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Original poster

I need a really gripping page turner

42 replies

spaceforthree · 02/10/2010 16:48

Am plodding through the Millenium Trilogy at the moment. I am clearly the only person in the country who is not much taken with them. Before that I gave up half way through 'The Little Stranger' which was supposedly brilliant (actually incredibly dull) and am fed up with so so books. Biscuit

Please please suggest some really good, gripping books for me to order of Amazon. Fiction or non fiction.

OP posts:
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krisskross · 04/10/2010 21:43

the vanishing act of esme lennox by maggie o farrell. great!

Hullygully · 04/10/2010 21:39

I can't agree with Bran

But I can with Chil

Gretl · 04/10/2010 21:37

The God of Small ThIngs was just painful - I gave up on it too.
I felt it had to be read in a wafty, film-industry voice - it was written like the descriptive notes on a film script.

celticlassie · 04/10/2010 21:33

I HATED the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In terms of page turners, I loved Sophie Hannah's novels, esp The Point of Rescue and Hurting Distance and Linwood Barclay's No Time for Goodbye and Too Close to Home.

Original poster
spaceforthree · 04/10/2010 17:32

ooh thanks - more for the list.

I might try Wallander as I love all things Swedish. As a rule I don't really like 'series' books and am not big on any detective novels (but I might make an exception for Wallander as love the BBC4 series).

I liked Margaret Atwood The Handmaid's Tale but found Alias Grace dull and gave up. Gave up on The God of Small Things too (I have no patience as you will have gathered).

I thought Harlen Coben was just for boys (i.e. my husband reads them on holidays and tells me the ridiculous plot lines) but should I try them?

I real all the Patricia Highsmith Ripley books so now I am inspired to try her other ones.

Am astonished how many books I have missed!

OP posts:
elkiedee · 04/10/2010 12:18

I just read Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld and loved it, it's quite long and probably doesn't look like a page turner, but I found it quite compulsive even though it's not really plot driven.

strawberrylace · 03/10/2010 21:00

i'd like to suggest American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld...

Gretl · 03/10/2010 20:52

The Little Stranger is better if you don't try to sympathise at all with the narrator, or anyone else for that matter.

foxinsocks · 03/10/2010 16:43

I've also just read the Snowman. Wasn't entirely convinced but having said that, I couldn't put it down lol!

foxinsocks · 03/10/2010 16:42

I couldn't get through The Little Stranger.

It depends imo, how highbrow a recommendation you need. I'm not a highbrow book reader but I don't like chick lit/books obviously written to be films type nonsense.

If you want fast reading thrillers, you'd do no worse than a Harlan Coben (get his series of Myron Bolitar ones not the stand alone ones, and don't get Play Dead).

I liked Restless.

omni, I love the Wallander series. Loved them. They are so atmospheric. I think you have to be a big lover of writers who create descriptive pictures in your head to like those books. I love the Swedish scenery and the bleak pictures he creates. I have been rewatching series one on BBC4. I read a v sad story that after the actress who plays his daughter in the series committed suicide (in real life), he couldn't bring himself to write any further books in the series so devastated was he :(. V sad all round.

FiveGoMadInDorset · 03/10/2010 16:40

Restless - William Boyd, aslo Any Human Heart and The Ice Cream war by him.

Daphne Du Maurier.

FiveGoMadInDorset · 03/10/2010 16:39

WE Need To Talk About Kevin was dire in my opinion, and I agree with you about The Little Stranger.

I have Just read The Snowman by Jo Nesbo.

Operation Mincemeat and Agent Zigzag both good non fiction reads.

Currently reading The Case of the Missing Servant which I am finding very entertaining but it is a light read.

Vintagepommery · 03/10/2010 16:35

I've recently read the 1st 2 Jake Arnott books - The Long Firm and He Kills Coppers - both really good.

Agree about Restless by William Boyd

RabbitAndCo · 03/10/2010 11:40

I really like Patricia Highsmith's stuff - can't think of the most recent one I read but was definitely a page-turner (not the Ripley novels, a different one).

I'm reading Her Fearful Symmetry at the mo, I think it's not great...

The Harry Hole (no, really!) detective novels by Jo Nesbo are really good, imo.

omnishambles · 03/10/2010 11:35

Any of the Wallander series by Henning Mankell - brilliant page turners. And transcend the crime fiction stereotype imo.

hairymelons · 03/10/2010 11:34

Have you read Margaret Atwood? All good, but Alias Grace especially.

bundlebelly · 03/10/2010 11:33

Definately 'We need to talk about Kevin'. Haunts you forever.
Also agree anything by Kate Atkinson
Fave forever is 'The God of small things' by Arundhati Roy. So beautifully written.

Just finished TRAIL OF THE DEAD By JON EVANS. Not my usual type of thing, but gripping as hell and couldn't put it down.

Chil1234 · 03/10/2010 11:28

You've probably read this one already as well but 'Birdsong' by Sebastian Faulks has a very gripping/horrifying/heart-in-the-mouth/'watching a train smash in slow motion' quality to it once the action switches to the trenches.

Kasober · 03/10/2010 10:47

I find a lot of the books mentioned here quite dull, but I loved The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson. Fascinating story and characters. I can`t recomend it strongly enough! Start with the book The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Chil1234 · 03/10/2010 09:38

"We need to Talk about Kevin" Lionel Schriver, if you haven't already read it. 'Gripping' really doesn't even come close.

Mibby · 03/10/2010 09:37

Try Kelley Armstrong's werewolf series. First one is called 'Bitten"

Original poster
spaceforthree · 02/10/2010 18:52

I have just sat and made a big list of all suggestions here. Thanks so much. Happy to accept more. I'm a voracious reader so will whip through these.

Any good non-fiction? I might have to go over to that thread!!

OP posts:
Gretl · 02/10/2010 18:43

Restless/William Boyd was a proper pageturner.
Woman spy in 2WW Europe, gradually her life is being discovered by her daughter in the 70s, how will it end? etc. Gripping and suitably popcorny.

ValiumSingleton · 02/10/2010 18:34

I really like Susan Howatch, not very fashionable now, and maybe even hard to find but Cashelmara and Penmaric! wow. Have re-read them recently. The wonder worker was fabulous too.

Also, if you really want something to get your teeth into Paullina Simons. Start with the Bronze Horseman. It's the first in a trilogy.

Cloud Atlas made me lose the will to live!

earlyriser · 02/10/2010 18:19

I really liked Cloud Atlas, a totally bonkers book which is quite confusing in places but once i 'got it' i found it hard to put down.

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