29. The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond

When photographer Abby Mason stops on a foggy San Francisco beach to photograph a dead seal pup, she takes her eyes off of her fiancé’s six-year-old daughter, Emma. Within a matter of seconds, Emma disappears into the thick fog. It is a moment that Abby will relive every day over the next year, when she and Jake, her fiancé, try to find Emma. As months go by, and thousands of flyers are distributed and numerous pleas on television go unanswered, Jake becomes convinced his daughter is dead – especially after one of Emma’s shoes is found. Abby refuses to believe that the little girl she has come to love as her own is dead, and instead keeps remembering a couple in a yellow van parked by the beach that morning. Her memories lead her to Costa Rica, and an ultimately shocking conclusion.

This book has generated some strong buzz for summer reading picks and has had strong reviews in publishing journals. While I did not find it totally believable, the book has a strong pacing to it that draws readers in from the first page, and you genuinely want to know if Abby will ever find out what happens that day. While it deals with loss and how parents grieve, it is also a novel of hope and strongly explores the role of memory in our lives. For readers of Jaquelyn Mitchard (especially The Deep End of the Ocean) and Jodi Picoult.

28. Pig Island by Mo Hayder

Pig Island is a remote island on western Scotland that is home to the Psychogenic Healing Ministries. Considered a cult, the thirty remaining group members live in isolation on the desolate island, with locals believing they are Satanists. When a video is released in British news of a creature on the island walking upright with a tail, hoax investigator Joe Oakes is intrigued. Joe also wants access to the island because the PHM group was led by Malachi Dove, a faith healer Joe wrote a scathing review of years ago under a pseudonym. When the 30 members invite Joe to the island to write an article about them, Joe soon realizes that horrific events are taking place on the island, including ones that will include his own family.

The remote Scottish island setting works perfectly in this horror book to build atmosphere and suspense. Hayder is known as a very edgy British writer who continually pushes readers’ limits, and this new book is no different. She is the author of two very good British detective novels, Birdman, and The Treatment, but make no mistake; Pig Island is more horror than mystery. Full of suspense, fear, and a great twist ending, this book will keep readers reading well into the night.

27. The Woods by Harlan Coben

Twenty years ago, Paul Copeland was working at a summer camp when his sister and three others were murdered by the Summer Slasher at the camp. Two of the bodies were found, but two were not, including Camille Copeland. Now in his late thirties, Paul “Cope” Copeland, is working as an Essex County prosecutor when two cops ask him to identify a body. Paul is pretty sure it is Gil Perez, one of the campers who were supposed to have died that night in the woods. Why was the body found carrying Paul’s address? Why do Gil’s parents insist it isn’t their son when the body has a distinct scar that matches one Gil had? When Paul reunites with his former camp girlfriend, Lucy Gold, the two embark on a hunt to find out what really happened that fateful night in the woods years ago.

I love reading Harlan Coben for a quick thriller read. This book has a great, almost Friday the 13th, feel to it thanks to the summer camp setting years ago. There is also a side case Paul is dealing with as a prosecutor, involving the rape of a stripper by young wealthy frat boys that is seems to be taken from recent headline news. The two cases collide when fathers of the frat boys try to stir up Paul’s past to help influence their case. While not as suspenseful as some of Coben’s other books, this offering has his trademark thrills and twists and turns. If you like Coben and want to find new authors, try reading books by Don Winslow and Stuart Woods.