Reading Ahead: May 2016, part 1

A coworker mentioned to me just the other day that it seems like the winter doldrums, book-wise, has lasted interminably. And in a way, she has a point. After the holiday rush, publishing seems to slow down a bit, but that's only to give them time to ramp up for the other reading season: Summer! As far as publishers are concerned, summer starts about mid-April, and by May, there are so many to choose from, you'll have to build some extra time into your schedule to make room for them! Here are a few to whet your appetite.

Beyond the Ice Limit, by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child. If you have been reading my "What I've Been Reading" posts these last few months (like March, for example), you may have noticed that I've been singing the praises of this writing duo's Agent Pendergast series. They also write this second series together, the Gideon Crew novels, and this is the fourth installment (if you're like me and like to start at the beginning with these things, the Gideon Crew series starts with Gideon's Sword). Five years ago, the mysterious and inscrutable head of Effective Engineering Solutions, Eli Glinn, led a mission to recover a gigantic meteorite--the largest ever discovered--from a remote island off the coast of South America. The mission ended in disaster when their ship, the Rolvaag, foundered in a vicious storm in the Antarctic waters and broke apart, sinking-along with its unique cargo-to the ocean floor. One hundred and eight crew members perished, and Eli Glinn was left paralyzed. But the tragedy revealed something even more terrifying: the meteorite they tried to retrieve was not, in fact, simply a rock. Instead, it was a complex organism from the deep reaches of space. Now, that organism has implanted itself in the sea bed two miles below the surface-and it is growing. If it is not destroyed, the planet will be doomed. They need Gideon to help them finish the job, once and for all.

15^th Affair, by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro. As she settles into motherhood and a happy marriage, Lindsay Boxer thinks she has found domestic bliss. But when a beautiful, alluring blonde woman with links to the CIA disappears from the scene of a brutal murder at a downtown luxury hotel, Lindsay's life begins to unravel. Before she can track down the woman for questioning, a plane crash plunges San Francisco into chaos and Lindsay's husband Joe vanishes. The deeper she digs, the more Lindsay suspects that Joe shares a secret past with the mystery blonde. Thrown into a tailspin and questioning everything she thought she knew, Lindsay turns to the Women's Murder Club for help as she tries to uncover the truth.

Blood Flag, by Steve Martini. Fourteenth in Martini's long-running and ever-popular Paul Madriani series (which started with Compelling Evidence way back in 1992), Blood Flag finds Paul Madriani and Harry Hinds with a new client: Emma Brauer, a woman accused in the “mercy killing” of her aged father, Robert Brauer. Insisting she’s innocent, Emma tells Paul about a package sent to her father shortly before he entered the hospital. Bequeathed to him by a member of his unit from World War II, the box contains a key and a slip of paper. Emma fears that this package is connected to her father’s death.When Paul’s young assistant Sofia is murdered, Madriani is blindsided by the realization that Emma’s fears are well-grounded.

The Emperor’s Revenge, by Clive Cussler & Boyd Morrison. Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon face their toughest challenge yet when a violent bank heist during the Monaco Grand Prix decimates the Corporation’s accounts. To get the money back, Juan joins forces with an old friend from his days in the CIA so they can track down a rogue hacker and a ruthless former Ukrainian naval officer. It is only after the hunt begins that the enormity of the plan comes into focus: the bank theft is just the first step in a plot that will result in the deaths of millions and bring the world’s economies to a standstill. The catalyst for the scheme? A stunning document stolen during Napoleon’s disastrous invasion of Russia. But two hundred years later, it may be the thing that brings Europe to its knees.