guardian book reviews thrillers

The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup

City on Fire by Don Winslow; A Tidy Ending by Joanna Cannon; Say Her Name by Dreda Say Mitchell and Ryan Carter; Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare; and Three Assassins by Kotaro Isaka

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share via Email

City on Fire by Don Winslow (HarperCollins, £20) This first book in a projected trilogy about warring mobster families is set in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1986. The Italians and the Irish have carved up the city, existing in relative harmony while controlling the trucking industry and the docks. The author makes overt comparisons with the Iliad, and modern-day Helen of Troy Pam provides a convenient excuse for a bunch of men trapped in a cycle of violence to embark on a disastrous feud, although this time it’s due to a drunken grope rather than divine intervention. In the middle of it all is docker Danny Ryan, his dreams of escape stymied by his family connection to the Murphy clan, for whom he occasionally works; Danny now finds himself embroiled in the conflict. Winslow’s previous “Cartel” trilogy is an astonishing achievement that will be hard to beat, but on the strength of this immersive and humane tale of fate, free will, loyalty and betrayal, his new series will rank alongside it.

A Tidy Ending by Joanna Cannon ( Borough , £16.99) Cannon uses her chosen milieu – the suburban street where curtains twitch, the chintzy cheeriness of the old folk’s home, quotidian tragedies and buried truths – to explore the inner lives of outsiders. In her third novel, 43-year-old Linda takes centre stage: a socially awkward mixture of naive and sly, she was already the odd-girl-out at school when her piano teacher father’s inappropriate behaviour towards young students meant she and her mother had to leave town, and she has never come to terms with what happened. Her adult life is an endless round of cleaning, cooking and stints in a charity shop. While husband Terry spends his free time in front of the television, she dreams over the upmarket catalogues that arrive for the house’s previous occupant, Rebecca, whom she decides to find and befriend. Meanwhile, neighbourhood gossip is in overdrive because local girls have been going missing. Compellingly creepy, with precisely observed characterisation, A Tidy Ending combines pathos with lovely flashes of humour and a wholly unexpected ending.

Say Her Name by Dreda Say Mitchell and Ryan Carter (Thomas & Mercer, £8.99) Adopted as an eight-year-old by Cherry and Carlton “Sugar” McNeil, Eva, a woman of dual heritage, decides to track down her birth parents after Cherry’s death and her suspension, on spurious grounds, from her work as a hospital doctor. Eva’s white father, a rich businessman, is easily found – although he may not be all that he seems and she, still emotionally raw, is gullible – but her mother proves more elusive. Ex-police officer Sugar seems to know more than he is letting on and is evasive when asked why he left the force. Eva’s journey takes her back to 1994 and the disappearance – barely acknowledged by the police, let alone the media – of four Black women … Mystery novels can be good vehicles for examining social issues and Mitchell and Carter do an excellent job, providing an engrossing narrative as well as a heartfelt and eloquent exploration of the iniquities of racial bias in cases where women go missing.

Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare (HQ, £14.99) Lena Aldridge, narrator of Hare’s second novel, is also of dual heritage, and the person missing from her life is her white mother, who left her to be brought up by her impecunious musician father. In 1936, Lena is singing in a seedy nightspot in London’s Soho when its owner – also the cheating husband of her best friend – is murdered; she decides to take up an out-of-the-blue offer of a first-class ticket on the Queen Mary and a role in a Broadway show. Lena may have her secrets – not only has she disposed of evidence from the murder, but she, is also “passing” for white – but when she becomes involved with the wealthy, dysfunctional Abernathy family and people start dying, she realises that there might be more to her lucky break than she’d imagined. Short, unnecessary sections in “murderer’s italics” are an irritant, but the conflicted, appealing heroine and Christie-type mystery make this an engrossing read.

Three Assassins by Kotaro Isaka, translated by Sam Malissa (Harvill Secker, £14.99) First published in Japan in 2004, Three Assassins is, in many respects, an odd book. Suzuki is seeking revenge for the deliberate hit-and-run killing of his wife by the “idiot son” of the leader of Fräulein, a criminal organisation so comprehensive in the evil it does that, he notes, “the more that’s revealed to him the more improbable it all seems”. Wanting revenge, he gives up his teaching job to join Fräulein and gets drawn into the world of professional assassins, including the titular hired killers: The Whale, whose MO is convincing people to commit suicide; Cicada, who is handy with a knife; and The Pusher, whose speciality is shoving people under passing cars. Ghosts abound, motivation can be murky, and the characters circle each other like sharks in this frustrating yet mesmerising tale of how life is simultaneously cheap and precious, and the past catches up with us all.

{{topLeft}}

{{bottomLeft}}

{{topRight}}

{{bottomRight}}

{{heading}}

• Crime and thrillers roundup
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on WhatsApp
• Share on Messenger

{{#isVideo}} {{/isVideo}}{{#isGallery}} {{/isGallery}}{{#isAudio}} {{/isAudio}} {{#isComment}} {{/isComment}} {{headline}}

• {{ title }}
• Sign in / Register

Switch edition

• {{ displayName }}

Deadly Pleasures

Mystery magazine, the guardian’s best crime and thrillers 2020 (u.k.).

The Guardian’s Best Crime and Thrillers of 2020 By Laura Wilson

THE MAN IN THE STREET by Trevor Wood TRUE STORY by Kate Reed Petty DJINN PATROL ON THE PURPLE LINE by Deepa Anappara BLACK RAIN FALLING by Jacob Ross THREE-FIFTHS by John Vercher (2019 in U.S. and a Barry Award Nomination) THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB by Richard Osman YOUR HOUSE WILL PAY by Steph Cha (2019 in U.S. and a Barry Award Nomination) WHEN NO ONE IS WATCHING by Alyssa Cole LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND by Rumaan Alam BLACKTOP WASTELAND by S. A. Cosby REMAIN SILENT by Susie Steiner BROKEN (six novellas) by Don Winslow MAGPIE LANE by Lucy Atkins OUR FATHERS by Rebecca Wait SUMMER OF RECKONING by Marion Brunet WE BEGIN AT THE END by Chris Whitaker THE SEARCHER by Tana French THE LAST PROTECTOR by Andrew Taylor THE DEVIL AND THE DARK WATER by Stuart Turton BENT by Joe Thomas CRY BABY by Mark Billingham

Click here to read the entire article by Laura Wilson, on of the U.K.’s top mystery reviewers and an accomplished crime fiction author herself.

Editor’s Note: I greatly enjoyed four of the novels listed above: THE MAN IN THE STREET by Trevor Wood (winner of the John Creasey Dagger), THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB by Richard Osman, REMAIN SILENT by Susie Steiner, and BLACKTOP WASTELAND by S. A. Cosby. THE SEARCHER by Tana French didn’t do anything for me, but I’m in a minority because it is cropping up on most of the Best of 2020 lists. I hope to read THE DEVIL AND THE DARK WATER by Stuart Turton by year’s end so I can evaluate it for a possible Barry Award nomination.

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

House of Beckham Tom Bower's new biography review – a symphony of snide

Stinginess, sexts and a nazi tee six revelations from the house of beckham.

History books Challenger by Adam Higginbotham review – chronicle of a disaster foretold

The big idea Can you inherit memories from your ancestors?

Fiction War by Louis-Ferdinand Céline review – disturbing, compelling, incomplete

Carol Rumens's poem of the week Prodigal Son by Gabriele Tinti

Graphic novel of the month George Sand: True Genius, True Woman review – a pleasure and an education

Observer book of the week The Friday Afternoon Club by Griffin Dunne review – a Hollywood insider with an outsider’s eye

In brief sandwich; how to love your daughter; mapmatics – review.

• All stories

What to read

Paperbacks This month’s best paperbacks: Zadie Smith, Matthew Perry and more

Five of the best Five of the best fashion memoirs

100 best novels of all time From The Pilgrim's Progress to True History of the Kelly Gang

The 100 best books of the 21st century

100 best nonfiction books of all time From Naomi Klein to the Bible – the full list

Non-fiction reviews.

Arundhati Roy The Architecture of Modern Empire review – two decades of fire

Autobiography and memoir The Friday Afternoon Club by Griffin Dunne review – Hollywood tales

Autobiography and memoir Scattered by Aamna Mohdin review – the road to survival

Science and nature books Systemic by Layal Liverpool review – the price of prejudice

Biography books Broken Threads by Mishal Husain review – a spectacular family chronicle of partition

Politics books Hamas: The Quest for Power review – the men behind the masks

Autobiography and memoir Not That I’m Bitter by Helen Lederer review – funny lessons from the comedy fringe

Fiction & poetry reviews.

Fiction in translation Hungry for What by María Bastarós review – darkly compelling tales from Spain

Thrillers of the month crime and thrillers of the month – review.

Fiction The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry review – a wild western

Fiction Scaffolding by Lauren Elkin review – an erudite first novel with horny energy

Crime and thrillers roundup The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup

Fiction Sandwich by Catherine Newman review – emotional crisis and comedy in Cape Cod

Fiction Cecilia by K-Ming Chang review – teenage kicks

Children's and ya books.

Children's book reviews round-up Young adult books roundup – reviews

Children and teenagers Children’s and teens roundup – the best new picture books and novels

Children's book reviews round-up The best new chapter books

Sulaiman addonia i’m taking writing back to the rock’n’roll era.

Naomi Klein Nobody’s perfect – but that’s not an excuse for doing nothing

‘Don’t read just one book about Sri Lanka’ VV Ganeshananthan on her civil war novel

‘I wouldn’t call it a victory’ Fossil Free Books organisers on Baillie Gifford’s exit from literary festival funding

Lorrie Moore I identify with Beth in Little Women, who dies

Palestinian author Raja Shehadeh All this solidarity from the world – yet nothing has changed

Rose Tremain Sex scenes are like arias in opera. They have to move the story forwards

The books of my life Caroline Lucas: ‘Rory Stewart finds Westminster as dysfunctional as I do’

Big idea the big idea: can you inherit memories from your ancestors.

Where to start with Where to start with: Rachel Cusk

You may have missed.

Adolescence expert Lucy Foulkes Here’s why a smartphone ban isn’t the answer, and what we should do instead

‘I believed I was one of the cool kids’ Ingrid Persaud on her journey from legal academic to artist to novelist

‘He made every sentence electric’ Martin Amis remembered by Tina Brown, his old friend and devoted editor

‘He queered the hell out of it’ The man behind Shakespeare’s same-sex love sonnets

Most viewed, most viewed in books, most viewed across the guardian, stinginess, sexts and a nazi tee: six revelations from the house of beckham, the big idea: can you inherit memories from your ancestors, house of beckham by tom bower review – a symphony of snide, what does israel fear from palestine by raja shehadeh review – in pursuit of peace, book about book bans banned by florida school board, i’m an expert on adolescence: here’s why a smartphone ban isn’t the answer, and what we should do instead, challenger by adam higginbotham review – chronicle of a disaster foretold, poem of the week: prodigal son by gabriele tinti, the 100 best books of the 21st century, the architecture of modern empire by arundhati roy review – two decades of fire, portugal 2-1 czech republic: euro 2024 – as it happened, vermont republican secretly poured water into colleague’s bag over months, israeli foreign minister says decision on all-out war against hezbollah is near, more than 550 hajj pilgrims die in mecca as temperatures exceed 50c, astronomers detect sudden awakening of black hole 1m times mass of sun, mark rutte lined up to be nato secretary general after orbán deal, ‘it wasn’t suicide … they were murdered’: inside the jonestown cult massacre, french far-right leader condemns mbappé’s anti-extremism remarks, spanish police search for uk teenager missing in tenerife, tory donor who gave boris johnson £500,000 urges public to vote labour.

• Autobiography and memoir
• Biography books
• Politics books
• History books

We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article.

The best thrillers and crime novels to read

Looking for a gripping page turner? These thrillers and crime novels are must-reads.

Whether you're reading it in print, on your e-reader or listening to the audiobook , we've got some great page-turners to add to your to-read list...

Miss Austen Investigates by Jessica Bull

When I first heard about this book, which casts Jane Austen as an amateur detective, I thought it sounded a bit gimmicky – but it is so clever and well done. When Jane’s younger brother, Georgy, who is disabled, is falsely accused of a murder, she must clear his name and find the real killer.

The Woman on the Ledge by Ruth Mancini

The Woman On The Ledge by Ruth Mancini

This twisty mystery is truly original and I didn’t have a clue what was coming! When a woman falls from the 25th floor of an office building in the heart of London, Tate – the last person to see her – is arrested on suspicion of murder. But had they really not met before, as Tate claims?

The Square by Celia Walden

One of the key things I look for in a thriller is that it keeps me guessing, and this did, brilliantly. When ‘fitfluencer’ Laila is found dead, her neighbours in fancy Addison Square are all suspects – especially as it becomes clear that one of them had been cyberstalking her.

A Bird in Winter by Louise Doughty

A Bird In Winter by Louise Doughty

While Doughty’s thriller Apple Tree Yard was a nail-biting courtroom drama, this is more introspective – but just as engaging. When intelligence officer Heather realises she’s likely to be implicated in internal wrongdoings, she goes on the run, but who and what is she fleeing from?

The Shell House Detectives by Emylia Hall

This cosy crime novel from the author of The Book Of Summers is set in a small Cornish town. Recently widowed Ally is walking her dog on the beach when she discovers a young man who’s fallen from the cliffs above – or was he pushed? When the police seem to be getting nowhere, Ally teams up with former policeman Jayden to investigate.

The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz

The Twist Of A Knife by Anthony Horowitz

Another clever thriller from Horowitz, in which he stars himself (as the main suspect!). When legendary theatre critic Harriet Throsby is found dead in her London townhouse, and the murder weapon is covered in Horowitz’s prints, it’s up to DI Daniel Hawthorne to clear his name.

Black Thorn by Sarah Hilary

A dream housing complex becomes a nightmare when six people are found dead and the community is evacuated. Agnes, an autistic young woman, is determined to find out what happened and who’s to blame – no matter how close to home that may be.

Just Another Missing Person by Gillian McAllister

McAllister has become one of my favourite writers with her unexpected thrillers. DCI Julia Day is investigating the mysterious disappearance of Olivia Johnson, who was last seen entering a dead-end alleyway that she never came back out of. But the case is closer to home than Julia realises in this intricately plotted read.

The Last Passenger by Will Dean

This thriller has the most spine-chilling set-up ever: Caz wakes up after her first night on a luxury cruise to find that not only has her partner, Pete, disappeared but she’s entirely alone in the middle of the ocean. Where the story goes from there (without giving spoilers) is a rollercoaster ride. I barely had any nails left by the end!

Windmill Hill by Lucy Atkins

Atkins’s last book, Magpie Lane, was a word-of-mouth hit and this new thriller is just as intelligent and gripping. Astrid is an 82-year-old eccentric former actor who lives in a windmill with her housekeeper, Mrs Baker. Both women have big secrets they’re trying to get away from – but the past is fast catching up with them.

The Family Game by Catherine Steadman

I was so engrossed in this terrifically twisty thriller that I missed my Tube stop! The story centres around Harriet, a British novelist living in New York, who finds herself an unwilling participant in a game of cat and mouse when she gets engaged to the heir of a wealthy and powerful family. Think Succession on steroids!

The Three Dahlias by Katy Watson

Fans of Golden Age crime novels will love this delightful country house mystery about three rival actors who team up to solve a murder. Fans and VIPs have gathered together at the home of legendary crime writer Lettice Davenport for a weekend of fun and games, but things take a sinister turn when a real murder happens during a re-enactment.

A Game of Lies by Clare Mackintosh

A Game Of Lies by Clare Mackintosh

Reality shows have become a popular subject for crime writers, but this new thriller from the award-winning author notches the tension up a level with a smart twist where the participants all have closely guarded secrets. This sequel to The Last Party stars one of my favourite detectives (in a crowded field), Ffion Morgan, who is again torn between her job and her private life.

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

This twisty thriller reminded me of my favourite Agatha Christie novel, And Then There Were None. Daisy and her family are reunited at her grandmother’s Cornish island home to celebrate her 80th birthday. Once the tide comes in, they’re cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours – then, on the stroke of midnight, the murders begin… Completely brilliant.

Viper The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett

The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett

The author of the word-of-mouth hot The Appeal is back with another original, ingenious whodunnit. At its heart is the disappearance of a teacher during a class trip back in 70s that is in some way connected to the famous children’s author Edith Twyford. Her former pupils, led by ex-convict, Steve, band together to the solve the mystery.

Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz

This stood out among the many thrillers published this month because it focuses on the victim and her life rather her killer. With echoes of The Lovely Bones, it's narrated by Alice, a teenage girl found dead in the Hudson and Ruby, the woman who discovered her body.

Reputation by Sarah Vaughan

This timely thriller whisks you into the corridors of Westminster to show the kind of scrutiny women in the public eye face. MP Emma Webster is on the up until a tabloid journalist she’s entangled with is found dead in her home. Smart and hugely compelling.

Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

Notes On An Execution by Danya Kakufka

I stayed awake long into the night reading this electrifying tale of a serial killer on death row awaiting his execution and what had led him to that point. Woven into his narrative are those of three women in his life: his mother, his ex-wife and the detective who caught him.

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

This murder mystery by the Pointless presenter is brilliant: smart, charming and wryly funny. When a property developer is found dead, octogenarians Joyce, Elizabeth, Ibrahim and Ron, who all live in a luxury retirement village, band together to solve the crime. This is the first in a series and I can’t wait to read more!

Watch Her Fall by Erin Kelly

This slow-burn thriller set in the ballet world is Kelly’s best yet. The knives are out when Ava, prima ballerina at the London Russian Ballet Company, gets the coveted role of Odette/Odile in Swan Lake. The storyline cleverly mirrors the ballet with switched identities, deception and multi-fold clever twists and turns.

Hodder & Stoughton Watch Her Fall by Erin Kelly

The House Guest by Charlotte Northedge

When Kate arrives in London to look for her missing older sister, she’s drawn into a friendship with the enigmatic Della, a life coach who runs a support group for young women. Kate ignores the warnings signs until she is fully entangled in Della’s life. This twisty thriller is jam-packed with tense moments and a growing sense of unease.

The Perfect Lie by Jo Spain

This clever thriller starts with a bang: what starts as a normal day for Erin and Danny, ends with him jumping from their balcony to his death, just as his Police colleagues knock on the door. 18 months later Erin is charged with murder. Just as you think you’ve got a grip on this twisty story, it goes off in another direction!

Quercus The Perfect Lie by Jo Spain

Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner

When Helen meets outgoing Rachel at antenatal classes, she gets sucked into a friendship with her until Rachel has taken over every aspect of Helen's life, including her spare room. Rachel's motives start to seem dubious but what is she hiding? There are secrets everywhere in this tense, taut thriller that pulls you along with it right to the last page.

Raven Books Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner

Saint X by Alexis Shaitkin

Claire is only seven when her 18 year old sister is found dead while the family is on holiday on the paradise island of Saint X. 25 years later, Claire comes into contact with one of the suspects and decides to befriend him in order to find out the truth of what happened. If you like a slow burn thriller where character, location and social issues are just as important as the crime, this is for you.

Picador Saint X by Alexis Shaitkin

Trust Me by TM Logan

The king of the fast-paced thriller is back! I barely paused for breath as I raced through this gripping thriller about a woman who is handed a baby to look after on a train – and then the mother vanishes.

Zaffre Trust Me by TM Logan

House Of Correction by Nicci French

In this clever courtroom drama, Tabitha is on trial for the murder of a neighbour. The evidence against her is strong and, due to the medication she takes, she has virtually no memory of what happened, but she’s sure she’s innocent and has to build a case to clear her name.

Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz

I absolutely love this series of fiendishly clever literary mysteries, which started with The Word Is Murder, and I wolfed this new one down. The clues to a real-life murder in a fancy hotel lie within the pages of a crime novel and its editor must work out the links to solve it.

Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell

Once again, Jewell delivers a story with characters you care about and enough twists to keep you hooked. When teen Saffyre goes missing, a teacher who’s been dismissed for sexual misconduct is the main suspect. But there are others in Saffyre’s life who have much to hide.

Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins

It’s been a while since I’ve been as sucked in by a thriller as I was with this one. Not only does the plot keep you guessing, the characters are interesting and well-drawn and there’s a real sense of menace. When the eight-year old daughter of an Oxford University lecturer disappears in the middle of the night, the police turn to her nanny, Dee, for answers.

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

Her debut thriller, The Hunting Party , was a number one bestseller and Foley looks set to have another hit. Power couple Jules and Will have whisked their friends and family away to a remote Irish island for their high-profile wedding. All is going to the bride’s (highly detailed) plan, until a scream during the evening do and a body is found. Foley is brilliant at building up the tension to breaking point and the creepy setting really adds to the atmosphere.

Three Hours by Rosemary Lupton

I hardly dared to breathe as I raced through this incredible book, set in a school under siege by masked gunmen. Although it’s the very definition of a page-turner, the storyline about a pupil who is a Syrian refugee with PTSD makes it especially moving.

The Recovery Of Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel

This spine-chilling thriller tells the story of Rose who spent 18 years of her life believing she was ill. In reality, her mother was slowly poisoning her. Having spent time in prison, Rose's mother has been released and Rose agrees she can live with her. Her mother might think she can still manipulate her but Rose has her own agenda - who will win the battle of wills? Read it for the two incredibly complex central characters and the propulsive plot.

The Other Mrs by Mary Kubica

When Sadie and her husband Will return to her home town, they're hoping for a fresh start. But when one of their neighbours is killed it sends Sadie into a spiral. She becomes haunted by the old house they live in and memories from her past. Nothing is as it seems in this atmospheric, serpentine thriller. BUY NOW

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

When Libby turns 25, she receives an inheritance: the huge house in Chelsea where her parents were found dead in mysterious circumstances when she was just a baby. She sets out to uncover the truth about what happened. Lisa Jewell is brilliant at creating a menacing atmosphere and this is almost unbearably tense at times, with a knock-the-wind-out-of-you ending.

The Lying Room by Nicci French

This rare standalone thriller from the crime-writing duo is a stonker. Neve, a married mum of two, has been having a fling with her boss. When he texts her to meet him at his flat, she's shocked to find him dead with a bloody hammer by his side. What she decides to do next sets off a ripple effect of deception and her lies are soon spiralling out of control. This tense and clever page-turner demands to be read in one sitting.

Platform Seven by Louise Doughty

From the author who is best known for Apple Tree Yard comes a thriller unlike anything I've read before. Part mystery, part ghost story, it follows Lisa Evans who killed herself at Peterborough train station 18 months ago and is now trapped in purgatory until she can piece together what led to her death. While the plot is gripping, it’s the well-drawn characters that make it something special.

Through The Wall by Caroline Corcoran

Harriet and Lexie are neighbours who have never met but from what they’ve heard through the thin wall between their flats, they’re deeply envious of each other's lives. Harriet is a party girl, while Lexie is settled with boyfriend Tom and desperate to be a mum. Their interest in each other soon spirals into an obsession. Some thrillers peter out, but this atmospheric read really ramps up the pace as it nears its chilling end.

The Most Difficult Thing by Charlotte Philby

The author is the granddaughter of double-agent, Kim Philby, which gives this spy thriller set in upper-class London a real ring of authenticity. It opens with Anna walking out on her life with her husband and six-year-old twins, intending never to see them again. Compulsive and chilling.

Sleep by CL Taylor

Anna is trapped in a hotel on a remote Scottish island during a storm with seven guests, when she realises one knows more about her past than they’ve let on. Sleep by CL Taylor is everything we love in a thriller: creepy, tense and pacy enough to get your heart racing.

The Sentence Is Death by Anthony Horowitz

I’m a big fan of Anthony Horowitz’s very clever mysteries. A successful celebrity-divorce lawyer is the victim in The Sentence Is Death, but which of his many enemies did it?

Like this article? Sign up to our newsletter to get more articles like this delivered straight to your inbox.

@media(max-width: 64rem){.css-o9j0dn:before{margin-bottom:0.5rem;margin-right:0.625rem;color:#ffffff;width:1.25rem;bottom:-0.2rem;height:1.25rem;content:'_';display:inline-block;position:relative;line-height:1;background-repeat:no-repeat;}.loaded .css-o9j0dn:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/goodhousekeeping/static/images/Clover.5c7a1a0.svg);}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.loaded .css-o9j0dn:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/goodhousekeeping/static/images/Clover.5c7a1a0.svg);}} Book Reviews

10 best books to read now

Top parenting books

How I write: David Nicholls

13 best fantasy books

All the best new cookbooks to buy now

13 best romance novels

Books for every holiday destination

How I write: Cathy Rentzenbrink

12 best book festivals

Women's Prize for Fiction longlist is here

How I write: Clare Mackintosh

• Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
• Thrillers & Suspense

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Audiobook Price: $17.50 $17.50

Save: $10.01 $10.01 (57%)

Buy for others

Buying and sending ebooks to others.

• Select quantity
• Buy and send eBooks
• Recipients can read on any device

These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold.

Sorry, there was a problem.

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

The Fifth Doctrine: An International Spy Thriller (The Guardian Book 3) Kindle Edition

• Book 3 of 3 The Guardian
• Print length 361 pages
• Language English
• Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
• Publisher MIRA
• Publication date March 19, 2019
• File size 2039 KB
• Page Flip Enabled
• Word Wise Enabled
• Enhanced typesetting Enabled
• See all details

• Customers Also Enjoyed
• By Karen Robards
• Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
• Thrillers & Suspense

Editorial Reviews

About the author.

Karen Robards is the New York Times , USA Today , and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of fifty novels and one novella. She is the winner of six Silver Pen awards and numerous other awards.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The fifth doctrine, harlequin enterprises limited.

I am not a traitor.

Like a neon warning sign, the words flashed through Lynette Holbrook's increasingly chaotic thoughts in time to the accelerated beating of her heart.

But then again, maybe she was. If she went through with this. Maybe she should stop, right now, before —

"Finish up, people." Jim Cillizza, her supervisor, stood in the middle of the fluorescent-lit, two-car-garage-sized room looking around at the twenty-four employees of NSA contractor Crane Bernard Sherman, of whom Lynette was one. A portly, balding and good-natured fifty-seven-year-old, Jim had rolled the sleeves of his blue dress shirt up to the elbows because, despite the freezing temperatures of the mid-December night outside, the enclosed space was stuffy and hot. "Ten minutes."

Ten minutes to finish what she was doing and sign out of the program forever. Ten minutes to get the last of the information into the system.

Ten minutes to decide the course of the rest of her life.

It was 3:50 a.m. By four, when she lined up with the others to exit the room, the die would be cast.

Her throat was dry and her palms were damp with sweat as her fingers flew over the keys, typing in the last few pages of what had been document after document containing some of the United States' most highly protected military secrets. The files were ECI — exceptionally controlled information, material so sensitive that it was not kept online, not uploaded to the cloud, and only existed as hard copies stored in safes.

Now all those files had been transferred to a closed computer system located in a SCIF, or sensitive compartmented information facility. This particular one was a state-of-the-art underground bunker beneath a deceptively nondescript office building in DC. The walls were steel-reinforced concrete. There were no windows, and the only door was both constantly monitored via camera and under armed guard. The room had been specially outfitted with the latest anti-surveillance and anti-intrusion technology. The computers themselves were linked to the others in the room, but not to any outside source so as to eliminate the possibility that the system could be hacked. The transfer was being undertaken to make the tens of thousands of pages searchable by the few who had sufficiently high-level clearance to gain access to the room.

For now, those few were augmented by herself and the other employees of Crane Bernard Sherman who had been brought in for this task. Like herself, her co-workers all sat in front of computers busily inputting the last of the files. The click-click-click of computer keys formed a muted backdrop to the hiss of the antiquated heating system. After tonight, the project would be finished and they, the subcontractors, would be gone.

And if she did what she planned, what she'd come in to work tonight intending to do, soon afterward all the terrible secrets, all the lies, all the deadly information contained in those files would be exposed for the entire world to examine and, hopefully, do something about.

Only she was starting to get cold feet.

So why did she feel like one?

"We're talking the fucking apocalypse here! But we can stop it. You can stop it. You'll be a goddamned hero, baby," Cory Allen, her boyfriend, interrupted, rounding on her even before she'd finished voicing her concerns to him. That had been exactly three weeks ago last night. As he'd listened to her, he'd run his hands through his hair with agitation and paced the combination living/dining space of her small apartment. Notwithstanding her security clearance and the nondisclosure agreement that was part of the terms of her employment, she'd found herself unable to keep the enormity of what she'd learned to herself and had told him some of the truly terrifying things in the documents she'd been typing into the system. Not everything, just the worst of it, the parts that had started keeping her awake nights.

The end-of-the-world parts.

"How?" she'd asked, looking up at him from the spot where she sat with her jeans-clad legs and stocking feet tucked up beside her on her well-worn couch. Cory was so good-looking, tall and well-built and even a little adorably nerdy with his ratty cardigan and wire-rimmed glasses, that sometimes she found it hard to believe that he was actually hers. She was a bit of a nerd girl herself, plumpish with ordinary brown hair, unremarkable features, and her own black-framed glasses with thick lenses that had earned her the nickname Mrs. Magoo in high school. When he'd slid onto the stool beside her in the bar where she'd gone to meet a potential match from a dating site who'd never shown up, she'd been so sure he couldn't be interested in her that when he'd asked if he could buy her a drink she'd said a curt no, and kept on nursing her strawberry daiquiri. But when it came time to pay her bill and she'd discovered that her wallet was missing from her purse, and he'd offered to pay for her, she'd let him. After that, one thing had led to another, and here they were. He'd come into her life not long after her mother's death, when everything had been gray and sad and she'd been so, so lonely. Sometimes she wondered if her mother, from wherever she was now, had steered him in her direction. In the two short months they'd been together, he'd made her happier than she'd ever been. She was hoping — fingers crossed, toes crossed, everything crossed — to spend the rest of her life with him.

Assuming that she, and an untold number of other inhabitants of the planet Earth, had a rest of their lives.

Because Cory was right. The secrets in those papers painted a bloodcurdling picture of a looming apocalypse. One that a select few in power knew was hanging over them all like the sword of Damocles, while no one else did.

Unless somebody did something. Somebody like her.

All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men (or in her case, a woman) to do nothing.

Cory had said that to her. He'd also, in answer to her question of how ? told her exactly what she could do to maybe stop the worst from happening. And from that moment on they'd talked about it, analyzed it, argued about it, agonized over it, until she'd accepted that it was on her to do something, because there was no one else.

So here she was. Doing what she had to do.

Only she was starting to feel that maybe she shouldn't. Maybe the tightness of her chest and the knot in her stomach were trying to tell her something.

Like, walk away.

"Five minutes," Cillizza boomed from right behind her. She jumped, then gave a self-conscious little laugh as he said, "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you," and leaned over her shoulder to scrutinize her monitor.

Her heart gave a wild thump. Her fingers froze on the keys for just a fraction of a second — Can he tell? Will he know? — then resumed typing as she forced herself to carry on, to look at the printed page she was copying, to key in the words, to act like nothing was wrong.

"That the last page?" Cillizza asked. His face was close enough so that she could feel his breath stirring her hair. He was still studying her monitor, watching with unnerving attention as letters coalesced into words behind a blinking cursor —

What's he looking at? What does he see?

She could feel sweat pop out on her forehead.

Please don't let him notice anything.

"One more." Her throat was so tight she sounded like she was being strangled, but he appeared to notice nothing amiss because he straightened and, to her enormous relief, moved away.

"Three minutes. Everybody should be finishing up," Cillizza said to the group at large. "Chop-chop. Let's get it done."

Lynette barely managed not to collapse in a puddle of flop sweat on the floor beside her chair. She kept typing, her fingers skimming the keys, her mind barely registering the words. She was all too conscious, horribly conscious, of what she had done, of what was happening, of what she intended to do.

The spyder she'd introduced into the system was invisible as it scraped data out of it. The web crawler software was designed to search, index and collate into a single file certain information identified by a series of key words. It was an automated process, and all she had to do to make it work was keep the small flash drive in place in the USB port until the download could be completed.

Which was taking place now, even as Cillizza had leaned over to look at her screen, even as she finished up the last of her work, even as minutes turned into seconds and counted down.

Her sweater, which she'd removed presumably because of the room's heat, was a fluffy pale gray cardigan with a knitted-in pattern of huge pink cabbage roses. Puddled on the desk beside her, it hid the flash drive from view. But she was terrified that there was something on the monitor, some small symbol that would give the spyder's presence away that she might have missed but Cillizza could have spotted. She was terrified that the system itself might detect the presence of an intruder, and could even now be sending out a silent scream to whatever scary government entity monitored such things. She —

"Okay, time's up. Log out, we got to go," Cillizza announced from the center of the room. They'd arrived at 9:00 p.m. and were leaving at 4:00 a.m. so as to avoid having anyone know they were there. The workers in the building above, the cleaning and janitorial staff, even building security were unaware of the project taking place in the sub-basement bunker, just as they were almost certainly unaware of the existence of the bunker itself. Crane Bernard Sherman personnel would exit as they had entered, through a tunnel that opened into the basement of another government building nearby where they were part of the night shift keying in data for the Fed.

Having finished typing in the last of the document seconds before, she began the logout process. At the same time, she cast a furtive glance around to check that she was unobserved — impossible to be sure — and slid a hand beneath her sweater. In use, the flash drive looked like a ChapStick with its cap off. Pulling it from the USB port, she pushed it back into its lid and slipped what now looked like an ordinary tube into the pocket of her sweater. There was nowhere else to conceal it: for security purposes, they weren't allowed to bring anything like coats, purses, cell phones, etc. into the room.

All the while, her heart raced like a frightened rabbit's.

No one yelled, what are you doing? No one grabbed her hand or her sweater or the flash drive. No one did anything at all out of the ordinary.

But maybe they were even now tracking the intrusion into the system. Maybe they were tracing it to her workstation, to her. Maybe they were on their way —

Her logout complete, the screen went dark.

Fighting rising panic, she stood up, pulled on her sweater, got in line with the others, and dutifully shuffled forward as, one by one, her group was processed out the door. Exiting the SCIF was a lot like passing through airport security. Everyone went single file through a portable body-scan machine under the eagle eye of an armed guard. Random pat-downs were conducted by more armed guards. Their belongings, kept in bins just outside the security area, were then returned to them. Once everyone was cleared, they were escorted in a group through the tunnel that took them away from the building.

Tonight the process felt excruciatingly slow.

She realized that she was watching for some sign of a disturbance, listening for the sound of — what? An army of approaching footsteps? An alarm? A phone call?

"Anybody got tickets to the 'skins game on Sunday?" Dan Turner, a wiry, fortyish former math teacher who was two people in front of her in line, turned to ask the group at large as they waited their turn to go through the scanner. No fan of football in general, or the Washington Redskins in particular, Lynette tried to look politely interested as someone behind her replied in the affirmative.

She only hoped no one could tell that, beneath her neat gray slacks, her legs were shaking.

"Doing anything exciting this weekend?" Amy Berkowitz, immediately ahead of her in line, was in the process of untwisting her long dark hair from the ballerina bun she'd wound it into for work as she met Lynette's gaze. Near her own age, Amy was a friend, sort of, of the casual office relationship type that consisted mainly of the two of them grabbing a coffee on the way out of work now and then.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lynette saw Dan reach the body scanner. Covertly watching as he went through the procedure, she tried not to let the sudden explosion of butterflies in her stomach show.

"Going to the grocery. Cleaning the apartment," she replied.

Dan was through. Amy was up.

"Sounds like my weekend," Amy said over her shoulder as she stepped into the machine, turned sideways and lifted her arms over her head. The slight whirring noise as the machine revolved around her made Lynette want to throw up. "Full of fun, fun, fun."

Amy stepped out. It was her turn.

Her heart jackhammered. The pounding of her pulse in her ears was so loud she feared the whole world would hear it.

She stepped into the scanner.

The best way to hide something is in plain sight. Cory had told her that. Together they'd practiced what she would do when she got to the machine.

Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the ersatz ChapStick, waggled it at the guard and then held it over her head as she lifted her hands. Nothing to see here, folks. No big deal, just a girl with a ChapStick. Standing there, with the hard evidence of what she had done so casually displayed, she was so antsy she was practically jumping out of her skin. Her mouth went dry as she waited to see if the guard would call her on it. It was all she could do not to wet her lips, not to swallow.

I could lose my job. I could lose everything. I could go to jail for the rest of my life. I —

The machine whirred.

The guard, a no-nonsense-looking woman in a blue uniform with a holstered gun on her hip, beckoned her out.

Their eyes met. The guard looked stern. Lynette's stomach went into free fall. The ChapStick felt like a red-hot, pulsing, impossible-to-miss smoking gun in her hand.

"Love your sweater," the guard said.

"Thanks." She managed a smile.

The guard's gaze moved on to whoever was next in line.

Pocketing the ChapStick, Lynette all but tottered away.

Her subsequent walk through the curved concrete dimness of the tunnel felt like something out of The Green Mile. Sweating bullets and praying no one noticed, she chatted with Amy, listened to Dan and a couple of others talking football, and waited for a hand on her shoulder, a guard to confront her, a siren to go off, something, anything, to stop her from leaving, to announce that they knew.

Nothing happened. She made it into the other building, rode the elevator up, pulled on her coat, wound her knit scarf around her head and neck, and exited onto the sidewalk. The air smelled of snow. The frigid wind slapped her in the face. The cold felt even worse because she was so sweaty. A few fat snowflakes swirled through the light of the pale halogens that illuminated the street. Beyond the lights, the night was black.

She had to clench her teeth to keep them from chattering. She was cold to her bone marrow. And the weather had nothing to do with it.

Was she really going to be able to just walk away?

Or would a cop car come screeching up at any minute? Or maybe it would be the FBI. Or the CIA. Or the NSA. Or — somebody. They would jump out and arrest her, take her away.

The thought made her insides quake.

She was breathing way too fast. She did her best to slow that down.

A group of them headed to the McPherson Square station, where they boarded the Metro. Lynette was the only one to get off at her home stop. She trudged up the steps to street level, glanced nervously around. It was still spitting snow, still night-black beyond the streetlights although it was getting close to 5:00 a.m. One other person was in sight, a man, no more than a dark shape on the sidewalk at a distance of about half a block. He headed down a cross street even as she spotted him. The area was working-class residential, tree shaded, considered safe. Her building was five blocks away.

Product details

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07CTPMGVH
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ MIRA; Original edition (March 19, 2019)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 19, 2019
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 2039 KB
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 361 pages
• #307 in Heist Crime
• #1,271 in Heist Thrillers
• #1,675 in Espionage Thrillers (Kindle Store)

About the author

Karen robards.

Karen Robards is the New York Times, USA TODAY and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of fifty novels and one novella. She is the winner of six Silver Pen awards and numerous other awards.

Products related to this item

Customer reviews

Our goal is to make sure every review is trustworthy and useful. That's why we use both technology and human investigators to block fake reviews before customers ever see them.  Learn more

We block Amazon accounts that violate our community guidelines. We also block sellers who buy reviews and take legal actions against parties who provide these reviews.  Learn how to report

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Top reviews from other countries

Report an issue.

• About Amazon
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Sell products on Amazon
• Sell on Amazon Business
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Become an Affiliate
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Host an Amazon Hub
• › See More Make Money with Us
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Amazon and COVID-19
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices

• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
• Your Ads Privacy Choices

'Middle of the Night' review: Childhood disappearance, grief haunt Riley Sager's new book

The summer days of our youth can feel like a sun-bathed path of endless possibilities. Ten-year-old Ethan has a lot that he’s looking forward to, but one night in July changed everything for him, his family and his neighborhood.

The approach of summer also brings a new novel by Riley Sager, the best-selling author known for his thrillers, “Middle of the Night” (Dutton, 352 pp., ★★★ out of four) out now.

Ethan Marsh is back in Hemlock Circle, the quiet fictional New Jersey neighborhood where he grew up, and it hasn’t changed much since he was last here. Almost all the same neighbors remain, too, except for the family of Billy Barringer.

Billy was Ethan’s best friend and next-door neighbor, but one summer night in 1994, Billy disappeared from Ethan’s backyard while the boys were having a sleepover in Ethan’s tent, and he was never found or seen again.

And now 30 years later, Ethan has reluctantly returned, haunted by his memories… and maybe something else?

It wouldn’t be a Riley Sager novel if weird stuff didn’t start happening pretty much right away.

Ethan’s not sure if the mysterious occurrences behind his parents’ house or around the neighborhood are real, a cruel prank or just a figment of his sleep-deprived imagination, but the increasing number of eerie events can no longer be ignored, so Ethan starts his own investigation into what’s happening now, and what might have happened to Billy all those years ago.

Graphic novels are getting more popular Here's why that’s a good thing.

Sager’s novel, one of his first to focus primarily on a male protagonist, doesn’t linger with Ethan — or even in the present — jumping between now and the ’90s, peppering Ethan’s investigation with the events leading up to that fateful July night seen through the eyes of preteen Ethan, Billy, Ethan and Billy’s mothers and other assorted kids from the neighborhood.

Several of those kids, now adults, haven’t strayed far from Hemlock Circle, reconnecting with Ethan in his truth-seeking journey. There’s Russ next door, a family man and very different from the short-tempered kid that used to tag along with Ethan and Billy; Ethan’s old babysitter Ashley, who is now a single mom to super-smart, sweet Henry; and Ragesh Patel, former neighborhood bully who is now a no-nonsense police officer.

In typical Sager style, there are many sudden turns as the story builds, quite a few suburban secrets to uncover and there are so many questions: what happened to Billy? What’s happening to Ethan? What was really happening behind closed doors on Hemlock Circle? Is Hemlock Circle haunted by ghosts?

Your next read 'The Reformatory' by Tananarive Due is a haunted tale of survival, horror and hope

But even as the truths untangle and reveal themselves in Sager’s novel, many of the deeper questions about Ethan, his relationships and the losses from which he never really moved on will largely go unanswered here. Disappointing, but perhaps realistic as an exploration of trauma.

Grief can be complicated, and can affect everyone differently. But it can’t be ignored, the body knows.

Sager’s “Middle of the Night” is a twisty mystery with a touch of the supernatural, but it’s also about the complexities of friendship, those fleeting but overwhelming feelings from growing up and coming to terms with profound grief.

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

What Does Israel Fear from Palestine? by Raja Shehadeh review – in pursuit of peace

The lawyer, activist and author’s latest book divides into two halves – first an edited speech from Kyoto in 2016 and then an anguished exploration of the current conflict

C an books help at times like these? In the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attacks on 7 October, many of us reached for the works of Edward Said and David Grossman , Ghada Karmi and Amos Oz. This is how we have been taught to approach the unimaginable – by turning to great minds operating closer to the heart of the catastrophe. Eight months on and it’s hard not to feel that all the words written about this endless war mean nothing when weighed against the unspeakable horror, the cruelty, the intransigence of the politicians who claim to represent their people.

Raja Shehadeh, the 72-year-old lawyer, peace activist and author of 12 elegant and nuanced meditations of life in Palestine, has written his first book since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war and it feels like even he, whose writing is usually so generous, so optimistic, so even-handed, might be losing hope.

I discovered Shehadeh’s work when an Israeli friend pressed his 2017 book, Where the Line Is Drawn , on me, saying that it had shaped his thinking about the future of Palestinian/Israeli relations. It tells of his 40-year correspondence with an Israeli, Henry Abramovitch, and is characteristic of Shehadeh’s work: calm, poised, analytical (he is also a co-founder of the human rights organisation Al-Haq ) and fuelled by the hope that books such as his may eventually change the narrative. It showed how the particularities of this specific friendship – not always smooth, occasionally confrontational, but always returning to a common sense of decency – might serve as a model for a rapprochement between the two populations and their political representatives.

Now he has published the provocatively titled What Does Israel Fear from Palestine ?. This short, agonised book is split into two sections: the first, How Did We Get Here?, is an edited version of a talk he gave at a peace conference in Kyoto in 2016; the second, The Gaza War 2023-24, records in awful, anatomical detail the horrors of life in Gaza, the author’s tone cycling between anger and despair.

There’s a marked divide between the first and second parts. The first section is recognisably a work by Shehadeh. He begins by asking a question: why was it that, in the wake of the Oslo accords of 1993 and 1995, the world didn’t put its weight behind peace in the region the way it had sought to bring an end to apartheid in South Africa?

In his measured, lawyerly but always very readable way, he goes about identifying what he claims led many Israelis to forge a vision of themselves that enabled them to largely ignore the suffering of Palestinians. He goes back to 1948, the year that the state of Israel was established. For Palestinians, this is the Nakba, or “catastrophe”, when around 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes and whole swaths of Palestine, including Shehadeh’s ancestral hometown of Jaffa, were taken by Israel. Now, he writes, Israel has taken on the role of coloniser, and Gaza has become “an open-air prison where there is nowhere to run to or hide”.

The second part of the book feels like the work of a different author, one finally worn down by the brutality of the Israeli response over the past eight months. He meets an unnamed Israeli friend and asks him about “the inexcusable behaviour of his country’s citizen army”. He is met by an unbreachable wall of certainty. “Every time I mentioned an atrocity committed against Palestinian civilians by the Israeli army in Gaza, he brought up a criminal act committed by Hamas on 7 October. Then with a sad voice he assured me that the Israelis are suffering from trauma and are grieving… ”

There’s a bitterness in Shehadeh’s tone as he attempts to understand how Israel and its international supporters could continue to ignore the devastating scenes that are unfolding daily on the streets of Gaza. He lists the hospitals destroyed, the universities turned into rubble, the dreadful numbers of dead and wounded. Then, as the book comes to a close, as if summoning a last reserve of strength, he manages a message of hope. Perhaps, he writes, the utter nightmarishness of the past few months may achieve what decades of war and negotiation have failed to resolve: a lasting peace. “Amid the darkness in the course of this devastating war I have had one hopeful idea. What if this war should end, not by a ceasefire or a truce… but with a comprehensive resolution to the century-old conflict between the Palestinian and Israeli people?” The world, he believes, will understand through the horror of what they are witnessing in Gaza an inevitable truth: “that only if a Palestinian state is established will there ever be peace in the region”.

after newsletter promotion

He ends with lines by the Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, recently killed in an Israeli airstrike. It’s a message of resistance and belief: in the spirit of his people and the power of their voices.

• Politics books
• The Observer
• Israel-Gaza war

Most viewed

Recent Thriller Book Reviews

The Founders’ Plot, a Fascinating and Believable Political Thriller by Frank Victoria

The Forever Game, a Series-Worthy Thriller by Jeffrey James Higgins

You Like it Darker, a New Short Story Collection by Stephen King

The Best Stephen King Audiobooks Ranked In Order (Updated for 2024!)

Rescue Run, an Essential World War II Thriller by John Winn Miller

The Best Lucy Foley Books in Order (Updated!)

The Burying Point, an Unmissable Crime Thriller by Derik Cavignano

The Spy Who Hated Me, an Uproarious Spy Spoof by Haris Orkin

Past Lives Denied, a Sophisticated Murder Mystery by Ellenmorris Tiegerman

The Reluctant Reckoner, a White-Knuckled Financial Thriller by J. Lee

Popular thriller book lists.

The 20 Best FBI Thriller Books (Updated!)

Best thriller book lists.

Books Like Bosch: If You Love Michael Connolly’s Bosch Series, Check Out These Novels

What novels are like the Bosch series? As the second season of Bosch Legacy returns to streaming this week, a question often raised by fans of the beloved Michael Connolly series looking for their next fix. Here are seven crime thriller gems featuring brilliant, angst-ridden detectives who will do anything to ensure justice is served: Thin Air, an LA Noir Crime Novel by Lisa Gray This Storm, an LA Crime Thriller by James Ellroy The Lumbermill, an LA Noir Crime Novel by Laya V Smith Tokyo Traffic, a Crime Novel by Michael Pronko Cold Heart Creek, a Nail-Biting Crime Thriller by Lisa Regan Bring Me Flowers, a Small Town Murder Mystery by D.K. Hood A Thin Line, a Crime Novel by Craig N. Cooper Ashes in Venice, a Crime Thriller by Gojan Nikolich Check out the book reviews below to see full details. Bosch Legacy is Here In 2021, Amazon Prime wrapped up the 7th season of the adaptation of the Bosch series. Next, Bosch Legacy debuted. The increased exposure is sure to send many casual fans ever deeper into the Connolly catalog. Season two out available for streaming now. But just like a fine wine, Bosch books are in limited …

Psychological Thriller Books 2024: The Best New and All-Time

Best Noir Novels Set in Los Angeles

cover letter requesting medical records

• Traffic and Travel
• Leeds United
• Food & Drink
• Homes & Gardens
• Submit Your Story
• Arts and Entertainment
• Things To Do
• Advertise My Business
• Place Announcement
• Place A Public Notice
• Advertise A Job

Knife River by Justine Champine: an engrossing crime thriller – book review –

A campaigning writer who has served as an organiser on the NYC Dyke March Committee and at the Lesbian Herstory Archives, Justine Champine’s short fiction has appeared in various US publications but now this exciting author turns her laser focus on a stunning debut mystery thriller which puts her firmly on the literary crime map.

From the opening chapter of this hard-hitting and atmospheric tale of two sisters coping with the discovery of their mother’s skeleton 15 years after she disappeared, Champine takes readers on an unforgettable journey into a shadowy world filled with tension, buried secrets, and a sense of loss that haunts the pages like a restless ghost.

Advertisement

Sign up to our daily newsletter

Thank you for signing up.

Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Yorkshire Evening Post, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more.

But the intriguing murder mystery, which simmers seductively at the beating heart of this beautifully written and created novel, is only a part of the story as Champine digs deep into the human psyche to examine the destructive fall-out from an unresolved tragedy, and the complexities of a troubled sibling relationship.

Jess and Liz Fairchild have hardly seen each other, or even talked, since Jess, then aged eighteen, walked out of the family home in the small, claustrophobic town of Knife River north of New York City ten years ago. Liz – six years older than 13-year-old Jess – had raised and cared for her younger sister after their mother Natalie mysteriously disappeared when she set off from home for a walk after a row with Liz.

It was a tragedy that turned Liz into a nervous, unkempt, unsmiling kind of woman who works hard as a teller at the bank and keeps the house pretty much as her mother had it, still holding on to the hope that Mom might come back one day, and using that vain hope, Jess reckons, as an ‘excuse to remain on the outside of her own life.’

The months of waiting for news about their mother turned into years but while stubborn Liz never seemed to edge toward acceptance, lesbian Jess left home as soon as she was eighteen. Since then, she has never had her own place, fits all her things into a few bags, has found a steady job transcribing medical reports, and has moved in with one girlfriend after another.

But trying to outrun her grief and confusion has never really worked for Jess. ‘It was the wondering that ate me from the inside – there was no refuge, no depth of dreaming that could stifle it.’ She had always imagined that getting confirmation that her mother was definitely dead would feel like ‘being ripped back through time,' and knock her to the ground.

Instead the phone call from Liz telling her that their mother’s bones have been found in woodland brings Jess only ‘stillness’ and she returns home to Knife River, where the town itself seems to be frozen in time, and the two sisters are thrown together once more.

As days turn into weeks, Jess reignites a love affair with her school friend Eva and finds that her understanding of the past, her sister, and herself is becoming more and more complicated... and all the while, the list of suspects responsible for her mother’s terrible fate becomes more and more ominous.

As much a heartfelt exploration of the anguish of lives left in limbo as it is the unfolding of an intriguing murder mystery, Knife River packs a powerful punch full of startling revelations, razor-sharp insight, soul-searching tenderness, and the unique bonds that mark out the relationship between two very different – but both trauma-damaged – sisters.

Through Jess and Liz, we see how the siblings have tried to manage – in their contrasting ways – the devastating disappearance of their mother without either of them achieving a solution, or a resolution, to the gaping hole in their lives.

Cocooned in memories of her mother and ‘tethered by fantasies of a miraculous return,’ stay-at-home Liz ‘left the door open a crack’ while Jess found it easier just ‘to slam it shut,’ leaving the town abruptly at adulthood, only to fall into an aimless, nomadic and unsettled life with a string of girlfriends.

With its tantalising, slow-burn plot line, an unsolved murder forever casting a long and poisonous shadow, and the added layer of a rekindled romance between Jess and her friend Eva, this is an engrossing crime thriller with a compelling psychological twist and a fierce emotional intensity that is guaranteed to take your breath away.

A cracking debut!

(Manilla Press, hardback, £16.99)

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.

Advertisement

Supported by

A Memoir of Hot Sex, Hot Chocolate and Freedom — Not in That Order

In “I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself,” Glynnis MacNicol ignores the pearl-clutchers and does just that.

• Share full article

By Joanna Rakoff

Joanna Rakoff is the author of the novel “A Fortunate Age” and the memoir “My Salinger Year.”

• Apple Books
• Barnes and Noble
• Books-A-Million

When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.

I’M MOSTLY HERE TO ENJOY MYSELF: One Woman’s Pursuit of Pleasure in Paris, by Glynnis MacNicol

In March of 2021, after a full year at home with my husband and children, I began buying dresses. I don’t mean shapeless caftans or comfy “nap dresses.” I mean dresses with a capital “D”: tulle ball gowns and fitted sequined sheaths and flowing chiffon confections. Beautiful and useless, they represented a portal to another world, another life, in which I traversed New York, meeting friends at glittering parties.

Did I long for glamour in a sweatpants-clad world? Yes. But mostly I wanted exactly what Glynnis MacNicol seeks in her absorbing new memoir, “I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself” — fun.

While I remained tethered to home and family, MacNicol bought a ticket to Paris. The book alights with her in August 2021, shortly before her 47th birthday, as she trades the Manhattan studio — in which she’d been cooped up alone for 16 months — for a Parisian walk-up, dreamily situated near the Louvre and Notre-Dame.

But the city’s draw, for MacNicol, lies less in museums and cathedrals than in the circle of friends she’s acquired on prior visits, all women, all expats, all alone by choice. With them, she shares “a common language of not being married and not having children.” In this group, she feels an enormous relief to not have to “translate” her life or present herself as “reporting from a foreign country, editing my story accordingly.”

At the first of many wine-fueled dinners, discussion of a Tinder-style French dating app — bearing the hilariously absurd name Fruitz — sparks something inside MacNicol. She immediately sets up an account and begins fielding an onslaught of messages from men (“my phone has turned into a mobile Penthouse Letters”). She realizes that she’s not just starved for companionship, but “consumed with the desire for touch.”

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and  log into  your Times account, or  subscribe  for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?  Log in .

Want all of The Times?  Subscribe .