If you come to Cast Iron without having read the previous five novels with Enzo Macleod as protagonist, you may feel a little confounded, like I did. How and why does a man in his mid fifties, with a ponytail, appeal to so many women, some of them much younger than he is? He has […]
Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough
This one somehow never quite convinces. The writing is good, the characters decent enough but us hardened thriller readers have been here before and it just fails to zing. I do however like how Pinborough confounds our expectations. We assume the main character Lisa is in hiding from an abusive ex-partner but actually it’s much […]
This Is How It Ends by Eva Dolan
A really intelligent read, and no less of a thriller because of it. Ella is a bright twenty something protest organiser trying to assist the last few tenants holding out in almost derelict low income housing. The building is about to be razed to make way for shiny new apartments worth gazillions. And oh, Ella […]
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Celeste Ng seems like a novelist who really knows people. From the straight laced parents of teenagers, to the teenagers themselves and the outsider artist and her daughter, Ng convincingly gets inside the head of every one of them. She’s very good and Little Fires Everywhere is compelling reading- several stories for the price of […]
Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell
Published in 2017, Then She Was Gone is my favourite so far of Lisa Jewell’s novels. Fifteen year old golden girl Ellie goes missing and her family slowly splinter apart. Ten years later Ellie’s mother meets Poppy, a child who bears a shocking resemblance to Ellie. How is this possible? So many secrets. So much sadness […]
1222 by Anne Holt
This is a very good Norwegian thriller. After a nasty derailment, train passengers are forced to remain in a isolated hotel for a few days while an incredible snow storm rages outside. And then the murders begin. Our main character is retired police inspector Hanne Wilhelsen, more unfriendly than ever now she’s in a wheelchair. […]
The Fall of Lisa Bellow by Susan Perabo
Two fourteen year old girls, the popular/bitchy Lisa Bellows and the sensible Meredith Oliver, have the misfortune to be present during an armed robbery at a sandwich shop. Lisa is taken away by the masked gunman, Meredith is not. Still, the trauma of the robbery and the effect it has on Meredith almost tear her […]
The Darkest Day by Hakan Nesser
You’ve got to love a good bit of Swedish crime fiction, especially when two members of one family go missing within twenty four hours of one another at a family gathering. With believeable characters and loads of snow, Nesser’s writing is good enough to keep you absorbed long after you know what’s happened to both […]