The books on my nightstand are piling up. The summer thrillers - beach books - are out.

Midnight in Europe by Alan Furst  Paris, 1938. As the shadow of war darkens Europe, democratic forces on the Continent struggle against fascism and communism, while in Spain the war has already begun. Alan Furst is widely recognized as the master of the historical spy novel. 272 pages published by Random House

The Antiquarian by Gustavo Faveron Patriau The first novel by a Peruvian writer.  Three years have passed since Gustavo, a renowned psycholinguist, last spoke to his closest friend, Daniel, who has been interned in a psychiatric ward for murdering his fiancée.  With sumptuous prose and haunting imagery, Faverón Patriau has crafted an unforgettable, labyrinthine tale of murder, madness, and passion that is as entertaining as it is erudite and dark as it is illuminating. 240 pages published by Grave Press  I am really trying to finish this book. I started out with great hopes: the idea sounds original and intriguing and I love reading Mario Vargas Llosa so what could go wrong? What has gone wrong is that it is turning into a kind of torture. The verbosity is not sumptuous but rather making it dull and boring and instead of creating imagery, it is putting me to sleep. So many pages and so many adjectives to arrive at what I suspected all along. Tedious. 

Summer House with Swimming Pool by Herman Koch When a medical procedure goes horribly wrong and famous actor Ralph Meier winds up dead, Dr. Marc Schlosser needs to come up with some answers. After all, reputation is everything in this business. His first book, The Dinner, demonstrated that the author can uncover the worst traits in mankind. 400 pages published by Hogarth

The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker  "A successful young author suffering from writer’s block journeys to New Hampshire to visit his former professor. Shortly after he arrives, the bones of a girl are found buried in the professor’s backyard. Now the professor has been arrested for the murder of the girl--who disappeared in 1975 at the age of fifteen--and the author has an idea: he will write a book based on the case that will ultimately exonerate his professor and jumpstart his writing. Already a massive best seller in Europe (and translated into 32 languages), The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair arrives in North America amid such wild praise you might expect something groundbreaking. Instead, what you get is a wonderful, fun, and boisterous read, a book with an uncanny ability to both fascinate and amuse you. Twists and turns and oddball characters make this a rollicking bullet-train of a novel." --Chris Schluep  656 pages published by Penguin Books

Quesadillas by Juan Pablo Villalobos Both profoundly moving and wildly funny, Juan Pablo Villalobos’s Quesadillas is a satiric masterpiece, chock-full of inseminated cows, Polish immigrants, religious pilgrims, alien spacecraft, psychedelic watermelons, and many, many "your mama" insults. It’s the 1980s in Lagos de Moreno—a town where there are more cows than people, and more priests than cows—and a poor family struggles to overcome the bizarre dangers of living in Mexico.192 pages published by FSG Originals  As a second book, this one is just as good as the first. The characters are wonderful including the pretend twins, the father who is a teacher and preaches against the government and the mother who tries to feed her family with quesadillas each night. A family trying to ignore their poverty by saying they are middle class faces off against the rich and progress. The only complaint I have is about the last three or four pages which made me feel that the author did not know how to end his wonderful story. Juan Pablo Villalobos is a universal social critic; his story could have happened anywhere at anytime and that makes for good literature!

The Prince of Venice Beach by Blake Nelson Robert "'Cali" Callahan is a teen runaway, living on the streets of Venice Beach, California. He's got a pretty sweet life: a treehouse to sleep in, a gang of surf bros, a regular basketball game...even a girl who's maybe-sorta interested in him. What he doesn't have is a plan. This is a book for "young" readers. 240 pages published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

On the Lisbon Disaster by Olen Steinhauer  In a thrilling e-original story, New York Times bestselling espionage master Olen Steinhauer introduces the enigmatic John Calhoun, an international security contractor who plays a prominent role in Steinhauer's upcoming novel The Cairo Affair. 67 pages published by Minotaur Books

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King In a mega-stakes, high-suspense race against time, three of the most unlikely and winning heroes Stephen King has ever created try to stop a lone killer from blowing up thousands. Mr. Mercedes is a war between good and evil, from the master of suspense whose insight into the mind of this obsessed, insane killer is chilling and unforgettable. 448 pages published by Scribner

The Rise and Fall of Great Powers by Tom Rachman Following one of the most critically acclaimed fiction debuts in years, The Imperfectionists,  New York Times bestselling author Tom Rachman returns with a brilliant, intricately woven novel about a young woman who travels the world to make sense of her puzzling past. 400 pages published by The Dial Press As with his first book, Tom Rachman creates beautiful, complex characters. Even though I now have the new J.K. Rowling book, I could not put this one down. Tooly was kidnapped as a child, stolen back by her mother who never admitted to being her mother and then abandoned again. I had to know why Tooly was the way she was and how she came to be that way.

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith "[Rowling's] literary gift is on display in this work. She crafts an entertaining story [and] comes up with an ending that I'll admit I was surprised by. . . . A fun read, with a main character you can care about and one you'll want to see again in other adventures." --The Washington Post  464 pages published by Mulholland Books  What J.K. Rowling did for children and inspiring them to read, she has done again for those of us who enjoy a good detective story. I wasn't just reading before bedtime and losing sleep because I could not put it down, I was reading all afternoon instead of doing the dishes or any other kind of work. Interesting characters and clues left all over the place and a twist at the end make for entertaining reading.

Top Secret Twenty-One by Janet Evanovich Trenton, New Jersey’s favorite used-car dealer, Jimmy Poletti, was caught selling a lot more than used cars out of his dealerships. Now he’s out on bail and has missed his date in court, and bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is looking to bring him in. Leads are quickly turning into dead ends, and all too frequently into dead bodies. Even Joe Morelli, the city’s hottest cop, is struggling to find a clue to the suspected killer’s whereabouts. 352 pages published by Bantam  Some people watch soap operas or telenovelas but my guilty pleasure is reading about Stephanie Plum. I know it is fluff but the dialogue is sharp and the imagery is... I can't help myself.