Books that make you shiver

The Turn of the Screw,

Henry James

The tale of a susceptible governess haunted by her two young charges is a chilling, clear-cut masterwork.

In Cold Blood, Truman Capote

Capote’s account of the murder of the Clutter family on a Kansas farm in 1959, and his assessment of one of the killers, Perry Smith, is still the benchmark for true-crime literature.

The Secret History, Donna Tartt

A gripping why-dunnit about class, classics and murder on a snooty campus, as reliable narrator Richard introduces his unreliable friends.

The Road, Cormac McCarthy

The sequel to every crass disaster movie and a concerned ode to the planet, as ‘man’ and ‘boy’ journey to a devastating end.

We Need to Talk about Kevin,

Lionel Shriver

Shriver’s edgy look at a school massacre by a teenage son is cold and devastating. Why did Kevin do it? There are no easy answers.

The Silence of the Lambs,

Thomas Harris

Harris’s page-turner is far scarier and more nuanced than the harrowing film, with your imagination allowed to run wild.

Nineteen Eighty-Four,

George Orwell

Orwell’s surveillance horror is remembered for Big Brother, Room 101 and the Thought Police, but the creep comes with the individual – Winston, crushed and searching.

TheWoman in White,

Wilkie Collins

A twisted, complicated plot involving switched identities and secret societies makes this a forerunner of modern detective fiction. What if the Nazis had won the war? Harris unravels the past as Hitler turns 75, and the real world sighs in relief.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, John le Carré

This tale of Alec Leamas posing as a defector to East Germany is as astute as it is thrilling on the dismal realities of spying.

The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler

History will surely show that Chandler’s first outing for Philip Marlowe will never be topped for an

impossibly complex noir plot about the dark shenanigans of a pair of heiresses in Los Angeles, US.