Reading Ahead: July 2019, part 2

A selection of new suspense for your perusal!

Game of Snipers, by Stephen Hunter. Hunter's latest Bob Lee Swagger novel, following 2017's G-Man, finds storied marksman Swagger, now 72 and retired, enjoying the solitude of his Idaho ranch. That peace is interrupted by a stranger, Janet McDowell, who comes to Swagger for help: track down the man who killed her son, a task that will require him to assemble his old team and work with both the FBI and Mossad in a race to the epic showdown implied by the title.

Good Girl, Bad Girl, by Michael Robotham. Robotham's new haunting thriller features a forensic psychologist, Cyrus Haven, who is preoccupied by two major cases. One is the case of a murdered young figure skater, cut down just as her star was on the rise. The other is to assess the fitness for release of a highly vulnerable teen from a children's home--she was found six years ago, hiding in a North London home when a murder had recently occurred. At that time, she was malnourished and so traumatized she couldn't remember her name. Though the two girls' cases are vastly different, Cyrus soon discovers the very adult problems of each were absolutely enough to incite violence. If one girl already died for such secrets, might the other still be in danger?

Bark of Night, by David Rosenfelt. When lawyer Andy Carpenter finds out that his veterinarian has been instructed to euthanize a perfectly healthy French bulldog, Truman, he's understandably angry and agrees to take on Truman as part of his canine rescue program. When they check the dog's microchip, however, they discover that the man who dropped him off was not his owner, and then his real owner is found murdered. And then the man who ordered Truman's demise is also found murdered...

The Shameless, by Ace Atkins. Years ago, teenager Brandon Taylor walked into the woodlands of Mississippi and was found a week later, dead of what was ruled a self-inflicted gunshot wound. But a cold-case podcaster and her producer are in town now, questioning the ruling and asking after files and evidence that seem to have gone missing. Sheriff Quinn Colson (last seen in 2018's The Sinners) wants to help, but an old case that was supposedly closed will have to take a back burner to his current concerns: a crime syndicate running guns, drugs and a human trafficking ring through the county, and a racist gubernatorial candidate whose campaign seems to be funded by the syndicate. If Quinn can't shut the whole thing down, fast, trouble is going to make itself right at home in the county, for good.