Bedside Table Books

Thrillin’, chillin’, and spine-tinglin’ … are you a fan of Suspense novels? As I primarily read at night before sleep I am cautious about entering the domain of the Thriller (bit of a scaredy-cat!) but I do enjoy the genre very much. It always impresses me when a writer can create such an emotional response in a reader simply by piecing together the right words. There are a few of you out there (Lisa C!) who are devotees and encouraged me to post about some “must-reads” in the category.

The BIG thriller this summer that readers are most raving about is definitely Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Have you read it yet?

“On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick Dunne’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer? As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love.”

Another word-of-mouth success story has been S.J. Watson’s Before I Go to Sleep. I was riveted!

“Christine wakes up every morning in an unfamiliar bed with an unfamiliar man. She looks in the mirror and sees an unfamiliar, middle- aged face. And every morning, the man she has woken up with must explain that he is Ben, he is her husband, she is forty-seven years old, and a terrible accident two decades earlier decimated her ability to form new memories.

Every day, Christine must begin again the reconstruction of her past. And the closer she gets to the truth, the more un- believable it seems.”

A reliably entertaining and accomplished writer, Ian McEwan, has a new release which appears in this category, Sweet Tooth.

Set in Cold War 1971, “MI5 sends Serena, a compulsive reader of novels, on a secret mission that brings her to Tom Healy, a promising young writer. First she loves his stories, then she begins to love the man. Can she maintain the fiction of her undercover life? What is deception and who is deceiving whom? To answer these questions, Serena must abandon the first rule of espionage — trust no one. Ian McEwan’s mastery is more dazzling than ever in this superb story of intrigue, love… and mutual betrayal.”

John Grisham has become the go-to guy for Legal thrillers. He also has a new release ahead, The Racketeer.

“Given the importance of what they do, and the controversies that often surround them, and the violent people they sometimes confront, it is remarkable that in the history of this country only four active federal judges have been murdered. Judge Raymond Fogletree just became number five.

His body was found in the basement of a lakeside cabin he had built himself and frequently used on weekends. When he did not show up for a trial on Monday morning, his law clerks panicked, called the FBI, and in due course the agents found the crime scene. There was no forced entry, no struggle, just two dead bodies—Judge Fogletree and his young secretary.

I did not know Judge Fogletree, but I know who killed him, and why.

I am a lawyer, and I am in prison.

It’s a long story.”

There are a number of popular (and prolific) writers in the Thriller genre. Do you have any recommendations? Any suggested reads guaranteed to tingle? Do share!