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Original poster

AIBU to have had a gut full of "psychological thrillers"

108 replies

Notradespeopleareavailable · 07/09/2021 14:07

Having just read yet another one with a totally ridiculous and implausible ending, I don't think I can take any more. One of my favourite authors has a kindle book at £0.00 on offer at Amazon and I don't think I can even be bothered to download it.

I think "psychological thrillers" is just another name for chick-lit, and it does amuse me to read all the redacted reviews (back-slapping and puff pieces) from other authors of the same genre eg:

"The most gripping read of 2021"
" I could not put this book down!" fast enough
" Twisty and keeps you guessing through to the end".

I can't believe these other authors really have the time and inclination to read all this similar stuff being churned out in droves. About 15 years ago, this type of book was a novelty and tightly plotted and well-written. But since then, what has happened, why is the world suddenly being taken over with this genre of books?

OP posts:
StealthPolarBear · 07/09/2021 20:37

Yes Steve kavanagh has been good recently. I also enjoy medical thrillers, Michael palmer, Robin Cook etc.

StealthPolarBear · 07/09/2021 20:40

And I've started reading rom coms/chick lit because at least it doesn't pretend to be anything it's not.
Funny though. Nothing with a naked male torso on the cover.

IHateFlies · 07/09/2021 20:56

I don’t read many so love them when I get a good one. I always read one after I’ve not had time to read and want to get back into books and off my phone! They’re very good for that.

Kindlingwood · 07/09/2021 21:06

If you like crime fiction, try m arlidge, or mw craven. Both excellent crime writers.

Also for quirkier crime/thrillers, try Anthony horrowitz.

BrozTito · 07/09/2021 21:11

Horowitz's sherlock holmes was good although i worked it out bloody immediately

magicstar1 · 07/09/2021 21:22

I’ve gone off them too, but I do love Steve Cavanagh.

SailYourShips · 07/09/2021 22:16

I hope Richard Osman isn't the next big thing. I rushed out and bought, in hardback, The Thursday Club Murders and it was cringingly, squelchingly bad.

Barry from Acacia Avenue couldn't have written anything worse after attending one Creative Writing Session in Coketown Village Hall.

MuchasSmoochas · 07/09/2021 22:21

Anything with the word “twisty” and I’m out. I love my Kindle but the ability to self publish has ruined books, so much shite compared to, say 15 years ago.

New2ctc · 07/09/2021 22:28

Do you think big sagas will be a thing again? Or have the modern population lost the desire to try to remember who everyone is!
Would love to hear what everyone would LIKE to read next. A book like...

mynameiscalypso · 07/09/2021 22:30

@Notradespeopleareavailable

I think it's also all the abuse of women portrayed in these novels - paedophilia, rape, coercion, capture and imprisonment, gaslighting .... urgh I feel I have fed myself a diet of misery and misogyny as a form of entertainment and escapism.
So much this. I had downloaded some 'Sunday Times Bestseller' types for my holiday last week and just reading all the synopses put me off. I just have had my fill of all that shit. I'm mainly reading non-fiction at the moment.
StealthPolarBear · 07/09/2021 22:30

Rosamund Lupton was brilliant
And I love everything by tana french

StealthPolarBear · 07/09/2021 22:31

I do hate books that have so many people though. The e reader thing is brilliant as you can search to see who Sara is, who was mentioned on page 4 and has turned out to be the bad guy
... Or has she?

SpamThief · 07/09/2021 22:43

Yes. There have been more than enough Girls on Trains and Women in Windows.

SteppinOutwithMyBaby · 07/09/2021 22:45

Can I add an unreliable narrator. Or even worse multiple unreliable narrators using multiple timelines. Particularly when no indication is given where specific chapters are on the timeline.

Maybe I'm stupid, but I recently read a book where two of the narrators were actually the same person, describing events 12 years apart, and I didn't twig until the last chapter when it was made explicit. As far as I can remember, there were no hints given that this was the case. But then again, so many of these books are so pedestrian they're not worth the effort of really thinking about them.

Someone mentioned Belinda Bauer. Love her.

SailYourShips · 07/09/2021 22:45

And thrillers with houses on the front cover.

StealthPolarBear · 07/09/2021 22:48

I started a thread about my irritation witj multiple narrators and was ticked off!
I still hold out hope when I se a new thriller with a house on the cover. But I suspect I've been recently disappointed.

newnameanon1 · 07/09/2021 22:55

I can't resist posting on this thread (on which I am named) just to say, authors do not get paid to blurb other authors and you totally cannot but your way into the Sunday times top ten

PearlyRising · 07/09/2021 23:02

I just read a Belinda Bauer and loved it. It started out with such a different idea. not a woman murdered, but the wrong old man ''assisted to his death'' by unwitting set up murderers. Then it ended with a 95 year old man watching the two young 75 year olds who didn't realise they were falling in love yet help him fulfil his last wish. ''oh to be 75 again!'' he thought.

I also read rubbernecker by BB and loved it. Must check out her others.

SpamThief · 07/09/2021 23:06

@SailYourShips

I hope Richard Osman isn't the next big thing. I rushed out and bought, in hardback, The Thursday Club Murders and it was cringingly, squelchingly bad.

Barry from Acacia Avenue couldn't have written anything worse after attending one Creative Writing Session in Coketown Village Hall.

I'm midway through this and...it's not great. It does seem like a very basic first draft.
Ikeameatballs · 07/09/2021 23:09

Another one largely bored by this genre, or what I’ve read in it recently.

Same re unreliable narrators, I felt that The Last House on Needless Street stretched this too far for me by a long way. I was really irritated by it!

I did enjoy Thursday Murder Club, it was far fetched nonsense in many ways but I found it really comforting as I imagined Art Malik, Helen Mirren and Imelda Staunton in various roles!

Realyorkshiretea · 07/09/2021 23:09

Laughed out loud reading this thread.

Same problem with tv.

I was trying to find a new series to watch the other day, literally everything was either a ghoulish informative murder documentary or a polished, American thriller, Dirty John style.

I wonder what’s driving this appetite for crime entertainment?

BrozTito · 07/09/2021 23:12

Whats that e reader thing, stealth? Could do with that as a fan of Russian classics

Realyorkshiretea · 07/09/2021 23:20

Now I think about it I also find the ‘cottage core’ genre really annoying - usually set in Cornwall, where a woman has gone to ‘escape her past’ by going to work as a nanny for the local landowner, falls in love with hunky gardener and buys a beautiful thatched cottage despite not having a pot to piss in 3 months prior, etc. Lots of talk of ‘moody seas’, ‘whispering heather’ and ‘the smell of fresh coffee on sea air’.

MountainDweller · 07/09/2021 23:28

I do quite like the genre but many of them all merge into one. I still enjoy Lisa Jewell and Louise Candlish (although I think she peaked with Our House). I liked the Richard Osman but I had the audio book and Lesley Manville was a brilliant narrator. I used to like Dorothy Koomson but haven't read anything recent. Some good suggestions here for authors I haven't tried - thanks!