Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

Holiday reading - thrillers please.

23 replies

PetitRat · 12/06/2012 16:06

Please help - my mind has gone blank. I enjoy a good holiday thriller but can't remember the name of a single author I've read. You know the kind of thing - double agent, old cold war style yomp. Doesn't have to be a great literary classic (which probably explains why I can't think of any names!) but this year's airport best seller kind of thing. Please help me :)

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Viviennemary · 25/06/2012 12:40

I really like Robert Goddard. Some are better than others. So many twists and turns. Sometimes a bit far fetched though. Caught in the Light is my favourite so far. Also second Peter James. Loved Alchemist. Big suspension of reality needed though!

joanofarchitrave · 24/06/2012 22:25

I second Restless and also Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd (no WWII element to the latter but it's a cracker).

Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household.

The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers. It's a bit off the wall and there are bits I don't bother to read but it's very very good, and the queasy paranoic atmosphere explain a lot about why WWI happened at all.

KurriKurri · 24/06/2012 22:23

Len Deighton - the Game Set and Match series and the Hook Line and Sinker series

KurriKurri · 24/06/2012 22:20

Agent Zigzag and Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre (non fiction but good reads if you are into spies)

Sebastian Faulks has written a James Bond thriller recently - sorry can't remember the name of it.

hanahsaunt · 24/06/2012 21:45

Any of the 4 by SJ Bolton - each stand alone and utterly captivating. Really well written.

Or the Shetland Quartet by Ann Cleeves? Love those too.

ninjanurse · 24/06/2012 21:30

Jackdaws by Ken Follett - about a group of female spies sent into WW2 Occupied France.

Sidge · 24/06/2012 20:04

I second (third?) Lee Child's books - not secret agent/undercover spy sort of novels but a thumping good read, intelligent and quite twisty turny sometimes (for example Persuader!).

I also like Dennis Lehane, Robert Crais and Jonathan Kellerman - again, not spy stuff but intelligent, gripping reads.

blametheparents · 24/06/2012 19:58

You're Next by Greg Hurtwitz
Just finished it, it was fab

Also enjoyed Child 44 and Before I Go To Sleep as others have recommended

Original poster
PetitRat · 12/06/2012 20:26

...and I've just found this link here which has some likely looking candidates. Who says women only read chick lit!

OP posts:
rufusnine · 12/06/2012 20:22

if you Do remember an author you like look on this www.literaturemap.com and if you type in the name it gives you a floating dancing map (you'll understand when you do it!!) of authors who are similar.although the other day I recommended the site to someone and they got the Argos catalogue! Ps i second Lee Childs and his Jack reacher books - I'd want him on my team any day!!

diabolo · 12/06/2012 20:08

If you've not read any Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels, they are brilliantly entertaining thrillers - something bad happens, Jack comes along to put it right, gets thwarted a lot, twist in the plot..... as a 39 year old woman whose favourite book is Jane Eyre, I can't recommend them enough - and there is a big back catalogue for you - start with the Killing Floor.

fivegomadindorset · 12/06/2012 19:55

Our kind of traitor by John le carre

Original poster
PetitRat · 12/06/2012 19:51

Yep it's the Jeffrey Archer style books I'm after - I've read them all but something in a similar vein would be great. Just bought Child 44 and trying to resist starting it before I actually get on the plane!

OP posts:
diabolo · 12/06/2012 19:33

Jeffrey Archer. Love or hate him, his books are greatly entertaining, old fashioned thrillers, esp A Matter of Honour, Honour Among Thieves,

Lee Child - the entire Jack Reacher series. Not particularly intelligent reading, but I love 'em.

MrsGubbins · 12/06/2012 17:01

Ken Follett novels are good easy holiday reads, I've just read Eye of the Needle on a weekend away

robotCS · 12/06/2012 16:54

cuckoo - can't remember the author...is very good

CoteDAzur · 12/06/2012 16:53

I second these two:

Before I go to sleep
Child 44

And also Girl With The Dragon Tattoo if you are one of the ten people left in the world who haven't yet read them Smile

highlandcoo · 12/06/2012 16:51

Child 44 and The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith. Agent 6 is the third in the series - not quite so good but the first two are excellent. Set in 1950s Stalinist Russia.

You may have already read Fatherland by Robert Harris - what might have happened if Nazi Germany had won WW2.

Original poster
PetitRat · 12/06/2012 16:40

Thanks for the ideas - I'll check them out. Keep the ideas coming please - secret/double/undercover agent kind of things too!!

OP posts:
Lexiesgirl · 12/06/2012 16:26

Mo Hayder's Jack Caffrey novels - The Treatment, Birdman, Skin, Gone, and one other I can't remember. I don't normally like thrillers but I LOVE these. You do need to read them in order though.

exexpat · 12/06/2012 16:20

You might like Philip Kerr's Berlin novels. Or William Boyd's Restless.

ElectricSoftParade · 12/06/2012 16:15

Juney Have read all of those and they are good reads. Just finished The Playdate yesterday Smile.

Peter James in the Inspector Grace series is good.

juneybean · 12/06/2012 16:13

Before I Go to Sleep by SJ Watson
Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes
The Playdate by Louise Millar

Three I've read this year and really enjoyed.