Reccomend thriller books/ authors to me- need a change

[flipflopper]

I fancy reading a thriller/ mystery type book, not really read that kind of book before much, I had a quick search on amazon but there were so many!
Also, I don't want anything really gory or about rape or child abduction!! I don't want to have nightmares

Thankyou in advance

You could try early Robert Goddard - Into the Blue and In Pale Battalions are both very good. His later books get a bit repetitive though.

Also Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series are nice gentle crime set in French Canada.

Can't Let Go by Jane Hill is quite good. It's about a woman who has a secret and one day receives an anonymous letter telling her that someone knows what she did.

Who Is Sarah Lawson by KJ Rabane was good, a woman goes home and finds a strange family living in her house, calling her by a name she doesn't recognise and insisting she is their sister who lost her memory in an accident. She believes they are impostors who have harmed her and stolen her life. The police don't believe her and she hires a private investigator to try to discover the truth.

Nicci French books are also usually very good. I liked Killing Me Softly and Beneath The Skin. Complicit was also quite good.

I don't think any of those had rape or child abduction as themes.

Otherwise, as Highlandcoo has mentioned, some series are more gentle and older books like Agatha Christie's Marple and Poirot series are still very good but a little more gentle than the modern crime thrillers. Peril at End House might be a good one to try, or A Murder is Announced. I liked both of those.

I liked Tideline (Penny Hancock).

Sonia lives by the river Thames, 15 year old boy knocks on her door to borrow a CD, she decides not to let him go.

Not really child abduction as such but you may want to read the blurb as this is about a 15 year old boy. Real page turner, totally brilliant imo.

Wow thanks for replies! I have ordered about 4 samples for my kindle, and the sarah Lawson one was just 62p so a bargain.
I will enjoy reading these, Ive read quite a few mediocre books so far this year and wanted something different.

Belinda Bauer! Total book crack, I couldn't put them down, but very well written too and quite darkly humorous.

Finders Keepers does have a child abduction theme but not in a distressing gory way, iyswim.

If you do decide to give her a try, I'd read the Blacklands books in order. I didn't and although it didn't spoil them, her plotting is so wonderful that I wish I'd read them in sequence.

Sara Paretsky's VI Warshawski series
David Baldacci's set in Washington
Kate Atkinson's DI Brodie series as currently on TV (not gory though one has child abduction)

Ruth Rendall & P D James are fantastic authors.

I read almost all of Sue Grafton's alphabet series - A is for Alibi and so on. Her main character is brilliant and the stories are gripping but not nasty z

I've been working my way through the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich. She's a bounty hunter and keeps getting caught up in crimes/mysteries. They're quite amusing and light-hearted. Iirc there is one book with a rape but its handled sensitively, not gory or nightmare-inducing.

They're all numbered in the titles - One for the Money etc if you want to start at the beginning.

The ones that have been my favourites recently are Helen Howe's Black is the Colour, and Lesley Glaister's As Far As you Can Go. I think they are somewhere on another thread.
Both gripping mystery stories, easily readable with a psychological aspect/twist but nothing too gory. Also they are both very cheap at the moment (less than £2).
I also used to like the Barbara Vine stuff - seem to remember A Fatal Inversion was very enjoyable.

I second Stephanie Plum and Sue Grafton Alphabet Series.

Jo Nesbo
Jo Nesbo
Jo Nesbo

Can you tell I love his writing. He writes Scandinavian crime thrillers - set in Norway. Once I start reading I can't stop.

I love th JD robb crime books by Nora Roberts. Can't get enough of them!

Jo Nesbo is very gory! I hated the Snowman and did not read anything else.
The inspector Linley series is quite good and very different from the tv series. But I'll second the Sue Grafton and Janet Evanovich recommendations. They are good and not too heavy.