Thrillers

95. ‘Body And Soul’ by John Harvey (William Heinemann, €20.99) Said to be the excellent Harvey’s last crime novel. Retired copper Frank Elder is living the quiet life on the Cornish coast until his troubled daughter becomes a murder suspect.

96. ‘Green Sun’ by Kent Anderson (Mulholland, €20.99) A brilliant and subtle cop novel in which Hanson, Anderson’s regular protagonist, tries to keep the peace on the mean streets of Oakland, California.

97. ‘Sticks And Stones’ by Jo Jakeman (Harvill Secker, €16) Imogen’s ex-husband Philip was a controlling bully. As this pageturning debut starts, he’s in a coffin and all three of his exes are in attendance – Ruby, the hippie who came first; narrator Imogen; and Naomi, the younger model he left her for. But which one killed him and which one locked him in their cellar?

98. ‘Time Is A Killer’ by Michel Bussi (W&N, €18.20) Clotilde was the only survivor of the car crash that killed her family. So when she receives a letter in her mother’s handwriting, suggesting she is still alive, the stage is set for another inventive mystery from the French author.

99. ‘Careless Love’ by Peter Robinson (Hodder & Stoughton, €21) The 25th DCI Banks novel sees the veteran policeman investigating two suspicious deaths. Robinson remains the master of the police procedural.

100. ‘The Break Line’ by James Brabazon (Michael Joseph, €16) When Max McLean, British intelligence’s most feared hitman, discovers one of his comrades has been scared into madness, he’s determined to find out why. A real page-turner.