You will be afraid, but you will read to the end: 10 action-packed novels from the beginning of the year

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-19 14:05

Eksmo Publishing House has selected the most exciting examples of action-packed prose that will make your heart beat faster and your eyes read faster.

1. "Dead Souls" by Angela Marsons

British Angela Marsons has created one of the most powerful female characters in the modern action-packed detective story. Her inspector Kim Stone is smart, sharp-tongued and has a bestial professional flair that helps her stay alive and unravel the terrible secrets that make up her work routine.

During excavations, archaeologists discover modern human bones. Having sorted them out, the experts are horrified: it seems that they have stumbled upon a whole mass grave. Bones betray damage from bullets and even animal traps …

An additional nuisance for Kim Stone is that, by order of her superiors, she is forced to work with her former colleague Tom Travis. Trying to prevent their mutual hostility from affecting the investigation, the investigation team begins to unwind the tangle of terrible secrets of the families in whose land human bones were found.

2. "Fix", David Baldacci

Amos Decker is one of the most interesting heroes of David Baldacci, a recognized master of the political detective genre. After a sports injury, he received an absolute memory and went to serve the law.

This time, Decker witnesses the murder right in front of the FBI headquarters building. Although there is no need to look for the culprit - he shot himself in the head right after that - the murder is puzzling.

Decker and his team can find absolutely no connection between the shooter, a family man with a successful consulting business, and his victim, a schoolteacher. There is also no hint of any possible motive for the attack. The situation is complicated by the fact that suddenly a strange murder turns out to be a matter of national importance.

3. "Roses of May", Dot Hutchison

Continuation of the absolute bestseller "Butterfly Garden", which literally blew up book ratings a year ago. Four months after the events of the first book, FBI agents Ramirez, Addison, and Hannover are still dealing with the aftermath of the Gardener case, helping the survivors adapt to their normal lives.

Winter is coming to an end, and nature itself comes to the aid of "butterflies": long bright days and warmth have a beneficial effect on their well-being. But for agents, the approaching spring means another terrible news: somewhere on the other side of the country, another young girl will be found in a church with a slit throat and an altar of flowers around her body.

4. "Walls Around Us", Nova Ren Suma

One fatal incident took away everything from Ori Sperling: life, hope, friendship. Prior to the Aurora Hills prison, Ori was a talented, promising ballerina, but by the will of fate she ended up behind bars among the girls who cherish their dark secrets.

Ori is unaware that the unfair imprisonment is just the beginning of her strange and disturbing adventure. One night in August, Ori and the other inmates find their cell doors open and the Aurora Hills guards gone.

Where did the cruel warders disappear to? Who unlocked the locks? This story, like these questions, will repeat itself more than once: next August, prisoners will again find strange freedom for one day. But what is behind all these events? The one who is ready to plunge into this mystical story of betrayal and true justice will find out.

5. The Forgotten by Sarah Bladel

A worthy addition to the glorious ranks of Scandinavian thrillers is "The Forgotten" by Sarah Bladel, Denmark's most celebrated novelist.

A fresh corpse of an unknown woman was found in the forest. A large facial scar should make identification easier, but no one reported missing her. Four days later, Louise Rick, the new head of the Department of Missing Persons, still hasn't made any headway on the case. Then she prints a photo of the deceased in the media and receives a call from an elderly woman who recognized the girl in the photo, whom she took care of in a psychiatric hospital many years ago.

The deceased woman at one time was abandoned by her family, like other children in this institution, and bore the nickname "Forgotten." But soon Louise discovers something more frightening: the deceased had a twin sister, and more than 30 years ago, death certificates for both girls were issued. The investigation takes Louise back to the places where she grew up, and suddenly she finds a terrible connection between the case and her own past.

6. "Annihilation" by Jeff Vandermeer

Zone X was cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has absorbed the last remnants of human civilization. The first expedition returned with stories of an unspoiled paradise landscape. All members of the second expedition committed suicide. The members of the third died in a shootout, which they themselves arranged. The members of the eleventh expedition did not return themselves and within a few months after their return they died from aggressive cancer.

This is the twelfth expedition. The group consists of four women: an anthropologist, biologist, psychologist and topographer. Their mission is to make a detailed map of the area, collect samples, record all observations and stay alive.

7. "The Stranger" by Charlotte Link

Charlotte Link tops the top 5 most widely read authors of modern Germany. Her novels have made it onto the Spiegel Weekly Bestseller List more than once. In 2004 she was nominated for the German Book Prize, and in 2007 she received the Golden Pen Award for her literary work.

After the death of her husband, Rebecca Brandt became desperate and decided to end her life. However, her plans on a July morning are interrupted by an old friend: he comes to visit, and not alone - he brings a couple from Germany, Inga and Marius, casual acquaintances who have gone astray in the midst of the terrible heat. Rebecca is forced to show hospitality - she cannot do otherwise.

But during a boat trip, misfortune occurs: Marius falls overboard and disappears without a trace. A few days later, numerous photographs of Marius appear in the newspapers: the police put him on the wanted list on suspicion of the monstrous murder of adoptive parents, which shook the whole of Germany with its cruelty.

8. "When I'm Gone," Emily Bleecker

Luke Richardson returns home from the funeral of his beloved wife and mother of his three young children and finds a letter on the floor … from her. The envelope contains the pages of Natalie's diary, which she began to keep when she found out about the disease. Letters begin to arrive regularly, gradually driving the widower mad. Who delivers them and why?

In the face of death, his wife was no longer embarrassed. Her letters are striking in their frankness, and even hint at a certain secret, which Luke decides to find out by all means. But, plunging into the world described in the letters, he involuntarily begins to doubt - and <a title="Questions worth discussing before you start living together, did he even know the woman with whom he lived for 16 years?

9. Closed Door Day by Blake Crouch

The highly anticipated book that concludes the trilogy about Andrew Thomas, a writer suspected of horrific crimes he did not commit.

In continuation of the bestseller “Wasteland. House of Fear Andy Thomas is hiding with his beloved in the forests of northern Canada - a godforsaken place where no one seemed to be able to find them. Incredibly, the past, represented by one of the most bloodthirsty book villains, has set its traps there as well. The atrocity that he is preparing for the heroes will turn their ideas of good and evil upside down.

10. Bones by Jonathan Kellerman

Jonathan Kellerman, MD and clinical psychologist, hits the reader's nerve with anatomical precision. His novels are structured in such a way that suspense grows as suspects are thrown away and reaches a boiling point at the very end, leaving the reader simultaneously satisfied and shaken to the depths of consciousness.

Another case of crime psychologist Alex Delaware and his longtime partner, sarcastic detective Milo Sturgis, began with a phone call to a volunteer organization that cares about a conservation area near Los Angeles. The call was considered a stupid joke, but the case turned out to be far from funny consequences: the corpse of a young woman was found in the reserved swamps.

Later, other victims of the murderer were also found there, of which only bones remained - features of the marshy soil. The detectives will have to rewind the time back when all these bones were living women with a confused fate that led to a terrible death and oblivion. But the main thing is that the killer must be stopped.