Escape With These Books If You Want Thrilling Action

If dorsal fins and gaping maws leave you cold, there are other hot books this summer, all fitting classic genres.

Like suntan lotion, they smear on easy and evaporate within minutes of reading. So what did you expect, Dostoevsky?

Techno-thriller, psycho killer, Russia in chaos: “Monstrum” by Donald James (Random House) tells of Russia in 2015. As a battle between nationalist and anarchist forces finally ends, the search for a mass killer begins.

Handsome lad, law school grad, Supreme Court in chaos: “The Tenth Justice” by Brad Meltzer (Morrow/Rob Weisbach Books) was written by a 20ish Columbia Law School graduate. A Supreme Court clerk accidentally leaks a forthcoming decision, causing national havoc - and a stampede for movie rights.

And it’s one-two-three, what are we tunneling for? In “Digger” (Bantam), Joseph Flynn tells of a Vietnam vet who dug tunnels to survive during the war, then does the same in his small Illinois hometown. Rambo meets the Great Escape.

Hello, CIA, get me rewrite: “A Firing Offense” by Washington journalist David Ignatius (Random House) gives us a reporter so believably entangled in the spy game, we forget he’s going to be played by Tom Cruise.

Beach blanket brain surgery: “Likely to Die” by Gotham sex-crimes prosecutor Linda Fairstein (Scribner) tells of a murdered neurosurgeon. Turn off the radio, turn the page - and turn over every 10 minutes.