Katie Bishop finds heart and poignancy at the center of her artfully crafted thriller, “High Season,” setting it apart from other by-the-numbers beach reads.At the center of the story is Nina Drayton, who, 20 years ago at age 5, was the sole witness to the murder of her sister, Tamara, by Josie Jackson, the daughter of their family’s summer housekeeper and her childhood babysitter. Nina was brought up to believe that her account of that wine-soaked night at her mother’s French villa was the reas...

Megan Miranda treads overly familiar territory in “You Belong Here,” the story of a woman forced to return to the town that once suspected her of involvement in a terrible crime — a plot that echoes too closely the themes of her previous novels.Twenty years ago, Beckett Bowery’s college roommate lit a fire that killed two young men during a hazing ritual, and then seemingly vanished. Adalyn Vale’s whereabouts remain a mystery in Wyatt Valley; a town divided between those connected to the elite c...

Author Daniel O’Malley returns to the world of his series he started with “The Rook” with “Royal Gambit,” an enjoyable and sometimes unwieldy novel about the supernatural operatives of a paranormal secret service investigating a string of bizarre murders. Gambit centers around the aristocratic Lady Alexandra Mondegreen (Alix) and her investigation into the mysterious murder of her childhood friend, the Prince of Wales. Alix has the unique talent of being able to shatter bones with just a touch o...