This topic is very close to my heart, as a lot of my readers know me as “the landscape guy.” My two award-winning mystery thrillers (and the serial killer thriller I'm currently writing) feature chillingly explosive landscapes (the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Gates of the Arctic, and the Rocky Mountains). Readers and reviewers have mentioned time and again how I utilize landscape as a character in its own right, and I have very much been influenced by other authors who do the same. There is so much opportunity in these remote and high-altitude landscapes to propel the dread and isolation for these types of stories.
Set in the frigid French Alps, One by One blends Christie-esque mystery with modern technology and a cast of deliciously unlikeable characters who die—you guessed it—one by one. A team of app developers rents a luxurious ski chalet and becomes trapped inside after a terrible avalanche. One of them is a murderer, but who is it? I picked up this book after indulging in some breathtaking hikes in the Alps and falling in love with the landscape. I am drawn to (and write) mystery thrillers that strip away the luxuries of modern technology by thrusting the characters into high altitudes. The characters in One by One must depend on their own smarts to not only discover who-dun-it, but also to escape with their lives.
This instant New York Times bestseller and “claustrophobic spine-tingler” (People) from Ruth Ware follows a group of employees trapped on a snow-covered mountain.
Getting snowed in at a luxurious, rustic ski chalet high in the French Alps doesn’t sound like the worst problem in the world. Especially when there’s a breathtaking vista, a full-service chef and housekeeper, a cozy fire to keep you warm, and others to keep you company. Unless that company happens to be eight coworkers…each with something to gain, something to lose, and something to hide.
When the cofounder of Snoop, a trendy London-based tech start-up, organizes…
Once again, King proves he is the king by thrusting a nine-year-old girl into the harsh Appalachian Mountains and leaving her to fight for her own survival. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon follows Trisha, a spunky kid who loses her way while hiking with her mom and brother. To stay alive, she must conserve what little food she has and maintains her sanity by listening to her Walkman and following baseball news about her favorite player, Tom Gordon. But little does she realize that something fierce and hungry is following her every step. As an avid hiker, I understand the harsh realities of getting lost in unfamiliar terrain—it’s [bleeping] terrifying. One of Stephen King’s best!
From the master of horror and suspence, Stephen King, comes a pop-up adaptation of one of his bestselling novels.; Trisha MacFarland had no idea what was in store for her when she wandered away from her mother and brother on a family hike! Readers will travel with Trisha on her journey of horror, where she has only her witts for navigation, her ingenuity as a defence against the elements, and her courage and faith to withstand her mounting fear. For solace, during this terrifying journey, Trisha tuned in her walkman to listen to the broadcasts about her hero, the Red…
We’re back in the Alps—this time in Switzerland—and a storm’s a-brewin’. The Sanitorium follows an uptight detective hoping for some much-needed time away from work. But, lo and behold, the mountainside hotel of Le Sommet is anything but relaxing. I loved the cold and creepy isolation this book offers, and much of the mystery in the book centers on the hotel’s previous existence as a sanitorium for women with tuberculosis. Aside from the landscape, the way Pearse subtly criticizes the historical mistreatment of women in this book is what really hooked me.
REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK | A New York Times bestseller!
"An eerie, atmospheric novel that had me completely on the edge of my seat." -Reese Witherspoon
"This spine-tingling, atmospheric thriller has it all... and twists you'll never see coming." -Richard Osman, New York Times bestselling author of The Thursday Murder Club
Sarah Pearse's next book, The Retreat, is forthcoming.
You won't want to leave. . . until you can't.
Half-hidden by forest and overshadowed by threatening peaks, Le Sommet has always been a sinister place. Long plagued by troubling rumors, the former abandoned sanatorium has since been renovated into a…
I’m a huge fan of small bookstores, but even more so, I love the “Little Free Library” kiosks set up around various neighborhoods in my home city of Austin, Texas. It was inside one of these take-a-book/leave-a-book nests that I found Descent, which follows the Courtland family and their descent into a living nightmare when their teenage daughter is abducted. Tim Johnston is a master of setting, particularly the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. I’m particularly keen on this landscape (and want to thank Tim for such vivid imagery) because my upcoming serial killer thriller is set in these same jagged peaks.
As their world comes undone, the Courtlands are drawn into a vortex of dread and recrimination. Why weren't they more careful? What has happened to their daughter? Is she alive? Will they ever know? Caitlin's disappearance, all the more devastating for its mystery, is the beginning of the family's harrowing journey down increasingly divergent and solitary paths until all that continues to bind them together are the questions they can never bring themselves to ask: At what point does a family stop searching? At what point will a girl stop fighting for her life? Written with a precision that captures…
This one’s a little bit of a cheat because the Grand Canyon isn’t technically a mountainous landscape—unless you’re looking at it from the bottom. But as far as landscapes go, you can’t do much better. The Anomaly follows an I’ll-do-it-myself archaeologist who discovers an ancient cave that seems to have a mind of its own. More than anything, this book is just downright freakin’ fun. It’s evident that Rutger knows this landscape better than most, and he utilizes both history and conspiracy theories to his advantage. This one’s a true mystery where the setting is a character in itself.
An utterly gripping thriller perfect for fans of Dan Brown, Michael Crichton and Stephen King. The Anomaly will leave you breathless until the final page has been turned . . .
THEY SOUGHT THE TRUTH. THEY FOUND A NIGHTMARE
A team of explorers seek ancient treasures, hidden in a secret cave.
At first it seems they will return empty handed. Then their luck turns.
But the team's elation is short-lived as they become trapped there in the dark, with little possibility of escape.
Three Houses on a Hill follows Lazalier Brady, an ex-firefighter on the verge of homelessness who must provide for his cancer-stricken toddler by accepting a groundskeeper position in the wild and frozen interior of Alaska. By day, he tends to the grounds and structure of the Dilbrook Mansion. By night, he sits huddled in his Cabin, haunted by the secrets of an eerie Shack perched on the western ridge of Horseshoe Hill.When Laz stumbles upon a charred corpse in the woods, he unearths a web of murderous secrets kept hidden by the mysterious Dilbrooks, and suddenly finds himself in the deadly center of it all.
Willem and Jurriaan have a miserable childhood thanks to their cruel, controlling mother—Louisa Veldkamp, a world-renowned pianist. Dad turns a blind eye. One day, Louisa vanishes without a trace during a family vacation.
Adoptee Anneliese Bakker survives a toxic childhood and leaves home, vowing never to return. While searching for her biological mother, she meets the adult Willem, and they fall in love. Pregnant and engaged, she moves into the family mansion, wanting nothing more than to create a loving family for her child. But the Veldkamps are cold and distant. And why is Louisa a taboo subject?
An expectant mother gets more than she bargained for when she marries into a seemingly perfect family in this gripping debut novel–a must read for fans of A. J. Finn and B. A. Paris.
After surviving a nightmarish childhood, Anneliese Bakker is on the mend and searching for her birth mother. But when she meets Willem, she falls madly in love and finally finds a safe place to land. Engaged and expecting her first child, she moves into the Veldkamp mansion on a stately, tree-lined avenue in Amsterdam. And yet, nothing about Willem’s family is as it seems. Instead of…
