Summer Reading

Mystery, action, romance await

McClatchy-Tribune Newspapers

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You could squander your summer plowing through a pile of trashy paperbacks. No one would even question your choice.

However, if summer brings you more than your usual quotient of time to relax, why not delve into books with a little more meat on their bones? Here are some of summer fiction’s best bets.

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• "In the Kitchen," by Monica Ali; Scribner; $26.99: A chef has almost landed the backers needed to open a restaurant, but his world begins to fall apart when a body is found in the basement of the luxury hotel where he works.

• "The Lace Makers of Glenmara," by Heather Barbieri; Harper; $24.99; June 23: Women in an Irish village help each other as they bond over creating a line of fashion. Expect fresh starts, romance, intrigue, sudden tragedy and redemption.

• "Sanctuary," by Ken Bruen; Minotaur; $24.95; June 23: The seventh Jack Taylor adventure finds our Irish hero on the trail of a killer who taunts him with messages.

• "Rain Gods," by James Lee Burke; Simon & Schuster; $25.99; July 14: Burke is best-known for his series starring Cajun police detective Dave Robicheaux. Here, he introduces Hackberry Holland, a Texas sheriff and cousin of another Burke character, attorney Billy Bob Holland.

• "The Lovers," by John Connolly; Atria; $26: The Irish supernatural-thriller writer adds an eighth book to his Charlie Parker series. Parker investigates the long-ago suicide of his father while two "undying beings" are intent on killing the sleuth. Noir at its best.

• "South of Broad," by Pat Conroy; Doubleday; $29.95; Aug. 11: After a 14-year absence, Conroy ("Beach Music") is back with a much-heralded story that tracks the lives of seven disparate friends, from high school into adulthood.

• "The Strain," by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan; William Morrow, $26.99: Film director Del Toro ("Pan's Labyrinth") and novelist Hogan ("The Killing Moon") team for the first in a horror trilogy that pits humankind against vampires.

• "Flint and Silver," by John Drake; Simon & Schuster; $24.95: This "prequel to 'Treasure Island' " is just the thing for readers with a bit of pirate in their own souls.

• "Free Agent," by Jeremy Duns; Viking; $25.95: British intelligence operative Paul Dark is accused of being a double agent. With MI5 and the KGB on his trail, he must find the real defector before his own untimely demise.

• "Dust and Shadow," by Lyndsay Faye; Simon & Schuster; $25: Faye writes as Dr. John H. Watson, who chronicles Sherlock Holmes' hunt for Jack the Ripper.

• "Twenties Girl," by Sophie Kinsella; Dial; $26; July 17: Kinsella, author of the "Shopaholic" series, is back in form with a fantasy about the friendship between two women.

• "Relentless," by Dean Koontz; Bantam; $27: Cullen Greenwich gets shining reviews -- except for a malicious one by reclusive reviewer Shearman Waxx. The author should never have confronted the critic -- who turns out to be a sociopath on the warpath.