THRILLERS
In this story, a year has passed since Isabelle Drake’s infant son Mason disappeared from his bedroom one night
THRILLERS
ALL THE DANGEROUS THINGS
by Stacy Willingham (HarperCollins £14.99, 336 pp)
Willingham’s spine-chilling debut last year — A Flicker In The Dark — became an international bestseller and this, her second novel, is even better.
In this story, a year has passed since Isabelle Drake’s infant son Mason disappeared from his bedroom one night. Since then she has barely had a wink of sleep as she asks herself time and time again — what happened to him?
In the turmoil that has gripped her life, husband Ben left as she disintegrated and the police seem to have stopped investigating.
Isabelle, on the other hand, has become ever more obsessed with getting to the bottom of the case, even addressing true crime conventions in an effort to keep interest in it alive. At one of these, she meets true crime podcaster Waylon Spencer, who wants to help.
So begins one of the most memorable plots of the year so far. If you read only one thriller a year, make it this.
Written by a London community psychiatric nurse, this gritty debut crackles with drama
THE NEXT TO DIE
by Elliot Sweeney (Wildfire £20, 352pp)
Written by a London community psychiatric nurse, this gritty debut crackles with drama. Former police officer Dylan Kasper has been falling apart for the past five years — ever since his daughter committed suicide by throwing herself under a Tube train.
Grasping at straws to keep a hold on life, he befriends Tommy Berkowitz, a dashing, if eccentric, young man at a fancy health club in East London. Then Tommy’s father asks Kasper to look out for his son.
Sadly, that does not work out well, for barely has he started when Tommy throws himself under a train at exactly the same Tube station that his own daughter did five years ago.
Once again it is described as suicide, but Kasper is convinced there is much more to it than that, and begins his own investigation.
Full of sharp psychological insights, it grips the reader by the throat and never once lets go.
Hailed by some as the launch of a female James Bond, this debut features newly-trained secret agent Emma Make-peace
THE CHASE
by Ava Glass (Penguin £9.99, 416 pp)
Hailed by some as the launch of a female James Bond, this debut features newly-trained secret agent Emma Make-peace, who is assigned by her handler, Ripley, to persuade an eminent doctor to come into protective custody.
The Russian secret service are determined to capture him to put pressure on his dissident mother, a nuclear scientist who has been betraying their secrets to the West for years.
At first he refuses, but is then convinced when a string of shadowy agents launch attacks on him and Emma.
So begins a chase across London to get to MI6 at Vauxhall Cross, with Emma doing everything she can to avoid public transport and the ubiquitous CCTV cameras that drown the capital with images of people on its streets.
Written with James Patterson-style pace, it does not disappoint, but it lacks Ian Fleming’s panache and tone.
DailyMail
