Hey everyone!

Today is my stop on the Kill Me Again blog tour! For any of you who don’t know, Rachel Abbott is the UK’s most successful self-published authors and Kill Me Again was released on the 17th of February.

 

 

 

 

I’m delighted to be able to share with you Rachel’s Top Five Thrilling Reads, so without further ado, have a read! 😉

TOP FIVE THRILLERS

 

I have loved thrillers for as long as I can remember, and I’ve read so many brilliant ones it’s really hard to remember them all. I’ve chosen a few here, but I could have come up with a much longer list.

 

My favourite types of thrillers are those in which the investigation team are on the periphery. They may well have strong personalities of their own and play a vital role in the story, but essentially the story is about the victims and the perpetrators, so we see majority of the action from their perspective. There are a couple of exceptions in this list below, but they are all good reads – so much so that most have been made into films.

 

 

Misery – Stephen King – 

Every writer’s nightmare in the terrifying flesh, being kidnapped by a super fan who has mental health issues and a burning desire to keep you in one place by any means necessary. I have fresh respect for the plight of Paul Sheldon being forced to write a book to please the unhinged, violent Annie Wilkes every time I walk past a sledgehammer. This is a true thriller.

 

Silence of the Lambs – Thomas Harris – 

High-functioning psychopath and incarcerated cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter is approached by his darling Clarice Starling for help with another serial killer. Buffalo Bill skins his female victim’s corpses. There are a hundred reasons to love this book but I’m afraid I love it most for a gruesome one-liner involving a vest!

 

Before I go to Sleep – SJ Watson – 

The idea behind this book is brilliant. It’s the kind of idea that I’m sure most writers wish they had thought of first. The main character, Christine Lucas, has lost her life because she has lost her memory. Every night when she goes to sleep, her memory is wiped and so she records her daily existence to figure out who she really is. Gradually she discovers, through reading the diaries, that something isn’t quite right. But who should she trust?

 

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson – 

I confess that it took me a while to get into this book. The early part of the story didn’t grab me, but I am so glad that I persevered. The story has so many twists and turns and sub-plots that it is quite a mental work out. Larsson has several strands all leading to a story of rape, sexual assault and murder, and I loved the way the tiniest nuggets of information became so hugely important. And I don’t think I guessed who the killer was until the very end – always the sign of a good book.

 

The Body Farm – Patricia Cornwell – 

Any book that involves the death of children recalls Brady and Hindley for me, especially as I used to live in Saddleworth – the area in which this couple buried some of the bodies of their victims. In The Body Farm, Kay Scarpetta investigates the brutal murder of an 11-year-old girl and it looks like the handiwork of a serial killer who has dodged the FBI for years. Unlike the others, this is more focused on the investigation – but as with most books by this author, that doesn’t mean that the main characters are safe from harm. Far from it. I particularl love the fact that an actual research facility for the study of human decomposition was the inspiration for the title and the plot.

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Ive read three out of the five books listed, and have the other two on my TBR so I must root them out and read them! 😉

 

***There’s also a giveaway running here and on Twitter for a paperback book and T-shirt saying ‘careful, or you’ll end up in my next novel’! All you have to do, is comment below or on Twitter with your favourite crime book OF ALL TIME. It’s that simple! A winner will be chosen at random, and their prize sent out!***

(UK & IRE ONLY)

Here’s some links if you want to keep up with Rachel Abbott:

Twitter: @RachelAbbott

Facebook: Rachel Abbott1Writer

Website: www.rachel-abbott.com