Welcome back to Book Break! Today's video is all about underhyped thrillers and this one
was actually requested by one of our subscribers. tulikaxxx asked us to put together this list of
under-hyped thrillers. I thought this was such a great idea. We do make a lot of videos about
thrillers here on Book Break. I can't help it, I'm kind of obsessed with the genre. But I have tried
in this video to pull together a list of books that you won't find on every other thriller list,
and it's a nice long list today as well, so settle in. Starting with Witness by Mandasue Heller.
So this is a dark gritty thriller set in Manchester about Holly and her mother Josie
who have been moving from place to place until they finally move into an illegally sublet flat
in Manchester. But Holly isn't allowed out or even to answer the door when her mum's away,
so Holly starts to feel increasingly isolated, and even more so because her mum won't tell her
what they're hiding from. But whoever they have been running away from is about to catch up with
them. For a really twisty one there's Your Truth or Mine by Trisha Sakhlecha. So this is about
a married couple called Mia and Roy who seem perfectly happy, until one day a police officer
knocks at the door with questions to ask Roy about the disappearance of a young woman.
And so suddenly everything these two know about each other is thrown into question. And there is
just twist after twist after twist, following such dark complicated characters. You could draw a very
complex diagram of all of the lies characters are telling each other in this book. For a super
dark thriller you should pick up Rattle by Fiona Cummins. So this one is about a collector who has
an obsession with bones, and two children with bone abnormalities who capture his attention.
So this one is really dark, properly scary, it's a very tense race against time to save these
children before it's too late. And you can't even relax when you've reached the end of it because
there's then a sequel called The Collector which is every bit as terrifying. But for something much
less scary, and more quirky and mysterious, we have Of Murder, Muses and Me by Claudia
Chibichi-Revneanu. So this is about a young woman called Rosalind who is completely obsessed with a
best-selling author called Mark Drubenheimer, who right at the beginning of the novel is found dead.
And the police rule it a suicide but Rosalind is convinced he's been murdered. And so she sets
out to solve this murder herself, meeting such a fun cast of eccentric characters along the way.
And if that kind of quirky mystery is more your vibe, I have another cozy recommendation for
you - this time set in an ice cream parlour - and that is A Deadly Inside Scoop by Abby Collette.
This one follows our main character Bronwyn who has been renovating the family's ice cream
business when two disasters strike on the big opening night. Firstly a massive storm keeps
customers away, and secondly (and perhaps more of a problem) Bronwyn finds a body in the snow:
the body of a man who turns out to have had a long lasting feud with the family. So Bronwyn now has
to investigate this murder so that she can protect her father from being implicated in the crime,
and she still has to help get the family's ice cream business off the ground. So that
is the fun quirky tone of this mystery and the sequel is called Game of Cones,
so that's pretty wonderful too. OK moving back to some slightly darker ones, I'm going to recommend
Chameleon People by Hans Olav Lahlum. So this one is set in 1972 when Inspector Christensen
answers a frantic knocking on his door to find a young boy on a bicycle wishing to speak to him.
But in quick pursuit behind this boy are Inspector Christensen's police colleagues.
In the boy's bag is found a knife that perfectly matches the stab wounds on a body
found a few streets away. The arrest seems pretty straightforward, but the boy says he didn't do it.
He won't reveal his identity but he claims that Inspector Christensen will understand soon enough.
And then getting definitely back into the scarier ones we have The Ice Lands by Steinar Bragi. So
this is about a group of 30-somethings in Iceland who set out on a camping trip. But before long, an
impenetrable fog descends and they are forced to take shelter at a farmhouse. This is where things
get really scary. The strange couple who live in this house barricade themselves in every night,
bad weather prevents the group from leaving this really creepy house, and stranger and stranger
goings on have them wondering if they will ever go home again. Untamed Shore by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia
starts off as a coming-of-age story set in Mexico, but soon turns dark when a young woman meets three
enigmatic tourists and quickly becomes involved in a murder trial. And my favourite thing about
this one: there are sharks! So our main character spends her days watching fishermen pull sharks out
of their nets and pile up the bodies on the beach, which sets the very dark foreboding tone for the
rest of the novel perfectly. The G File by Hakan Nesser is set between 1987 and 2002. So in 1987 a
private investigator is hired by a woman to follow her husband, who is called G, but a few days
later this woman is found murdered and the chief inspector on the case becomes more and more keen
to convict G of this murder. But G has a solid alibi. So in 2002 this chief inspector still
always remembers the G file as this one case he could never solve. But then he receives a cryptic
note from the private investigator who claims to have finally found the proof he needs.
OK next I want to recommend And Now She's Gone by Rachel Howzell-Hall.
So in this one Grayson Sykes is a new private investigator taking her very first case. She's
looking into the disappearance of a woman called Isabelle, but each new piece of evidence she
uncovers suggests to her that Isabelle desperately doesn't want to be found. So this is a story about
two really interesting women caught in this dangerous cat and mouse game with each other,
and we get to see both of their storylines and how they intersect as this mystery becomes more and
more intricate. If you're willing to step maybe outside your comfort zone into a tech thriller,
I really recommend Recursion by Blake Crouch. So in this world, people are suddenly waking up with
what is being called false memory syndrome: they suddenly have memories of entire lives, families,
jobs that never existed. So we follow the storylines of a detective investigating what
is going on, as well as a neuroscientist working on a new technology. And when we
realize how these story lines intersect, I don't want to say too much without giving spoilers,
it becomes so tense and page turning. And finally, I want to recommend The Devil's Punch Bowl by Greg
Iles. Now Greg Iles has had a lot more hype in the US than over here, so I think we need to do
something to match the level of enthusiasm for his special brand of Southern gothic legal thrillers.
This one is about Penn Cage who is the mayor of his town in Mississippi, and finds out about
illegal activities taking place aboard a floating casino. But then the friend who brought him the
evidence of this is murdered. So this is a really action-packed thriller with a villain who will
terrify you to your core - and it's not for the faint-hearted either, there are some pretty
brutal scenes. So I would love to know how you get on with any of these books and please do leave
your own recommendations for underhyped thrillers in the comments section below so we can all get
some more ideas for our TBR. And I will link the entire playlist here of all of the videos we have
made on Book Break about thrillers so you can get plenty more inspiration. See you next time!