In Bentley's Tom Clancy Zero Hour, Jack Ryan Jr. is interviewing a Campus prospect in Seoul when North Korea's leader is devastatingly injured, prompting a power struggle among sleeper agents in South Korea. In Berry's The Omega Factor, UNESCO investigator Nicholas Lee is following a lead to the long-missing 12th panel of the relentlessly plundered Ghent Altarpiece when he stumbles upon a centuries-old conflict between some no-nonsense nuns called the Maidens of Saint-Michael and the Vatican, desperate to grab a secret the maidens guard (200,000-copy first printing). Having appeared in six best-selling DeMille novels, retired NYPD Homicide Detective John Corey is hanging out at his uncle's waterfront estate on Long Island when he heeds a call to help find a serial killer who is dispatching prostitutes and burying them along the beach in The Maze (originally scheduled for June 2021; 500,000-copy first printing). Pulled from the icy Pacific and presumed dead, a revived Elle can remember little except her name in Dodd's stand-alone, Point Last Seen, but it surely looks to rescuer Adam like someone tried to kill her (75,000-copy paperback and 10,000-copy hardcover first printing). What could be Red on the River in the next exemplar of Romantic suspense from Feehan, which is set in the Sierra Nevada mountains? When tomb raiders kill archaeologist Riley Smith's father after he discovers the burial site of Helen of Troy, Riley seeks revenge while asking forensic sculptor Eve Duncan to reconstruct A Face To Die For (100,000-copy first printing). Marshals Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch have their hands full in Knott's Robert B. Parker's Opium Rose when the daughter of Virgil's half-brother arrives in Appaloosa, having fled San Francisco following the death of her lawyer husband; apparently, he was involved in a big opium operation. In Escape, a follow-up to Patterson's Black Book, a rich-as-Croesus crime lord breaks out of jail and leaves a taunting note for crack Chicago detective Billy Harney, who he knew would be called to the scene (300,000-copy first printing). In Quirk's Red Warning, CIA officer Sam Hudson is nearly blown up in Geneva as he obsessively tracks Russian mole Konstanin, then dodges bombs back in Washington, DC, when Konstanin follows him home (125,000-copy first printing).

In this atmospheric romantic thriller from bestseller Dodd (Wrong Alibi), the city of Gothic, perched on California's stormy Big Sur, is known as a refuge for "lost souls," one of whom is recluse Adam Ramsdell, who turns metal refuse from the sea into razor-edged sculptures that gesture toward his painful secrets and tragic childhood. One day, contemplating suicide, Adam walks along the beach, where he finds a young, beautiful woman in the waves. Bruised and battered, she appears dead, but he revives her, only to find that she suffers from amnesia, able to recall only part of her name—Elle. In the intense days that follow, Adam protects her and helps her recover, and Elle encourages him to speak of the memories that torment him. But their newfound passion is threatened by a sniper's gunshot and suspicious accidents. Elle's memory holds the clue to preventing further tragedy, if only she and Adam can unlock it quickly enough. Local color and humor are provided by secondary characters, including an insightful fortune teller, a troubled teen, and a group of amateur women sleuths known as the Shivering Sherlocks. Dodd's many fans are sure to be satisfied. Agent: Annelise Robey, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (July)