TEN THRILLERS TO DIE FOR

BY FOYLE’S WAR CREATOR ANTHONY HOROWITZ

A PLACE OF EXECUTION, VAL MCDERMID (1999)

IN 1963, a young girl goes missing in Derbyshire. Thirty-six years later, a journalist re-opens the case and at once a whole series of dark secrets begin to emerge. McDermid is one of Scotland’s most accomplished crime writers and this book builds and builds to a terrific conclusion.

A QUESTION OF BLOOD, IAN RANKIN (2003)

THERE is a long list of novels featuring Rankin’s hard-bitted, heavy-drinking DI John Rebus and I could have chosen any one of them. This one, which starts with a shooting in a private school, just happens to be one of my favourites. There’s a chance that Rebus could be returning to TV soon. Let’s hope so.

THE SUSPICIONS OF MR WHICHER, KATE SUMMERSCALE (2008)

IT WAS a brilliant idea to revisit a real crime that took place in 1860 — the murder of a three-year-old boy in Wiltshire which became a cause célèbre in Victorian England. The central character, Jack Whicher, was one of the first Scotland Yard detectives and he’s all the more compelling because he was real. Summerscale’s book also inspired a popular ITV series.

THE TOKYO ZODIAC MURDERS, SOJI SHIMADA (2004)

IF YOU like your crime stories to be bloody and bizarre, then this one may be for you. The winner of several major awards, it’s ‘a locked room’ mystery . . . almost a genre in

itself and the solution is one of the most original that I’ve ever read. THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, STIEG LARSSON (2005)

LISBETH SALANDER — an abused child who has grown up to become a dangerously unpredictable, borderline sociopathic computer hacker — is without any doubt the most startling and original investigator in 21st-century crime fiction. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (pictured) is the first of three books that Larsson wrote about her before his untimely death in 2004, but she has since been given new life in David Lagercrantz’s excellent continuation novels.

THE PAYING GUESTS, SARAH WATERS (2014)

I’M a huge fan of all Sarah Waters’s work — which blurs the line between literary fiction and crime writing. This one, set in London during the Twenties, is the story of a family forced to take in lodgers and the chaos that ensues as lust gives way to illicit love and finally to murder. It’s a profoundly absorbing read.

THE DARKNESS, RAGNAR JONASSON (2015)

I’VE ONLY recently discovered this extraordinary Icelandic writer who adds several shades of darkness to Nordic noir. This story, which begins with an asylum seeker

found dead on a frozen seashore introduces a female detective — Hulda Hermannsdottir — and builds to a deeply shocking climax. CLOSED CASKET, SOPHIE HANNAH (2016) IT WAS clever of the Agatha Christie estate to entrust Hercule Poirot to a safe pair of hands and I particularly enjoyed this mystery — Sophie Hannah’s second outing with the Belgian detective, set in a classic Irish country house. The motive for the murder is one of the most peculiar I’ve ever come across. THE DEAD HOUSE, HARRY BINGHAM (2016)

THE body of a young woman is found in a ‘dead house’ beside a Welsh cemetery, surrounded by flickering candles. So begins the fifth outing for Bingham’s troubled, dopesmoking detective, DC Fiona Griffiths, a woman with a unique affinity to the dead. Creepy and atmospheric, there are now six books in the series.

THE THIRST, JO NESBO (2017)

TWO women — both users of the dating app, Tinder — are murdered days apart and there’s just one clue. Fragments of rust and paint have been discovered in the wounds. It’s enough to bring Nesbo’s most famous creation, Harry Hole, out of retirement for another dose of violent, often quite gruesome Nordic noir.

THE Word Is Murder, the new whodunit by Anthony Horowitz, is published in paperback by Arrow on April 19.