If you’ve finished reading Jack Reacher’s latest exploits in Lee Child’s “61 Hours” (Delacorte, $28), where Reacher kicks butt to save a town in South Dakota, here are a few other thrillers to keep yours on the edge of a beach chair.

The Amish may be “near perfect citizens,” but that doesn’t mean they’re any less flawed than us. Linda Castillo’s “Pray for Silence” (Minotaur, $24.99) explores this paradox in a thriller set in rural Pennsylvania and rooted in the landscape of the Amish. Kate Burkholder was raised Amish, but chose not to be baptized after her Rumspringa. Unable to leave her community completely, she’s become the town’s police chief. Castillo’s novel opens with a massacre on an Amish farm (scored high even on my violence meter). When Kate discovers the diary of one of the victims, she realizes this investigation may be too close to her heart to handle. Kate’s a compelling character (certainly her Amish background distinguishes her in the genre). As this intriguing series develops, I hope Castillo learns to trust her own narration. Right now, Kate has too many internal monologues where she reflects on how horrible/disturbing/traumatic something is after she’s already reacted to it. The plotting, setting and Kate are strong enough without this overkill.

If you’re planning to fly soon, you may want to save “Crashers” by Dana Haynes (Minotaur, $24.99) until you return. Instead of a dead body revealing clues to a crime, it’s the body of a plane downed by a terrorist hacker that’s dissected instead. While an investigative team works on the forensics of the flight, another team, including Daria, an ex-Israeli spy (she’d impress even Reacher), tries to infiltrate the Irish terrorist cell that plans to strike again. A few of the characters are types, most have good hair and great abs, but somehow this forensic thriller rises higher than the sum of its parts.

Somali pirates, gunrunners and more bad guys that you could lob a grenade at are chasing extreme runner and “brilliant biochemist,” Emma Caldridge, in Jamie Freveletti’s “Running Dark” (William Morrow, $24.99). Emma is bold and fearless. Plus, she has great legs. They serve her well because while running the Comrades ultramarathon in South Africa she is injected with an unknown drug and the man she trusts most in the world is in some serious trouble on a cruise ship in the Indian Ocean. Emma has to get across Africa and onto the ship before it becomes a deadly chemistry experiment.

Thrillers are all about pacing, and “Running Dark” moves at a sprint.

 

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