Review

When Emlyn was a little girl and her father left, she dove into the dictionary, studying and learning words as a coping mechanism. Resilience and words are still at the heart of her life; after meeting a person, she works to find the single word that best embodies them. All the while, she’s pushing through a lonely life as a wilderness expert, one who repels the people around her since she broke up with Tyler, the love of her life, and lost her best friend, Janessa, to a bitter argument. Now her worlds are colliding as Tyler needs her help: both Janessa, who now works for Tyler, and Janessa’s renowned outdoorsman partner are missing. Tyler and Emlyn must face the Idaho wilderness to find the couple, a journey that becomes more treacherous as they encounter an unexpected and deadly situation. Social media fame meets the elements here as the past and future collide and form unexpected eddies. Who can be trusted, whether past goodness or evil can change, and how to accept love are dilemmas readers will enjoy facing with Emlyn, a downtrodden character whose troubles are relatable and whose grit when it matters is satisfying. Podcasts and other social media are having a moment in crime fiction now, and wilderness fiction is also big. Here’s a fast, suspenseful tale that combines both and even throws in some romance.

The eagerly awaited new thriller from the I Am Pilgrim author, Terry Hayes, delivers an immersive experience. At 800 pages, it takes a slow-build approach and provides a meandering layout to the storytelling, creating an almost memoir-like atmosphere. An alphabet-agency asset learns of an upcoming attack that has shattering implications. Kane, a spy in the Denied Access Area (also known as ultra-top-secret operations), is assigned to get the information and stop the attack. All he knows is that it will be spectacular and will happen over Thanksgiving week. The assignment goes in unexpected ways, and Kane will put at risk the people he cares about, along with dealing with mental and physical scars, to achieve his objective. The finale combines The Terminator and American Graffiti. Hayes has created an unconventional CIA thriller, but all of the elements work, and readers who loved I Am Pilgrim will find that this one was worth the wait. Don’t let the length intimidate you from reading this book. Hayes has another guaranteed bestseller on his hands.

When 19-year-old Smilla Holst, a member of a wealthy local family, and her ex-boyfriend Malik Mansour disappear without a trace, Detective Inspector Leonore Asker expects to lead the investigation as section head at Malmö’s Serious Crime Command. But she is unexpectedly replaced by Jonas Hellman, a rival detective from Stockholm with a personal score to settle, and relegated to the police headquarters’s basement as temporary chief of the Resources Unit. In this obscure department, nicknamed the Department of Lost Souls, odd, cold cases and odd employees linger in obscurity. But as Asker quickly discovers, her new colleagues display unusual talents that come in handy when she probes a strange case involving a model-railway club and the ominous placement of miniature figurines that represent missing people, including the latest two victims. While Hellman pursues a kidnapping angle, Asker becomes convinced that her Resources Unit predecessor, now hospitalized in a coma, was on the trail of a serial killer who preys on urban explorers who wander into abandoned structures like factories and underground military facilities. The best-selling author of “The Game” trilogy launches an exciting, atmospheric crime series that introduces an appealingly smart and tough female protagonist with a troubled backstory in the vein of Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander, although not quite as edgy. The twisty, spine-tingling mystery that unfolds is creepy and sinister, laced with a touch of dark Scandinavian folklore.