Claire Douglas: 10 of my favourite thrillers

I love an isolated setting for a book, especially in a thriller. I think it adds to the unease and atmosphere and, if done well, the setting can become a character in its own right. It taps into our primal fear of being in danger in a remote place, where nobody can hear you scream. The following are some of my favourite thrillers, and they each have a claustrophobic and isolated setting.

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

Alice Feeney has used one of my favourite books, And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, as her inspiration, and has taken it to the next level to create Daisy Darker. Not only do we have a remote island where, during certain times of the year, the tide comes in and isolates the area, but a quirky house on a clifftop in Cornwall, a set of well-drawn characters in the Darker family, and a murderer that’s picking them off one by one. Genuinely terrifying and claustrophobic, the plot is set over one night when secrets and the past are slowly revealed through the use of rhymes left at the scene by the killer, and video tapes of Daisy’s childhood. Emotional and ingenious, this is a thriller I’ll never forget.

I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

I Let You Go has the most brilliant mid-way twist that I never saw coming. Jenna is traumatised and grieving when she runs away from her home in Bristol and heads to the rugged, isolated coast of Wales. You can almost hear the wind whistling in this chilling tale, and Clare Mackintosh really uses the setting well to create that feeling of oppression and fear. A read-in-one-sitting emotional and beautifully written thriller.

Sleep by C L Taylor

Anna suffers from insomnia due to a past accident that she feels responsible for. She decides to take a job on the remote Scottish island of Rum to try and escape her past. But someone blames Anna for what happened and wants her to pay. Soon one of the guests ends up dead. Could someone staying in Anna’s guest house be more than they seem? This is such a claustrophobic read and we really get the sense of Anna’s deterioration and paranoia as she grapples with no sleep and feelings of guilt. It’s hold-your-breath-tense, chilling and totally compelling.

The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood

This psychological thriller is so disturbing it leaves you with that sick feeling in the pit of your stomach. A storyline ripped from the headlines: two 11-year-old girls charged with murdering a child. The setting is a fictional coastal town with a funfair but I imagine it in the North of England somewhere, like a smaller, less attractive Blackpool. Even though this isn’t a remote place, Alex Marwood captures that claustrophobic small town feeling so well.