(Enlarge) "The Lie" by Petra Hammesfahr is one of the new thrillers ready for summer reading.

Has the recent heat wave left you bedraggled? Perhaps, one of these thrillers will give you some energy. All are paperbacks, so they can go anywhere your search for air conditioning takes you.

"Killer"

By Dave Zeltserman

Serpents Tail, $14.95

As "Killer" opens, Leonard March is one of the most hated men in Boston. Arrested for murder, Leonard cut a deal to inform on a mob boss. Assured of a lenient sentence, Leonard confessed to carrying out 18 contract killings.

Now, 14 years later, he's out of prison, and the media have made sure everyone knows his name and face.

Leonard takes a job as a night janitor and tries to piece together what is left of his life. His wife is dead, but he still hopes to reconnect with his estranged son and daughters. The gangsters he sold out, though, have no intentions of making amends, and neither do the families of his victims.

As his situation grows more oppressive, Leonard finds potential respite in Sophie Duval. Sophie, younger but hard-bitten, wants to help Leonard write his autobiography-- whether he likes it or not. When he agrees to join her in the mountains to work on the book, Leonard comes face to face with some horrifying truths.

In his latest novel about a man just out of prison, following "Small Crimes" and "Pariah," Dave Zeltserman displays a genius for capturing the brute facts of survival "on the outside." Leonard is disarmingly sympathetic, which makes the novel's surprise conclusion even more disturbing.

"Fifty Grand"

By Adrian McKinty

Picador, $15

Detective Mercado is an exemplary member of the Havana Police Department. When she was a teenager, Mercado's father defected to the United States, abandoning his family and taking up with another woman. Now, he has just been killed in an unsolved hit and run accident in the wealthy resort community of Fairview, Colo., and Mercado is determined to avenge his death.

She gets government permission to travel to Mexico, then has herself smuggled across the U.S. border, pretending to be an illegal immigrant from Yucatan. Once in Fairview, Mercado has only a few days to find her father's killer, bring him to justice and return home before incurring the Cuban government's wrath. The suspects include career criminals, movie stars and local officials, and Mercado cannot afford one false step.

Adrian McKinty, author of the "Dead" trilogy, which featured gangster Michael Forsythe, makes Mercado an enjoyably steely character, proving he can write tough gals just as well as tough guys.

"The Lie"

By Petra Hammesfahr

Bitter Lemon, $14.95

Recently fired, Susanne Lasko lives on noodles bought with money stolen from her aging mother's bank account. Divorced and alone, she is constantly fending off the lewd advances of her repulsive neighbor and coping with the effects of a head injury she sustained during a bank robbery.

Then, she meets her twin.

Although Lasko is not related to Nadia Trenkler by blood, they look and sound so alike they could easily be mistaken for the same person. It turns out, that is exactly what Trenkler has in mind.

In exchange for a hefty sum, she persuades Lasko to assume her identity once in a while, so she can slip away from her husband, Michael. Lasko soon finds that her attraction to Michael and Nadia's shady business dealings have put her life in danger.

"The Lie" is a bit overly long, and its plot gets convoluted toward the end, but Petra Hammeskahr depicts Lasko's predicament so vividly that one can't help but want to see her through to the end.

Rebecca Oppenheimer, a Towson University graduate and National Book Critics' Circle member, dives into the latest books from her home in Stevenson.

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