‘I adore bookshops’

When crime queen VAL MCDERMID recommends a thriller, you know it’s good. Her latest, Insidious Intent, is out now.

We’ll be spending Christmas walking, reading and recharging. I’ll be gifting some of my recent crime fiction discoveries. ◆ Susie Steiner writes engaging prose packed with details that MISSING, PRESUMED bring her characters to life. I’ll send to my ex-book group (I moved!) – they love good writing. ◆ Set in a time of extreme drought in rural THE DRY Australia, Jane Harper’s is a dark, penetrating study of small-town life. I’d give it to my partner, who is a geographer and loves to be transported by books. ◆ My son has developed a fascination with history and politics, so I’d give him Abir A NECESSARY EVIL, Mukherjee’s a gripping novel set in 1920s India.