The latest wave of suspenseful novels brings thrills and chills to your summer reading list. These five stories of mystery, intrigue and horrific happenings are perfect for lazy days at the beach or hot summer nights.

What begins as a fun, relaxing getaway at a New Hampshire lake for 7-year-old Wen and her dads, Andrew and Eric, turns into a terrifying ordeal of survival in The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay. When the trio is visited at their cabin by four mysterious strangers—Leonard, Adriane, Redmond and Sabrina—their familial bond is put to the ultimate test. "We are not going to kill you, Wen, and we are not going to kill your parents," promises Leonard, the smooth-talking leader of the visitors and an alleged bartender from the Chicago area. He goes on to explain: "The four of us are here to prevent the apocalypse." But to ensure that happens, Wen, Andrew or Eric has to die, and they must choose among themselves who it will be. The unusual deal thrusts the family into a tense moral dilemma that tests the limits of their love. Tremblay won the 2015 Bram Stoker Award for A Head Full of Ghosts and may be on his way to a repeat with the chillingly good The Cabin at the End of the World.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read a Q&A with Tremblay for The Cabin at the End of the World.

DON'T DIG TOO DEEP
What secrets do a mother and her son keep, and how far are they willing to go to protect those secrets? These are just two of the questions facing Lydia Fitzsimons and her son, Laurence, in Lying in Wait, set in 1980s Dublin. Lydia explains on page one that her husband, Andrew, "did not mean to kill Annie Doyle, but the lying tramp deserved it." It's off to the races from there. Within short order, 18-year-old Laurence—who recently had sex for the first time with his girlfriend and endures bullying every day at school because of his excess weight—discovers Annie's body buried in their backyard. As Laurence wrestles to learn what happened and how his parents could have done such a thing, Lydia goes about her business as if nothing happened. Elsewhere, Annie's twin sister, Karen, begins a meticulous investigation into her sister's disappearance. Events cascade toward a collision as the trio's stories unwind in alternating chapters. Author Liz Nugent, whose debut novel, Unraveling Oliver, earned high critical praise, has upped her game here with a darkly twisted tale of murder, lies and secrets best left buried.

AND THE CREDITS ROLL
Sibling rivalry and Hollywood obsessions collide in young adult novelist Jennifer Wolfe's adult fiction debut, Watch the Girls. From the start of her acting career, Liv Hendricks (formerly known as child actress Olivia Hill) has been pushed at every turn by her domineering mother, Desiree, and has lived in the shadows of her successful sisters, Miranda and Gemma. Then Liv's career reaches a dead end when Miranda goes missing. Years later, after a bout of alcoholism and being ousted from a reality series, Liv decides to reignite her career by filming her own detective web series. Her first case: find the missing daughter of auteur Jonas Kron, whose horror films have earned him a cult-like following. Liv follows the trail to Kron's California hometown of Stone's Throw, where fans are converging for an annual film festival in Kron's honor. With bitter townsfolk, a none-too-helpful sheriff and Kron's crazed followers to contend with, Liv discovers that finding the truth will be a challenge. When Liv's younger sister Gemma also goes missing in the haunted woods of Stone's Throw, the stakes intensify. Wolfe incorporates text message exchanges into the more traditional first-person narrative to create a novel that reflects today's social media-obsessed world. Fast-paced and fraught with suspense, Watch the Girls unravels like a perfect summer-night movie.

WELCOME BACK TO CAMP
Riley Sager, who made a splash with last year's Final Girls, returns this summer with another tense thriller. Whereas Final Girls followed the plight of the sole survivor of a horror movie-like massacre whose past comes back to haunt her, The Last Time I Lied follows Emma Davis in her quest to find her friends, who disappeared in the dead of night during a camp outing 15 years ago. Emma, who has become an accomplished New York artist, is invited to return to Camp Nightingale as an art instructor and sees it as an opportunity to learn what really happened that night. The past has a way of repeating itself, and it isn't long before Emma suspects she and her new camp companions may be in as much danger as her lost friends. The tension ratchets up with each chapter, leading to a suspenseful showdown. Like Final Girls, The Last Time I Lied has all the earmarks of a campy Friday the 13th-type horror flick, but Sager elevates the story with a strong lead character and a grounded, realistic threat.

MONEY WON'T SAVE YOU
In case the previous thrill-a-minute reads are a little too intense, or readers are looking for a more intellectually stirring, sophisticated mystery, The Banker's Wife by Cristina Alger may fit the bill. A former financial analyst and corporate attorney, Alger brings her real-world experiences to bear in this novel about the world of global finance, insider trading and corruption. After Swiss banker Matthew Lerner's private plane bound for Geneva crashes in the Alps during a storm, his wife, Annabel, is left to piece together her life and, perhaps more importantly, the mysteries he leaves behind—namely, an encrypted laptop and a client who doesn't want Matthew's secrets getting out. At the same time, journalist Marina Tourneau is enlisted to obtain a USB drive containing highly sensitive materials from a Luxembourg courier that may reveal the whereabouts of long-thought deceased financial schemer Morty Reiss. Along the way, Marina discovers a financial web with far-reaching implications, inevitably bringing the two storylines together. With global settings, covert government agencies and intricate plotting, The Banker's Wife reads like an old-fashioned international espionage thriller. But Alger's talents keep the plot digestible for readers while her female protagonists provide strong, smart alternatives to this typically male-dominated genre.

 

This article was originally published in the July 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Wonder what it's like to have a mother with no conscience? In Nugent's (Unraveling Oliver) chilling tale of the sociopathic mind, that's what guilt-laden son Laurence Fitzsimons lives with every day; he just doesn't know it yet. Dublin matriarch Lydia leads a privileged life; the few things not given to her, she takes without remorse. She pulls the strings of her unwitting family members, convincing husband Andrew to risk everything to provide her with the one thing she doesn't possess. Unfortunately, her plan doesn't include the death of prostitute Annie Doyle. But Annie deserved it, and Lydia finds the perfect place to hide the body. Five years later, Laurence befriends Annie's father and is eventually drawn to her sister, Karen, and Lydia devises a plan to avoid being exposed by bringing Annie back to life. As Laurence uncovers his mother's lifelong secrets, Lydia is challenged to maintain control of the one person in her life she still desperately needs. VERDICT Readers who love sinister psychological thrillers will tear through these pages to discover how far Lydia will go to keep her son at home, and what accidents will befall those who cross her. [See Prepub Alert, 12/11/17.]—K.L. Romo, Duncanville, TX

Irish author Nugent follows her well-received debut, 2017's Unraveling Oliver, with a devastating psychological thriller. Late on the night of Nov. 14, 1980, judge Andrew Fitzsimons and his wife, Lydia, rendezvous with troubled 22-year-old prostitute Annie Doyle on a deserted Dublin beach for unspecified reasons. When Annie threatens blackmail, the couple kill her. Lydia orders Andrew to bury the body in their garden and forget it, but then Annie's family reports her missing and a media circus ensues. Andrew panics, arousing the suspicion of the couple's 17-year-old son, Laurence, who becomes obsessed with Annie. Also fixated is the victim's 19-year-old sister, Karen, who remains dedicated to finding Annie even after the police lose interest. This tragic tale unfolds over five years from the perspectives of Lydia, Laurence, and Karen, allowing Nugent to develop character while exploring the crime's ripple effect. Annie's connection to the Fitzsimonses is the mystery on which the plot hangs, but Lydia is the most intriguing puzzle; equal parts victim and villain, she simultaneously inspires pity, outrage, and horror. The result is an exquisitely uncomfortable, utterly captivating reading experience. Agent: Marianne Gunn O'Connor, Marianne Gunn O'Connor Creative Agency. (June)