There’s an embarrassment of riches when you’re asked to look back on a year’s worth of crime the thriller fiction. Authors are rising to the moment and creating stories that resonate with today’s world. Some involve the worst aspects of ubiquitous technology (ubiquity being one of those worst aspects), and some take on the dire politics of our current era. The lure of this immediacy makes the painful decision not to include Leonie Swann’s Big Bad Wool in my top five a little easier. I still miss those sheep!
5 – Killer Potential by Hannah Deitch
Evie Gordon, a young woman with a floundering career, is jolted out of her rather dull life by the murder of the wealthy Southern California couple whose daughter she’s tutoring. Moments later, she finds a young woman tied up in a closet. When the daughter appears and accuses them of the crime, the two panicked women escape. They go on an unforgettable cross-country road trip that puts them in one hazardous situation after another. Money? Food? Cars? They need it all, and nothing is easy.Their growing dependence on each other provides a powerful emotional throughline. As the full review of this debut thriller says they can run, but can they escape?
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4 – The Final Episode by Lori Roy
Two decades before the start of this story, Francie Farrow was kidnapped from her South Florida home, a crime that haunted a set of local pre-teen girls who felt deeply connected to the case. Francie’s body has never been found, and her parents, especially her mother, have slowly unravelled. Now a true-crime television series is reinvestigating Francie’s disappearance, bringing back every painful memory and accusation. Pressure on the characters builds with each weekly episode, as it comes closer to a possibly devastating climactic revelation. Roy is so effective in building the suspense, it was truly an unputdownable book. Read the full review here.
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3 – The Protocols of Spying by Merle Nygate
Merle Nygate’s provocative thriller is set mainly in Mossad’s London office shortly after the deadly 7 October 2023 attack on Israeli settlements by Hamas. It’s the third of a trilogy, so Nygate already knew her principal characters well and how they would react to what seems an irremediable quagmire. Their focus is not only on stopping any actions that might worsen the situation, but they also do more. They are pursuing a longshot idea that may, possibly, improve political relationships in the Middle East. Nygate’s characters are well grounded and believable in truly deadly circumstances. The full review is here.
2 – Silent Bones by Val McDermid
Turn yourself over to a skilled mystery author who will take you on a perfect literary journey. Plot, pacing, characters – everything works. That, despite the difficulties of the new case presented to Police Scotland’s Karen Pirie: a buried corpse revealed when a segment of highway M73 washes away. Who is it? Next, new evidence suggests an old accidental death case may have been murder, and there’s pressure to reopen it. Who did it? Both cases connect to other deaths that need a second look. Pirie and her team go about their rapidly expanding workload with characteristic thoroughness and good humour, and you sense a satisfying conclusion will be the end result. Read the full review here.
1 – The Tiger and the Bear by Philip Lazar
Here’s a political thriller in the style of John LeCarré, in that you see all the pieces by the end, but Lazar gives one more twist of the kaleidoscope, and the picture changes entirely. American policy writer Paul Girard receives an unusual document, signed by a friend from when he was a reporter in the Soviet Far East. If the plans in the document are accurate, a geopolitical catastrophe may be in the making. Girard must discover the truth. This entails travel to Europe and the Far East to find his old friend, who is on the run from the Russians. His mission is vitally important, incredibly difficult and terribly dangerous. Cats and mice galore. Read the full review here.
