Chapter 6: Mysteries to keep you reading past bed time
A trio of crime bestsellers worth the hype
There’s something delightful about being so immersed in a book that you can’t bear to put it down – even when your eyes are itchy with fatigue and the yawns more frequent.
It can happen with any book, but there’s something even more compelling about a thriller or murder mystery.
Although I love a police procedural on screen, it’s not something I usually read. However, I appreciate a well-developed, twisty, standalone novel – especially one I can recommend to those who don’t usually read thrillers.
The following recommendations play with genre conventions and are all bestsellers; undoubtedly, you’ve seen them in bookstores. But they’re absolutely worth the hype and something to devour in just a few sittings.
Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister
Jen waits for her teenage son, Todd, to come home late at night. She sees him walking down the street, watches as he stabs a man to death a few meters from their front door.
After Todd is arrested and charged, Jen falls asleep. But when she wakes up, the murder hasn’t happened yet. Each day Jen wakes further in the past and is fighting both to get home and stop her son from becoming a killer.
I was genuinely obsessed with reading this and finding out what the hell had happened. I remember being so annoyed that I had to work – I mean, ugh, real life interfering with my reading schedule! But this isn’t just a thrilling story: McAllister’s characters are developed so well that it’s impossible not to feel deeply invested in Jen’s struggle to save her family.
The Appeal by Janice Hallett
The Appeal is told in an immersive ‘found-documents’ format – presented as evidence to lawyers where you, the reader, are asked to try and figure out what crimes were committed and by whom.
It introduces us to the small village of Lockwood, where an amateur drama group are staging their annual production. As I hinted at before, there are a few different crimes happening throughout the book. It’s fascinating to see them unfold as we read through emails, text messages and articles collected as evidence in the case.
This book stands up to the re-read test for me: revisiting after recommending it to friends, I still felt surprised by the twist reveals. I’m astounded by how Hallett plots and writes these novels – something I was very keen to ask about when we interviewed her for
(which you can listen to below).I’ve also written about Hallett’s brilliant cult and true crime-inspired third novel…
Our House by Louise Candlish
I was skeptical about Our House for ages – I remember seeing it hyped everywhere when it was released. But then I picked up Candlish’s following novel, Those People, from the library and really enjoyed it. These ‘domestic noir’ novels explore seemingly ordinary families unravelling and, of course, murder.
Our House opens as Fi walks through the door of her London homee, only to find another family moving in. The only problem? She didn’t sell the house and now her husband Bram is missing. The story unfolds in parallel timelines, taking us through the events leading up to this moment from Bram’s perspective and everything afterwards from Fi’s.
I think what makes Our House (and all Candlish’s novels) so gripping is that the root event of the novel is often one seemingly innocuous bad decision, the sort of thing anyone could do in a split second of misjudgement.
Interestingly, this is one of the first books I read with a podcast plot element – something that feels like it’s become somewhat of a trend, especially in the crime genre. Again, this also withstood a re-read and the multiple twists still made my head spin a little.
What other books would you add to this or recommend to me? I’d love to hear what kept you reading past your bed time.
I'm the same and rarely read these kinds of stories, though I like watching them (but often find that a really gripping set-up and great tension proves too difficult to resolve with the same degree of satisfaction). But I did read Wrong Place Wrong Time this year, perhaps on your recommendation, I can't remember now! It was very well executed, a real page-turner that kept me guessing. I'm tempted by The Appeal.