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If I like Lisa Jewell and Louise Candlish...

94 replies

BetsyBobbins · 09/08/2023 11:35

What could you recommend me please?

I like their books (Jewell more than Candlish) and I'm trying to find similar books. I read Nicci French the other day and I really didn't like it, I thought it was badly written and predictable.

I like my murder mysteries and thrillers like The Girl on the Train and the above, what can you recommend me please? Thanks

OP posts:
Abracadabra12345 · 20/08/2023 22:36

Mykittensmittens · 17/08/2023 08:44

You can’t bear Clare Mckintosh, that one you have but also the other two ‘early’ ones which were published - ‘let me lie’ and ‘I let you go’ are brilliant for the twists.

on a similar vein - ‘into the darkest corner’ by Elizabeth Haynes has stuck with me a long time.

Omg "Into the Darkest Corner" has haunted me. I will never, ever let it leave my kindle library. I read it years ago

Romeiswheretheheartis · 20/08/2023 23:47

TM Logan is also good.

BetsyBobbins · 25/08/2023 11:17

Helpmefly · 20/08/2023 20:04

What did you think? I just finished game of lies....its part of a series but I didn't enjoy it as the first one.

I have just ordered an Erin Kelly off the back of this thread..and am going to try some barbara vine/ruth rendall

@Helpmefly how are you getting on with Erin Kelly ?

OP posts:
Helpmefly · 25/08/2023 19:44

Hi..gosh I have started yet!! I ordered from the library so only picked it up today!

Been reading some jojo moyes..author I recently discovered

littleblackcat27 · 26/08/2023 05:35

@BetsyBobbins thanks for starting thread - I've read loads of these but have found some new ideas too.

Completely agree about Nicci French 😂

littleblackcat27 · 26/08/2023 05:38

Love Ruth Rendell - have read A LOT of them.

Not quite in the genre, but Colin Dexter (Inspector Morse ) books are brilliant - and so well written - would recommend.

cheeseisthebest · 26/08/2023 07:30

Erin Kelley is great, also Gillian Mcallister.
Agree about BA Paris.
I loved the latest Lisa jewell book!

Showmethebagels · 26/08/2023 08:16

No one has mentioned Susan Elliot Wright yet. She had written around 5 books and hopefully another soon. If you like LJ I think you will enjoy her books

BetsyBobbins · 27/08/2023 12:38

littleblackcat27 · 26/08/2023 05:35

@BetsyBobbins thanks for starting thread - I've read loads of these but have found some new ideas too.

Completely agree about Nicci French 😂

Do you know what, I'm quite glad I started this thread too as I got a lot of suggestions and already read two of them (I'm a fast reader) 😊

I finished the Demon in my View by Ruth Rendell and I had to bear in mind at all times that it was written in another era as I thought the casual sexism was a bit uncomfortable sometimes. This was probably not the author herself view's but how the characters thought and behaved. Still some tropes, like the far east girl being easy and a "me love you king time" kind of girl. Maybe the next book of hers I read won't be about a repressed serial killer, lol!

Got a good deal at WH Smith and bought the Woman Who Lied by Claire Douglas and Burial of Ghosts by Ann Cleaves for 13 quid. Also bought one at the library sale, Liz Nugent's Lying in Wait for £1!

OP posts:
BetsyBobbins · 27/08/2023 12:43

I've also compiled a list with all the suggestions given here.
Apologies if I missed any. Some others I deliberately left out as they didn't fit the bill, eg Cecelia Ahern and Jojo Moyes.

Jackie Kabler
Lisa Gardiner
Tami Hoag
Karin Slaughter
Karen Rose
Nora Roberts
Alice Feeney
Clare Macintosh
Sue Watson
Lucy Clarke
Catherine Ryan Howard
Jane Harper
JP Delany
Dorothy koomson
Shari Lapena
Cara Hunter
Ruth Ware
Claire Douglas
Gillian Mcallister.
S E Lynes
Steve Kavanagh
Louise Penny
Harriet Tyce
Elly griffiths.
Marion Todd
Claire McGowan
Andrea Mara
Lucy Foley
Catherine Cooper
Rachel Abbott
Sarah Pearse
Tim Weaver
Harlan Coben
Linwood Barclay
Louise Douglas
Lauren North
Tana French
K L Slater
Belinda Bauer
Michael Robotham
Sabine Durant
Erin Kelly
Ruth Rendell
Elizabeth Haynes
Diane Chamberlain
Alice Hunter
Claire Allan
Sophie Hannah
Heidi Perks
Mo Hayder
Liz Nugent
TM Logan
Susan Elliot Wright

OP posts:
cheeseisthebest · 27/08/2023 14:29

Lying in wait but the ending still haunts me!

blondie87 · 27/08/2023 14:30

Lucy Clarke!

tennissquare · 27/08/2023 16:41

@BetsyBobbins , on holiday I read The woman who lied (and I know the places were it is set) followed by Lisa J None of this is True. After that I had to read a biography because I felt I was getting mixed up with life and fiction!

Let me know what you think of The Woman who Lied!

Helpmefly · 03/09/2023 16:34

OK I just finished my first Erin Kelly "the burning air" my overwhelming sense was irritation.

Clawdy · 03/09/2023 17:28

Oh, I loved The Burning Air! That twist was amazing.

BetsyBobbins · 06/09/2023 18:41

Helpmefly · 03/09/2023 16:34

OK I just finished my first Erin Kelly "the burning air" my overwhelming sense was irritation.

Good irritation or bad irritation (if you know what I mean?😅).

Since I've been reading an awful lot recently I might as well make this thread my personal public reading diary.

As I was on holiday the past 10 days I finished 2 books and am halfway through a third.

Burial of Ghosts by Ann Cleeves. It's narrated in the first person and despite the book being written in the early noughties, we have a classic example of the MMW - messy millennial woman (I didn't invented this, the term is well known on the net). Young woman with a troubled past finds herself embroiled in some complicated situation like so many we have seen since, ie, The Girl on the Train and others. I did enjoy the book but I thought some descriptions were overly long. Also, while the ending of I See You by Claire Macintosh dragged a bit (and it was a bit ridiculous), the ending of this one was a very quick affair. The protagonist's worked out who the killer was at a normal pace but right after we had, "And the police arrested the killer, the end", and I felt a bit short changed because we kind of see the police working with the protagonist side by side throughout the book. Still, not a bad book, I enjoyed it somehow.

None Of This Is True by Lisa Jewel. Bought it just before my flight last week. Well, what can I say? She did it again. I finished it in two days, I loved it. I swear I'm going to create a LJ Fan Club, lol! What I like about her books is the believability factor. Obviously it would be extremely hard for things like that to happen in real life but they can happen, like in Our House for example. Can it happen? Yes. Is it likely to happen? Tiny chance but not impossible. I keep thinking that that BBC series, The Sixth Commandment, could have been written by LJ because it was a situation so absurd (and sad) that if you told me it was true I probably wouldn't have believed you. Never mind the comma splicing and all (look further up the thread to see the reference).

I'm nearly halfway through The Woman Who Lied and enjoying it so far. Will be back to report

OP posts:
VioletCharlotte · 06/09/2023 19:53

Has anyone mentioned Gillian McAllister 'How to Disappear'? I've just finished it (audio book) and it's the best things I've read/listened to in ages.

BetsyBobbins · 06/09/2023 21:24

VioletCharlotte · 06/09/2023 19:53

Has anyone mentioned Gillian McAllister 'How to Disappear'? I've just finished it (audio book) and it's the best things I've read/listened to in ages.

Yes, she's in the list I compiled further up the thread 👍🏼

OP posts:
Helpmefly · 06/09/2023 21:57

Bad irritation...there was an unoriginal twist and I felt the writing was manipulative but not in a good way...trying not to write a spoiler!

I find catherine Ryan Howard unputdownable......I have read all of lisa jewell but not her new one so have ordered it!!

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