June’s Best New Thrillers

The President is Missing, by Bill Clinton and James Patterson
Combining his personal knowledge of the presidency with Patterson’s knowledge of how to write a heart-pounding thriller, Bill Clinton spins a story about President Jonathan Lincoln Duncan, under pressure from all sides, besieged by unhappy and hostile congressional committees, a determined assassin, and an apocalyptic threat only he knows about—a computer virus that could roll the clock back to the stone age overnight. Duncan sees just one way to deal with these combined threats—he walks out of the White House, leaving his security detail behind, and takes matters into his own hands.

Tom Clancy Line of Sight, by Mike Maden
Vladimir Vasilev, chief of the Iron Syndicate, is dying, and the one thing he wants to accomplish before the cancer gets him is to see Jack Ryan, Jr.’s head on a platter. Ryan heads to Sarajevo on a mission for his mother, seeking to track down her former patient, Aida. As assassins circle, Jack locates the gorgeous Aida, a Muslim who runs a refugee organization, and the sparks fly even as a new threat emerges—the Iron Syndicate is planning to kill thousands in a terrorist attack on a stadium in hopes of triggering World War III. Ryan must race to figure out the plot and somehow secure the military assets necessary to stop it—but Aida has secrets that threaten to upend everything, and trigger to a disaster of incalculable proportions.

The Pharaoh Key, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Gideon Crew returns in his fifth novel from Preston and Child, but Effective Engineering Solutions doesn’t. When the organization suddenly shuts down, world-class thief Gideon and and Manuel Garza head to Egypt in pursuit of EES’ final project, a priceless treasure—but not before secretly downloading a scan of the Phaistos Disk and cracking the ancient code contained thereon, revealing the treasure’s precise location. Garza and Crew face shipwrecks and other dangers on their way to meet a beautiful geologist and discover a lost civilization, adventuring their way through deadly puzzles and ancient mysteries with equal aplomb.

Turbulence, by Stuart Woods
Stone Barrington returns in the 46th novel featuring the suave, self-made millionaire lawyer. As a hurricane bears down on Key West, Barrington plays host to some friends—including Secretary of State Holly Barker. In the midst of the storm, Senator Joe Box arrives to beg for shelter, and is admitted—even though he attempted to assault Barker at a state dinner months earlier. When the storm passes, Barrington becomes involved in an effort to capture notorious arms dealer Selwyn Owaki (set free through machinations by Box) and the nuclear device he’s shopping—but the failure of the operation puts crosshairs on Barrington, and he must go underground. In the world of Stone Barrington, this means jetting about the world in order to get the drop on Owaki, one way or another.

Bring Me Back, by B.A. Paris
In this tense thriller, Finn McQuaid and his fiancée Ellen are settled into a comfortable cottage in the small village of Simonbridge, financially secure thanks to a stroke of luck on Finn’s part. Their relationship is unusual; 12 years earlier Finn was dating Ellen’s sister Layla, until Layla disappeared while driving through France with Finn, with only a Russian nesting doll near the car for a clue. Initially a suspect, Finn was cleared of the crime, and over the years, their mutual loss and desire for comfort led Ellen and Finn to forge a bond. But now, the police are suddenly telling Finn that Layla’s been seen in town, and he and Ellen start receiving strange gifts—Russian nesting dolls. It’s clear Finn hasn’t been entirely forthcoming about the circumstances of Layla’s disappearance, but unraveling the truth of what’s really happening won’t be easy.

Social Creature, by Tara Isabella Burton
Louise Wilson is an aspiring writer worried that her looming 30th birthday means she’s failed to make it in New York City. Tutoring a rich girl to make ends meet, she encounters her student’s older sister, Lavinia, who dresses like she’s always headed for a costume ball, and the queen of New York’s underground society. Louise decides she must keep her access to this glamorous life no matter the cost, and shirks all other responsibilities to maintain her orbit around Lavinia. At first all is well; Lavinia invites Louise to be her roommate, and it’s quite the ride—but then, Lavinia gets bored and decides its time for new blood. In order to maintain her grip on Lavinia, Louise must contemplate taking desperate measures. This thriller offers an exploration of a toxic relationship in the mold of Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley novels.

Bearskin, by James A. McLaughlin
Rice Moore is working as a caretaker in the rough, lawless Turk Mountain Preserve, located in the Appalachians of Virginia. The prior caretaker was raped and left for dead by the vicious poachers who plague the Preserve, and Rice is a man of secrets, fleeing from a Mexican drug cartel and hoping to stay hidden in the backwoods of Virginia. Just as he thinks he can relax, bears start turning up dead, killed by poachers seeking their valuable organs to sell overseas. When his efforts to stop the killing raises his profile, Rice finds himself fighting both the locals and the foreign criminals seeking to exact their revenge.

The Moscow Offensive, by Dale Brown
Brown’s sequel to Price of Duty returns to Captain Brad McLanahan, Colonel Wayne “Whack” Macomber, and Major Nadia Rozek of the Iron Wolf Squadron, which is composed of cybenetically-controlled robotic infantry, as they face a new threat: Russian President Gryzlov has managed to reverse-engineer the design and is building his own corps of war machines. Gryzlov shows off his new strength by attacking an Air Force base in Louisiana. The United States strikes back, and tensions and hostilities continue escalate, as Macomber, McLanahan, and Rozek risk everything in order to protect their country and the man who might be the next president.

Providence, by Caroline Kepnes
Jon Bronson was a typical high school kid, hassled by the jocks but saved by his deep friendship with classmate Chloe. When Jon disappears from his home, only Chloe and his parents keep faith that he’ll return—which he finally does, waking up four years later in a basement with no memory of the intervening time. Next to him is a copy of The Dunwich Horror by H.P. Lovecraft, and a letter from a former teacher who tells Jon that he was put into an induced coma, and now has access to more power than he can possibly imagine. Jon’s return is bittersweet—and gets more complicated when he realizes how dangerous his new powers are to the people around him. Jon tries to isolate himself, moving to Lovecraft’s home city of Providence, Rhode Island, but mysterious deaths soon attract a detective’s attention, and Jon and Chloe must find the answers to the mystery of Jon’s disappearance before it’s too late.

The Real Michael Swann, by Bryan Reardon
A phone call between Julia Swann and her husband Michael, who is at Penn Station in New York City, is suddenly cut off when a bomb explodes. Julia, in a panic, attempts to drive to NYC from Pennsylvania, but the city is in lockdown, and she can’t get in. Then she hears the impossible: the domestic terrorist suspected in the blast is none other than Michael Swann. Convinced of his his survival and his innocence, she seeks to make contact with her husband, who soon turns up dazed from the blast and suffering from amnesia. Julia must evade law enforcement as they search for Michael while somehow proving he isn’t the man they think he is.