INTRICATE SOUTH AFRICAN THRILLER contrasts the hunt for a serial killer, a tangle of post-apartheid politics.

TIMELY, TAUTLY PLOTTED thriller with a likable midlife heroine is compelling despite occasionally clunky prose.

BRAD MELTZER’S UMPTEENTH Washington thriller is good fun despite its unlikely archivist hero, confusing plot.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CAMBRIDGE university life is vividly imagined in this complex historical thriller.

SMART THRILLER with a fast pace, an SF twist, and a warm-hearted portrayal of its almost-human protagonist.

SUSPENSE AND THRILLER elements dominate a lightly sketched SF background in taut page-turner from Gene Wolfe.

THRILL-A-MINUTE SUSPENSE in delightfully chilling conspiracy page-turner; really works, despite its odd premise.

EXTRAORDINARY NOVEL: part thriller, part science fiction, part time travel, part historical, totally original.

QUEEN OF SPIES (spy thrillers, anyway) Gayle Lynds’s tensely plotted adventure focuses on a legendary library.

SOLID THRILLER gets extra pizzazz from its vividly-presented setting: a fancy New York fertility clinic. SOLID B

HUSH by Kate White
New York: HarperCollins
March, 2010