The Best 19 Books to Read This August

A nanny is found brutally murdered, and the mother of a young girl and boy is beaten nearly to death. The prime suspect is the father, a British aristocrat, who vanishes, leaving his kids to grapple with his legacy of violence. That's the setup of Edgar winner Berry's thrilling second novel, which takes its central premise from a 1970s scandal involving the 7th Earl of Lucan, who disappeared after supposedly killing the family babysitter, believing the victim to have been his wife. In Berry's hands, Lucan-like crimes are a jumping-off point for the fictional story of Claire, the accused's now-34-year-old daughter, who sets out to learn once and for all what really happened and why.