Meet Brazil's answer to Tom Ripley: unnamed narrator who is just as amoral as Highsmith's famous anti-hero but only has one tenth of Ripley's brains. He does, however, have charm, a girl friend who works in a morgue and the luck of the devil. So sit back and enjoy sex, drugs and cadaver kidnapping, whilst hating yourself for smiling.
View The Body SnatcherFreedom Oliver's life, since her disastrous teenage marriage, has included separation from her children. She comforts herself that they have been adopted by a loving god-fearing family until Rebekah is found dead. A fast and furious debut thriller delivering terrifying journey into anguish, finally redeemed.
View Freedom's ChildFollowing a tour of duty in Iraq, the lives of three young men are irrevocably changed forever. The candid way in which wartime Iraq is recounted gave me an insight into just how hard it really was for those on the frontline. This is no Hollywood epic romanticised for a civilian audience. Rather, I found it to be a revealing account, refreshingly told from both sides of the conflict.
View Fives and Twenty-FivesIf you enjoy hard-boiled detective fiction this is the book for you, combining its dark urban realism with a moral dimension. It brilliantly brings to life the grim world of Washington's seedy underbelly, and highlights the bleak prospects for young Black people in a world of drugs and guns.
View Soul CircusSurrounding the coastal shores of Galicia, smuggling and corruption are rife. A host of unique characters play a role in the melee, with each assuming an alias which adds dimension to the story. This edgy, haunting read kept me on my toes throughout, with the explosive ending taking me by surprise.
View All is SilenceNordic noir in a warm climate? Living in self-exile on the Canary Island of Fuerteventura, loner Erhard is an eccentric Danish taxi driver turned amateur sleuth, trying to solve a case the local police have closed down for fear of harming the resort’s tourist trade. The slow paced plot leaves plenty of room for subtlety of characterisation and gritty local atmosphere. Expect violence and graphic sex scenes.
View The HermitPrepare to be addicted to this pulse-racing thriller, where drugs and politics make for uneasy bedfellows. Nick and Sarah's seemingly separate worlds become intertwined in a way neither of them could have foreseen.
View What You Don't Know
A long, violent and complicated crime novel involving several bizarre murders with links to past crimes. Set in the Pyrenean district of France with very atmospheric descriptions of the mountains and the weather. A large cast of characters and several sub plots add to the excitement. Translated from the French and a huge hit across Europe, this is a debut novel and the first in a series with the same characters and setting. A real page turner.
Recovering from the death of his son and his own severe injury in a fire, online newspaper crime reporter Henning Juul becomes involved in the investigation of a very brutal murder. This leads him into the dark side of Oslo's underworld. There is plenty of action in this complicated thriller and also some good psychological insight into injury and bereavement. An exciting debut novel and the first in a series featuring Henning Juul.
View BurnedA very complicated plotted and unsettling novel set in Harare with an ambiguous title. A gun is left in a taxi. What the taxi driver does with it has ramifications including adultery, assault, attempted suicide and accidental death for five loosely connected families. Good descriptions of the intrigue and corruption of the political system and of its impact on the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans.
View The Death of Rex NhongoYou won’t find the biggest bestsellers on Whichbook as everyone knows about them already. But you can use your enjoyment of a current bestseller to see titles with a similar mood that you might try next.