Reading Ahead: September 2016, part 3

Summer teems with light, beachy reads and fast-paced, easy-reading thrillers. September begins a season chock-full of mysteries and suspense novels full of intrigue. Got your interest? These books just might.

Infamy, by Robert K. Tanenbaum. In this new novel, following 2015's Trap, prosecutor Butch Karp and his wife, Marlene Ciampi, return to solve the suspicious murder of a US Army colonel and battle corruption at the highest levels of the United States government. As New York District Attorney Roger “Butch” Karp prepares a murder case against the veteran, he meets with investigative reporter Ariadne Stupenagel, who suspects that one of her sources for a story on high-level government corruption was a victim in the shooting. This points not to a random act of violence, but a hired killing that goes to the top levels of our nation. If Karp plans to prosecute, his life and the lives of those he holds most dear will be in the gravest of dangers.

Dear Mr. M, by Herman Koch. Koch, best known for his best-seller The Dinner, returns to treat readers to a chilling new novel. Once a celebrated writer, M had his greatest success with a suspense novel based on a real-life disappearance. It told the story of a history teacher who went missing one winter after having a brief affair with a beautiful student of his. The teacher was never found. Upon publication, M's novel was a runaway bestseller, one that marked his international breakthrough.  That was years ago, and now M's career is fading. But not when it comes to his bizarre, seemingly timid neighbor who keeps a close eye on him and his wife. But why? An intricate tale, deftly plotted and tense, this should be a must-read this fall.

Robert B. Parker’s Debt to Pay, by Reed Farrell Coleman. Coleman continues to do right by the late Parker's Jesse Stone series (following 2015's Robert B. Parker's The Devil Wins). All is quiet in Paradise, except for a spate of innocuous vandalism. Good thing, too, because Jesse Stone is preoccupied with the women in his life, both past and present. As his ex-wife, Jenn, is about to marry a Dallas real-estate tycoon, Jesse isn’t too sure his relationship with former FBI agent Diana Evans is built to last. But those concerns get put on the back burner when a major Boston crime boss is brutally murdered. Despite all evidence to the contrary, Jesse suspects it’s the work of Mr. Peepers, a psychotic assassin who has caused trouble for Jesse in the past.