Thursday Thrillers

I've read some great new thrillers recently, many of which have been 2021 publications. Most of them have been brilliant and in some cases, look to be some of my reading highlights of the year. Have you read any good thrillers you think I'd enjoy? Drop me a comment below.

The Sanatorium - Sarah Pearse

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Set in an Swiss alpine hotel, this is a claustrophobic and creepy thriller which was a good read. Elin, a police detective currently taking a career break after a breakdown, arrives with her boyfriend to visit her brother Isaac, who works at Le Sommet, a new hip hotel in the Swiss Alps. There's already significant tension between them due to the unresolved mystery of the death of their younger brother when they were all children, but when Isaac's fiancee disappears and an avalanche cuts the hotel off from police support, Elin must step in and try to solve the mystery.

Whilst it does adhere to a number of the usual hotel murder mystery norms, the backstories of the characters were interesting and the historical detail was a nice touch.

Thanks to @randomhouse for my copy of this book.

The Sanatorium can be purchased here from Amazon, BookshopOrg and Waterstones, as well as your local bookshop.

The Favour - Laura Vaughan

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The Favour is a brilliant thriller reminiscent of The Talented Mr Ripley, The Secret History and If We Were Villains. A campus novel without the campus, dark academia themes abound in the settings of Italy, history, art, literature and the nature of privilege. We follow Ada, middle class but with wistful memories of a childhood on a Welsh estate with her obscure writer father, who is sent on a gap year art history trip to Italy by her godmother. Determined to use the opportunity to ingratiate herself with the group, who are all wealthy and upper class, Ada must use all her guile, until a sinister turn of events changes the rules.

The story was great and the morals are grey here, with your sympathies changing throughout. Whilst some of the side characters are slightly less fleshed out, this fits with Ada's singlemindedness in pursuit of her goal. I highly recommend this novel.

Thank you @netgalley and @corvusbooks for my copy.

The Favour can be purchased from Amazon, BookshopOrg and Waterstones, as well as your local bookshop.

The Last House on Needless Street - Catriona Ward

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I devoured over this astonishing, creepy novel in one long, wide-eyed night and I am still thinking about it now. The story centres on Ted, who lives in a house next to the woods with his cat and his daughter. Next door, a new neighbour moves in - a woman looking for answers to the disappearance of her young sister several years ago.

What follows from there is a gothic, unsettling rollercoaster, where what you assumed was going on may be far from the truth. To say much more would be to spoil it, but I highly recommend it if you love thrillers but with the unfolding narrative writing style of Shirley Jackson.

This is sure to be one of the most notable books of 2021 - it is engrossing, chilling and made me want to start reading it all over again as soon as I had finished.

Thank you @viper.books for my copy.

The Last House on Needless Street can be purchased on Amazon, BookshopOrg, Waterstones or at your local bookshop.

The Dinner Guest - B P Walter

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Four people round a dinner table; Charlie, his husband Matthew, their son Titus, and their friend Rachel. By the end of the meal, Matthew is dead from a stab wound and Rachel is holding the knife. But is all as it seems?

This was a hugely enjoyable thriller read, full of morally grey characters, secrets and lies. I was thoroughly engrossed by this, really enjoying the multiple perspectives and timelines. I think you're better off going into this pretty blind, but it's an excellent examination of class, privilege and expectation versus reality.

Thank you @netgalley and @onemorechapterhc@harpercollinsuk for my copy.

The Dinner Guest can be purchased on Amazon, BookshopOrg, Waterstones, or at your local bookshop.

Greenwich Park - Katherine Faulkner

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In an affluent London neighbourhood, pregnant Helen thinks she has everything: a perfect husband, a long awaited baby, a beautiful house, and her best friends are her wonderful brother and sister-in-law living just down the road. However, when she attends an ante-natal class and meets Rachel, a feisty and forthright younger woman, her life will never be the same. As Rachel starts to insinuate herself into Helen's life, the reader starts to question: is she a con-artist, a thief, or a victim? I loved Faulkner's thriller, which I devoured in a single sitting because I needed to know what happened next. The characters were complicated, nothing was quite what it seemed. Thoroughly recommend it as the perfect engrossing read for your holiday or staycation this Spring/Summer!

TW Miscarriage and fertility.

Greenwich Park is out on 15 April. Thank you to @netgalley and @bloomsburypublishing for my copy.

You can purchase Greenwich Park on Amazon, BookshopOrg, Waterstones or at your local bookshop.

People Like Her - Ellery Lloyd

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This thriller is a timely and disturbing look at the dangers of sharing your life over social media. Following Emmy, a mummy instagrammer, we have a look inside the life of a family who are using social media as their livelihood. They have a beautiful house, beautiful children, and beautiful lives. However, told alternately between Emmy and her husband Dan's POV, we begin to see that not everything that gets shown on instagram stories is the truth - and behind the scenes, there is trouble brewing, both inside the house and from the watchful eyes of the person hiding in the bushes...

I really enjoyed this thriller from Ellery Lloyd (actually a husband and wife writing team, I believe), which perfectly captures a lot of the blogger tropes and the realities behind life on social media. The characters were not necessarily likeable, but were complex enough to be interesting, and the story moved along at a good pace. The outside threat element was cleverly done but was slightly lacklustre in climax, but as a whole there is enough here to set this above some of the other thrillers out there. This is perfect casual reading with a dose of thoughtful insight thrown in.

Thank you @netgalley and @panmacmillan for this arc.

People Like Her can be purchased from Amazon, BookshopOrg, Waterstones or from your local bookshop.

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Happy Reading!

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