My Top Ten Psychological Thrillers
Alex Barclay
Alex Barclay's The Caller is a winner – but what inspired her? CT gets the lowdown...
The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson
You'd probably like Sheriff Lou Ford if you lived in his small town and saw him behaving 'nice and friendly and stupid'. But sucked into his disturbed mind in this outstanding first-person narrative, you'll meet the madman behind the slowly unravelling exterior. Chilling, unsettling, flawless.
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Maxim de Winter brings his timid second wife home to Manderley, an imposing edifice made more so by the smoldering ever-presence of his beautiful, dead first wife, Rebecca. Powerful, elegant and haunting, the tension builds to an unexpected and dark conclusion.
Mr Clarinet by Nick Stone
Every page of Mr Clarinet takes you deeper into another squalid corner of the Haiti that Miami private investigator, Max Mingus, has been plunged into in search of a billionaire's missing three-year-old son. A cracking plot; insightful, tautly written and vibrating with sharp observations and brilliantly drawn characters. Max Mingus is my new favourite hero.
The Straw Men by Michael Marshall
Michael Marshall had me at 'we're not dead'; ex-CIA agent Ward Hopkins comes home from his parents' funeral to discover these words scrawled on a note in his father's handwriting. Two other seemingly unconnected events open the book and suck you into an intriguing, action-packed ride, structured on a disturbing and original premise. Marshall is master of creating the unsettling feeling of 'something is very wrong' and cranking it up to 'everything is very wrong'.
Every Dead Thing by John Connolly
Introducing Charlie Bird Parker, a former NYPD detective tormented by guilt at the brutal unsolved slayings of his wife and young daughter. With each thoughtfully written line, John Connolly's rich literary style brings you from New York to the heart of the American south as Parker tracks down a missing woman, while consumed with the hunt for the killer who destroyed his family.
The Silence of The Lambs by Thomas Harris
Read the book, then see the movie, see the movie, then read the book: whatever way you cut it, whatever you know about the unfolding plot, you will still be gripped. Genuine, uncontrived, up-against-the-clock tension with a dazzling cast of characters.
The Ice Harvest by Scott Phillips
Christmas Eve has never looked so bleak. In this dark, wry thriller, crooked lawyer, Charlie Arglist, is spending the blessed evening in a state of expectancy of a different kind. Holding a hefty load of embezzled cash, he awaits his associate, so they can get the hell out of Wichita. What follows is Charlie's fabulously grim procession through his local bars, strip joints, massage parlours and lowlifes, as you root for this troubled mess of a man.
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
A teenage gangster in Brighton's squalid underworld, Pinkie Brown is untroubled by human emotion, quick to manipulate or eliminate what stands in his way. Brighton Rock delivers a brilliant take on the battle of good and evil and the influence of the Catholic Church in a world where life is stripped down to its wretched parts; strangely, a life Pinkie Brown will do anything to hang on to.
Every Secret Thing by Laura Lipmann
Children as victims, children as perpetrators – unsettling and expertly handled in this story of two 11-year-olds, one considered the 'good girl', one the 'bad'. Thrown out of a pool party for misbehaving, they stumble across an unattended child in a stroller. Cut to seven years later when the girls are being released from juvenile detention for their roles in her death, another child goes missing and questions are raised about the true circumstances of the original crime.
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
Criminally insane: a killer word combo on a book jacket. So when I read that something was going down at the Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane on Shutter Island, it was a call I couldn't ignore. Neither could U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule. It's 1954, a multiple murderess has gone missing from the facility and it appears that strange experiments have been taking place. With Lehane's clever psychological manipulation, prepare to consider yourself among those who may or may not have lost their grip on reality.
The Caller by Alex Barclay is published by Harper Collins
