Books Update: Thrill Rides

Fast-paced fiction assessed by an all-star list of reviewers

View in browser|nytimes.com Continue reading the main story July 24, 2020 The Heads of State Dear Reader, “Thrilling” isn’t a word one hears a lot these days, at least in response to the alternating languor and terror of summer under coronavirus lockdown. But let’s go with “thrilling” between book covers for a moment, shall we? Especially when we have genuinely good, fast-paced fiction like “Blacktop Wasteland,” by S.A. Cosby, “Afterland,” by Lauren Beukes, and “True Story,” by Kate Reed Petty, ready to be torn through on a Sunday afternoon. We’ve got the definitive reader’s guide to that coolest of cool-sounding genres, Scandinavian Noir. And we have an all-star list of reviewers in this issue, many of them thriller authors themselves: Stephen King, Megan Abbott, Flynn Berry, Mary Kubica, Adam Sternbergh, Deborah Blum, Justin Cronin, Lauren Wilkinson, Daniel Nieh, and more. And we’ve got a great look back at radical Black thrillers of the 1960s. This issue is largely the brainchild of deputy editor Tina Jordan, who edits our Horror, Crime and Thrillers columns, among many other things. This week, she adds to the mix with her own review of books about malevolent houses, something we may know a bit too well in this time of quarantine. Please stay in touch and let us know what you think — whether it’s about this newsletter, our reviews, our podcast, our literary calendar, our Instagram or what you’re reading. We read and ponder all of it. I even write back, albeit belatedly. You can email me at books@nytimes.com. Pamela Paul Editor of The New York Times Book Review @PamelaPaulNYT Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT Like this email? Sign-up here or forward it to your friends. Have a suggestion or two on how we can improve it? Let us know at newsletters@nytimes.com. Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. THE BOOK REVIEW PODCAST The Yearning for the Unexplained Colin Dickey talks about “The Unidentified,” and Miles Harvey discusses “The King of Confidence.” FICTION Where Evil Lurks The latest crop of horror fiction includes “Malorie” — Josh Malerman’s sequel to “Bird Box” — as well as “Mexican Gothic,” “Wonderland” and more. By Danielle Trussoni fiction A Spellbinding Debut Leaps Across Genres to Recreate the Confusion of Trauma Kate Reed Petty’s “True Story,” focuses on the rippling, decades-long impact from a high school sexual assault. By Megan Abbott fiction Bring Your Flamethrower. In This Novel, Art Feels the Burn. In “Alice Knott,” Blake Butler tells a twisting story in which famous paintings are destroyed and a woman wrestles with the elusive memories of her past. By Lauren Wilkinson fiction A Roaring, Full-Throttle Thriller, Crackling With Tension and Charm In S.A. Cosby’s “Blacktop Wasteland,” which is laced with nonstop action, a small-town mechanic returns to crime one last time. By Daniel Nieh fiction Stephen King on Lauren Beukes’s ‘Splendid’ New Thriller “Afterland,” a neo-noir, coast-to-coast chase novel, takes place after a pandemic has wiped out 99 percent of the men in the world. By Stephen King fiction What if You Didn’t Know Who You Were? What if No One Did? In Robin Wasserman’s new novel, “Mother Daughter Widow Wife,” a young woman found on a city bus has no identification, no memory, and no one looking for her. By Chandler Baker An Elegant, Ice-Cold Thriller Served Straight Up With a Twist In Stan Parish’s new novel, “Love and Theft,” a Vegas jewel heist goes off perfectly. Or does it? By Adam Sternbergh fiction In ‘The Golden Cage,’ a Kept Woman Grabs the Keys to the Kingdom Camilla Lackberg shows how stifled ambition never really goes away. It just bides its time. By Mary Kubica Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT fiction The Lies That Bind, and Break, a Friendship In Araminta Hall’s “Imperfect Women,” three old pals find they don’t know one another quite as well as they once did. And then one of them is murdered. By Sarah Lyall fiction A Zombie Novel for Our Virus-Stricken Times Paul Tremblay’s “Survivor Song” follows a pregnant woman navigating an anarchic Massachusetts in the midst of an epidemic. By Justin Cronin Does ‘His & Hers’ Mean Cozy Domestic Bliss? Not in This Book Alice Feeney’s detective story shows just how small the world is for people who would rather not find each other. By Megan Goldin the shortlist Novels of Suspense and Isolation Riley Sager’s “Home Before Dark,” Anna Downes’s “No Safe Place” and Eve Chase’s “The Daughters of Foxcote Manor.” By Tina Jordan NONFICTION nonfiction Meet the Man Who Spun the Media, Scammed Followers and Named Himself King Miles Harvey’s “The King of Confidence” recounts the fascinating history of the 19th-century grifter who ruled over a breakaway religious colony. By Chris Jennings nonfiction Remembering the Time Meat Fell From the Sky In “The Unidentified,” Colin Dickey looks at phenomena that science seems unable to explain, and at the cults that have developed around them. By Deborah Blum CHILDREN’S BOOKS children’s books When a Bookish Girl’s Imagination (Truly!) Takes Flight With nods to Narnia, Hogwarts, E. Nesbit and Frances Hodgson Burnett, Hilary McKay’s “The Time of Green Magic” is a love letter to the literary canon. By Sarah Harrison Smith Learning to Heal, With a Little Fur Machine In Joan Bauer’s “Raising Lumie,” training a future guide dog helps a newly orphaned girl navigate loss. By Elisabeth Egan Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT FEATURES by the book The Last Book That Made Aimee Bender Laugh Out Loud “Especially the most amazingly weird and right sentence with ‘lasagna’ in it.” essay These Radical Black Thrillers Fantasized About Dismantling the Police In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a series of novels by Black authors married revolutionary politics with pulp fiction. Their plotlines remain distressingly relevant. By Adam Langer A Guide to Nordic Noir Want to read something cold and dark on a hot summer day? We’ve got recommendations. By Tina Jordan and Marilyn Stasio essay The Horror Novel Lurking in Your Busy Online Life The genre relies on solitude and isolation to generate fear. But virtual connection is an illusion that cyber-horror writers are beginning to exploit. By Margot Harrison the literati H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw Fight Over Socialism In his latest installment of The Literati, Edward Sorel illustrates the epic battle for control of the Fabian Society, an elite group of socialists, at the turn of the last century. By Edward Sorel New & Noteworthy, From Free Speech to True Crime A selection of recent titles of interest; plus, a peek at what our colleagues around the newsroom are reading. On the ‘Mitchellverse’ and Other Letters to the Editor Readers respond to recent issues of the Sunday Book Review. editors’ choice 10 New Books We Recommend This Week Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times. inside the list Jacob Soboroff Saw Kids in Cages. Then He Started Talking — and Writing. In his new best seller about the practice of family separation, the NBC News correspondent does not mince words. By Elisabeth Egan New in Paperback: ‘The Memory Police’ and ‘Fleishman Is in Trouble’ Six new paperbacks to check out this week. By Jennifer Krauss Best Sellers Combined Print & E-Book Fiction Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction Hardcover Fiction Hardcover Nonfiction Paperback Trade Fiction Paperback Nonfiction All Lists New International Books Illustration by Thoka Maer Your sneak preview of books coming out in 2020 from around the world. Get globetrotting. Continue reading the main story Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for Books from The New York Times. To stop receiving these emails, unsubscribe or manage your email preferences. Subscribe to The TimesGet The New York Times app Connect with us on: Change Your EmailPrivacy PolicyContact UsCalifornia Notices The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018