Murder, they wrote, just in time for summertime reading

Summertime and the reading is easy. Summer is the time to put the 1,000-page classics and political biographies on the shelf at least until the leaves fall and turn your reading to the much more titillating and exciting mystery and thriller genres to get your kicks. 

Here are a few of my no-guilt reading suggestions for summertime relaxation. 

Always at the top of my list is anything that acclaimed writer James Lee Burke puts on paper. His new book, “Every Cloak Rolled in Blood,” will not let you down despite the author’s detour to the supernatural. I know some readers will be disappointed that Burke takes a side trip leaving behind his gruff gossamer New Iberia cop Dave Robicheaux to reflect on his own mortality. Burke carries this off seamlessly through the eyes of a fictional ex-cop who has made a bundle as a fiction writer and who has a home base in one of Burke’s favorite locales: Montana. 

The book is filled with right-wing crazies, addled drug dealers and a Civil War Union officer who has returned to the firmament and takes its direction from contemporary politics and society. The book’s protagonist, Aaron Holland Broussard, is still grieving the recent loss of his daughter, who has not moved on fully to the afterlife and is hanging around making unannounced visits to her father as he confronts some really bad guys and women. In many ways the book is Burke’s way of saying goodbye to his daughter Pamala, who died nearly two years ago. One thing that hasn’t changed is Burke continues to write some of the most remarkable and lyrical prose in modern literature regardless of genre.  

Summer readers will also find that several others of their go-to favorite writers have new books out in time for late-night reading, including John Sandford’s “The Investigator,” Harlan Coben’s “The Match,” Chris Pavone’s “Two Nights in Lisbon” and David Baldacci’s “Dream Town.”  

Let’s dig a bit into each of those titles.   

Sandford’s newest book features the first appearance of Letty Davenport, the adopted daughter of one of his main characters, investigator Lucas Davenport, who like her father has a penchant for violence and intuitive investigation. Letty, who is working for a U.S. senator, is tasked with tracking some mysterious oil thefts, which are soon traced to a militia group with dubious and scary goals. The youthful Letty gives some of Sandford’s popular characters a run for their money and gives Sandford a character who is more contemporary for younger readers. 

Coben has once again gone to his tried and successful literary technique of a lost boy who emerges from the woods with no history and who as an adult track down his cloudy past. His stalwart character, known as “Wilde,” brings some of his feral survival experiences to this exciting thriller. Coben’s techniques never get old. 

Pavone fans have come to expect misdirection, misdirection and more misdirection from this thriller writer who loves international drama entangled with great characters and long-held secrets and indiscretions. Newly married Ariel Pryce accompanies her husband, John, on a business trip to Lisbon. Their idea of mixing business with pleasure soon goes awry when John is kidnapped and Ariel is given three days to come up with $3 million in ransom. For a thriller, the plot seems simple and straightforward at first. But it heads in directions that go back in time and are a lot more nefarious than readers will expect, involving a rapist, blackmail and bad deeds. 

Baldacci’s “Dream Town” takes us back to 1953 and the heady day of Hollywood starlets and gumshoes. Private detective Aloysius Archer has come to Los Angeles to help celebrate the New Year with an old friend who is on the fringes of stardom. The celebration is derailed when a screenwriter-friend disappears and Archer discovers a body in her ocean-front bungalow. The book is aglow with characters like Frank Sinatra, Groucho Marx and a bevy of starlets who make walk-on appearances in this novel that pays tribute to the great genre writers Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald. The book has enough action and flip-flops to keep you reading throughout a rainy day at the cottage. 

If you are looking for another throwback mystery intertwined with an alternative history, the recently published “Beat the Devils,” by Josh Weiss, will keep you entertained through a long night.  

It’s 1958 and Joe McCarthy is the new president. Hunting Communists has become America’s newest sport and the long reach of the staunch anti-Communist McCarthy has the ability to ruin lives and careers. Enter a couple of detectives, including one who is a Holocaust survivor, who are sent to investigate a double homicide.  

Since the unlikely victims are film producer John Huston and journalist Walter Cronkite, this is where the fun begins. McCarthy’s investigators chalk it up to a “better dead than red” scenario and want to move on, but the cops see it in another way, which leads to an enjoyable and creative read.