This is another from my all-time top ten crime books. I’ve always loved Ruth Rendell (and discovered recently we share the same birthday). This is a classic of her Barbara Vine oeuvre – a masterly slow burn of secrets and deception and preconceptions (in every sense).
I love Sharon Bolton’s work, and she never fails to deliver a compelling suspenseful read. A terrible mistake reunites six friends twenty years later, when a long-ago promise has to be kept. The Pact is a dark exploration of responsibility, retribution, and friendship tested to destruction.
A chilling and uniquely disturbing 21st-century twist on the unreliable narrator makes for a compulsive and deeply thought-provoking psychological thriller.
Karin Slaughter is a true legend of crime, and this is as sharp and incisive as any of her best. A successful lawyer suddenly finds herself forced to defend a ghost from her past – a past she’s done everything possible to leave behind. Heart-stopping one minute, heart-breaking the next.
An impressive debut by Audrey Audain, exploring the darker side of motherhood. Similar in many ways to Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin (one of the most terrifying books I’ve ever read) but no less compelling for that.
I loved Joseph’s Aidan Waits trilogy and he brings the same gritty realism to this standalone, including the sort of documents and emails you’ll be familiar with from Fawley! Very cleverly done, and definitely keeps you guessing.
Liv Kiernan is an Oxford crime writer friend of mine, though she was born in Ireland and sets her crime series in Dublin. On her birthday, feisty DCS Frankie Sheehan receives a box containing what she assumes is a murder mystery game. But what starts as a bit of harmless fun soon turns very deadly indeed…
Barry Forshaw is a walking encyclopedia of all things noir (as well as a terrifically nice guy), and no crime shelf is complete without this indispensable guide.
One of my all-time favourite crime books, which launched the phenomenal career of Nicci French. I knew nothing about the controversial subject of recovered memories before reading this book, but it makes for a powerful narrative. What do you do if you can’t even trust your own mind?
Rosamund Lupton’s Three Hours is a stunner – an emotional rollercoaster that will chill your blood and break your heart by turns.