The best thrillers with a strong sense of place

I'm a great fan of ghost stories, especially the disturbing, subtly creepy sort, ones which rely on the gradual building-up of tension rather than gore. Dark Matter is one of the best I've ever read. Hero Jack, who is already on the back foot because he is poor and everyone else is privileged, is part of an expedition to the Arctic Circle. Undeterred by the apparent unease of the captain who drops them off, the team arrive in Gruhuken, on the coast of Svalbard – the scene of an appalling past tragedy. The crew members succumb to accidents and illness, and finally Jack is left all alone as the Arctic night begins – a darkness that will literally last for months. I think this is one of those stories that genuinely couldn't be set anywhere else. The Arctic location with its endless dark is frightening all by itself, even before the other stuff starts happening...

I love this book because it features urbex (urban exploration) and I've done a bit of that myself; some of my previous books were about it. Much of the story is centred around the disused Blackwater Asylum, an enormous complex of wards and treatment rooms with only a skeleton staff of security guards. Everyone associated with Blackwater has their own secrets, from the former patient who lives within the grounds to the property developer with his eye on the land, and we follow Detective Lew Kirby and urban explorer Connie Darke as they try to unravel the crimes that have taken place there. There is mystery aplenty, but what really made this book for me were the locations. The bone jar itself – which I am not going to describe! Go and read the book! – is absolutely stunning and completely original. 

I bought this book after reading Sami Shah's standout story "Reap" in the anthology The Djinn Falls In Love And Other Stories. It's set in Karachi, Pakistan, and follows the adventures of Wahid Hasain, as he attempts to recover the soul of the girl he loves, which was stolen by a djinn. It is a book full of horror and wonder, gore and lyricism, and I was glued to every single page. It brings Karachi to life in all its gritty glory: the traffic, the university, auto rickshaws, chai cafés, mithai shops, and lemon juice sellers. Shah peoples the city with characters like Badshah, the youthful 'King of Karachi', Kamran, the sadistic killer, and above all the djinn – many different types of them, from the vaguely pitiful to the outright terrifying. A read that will take you far from home. 

First published in 1934, this extraordinary novel begins with a chance meeting between the Hungarian narrator, János Bátsky, and reclusive Welsh aristocrat the Earl of Gwynedd, who invites Bátsky to visit him in his castle in Wales. Our hero accepts the invitation, in spite of various warnings (his friend Fred describes the Earl as "Mad as a hatter!" and an anonymous phone call advises Bátsky that everyone who becomes involved with him "comes to a sticky end"). From this point on, the story becomes increasingly bizarre, involving ancient grudges, the Rosicrucians and a laboratory full of giant axolotls.

If someone were to ask me what I thought of this book, I would honestly have to say: "I don't know." The effect of reading it was rather like stuffing yourself with Christmas cake: too rich to manage all at one go. But what I did enjoy very much were the impressions of rural Wales seen through the eyes of a Hungarian. The setting has a wild, remote, marvelous feeling to it: you can imagine almost anything happening there, and in this book it does. 

I wanted to finish with this book, because this novel really is all about the location. The city and the city of the title are the twin cities of Besźel and Ul Qoma, which exist side by side, or perhaps even in the same space, somewhere on the edge of Europe. Besźel feels old, dowdy and run-down; Ul Qoma feels smart and shiny. Despite being virtually intertwined, the residents of each take no notice of each other – in fact, it is illegal to do so, and a good deal of everyone's headspace is taken up with managing not to see the other side. Then a woman apparently from Ul Qoma is found murdered in Besźel, and Inspector Tyador Borlú must investigate, even if it means seeing what is not supposed to be seen. The noirish plot is interesting, but what really remains with you after reading the book is the sense of having visited this most curious place, the city and the city.