There is no better antidote to the problems of everyday life than a thriller: losing yourself in whodunnit, why they dunnit (and how you might have done it in their situation) is the perfect escape. Here are my favourite reads of the year, with something for everyone, whether you want to be terrified, amused or just wowed by fabulous writing.
Guide Me Home by Attica Locke (Viper)
This is the final instalment in the excellent Highway 59 series, starring Darren Mathews, one of the few black Texas Rangers. Or at least he was a Texas Ranger: having recently quit his job, he is drinking far too heavily until his mother asks him for help tracking down a missing girl. Locke’s writing is absolutely on fire, simmering with tension, and this series is not to be missed.
Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra (Penguin)
I rarely revisit books (apart from my old Stephen Kings and Mary Stewarts), so the fact I’ve read this utterly terrifying debut thriller twice this year says something for its brilliance. It starts with a simple premise. A woman, alone with her children in her remote house at night, wakes to realise someone is on the stairs. It’s hard to believe Sierra can spin a whole novel out of this, but she does, and it is nail-bitingly awesome.
Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? by Nicci French (Simon & Schuster)
Thirty years ago, Charlotte Salter, a wife and mother, disappeared just before her husband Alec’s 50th birthday party. The truth about what happened to her has never been uncovered, and now two old friends of her children are making a podcast about her disappearance. Nicci French is the pseudonym of a husband-and-wife writing duo who are at the top of their game here as they slowly reveal what might drive a perfectly ordinary person to murder.
Bonehead by Mo Hayder (Hodder & Stoughton)
Talking about rereading, the late Mo Hayder is an author I go back to – when I’m feeling brave enough, because her thrillers are genuinely disturbing. Bonehead is a surprise final novel (Hayder died in 2021), and it brings with it the chills only Hayder can. It follows a police officer, Alex, as she tries to get to the truth behind a local legend about a skeletal woman, known as the Bonehead, who brings bad luck with her.
We Solve Murders by Richard Osman (Penguin)
You can’t beat snuggling up for some cosy comedy crime with Richard Osman, and this first novel in a new, non-Thursday Murder Club series is just the ticket. It follows the peripatetic travails of private security officer Amy, who is protecting bestselling novelist Rosie D’Antonio when she finds herself the target of a hitman. Cue all sorts of shenanigans, also involving her adorable widower father-in-law Steve. As delightful and light-hearted as ever.
One for my stocking
I love creepy stories set on islands, and I love The Girl on the Train author Paula Hawkins, so I’m surprised I haven’t got round to reading The Blue Hour yet . All the better for me though – if I drop enough hints I may end up with it under the Christmas tree and can spend the rest of the day reading. Published by Transworld, it is set on the tidal Scottish island of Eris, once the home of a famous artist whose husband disappeared – and whose work has now been found to contain a human bone…
• To browse all of the books in the Observer and Guardian’s best crime and thrillers of 2024 visit guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply