In Crooked River by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Pendergast investigates the appearance of sneaker-clad severed feet, eerily floating in the Gulf of Mexico. In American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, a mother and child seeking refuge from Mexico’s cartel wars in the States. In The splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson recounts the darkest year of the war for Britain, in which Churchill “taught the country to be fearless” in the face of a looming invasion and the Blitz.