Summer Reading Thrills - the Thriller Awards shortlist for 2013

Here for your summer reading consideration are the five thrillers that the International Thriller Writers Association have chosen as the year's best.

Best Novel Nominees:

The Trinity Game (M)
by Sean Chercover

"Daniel Byrne is an investigator for the Vatican's secretive Office of the Devil's Advocate--the department that scrutinizes miracle claims. Over ten years and 721 cases, not one miracle he tested has proved true. But case #722 is different; Daniel's estranged uncle, a crooked TV evangelist, has started speaking in tongues--and accurately predicting the future. Daniel knows Reverend Tim Trinity is a con man. Could Trinity also be something more? The evangelist himself is baffled by his newfound power--and the violent reaction it provokes...."- Publisher.

Spilled Blood (M)
by Brian Freeman

"The two Minnesota towns couldn't be more different: in affluent Barron, a powerful and secretive scientific research corporation enriches its residents, while downriver in blue-collar St. Croix, victims of that company's carcinogenic waste struggle to survive. The bad blood between the communities escalates into open warfare when the beautiful Ashlynn, daughter of the corporation's president, is found shot dead--and a St. Croix girl, Olivia Hawk, is accused of the crime. Olivia's father, Christopher, a Minneapolis lawyer, comes to defend his daughter and uncovers some ugly truths that endanger the residents of both towns." - Publisher

Catch Me (M)

by Lisa Gardner

" A 28-year-old police dispatcher seeks out Boston Sgt. Det. D.D. Warren Grant at a crime scene and asks the homicide detective to investigate her expected murder. Meanwhile, Warren is looking into the execution-style slayings of two pedophiles with the assistance of a female rookie sex crime detective." - Publisher


The Survivor (M)
by Gregg Hurwitz

"Diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease nine months earlier, Nate is about to leap off an 11th-floor ledge of a bank building in Santa Monica, Calif., when he notices a robbery in progress through the window next to where he is standing. Nate climbs back in the window undetected, grabs a handgun a masked man has conveniently set down, and, thanks to his ROTC firearms training, succeeds in shooting dead five of the six robbers. In revenge, the thwarted theft's mastermind, a notorious Ukrainian mobster, vows to brutally kill Nate and his teenage daughter unless Nate can retrieve the robbery's objective: an envelope stored in one of the bank's safe deposit boxes." - Publisher.

Defending Jacob (M)
by William Landay

"Andy Barber has been an Assistant DA in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than 20 years. He is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his wife, Laurie, and son, Jacob. But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next: His 14-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student. A spellbinding tale of guilt, betrayal, and the terrifying speed at which our lives can spin out of control." - Publisher


The 2013 Thriller Award Winners will be announced at ThrillerFest VIII, July 13, 2013, at the Grand Hyatt (New York City).