Amid dreary spring weather, thriller novels offer literary adventures

When spring showers keep us inside, there’s no reason we can’t still have some adventure in our lives. Here are several crime and thriller books to keep you engaged on rainy days.

“Strangers in Time,” by David Baldacci, takes readers to World War II-era London, where three strangers meet up to survive not only the Blitz but a mysterious stranger who’s out to get them. The new book proves that Baldacci is at the top of his game.

Michael Connelly, one of the best crime writers in the business, has had a knack for creating new protagonists in his long career, including Mickey Haller (the “Lincoln Lawyer”), Renée Ballard, Harry Bosch and Bosch’s daughter, Maddie. In his new book, “Nightshade,” releasing May 20, a California sheriff’s detective is reassigned from Los Angeles County to Catalina Island following a political screwup.

C.J. Box just keeps turning out thrillers about his Wyoming game warden, Joe Pickett. His most recent installment, “Battle Mountain,” takes Pickett to the Sierra Madre mountains, where the governor’s son has disappeared. The adventure also sees Pickett reconnect with the falconer woodsman Nate Romanowski, who once again has retreated to the wilderness with his .454-caliber Casull handgun.

James Patterson puts out so many thrillers and mystery novels that it’s difficult to keep track, but one of his better ones of late is called “The Writer.” Co-written by J.D. Barker, it follows a New York Police Department detective who finds himself embroiled in a murder mystery, with the most likely suspect being a famous mystery writer.

Carl Hiaasen, a former reporter, keeps his reputation for producing humorous novels intact with his upcoming comedic thriller, “Fever Beach.” The book is about a former Proud Boy who has been kicked out of the white supremacist boys’ club for mistakenly defacing a sculpture of a Confederate general rather than one of Ulysses S. Grant. It’s laugh-out-loud funny.

“Murder on the Red River,” by Marcie Rendon, is one of several enjoyable mysteries set on Native American reservations. This one follows Renee “Cash” Blackbear, a 19-year-old psychic who helps solve murders.

Another highly sought-after reservation mystery is “Mask of the Deer Woman,” by Laurie L. Dove. After her daughter’s death, former Chicago cop Carrie Starr returns to her family’s ancestral reservation to serve as the new marshal and is immediately faced with a series of unsolved murders of Native women.

“Middletide,” by Sarah Crouch, will have you guessing from beginning to end about who murdered a young woman doctor. Told through alternating flashbacks, the town’s prodigal son, a 30-something failed writer, becomes the chief suspect, and with good reason: He was dating the doctor at the time of her death, and she was found on his property. The writer, who’s slowly rebuilding his confidence, begins an effort to reconnect with an old girlfriend from his teen years, a Native American from a nearby reservation. This book is a tough one to figure out as it comes to a startling conclusion.

Finally, Harlan Coben’s new book, “Nobody’s Fool,” is an atmospheric mystery that takes readers on a heck of a ride, beginning with the murder of a young woman some 20 years earlier. Readers then jump forward to modern-day New York, where the woman’s previous boyfriend runs into a woman who looks eerily similar to her while teaching a crime class. This book will grab you from the beginning and won’t let you go. As always with Coben, his unusual plot will get your blood pumping.