Hi, I’m Sanjida. I write .
If you haven’t come across me before, I’m an award-wining writer, I’ve had over 12 books published in different genres.
I’m currently writing dark thrillers and nature non-fiction. Here at Wild Writing you can expect writing about writing, wildlife and wilderness.
So, as we’re heading toward the end of the year, I thought I’d give you a list of my - ten-ish! - favourite thrillers that I’ve read this year.
To set expectations - these are not all shiny new books that have just come out - although some of them have been published very recently - these are the handful of books that I really, really like and have stood out for me as a reader and from a writing craft point of view this year.
What I like is great characters and plot, but also stylish writing. I don’t have anything against say, a Dan Brown, but that kind of book is not going to make it into my top ten because I want the writing to be stylish and beautiful. And I’m more into kind of left field thrillers or psychological thrillers than straight-up detective fiction or political thrillers - most of the time!
The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins
Author of the best-selling The Girl on the Train, and I’ve written about her previous book, A Slow Fire Burning in my mini series The Craft Review.
This has everything I’m interested in a thriller - a grand, aristocratic estate with entitled monied people rubbing up against those who’ve had to work for everything they’ve got, a remote Scottish island that is tidal and only accessible for a few hours a day, the art world, a beautiful reclusive artist and, of course, a murder.
After her death, Vanessa Chapman’s art has been bequeathed to the Fairburn Foundation. One of her pieces a sculpture of a glass box with pieces suspended in it, including the rib of a deer. But a forensic anthropologist notices that the bone is actually human. And the mystery in Vanessa’s life is that her cruel, unfaithful husband disappeared 20 years ago, shortly after he visited her on the Scottish island she owns.
I loved this book - beautifully written and an utterly compelling exploration of loneliness, obsession and jealousy.
I did work out who killed whom very early on, but that might be me, as I read so much crime fiction. It didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the book and I’d highly recommend it. I’d say this is Paula’s best book yet.
We Solve Murders by Richard Osman
I’m very late to the Osman party. I thought The Thursday Murder Club was banal, but then recently tried to read it again and loved it. I tore through all four in the series.
If anyone has not read them or come across them, they’re about a group of retirees in a retirement village, who are all smart and have special skills, and are in a murder club where they try and solve cold cases - until that is, there is a real murder in the village.
Although these are about brutal crimes, most of the time, the books are extremely funny and warm. They’re also a masterclass in Point of View (which I write about here) - how to shift and move the perspective of who is telling the story, particularly hard when you have multiple characters. Also, each book has a main plot and a sub plot and how both are solved is really clever.
I would highly recommend reading them if you haven’t - and they’re not too taxing. It feels as if you’re watching, Friends, with a spot of murder sleuthing thrown in.
So, the new one, We Solve Murders, is about Steve Wheeler, ex-cop, and father in law to Amy Wheeler, who is an elite bodyguard in a private security business. Amy is protecting a famous author, Rosie D’Antonio, from a threat from Russian mafia, when Amy’s bodyguard partner tries to kill her. Amy and Rosie find a bag of money - could it be connected to the recent horrific murders of Instagram influencers, all found with large amounts of cash, and all of whom have been killed when Amy was nearby?
With Steve and Rosie in tow, Amy sets out to discover who wants her dead and why, before she is killed herself.
This is an enjoyable and funny romp. The characters, particularly Steve and Amy, feel like a mash-up of characters we’ve been introduced to in The Thursday Murder Club, and it doesn’t quite have the stardust quality of the premise of The Thursday Murder Club - but good fun, nonetheless.
The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton
Stuart’s debut The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle was incredible, a high concept murder mystery, blending genres.
Aiden has been summoned to a grand house, Blackheath, for a party, but the daughter of the household, Evelyn Hardcastle, is shot and killed. Aiden is told he has to find the killer and then he will be allowed to leave - but 24 hours later, the day will repeat itself. Evelyn will be murdered again, but each time, Aidan will find himself in a different body.
It’s a futuristic version of Agatha Christie.
In The Last Murder at the End of the World the genre blend is crime fiction and science fiction.
The story is set on an island - the world has been destroyed by a fog that swept the planet, killing anyone it touched. On the island there are 122 villagers and 3 scientists, living in peaceful harmony. The villagers are content to fish, farm and feast, to obey their nightly curfew, to do what they’re told by the scientists.
Until, to the horror of the islanders, one of their beloved scientists is found brutally stabbed to death. And they learn the murder has triggered a lowering of the security system around the island, the only thing that was keeping the fog at bay.
If the murder isn’t solved within 107 hours, the fog will smother the island – and everyone on it.
But the security system has also wiped everyone’s memories of exactly what happened the night before, which means that someone on the island is a murderer – and they don’t even know it…
I liked this book even more than the Seven Deaths for it’s world-building and immersive quality, as well as the rich and detailed ideas.
A Town called Solace by Mary Lawson
This is about a missing girl - Rose, an angry teenager - who leaves behind her 8 year old sister, Clara, grief-stricken and grieving. Her parents, who are trying to protect her, won’t tell her anything about Rose. Clara discovers that Rose has run away and is going to send a message back when she arrives safely in Toronto, but the message never arrives.
A young man, Liam Kane, newly divorced moves into the house next door and almost immediately gets a visit from the police, wondering if he had anything to do with the missing girl.
And woven in with Clara’ and Liam’s story, is that of the woman who once lived in Liam’s house, Elizabeth Orchard, who is now in hospital, and bitterly regretting a crime she committed in the past and wondering if she can rectify it before she dies.
It’s heartbreakingly beautiful. A small town story, with big themes of guilt, love, betrayal and abuse.
Set in Northern Ontario in 1972, it reminds me of a modern day, just published story, which I loved,
Day One by Abigail Dean
I absolutely loved Abigail’s first novel, Girl A. Here’s what that one was about:
Lex Gracie grew up on the edge of the moors in a family of seven children.
Lex was Girl A, the girl who escaped from an unimaginably brutal and abusive household. The story begins when she, now a lawyer, is called back to the UK after the death of her mother in prison. She’s told she’s the executor of the will and needs her siblings permission to decide what should be done with their inheritance: the house on Moor Woods Road where and the rest of the children were held captive.
Day One
A gripping examination of a community devastated by a school shooting in an idyllic town in the Lake District, the conspiracy theorists who deny it ever happened - and a teenage girl who knows more about what happened that day than she has ever told anyone. Chilling, thought-provoking read. Not quite as good as Girl A, but still, one of my top reads of the year.
A Talent for Murder by Peter Swanson
How well do you ever really know your husband? Quiet librarian Martha, starts to have serious doubts about her husband, Alan. He is away from home a lot, travelling, and when Martha uncovers a string of murders in the places he’s been, she turns to her former friend, Lily Kitner for help.
Lily, in turn, brings in her friend and private investigator, Henry Kimball, to find out what Alan is really capable of.
This is the third Henry Kimball mystery. The first was The Kind Worth Killing and then, The Kind Worth Saving.
If you’re new to Peter Swanson, I’d start right there. I think they’re his best books. The relationship between geeky, slightly academic detective, Henry, and Lily, the daughter of a best-selling writer, who has dark secrets of her own, is brilliant. It reminds me of the TV series Luther, played by Idris Elba as John Luther and his psychopathic friend, Alice Morgan, played by Ruth Wilson.
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
This is the story of a young woman, Vanessa Wye, who is 32 and discovers that her old English school teacher, Jacob Strane, is being accused of the rape of a minor.
Vanessa was fifteen when she first had sex with Strane, then aged 42. But for her, it wasn’t abuse, or rape. She is disgusted with the whole MeToo movement, where women are treated as victims. Because for Vanessa, this was love, and her love affair with her teacher has shaped her entire life.
‘To be groomed is to be loved and handled like a precious, delicate thing.’
It is, of course, hard to listen to at times, but deals with horrific issues in a nuanced and sensitive way. Vanessa will have to face her entire past and re-evaluate it, deciding whether it was indeed rape and abuse, or as she saw it, a love affair, and whether to help Strand’s victims.
The line that chills me to the bone is when Strane kneels at Vanessa’s feet, just before the first assault, and says, ‘I am going to ruin you.’
Listen to this on audio book. Gracie Gummer, the narrator, and Meryl Street’s daughter, says that the quote which haunts her, is when Vanessa, as an adult, is in therapy, but still denying that her relationship with Strane had been anything other than complicit and consensual. Her therapist, Ruby, says, ‘You were just trying to go to school.’
The literary thread running through the book is beautiful, it’s like a modern day Lolita by Nabakov, the writing is gorgeous, and I could listen to Gracie Gummer who was narrating it for Audible if she were reading my shopping list.
Let me know what you think! What are your favourite thrillers / crime fiction books?
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