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I read thrillers and crime fiction all year long. They cleanse my palate in the midst of some other heavy-duty reading from my book stack.

But crime fiction can also be the perfect companion for summer. So here are four suspenseful summertime thrillers you'll want to devour — and share.

Mark it on your calendar: "Leona" comes out Aug. 1.

Now, I don't know if those endless winter nights are getting to the Scandinavians, but they continue to brew up some downright disturbing scenarios. If you like Camilla Lackberg and Jo Nesbo, as I do, you need to read "Leona."

Here's the setup: A child, bruised and covered in blood, is sent into a Stockholm bank to rob it. She escapes with millions.

Leona Lindberg, the detective assigned to the case, has a beef with her boss, a personal life on the rocks and a love for high-stakes poker. She's irascible, eccentric, dedicated and dangerous. (What's not to love?)

And the author, Rogneby, is fascinating too. She is Ethiopian by birth but was raised in Sweden. She's a pop-singer-turned-criminologist-turned-writer. 

I'm hoping "Leona" isn't the end: This would make one heck of a series.

Owen Laukkanen likes to bring his mayhem to Minnesota. He's Canadian,  but the American Midwest — and Minnesota, in particular — has been fertile ground for his fictional crime sprees. 

Laukkanen likes the idea of reckless and roving criminals: His debut, "The Professionals," features four college students who come up with a kidnapping scheme.   

Investigators Kirk Stevens, of the Minnesota BCA, and Carla Windermere, a striking FBI agent on the rise, give chase. 

From the beginning, there's been some fun and steamy tension between the two, even though Stevens is happily married.  Laukkanen says he wasn't convinced when he started that he would keep both characters. Windermere was initially just a plot device to push the debut novel along.  
 
Four books later, 

As for why this Canadian author plants all the mayhem in Minnesota? When he was plotting the criminal geography of "The Professionals," the bad guys just happened to end up in the Twin Cities. (Hope they don't run into all those bad guys John Sandford has been putting in our midst.)

"Rage Against the Dying" by Becky Masterman


When I read the prologue of "Rage Against the Dying," I thought: "Becky Masterman, where have you been all my life?"

The novel opens in the point of view of a predator, a technique I usually don't go for. But it's a savvy play on Masterman's part because it gives us a deliciously skewed introduction to one of the savviest, sexiest and smartest sleuths I've encountered in a crime novel.  

Brigid Quinn once brought down terrorists and unraveled a Thai sex slavery ring, but now she's retired to Tucson, Ariz., in semi-disgrace after she shot an unarmed perp.  

Pushing 60, she's sporting a white ponytail and she's newly married to a former Episcopalian priest-turned-professor. She believes she's hiding her past and her cynicism from him. She's not. 

When a complicated serial-killer case that Brigid worked for years re-emerges, she slowly gets drawn back into the investigation.

Masterman's plotting is convincing and her day job with a forensics press shows in the crime-solving science. But it's Brigid's originality and her smart mouth that made me immediately buy the next book in the series.


 
I first heard about writer Mick Herron from Seattle librarian Nancy Pearl. She put Herron's debut spy thriller "Slow Horses" on one of her "best of" lists. And when she speaks, I listen.

I've now read two books in Herron's series. The newest, "Spook Street," continues the thrill. And here's why: It features a team of disgraced yet ambitious British spies, all led by an uncouth, cynical, profane jackal who nevertheless cares about queen and country. Throw in an intriguingly complex crime, and you have a juicy story. Added bonus: lots of authentic MI6 spy tradecraft and convincing crime-solving.

Arts and Culture

The Thread® - Books and Literary News

Kerri Miller

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