On the Radar — If you take a look through this week’s book pile, one thing will strike you. All the top books have a strong female lead. They could be a profiler like in the latest Nicci French release, an investigative journalist as in Marc Elsberg’s new book, or even a tearaway teen as per the next thriller by Morgan Jones. There’s lots more for you to check out, too. Let us know which ones make it into your reading pile.

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Day of the Dead by Nicci French
We’ve reached number eight in the Frieda Klein series. Previously, each book had been named after a day of the week, like the last one we reviewed, Saturday Requiem. But the days have run out as the psychologist is about to face her toughest challenge yet in Day of the Dead. It’s autumn in London, and a serial killer is playing mind games with the Metropolitan police. They’re left floundering but our heroine can see through the smoke and mirrors. The killer is sending her a deadly message, but does she strike you as the type who will go into hiding? On previous showings, seems unlikely… Out 12 July.
Pre-order now on Amazon

Zero by Marc Elsberg
As you can tell by the cover, Austrian author Marc Elsberg has followed up his book Black Out with another thriller where technology is central. Investigative journalist Cynthia Bonsant is trying to find out why a teenager was shot dead in the street, and who did it. Her search leads her to the social media application Freemee. Zero, of the title, is a cyber activist opposed to Freemee and the way it’s taking over people’s lives – something we are quite familiar with these days. It’s data glasses, webcams, smartphones and nowhere to hide for Cynthia as Freemee’s founder turns his binary gaze towards her. Out 12 July.
Pre-order now on Amazon

The Good Sister by Morgan Jones
Critically acclaimed spy thriller writer Chris Morgan Jones takes on a new moniker and a different direction in this contemporary thriller. Sofia has had enough of London, a city of greed and self-obsession, and flees to Syria to join the cause. But the teenager’s naive idealism is shattered by what she finds there. Her father is devastated and follows his daughter into dangerous territory. Can the pair reconcile their differences and come out of this alive? Out 12 July.
Pre-order now on Amazon

Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager
Riley Sager is the pseudonym of a previously published author and this is the second book out under that name, the first being The Final Girls. Again, we are dealing with murder in the woods, dark secrets and, possibly, an unreliable narrator. Emma has been asked to revisit Camp Nightingale. Why? Because the case of three of her friends who were murdered there is being re-opened. Maybe it’s a chance for her to finally bury the past, but it seems more likely that her innocence will be called into question in this Stephen King-esque thriller. It’s out 10 July.
Pre-order now on Amazon

Dancing on the Grave by Zoë Sharpe
Imagine if a sniper started taking out people in the sleepy rural idyll of the English Lake District. They’d take some stopping. And just how far will people go to be famous these days? Newly minted Crime Scene Investigator Grace McColl has plenty to prove after an initial error costs a live and Detective Constable Nick Weston needs to recover from an undercover operation that nearly killed him. This standalone thriller from the creator of the popular Charlotte ‘Charlie’ Fox series was inspired by the Washington Sniper attacks. Out 1 July.
Pre-order now on Amazon

The Anomaly by Michael Rutger
Archaeologist Nolan Moore is a media favourite and star of the Youtube channel The Anomaly Files, although his work is  dismissed by the ‘experts’. But the would-be Indiana Jones is about to have his mettle tested on an ill-fated trip to The Grand Canyon, following in the footsteps of an early 20th century explorer who stumbled on a hidden cavern. The party becomes hopelessly lost, and suddenly they are being picked off, one by one by strange creatures… The adventure begins 12 July.
Pre-order now on Amazon

Bad Blood by EO Chirovici
Amnesia is a well worn crime fiction path with classics ranging from Robert Ludlum’s Bourne sequence to the recent Belgian crime show Tabula Rasa. EO Chirovici gives us a man who woke up in a Parisian hotel in the 1970s next to a murdered woman. Is he innocent or guilty? Forty years later and he’s a billionaire but he still has no recollection of events. He turns to New York psychologist James Cobb who specialises in recovering lost memories. Cobb is soon unpicking secrets, his own as well as the man’s, in this Romanian thriller. Out 12 July.
Pre-order now on Amazon

The Sinners by Ace Atkins
Quinn Colson is the Tibbehah County sheriff who has his work cut out bringing the lawless family, the Pritchards, to heel. The head of the clan is getting out of prison with revenge on his mind. A dodgy trucking firm is showing no respect for the fact Colson’s wedding is looming and with organised crime links the violence is soon bubbling up all over his patch. Unfortunately, his faithful deputy, Lillie Virgil, has bugged out to Memphis. Colson is relying on untested colleagues in Atkins’ Southern crime series that’s shrouded in gunsmoke in the rough hills of northeast Mississippi. Out 5 July.
Pre-order now on Amazon

Read about last week’s new releases here.