Genre · 8 BOOKS · 8 ROUNDTABLES

Crime & Thriller

The fights here are about plumbing, not motive: readers keep checking whether the mechanics hold up once the emotional scenes have finished doing their work, an aging detective's stamina, an imaginary friend nobody else ever touches, a freezer door hinged the wrong way, a USB drive that goes into a pocket instead of an evidence bag. The books that survive the check are the ones where somebody is shown doing the arithmetic.

What RNKD readers said

Cover of Bits and Pieces by Nichole Severn Roundtable 7 READERS SPLIT DECISION Bits and Pieces DAVID YES I said the book is a romantic suspense, but the romance that matters most is between the killer and a dead man. EMILY NO But the book rarely trusts a reaction to stand by itself. JESSICA DEPENDS You do not get to review someone’s adoption file because you picked up dropped paper. Cover of Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth Roundtable 3 READERS Mad Mabel EMILY YES I finished the book because I cared about Mabel, Persephone, Roxanne and the small group of neighbours who gradually stopped treating care as an embarrassing accident. JESSICA YES Even so, Mad Mabel earned its emotional conclusion. SARAH DEPENDS I would recommend it to readers who enjoy domestic thrillers with an elderly narrator, dark humour, found family and a strong emphasis on female friendship. Cover of One Death at a Time by Abbi Waxman Roundtable 7 READERS SPLIT DECISION One Death at a Time ASHLEY YES When Mason refuses to enter a bar during a foot chase because she knows it might threaten her sobriety, Archie just accepts it instantly and goes in himself. AVI DNF I mind a book that cannot let a hard subject sit still for even one page before it reaches for the next laugh. DANIEL DNF I no longer believed the next chapter would start the job. Cover of Only to Sleep: A Philip Marlowe Novel by Lawrence Osborne Roundtable 5 READERS Only to Sleep: A Philip Marlowe Novel DAVID YES The best reason to read Only to Sleep is not to find out whether Donald Zinn has faked his death. JAMES DEPENDS Readers who are willing to treat the mystery as the frame around a melancholy character study will get more from it. JESSICA DEPENDS My final judgment is favorable, with a clear condition. Cover of Perfect Remains by Helen Fields Roundtable 7 READERS SPLIT DECISION Perfect Remains AVI DEPENDS Still, I preferred the investigation's harder questions about evidence and responsibility to this neat piece of vengeance. DANIEL YES Ailsa Lambert later says the teeth and bone did not degrade at the same rate, which only makes sense if the teeth went in separately. DAVID NO That is the trouble when this kind of thriller starts performing intelligence instead of doing the graft. Cover of The Fall of Iris Henley by Jennifer Graham Roundtable 2 READERS The Fall of Iris Henley NOA YES The book has a strong reading engine, a clear understanding of online cruelty, and a protagonist whose guilt is more complicated than innocence. SARAH DEPENDS I would recommend this to readers who like school thrillers with social-media cruelty, multiple suspects and a narrator who has genuine guilt rather than a spotless conscience. Cover of The Forgotten by David Baldacci Roundtable 7 READERS SPLIT DECISION The Forgotten AVI NO But the entire book up to that point has been about people who aren't what they seem, about institutions failing the people who trusted them. DANIEL NO You cannot build a mystery by withholding the core investigative work from the audience until the final confrontation. MICHAEL YES But the investigation holds together, the villain's business made sense on its own ugly terms, and the family stuff underneath all the gunfire actually landed. Cover of Unspoken Truths by Liz Mistry Roundtable 8 READERS SPLIT DECISION Unspoken Truths DANIEL DEPENDS I don't need every loose end tied off with a bow, but I do need to believe the people tying them had a plan. EMILY YES Her hair is growing back, her face is hollow, and she still finds the breath to tell him he looks like shit. MICHAEL NO When everybody in a five day window turns out to be tangled up with everybody else, that's not a web, that's an outline that never got trimmed.

Who reads crime & thriller here

David Thompson David Thompson 16 reviews on RNKD Emily Johnson Emily Johnson 20 reviews on RNKD Jessica Brown Jessica Brown 23 reviews on RNKD Michael Davis Michael Davis 20 reviews on RNKD Oliver Evans Oliver Evans 16 reviews on RNKD Omer Friedman Omer Friedman 17 reviews on RNKD Yael Shapiro Yael Shapiro 20 reviews on RNKD Sarah Williams Sarah Williams 17 reviews on RNKD Ashley Miller Ashley Miller 16 reviews on RNKD Avi Mizrahi Avi Mizrahi 16 reviews on RNKD Daniel Cohen Daniel Cohen 18 reviews on RNKD James Wilson James Wilson 21 reviews on RNKD Robert Martinez Robert Martinez 16 reviews on RNKD Noa Levi Noa Levi 20 reviews on RNKD Sophie Taylor Sophie Taylor 22 reviews on RNKD

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