It seems like most people wait the whole year for summer to roll around, craving the endlessly long days filled with sun and heat and relaxation. I will be the first to admit: I am not one of those people. Give me the coziness of an autumn afternoon or the early darkness that winter beckons over a summer break any day of the week.
Maybe it has something to do with being a thriller author, but there’s something about the summertime that is just too bright and open for me. Dark secrets are harder to hide in the sunlight, after all.
So it’s more than a bit ironic that both of my novels take place during the heart of summer, in some of the most sweltering parts of the world. But despite the high temperatures and the endless summer sun of their settings, both of my thrillers include dark thematic undercurrents. My first novel, The Resort, was set on a remote island off the coast of Thailand and followed a group of expats with mysterious pasts. My second thriller
, titled This Stays Between Us, takes place throughout the east coast of Australia. Ten years ago, a group of international students participated in a month-long adventure-based study abroad program that ended with one student dead and another missing. When the missing student’s remains are discovered a decade on, the group reunites in Australia, only to discover that there may be a murderer among them.
If you are anything like me and prefer your summer days with a healthy dose of unease, read on for some recommendations for dark books that are perfect to balance out the cheeriness of summer.
THIS BOOK WILL BURY ME by Ashley Winstead
Following her father’s sudden death, Jane Sharpe gravitates to the world of online true-crime sleuthing, settling in with a group that quickly begins to feel like a new family. When a brutal triple murder shakes a small Idaho college town, Sharpe and her fellow armchair detectives leave their lives behind to investigate in-person. What entails is a dark cat-and-mouse game that not everyone will survive. With a plot pulled in part from national headlines and a jaw-dropping twist, This Book Will Bury Me left me with a chilly feeling long after I finished, despite the 90-degree heat outside.
ALL HER FAULT by Andrea Mara
The very first chapter of this addictive thriller by Andrea Mara begins with every parent’s worst nightmare: a mother turning up to a playdate to find her son missing. What unfolds is an intrinsically plotted web of secrets and lies that will leave you second guessing every single character. An underlying feeling of unease runs through the entire novel up to the very last page, and I stayed up racing through the pages well after the sun went down.
RUNNER 13 by Amy McCulloch
Amy McCulloch is another author who likes her thrillers with a touch of sweltering heat. Runner 13 follows Adri on an ultra-marathon through the Sahara Desert. As if the event wasn’t deadly enough, a killer is participating in the race, and they have Adri in their sight. With Runner 13 Amy McCulloch truly cements her title as the queen of destination thrillers. I was out of breath by the first twist (although, to be fair, that could be blamed on my recent lack of exercise!).
DIAVOLA by Jennifer Marie Thorne
Although primarily set beneath the Tuscan summer sun, Diavola is anything but light. To say Anna is not looking forward to her family vacation at an Italian villa is an understatement. But the strained relations with her parents and siblings turn out to be the least of her concerns when she begins hearing unsettling noises in the villa and receiving disturbing warnings from locals. As Anna learns of the villa’s dark history, she stumbles into a haunted past she may never be able to escape. With a laugh-out-loud narration that underlies the terror on its pages, Diavola had me utterly transfixed.
CORAM HOUSE by Bailey Seybolt
Unlike some of the other books on this list, Coram House takes place in January in Burlington, Vermont, when summer is nothing more than a dream on the horizon. It follows Alex Kelley, a scorned crime author and widow who accepts a position as the ghost writer of a book detailing the tragedies that happened throughout the 20th century at a Burlington Orphanage known as Coram House. As Alex’s research leads her to the truth of what really happened at Coram House decades ago, it’s clear that the orphanage’s crimes won’t stay in the past. Bailey Seybolt’s stunning debut is guaranteed to send a shiver up your spine, even on the hottest of summer days.
So what are you waiting for? Sounds to me like it’s time to head into the air conditioning, turn down the lights, and crack open a dark book. Aren’t you feeling chillier already?
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