As winter’s icy fingers tap against your windows and darkness falls early, there’s no better time to curl up with a heart-pounding thriller. These page-turners will have you willingly sacrificing sleep, pulling blankets tighter as each shocking twist unfolds. From psychological mind games to edge-of-your-seat suspense, we’ve curated the perfect collection of chilling reads to match the season.
Thrillers To Keep You Up This Winter
A Murder in Paris
9780008607852 | HarperCollins | TPB
Matthew Blake

You think you know what happened that night
But the truth is far more dangerous …
WHAT IF A MEMORY COULD GET YOU KILLED?
Imagine the past returning to you in fragments.
A hotel room, a pillow, a lifeless body.
Your ordinary, innocent life upended by one flash of memory.
You can’t remember what led to the crime.
All you know is that you must return to the scene, to the clues that lie waiting in Room 11.
But this is a mystery that goes far beyond that room, that night, that murder.
Are you ready to unlock the truth?
Last Chance
9781399749602 | Hodder & Stoughton | TPB
Stephen Leather

A GLOBAL CABAL OF HITMEN. ONE MAN STOOD IN THEIR PATH.
A group of professional killers, known as The Office, are carrying out hits for the Iranian government across the European continent, hitting targets amongst the wealthiest and most privileged.
After a slew of murders in London, MI5 decide that enough is enough. The Office must be destroyed, root and stem.
Dan ‘Spider’ Shepherd, the secret service’s most dangerous weapon, is tasked with infiltrating the organisation and unmasking its leader.
But just how far is he willing to go in the name of justice . . . ?
A hundred-mile-an-hour whirlwind of a novel from one of the world’s most gifted thriller authors.
The Compound
9780008710095 | The Borough Press | TPB
Aisling Rawle

You wake up in a compound in the middle of the desert, along with nine other women.
All of you are young, all beautiful, all keen to escape the grinding poverty, political unrest and environmental catastrophe of the outside world.
You realise that cameras are tracking your every move, broadcasting to millions of reality TV fans.
Soon, ten men will arrive on foot – if they all survive the journey.
What will you have to do to win?
And what happens to the losers?
The Compound is an addictive literary satire on modern excess: it holds a twisted mirror up to our obsession with winning, losing and, above all, watching.
Party of Liars
9781399739382 | Simon & Schuster UK | TPB
Kelsey Cox

Everyone’s invited. Everyone’s a suspect.
An exclusive black-tie birthday party.
A sprawling mansion.
A body falling from a balcony.
One of the guests is dead, and another is a killer – but who is the hunter, and who is the prey?
As the drinks flow, so do the lies . . . and nobody is safe.
Was it Dani, the tenacious new mother with a history of postpartum psychosis, or Kim, the ex-wife with an alcohol problem? Orlaith, the elderly Irish nanny who talks to spirits? Mikayla, the lonely teenager, or the clique of toxic mean girls who pretend to embrace her? Or was it the pair of psychotherapists who watch and judge them all?
And whose body is hurtling towards the sea?
Two Kinds of Stranger
9781035408269 | Sphere | TPB
Steve Cavanagh

SHE HELPED A PERFECT A STRANGER. SHE DIDN’T KNOW HE WAS THE PERFECT KILLER…
Elly Parker had everything.
Perfect husband. Perfect apartment. Perfect friends and the perfect job.
As an internet celebrity – famed for her random acts of kindness – everyone knew it.
So when a betrayal causes her to lose it all, millions of people are watching.
But even at her lowest, Elly will always help someone in need.
Which makes her the perfect target for a sadistic game.
Because as she soon learns, you can never trust a stranger – and a seemingly random encounter plunges her into a nightmare worse than she ever imagined.
The only person she can turn to is conman turned trial lawyer Eddie Flynn, who must take on a case where nothing is what it seems. With the most cruelly ingenious mind manipulating events from the shadows, everyone is in danger – including Eddie and his family.
The White Crow
9781408727249 | Sphere | TPB
Michael Robotham

The No.1 bestseller and three-time Crime Writers’ Award Winner returns with a nail-biting new book. If you loved When You Are Mine or you’re hunting for thrillers that make you think and feel, you won’t want to miss this.
As the daughter of a London crime boss, PC Philomena McCarthy walks a thin blue line keeping the two sides of her complicated life apart.
On patrol one night she discovers a child in pyjamas, wandering alone. Taking Daisy home, Phil uncovers the aftermath of a deadly home invasion, as three miles away a prominent jeweller is found strapped to an explosive in his ransacked store.
The crimes are linked, and all the evidence points to Phil’s father as the mastermind.
Phil’s two worlds are colliding, trapping her in the middle of a vicious gang war that will threaten her career and everyone she loves.
Who can she trust – the badge or her own blood?
Kill Your Darlings
9780571393138 | Faber & Faber| TPB
Peter Swanson

SOON TO BE A MAJOR FILM STARRING JULIA ROBERTS
What if the only way to bury the truth is to bury your husband?
The first attempt at killing her husband was the night of the dinner party.
After forty years, Thom Graves has become an incredible disappointment to his wife, Wendy – he drinks too much, flirts with other women, and worst of all, is in danger of revealing their dark secret. But how far is Wendy willing to go to stop him?
Starting at the end, and ending at the beginning, Kill Your Darlings is an ingenious mystery about two people’s life together, and the secrets which fatally bind them.
The God of the Woods
‘9780008663834 | The Borough Press | BPB
Liz Moore

When their thirteen-year-old daughter Barbara goes missing at summer camp, all eyes fall on the Van Laar family.
They’re cold, rich people. They own the camp. And it’s happened to them before.
Fourteen years ago their little boy, Bear, vanished without a trace.
Two children lost to the same wilderness.
Is it a tragedy… or a crime?
The Woman in Suite 11
9781398526730 | Simon & Schuster UK | TPB
Ruth Ware

Paradise comes at a price . . .
The stunning mountain views. The beautiful shore of Lake Geneva. The terrified woman held in the suite belonging to the hotel’s millionaire owner.
Lo Blacklock’s all-expenses paid trip to a luxury Swiss chateau should have been the ideal return to work. But as her past catches up with her, the millionaire’s mistress demanding that Lo help her escape, and a body turning up in the room next door, forces Lo to ask how far would she go to help someone she’s not even sure she can trust… The gripping follow-up to multi-million bestselling author Ruth Ware’s The Woman in Cabin 10 – coming soon to Netflix, starring Keira Knightley.
Let the Bad Times Roll
9781529385410 | Hodder & Stoughton | TPB
Alice Slater

Everyone knows Daniel. But no one knows where he is …
THEN
Alone in New Orleans, Selina is struggling to fit in until a charismatic stranger invites her for a drink. It feels like fate, but who is Daniel, and what does he want from her? Just as the humidity and the hangovers start to take their toll, Daniel vanishes
NOW
Daniel is missing. No one has seen or heard from him in weeks. Beside herself with worry, his sister Caroline hosts an intimate gathering in her London home so those closest to Daniel can come together and compare notes. But what should have been five courses of a Cajun-style feast has now become an interrogation. Those left behind must piece together their shared understanding of the man they thought they knew.
And all isn’t quite as it seems: Caroline has invited a stranger to the table, an accomplished psychic who claims to have met Daniel four thousand miles away in New Orleans. As evening turns to night, the dark truth of what really happened begins to emerge…
The Alaska Sanders Affair
9781529433852 | MacLehose Press | BPB
Joel Dicker

The sequel to the iconic worldwide bestseller THE TRUTH ABOUT THE HARRY QUEBERT AFFAIR
The murder of Alaska Sanders was quickly solved. Within days, two suspects were identified. One died, the other pleaded guilty. Case closed.
But, eleven years later, the death of another woman in a fast-food parking lot changes everything. Marcus Goldman, celebrity author and amateur investigator, picks up a thread that will unravel not only an open and shut case, but the very fabric of his best friend’s life.
Sergeant Perry Gahalowood, who led the original investigation, is hell-bent on setting the record straight. Teaming up with Marcus, he seeks redemption in most the intricate and testing case of his career.
In this sequel to the phenomenal worldwide bestseller The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair, Joël Dicker delivers the last word in slow-burn police procedurals. Clue by clue, witness by witness, question by question, his characters solve an unguessable puzzle that could only have been set by the master of the plot twist.
The Shroud of Hades
9781035400942 | Headline | TPB
Andy McDermott

THE WORLD’S RICHEST MAN IS DEAD.
HIS FINAL ACT: A BILLION DOLLAR BOUNTY ON THE PERSON HE BLAMES.
ARCHAEOLOGIST NINA WILDE IS ABOUT TO HAVE A VERY BAD DAY . . .
A global social media message from late trillionaire Rafael Loost makes Nina the most hunted person in history. She and her husband, former SAS soldier Eddie Chase, are forced on the run – with everyone they meet a potential assassin.
When a deadly old enemy of Eddie’s joins the pursuit, the couple realise their only hope of survival is a mysterious ancient artefact: the Shroud of Hades. But can they stay alive long enough to find it?
Coming Soon!
Love and Other Poisons
9781035411702 | Wildfire | TPB
Lesley McDowell

1857, Glasgow.
A young socialite named Madeleine Smith stands accused of murdering her lover. Thousands wait outside the court to hear the result. The scandalous nature of the affair, detailed explicitly in letters published in newspapers across the world, has made her case a worldwide sensation. But when the jury find themselves unable to decide whether she is guilty, they render a verdict of ‘Not Proven’ – and Madeleine is freed.
1927, New York.
Harry Townsend, a handsome Hollywood film scout believes he has found the woman once known as Madeleine Smith. He wants to tell her story on film for the new ‘talkie’ generation. Since her trial she has lived under many names, as a glamourous society hostess in bohemian Bloomsbury to the likes of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, George Bernard Shaw and William Morris. Until suddenly, in 1890, when she disappeared off the face of the earth.
Could this quiet, secretive widow of an Irish labourer be the same Madeleine Smith who once stood trial for murder and escaped?
She has one last secret to reveal. Will Harry persuade her to tell it?
The Woman in Ward 9
9781035411139 | Headline | PBO
Naomi Williams

Laura Winters doesn’t know why she has lost her memory, or why she was found alone, soaked in someone else’s blood.
The only thing she is certain of is that I am the only psychologist she can – or will – talk to.
I have six days to help Laura unlock her memories and find out the truth.
But what has she forgotten – and what is she hiding?
And how does she know so much about me?
With tension you could cut with a knife and twists that will have your head spinning, The Woman in Ward 9 is sure to keep you reading late into the night.
Bookish
9781529444452 | Quercus | TPB
Matthew Sweet

Adapted from the upcoming major U&alibi series created by Mark Gatiss
London, 1946. Gabriel Book is an erudite and unconventional London bookseller married to Trottie, the owner of the wallpaper shop next door. He is also a sleuth who uses the chaotic riches of his stock to crack the puzzling cases that come his way.
He does not work alone. Book’s shop is a magnet for waifs and strays – some of whom bring mysteries of their own to his door. There’s Nora, sometime bookseller and true crime enthusiast; Dog, connoisseur of ginger biscuits and then Jack, whose arrival at the shop forces Book to confront a loose end from his own past.
Clever, endearing and entertaining, Bookish is a warm-hearted and unexpected mystery, about books, murder and the secrets we all keep.


