This month’s latest entries in the crime fiction canon lean heavily toward multi-POV mysteries and high-concept thrillers, with some historical gothics and horror crossovers thrown into the mix. As always, all blurbs are by me, unless otherwise stated. Enjoy!Article continues after advertisement
Ilona Bannister, Five
(Crown)
The Five is a deeply emotional novel with a thriller’s bones. Here’s the set-up: five people are waiting for a train in the London Underground. By the time the train arrives, one will be dead. Bannister ratchets up the tension through interactions between characters, pausing to tease out each backstory, and dropping small reveals of the near future, for a surprisingly sweet puzzler of a novel that feels a bit like George Elliott took on a Reacher novel (in the best way). For those who return to this list after finishing the novel: so glad the woman in the girdle eventually managed to get out of her restrictive underwear and embrace a new life of freedom and easily climbing stairs.
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