Suspense/Thrillers Recent Picks

December 2008

The underlined titles will take you directly to our catalogue.
Some featured items are linked via a book cover to enable you to read more reviews.

Therapy : a psychological thriller by Sebastian Fitzek ; translated by Sally-Ann Spencer. (2008)
"Josy, a twelve year old girl, has an inexplicable illness and vanishes without trace from her doctor's office during treatment. Four years later: Josy's father, well-known psychiatrist Viktor Larenz, has withdrawn himself to an isolated North Sea island in order to deal with the tragedy, until he's paid a surprise visit from a beautiful stranger. Anna Glass is a novelist and she suffers from an unusual form of schizophrenia: all the characters she creates for her books become real to her. And in her last novel she has written about a young girl with an unknown illness who has vanished without a trace. Reluctantly Viktor agrees to take on Anna's therapy in a last attempt to uncover the horrible truth behind his daughter's disappearance." (Amazon)

Silks by Dick Francis and Felix Francis. (2008)
"Julian Trent is found guilty of a violent unprovoked attack on an innocent family and a charge of attempted murder. He is accused by the judge of showing no remorse for his actions, but receives a remarkably light sentence. Surprisingly, this news is not welcome to his defence barrister, Geoffrey Mason, who was secretly hoping for a more severe judgement against his client, whom he does not like. Mason is a part-time jockey and when a fellow rider is savagely killed by a pitchfork driven through the chest, and there is a persuasive amount of evidence against champion jockey Steve Mitchell as the killer, and Mason soon finds himself at the centre of a sinister web of threat and intimidation." (Amazon)

Real World by Natsuo Kirino ; translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel. (2008)
"In a suburb on the outskirts of Tokyo, four teenage girls drift through a hot smoggy August and tedious summer school classes. There's dependable Toshi; brainy Terauchi; Yuzan, grief-stricken and confused; and Kirarin, whose late nights and reckless behaviour remain a secret from those around her. When Toshi's next-door neighbour is found brutally murdered, the girls suspect Worm, the neighbour's son and a high school misfit. But when he disappears (taking Toshi's bike and cell phone with him), the four girls become irresistibly drawn into a treacherous vortex of brutality and seduction which rises from within themselves as well as the world around them." (Amazon)

Bad traffic by Simon Lewis. (2008)
"Inspector Jian is a Chinese cop from the Siberian borders who thinks he's seen it all. But his search for his missing daughter brings him to the meanest streets he's ever faced, in rural England. Migrant worker Ding Ming is distressed, his gang master is making demands, he owes a lot of money to the snakeheads and no one will tell him where his wife has been taken. Maybe England isn't the `gold mountain' he was promised. Two desperate men, uneasy allies in a baffling foreign land, are pitted against a band of ruthless criminals." (Amazon)

Dead line by Stella Rimington. (2008)
"MI5 Intelligence Officer Liz Carlyle is summoned to a meeting with her boss Charles Wetherby, head of the Service's Counter-Espionage Branch; he has received alarming intelligence from a high-placed Syrian source. A Middle East peace conference is planned to take place at Gleneagles in Scotland and several heads of state will attend. The Syrians have learned that two individuals are mounting an operation to disrupt the peace conference in a way designed to be spectacular, laying the blame at Syria's door. The source claims that Syrian Intelligence will act against the pair, presumably by killing them. No one knows who they are or what they are planning to do. Are they working together? Who is controlling them? Or is the whole story a carefully laid trail of misinformation? It is Liz's job to find out. But, as she discovers, the threat is far greater than she or anyone else could have imagined." (Amazon)

Business by Martina Cole. (2008)
"Set in the East End of London from the tail-end of the seventies up until the present-day, The Business is a tale of drugs, prostitution and a young girl’s fight for survival, against all the odds" (Book cover)

Stray dog winter by David Francis. (2008)
"Darcy and Fin are brother and sister, nearly. They share the same abusive father, but their mothers were sisters. The secrets and lies that define their childhood have made them only able to trust each other in the world, and when Fin sends Darcy a ticket to join her in Russia where she is living on an art scholarship, he cannot refuse. The only thing he has to promise Fin is that he won't cruise toilets or beats while he is in Russia, the hard-line Communist government is anti-homosexual and not kindly disposed to promiscuous foreigners, which Darcy definitely is. Darcy doesn't keep his promise and is caught by the secret police. It is only when his passport is confiscated and he is beaten and interrogated in the notorious Lubyanka prison that he realises he is in a world of trouble and that Fin isn't telling him everything about her life there." (Book Cover)

We know by Gregg Hurwitz. (2008)
"A good job, a decent flat in Los Angeles, a quiet life, Nick Horrigan has finally put his traumatic past behind him. Or so it seems, until a SWAT team smashes into his place in the middle of the night. Still in pyjamas, he's dragged outside to a waiting helicopter. He's told that a terrorist has seized control of a nuclear power plant and is threatening to blow it up, unless he can talk to Nick. Flown into a deadly intrigue, Nick is charged with a dangerous secret, one that will take him from the dark alleys of the city to behind the scenes of a Presidential race." (Amazon)

Exposed by Alex Kava. (2008)
"FBI criminal profiler Maggie O'Dell must expose a killer who hides in plain sight. The killer's weapon is a deadly virus, virtually invisible and totally unexpected. His victims appear to be random but, in fact, they are chosen with a revengeful precision. Maggie knows dangerous minds, from hauntingly perverse child predators to cunningly twisted serial killers. Now, she faces a new opponent from inside an isolation ward. Maggie must find clues to catch the killer while waiting to see if the deadly strain is already multiplying in her body." (Amazon)

Dirty game by Jessie Keane. (2008)
"For longer than she cares to remember Annie Bailey has lived in the shadow of her older sister Ruthie. Now Ruthie has her hands on Max Carter, the much feared head of the Carter family and a top class villain. Seducing Max wasn't a problem, but the guilt, shame and anger of rejection afterwards was. Thrown onto the streets Annie finds herself living with Celia, a wayward aunt with a shocking secret. As the months pass Annie's resourceful nature sees her mature and carve out a life for herself, albeit not legal. But Annie has unwittingly placed herself between two rival gangs and upset too many people and these kinds of people don't forget." (Amazon)

Previous New Zealand novels picks
Previous translated fiction edition
Previous humour picks
Previous historical novels picks
Previous debut novels picks
Previous suspense/thrillers picks
Previous chick lit edition
Previous short story