“Gripping Thriller with a Killer Twist you won’t see coming”....

[ComfortablyGlum]

Is anyone else sick to death nearly every crime genre fiction novel being given the above description...? And has anyone ever actually read a book that lives up to it?

The reason it hacks me off is I’m so damn gullible that I buy all these books and NOT ONCE has the book ever been more than mildly interesting and I’ve usually guessed ‘the twist’ by about page 4.

I’d love, for once, to finish a novel I genuinely would call gripping and be totally gobsmacked with a clever plot twist. My kindle is sick of being slammed down in disgust every time I finish yet another disappointing tome. Hit me with your recommendations!

The Basic Eight had a massive twist which I did not see coming.

Not sure whether it counts as a crime/thriller, but it's an excellent book.

I have learnt the hard way (ie: lots of wasted money and hours reading sub-standard books) to ignore these descriptions.

I also take the reviews posted by readers in a somewhat sceptical manner. Someone’s 5 star book will be another’s 1 star book.

I think the market is just flooded with these type of books and they seem to just get weaker.
I have just read 'The child' by Fiona Barton and I thought it was dreadful. Worked out the twist in the first 50 pages, inaccurate writing - who had email in 1992?- , dialogue was awful. One of the worst books I have read this year. Will avoid her other stuff like the plague.

I read a lot of crime and thrillers, so I can usually see what's coming - but there a couple of writers who generally manage to surprise me. Linwood Barclay's first book, "No Time for Goodbye", really did blindside me. I couldn't see how he was going to resolve it, but the ending was really satisfying.

If you don't mind a little bit of conspiracy theory in your thrillers, Michael Marshall's "The Straw Men" is really creepy and unexpected.

Personally, I hate any title which includes, "a novel". Like, "A Fiction Book about Something by Someone. A Novel". I suspect publishers use it to suggest the book is a bit literary, but for me it always suggests that this is a pretentious book I'm not going to enjoy. It's not like we pick up a book from the fiction section and start worrying if it's a car manual or a guide to steam trains or something.

'For fans of...' just screams 'generic' to me. There's been far too much bandwagon-hopping since Gone Girl (which was a genuine plot twist, even if the ending had me chucking it across the room.) I have pretty much given up on the psychological thriller novels as I've read many more that are rubbish than worth my time.