complex before its nail-biting climax, Taylor once again delivers a fast-paced and intelligently plotted thriller.

The Tournament, by Matthew Reilly
There’s no rule stating that an exciting thriller has to be completely fictitious. Reilly takes real-life historical figures including Elizabeth Tudor (the future Elizabeth I of England), Ivan the Terrible, and Roger Ascham and spins an exciting and surprising historical mystery with them. With the 13-year old future Queen narrating events, the story sees her traveling to Constantinople to attend an international chess tournament hosted by the Ottoman Sultan. When a rabidly anti-Islamic Cardinal is murdered, her tutor Ascham is tasked with solving the murder, launching a real-life chess match between a future monarch, her confidant and advisor, and history itself. An ideal book for thriller fans and history buffs alike.

The Naked Eye, by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen
Kendra Michaels is one of the most fun and interesting characters introduced in recent years, a woman whose recovery from decades of blindness has given her nearly super-human eyesight and hearing, skills she has used to assist law enforcement as an in-demand consultant. When a serial killer Michaels helped capture is executed, Michaels’ keen powers of observation lead her to believe he isn’t really dead. When a reporter working on the story ends up killed in a crime mirroring the killer’s old MO, Michaels is implicated, and the race to get to the bottom of the mystery is on. Clever, nimbly plotted, and crackling with energy, this is a book that will have you going back over every passage to ensure you don’t miss the crucial detail that only Michaels will see.

Pretty Baby, by Mary Kubica
In this fantastic followup to her debut novel The Good Girl, Kubica introduces us to Heidi Wood, a woman dedicated to making the world a better place by living a conscientious life and helping those less fortunate. When she sees a young woman shivering in the rain with a baby in her arms, she invites the homeless mother to live with her—to the combined dismay of her husband and daughter. Heidi, who underwent a life-saving hysterectomy that ended her dreams of a large family, grows obsessed with the young mother and her baby, while her husband launches an investigation to find out what kind of trouble his wife has brought home. Told in alternating points of view and flashbacks, the mystery and the tension grow with each page, and trust us: you won’t see the (perfectly satisfying) ending coming.

Signal, by Patrick Lee
Lee is an expert in combining speculative technology and blockbuster levels of action. In this follow-up to Runner, Lee brings former Special Forces operative Sam Dryden back, finding him living off the grid and rehabbing old houses—until he gets a call from Claire Dunham, who recruits him to save four kidnapped girls. After the successful rescue, however, they discover that the police found all four and their abductor dead hours earlier. Claire, as it turns out, works for a company that has developed a machine that can affect the future, allowing events to be altered—a machine that naturally every government and organization in the world wants to possess. Grounded by Dryden’s believable and charismatic character, the book rips along at a breakneck pace and never overwhelms with requests for suspension of disbelief, a balancing act that results in an incredibly entertaining story.

Those Girls, by Chevy Stevens
If stories about former Navy SEALs and anti-terrorism operatives start to wear a bit thin for you, this story about three sisters fighting for survival may be just the ticket. The Campbell girls flee their remote home after the youngest kills their abusive father, but when their truck breaks down near a small town their luck goes from bad to worse. Captured and tortured for five days by a pair of sadistic brothers, the girls escape and start new lives under assumed names. Seventeen years later, one sister heads back to the small town to seek revenge on the brothers, setting in motion events that bring the other sisters and one daughter in pursuit—and some surprising discoveries. Anchored by the compelling depiction of the bond between sisters, this is a story that takes hold and doesn’t let go.

The Swede, by Robert Karjel
A story built on an irresistible hook, Karjel’s English-language debut transcends it, becoming more than just a clever premise. Swedish Security Agent Ernst Grip is called in by the FBI to interview a Swedish man who has been tortured in a remote, extralegal location for years. His mission: determine if the man is a Swedish citizen. Grip comes to realize that not only is the prisoner not who he seems at first, but neither is Grip’s FBI contact and handler. Simultaneously, the reader comes to realize that Grip himself is not precisely who he presents himself to be. As Grip gleans details of a horrific crime planned for the mainland USA, the story jumps around in time, slowly revealing the nested secrets everyone is keeping from each other as the speed of the action accelerates into a truly surprising climax.