Reading Ahead: June 2015, part 1

I may have mentioned this before, but this summer's fiction release list is, quite frankly, out of control. There is just so much! Not to worry--I've got a list of the highlights ready for you, no matter what your preferences.  Here are some suspense and thriller titles to get you started.

Invasion of Privacy, by Christopher Reich. On a remote, dusty road forty miles outside of Austin, Texas, FBI agent Joe Grant and a confidential informant are killed in a deadly shootout. Left to pick up the pieces is Mary Grant, Joe's young wife and mother of their two daughters. The official report places blame for the deaths on Joe's shoulders . . . but the story just doesn't add up and Mary has too many troubling questions that need answers. How did Joe's final voice mail—containing a cryptic warning for Mary, recorded moments before the fatal shooting—disappear without a trace from her phone?         Stonewalled by the FBI, Mary will be drawn into a deadly conspiracy that puts her in the crosshairs of the richest and most powerful men in America . . . and the newest and most terrifying surveillance system known to man.

The Ultimatum, by Dick Wolf. Detective Jeremy Fisk tracks a serial sniper who has mastered state-of-the-art airborne technology to hunt his prey in this third thriller from the New York Times bestselling author and creator of the Law & Order franchise. When a leaker named Verlyn Merritt releases sensitive documents from the NYPD Intelligence Division to WikiLeaks, some of the deadliest criminals have access to Detective Jeremy Fisk’s unlisted home address. Within hours, three mysterious assailants arrive at his Sutton Place apartment. Who are they and why do they want Fisk dead?

Cash Landing, by James Grippando. Grippando's latest thriller blends Goodfellas and Elmore Leonard in this wild, suspenseful caper inspired by actual events, in which a band of amateur thieves pulls off one of the biggest airport heists in history with deadly consequences.

Tom Clancy Under Fire, by Grant Blackwood. On a routine intelligence gathering mission in Tehran, Jack Ryan, Jr., has lunch with his oldest friend, Seth Gregory, an engineer overseeing a transcontinental railway project. As they part, Seth slips Jack a key, along with a perplexing message. The next day Jack is summoned to an apartment where two men claim Seth has disappeared—gone to ground with funds for a vital intelligence operation.  Jack’s oldest friend has turned, they insist. They leave Jack with a warning:  If you hear from Seth Gregory, call us immediately. And do not get involved. But they don’t know Jack. He won’t abandon a friend in need. This is the second novel featuring Jack Ryan, Jr., following 2010's Dead or Alive , which Blackwood co-authored with Tom Clancy (1947-2013).

Robert Ludlum’s The Janson Equation, by Douglas Corleone. Prominent U.S. Senator James Wyckoff hires former government agents-turned-private security consultants Janson and Kincaid to locate his teenage son Gregory. Gregory's girlfriend Lynell has been found strangled in a Seoul hotel, and Gregory has fled the city to avoid being arrested for the crime. But Senator Wyckoff insists that his son is innocent, suggesting that Lynell, who was a translator, may have been murdered because of something she overheard at a recent international conference. And when Janson and Kincaid realize they're being hunted by an assassin, they suspect that this crime--and the cover-up--were orchestrated by a shadowy unit of the U.S. State Department as part of a larger plot to provoke violence between North and South Korea.