Recommendations based on "The Escape Room: 'One of my favourite books of the year' LEE CHILD"

'Truly frightening . . . a British Silence Of The Lambs' DAILY MAIL 'A thrilling new talent' PETER JAMES OUT OF THE DARKNESS, A KILLER RISES AGAIN . . . Holly Wakefield was just nine years old when her parents were murdered by notorious serial killer The Animal. The devastating event influenced her career as a criminal psychologist and now she helps the Met Police catch the most dangerous psychopaths. But Holly's world is turned upside down when she starts discovering messages at gruesome crime scenes from the person she fears above all else. The world believe The Animal is dead, yet Holly knows he is alive and killing again - and he wants her to know. DI Bishop is the only person who trusts Holly's instinct above reason and the pair embark on a covert investigation as further murders are detected across the country. However The Animal has a more twisted game in store for Holly than they could ever have imagined. And it's one he intends to finish properly this time . . . The heart-racing new serial killer thriller in the Holly Wakefield series, perfect for fans of Robert Bryndza, Angela Marsons and Stuart MacBride. Praise for Mark Griffin . . . 'Creepy, twisted and gripping' SUN 'Mightily impressive . . . deviously plotted' DAILY MAIL 'Dark, compelling and expertly paced' M. W. CRAVEN 'Meticulously plotted . . . utterly compelling' LESLEY KARA

WATCH WILL TRENT ON ABC!“Expect from a Karin Slaughter crime thriller . . . just the right amount of twists, turns, shocks, surprises and domestic thrill and shrill.” — ParadeThe next thrilling suspense featuring Will Trent and Sara Linton from Karin Slaughter, New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Girls and After That Night!One toxic family.Eight suspicious guests.Everyone is guilty.But who is a killer?For GBI investigator Will Trent and medical examiner Sara Linton, McAlpine Lodge seems like the ideal getaway to celebrate their honeymoon. Set on a gorgeous, off-the-grid mountaintop property, it’s the perfect place to unplug and reconnect. Until a bone-chilling scream cuts through the night.A murderer in their midstMercy McAlpine, the manager of the Lodge, is dead. With a vicious storm raging and the one access road to the property washed out, the murderer must be someone on the mountain. But as Will and Sara investigate the McAlpine family and the other guests, they realize that everyone here is lying….Lying about their past. Lying to their family. Lying to themselves.Who killed Mercy McAlpine?It soon becomes clear that normal rules don’t apply at McAlpine Lodge, and Will and Sara are going to have to watch their step at every turn. Trapped on the resort, they must untangle a decades-old web of secrets to discover what happened to Mercy. And with the killer poised to strike again, the trip of a lifetime becomes a race against the clock…

THREE HOURS TO SAVE THE PEOPLE YOU LOVESHORTLISTED FOR THE THEAKSTON OLD PECULIER CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2021LONGLISTED FOR THE GOLDSBORO BOOKS GLASS BELL AWARD 2021A TOP 10 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERTHE TIMES THRILLER OF THE YEARA BEST BOOK OF 2020 IN THE SUNDAY TIMES, TIMES, GUARDIAN, MAIL, EXPRESS, MIRROR, LITERARY REVIEW, STYLIST, RED AND GOOD HOUSEKEEPINGA TIMES & SUNDAY TIMES THRILLER OF THE MONTH-------------------------------------------------------------------In rural Somerset in the middle of a blizzard, the unthinkable happens: a school is under siege.Pupils and teachers barricade themselves into classrooms, the library, the theatre. The headmaster lies wounded in the library, unable to help his trapped students and staff. Outside, a police psychiatrist must identify the gunmen, while parents gather desperate for news.In three intense hours, all must find the courage to stand up to evil and save the people they love.-------------------------------------------------------------------WHAT EVERYONE'S SAYING ABOUT THREE HOURS'If you read only one thriller this year; make it this one: it is that good' DAILY MAIL'Superb' KATE MOSSE'It's beautifully, elegantly written, SO gripping, intelligent, timely, affecting and moving' MARIAN KEYES'A brilliant literary thriller... moving, masterly' SUNDAY TIMES'Kept us on the edge of our seats from start to finish' INDEPENDENT'Brilliant' LEE CHILD'Gob-smackingly, heart-stoppingly, breath-holdingly brilliant' RUTH JONES'A novel that you live rather than merely read' DAILY TELEGRAPH'Amazing' DAVINA MCCALL'An electrifying, pulse-racing novel' RED'Wow! This is a stunner of a book, staggeringly good' JANE FALLON'An emotionally devastating and beautifully observed literary thriller' OBSERVER'Astonishing, powerful, terrifying, heartbreaking' EMMA FLINT'Three Hours intersperses scenes of breath-sucking tension with stirring meditations on human nature' SARA COLLINS, GUARDIAN'A brave, timely and intricately crafted work' EMMA STONEX

Caught in a wicked game of cat and mouse, Detective Helen Grace finds herself trapped among the hunted in the darkest thriller yet from the international bestselling author of Little Boy Blue and Eeny Meeny.   Framed for a murder she didn’t commit...   As one of HM Prison Holloway’s most high-profile new inmates, Helen Grace has a target on her back and nowhere to hide. She has made a long list of enemies over the course of her career—some are incarcerated within these very walls. When one of Helen’s fellow prisoners is found mutilated and murdered in her own locked cell, it’s clear that the killer is someone on the inside.   But time is running out for Helen as she races to expose the person who framed her, and the body count in the prison starts to climb. Helen will need to draw on all her investigative skills and instincts to catch the serial killer behind these murders and discover the truth—unless the killer finds her first.

‘IT WAS SO GOOD’ NetGalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Absolutely breath-taking’ NetGalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Talk about a page-turner!’ NetGalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘You. DO. NOT want to miss!!!’ NetGalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐You’ll want to stay. Until you can’t leave…A group of strangers arrive on a beautiful but remote island, ready for the challenge of a lifetime: to live there for one year, without contact with the outside world.But twelve months later, on the day when the boat is due to return for them, no one arrives.Eight people stepped foot on the island. How many will make it off alive?A totally addictive psychological thriller with twists and turns you just won’t see coming. Fans of The Hunting Party, The Castaways and The Sanatorium will be totally gripped from the very first page until the final, breath-taking conclusion.Readers are gripped by Stranded:‘A five-star rating is just not enough… Incredible’ NetGalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Suspense, twists, deceit… I had my heart in my mouth the whole time’ NetGalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Utterly unputdownable… You’re going to love every single twisty page!!’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘INTENSE… My heart was pounding’ NetGalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘I started this book today and finished it in one sitting. I literally could not put it down’ NetGalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Definitely a five-star read. I couldn't put this one down. It kept me on the edge of my seat… Such a great ending too!!’ NetGalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘Wow! I read this way too quickly, I really didn't want it to end… Amazing… Loved it!’ NetGalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐‘You'll be on the edge of your seat, racing to finish this book… I read this book one afternoon. I simply could not put it down. I cannot wait until a friend reads this book because I want to discuss it… Get a copy now!!’ NetGalley review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A legal thriller that’s comparable to classics such as Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent . . . tragic and shocking.”—Associated PressNOW AN EMMY-NOMINATED ORIGINAL STREAMING SERIES • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Entertainment Weekly • Boston Globe • Kansas City StarAndy Barber has been an assistant district attorney for two decades. He is respected. Admired in the courtroom. Happy at home with the loves of his life: his wife, Laurie, and their teenage son, Jacob. Then Andy’s quiet suburb is stunned by a shocking crime: a young boy stabbed to death in a leafy park. And an even greater shock: The accused is Andy’s own son—shy, awkward, mysterious Jacob.Andy believes in Jacob’s innocence. Any parent would. But the pressure mounts. Damning evidence. Doubt. A faltering marriage. The neighbors’ contempt. A murder trial that threatens to obliterate Andy’s family. It is the ultimate test for any parent: How far would you go to protect your child? It is a test of devotion. A test of how well a parent can know a child. For Andy Barber, a man with an iron will and a dark secret, it is a test of guilt and innocence in the deepest sense.How far would you go?Praise for Defending Jacob“A novel like this comes along maybe once a decade . . . a tour de force, a full-blooded legal thriller about a murder trial and the way it shatters a family. With its relentless suspense, its mesmerizing prose, and a shocking twist at the end, it’s every bit as good as Scott Turow’s great Presumed Innocent. But it’s also something more: an indelible domestic drama that calls to mind Ordinary People and We Need to Talk About Kevin. A spellbinding and unforgettable literary crime novel.”—Joseph Finder“Defending Jacob is smart, sophisticated, and suspenseful—capturing both the complexity and stunning fragility of family life.”—Lee Child“Powerful . . . leaves you gasping breathlessly at each shocking revelation.”—Lisa Gardner“Disturbing, complex, and gripping, Defending Jacob is impossible to put down. William Landay is a stunning talent.”—Carla Neggers“Riveting, suspenseful, and emotionally searing.”—Linwood Barclay

Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles—the inspiration for the hit TNT series—continue their crime-solving streak.  The bestselling author of The Surgeon returns—and so does that chilling novel’s diabolical villain. Though held behind bars, Warren Hoyt still haunts a helpless city, seeming to bequeath his evil legacy to a student all-too-diligent . . . and all-too-deadly. It is a boiling hot Boston summer. Adding to the city’s woes is a series of shocking crimes, in which wealthy men are made to watch while their wives are brutalized. A sadistic demand that ends in abduction and death. The pattern suggests one man: serial killer Warren Hoyt, recently removed from the city’s streets. Police can only assume an acolyte is at large, a maniac basing his attacks on the twisted medical techniques of the madman he so admires. At least that’s what Detective Jane Rizzoli thinks. Forced again to confront the killer who scarred her—literally and figuratively—she is determined to finally end Hoyt’s awful influence . . . even if it means receiving more resistance from her all-male homicide squad. But Rizzoli isn’t counting on the U.S. government’s sudden interest. Or on meeting Special Agent Gabriel Dean, who knows more than he will tell. Most of all, she isn’t counting on becoming a target herself, once Hoyt is suddenly free, joining his mysterious blood brother in a vicious vendetta. . . . Filled with superbly created characters—and the medical and police procedural details that are her trademark—The Apprentice is Tess Gerritsen at her brilliant best. Set in a stunning world where evil is easy to learn and hard to end, this is a thriller by a master who could teach other authors a thing or two. This ebook edition contains a special preview of Tess Gerritsen’s I Know a Secret.

“The night they killed our neighbors, we never heard a thing.”In a quiet suburban neighborhood, in a house only one door away, a family is brutally murdered for no apparent reason. And you think to yourself: It could have been us. And you start to wonder: What if we’re next?Linwood Barclay, critically acclaimed author of No Time for Goodbye, brings terror closer than ever before in a thriller where murder strikes in the place we feel safest of all. Promise Falls isn’t the kind of community where a family is shot to death in their own home. But that is exactly what happened to the Langleys one sweltering summer night, and no one in this small upstate New York town is more shocked than their next-door neighbors, Jim and Ellen Cutter. They visited for the occasional barbecue and their son, Derek, was friends with the Langleys’ boy, Adam; but how well did they really know their neighbors?That’s the question Jim Cutter is asking, and the answers he’s getting aren’t reassuring. Albert Langley was a successful, well-respected criminal lawyer, but was he so good at getting criminals off that he was the victim of revenge—a debt his innocent family also paid in blood? From the town’s criminally corrupt mayor to the tragic suicide of a talented student a decade before, Promise Falls has more than its share of secrets. And Jim Cutter, failed artist turned landscaper, need look no further than his own home and his wife Ellen’s past to know that things aren’t always what they seem. But not even Jim and Ellen are ready to know that their son was in the Langley house the night the family was murdered.Suddenly the Cutters must face the unthinkable: that a murderer isn’t just stalking too close to home but is inside it already. For the Langleys weren’t the first to die and they won’t be the last.

“Then She Vanishes lifts the stone on a cold case disappearance and asks chilling questions about friendship, loyalty, love, and obsession.”—New York Times bestselling author Gilly Macmillan A twisty, compulsive thriller full of jolting shocks and startling secrets involving two sisters, a disappearance, a double murder, and a reporter determined to find the truth from the bestselling author of Local Girl Missing, Last Seen Alive, and Do Not Disturb. Everything changed the night she disappeared . . . On a summer's night in 1994, sixteen-year-old Flora Powell vanished from her sleepy seaside town without a trace. Their hearts shattered, Flora’s mother, her sister Heather, and Heather’s best friend Jess had to somehow carry on not knowing what happened. Twenty-five years later, tragedy strikes again when Heather walks into a stranger's house and allegedly kills two people in cold blood. Why would this loving wife and doting new mother commit such a heinous crime? Jess, now a reporter, returns to the hometown she left behind to cover the case and dig for answers. But this isn’t like any other story. Jess was like a sister to the Powell girls, until the summer that tore them all apart. What happened to the girl she used to know?  The question haunts Jess and propels her to find the key that may unlock the mysteries involving both sisters. But the search may reveal more . . . a darker side to this idyllic place she thought she knew.