You know Cleave better as the guy who wrote Little Bee. In his follow up novel he follows the lives of frenemies Zoe and Kate – best friends and Olympic cycling rivals.

Following the sometimes rising, sometimes falling star of Pip – a teenaged swimming sensation selected to compete for the US at the Olympics. How does a teenager handle that much pressure?

Another swimmer! At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Sydney Stringfellow begins an intense love affair with a German but the affair abruptly ends when political forces tear them apart.

Okay, you know this one’s going to be more about the thrills than the sports, but it’s Patterson, so it’s going to a good ride. A serial killer is hunting members of the International Olympic Committee in the lead up to the London Games.

Another thriller, but this one is set at the Atlanta games and involves a delusional genius and virtually untraceable nuclear weapon. Gulp.

What does literary darling Smith’s debut novel have to do with the Olympics? OK, not a whole lot, I’ll admit, but one of the characters in this sprawling tale of the histories of two intertwined families does go to the Olympics. No really, see if you find it.