A collage of photos of Ruth Ware, Abir Mukherjee, Lisa Jewell and more against a black, shadowy background.

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Reading lists

So good it’s criminal: Penguin authors pick their favourite crime novels

One by One

From the Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller comes a brilliantly gripping thriller which finds a group of colleagues trapped by snow in their chalet in the French Alps, with deadly consequences.

A real spine-chiller that confirms Ruth Ware as the true heir to Christie's crown. Ingenious plotting sees the body count rise and multiple suspects eliminated until we're left with breathless game of cat-and-mouse.

The sense of dread deepens as the snow falls in Ruth Ware's tensely plotted and deliciously cast alpine thriller.

A chilling, edge-of-your-seat thriller. Agatha Christie would have been up all night reading this one!

Shari Lapena, author of The Couple Next Door

Chilling, claustrophobic and clever. This is Ruth Ware's best yet.

What a read, oh my goodness, so fast paced, action packed, twisty-turny, modern, clever, scary and ingenious!

Lisa Jewell, author of The People Upstairs

The queen of just-one-more-chapter, Ruth Ware, has done it again.

I absolutely loved ONE BY ONE! Impossible to put down and perfectly claustrophobic and gorgeously atmospheric. Each twist was perfectly cued and plotted, showing Ruth to be the master storyteller we all know.

A fabulous psychological thriller and I loved the snowy setting! Incredibly tense and kept me guessing to the end

Emily Koch, author of If I Die Before I Wake

One of the best thriller writers around.

One By One has all the elements of a classic crime novel, brilliantly reinvented for the modern era with a dramatic setting, pin-sharp characterisation and up-to-the-minute plotting. It is fast-paced, astute and utterly compelling.

Sly satire and some bracingly unpleasant characters make for a fun read

With Ruth Ware, you always know to expect the unexpected... in her latest offering, Ruth goes full tilt cutting edge... the action is breakneck, the pace is breath-taking and the need to know whodunnit is all consuming

A high-tension treat with a Christie-ish twist... Cold sweat stuff!

A thoroughly enjoyable and consistently inventive wintertime mystery

One by One goes full-tilt cutting-edge... Definitely one to be read in one sitting under a fur throw with a mug of mulled wine to hand

Lisa Jewell, Daily Express, *Books of the Year*

Greed, ambition, manipulation, secrets, nifty plotting and a cracking denouement add up to a suspenseful and spine-tingling page-turner

An engaging page-turner that will keep you guessing

One By One is a galloping read packed with dark secrets and all the page-turning prowess you would hope for from a psychological thriller and murder mystery

The Queen of the modern murder mystery returns with a delicious homage to Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None

Agatha Christie fans will love this ingenious thriller...the pace is fast and furious and the twists satisfying

Books shouldn't really be gobbled down like cake but with Ware's there's no other way

This engaging page-turner keeps you guessing

In a Dark, Dark Wood

The next big thing in crime fiction - does what for friendships what Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train did for marriages

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER 
 
SOMEONE'S GETTING MARRIED. SOMEONE'S GETTING MURDERED. 
 
'Tense, terrifying' Clare Mackintosh 
 
Nora hasn't seen Clare for ten years. Not since the day Nora walked out of her old life and never looked back. 
 
Until, out of the blue, an invitation to Clare's hen party arrives. A weekend in a remote cottage - the perfect opportunity for Nora to reconnect with her best friend, to put the past behind her. 
 
But something goes wrong. 
 
Very wrong. 
 
And as secrets and lies unravel, out in the dark, dark wood the past will finally catch up with Nora. 
__________________ 
 
Praise for IN A DARK, DARK WOOD: 
'Genuinely chilling and totally compulsive' Sunday Mirror 
'Mesmerising' Guardian 
'You won't be able to put down this creepy page-turner' Closer 
'Packed with suspense' Woman &amp; Home

The Lying Game

A bold re-issue new cover version of THE LYING GAME, from international sensation Ruth Ware, author of Sunday Times bestsellers In a Dark, Dark Wood and The Woman in Cabin 10

'I could not put this book down' Reese Witherspoon' 
 
IT ISN'T A GAME WHEN SOMEBODY DIES 
 
The text message arrives in the small hours of the morning: I need you. 
 
Isa drops everything, takes her baby daughter and heads straight to Salten. She spent the most significant days of her life at boarding school on the marshes there, days which still cast their shadow over her. 
 
Isa and her three best friends used to play the Lying Game, competing to convince people of outrageous stories. Now, after seventeen years of hiding the truth, something terrible has been found on the beach. The friends' darkest secret is about to come to light... 
______________________ 
 
Praise for THE LYING GAME: 
'Atmospheric, mysterious, gripping' Marian Keyes 
'Surprising twists' Daily Mail 
'Another heart-stopping belter of a thriller from an epic talent' Heat 
'A gripping, unpredictable narrative that shifts like sand underfoot' Erin Kelly

A modern-day murder mystery from The Sunday Times Bestseller

The Death of Mrs Westaway

The brand new psychological thriller from the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of In a Dark, Dark Wood, The Woman in Cabin 10 and The Lying Game.

'I read this in two lightning-quick sittings...I absolutely adored it' Lisa Jewell, bestselling author of The Family Upstairs 
 
HAL MUST KEEP GOING OR RISK LOSING EVERYTHING...EVEN HER LIFE. 
 
When Harriet Westaway receives an unexpected letter telling her she's inherited a substantial bequest from her Cornish grandmother, it seems like the answer to her prayers. 
 
 There's just one problem - Hal's real grandparents died more than twenty years ago. 
 
 Hal desperately needs the cash and makes a choice that will change her life for ever. She knows that her skills as a seaside fortune teller could help her con her way to getting the money. 
 
 But once Hal embarks on her deception, there is no going back. 
_______________ 
 
Praise for THE DEATH OF MRS WESTAWAY: 
'Ruth Ware's best: a dark and dramatic thriller, part murder mystery, part family drama' A. J. Finn 
'Unsettling and brilliant' Heat 
'[An] explosive claustrophobic family drama laced with a touch of du Maurier' Woman &amp; Home 
'Atmospheric and eerie with Agatha Christie vibes' Prima 
'Highly atmospheric' The Times 
'Unguessably twisty' Louise Candlish

The Turn of the Key

Full of spellbinding menace, The Turn of the Key is a gripping modern-day haunted house thriller from international bestseller Ruth Ware.

So clever and original . . . Pure suspense, from the first gripping page to the last shocking twist

Ware tells a cracking tale and, as in her breakout novel In a Dark, Dark Wood, the house itself plays a hugely menacing part in proceedings.

An ingenious suspense narrative...Ware pulls out a stunner on the penultimate page that radically alters how we interpret everything that’s come before.  I daresay even Henry James would be impressed.

A ghost story for the twenty-first century, a propulsive gothic thriller with characters you’ll really care about. With this book, Ruth Ware proves she’s the true heir to Wilkie Collins. Creepy, engrossing, and oh-so-hard to put down

Ruth Ware just gets better and better. The Turn of the Key is her most compelling and addictive to date; I read this in a two sitting frenzy, barely able to turn the pages fast enough.

Lisa Jewell, author of The Family Upstairs

Diabolically clever. Twisty and creepy, THE TURN OF THE KEY is Ruth Ware's best book yet. Read with a blanket nearby, because you will get shivers up your spine

The Turn of the Key is a brilliantly crafted, chilling suspense thriller. Clues are seeded through the tale like poisonous plants that you only recognise when it's far too late. Trust no one in this novel except Ruth Ware – she has come up with a totally compelling tale once again

The Turn of the Key is a delicious read — a sympathetic but fallible narrator is accused of a terrible crime. The clever unfolding of her story will hold you captive till the brilliant ending. Vintage Ruth Ware

Ware is an accomplished storyteller...compelling... assured neo-Gothic chiller

[Ruth Ware is] an adroit practitioner in the art of psychological suspense . . . Thoughtful and provocative

Eerie and tense, this left me so spooked that I slept with the lights on!

Turn of the Key is a cracking read that kept me glued until the final page

There’s been something of a gothic revival in crime fiction recently… This elegant thriller skilfully updates the genre

An elegant and suspenseful Gothic chiller

The Turn of the Key is a cracking read

A page-turner… The Turn of the Key is at turns spooky, gothic and a compelling family drama. It’s also tightly-plotted throughout… propelled by a likeable protagonist and cleverly created feeling of unease

Prepare to feel suspense from the first gripping page to the last shocking twist

THEIR DREAM HOUSE WILL BECOME HER WORST NIGHTMARE 
 
'Ruth Ware just gets better and better’ Lisa Jewell, bestselling author of The Family Upstairs 
 
‘The queen of creepy crime’ Metro 
 
When Rowan comes across the advert, it seems too good to be true: a live-in nanny position, with an extremely generous salary. 
 
What she doesn't know is that she's stepping into a nightmare – one that will end with her in a cell awaiting trial for murder. 
 
She knows she's made mistakes. 
But she's not guilty – at least not of murder. 
Which means someone else is... 
 
THE TURN OF THE KEY IS: 
 
‘Eerie and Tense’ Prima 
 
‘Dark and dramatic’ AJ Finn, bestselling author of The Woman in the Window 
 
‘Deliciously dark and spooky’ Sunday Mirror 
 
‘Powerfully atmospheric, unguessably twisty’ Louise Candlish, bestselling author of Our House

Ruth Ware

*THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER, NOW A NETFLIX FILM STARRING KEIRA KNIGHTLEY* 
 
‘An edge-of-your-seat thriller’ Reese Witherspoon 
 
A PASSENGER IS MISSING...BUT WAS SHE EVER ON BOARD AT ALL? 
 
This was meant to be the perfect trip. The Northern lights. A luxury press launch on a boutique cruise ship. A chance for travel journalist Lo Blacklock to recover from a traumatic break-in that has left her on the verge of collapse. 
 
Except things don’t go as planned. 
 
Woken in the night by screams, Lo rushes to her window to see a body thrown overboard from the next-door cabin. But the records show that no-one ever checked in to that cabin, and no passengers are missing from the boat. 
 
Exhausted and emotional, Lo has to face the fact that she may have made a mistake –- either that, or she is now trapped on a boat with a murderer... 
_________________ 
 
Praise for THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10: 
'Brilliantly claustrophobic' Sunday Times 
'A twisty puzzle' Shari Lapena 
'Terrifically tense' Good Housekeeping 
'Scary and unsettling' The Sun 
'Reads like Agatha Christie got together with Paula Hawkins to crowdsource a really fun thriller' Stylist

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So good it’s criminal: Penguin authors pick their favourite crime novels

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