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The most gripping thriller? share your thoughts to win £50 Selfridges vouchers

122 replies

RachelMumsnet · 27/09/2015 23:10

We're wanting to find out which book have made your heart race, pulse jump and forced you to stay up reading long into the night.

To celebrate the publication of Alexandra Burt's debut Little Girl Gone, we're asking you to share your most unputdownable book. Join the discussion and tell us why it gets your vote. All those who join the thread will be entered into a draw to win £50 Selfridges vouchers

Little Girl Gone is the debut novel of Alexandra Burt and has been hailed as “impossible to put down” by Award winning author, Meg Gardiner and as a "thrilling, nail-shredding page-turner that fans of ‘Gone Girl’ and ‘Before I Go to Sleep’ won’t be able to put down".

This thread is sponsored by Harper Collins

The most gripping thriller? share your thoughts to win £50 Selfridges vouchers
OP posts:
Pigeonpea · 29/09/2015 19:56

Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey - Gripping , heartbreaking, twisting and fabulous
Based on some of the most human experiences
Simply beautiful

SallySwann · 29/09/2015 21:14

Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch did it for me. A remarkable book. A drama that seemingly has everything. Very disappointed that it had to end!

annandale · 29/09/2015 21:19

I'm really glad Rogue Male is on here - I absoutely loved that.

I love to re-read The Riddle of the Sands which is a wonderful read but I do sometimes think I prefer the comic opening to the rest of the novel.

I know Dick Francis seems very old hat these days but his best ones will knock your socks off if you accept some of it will be dated - I think Flying Finish is a fantastic book and can't understand why it was never filmed. Also The Danger, another briliant page-turner.

BlackAmericanoNoSugar · 30/09/2015 13:20

Unallocated Space by Jerry Hatchett. I had no expectations of it, it was a cheap Kindle book and I'd never heard of the author before but I read it until I finished it, long after I should have been asleep, because I couldn't put it down.

pbandbacon · 02/10/2015 12:15

I read a lot of books and generally am up into the night reading something or other. But my stand-out unputdownable books goes right back to the soft spot I have for the Harry Potter series. Even on my re-reads I stay up all night.

I absolutely loved the Goldfinch and Donna Tartt's The Secret History has been on my to-read list for a while. From what I've read above, I'm now going to put a few meals in the fridge for the DCs and hide away for a while...

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 02/10/2015 15:40

I'm not entirely sure it counts as a thriller but Wilkie Collins' 'The Woman in White' is certainly a page turner, and is packed with plenty of good thriller-esque elements - a strangely enticing villain, vulnerable women, sexual attraction, races across the country at nighttime etc. Far, far superior to the modern airport shop stuff! :)

WowOoo · 02/10/2015 16:44

One I read recently was The Darkest Room by Johann Theorin. It was the kind of book I didn't want to stop reading and was looking forward to bedtime to read it again.

pbandbacon · 02/10/2015 18:27

oops, I just realised we were asked for a Thriller. Not sure HP fits the bill. Blush

Uzma01 · 03/10/2015 06:33

Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner was a real page turner for me. Was so enthralled by it that I just couldn't put it down! That was the last page turner BC (before children!) Then when my third DC was born in July & I had to go back into hospital with him to get his jaundice treated - I got hubby to bring in Robert Thorogood's A Meditation on Murder & I was hooked! Was so happy MN had sent me that one to read as it really helped pass the time we were stuck in hospital

ThenLaterWhenItGotDark · 03/10/2015 06:41

Provo and Kara's Game by Gordon Stevens. Political/action thrillers rather than psycho-ex ones (though I like those too) Very underrated writer IMO and reread both regularly. Real thumping pageturners.

RumAppleGinger · 03/10/2015 06:41

Cold Hands by John Niven. He is my favourite author and doesn't get nearly the recognition that he should.

purplepandas · 03/10/2015 06:42

The Woman in White

FernieB · 04/10/2015 22:39

Just finished 'Burnt Paper Sky' by Gilly MacMillan. I read it in a day - it's been a while since a book gripped me enough to do that. I thought having two narrators was effective and added to the suspense as their states of mind were often at odds with each other.

I also enjoyed 'Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend' by Matthew Green. It's a similar subject matter to the above, but told from a more unusual point of view.

lexy444 · 05/10/2015 18:03

Two thrillers that kept me up all night - admittedly I was a lot younger when I read them, now nothing keeps me up all night!

A Simple Plan - Scott Smith
Presumed Innocent - Scott Turow

Susangilley7 · 07/10/2015 08:49

Should love to receive a copy of this. Can't seem to get to form!

mmack · 07/10/2015 13:55

Every Dead Thing by John Connolly, Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane and Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris are probably the best thrillers I ever read. I really enjoyed Presumed Innocent but it wasn't as scary as those three.

Emrob86 · 07/10/2015 17:23

I loved the book Dark Places by Gillian Flynn. I thought it was even better and more exciting than Gone Girl.

I can't wait to see the film! :)

I will definitely watch this thread for new recommendations.

BlueBrightFuture · 08/10/2015 15:20

I liked Tide Line by Penny Hancock. Perhaps because a large part of the book was set by the river Thames which made the locations easy to place.

Dragon Tattoo series I loved expect that some of the details went a bit far such as the descriptions of an Ikea Lamp or furniture. It described the make, model etc… details like that I skim read as it got on my nerves to be honest.

I didn’t find In to the darkest corner that scary but I did like it.

hooliodancer · 09/10/2015 17:54

A Fatal Inversion by Ruth Rendell. The ending made me scream out loud.

She was at the height of her powers when she wrote this. It is so creepy, really does put a lot of the modern stuff to shame.

RosalitaJumpALittleHigher · 09/10/2015 18:07

Anything by Stephen King but especially The Stand. Also love early Patricia Cornwell books and anything by Karin Slaughter.

LittleBairn · 13/10/2015 22:16

The secret History, so intense that I still think about it 10 years on.
A year ago the BBC did a radio version and it was every bit as thrilling as the first time, almost like it was new to me.

RumAppleGinger · 14/10/2015 18:32

Incidentally, I definitely would not recommend the book in the OP. I just finished reading it and didn't enjoy it at all.

FawnDrench · 14/10/2015 20:13

40 years old this year, (yes, really!) the one that absolutely terrified me and gave me many sleepless nights was "The Fog" by James Herbert.

Such a well-written, creepy and gripping tale - I felt almost sucked in by reading it. At times as I turned the pages, I remember feeling not that different from the people in the book who were so skilfully and spookily sucked in by the fog that Herbert was so eerily portraying.

A book that will remain truly unforgotten.

Sylviecat · 21/10/2015 17:10

Oh yes, apple tree yard was totally gripping. I find lots of books tend to build up tension well but the endings are often a let down ('Her' for example)

Also recently enjoyed I let you go.

thunderbird69 · 21/10/2015 17:25

Room by Emma Donaghue

Read it in only a couple of sittings, at one point I was reading late into the night thinking 'just a bit more...just a bit more.' There was no way I could get to sleep without finding out how it turned out.