Adventure Awaits in These Thrillers
By M. CLARE HAEFNER
Covers courtesy of the publishers
Summer is a great time for adventure. When I feel like exploring some place new but can’t take time off to travel, I often escape through books set in places I want to visit.
Australia has been on my bucket list for years, so a new police procedural set in Sydney seemed like a good place to start my summer reading adventure.
Former journalist Matthew Spencer’s debut novel Black River (Thomas & Mercer, July 2023) is a thrilling read. His attention to detail put me on the streets of Sydney alongside Detective Sergeant Rose Riley as she hunts for a serial killer targeting elite neighborhoods along the Parramatta River. When a new murder ties in a boarding school, Riley forms a tenuous alliance with journalist Adam Bowman who once attended the school.
Like all good thrillers, not everything is as it seems, and the twists and turns keep coming. Bowman is forced to deal with a trauma from his past that may be the key to solving the case and Riley tries to catch the Blue Moon Killer before he or she strikes again.
Pick up Black River and come along for a riveting ride in the first of what I hope will be several books featuring Detective Sergeant Rose Riley and her team down under.
Because one thriller is never enough, my next summer reading adventure took me to familiar ground in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
While I’ve never set foot there, I have read several books by Colleen Coble set in Rock Harbor that make me feel like I have. Hooked on her suspenseful romantic thrillers since I picked up Without a Trace in 2013 and met search and rescue team leader Bree Nichols and her faithful dog Samson, I eagerly picked up Coble’s most recent trilogy set in the rugged wilderness of the U.P.
In this series, law enforcement ranger Annie Pederson takes center stage as she tries to solve her sister’s disappearance, which has haunted her for more than 20 years. The story begins in Edge of Dusk (Thomas Nelson, July 2022) as Pederson is coming to terms with the recent deaths of her parents and husband and trying to help her 8-year-old daughter move on. When a body surfaces on the shore of the Lake Superior resort and marina Pederson owns, she is pulled into the case and several other mysterious deaths.
After an old flame returns to Rock Harbor and more bodies are discovered, Pederson realizes the cases may be connected and she races to uncover clues before a killer catches up with her.
Pederson’s adventure continues in Dark of Night (Thomas Nelson, January 2023) and concludes in Break of Day (Thomas Nelson, July 2023). Coble’s suspenseful romantic trilogy doesn’t disappoint, with familiar faces and fresh mysteries to unravel as Pederson tries to secure her own happy ending.
If the Annie Pederson trilogy is your first experience with Colleen Coble’s fictional Michigan town, you should definitely go back to the beginning and read the seven-book Rock Harbor series. While Rock Harbor isn’t real, many places mentioned in the books are and Coble’s descriptions of the rugged wilderness are breath-taking.
And, if romantic suspense is your kind of adventure, Coble has several other fantastic series you can devour, including mysteries set in Hawaii, Maine, North Carolina’s Outer Banks and the Gulf Coast of Alabama. Any series will show why Coble is the queen of romantic mysteries that see justice prevail.
Coble’s books also led me to discover other authors to love, including DiAnn Mills and Lynette Eason, giving me many more adventures to have this summer and beyond while staying cool at home.
