10 books with a famously twisted plot, from which you can not tear yourself away

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

These works will make you forget about everything in the world and closely follow the fate of the heroes to the last page.

1. "Leopard", Yu Nesbo

The magnificent Yu Nesbo and the equally magnificent Harry Hole are back in business. From the first pages, the reader is immersed in a whirlpool of events. While detective Hole fights depression in Hong Kong's brothels in non-traditional ways, horrific murders of women are taking place in Oslo. The murder weapon is unknown: not a single expert was able to determine what kind of object took the victims' lives. The motive for the crimes is unclear. It seems that only a genius like Harry Hole can solve this riddle.

The search for the criminal and the instrument of the crime brings the professional detective to distant countries. Who needed to hunt people, who decided to play the leopard, the silent and ruthless killer? Harry Hole, risking his own life, goes on the warpath to find answers to questions and stop a serial killer.

2. "Pandemic", Frank Thillier

Frank Thilier presents his own version of the end of the world, to which the next strain of flu will lead. Everything is mixed in the book: people, birds, insects, viruses and evil geniuses, who decided to put their own order on the earth.

Commissioner Frank Charcot embarks on an investigation, not suspecting that the future of all mankind depends on him. It turns out that the virus was launched from someone's very unkind hand, and preparations for a large-scale murder were carried out literally under the noses of the police.

The second storyline - the story of the expert Amandine Guerin - is skillfully used by Thilier to show the futility of trying to hide from human society in order to preserve his own peace and happiness.

The intensity does not subside until the last page: will Frank Charcot's team have time to find the source of the virus or is humanity doomed and there is no salvation?

3. "Doomsday" by Adam Neville

The bestseller from the "British King" pulls from the first lines: an independent director and almost bankrupt Kyle Freeman receives a profitable and - only in appearance - a simple offer from the money-bag Maximillian Solomon. The task is outrageously easy - to pick up a camera, find a faithful helper and, in 10 days, make a film about a certain sect "Temple of Judgment Days" in a popular pseudo-documentary style. True, you will have to shoot in different countries, but the main characters are harmless elderly people.

The fee is more than pleasant, so Kyle gets down to business without delay. If only he knew into what jungle of paranormal and otherworldly investigations of the sect's "deeds" would lead him. Readers, the same skeptics as the main character, will plunge into the world of absolute madness, in order to ultimately completely change the way they look at familiar things.

4. "People of Winter" by Jennifer McMahon

Slow whipping up the atmosphere and smooth, but no less scary transitions from one storyline to another ensured the popularity of the next bestseller from Jennifer McMahon.

The action takes place in two times and involves two families, for which an old wooden house with secrets has become a connecting link. The main characters of the book are people of winter, those who are stuck between heaven and earth. In the novel, everything is in abundance: nocturnal rustles, creaks of wooden floorboards, rustling of half-rotted diary pages, pain and anger from the loss of a loved one. Betrayal, disappointment and fear pushed some heroes to the path of crime, others to despair.

Snow generously covers the secrets of the town of West Hill and fills the road leading to the cursed forest. An unexpected denouement sheds light on many of the events described in the book: everything is not at all as the reader could imagine at first.

5. "The Passenger", Jean-Christophe Granger

Every day the same thing: work, a lonely house, again work, again an empty house. Even things have no time to make out after the move. The life of psychiatrist Mathias Frere seemed insipid and hopeless until he met a "passenger without luggage." This is how doctors call those who lose their memory, forget the past and create a completely new life on its fragments.

Gradually, Mathias realizes with horror that he does not remember anything about himself: the documents are fake, the boxes not taken apart after the move are empty. The search for himself and his past leads Matias Frere into the jungle of events, where there was a place for crimes and vices.

A terrible truth awaits the protagonist at the end of the journey. What choice will Mathias make: to forget everything again and create a new personality, or to come to terms with reality and live on?

6. "Literary Ghost" by David Mitchell

Religious fanatic, record shop clerk, ethereal and ancient spirit, manager from London, Russian mafia, intelligence veteran, female physicist pursued by special services, fashionable DJ from New York - David Mitchell knows for sure that all people on the planet are solid tied by invisible threads. The writer's debut novel turned out to be extremely successful and utterly confusing. Only the reader will understand one storyline, as another, connected, but different, literally falls on him.

In the book, you can find the answer to the most rhetorical of all possible questions: "Why did this happen to me?" The end of the story is the final blow that sends you to a complete knockout.

7. "Dead Swell", Johan Theorin

Some crimes have no statute of limitations, and a mother's heart is unlikely to come to terms with the loss of a child. Julia Davidsson lost her son many years ago, but she never accepted his ridiculous disappearance. A five-year-old boy disappeared in the fog near the walls of his grandparents' house, who literally dozed off for a minute and let the child out of sight. The police sent the case to the archive, but the mother does not believe in the death of the baby. The heart tells that he is alive and is waiting for her somewhere out there, in the fog.

Many years later, the boy's grandfather receives a sandal by mail. The one that was on the child on the day of the disappearance. Old ghosts rise, the past knocks on windows and insistently asks to open the door to forgotten sins. Who is responsible for the death of the boy: a crazy killer or a werewolf, a representative of power and order?

8. The Conclave by Robert Harris

For the Catholic world, the election of a pope is a terribly responsible and serious event. The ritual has been verified for centuries: priests gather in the Vatican, close themselves in one of the cathedrals and vote for this or that candidate. The main condition: the new dad must have a crystal clear reputation.

From this moment, the most interesting begins. Undercover intrigues are twisted by dashing whirlwinds, secret veils are torn from all over, the dirty secrets of the applicants and the deceased pontiff are exposed. Robert Harris, a British writer and expert on intellectual detectives with a historical twist, masterfully guides readers through the Vatican's labyrinths, with its carefully hidden feuds.

9. "The Dead Zone" by Stephen King

Johnny Smith cannot boast of good health. As a child, he suffered a head injury after falling on the ice while skating. After many years, Johnny gets into an accident and spends four years in a coma. Having regained consciousness, he realizes that he has acquired supernatural abilities and can see the future.

The fame of the "fortuneteller" gets into the press, Johnny becomes a local star. At the same time, his antagonist Greg Stilson, whom Johnny has known since childhood, is confidently heading towards success. The moment comes when both heroes meet at a rally. Smith manages to touch Stilson, and at the same moment Johnny realizes that Greg will lead humanity to death.

Johnny is faced with the difficult task of stopping Stilson. The intricate plot keeps in suspense until the very end: will Johnny be able to stop the monster Greg and will he have to sacrifice his life for this?

10. "Nowhere" by Neil Gaiman

"Hello, I am your door!" - with almost such words, a girl from the inside of London bursts into the measured life of Richard, an unremarkable office worker. And behind her are a couple of assassins with a rich biography and work experience. They literally erase Richard from life in retaliation for his refusal to cooperate.

The main character goes to another world, where unprecedented adventures await him. In a friendly company of all kinds of mythological heroes who have found refuge on the other side of London, Richard and the door girl are looking for an angel, and they meet a real renegade demon. The great storytelling effortlessly takes the reader through the labyrinths of the London Underground while providing a fresh look at the famous landmarks of the British capital.