Reading Ahead: December 2015, part 2

Thrillers and suspense novels have no season--they're perfect year-round. Here are a few new titles to help you through the holidays.

After She’s Gone, by Lisa Jackson. Cassie Kramer and her younger sister, Allie, learned the hazards of fame long ago. Together, they’d survived the horror of a crazed fan who nearly killed their mother, former Hollywood actress Jenna Hughes. Still, Cassie moved to L.A., urging Allie to follow. As a team, they’d take the town by storm. But Allie, finally free of small-town Oregon, and just that little bit more beautiful, also proved to be more talented—and driven. Where Cassie got bit parts, Allie rose to stardom. But now her body double has been shot on the set of her latest movie—and Allie is missing. Police discover that the last call to Allie’s phone came from Cassie, though she has no recollection of making it. Instead of looking like a concerned relative, Cassie is starting to look like a suspect. Jackson's work is very popular--if you like Lisa Gardner, Karin Slaughter, or Chevy Stevens, giver her a try.

The Relic Master, by Christopher Buckley. If you're unfamiliar with Buckley's work (Little Green Men, Boomsday), you are really missing out. His is a unique blend of intrigue and humor guaranteed to entertain; Tom Wolfe calls him "one of the funniest writers in the English language." Fans of authors like Christopher Moore, Carl Hiaasen, and Tim Dorsey should take note. This, his latest, is a compelling and hilarious adventure featuring a sixteenth-century relic hunter and his best friend, Albrecht Dürer, who conspire to forge the Shroud of Turin. If the holidays have got you feeling a little blue, this just might be the antidote!

Forty Thieves, by Thomas Perry. Perry, bestselling author of the Jane Whitefield series (most recently A String of Beads, 2014), returns here with a lethally paced standalone novel. Sid and Ronnie Abel are a first-rate husband-and-wife detective team, both retirees of the LAPD. Ed and Nicole Hoyt are married assassins-for-hire living in the San Fernando Valley. Except for deadly aim with a handgun, the two couples have little in common—until they are both hired to do damage control on the same murder case.