Tropicana Mar-Apr 2018 #117 Edge of Excitement

CULTURE | BOOKS
Thrilling Tomes
Page-turners you won’t be able to put down.
AND THEN THERE
WERE NONE
AGATHA CHRISTIE
Ten strangers are invited to a
private island of a mysterious
millionaire. Over their
first dinner, a gramophone
recording accuses each
individual of a secret, a crime
they have committed but
have somehow evaded justice
and have not paid for. By the
end of the night, one of the
guests is dead. With no form
of escape and stranded by a
storm, the remaining guests
die one by one in eerily similar
and parallel circumstances
to the children’s rhyme, Ten
Little Indians, hanging in each
of their bedrooms.
REBECCA
DAPHNE DU MAURIER
This thriller tells the story of a
young lady swept off her feet by
a charming widower, Maxim de
Winter. After a brief courtship
he proposes, and she begins
her life as the second Mrs de
Winter. When they return
home, she discovers the shadow
of his dead wife haunting their
estate, and an old menacing
housekeeper devoted to her
memory. With a foreboding
sense of evil and her marriage
threatened, the protagonist
sets out to unravel the mystery
and uncover the darkest secrets
of the first Mrs de Winter,
Rebecca.
IN THE WOODS
TANA FRENCH
What happened in the woods
near his home in 1984 has
always been a puzzle to Rob
Ryan, a detective with Dublin’s
murder squad. Twenty years
ago, Rob and two friends failed
to come home after playing in
the woods, and hours later only
Rob is found, clinging to a tree
in blood-soaked sneakers, with
no recollection of the previous
hours. When the body of a
12-year-old girl surfaces in the
same woods where his friends
disappeared, Rob must wade
through repressed memories for
the chance to solve her murder
and the mystery of his own past.
BLUEBIRD, BLUEBIRD
ATTICA LOCKE
The setting for this novel
of race and justice is the
backwater town of Lark,
East Texas – the people are
poor, racial tensions are
high, and a double murder
has been committed, that
of a local white woman and
a black male lawyer from
Chicago. Darren Matthews,
an alcoholic black Texas
Ranger facing suspension and
a broken marriage, returns
home to Lark to solve the
murders, working against
local law enforcement with
questionable morals and
against time before the
hostility between the races
erupt into an all-out war.
CURATED BY CHAI TZE YUEN
Our Pick...
THE LONG DROP
DENISE MINA
Three women are dead, murdered in their home in Glasgow. William Watt,
the man of the house, is charged with the murder of his wife, daughter and
sister-in-law despite having an alibi. Determined to clear his name, Watt
meets with Peter Manuel – a criminal who would do anything for a quick
buck – who offers information on the real killer, and they spend the whole
night on an inexplicable pub crawl. The next time they meet, Manuel is on
trial for the murder of Watt’s family (and others) and calls Watt to the stand.
This true crime story explores what happened during those missing hours,
and examines how a story isn’t always what it seems.
“A masterpiece by
the woman who
may be Britain’s
finest living
crime novelist.”
Daily Telegraph
TM | MARCH/APRIL 2018
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