Book lovers are in for a great reading summer.  From best-selling authors such as James Patterson and Stephen King to up-and-coming authors such as Allison Pearson and James McLaughlin, there are stacks of possibilities.  I recommend picking up the newest editions of BookPage to find out the top contenders for readers.

 

Stephen King provides another one of his classic horror novels with “The Outsider.”  An eleven-year-old is brutally murdered and the police are sure they have the guilty party, but then he turns up with a perfect alibi with a video and fingerprints supporting it.  Can a man be in two places at the same time?  Trust Stephen King to keep you turning pages to find out.

 

Allison Pearson writes a totally different book with a different sort of horror premise, menopause and teenagers.  In “How Hard Can It Be?” a wife and mother is dealing with way too much; her husband is in the midst of a mid-life crisis, she takes a new job where age discrimination is her norm, and her two teenagers are taking advantage of her going and coming.  “Wise and sparkling” are the adjectives, BookPage uses to describe this new title.

 

Fredrik Backman will delight fans with this sequel to his bestselling “Beartown.”  “Us Against You” returns to a town in crisis.  Its major factory may close and even more horrible, the hockey club is on the verge of bankruptcy and disintegration.  Readers of “Beartown” will know what that means.  As the team and the town struggle to deal with all the trauma, Backman shows both the good and the bad of a small town overly fixated on one thing.

 

President Bill Clinton gives best-selling author, James Patterson, an inside view of security in the White House in their thriller, “The President is Missing.”  Focused on a cyberterrorist plot, President John Duncan is also the target of a lethal assassin.  Using Clinton’s White House experience and Patterson’s writing skills, they have turned out a first-class thriller that should also act as a warning to the dangers our country faces from cyberterrorism.

 

Other new novels In June are: “Bearskin” by James A. McLaughlin, “Kudos” by Rachel Cusk, “Southernmost” by Silas House, “The Book of Essie” by Meghan MacLean Weir, “Little Big Love” by Katy Regan, “The Glitch” by Elizabeth Cohen, “Florida” by Lauren Groff, “High Season” by Judy Blundell, “The Death of Mrs. Westaway” by Ruth Ware, “Too Wilde to Wed” by Eloisa James, “The Woman in the Woods” by John Connolly, “Star of the North” by D. B. John, “Jar of Hearts” by Jennifer Hillier and “The Italian Party” by Christina Lynch.