Reading Ahead: March 2015, part 2

Need a suggestion for a(nother) new thriller? Having trouble keeping track of James Patterson's rapid-fire publication schedule? No problem! I've got you covered.

The Assassin, by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott. Latest in Cussler's best-selling Isaac Bell series, The Assassin finds Bell, a Van Dorn private detective, working to land a case investigating the Rockefeller Standard Oil monopoly, only to have a sniper set to work picking off potential witnesses, one after another. Bell must turn his attention to tracking this phantom-like assassin, trying to put an end to his reign of murder and destruction once and for all, even as his quarry leads him on a wild chase all over the United States and Russia. New to this series? Start with 2007's The Chase.

Life or Death, by Michael Robotham. Audie Palmer has spent ten years in a Texas prison after pleading guilty to a robbery in which four people died and seven million dollars went missing. During that time he has suffered repeated beatings, stabbings and threats by inmates and guards, all desperate to answer the same question: where's the money? Now, on the day before Audie is due to be released, he suddenly vanishes.  The police, FBI, gangsters and other powerful figures, everyone is trying to find him. But Audie isn't running to save his own life. Instead, he's trying to save someone else's. Robotham is kind of amazing (I've been a fan since reading Lost in 2006), so I highly recommend him, especially to fans of psychological thrillers.

NYPD Red 3, by James Patterson and Marshall Karp. NYPD Red is the elite, highly trained task force assigned to protect the rich, the famous, and the connected. And Detective Zach Jordan and his partner Kylie MacDonald-the woman who broke his heart at the police academy-are the best of the best, brilliant and tireless investigators who will stop at nothing to deliver justice. Zach and Kylie's New Year's celebrations are cut short when they're called to the home of billionaire businessman Hunter Alden, Jr. after he makes a grisly discovery in his townhouse garage. When Alden's teenage son goes missing soon afterwards, and his father seems oddly reluctant to find him, Zach and Kylie find themselves in the middle of a chilling conspiracy that threatens everyone in its wake-especially their city's most powerful citizens.