The Tournament – Matthew Reilly
Something a bit different this time, as the thriller genre moves to sixteenth-century Istanbul. There’s a killer on the loose and a cardinal has been found mutilated in the grounds of the Sultan’s palace. Suleiman the Magnificent has invited every king in Europe to send his best chess player to take part in a spectacular ...
Stay Alive – Simon Kernick
Stay Alive is a breathless, race-against-time thriller best avoided by those of a nervous disposition – or those who can only spare the odd ten minutes to read. This novel is almost literally impossible to put down. One witness: you’re on a trip with your family, miles from anywhere. A shot rings out – and ...
A Song for The Dying – Stuart MacBride
Scotsmen make excellent football managers and they also make excellent thriller writers. I’ve often wondered if there’s a link and just what it might be. I’ll avoid clichés like ‘gritty determination’ and ‘dark imaginings’, I’ll just leave it for you to ponder for yourselves. Our next offering, A Song for The Dying is by Dumbarton-born ...
A Purity of Vengeance – Jussi Adler-Olsen
Copenhagen-born author Jussi Adler-Olsen may be a relatively new name (to me at least), but he has sold over 14 million books around the world. And for a writer who began his career compiling a comic encyclopedia and writing books about Groucho Marx, the Department Q cold case series is very serious stuff indeed. A ...
Saints of the Shadow Bible – Ian Rankin
John Rebus never really set out to be Edinburgh’s finest. He’s definitely a man who has secrets and as a Detective Inspector in the Lothian and Borders Police, he ruffled a lot of feathers and broke even more rules. Despite his retirement in 2007 (in the novel Exit Music), Saints of the Shadow Bible sees ...
The Invisible Code – Christopher Fowler
Enjoy your mysteries with a liberal pinch of dark English eccentricity? Christopher Fowler’s latest, The Invisible Code, is a joyous cross between police procedural and Douglas Adams (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy). Off-beat investigation, inspired deduction and some very British quirkiness can be found throughout this twisted tale. Like ...
The Barkeep – William Lashner
Some things are just too awful to contemplate and Justin Chase lives his life in a state of Zen serenity: it’s what gives him peace and helps him to cope with things he’d rather not think about. He tends bar and life is more or less OK. That’s until the arrival of Birdie Grackle, a ...
A Measure of Blood – Kathleen George
Great crime writers come from all walks of life – bankers, judges, advertising professionals, even police – it’s what makes our favourite genre so rich and exciting. Kathleen George is a professor of theatre and writing at the University of Pittsburgh, which means that not only does she has a great sense of drama, but ...
