Recommended reading: Thrills and kills

McKinty’s thriller is based around every parent’s worst nightmare. Rachel — a divorcee who is also undergoing treatment for cancer — wakes to what should have been a normal day, but that all changes when she receives a chilling call telling her that her daughter, Kylie, has been kidnapped. The perpetrators tell Rachel that in order to get Kylie back she must kidnap another child after paying a ransom. If that’s not enough of a twist, she must also convince the parents of the child she has taken to kidnap a child too, to ensure the ‘chain’ continues. Rachel calls on the help of her brother-in-law Pete to help identify a victim and carry out the kidnapping. What follows takes readers on a white-knuckle ride with more twists than an Eighties perm. — Peter Harrison

Hallett earned a spot in the top ranks of British mystery writers with this, her 2021 debut. Presented in the form of digital communications and official transcripts, there is no traditional narrative in this novel and yet it never feels stilted or overly confusing — no mean feat for an epistolary novel. The reader stands in as a detective reading raw evidence presented to two junior law students who are re-examining the case to work toward an appeal. We meet a local theater group who have raised money to fund the experimental treatment of the director’s granddaughter. As suspicions mount and tensions grow, a dead body throws the colorful cast into disarray. It’s a deliciously voyeuristic and addictive novel, with each new email, text message and interview transcript offering tantalizing clues and new angles from which to view the narrative. — Saffiya Ansari

McFadden’s novel follows Millie, a young girl who takes a job as an in-house maid to escape homelessness. The reader empathizes and relates with Millie’s struggles and desperation to survive despite the hardships she endures. What seems like an ideal gig turns into a terrifying tale that will leave you flipping pages late into the night. Everyone involved has secrets they are terrified of being exposed, but who will be the first to break? This is a story exploring human struggle, manipulation, deception, and trust. If you love twisty plots, you’ll finish this within a handful of sittings. — Dalal Awienat

Alicia, a painter, is convicted of murdering her husband. She has not spoken a word since, communicating only through a self-portrait titled “Alcestis.” The case captivates psychotherapist Theo. The novel focuses less on whether Alicia did it than on why. Its blend of psychology and crime makes it a page-turner, and Theo’s personal story — unfolding alongside Alicia’s — adds depth to his character and another layer of intrigue to the book. Some critics have called it amateurish, saying the twist is easy to guess. I didn’t. My advice: Resist playing detective and let the story unfold. — Zaira Lakhpatwala

‘The Eyes Are the Best Part’ by Monika Kim

After her father leaves, Korean-American college student Ji-won watches her mother fall for blue-eyed George, a man whose charm barely disguises his contempt for women. Fiercely protective of her younger sister, she must navigate college, friendships and unwanted male attention, all while her home life crumbles. Ji-won’s day-to-day perspective is interwoven with dream sequences, thick with eyeballs and other horrors, that increasingly blur the line between fantasy and reality as she begins to take her revenge. Kim traces the roots of violence back to racism, misogyny and fetishism. The gore is considerable, but, surprisingly, it was not that which stayed with me so much as Kim’s portrait of a young woman learning to see the men around her clearly. — Sumaiyya Naseem

Winslow’s deeply researched series tracing decades of America’s war on drugs centers on DEA agent Art Keller and his obsessive quest to bring down a Mexican cartel headed by the Barrera family. Each of the three novels is a compelling action-thriller in its own right, but what really elevates the series is Winslow’s exploration of the political maneuvering behind the scenes, his explanations of the intricacies of the drug trade, and his skill at character-building. It’s a dense, immersive, propulsive (and very violent) read. — Adam Grundey