…by Karna Small Bodman

Do your summer plans include relaxing with a new thriller or great biography per chance?  All of us Rogue Women Writers who, of course, are book lovers and book creators certainly hope they will — so I figure this is a good time to mention some new ones you might like to check out.  First, I wanted to tell you about the June 5 release of the new story of Checkmate.  Okay, I admit I’m starting with one of my own thrillers (but stay with me – there are more to come). 

This story was inspired by President Reagan’s announcement of a bold new system he challenged America’s brightest scientists to invent — missile defense.  I was serving on his staff at the time and saw first-hand how Washington could react with howls and derision of this “wild” idea.  Some said Reagan was acting like Superman thinking “a bullet could hit a bullet.” Others said that even though it probably wouldn’t work, the Soviets would feel threatened  and so we could simply “trade it away”  for reductions in their big missiles at arms control talks.  But look how it is working today with systems protecting several countries including Israel and South Korea in addition to deployments along our own west coast. I thought it was such a cool idea, I created a character who invents her own missile defense system and tries to use it when militants threaten one of the most beautiful sites in the world — the Taj Mahal. If you’d like to read how my heroine races to handle all of this, it is available for pre-order  here 

A second recently released thriller is one by our friend, and one-time guest blogger, New York Times bestselling author, Lee Child.  The title is Midnight Line — which is another one of Lee’s famous Jack Reacher stories.  In fact, The Washington Post describes this character as “one of this century’s most original, tantalizing pop-fiction heroes,” a fellow, you’ll recall, that has been played by Tom Cruise in two feature films (even though in the novels, Reacher is described as a huge man — 6’5″ or so,  as I recall — and Tom Cruise is not.  Oh well)


Speaking of film adaptations, I just saw that Showtime has acquired another summer thriller for a TV series. This one has received a ton of publicity since it is co-written by James Patterson and none other than Bill Clinton.  The title is The President is Missing and all the action takes place in a mere three days.

  This book is coming out the same week as mine.  Talk about competition in the marketplace.  

And since I’ve mentioned a Clinton endeavor, I’ll head across the aisle and tell you about another book involving three days. I have just started to read a terrific story titled Three Days in Moscow, by Bret Baier.  While it does focus on a summit meeting in Russia between President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, the author reviews Reagan’s history, the development of his ideas about key political issues and his rise from radio broadcaster and “B movie star” to the highest office in the land.  The audio version is particularly good as Baier, a seasoned newscaster, is the narrator. 

This novel has already received a starred Kirkus review which reads, “Thriller fans will delight in this latest escapade. Cussler and co-author Burcell have delivered a winner!”  

The story involves the search for a legendary Rolls-Royce — a search that threatens the lives of husband-and-wife team, Sam and Remi Fargo.  It is the 10th in this exciting Sam and Remi adventure series.

Of course, there are many more great books coming out this summer season, so my question for you readers is this:  What novels would you like to recommend for summer? Please share your suggestions with all of here at Rogue Women Writers.  We love new ideas, so do leave a comment below. Thank you for visiting us here. We all hope you have a wonderful summer with family and friends.

…..Karna Small Bodman