December thriller roundup
I Dreamed of Falling by Julia Dahl
As a reporter in a small town, Roman Grady reports on every drunk driving offense and insignificant event in the community. But when Ashley, the mother of his four year old son is found dead at the bottom of a cliff, he realises that the town, and Ashley, contains more dark secrets than he knew. As Roman investigates Ashley's death, suspicion falls on a range of people including a Ashley's ex-lover Bella, and even his own mother, the domineering Tara. A twisting psychological thriller for readers of Liane Moriarty.
The Dinner Party by Rebecca Heath
In the scorching Australian summer of 1979, four families meet for a weekly dinner party, but by the end of the night one tiny baby, four month old Megan will be missing from her cot. Forty years later, Amanda is still searching for answers about her sister's disappearance, when a woman claiming to be Megan turns up at her door. Will her appearance finally bring closure to the family and explain what happened that night? Meanwhile, a true crime podcast is also investigating Megan's case, bringing to light dark secrets in the idyllic neighbourhood.
Iris and Gabriel return from a holiday in Greece to discover their friend Laure unexpectedly staying in their house. Having left her husband after discovering his infidelity, Laure quickly begins to disrupt Iris and Gabriel's lives, wearing Iris' clothes, rearranging furniture and following their every moves. As Laure's actions become more and more unhinged, Iris and Gabriel are drawn into a web of lies and deceit and must confront dark secrets hiding under the surface of their lives.
The Busy Body by Kemper Donovan
Dorothy Gibson has just lost a presidential race, Emily is newly hired to ghost write her memoir. But when one of Dorothy's neighbours in the remote part of Maine where she has retired to lick her wounds turns up dead, Emily's assignment suddenly gets a whole lot more interesting. As she and Dorothy investigate the death, it soon becomes obvious that the dead man wasn't what he appeared to be, and his death was no accident. This is the first book in a planned series and will appeal to fans of Benjamin Stevenson and Nita Prose.
Halfway House by Helen Fitzgerald
Escaping a disastrous failed love affair in Australia, Lou O'Dowd takes a job at a halfway house for violent offenders in Edinburgh. But on her first shift, she's taken hostage by a resident. Instead of escaping to a new life she is now fighting for hers. Mixing dark humour with psychological thrills and a plucky heroine, this is a tense, page turning read.
The Hidden Hand by Stella Rimington
Ai Ming is a Chinese student coerced by her government to transfer to Oxford and infiltrate the elite Chinese study center at St. Felix's College to steal intelligence and high-value research. Meanwhile, the newly hired head of the college, unsure who he can trust, turns to CIA agent Manon Tyler of help. Rimington's expertise as a former director general of MI5 shines through in her portrayal of the shadowy world of espionage and the intricate web of international politics.
Nicky Hunter, an expert in detective fiction is invited to the home of the celebrated crime novelist Sebastian Trapp to tell his story. The catch is, Trapp only has a few weeks to live. At his lavish San Francisco mansion she meets and gets to know his family, including his daughter Madeleine who is a young woman with a dark past. But as she delves deeper into the writer's past, she realises that no only is he not the man the public think they know but that she may be in very real danger.
The Kill List by Nadine Matheson
1996, London, serial killer Andrew Streeter is put away for five murders, the names of his victims found on a 'kill list' in his house. But now Streeter is appealing his convictions, and shockingly for DI Anjelica Henley, whose old mentor the late DCI Rhimes put Streeter away, it looks like a case of wrongful conviction. And when the murders start up again, Henley must hunt a killer with a new kill list. One for fans of the darker end of police procedurals.
