Brabazon, James. The Break Line. Berkley. Jan. 2019. 368p. ISBN 9780440001478. $27; ebk. ISBN 9780440001492. Downloadable. THRILLER/ESPIONAGE British intelligence’s deadliest, most accurate assassin, Max McLean made one mistake that gets him shipped off to Sierra Leone, where rebel forces swarm and villagers are being mysteriously, terribly dispatched. Who—or what—is provoking the bloodshed, and was Max meant to get out alive? A debut thriller from a UK-based journalist and documentary filmmaker who’s been to over 70 countries worldwide. Burke, James Lee. The New Iberia Blues: A Dave Robicheaux Novel. S. & S. Jan. 2019. 464p. ISBN 9781501176876. $27.99. ebk. ISB 9780062795908. lrg. prnt. CD. THRILLER Following a young woman’s horrific murder by crucifixion near the Cyrpemort Point estate of Hollywood director Desmond Cormier, ever-at-the-ready detective Dave Robicheaux has questions. Never mind their long relationship—Dave first meet Desmond as a dreamy kid on the streets of New Orleans—neither the director nor his actor friend is forthcoming, and soon everyone’s contending with the mob. From the two-time Edgar Award winner. Faye, Lyndsay. The Paragon Hotel. Putnam. Jan. 2019. 432p. ISBN 9780735210752. $26; ebk. ISBN 9780735210769. Downloadable. HISTORICAL THRILLER It’s 1921, and “Nobody” Alice James is racing by rail as far from New York as possible, terrified for her life. When she arrives in Portland, OR, the black Pullman porter with whom she bonded on the train takes her to the city’s only all-black hotel. Alas, the Ku Klux Klan have also arrived on the scene, which makes hotel residents understandably suspicious of the white woman in their midst. Who’s after Nobody, and what secrets might the residents be hiding? Following the Edgar-nominated Jane Steele and Gods of Gotham. Finder, Joseph. Judgment. Dutton. Jan. 2019. 400p. ISBN 9781101985816. $28; ebk. ISBN 9781101985823. THRILLER A Massachusetts Superior Court judge expected to head upward, Juliana Brody has an ill-considered one-night-stand with a needy man she meets at a Chicago conference. Later, she learns she’s been set up—with video coverage and all—which threatens not just the big-news sexual discrimination case over which she is presiding but her career, her family, and her very life. From the New York Times best-selling author; with a five-city tour. Grant, Andrew. Untouchable. Ballantine. Jan. 2019. 352p. ISBN 9780525619598. $27; ebk. ISBN 9780525619604. THRILLER Defying his pacifist father, Paul McGrath joined the U.S. Army, working in intelligence. He returns home to mend fences but finds his father murdered, with the trial ending in a hung jury. So he gets work at the courthouse as a janitor, using his security clearance to figure out just how corrupt the court’s workings are. All-in-the-family writing skills: Grant is the brother of thriller king Lee Child and husband of mystery queen Tasha Alexander. Hamilton, Glen Erik. A Fast Full Dark. Morrow. Jan. 2019. 336p. ISBN 9780062567437. $26.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062567413. lrg. prnt. THRILLER When fellow vet Leo Pak is accused of murder, Van Shaw legs it to Broken Ridge, OR, where hundreds of former and active Rangers gather annually for a little bonding. But as Shaw soon learns, there’s more going on; the victim belonged to a team of private military contractors tasked with recovering stolen heroin-grade opiates, and they’ll help clear Leo’s name if Van helps them find the thieves. From an Anthony, Macavity, and Strand Critics award-winning author. Hendricks, Greer & Sarah Pekkanen. An Anonymous Girl. St. Martin’s. Jan. 2019. 384p. ISBN 9781250133731. $27.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250133748. CD. THRILLER When Jessica Farris signs up for a study on ethics and morality involving women aged 18–32, she doesn’t anticipate that the mysterious doctor conducting the study will soon be telling her how to act and what to wear. Does Dr. Shields know a secret she’s guarding. And is she part of a dangerous, all-controlling experiment? From the authors of the smash best seller The Wife Between Us; boundless promotion. Hurwitz, Gregg. Out of the Dark: An Orphan X Novel. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. Jan. 2019. 400p. ISBN 9781250120427. $27.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250120441. THRILLER Taken from a group home at age 12 and trained in a shadowy black box orphan program aimed at creating assassins, Evan Smoak escaped and is dedicated to helping those with nowhere else to turn. Now government biggies want to mop up the remaining orphans and their trainers, even killing Evan’s mentor. That pits Evan against POTUS, who actually started the program and responds by sending Orphan A after Evan for a showdown. Fourth in the series from the New York Times best-selling author. Jonasson, Ragnar. Rupture: An Ari Thor Thriller. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. Jan. 2019. 272p. ISBN 9781250193346. $28.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250193360. THRILLER/NORDIC NOIR Another up-and-comer in the starry field of the Scandinavian thriller (he even cofounded the international crime-writing festival Iceland Noir), Jonasson has also translated numerous Agatha Christie mysteries, and her influence is evident in this fourth in a series starring newbie policeman Ari Thór. Here, Ari is digging into a 50-year-old murder case with the help of Reykjavík journalist Ísrún when a child’s disappearance and the threats of a stalker make things worse. Lescroart, John. The Rule of Law. Atria. Jan. 2019. 352p. ISBN 9781501115738. $27. CD. THRILLER In this latest from the New York Times best-selling Lescroart, attorney Dismas Hardy is dismayed when his ever-dependable secretary Phyllis starts acting strangely, even vanishing at times—just when her brother is released from prison. Then she’s accused of being an accessory to the murder of Hector Valdez, a coyote who smuggled women from El Salvador and Mexico to the United States. It’s not looking good, so Dismas gets to work. Medearis, Wil. Restoration Heights. Hanover Square: Harlequin. Jan. 2019. 336p. ISBN 9781335218728. $26.99; ebk. ISBN 9781488098659. THRILLER/LITERARY In a big-bang debut—it was featured at LJ’s Day of Dialog and claims a 75,000-copy first printing—an aspiring young artist who supports himself by working as an art handler, packing, moving, and hanging works for the wealthy, learns about a missing woman he may have seen at his apartment building before she was mysteriously pulled into a side door. As he searches for her, the troublesome gentrification of his Brooklyn neighborhood fuels the plot. Patterson, James. The House Next Door: Thrillers. Grand Central. Jan. 2019. 448p. ISBN. 9780316431491. $28; pap. 9781538713891. $15.99; ebk. ISBN 9780316504393. lrg. prnt. CD/downloadable. THRILLER Made available for the first time in this trade paperback original (with a bonus hardcover coming in February), the three stories packed into this volume include “The House Next Door” (with Susan DiLallo), “The Killer's Wife” (with Max DiLallo), and “We. Are. Not. Alone” (with Tim Arnold). The first concerns a woman getting too close to a neighbor and the second a detective getting too close to a suspect’s wife, while the third generates tension via communication with alien life. With a 150,000-copy first paperback printing. Perry, Thomas. The Burglar. Mysterious Pr: Grove Atlantic. Jan. 2019. 304p. ISBN 9780802129000. $26. THRILLER An Edgar Award winner (for The Butcher’s Boy) whose The Old Man is nominated for the 2018 Macavity Awards, Perry here introduces us to Elle Stowell, who thrives on stealing from the Bel Air rich and famous. Then, while raiding the home of a wealthy art dealer, she encounters a gruesome triple murder and realizes that she had better find the killer before he finds her. Petrie, Nick. Tear It Down. Putnam. Jan. 2019. 384p. ISBN 9780399575662. $26; ebk. ISBN 9780399575679. lrg. prnt. Downloadable. THRILLER A veteran whose struggles with PTSD send him cross-country, careening into problems he must solve, Peter Ash here heads to Memphis to help photographer and war correspondent Wanda Wyatt, troubled by murky threats. While he’s there, his pickup truck is hijacked at gunpoint by a likable young street musician who unwisely got himself involved in a jewelry store robbery. Fourth in a series that opened with The Drifter, winner of the ITW Thriller and Barry awards for Best First Novel. Quirk, Matthew. The Night Agent. Morrow. Jan. 2019. 432p. ISBN 9780062875464. $26.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062875488. lrg. prnt. THRILLER/ESPIONAGE Sitting in the White House Situation Room, FBI surveillance specialist Peter Sutherland gets a call he's always dreaded: a frightened young woman informs him that before their murders, her aunt and uncle instructed her to call this number with a message: “Tell them OSPREY was right. It’s happening.” Thus does Peter help uncover a long-standing conspiracy involving a Russian mole in the White House. From a New York Times best-selling author; with a 125,000-copy first printing. Rollins, James. Crucible: A Thriller. Morrow. Jan. 2019. 448p. ISBN 9780062381781. $28.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062381804. lrg. prnt. CD. THRILLER Bustling home on Christmas Eve, Commander Gray Pierce finds his house wrecked, his pregnant lover vanished, and his best friend’s wife, Kat, unconscious on the floor. A neurologist manages to reach the semi-comatose Kat, uncovering clues to what happened that lead Pierce and his Sigma Force buddies to mysteries involving–of all things—the Spanish Inquisition and a medieval text titled Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches), which has blood on every page. With a 350,000-copy first printing. Scott, E.G. The Woman Inside. Dutton. Jan. 2018. 336p. ISBN 9781524744526. $27. DOMESTIC SUSPENSE In this dark domestic suspense from the pseudonymous Scott, actually a publishing professional and a screenwriter working together, troubled Rebecca meets troubled—and married—Paul, and they are soon married to each other. Two decades later, they are cheating on each other, with Rebecca spinning into opiate addiction and discovering that Paul is planning a new life without her. So she hatches a plan of her own that could blow both their lives sky-high. Great expectations. Taylor, Brad. Daughter of War. Dutton. Jan. 2019. 416p. ISBN 9781101984840. $27; ebk. ISBN 9781101984857. lrg. prnt. CD/downloadable. THRILLER North Korea seeks to sell U.S. intelligence to Syria, which aims to use weapons of mass destruction against American and Kurdish forces, blaming terrorists and convincing the West to quit any involvement in the Syrian War. Meanwhile, North Korea also plans to use a deadly substance called Red Mercury to block further sanctions by the West. Now Pike Logan and the Taskforce must find a refugee somewhere in Europe who has the means to stop these machinations. From a New York Times best-selling author; with a five-city tour. White, Christian. The Nowhere Child. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. Jan. 2019. 320p. ISBN 9781250293718. $26.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250293701. CD. THRILLER Winner of Australia’s 2017 Victorian Premier's Literary Award, this debut delivers a shocker to Melbourne art teacher Kimberly Leamy, who’s told by a visiting American accountant that she may be Sammy Went, abducted at age two from her family in Manson, KY. Kimberly thinks it’s preposterous, but a little investigating introduces some big doubts. Wilson, F. Paul. The Void Protocol. Forge. Jan. 2019. 336p. ISBN 9781250177346. $27.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250177322. MEDICAL THRILLER In this wrap-up to the medical thriller trilogy begun with Panacea and The God Gene, humans with special abilities derived from technology confiscated post–World War II from the Germans wait in an underground bunker at Lakehurst Naval Air Station for who knows what. From a New York Times best-selling author and recipient of the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement who knows his medical stuff; he’s still a practicing doctor. Winters, Ben. Golden State. Mulholland: Little, Brown. Jan. 2019. 336p. ISBN 9780316505413. $28; ebk. ISBN 9780316505406. lib. ebk. ISBN 9780316419260. CD/downloadable. THRILLER In the Golden State, a nation that was once California, consciously contradicting the proclaimed truth is a heinous crime. Laszlo Ratesic should know; as a member of the Speculative Service, he must stop such crime—though he himself is allowed a little speculation on what might have been. Not surprisingly, that level of control breeds resistance in Golden State. From the author of the Edgar Award–winning The Last Policeman and, more recently, the New York Times best-selling Underground Airlines. Young, Hester. The Burning Island. Putnam. Jan. 2019. 416p. ISBN 9780399174025. $26; ebk. ISBN 9780698190795. Downloadable. THRILLER Introduced in The Gates of Evangeline and seen again in The Shimmering Road, journalist Charlie Cates is back, still plagued by disturbing visions that direct her to children in danger. Here, she’s trying to find some peace on the Big Island of Hawaii, but her interviews with volcanologist Victor Nakagawa are punctuated by dark dreams of a local teenager who went missing. Young’s career keeps building.