Just plain good books for your summertime reading list

The prologue of The Crash (Freida McFadden, Poisoned Pen Press, 2025, 384 pages, $32.99) describes a murder, but we don’t find out the victim or the killer until the last few pages. That sets up the story to have many outcomes. Tegan is eight months pregnant, the result of a one-night stand that as the story progresses becomes much more. In return for a nondisclosure agreement, she will receive a large settlement. When she refuses it, she heads to stay with her brother and crashes in a snowstorm. She is rescued, but becomes a captive in a strange relationship. Many twists and turns ensue, which makes for much guessing as to the ending.

Orphan X has only one friend, Tommy, and he has committed an action that cannot be forgiven. Nemesis (Gregg Hurwitz, Minotaur Books, 2025, 450 pages, $30) is rife with mayhem as X pursues Tommy, who is trying to save the son of a comrade who committed a serious crime. X also becomes the avenger of the crew who killed a family, and it is a pretty bloody story. I have read all of the Orphan X series, and it is obvious that he is becoming more fallible as he ages. It will be interesting to see how the series continues.

The setting of Regency England in the Year Without a Summer provides a gloomy aura for a story of murder and villainy. Who Will Remember (C.S. Harris, Berkley, 2025, 365 pages, $29) begins with a ragged boy turning up at Sebastian St. Cyr’s home to tell him of a gruesome murder. The deceased is a notable lord who has been displayed in a bizarre fashion with an accompanying tarot card. Throughout the unraveling of the story, nothing is as it originally seems, and there are numerous additional crimes woven into the plot. The reader not only has the pleasure of superb writing, and an intricate story, but also intriguing bits of history to enjoy.

The latest book by the best-selling author David Baldacci is very different from his others. Strangers in Time (David Baldacci, Grand Central Press, 2025, 433 pages, $30) is set in London during World War II. Three strangers who could not be more different become a family as they struggle to survive the chaos of their surroundings as well as the families they have lost. Charlie is from the East End, a 13-year-old orphan who lives with his Gran and does what is necessary to get food and clothing. Molly is a 15-year-old who is returning to London, educated and from an upper-class family that seems to have disappeared without a trace. Ignatius is the widowed owner of a bookshop that has seen better days and who might be a traitor. If one wishes to get a feel for the day-to-day existence of those who experienced London during the war, this is definitely the most explicit book I have read.

The jacket of Children of Radium: A Buried Inheritance (Joe Dunthorne, Scribner, 2025, 228 pages, $28.99) provides an eerie foreshadowing of the memoir that exposes the life’s work of the author’s great-grandfather. A Jewish scientist from a town near Berlin, he began his career developing radioactive toothpaste. From there he moved to testing gas mask filters and then helped establish a chemical weapons laboratory. He helped the Nazis improve their poisons. As the author tracked his great-grandfather’s career, he uncovered dangerous remains of the chemicals that no one wanted to recognize. The author’s intent was to trace the escape of their family from Nazi Germany. What he found was far different.

We have many books that are set in European countries during World War II. There are far fewer that deal with the Pacific Theater. At Last She Stood (Erin Entrada Kelly, Greenwillow, 2025, 186 pages, $19.99) is a biography of Josefina “Joey” Guerrero, a Filipina guerrilla fighter who risked her life many times to spy for the Allies and the Filipino fighters. A tiny woman who had Hansen’s disease, she was able to slip through places without being stopped or searched. We get an inside look at the fight in the Philippines as well as the changes in treatment of Hansen’s disease. Joey came to the U.S. after the war for treatment and was hailed as a heroine, receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The end of her life was lived in anonymity.

A house swap between families in Dallas and Berlin upends all their lives. Far and Away (Amy Poeppel, Atria, 2025, 384 pages, $18.99) finds Lucy desperate to move her family from Dallas as her son has ostracized himself from his private school in a harmless prank that costs him graduation and entrance to MIT. Lucy has just landed an important job with a hotel chain and must pretend she is still in the States. Greta is an important art consultant, but must move to Dallas for her husband’s new job. How the swap changes their lives is both humorous and heartwarming, drawing in extended families and friends.

Four lethal ladies are back in their roles as assassins. Their organization, the Museum, has a mole, and they must work off the books to discover who it is. At the same time, they are being hunted by a ruthless gangster who wants them and their significant others dead. Kills Well With Others (Deanna Raybourn, Berkley, 2025, 368 pages, $29) is a breakneck thriller while also being a witty tale of the difficulties that middle-age assassins must overcome. The dialogue is delightful.

A mother’s death, a woman who has not spoken since her husband’s death years ago, brings her children back to their family home. There are many secrets surrounding What Remains of Teague House (Stacy Johns, Poisoned Pen Press, 2025, 432 pages, $17.99). Shortly after arriving home, two siblings find a recently buried body, and then other bodies from long ago are uncovered. Who is the serial killer? Add in an investigator trying to find the remains of her missing foster sister, and you have a complicated plot that moves this way and that, keeping the reader hopping.

In 1895 France, a train filled with a melange of passengers crashes as it enters Paris. The Paris Express (Emma Donoghue, Summit Books, 2025, 240 pages, $26.99) is a novel peopled with real and fictional passengers who might have been on the train. It is a story of class distinction and political intrigue, a peek at several hours of a world long ago. The book ends with a report on what happened to the real characters’ lives, whether they were on the train or not.

Lainey has been in a London orphanage since she was 3. Nearly a teenager, a chance encounter at an open house secures her a scholarship to a prestigious academy. The Secrets of Lovelace Academy (Marie Benedict and Courtney Sheinmel, Aladdin, 2025, 295 pages, $17.99) include a secret society, class privileges and mean girls. 1904 is not much different than today! Lainey goes on a secret mission and becomes a helper to Mileva Maric, the wife of Albert Einstein. Benedict’s adult novel, The Other Einstein, obviously had an influence on this book.

For those who are looking for “how to write” or a bit of a kick in the pants to just get on with it, Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life (Maggie Smith, Washington Square Press, 2025, 253 pages, $28.99) is divided into 10 chapters, each with brief essays on a specific aspect of writing. It can be read in any order, and I particularly like the essays on metaphor and word choice. Smith clearly puts her own experiences with writing into language that will inspire others to emulate her drive.

Judith Viorst has been revealing the aspects of life in each decade, and her latest book, Making the Best of What’s Left (Judith Viorst, Simon & Schuster, 2025, 174 pages, $28.99), is a wry, witty and candid look at the ages of 80 to 100. Having recently moved into a retirement community and lost her husband, she asks her friends and neighbors to respond to certain questions. We learn of her thoughts as well as others on such topics as home, happiness, loneliness and community. Never whining, but brutally honest, there is much to think about. I love the subtitle — When We’re Too Old to Get the Chairs Reupholstered — because my daughter recently suggested I do just that, and I quietly thought — why bother!

Summer sports include auto racing and The NASCAR Encyclopedia (Priyanka Lamichhane, Abdo, 2025, 192 pages, $52.79) covers many aspects of the sport. Beginning with the history, it moves into the cars, series, tracks, traditions and particularly the drivers. Excellent color photos, fact boxes and clear text make an appealing design.

The design of So Many Years: A Juneteenth Story (Anne Wynter, illustrated by Jerome Pumphrey, Clarion Books, 2025, 32 pages, $19.99) is very clever, using a call-and-response motif. The first half is the past, with a hard question asked and the illustration on the left a reality and the right a desire. The second half is all response, set in the present with joyful celebrations of the holiday. The illustrations are dramatic, and the back matter provides a brief history of the holiday and the words to “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

The adventure of going into space began with the race to the moon. But, Who Owns the Moon?: And Other Conundrums of Exploring and Using Space (Cynthia Levinson and Jennifer Swanson, Peachtree Publishing Co., 2025, 202 pages, $22.99) is a valid question. The authors provide a thorough history of the space race that includes the competition as well as the cooperation needed to succeed. The governance is particularly important, with China being an outlier. Photographs, graphs, boxed essays and a clean design make this a fine book to read.