Reading Ahead: September 2017, part 2

From cops taking down bad guys to monsters of the future and monsters of the past, next month's thrillers are sure to entertain.

Sleeping Beauties, by Stephen King & Owen King. What if women disappeared from the world of men? In this novel of an alternate near-future, this is what happens--when women fall asleep, they fall dormant, travel to another world. If disturbed or woken, they become spectacularly violent. And so men are left alone, becoming increasingly primal. The exception to the women's affliction is Evie, but why is she exempt? Is she blessed or cursed? Should she be studied or slain? There's some setup involved but from early reviews, the payoff is spectacular and worth it in spades.

Secrets in Death, by J.D. Robb. Book 45 in Robb's (aka Nora Roberts) long-running series featuring NYPSD cop Eve Dallas. A professional gossip reporter is murdered, and it appears it's not about what she had said, but rather, it may have been about what she kept secret, and who she was blackmailing... It's up to Eve Dallas to dig into the reporter's dirty bag of secrets, and it soon becomes clear that she'll uncover some dirt about people very close to her. A more personal turn for a Dallas case. Also available in Large Print.

Enigma, by Catherine Coulter. FBI Agents Savich and Sherlock (last seen in 2016's Insidious) have not one case to solve, but two, in this latest from Coulter. A pregnant woman is attacked and later, her baby is stolen from the hospital, the case worked by Sherlock and her team. Meanwhile, Savich heads a team tracking a convicted bank robber who escaped while in transit to a federal prison. New to the series? You're in luck--this works as well as a stand-alone as it does in the series as a whole, and may be a good entry-point for you.

The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye, by David Lagercrantz. Lagercrantz became the new writer for Steig Larsson's Lisbeth Salander series with The Girl in the Spider's Web (2015). Lisbeth Salander, the brilliant hacker with the dragon tattoo, has long been unable to uncover the full extent of her childhood trauma, something she believes might finally help her understand herself. Of course she's enlisted journalist Mikael Blomkvist to help her with her digging. Tenacious as ever, Lisbeth won't let anything stand in her way, not an extremist group, not the deadly reach of her long-lost twin Camilla, and certainly not those responsible for her trauma.