BY GRACE MCQUADE
Spring has sprung, and it’s not just the weather that’s getting warm this season. In the world of books, the pages are heating up with the release of a slew of thrillers by some of the biggest names in fiction, as well as a former Long Island congressman and a past president of the United States.
Mysteries and conspiracies fuel the following stories that will take readers from the heights of political power to the depths of the depraved minds who commit the worst crimes. These are books people will be reading and talking about this season — two involving the most famous literary sleuth, Sherlock Holmes.
APRIL
“Big Guns: A Novel” by Steve Israel (April 17): Intrigue and humor combine in this new novel by former congressman and Long Island native Steve Israel in which the powerful gun industry, a Long Island town, and Washington politics collide.
“The Fallen” by David Baldacci (April 17): Bestselling author David Baldacci brings back crime solver Amos Decker, the Memory Man, who can recall the smallest details after sustaining a football-related head injury. This time, he sets out to unravel a string of murders taking place in a small, rust belt town.
“The Elizas: A Novel ” by Sara Shepard (April 17): The author of “Pretty Little Liars” makes her adult fiction debut with this Hitchcockian story about an author whose life begins to too closely resemble her novel after she’s left for dead in a hotel pool.
“Warning Light” by David Ricciardi (April 17): This first novel by David Ricciardi features a CIA intelligence analyst whose routine surveillance job turns into a do-or-die mission in the Middle East when his plane makes an emergency landing in Iran.
MAY
“Warlight: A Novel” by Michael Ondaatje (May 8): The author of “The English Patient” tells a shadowy story set in the aftermath of WW II when two young siblings are left behind in London by their parents in the care of a mysterious figure named The Moth, who may be involved in criminal activity.
“The Dark Angel” by Elly Griffiths (May 15): The author of the award-winning Ruth Galloway mystery series has her forensic anthropologist traveling to a medieval Italian town to help identify ancient bones. Her findings at the dig, however, unearth a modern-day murder.
“The Outsider: A Novel” by Stephen King (May 22): Master storyteller Stephen King delivers a stand-alone suspense centered on the gruesome murder of an 11-year-old boy that points to a popular member of the community, with possible otherworldly forces involved.
“Shelter in Place” by Nora Roberts (May 29): Bestselling author Nora Roberts tells a timely story about a mass shooting at a mall outside Portland, Maine. While the killers are taken down, the survivors still have no place to hide in the years that follow as a new conspirator lies in wait.
JUNE
“The President Is Missing: A Novel” by Bill Clinton and James Patterson (June 4): This unprecedented collaboration between bestselling author James Patterson and the 42nd president of the United States has Bill Clinton venturing into the world of fiction, bringing his White House expertise to a story about a president who vanishes while revealing the darkest threats that face the world today.
“Night-Gaunts and Other Tales of Suspense” by Joyce Carol Oates (June 5): An ode to late horror-fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft, this short story collection by literary luminary Joyce Carol Oates explores aspects of the uncanny, the sinister, and the macabre in six taut tales.
“The Word is Murder: A Novel” by Anthony Horowitz (June 5): The bestselling author of “Magpie Murders,” Anthony Horowitz has become known for reinventing the classic crime novel, this time depicting a fictional version of himself as the Watson to a modern-day Sherlock Holmes.
“Island of the Mad: A Novel of Suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes” by Laurie R. King (June 12): Mary Russell, the wife of Sherlock Holmes, searches for a friend’s missing aunt, taking her and Holmes from a mental hospital in rural England to the lagoons in Venice to explain the disappearance.
With spring fever in full swing, readers are sure to fill the longer daylight hours this season with these captivating new books that will make perfect gifts for Mother’s and Father’s Days.
