Three summer thrillers obliterate the boundaries of what can rightfully be chalked up to "all in a day's work."

Captain Catherine Wells, commander of the spacecraft Sagittarius, perished on the wrong side of a wormhole in deep space. Or so NASA believed. Vessel, Lisa A. Nichols' debut thriller, opens nine years after the mission launched. Houston has just received a signal from the Sagittarius and makes contact with Catherine, who has few memories of her years in space and even fewer answers about what led her to this point. Soon she's back helping to oversee the launch of Sagittarius II, which will attempt the same fateful voyage on which Catherine lost her crew. NASA prodigy Cal Morganson is desperate to keep the upcoming mission safe and is sure Catherine is hiding something. He's right—but will exposing her secrets be enough? Vessel is a deliciously creepy dive through the wormhole. 

 

Layne Fargo's addictive Temper centers on the artists of the Chicago theater scene for a wildly different take on a job gone very wrong. Following struggling actress Kira Rascher and repressed director Joanna Cuyler, Temper begins at the audition for a play of the same name, an intense marital drama with a cast of only two. Malcolm Mercer, a towering figure in the community and Joanna's creative partner, plays the lead in all of their productions. Being cast opposite Malcolm—a genius method actor or a gaslighting sociopath, depending on whom you ask—spikes Kira's deep artistic ambitions like nothing before. Joanna has worked with Malcolm for years, quietly swallowing her own ambition and agency in order to remain in his orbit. The novel's violently sensuous suspense careens toward a chilling conclusion you'll never see coming.

 

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager is a nightmarish thriller set against the backdrop of a Manhattan fairy tale. Jules Larsen has no living family, recently lost her job and just discovered her live-in boyfriend is cheating on her. So she swallows her better judgment and accepts an offer to apartment-sit in the legendary Bartholomew building. Within a day of starting, she begins to notice that many aspects of her new digs are off. She can't have visitors, and she must spend every night in the apartment. She isn't allowed to speak to the other residents. Most disturbingly, the other apartment sitters are as alone in the world as she is. The more she starts digging into the Bartholomew's history, the harder it is to dismiss the rumors that the building is cursed by some very disturbing magic. Readers who enjoy a touch of horror mixed with their suspense will love Lock Every Door.

Sager follows up back-to-back New York Times best sellers with a chiller set at the Bartholomew, a grand apartment building in Manhattan. Apartment sitting there to get some extra cash and relief from heartbreak, Jules befriends fellow sitter Ingrid, who proclaims that the building has a dark history. And then Ingrid disappears.

After experiencing the worst day of her life, Jules Larsen is heartbroken and broke. But life seems on the upswing when she answers an ad for an "apartment sitter" at the illustrious Bartholomew building in Manhattan. Against her best friend's warnings, Jules takes the position. She'll not only earn top dollar to stay in the building that was a centerpiece of her childhood dreams, but also have time to lick her wounds and search for a new job. Yes, there are strange rules: no visitors ever. And yes, it is odd that they need to know her blood type, family health background, etc. But soon Jules meets Ingrid, another Bartholomew apartment sitter, who shares her concerns about the building's ominous past. That night, Jules hears a scream coming from Ingrid's apartment, and the next morning Ingrid has disappeared. Jules's search for Ingrid exposes her to danger, as she unearths more ghastly stories about the building's residents. Sager (Final Girls) delivers a psychological, creepy, and unputdownable thriller. Likable characters, great writing, just enough twists, and a Rosemary's Baby vibe will make this a summer hit. Purchase for Stephen King and Gillian Flynn fans. [See Prepub Alert, 1/23/19.]—Marianne Fitzgerald, Severna Park H.S., MD

Jules Larsen, the 25-year-old heroine of this compulsively readable thriller from bestseller Sager (The Last Time I Lied), has hit rock bottom. Scarred by the deaths of her parents and the disappearance of her sister years before, she has recently lost her administrative assistant job and learned that her boyfriend has been cheating on her. With her finances perilously low, Jules responds to an ad for a house sitter at a Manhattan luxury apartment building, which turns out to be the Bartholomew, the setting for her favorite book, a bestselling novel published in the '80s about a 20-year-old orphan who lives there. In order to earn $12,000 for living in one of the Bartholomew's vacant apartments for three months, she must follow strict rules, which include absolutely no visitors and refraining from interacting with the other residents. Jules leaps at the opportunity, only to learn that the property is rumored to be haunted and that her acceptance of the job may be placing her in jeopardy. Fans of Ira Levin, to whom the book is dedicated, will be delighted by Sager's clever variation on a typical Levin plot. Agent: Michelle Brower, Aevitas Creative Management. (July)

For Jules, becoming an apartment sitter at the Bartholomew seems like the opportunity of a lifetime. That is, until other apartment sitters start to go missing. This novel is perfectly paced with a darkly fascinating conclusion. It features a young adult protagonist and is not as violent as many adult thrillers. VERDICT A good place for teens to start exploring the thriller genre.—Elliot Riley, Deerfield Academy, MA