Looking for a Summer Thriller?

Child, Lee. Nothing to Lose (Bantam $25 May). In narrative structure a classic Western, in scope global. Jack Reacher has no baggage literal or emotional so anyone can start here with his trip from Hope, Colorado, on the High Plains, to Despair. Why is the town so determined to keep him out?

Deaver, Jeffrey. Broken Window (Simon & Schuster June). Identity theft powers the latest Lincoln Rhyme/Amelia Sachs thriller. The villain is really slick but he makes one big error—targeting Rhyme's cousin.

Gardiner, Meg. The Dirty Secrets Club (Dutton June). is a whole group of extreme risk takers who rocket around San Francisco. Two of them meet a shattering end in a spectacular car chase. Brought in to profile the victim's lives to solve their deaths, forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett asks why dead prosecutor Callie Harding had the word "dirty' written in lipstick on her thigh. How did she have time to write it while running from the police—and what was all that?

Ghelfi, Brent. Volk's Shadow (Holt July). Col Volkov is up against villains in Chechnya, a fate of a fabulous Faberge egg, and the life of a man both cop and crook in modern Russia. Phoenix's Ghelfi is up for a 2008 Thriller Award and the Republic just named him Best Rising Author.