In continuing to “pack the beach bag … with books” — June is upon us and the waves are beckoning — are nine new titles, including two crossovers from our May 9 (https://tinyurl.com/24rwb2mr) round up and a couple of freebies you’ll want to find room for.

From the wildly, internationally famous (Justin Cronin, Christopher Paolini) to more than a few who deserve to be in that camp, this list is not only long on story, it includes the one beach book you can’t ignore (“until it swims up and bites you on the …”).

Bon appetit.

‘The Ferryman’ by Justin Cronin (Ballantine Books, 530 pages)

Few books, and their authors, can earn attention from the likes of Stephen King (“totally satisfying”), Chris Bohjalian (“brilliant hybrid”) or Andy Weir (“mind-bending”), but Justin Cronin is one of the elect. And “The Ferryman” shows us why (or to be more precise, why again: Cronin is the best-selling author of “The Passage” trilogy and a world-building style unique to his oeuvre). But as good as his current canon is, “The Ferryman” is better. Cronin’s latest tops the charts in the “post-apocalyptic-science fiction” category, but it’s not really that public consensus that shows its worth; it’s more than that.

Prospera, founded by the mysterious Designer, is an archipelago hidden from the ravages of time and an outside world. Those who live there enjoy inordinately long lives, and when they retire (as determined by implanted health monitors) they take a ferry ride to the Nursery, where their bodies are rejuvenated, their memories wiped and life begins anew.

You can imagine the story lines that develop from here, but it’s unlikely you’ll see what Cronin has planned. A long, engaging book, the story moves as fast as the movie it certainly will be from an author who keeps improving, even as he, like us all, inches toward his own ferry ride.

‘Below the Line’ by Lowell Cauffiel (Arcade Crimewise, 311 pages)

Lowell Cauffiel’s “Below the Line” won’t be the most intense book you bring to the beach this summer, but it could be the most fun. Part Hollywood noir, part comedy of errors, Cauffiel’s Tinsel Town crime caper joins a corrupt Hollywood producer, an ex-cop with regrets and career criminal in a satisfying (well, once you add in the roller derby queen, anyway) romp that’s more than part Hollywood hustle.

The story of a former Detroit homicide detective, Edwin Blake, trying to break into the movies could turn out to be the lark of the summer as the author pits the dark side of Hollywood with an everyman-dream of striking gold in California.

‘The Book That Wouldn’t Burn (The Library Trilogy 1)’ by Mark Lawrence (Ace, 571 pages)

Stories spiral, clash and whirl through time in this first offering of a fantasy trilogy poised to enthrall anyone who loves books.

After wolf-men destroy her desert village, Livira comes to Crath City as a refugee. Though young and uneducated, based on her aptitude she earns a position as a trainee in the city’s vast and voluminous library — the same library that serves as prison for Evar and home to the Mechanism, a mysterious structure that can bring any book to life.

Escaping the Mechanism a decade after it had entrapped him and his “siblings,” Evar mounts a quest to track down a mystery woman he can barely remember, one also lost to the Mechanism years before.

When Evar and Livira cross paths, they join forces with the new refugee taking on Evar’s quest as her own. A taut, tightly drawn series of ensuing stories interlock, gradually spooling out thread by thread in this masterfully woven tale.

‘Silent Came the Monster’ by Amy Hill Hearth (Blackstone, 354 pages)

Jaws before “Jaws,” Amy Hill Hearth’s historical thriller is a fictional treatment of a real series of deadly shark attacks that taunted and terrified beachgoers on the sandy shores of New Jersey’s coast in 1916. Replete with sourcing — Hearth is noted for her nonfiction works and those research skills are well adapted here — the real-life reporting and ear for period language is brought brutally to life under the author’s pen.

Though the story is laced with fact, Heath advances a fictional protagonist, Dr. Edwin Halsey, whose secretive past ties him to the current attacks. Besieged with conspiracy theories — German submarines patrolling the coast, for one — Halsey, like his future counterpart, Hooper, has a hard time getting anyone to believe his theory that a shark is responsible for the assaults.

A well-told story, including an addendum of books, newspapers and websites to explore further, not only fills a historical gap, but is perfect for that gap between Tuesday to Tuesday of July 11-18 — aka, Shark Week.

‘Fractal Noise: A Fractalverse Novel,’ by Christopher Paolini (Tor Books, 304 pages; Macmillan Audio, 9 hours 57 minutes)

In this throbbing masterwork, Christopher Paolini returns us to the Fractalverse for a second installment in a sweeping space opera that launched the author’s science fiction foray in 2019.

Building on ship-minds and xenobiology, Paolini takes us aboard the Adamura with Alex Crichton, a scientist whose troubled and recent past includes the death of his wife, Layla, to the maul of a wild animal on the planet where the pair were colonists. Working through his grief isn’t easy, as he’s not the only one aboard the ship with significant baggage. As the crew travels toward the remote Talos VII and an enormous, unworldly crater there that is giving off a continuous series of timed pulses in a mysterious message, Crichton and the others are tasked to evaluate and understand the source.

As with his earlier journey into the Fractalverse (“To Sleep in a Sea of Stars,” review and interview at https://tinyurl.com/4km3j6np) Paolini offers hard science mingled with mystical storytelling, though here some light edits (“0800 at night” should be 2100 hours; and “1,500 kcal” is a really, really lot of calories) would polish the brass. Still, “Fractal Noise” is a worthy successor to “To Sleep in a Sea of Stars,” and it’ll more than fill out your own universal reading list.

And a last note on the audio format reviewed here: a sound suggestion is to get both the hardcover (you’ll want this series on your shelf) and the audio version. As she did with “To Sleep,” Jennifer Hale does a masterful reading of the novel, and — kudos to the sound effects team — the constant, rhythmic thrumming of the pulsating hole will jar you in a way not felt since taking a long shower while reading “The Long Rain” (tip, to avoid soggy pages, try a haunting version of Ray Bradury’s short story at https://tinyurl.com/4uxc2yce).

‘Love Follows Murder: In the Land of Enchantment,’ by Maryrose Carroll (Big Table Books, 112 pages)

Self-described as “transformed into a writer and poet” by following the path of the “love of her life,” the poet Paul Carroll who lost his battle with cancer in 1996, Maryrose Carroll is no stranger to nonfiction: “Beats Me: Love, Poetry, Censorship from Chicago to Appalachia,” “Tales From Beaver Dam” and “The Secret of Contentment” are among her myriad titles.

In “Love Follows Murder” she shifts her pen, although, as she said, “It took 60 years to turn the memory of murder into my first fictional book.” The wait was worth it.

Carroll’s murder cum love story fictionalizes the real account of a 1962 killing: “Sixty years ago, I saw the victim of a gruesome murder wheeled in Embed Hospital in New Mexico.”

Today, the hospital no longer remains, but the story lingers as the author’s brief rendering of the blossoming love between a white sheriff and American Indian deputy while tracking the path of a killer on horseback in the surroundings of Taos Pueblo, New Mexico, is a twice-told tale — but one presented as fresh as the trail Luke and Ava travel together.

Knowing a bit of Carroll’s own background as offered through her nonfiction certainly informs the narrative, but “Love Follows Murder” is a worthy successor to her earlier works, capturing the imagination of a land, a love and the evil that threatens to separate two heroes.

‘Spider-Man: Fake Red’ by Yusuke Osawa (Viz Media, 328 pages, graphic novel)

And speaking of heroes: Few are the young boys and girls who don’t fantasize about having superpowers — and super adventures — of their own. Yu is no different. His new high school is … troubling … and he’s not making the grade either academically or socially. So, when he finds what appears to be a very realistic Spider-Man costume, he doesn’t hesitate to try it on for size. Predictably, photo ops and social media likes ensue. At that point, it’s all fun and games — until it isn’t.

With the real Spidey no where to be found and trouble lurking down every dark alley, Yu is thrust into the limelight as the city’s super savior — should he chose to take the mission.

Ably and enchantingly written and drawn by Yusuke Osawa — the Japanese artist who has written and illustrated, among others, manga adaptations for “The Mandalorian” and the “The Ninth Jedi” — the author’s take on an age-old hero’s tale is presented fresh for a new generation of graphic readers.

And before I leave …

How about a pair of freebies to get the summer off to a great literary start?

John Hood, whose new historical fantasy series is as fresh as anything you’ll find today, is offering a wonderful taste of the feast that is “The Folklore Cycle” with two free novelettes: “The Bard: A Mountain Folk Tale” and “The Pixie Light: A Forest Folk Tale.”

Find both at folklorecycle.com and click on the link, Tales in the Series. There, you’ll be transported to a world that makes reading about our nation’s past as much fun as watching the movies these books are destined to be.

If you haven’t read Hood’s magnum opus in process, you’re in for a surprise. Read a review of Book 2 in the series, “Forest Folk,” at https://tinyurl.com/y4dk4wns.