Welcome to June, thriller fans!
While most of the country is finally starting to heat up, so too is the thriller genre . . . and it’s going to be one heck of a summer!
This month, there are a ton of really great books set to hit store shelves, and as always, we’ve highlighted a few of our favorites below. This month actually marks a Real Book Spy first as all of our Featured Selections are set to come out on the same day—so get your book-buying budget in order, because these page-turning thrillers aren’t to be missed. That includes the latest Jack Ryan Junior book from Don Bentley, a riveting new novel from Matthew Quirk, and the second thriller in a new series from Brandon Webb & John David Mann.
Find out more about those titles below, along with everything else set to be released, below.
Happy reading!
Tuesday, June 7th
Tom Clancy Zero Hour by Don Bentley (Featured Selection)
Jack Ryan, Jr. is the one man who can prevent a second Korean War in the latest thrilling entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.
When the leader of North Korea is catastrophically injured, his incapacitation inadvertently triggers a “dead-man’s switch,” activating an army of sleeper agents in South Korea and precipitating a struggle for succession.
Jack Ryan, Jr. is in Seoul to interview a potential addition to the Campus. But his benign trip takes a deadly turn when a wave of violence perpetrated by North Korean operatives grips South Korea’s capital. A mysterious voice from North Korea offers Jack a way to stop the peninsula’s rush to war, but her price may be more than he can afford to pay.
TRBS: Bentley has done an impressive job staying true to the Ryanverse while simultaneously making this his series, leading the Jack Junior books to new heights since he took over the gig a couple of years back. The most talented writer to touch Clancy’s beloved characters since Mark Greaney, Bentley’s penchant for action and blazing-fast, red-hot pacing makes this book—even at 500 pages—damn near a one-sit read.
The Omega Factor by Steve Berry
The Ghent Altarpiece is the most violated work of art in the world. Thirteen times it has been vandalized, dismantled, or stolen. Why? What secrets does it hold?
Enter UNESCO investigator, Nicholas Lee, who works for the United Nations’ Cultural Liaison and Investigative Office (CLIO). Nick’s job is to protect the world’s cultural artifacts—anything and everything from countless lesser-known objects to national treasures.
When Nick travels to Belgium for a visit with a woman from his past, he unwittingly stumbles on the trail of a legendary panel from the Ghent Altarpiece, stolen in 1934 under cover of night and never seen since. Soon Nick is plunged into a bitter conflict, one that has been simmering for nearly two thousand years. On one side is the Maidens of Saint-Michael, les Vautours—the Vultures—a secret order of nuns and the guardians of a great truth. Pitted against them is the Vatican, which has wanted for centuries to both find and possess what the nuns guard. Because of Nick the maidens have finally been exposed, their secret placed in dire jeopardy—a vulnerability that the Vatican swiftly moves to exploit utilizing an ambitious cardinal and a corrupt archbishop, both with agendas of their own.
From the tranquil canals of Ghent, to the towering bastions of Carcassonne, and finally into an ancient abbey high in the French Pyrenees, Nick Lee must confront a modern-day religious crusade intent on eliminating a shocking truth from humanity’s past. Success or failure—life and death—all turn on the Omega Factor.
Red Warning my Matthew Quirk (Featured Selection)
“Intricately plotted with extraordinary characters and riveting action.” –Jack Carr, #1 New York Times bestselling author of In the Blood
CIA officer Sam Hudson races to find a deep-cover operative loose in the U.S. and a mole in the Agency before they can launch a devastating attack on Washington, D.C., in this adrenaline-fueled thriller from the author of The Night Agent and Hour of the Assassin.
For years CIA officer Sam Hudson has been hunting Konstantin, a Russian deep cover operative responsible for a string of assassinations in the West—and he believes a well-placed source in Geneva can finally get him close to the killer. But when their meeting is ambushed, Sam’s partner is murdered and he barely makes it out alive himself.
Back in the States, the bosses put him on leave and want him to drop his obsession with Konstantin, but Sam can’t let a man who’s taken so many lives slip away again. When he gets a mysterious call at the Lincoln Memorial just before a bomb goes off, he realizes Konstantin has followed him to the U.S.—and is targeting him and everyone close to him. Teaming up with fellow CIA officer Emily Pierce, he sets out to redeem himself and uncover a plot that has been lying in wait since the end of the Cold War, its elements hidden among the most iconic buildings in the capital.
With enemies lurking both inside and outside the Agency and the Russian threat looming ever larger, Sam must use all his training and nerve to stop Konstantin before he can trigger the plot to devastate Washington and bring the US to its knees.
TRBS: Quirk, who solidified himself as one of the genre’s premier writers with 2019’s The Night Agent (which is being adapted for television by The Shield‘s Shawn Ryan for Netflix) continues his recent run of can’t-miss thrillers with Red Warning, his most electrifying novel to date . . . and a must-read for fans of everyone from le Carre to Jack Carr.
Aurora by David KoeppSOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM NETFLIX AND ACADEMY AWARD-WINNING DIRECTOR KATHRYN BIGELOW
“Fantastic story, a real page-turner. Impossible to put down.” – Stephen King
From the author of Cold Storage comes a riveting, eerily plausible thriller, told with the menace and flair of Under the Dome or Project Hail Mary, in which a worldwide cataclysm plays out in the lives of one complicated Midwestern family.
In Aurora, Illinois, Aubrey Wheeler is just trying to get by after her semi-criminal ex-husband split, leaving behind his unruly teenage son.
Then the lights go out—not just in Aurora but across the globe. A solar storm has knocked out power almost everywhere. Suddenly, all problems are local, very local, and Aubrey must assume the mantle of fierce protector of her suburban neighborhood.
Across the country lives Aubrey’s estranged brother, Thom. A fantastically wealthy, neurotically over-prepared Silicon Valley CEO, he plans to ride out the crisis in a gilded desert bunker he built for maximum comfort and security.
But the complicated history between the siblings is far from over, and what feels like the end of the world is just the beginning of several long-overdue reckonings—which not everyone will survive . . .
Aurora is suspenseful storytelling—both large scale and small—at its finest.
Cold Fear by Brandon Webb & John David Mann (Featured Selection)
Finn’s search for his memory of one fateful night leads him to Iceland—only to be followed by an unhinged assassin intent on stopping him—in the riveting follow-up to Steel Fear, from the New York Times bestselling writing team Webb & Mann, combat-decorated Navy SEAL Brandon Webb and award-winning author John David Mann.
“One of the best crime novels of the year . . . a brilliant blend of procedural mystery and geopolitical thriller.”—Jeffery Deaver, New York Times bestselling author of Hunting Time
Disgraced Navy SEAL Finn is on the run. A wanted man since he jumped ship from the USS Abraham Lincoln, he’s sought for questioning in connection to war crimes committed in Yemen by a rogue element in his SEAL team. But his memory of that night—as well as the true fate of his mentor and only friend, Lieutenant Kennedy—is a gaping hole.
Finn learns that three members of his team have been quietly redeployed to Iceland, which is a puzzle in itself; the tiny island nation is famous for being one of the most peaceful, crime-free places on the planet.
His mission is simple: track down the three corrupt SEALs and find out what really happened that night in Yemen. But two problems stand in his way. On his first night in town a young woman mysteriously drowns—and a local detective suspects Finn’s involvement. What’s worse, a SEAL-turned-contract-killer with skills equal to Finn’s own has been hired to make sure he never gets the answers he’s looking for. And he’s followed Finn all the way to the icy north.
TRBS: This series kicked off with a riveting, thundering bang with last year’s Steel Fear, one of the best thrillers of 2021. Now, Webb & Mann are back with double the action, and even more suspense and tension as Finn races to find the truth about a past mission from his days as a Navy SEAL . . . but with a lethal contract killer hot on his heels, one wrong move could cost him his life. Think The Terminal List meets The Bourne Identity. This book is crazy good!
Tuesday, June 14th
The Terminal List by Jack Carr (Amazon TV show tie-in hardcover)
#1 NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR
“Take my word for it, James Reece is one rowdy motherf***er. Get ready!”—Chris Pratt, all-around great guy and star of The Terminal List, coming to Amazon Prime
A Navy SEAL has nothing left to live for and everything to kill for after he discovers that the American government is behind the deaths of his team in this ripped-from-the-headlines political thriller that is “so powerful, so pulse-pounding, so well-written—rarely do you read a debut novel this damn good” (Brad Thor, #1 New York Times bestselling author).
On his last combat deployment, Lieutenant Commander James Reece’s entire team was killed in a catastrophic ambush. But when those dearest to him are murdered on the day of his homecoming, Reece discovers that this was not an act of war by a foreign enemy but a conspiracy that runs to the highest levels of government.
Now, with no family and free from the military’s command structure, Reece applies the lessons that he’s learned in over a decade of constant warfare toward avenging the deaths of his family and teammates. With breathless pacing and relentless suspense, Reece ruthlessly targets his enemies in the upper echelons of power without regard for the laws of combat or the rule of law.
“Told with a deft hand and a keen eye for detail, The Terminal List…is explosive and riveting” (Kevin Maurer, co-author of No East Day) and is perfect for fans of Vince Flynn, Brad Thor, Stephen Hunter, and Nelson DeMille.
Local Gone Missing by Fiona Barton
Detective Elise King investigates a man’s disappearance in a seaside town where the locals and weekenders are at odds in this rich and captivating new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Widow.
Elise King is a successful and ambitious detective—or she was before a medical leave left her unsure if she’d ever return to work. She now spends most days watching the growing tensions in her small seaside town of Ebbing—the weekenders renovating old bungalows into luxury homes, and the locals resentful of the changes.
Elise can only guess what really happens behind closed doors. But Dee Eastwood, her house cleaner, often knows. She’s an invisible presence in many of the houses in town, but she sees and hears everything.
The conflicts boil over when a newcomer wants to put the town on the map with a weekend music festival, and two teenagers overdose on drugs. When a man disappears the first night of the festival, Elise starts digging for answers. Ebbing is a small town, but it’s full of secrets and hidden connections that run deeper and darker than Elise could have ever imagined.
Tuesday, June 21st
The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager
Named a most anticipated summer book by People, E! News, PureWow, CrimeReads, POPSUGAR, and The Nerd Daily
The New York Times bestselling author of Final Girls and Survive the Night is back with his “best plot twist yet.” (People, “Best Summer Books”)
Be careful what you watch for . . .
Casey Fletcher, a recently widowed actress trying to escape a streak of bad press, has retreated to the peace and quiet of her family’s lake house in Vermont. Armed with a pair of binoculars and several bottles of bourbon, she passes the time watching Tom and Katherine Royce, the glamorous couple living in the house across the lake. They make for good viewing—a tech innovator, Tom is powerful; and a former model, Katherine is gorgeous.
One day on the lake, Casey saves Katherine from drowning, and the two strike up a budding friendship. But the more they get to know each other—and the longer Casey watches—it becomes clear that Katherine and Tom’s marriage isn’t as perfect as it appears. When Katherine suddenly vanishes, Casey immediately suspects Tom of foul play. What she doesn’t realize is that there’s more to the story than meets the eye—and that shocking secrets can lurk beneath the most placid of surfaces.
Packed with sharp characters, psychological suspense, and gasp-worthy plot twists, Riley Sager’s The House Across the Lake is the ultimate escapist read . . . no lake house required.
Malibu Creek State Park is a beautiful locale for campers, tourists, hikers, and Hollywood. For Detective Eve Ronin, it’s a backdrop for murder in a riveting thriller by #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Goldberg.
For decades Malibu Creek State Park was the spectacular natural setting where Hollywood fantasies were made. But when a female camper is gunned down, it becomes a real-life killing ground. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department homicide detectives Eve Ronin and Duncan Pavone are assigned the case…which Duncan fears is the latest in a series of sniper attacks that began long before Eve came to Lost Hills.
Seven victims over fourteen months…and top officials still refuse to see a connection. Eve and Duncan are stonewalled, threatened, and ordered to keep quiet. But Eve won’t back down. She’s no stranger to intimidation or corruption―she’s had a target on her back from day one at Lost Hills station.
Despite finding no evidentiary links between the shootings, Eve and Duncan follow their instincts into the shadows of Malibu Creek, where it’s not enough to expose the secrets and break the conspiracy of silence. They also have to make it out alive.
Tuesday, June 28th
Hatchet Island by Paul Doiron
The Girl Who Survived by Lisa Jackson
In this deviously volatile, deliciously creepy standalone suspense novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jackson, the sole survivor of a brutal family massacre must uncover the shocking truth about the fateful night that left her forever marked… Has she already had her final chance to be the final girl?
All her life, she’s been the girl who survived. Orphaned at age seven after a horrific killing spree at her family’s Oregon cabin, Kara McIntyre is still searching for some kind of normal. But now, twenty years later, the past has come thundering back. Her brother, Jonas, who was convicted of the murders has unexpectedly been released from prison. The press is in a frenzy again. And suddenly, Kara is receiving cryptic messages from her big sister, Marlie—who hasn’t been seen or heard from since that deadly Christmas Eve when she hid little Kara in a closet with a haunting, life-saving command: Don’t make a sound. As people close to her start to die horrible deaths, Kara, who is slowly and surely unraveling, believes she is the killer’s ultimate target. Kara survived once. But will she survive again? How many times can she be the girl who survived?
Praised as “One of the hardest working, most thoughtful, and fairest reviewers out there” by #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Scottoline, Ryan Steck has “quickly established himself as the authority on mysteries and thrillers” (Author A.J. Tata). Steck also works full-time as a freelance editor and co-hosts the ThrillerTalk podcast when he’s not streaming and hanging out with his growing community on Twitch. His debut thriller, FIELDS OF FIRE, which #1 New York Times bestselling author Jack Carr says “will leave you speechless and begging for more,” comes out on September 6, 2022. For more information, be sure to follow him on Twitter and Facebook.