New from your favorite mystery / spy author …

A Diet to Die For

By Sarah Steding
Pocket Books. $7.99 (Rating: Very Good)

One of the Yummy Channel’s brightest stars and biggest divas, Bess Brantwood loves to create drama on and off the set. Event planner Jen Stevens knows that the culinary star’s cupcakes are simply to die for, but now they are apparently good enough to kill for too.

After Brantwood’s corpse is discovered in a dumpster, Jen is determined to discover who iced the cupcake queen. Enlisting the help of a food-blogger named Gabby and Elizabeth, a lively life coach, Jen begins gobbling up all the clues she can find and it looks like more than her waistline will be in jeopardy.

Mysteries fans and unabashed foodies will devour this mystery. Besides serving up a rollicking good suspense yarn, Sarah Steding shares five recipes that you can quickly whip up so you don’t have to spend too much time in the kitchen when you can be reading “A Diet to Die For”!

The English Girl

By Daniel Silva
Harper. $27.99 (Rating: Excellent)

You have seven days, or the girl dies,” reads the note that sets this story in motion. The “girl” in question is Madeline Hart, a brilliant and beautiful young woman who works at the headquarters of Britain’s governing party and also happens to be the British prime minister’s mistress.

Not wanting to request an official investigation of the situation because of its very sensitive nature, Prime Minister Jonathan Lancaster enlists Gabriel Allon to discreetly sort the situation out and save the woman’s life before she is executed. An accomplished art restorer and occasional assassin and spy, Allon has sworn off accepting such assignments but, of course, because of some special circumstances he accepts this challenge.

Calling upon a former character in this series, Christopher Keller, a man who was once hired to kill him, Allon begins a race against time to find Madeline. His quest begins in Corsica and then heads back to 10 Downing Street before the intrepid spy focuses on Moscow.

As one would expect in a novel of this nature, there’s more going on here than a simple kidnapping and extortion attempt. Think of the importance of Russia’s large reserves of oil and natural gas and you’ll be holding the right end of the stick!

There are plenty of action and surprises in this 16th novel by Daniel Silva. As you’ll discover, the novel’s title has a double meaning, but I don’t wish to spoil the ending so I’ll let you discover what it is.

Discussing the process of writing “The English Girl,” Silva said he had a good feeling about the novel and enjoyed writing it. “I was sorry to see it end,” he said, which explains why the story is a little longer than his usual novels.

Hopefully, the reader also will share the author’s sentiments and be sorry to see this thriller end. I know I was!

The Abomination
Book One of the Carnivia Trilogy

By Jonathan Holt
Harper. $25.99 (Rating: Very Good)

If you like an atmospheric setting and a complicated but riveting plot, this is a thriller you’ll certainly want to put at the top of your “must read” list. The first book in the Carnivia Trilogy, this multi-layered thriller is set in two Venices, the modern city of today that attracts thousands of tourists and its virtual counterpart.

When a slain woman wearing the robes of a priest washes up in the city’s Grand Canal, the desecration becomes known as The Abomination. Recently promoted, Captain Katherina (Kat) Tapo of the Carabinieri is working her first murder case and she is soon embroiled in an investigation as twisting as Venice’s backstreets.

The trail will take Kate to a crumbling asylum on a deserted island and to the complex of American military bases ringing the medieval city. Giving the story a decided modern twist, Kate discovers that her case is also linked to the simulated and secretive world of Carnivia.com where secrets are shared and anonymity guaranteed.

With a set of confusing leads seemingly going nowhere, Kate’s frustration mounts and then, inexplicitly, the investigation is suddenly shut down. Sensing a conspiracy that reaches high into both the church and government, Kate isn’t about to give up now but, for her own well-being, perhaps she should!

You’ll want to get in on the ground floor of this gripping action trilogy, so make sure to get a copy of “The Abomination” and read it this summer. It promises to be a memorable, wild and very entertaining ride if you enjoy this type of adventure reading material.

Unseen

By Karin Slaughter
Delacorte Press. $27 (Rating: Good)

Their relationship has become a little strained of late and the fact that Will Trent, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent, and Dr. Sara Linton, his ladylove, are now on a collision course probably won’t help matters.

Will has gone undercover to get in with a lowlife drug dealer in Macon, George. At the same time, Sara has been drawn to the city by the death of her stepson who was gunned down in his own home. Not the first time violence has struck her family in this manner, Sara blames Jared’s wife, a detective, for what has happened.

Without ever really realizing it, Sara is involved with the same situation that has brought Will to town and that is going to lead to some serious problems as danger swirls around both of these individuals.

Karin Slaughter has been called one of the best crime writers in the country and this thriller with its twists and shocking revelations is up to her usual standards. This story of shifting allegiances and conspiracy not only blurs the lines between good and evil but it also makes for a captivating read.

 

The Last Whisper in the Dark

By Tom Piccirilli
Bantam. $26 (Rating: Good)

The Rand family has quite a reputation as readers of Tom Piccirilli’s fiction already know. There’s never a dull moment in this clan of professional criminals and in this follow up to “The Last Kind Words” Terry Rand, an accomplished thief, attempts to do a good deed for the woman he once loved and then lost.

Kimmy’s husband and Terry’s old buddy, Chub, has gone missing after he was involved in a heist that went bad. As he tries to discover Chub’s whereabouts, Terry learns that his old girlfriend’s hubby was involved with a gang of very serious heavy hitters and he may have gotten in way over his head.

While trying to find out what happened to his friend, Terry encounters some interesting diversions. There’s the sexy divorcee who takes him for a walk on the wild side, an offer to get involved in a horror movie production and an uncle who enlists Terry to rip off his partner.

All Terry really wants to do is find Chub and reunite him with his wife and child, but family and friends will make this task far more complicated and dangerous than it need be.

If you don’t mind that all the key characters in this novel operate on the wrong side of the law, you’ll probably find this an enticing novel. Tom Piccirilli has a unique approach to crime fiction that has garnered him a couple of International Thriller Writers’ Awards and a slew of nominations for awards like the Edgar and Macavity.