From the excellent Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins to the fast-paced latest from Matthew Hall and Joe Thomas’ original Bent, thrillers of the week
Magpie Lane
Lucy Atkins Quercus £16.99
Magpie Lane is where an Oxford college master lives in a grand rickety house with his pregnant second wife, his disturbed daughter from his first marriage and a nanny, who is rather more than she seems.
When the little girl goes missing, this unhappy household is forced to give up its secrets. An excellent psychological thriller that’s hard to put down.
The Black Art Of Killing
Matthew Hall Michael Joseph £14.99
Leo Black is attempting to build a new life in academia, a far cry from his SAS past. But when an old comrade is murdered in Paris, he is inevitably drawn into the investigation.
And so we’re swept into a fast-paced global thriller as Black races against time to thwart a devilish conspiracy.
Bent
Joe Thomas Arcadia £9.99
Harold ‘Tanky’ Challenor was a war hero who fought behind enemy lines in Italy. He later became a Met detective with a fearsome reputation, until his career crashed and burned in 1964.
As a child, the author met Challenor, and now he has brought him back to life in an original cop novel that switches between Sixties Soho and wartime Europe.