In a significant literary contribution, bestselling author Gillian McAllister has shared her selection of five favourite psychological thrillers, highlighting the genre’s capacity to evoke suspense and captivate readers. Known for her million-copy-selling novel Wrong Place, Wrong Time, McAllister’s expertise as both a reader and writer offers valuable insights into the intricacies of suspenseful storytelling, reports BritPanorama.
Into the darkest corner by Elizabeth Haynes
“To me, this is the seminal psychological thriller. It has a really simple premise: a woman who is housebound with anxiety in the ‘now’ timeline, and her meeting a man in the ‘then’ timeline. You don’t quite know how they are going to intersect, only that it will be explosive. Of course, once you know what the villain did in order to make the heroine so frightened, he re-enters her life in the ‘now’ timeline in the most chilling way I can imagine: leaving items in her flat, including the red button from her favourite dress.
“I remember all these details despite the fact I read it almost 10 years ago, which goes to show how vivid and frightening the writing is. It’s a must-read, especially because not only is it a pretty scary lights-on thriller, but it also confronts important elements of mental illness, including anxiety and OCD.”
Myriad Editions, £8.99
Then she was gone by Lisa Jewell
“This is perhaps Lisa Jewell’s most famous work (though truly, it’s hard to tell: she’s never written a book that missed, and each one has been an enormous bestseller). It is about a mother whose daughter went missing many years in the past, and the novel opens with the mother meeting somebody, decades on, who looks eerily similar.
“It contains one of those twists that you can’t believe you didn’t guess: it’s so seamless, so logical and so right, but you won’t guess it regardless. There is a reason this novel has sold millions of copies, and it is because of that twist, but it is also because of the ending, which will break your heart.”
Arrow, £9.99
The death of us by Abigail Dean
“This is a novel about the aftermath of a home invasion by a serial killer, but it’s so much more than that. It takes place during the trial of the man who has finally been apprehended for attacks across London – but it is mostly about the marriage of Isobel and Edward, with a then/now dual narrative of who they were before the unthinkable happened, and who they are afterwards.
“Gradually, you find out exactly what happened the night of the invasion, and the complex and interesting ways the hero let the heroine down, which contains within it a comment on the differences between the sexes, and their vulnerabilities. It’s a dark novel, as most of Dean’s are, but she never overdoes it. I still think about this novel at least weekly a year after reading it.”
Hemlock Press, £9.99
The deep end of the ocean by Jacquelyn Mitchard
“I came to this book almost 30 years too late, but I’m glad I read it as a forty-something mum. This is a novel about a family whose toddler goes missing, but the lens is actually on the mother’s relationship with the siblings who didn’t disappear. It takes what might be a typical missing-child thriller and expands it.
“It’s hard to believe it’s a typical-length novel, because the reader is served the police investigation, then the procedural elements slowly dying as the case goes cold, then the passing of many years as the heroine struggles to connect with her remaining children. It’s profoundly moving and goes in a direction I totally did not expect.”
HarperCollins, £16.99
You don’t know me by Imran Mahmood
“In this courtroom drama with a difference, a young man from London stands accused of murder, and in chapter one, he sacks his barrister and begins his opening speech himself. He goes through each element of evidence one by one, and addresses why they make him look guilty even though he says he isn’t.
“Gradually, he tells his version of events, beginning with a real look at what it is to be a marginalised young person in London who is trying to protect his family. It’s daringly innovative, surprising and fresh. This is the kind of novel everyone wishes they’d written, but nobody but Mahmood could.”
Penguin, £10.99
Caller unknown by Gillian McAllister is published by Michael Joseph, £16.99
