The message was tempting: “Celebrate all things summer and local overlooking the beautiful wildlife sanctuary and Crescent Beach. Chef Mitch will present a weekly fixed menu that features Maine fare from gardens and sea.”

Australian author Sara Foster uncovers a rich vein of atmosphere in the North Yorkshire moors for her intense psychological thriller about a woman trying to rebuild her life after her husband disappears.

Morbid curiosity. Rubbernecking. Schadenfreude. From our national obsession with celebrity crackups to the popularity of gore fests such as “The Passion of the Christ” and “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” Americans lead the world in the urge to wallow in everything grotesque, blood-spattered and shocking – as long as it’s happening to somebody else.

What would you do to save your son? Sam Capra experienced betrayal and loss in Jeff Abbott’s “Adrenaline.” In Abbott’s new thriller, “The Last Minute,” Capra’s wife is in a coma and he is desperate to find his infant son. An ex-CIA agent, Capra has the skills and resources for the search.