Paperback thrillers

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley (Harpercollins, £8.99)

In the latest novel from the author of The Hunting Party, Jess loses her bar job and her brother Ben, a journalist in Paris, reluctantly agrees that Jess can crash at his apartment. But she arrives to find he has vanished. She then discovers that the apartment block is chock-full of weirdos. Which of them knows the truth about her brother?

Jess scours Paris for clues in a gripping read with an atmospheric feel and the slow-burning suspense of a Hitchcock movie.

Jake Kerridge

The Pact by Sharon Bolton (Trapeze, £7.99)

Six gifted friends at a prestigious school take part in a daredevil game that goes horribly wrong, with a woman and two children dying. One of the six, Megan, volunteers to take the blame if the others agree that on her release from prison, they will do her one favour – which can be anything she asks. Twenty years later, Megan is free and it’s payback time, but her friends are left reeling as she makes demands beyond anything they imagined.

The Pact is a tense and fast-moving thriller about privilege and betrayal.

Jon Coates

The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont (Pan, £8.99)

Agatha Christie always provided satisfying solutions to the mysteries she created – but she never explained what happened in 1926 when, following her husband Archie’s revelation that he was leaving her, she disappeared for 11 days. Nina de Gramont tells the story from the fictionalised perspective of Archie’s mistress Nan, with a murder mystery thrown in, and it’s a compelling read.

Jake Kerridge