Reading Ahead: December 2014, part 2

I hope readers can find some time in their schedules in the post-holiday lull, because there are some great suspense novels headed our way next month. Check it out!

Robert B. Parker’s The Bridge, by Robert Knott. Knott returns with another installment in the best-selling Cole & Hitch series. Territorial Marshals Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch are back in Appaloosa, where their work enforcing the law has been exceptionally quiet. All that is about to change. An ominous storm rolls in, and along with it a band of night riders with a devious scheme, who show up at the Rio Blanco camp, where a three-hundred-foot bridge is under construction. The Appaloosa Sheriff and two deputies, first to respond when there's trouble at the bridge, go missing. And that's only the beginning of the troubles set for Cole and Hitch to sort out. Series fans are sure to be pleased with this new novel--Knott does Parker's series proud.

The Assassination Option, by W.E.B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth IV. Second in the Clandestine Operations series following Top Secret, Griffin's new novel follows members of the newly fledged CIA in a war unlike any other, the Cold War. James Cronley's successful first mission garnered lots of attention, some more welcome than others. A promotion is great, but it also puts him under close scrutiny from both sides of the Iron Curtain. The pressure has only just begun to mount as Cronley walks a knife's edge in this spy thriller. Griffin isn't a best-seller for nothing.

Rain on the Dead, by Jack Higgins. Terrorism, revenge and a very old nemesis collide in this new Sean Dillon novel from veteran suspense writer Higgins. On a dark summer night, two Chechen mercenaries emerge from the waters off Nantucket to kill a high-value target, the former president of the United States, Jake Cazalet. Unfortunately for them, Cazalet has guests with him, including black ops specialist Sean Dillon and his colleague, Afghan war hero Captain Sara Gideon. While the Chechens don't survive the night, Dillon is curious as to how they even got onto the island in the first place...and the answers chill him to the bone. An excellent addition to the series.