Please recommend some thrillers

[StealthPolarBear]

I'm really struggling at the moment and everything I'd usually want to read is a variation on the same theme (someone knows her secret from years ago and her perfect life is coming apart at the seams).
It's probably easier to say what I'm not keen on, apologies in advance for fussiness

• books that jump around ("Tim, 1992", "Laura, 2002", "Anna, present day")
• books where huge chunks of the text are in the bad guys head, usually in italics, where he does mundane things in a vaguely sinister way
• books with thousands of characters where you're forever looking back to decide which one was Adam, and why shoukd I care he was in the garden at the wedding
• books with overt violence, rape or gore. If a child is in danger there needs to be a happy ending.

Im sure my list will grown but that'll do for now.

I really enjoyed When they find her by Lia Middleton lately

Have you read any Nicci French? I really enjoyed their Frieda Klein series and am working my way (slowly) through the rest of their novels. They usually have a new one out each year (at least seem to have done so for the past few years).

Ruth Rendell (and her books written as Barbara Vine) and P D James are both worth looking at too. Well written, good plots, although may seem a bit dated now.

I’ve enjoyed Claire Douglas and Paula Hawkins lately

Another vote for The Silent Patient
Also The Night Before by Wendy Walker

Alice Feeney's novels are readable, decent thrillers. I enjoyed Rock, Paper, Scissors. Lots of twists and turns, but trigger warning of miscarriage and failed IVF.

Just shamelessly place marking I love a good thriller

I like Rachel Abbot's books - the Tom Douglas series. I think the first one is 'Only the Innocent'.

JP Delaney 'Playing Nice' is pretty good. Just finished it.

I love Susie Steiner. She has an amazing flawed female detective and she writes like an angel.
I also like Denise Mina. There’s one called Conviction, that is a proper action thriller, but, again with a snarky, super bright and flawed heroine. Think I maybe have a type!

Sabine Durrant
Erin Kelly
Jane Casey.
....Dont think any of these are too gory or flashbacky. i have similar tastes & requirements to you😀

Erin Kelly is great.

The Dry

I'd really recommend The Slough House series by Mick Herron. Here's a write up from that website, introducing the series:

Let us be clear about this much at least: Slough House is not in Slough, nor is it a house...Slough House is Jackson Lamb's kingdom; a dumping ground for members of the intelligence service who've screwed up: left a secret file on a train, blown a surveillance, or become drunkenly unreliable. They're the service's poor relations - the slow horses - and bitterest among them is River Cartwright, whose days are spent transcribing mobile phone conversations. But when a young man is abducted, and it's threatened that he'll be beheaded live on the Internet, River sees an opportunity to redeem himself. Is the victim who he first appears to be? And what's the kidnappers' connection with a disgraced journalist? As the clock ticks on the execution, River finds that everyone involved has their own agenda ...And unless the slow horses can prove they're not as useless as they're thought to be, a young man's death is going to echo around the world. Praise for Mick Herron: 'Mick Herron never tells a suspense story in the expected way, which is why his new novel, Reconstruction, reads as much like a puzzle mystery as it does a thriller ...unpleasant things are bound to happen, and they do - but not until Herron has finished surprising us . ..there is no hiding under the desk' - "New York Times". 'This is one of these novels where you read it, not just to see what happens at the end, but to see what happens on the very next page' - "Booklist". 'Good characterisation, dialogue and well-paced narrative make this confident first novel frighteningly plausible' - "Sunday Telegraph". 'Tight, literary and cliche free' - "Publishers Weekly". 'Stylish and engaging' - "Washington Post".

There is some violence, but it's always integral to the story and never ghoulish or voyeuristic. The books (8 in all so far) are really tightly plotted and very well written. Darkly funny too.

Steve Cavanagh books are awesome - he’s a lawyer who writes about a con man turned criminal lawyer in NY. And praise be, he can actually WRITE (I’ve found some James Patterson / Lee child’s brother books utterly unreadable because of the dreadful language). And by god these are exciting. Can’t wait for them to be made into films, which surely they must be. Thirteen is the one that got me into him. There are guns and xbad guys but not dark (like val mcdermid for eg)

Lying in Wait by Liz Nugent.
The Perfect Girlfriend by Karen Hamilton.

Currently reading ‘The Cult’ by Abby Davies and loving it.

I loved the Strike series by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling). Eagerly awaiting the next one.

Behind Closed Doors, BA Paris. Absolutely brilliant.

I’ve read lots of these - I really enjoyed blood orange and Steve cavvanagh - the appeal by Janice Hallett was excellent!
The pact was good.

Len Deighton wrote thrillers usually set 1960s 1970s. Not too blokey I think. Often Spy or Secret Service links
Gavin Lyall was writing over a few years from 1960. He also wrote a series of books. Each one stood alone with few references to earlier. Great series set 1912 and start of Secret Service. Excellent historical detail. Both have some humour and not many bodies.
GL was married to Katherine Whitehorn.

The One by John Mars. Absolutely loved the book. The TV show went with a different storyline and wasn't as good imo

@thenightsky

Mark Edwards stuff is good. The Magpies had me gripped.

Yes and there are three in the series iirc. I really like all his books, especially when I haven't read for a while.

Currently reading The Love Trap by Caroline Goldsworthy and really enjoying it…. I’m not a huge reader. Psychological thriller … thought provoking and believable.