Blog

Discover the best in WHSmith books & products with reviews and features below.

Filtered by THRILLER & SUSPENSE

A Calamity of Souls

Jack Lee is a white lawyer from Freeman County, Virginia, who has never done anything to push back against racism, until he decides to represent Jerome Washington, a Black man charged with brutally killing an elderly and wealthy white couple. Doubting his decision, Lee fears that his legal skills may not be enough to prevail in a case where the odds are already stacked against both him and his client. And he quickly finds himself out of his depth when he realizes that what is at stake is far greater than the outcome of a murder trial.

Joy Moody is Out of Time

On her twin daughters’ twenty-first birthday, Joy Moody – proprietor of Bonbeach’s premier laundromat – is found dead. Yet that is not the strangest thing happening behind the bright pink facade of Joyful Suds. For much of their lives, Joy has been telling Cassie and Andie one big, fat lie: that they are from the future, and that when they turn twenty-one they will travel back to the year 2050. What started as a colourful tale to explain how the girls came to live with her has now become a decade-long deception. Worse still, Joy has started to believe it herself.

End of Story

“I’ll be dead in three months. Come tell my story.” This is the chilling invitation from Sebastian Trapp, renowned mystery novelist, to his long-time correspondent Nicky Hunter, an expert in detective fiction. Welcomed into his lavish San Francisco mansion, Nicky begins to unravel Trapp’s life story under the watchful eyes of his enigmatic wife and plainspoken daughter. But Sebastian Trapp is a mystery himself. And maybe – probably – a murderer.

Devil’s Kitchen

For years the firefighters of New York’s Engine 99 have rushed fearlessly into hot zones, saving countless lives and stopping devastating blazes in their tracks. They’ve also stolen millions from banks, jewellery stores and art galleries. With their inside knowledge and specialist equipment, they’ve become the most successful heist crew on the East Coast.

Body of Lies

A car crash victim clings to life and is rushed to hospital but can’t be saved. Hours later, her corpse is stolen from the morgue. No one knows who the dead woman was or why her body was taken.

The School Run

For parents living in the beautiful coastal town of Pacific Pines, all their hopes and dreams are pinned on the outcome of the annual Gala Day hosted by St Ignatius Boys’ School. To be accepted into the prestigious institution, their sons must battle it out, facing rigorous rounds of physical and mental tests. Their parents will stop at nothing to ensure their sons succeed. But after one boy is struck down in a hit and run, the scandals, secrets and lies that entangle three mothers threaten to unravel their seemingly perfect lives . . .

The Beacon

Jack Harris, the disgraced son of Australia’s most powerful business tycoon, has just been exiled to Byron Bay as a junior journalist at his father’s smallest regional newspaper, The Beacon. His arrival coincides with the disappearance of the newspaper’s editor, Patrick O’Shaughnessy, while out on his morning surf. When Patrick’s body is discovered in the ocean, with a severed leg, it appears certain that he’s fallen victim to a shark attack. But when rumours emerge that Patrick was about to publish an explosive article – its subject unknown – Jack begins to suspect his death is not what it seems.

The Murder Inn

It’s the perfect getaway. But the past will always find you. Since leaving the Boston Police Department, Bill Robinson has run The Inn by the Sea in Gloucester, Massachusetts. There he offers a safe and supportive home for his long-term guests. That tranquil life, however, is about to be shattered. Two murderers are heading to Bill’s door.

The Fury

This is a tale of murder.
Or maybe that’s not quite true. At its heart, it’s a love story, isn’t it? One spring morning, reclusive ex-movie star Lana Farrar invites a small group of her closest friends for a weekend away, on her small private island, just off the coast of Mykonos. Beneath the surface, old friendships conceal violent passions and resentments. And in forty-eight hours, one of them will be dead.

Tom Clancy Flash Point: Jack Ryan, Jr. Bk 10

Jack Ryan, Jr. is in a world of trouble. A mid-air collision between aircraft from rival nations in the South China Sea threatens to serve as a flash point for the entire region. As Jack frantically tries to put the pieces of the conspiracy together, the Campus is hit with a crippling attack. When the dust settles, Jack is one of the few operators still standing and the Campus’s de facto leader. But the fight is just beginning.

A Shadow at the Door

After a brutal attack and the breakdown of her marriage, life has taught former TV star Remi Lucan that it’s safer to not rely on anyone. Instead, she’s buried herself in Hobart, transforming her dilapidated sandstone house back to its former splendour, and it has been her proudest achievement. Better than her short-lived acting career. Definitely better than being a smile-on-command trophy wife. But when she runs out of money, her wealthy ex-husband tries to force the sale of the property and Remi realises her only option is to lower her defences and take in tenants.

Absolute Power

In a heavily guarded mansion in the Virginian countryside, professional burglar and break-in artist Luther Whitney is trapped behind a one-way mirror. What he witnesses destroys his faith not only in justice, but in all he holds dear.

Foul Play

Superstar footballer Luca Bruni is being blackmailed for a night of lust he swears he didn’t participate in…except the ransom photo denies that. A media darling on and off the field, he has powerful charisma, a perfect home life he’ll do anything to protect, and more money than he knows what to do with. He’s determined to defy the extortion racket.

The Search Party

Max and Annie Kingsley have left the London rat race with their twelve-year-old son to set up a glamping site in the wilds of Cornwall. Eager for a dry run ahead of their opening, they invite three old university friends and their families for a long-needed reunion and a relaxing weekend. But the festivities soon go awry as tensions arise between the children (and subsequently their parents), explosive secrets come to light, and a sudden storm moves in, cutting them off from help as one in the group disappears.

Reacher: Bad Luck and Trouble

You do not mess with Jack Reacher. He is as close to untraceable as a person can get. A loner comfortable in his anonymity and solitude. So when a member of his old Army unit finds a way to contact him, he knows this has to be serious.

The Year of the Locust

If, like Kane, you’re a Denied Access Area spy for the CIA, then boundaries have no meaning. Your function is to go in, do whatever is required, and get out again – by whatever means necessary. You know when to run, when to hide – and when to shoot. But some places don’t play by the rules. Some places are too dangerous, even for a man of Kane’s experience. The badlands where the borders of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan meet are such a place – a place where violence is the only way to survive.

Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect

When the Australian Mystery Writers’ Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously, that didn’t pan out.

The Secret

1992. Two strangers bring a hospital patient a list of names. They ask him for one more, but it’s a question the patient can’t answer. Minutes later he is dispatched through the 12th floor window. His death generates some unexpected attention. That attention comes from the Secretary of Defence, who brings in an inter-agency task force to investigate. Jack Reacher, recently demoted from Major to Captain, is assigned as the Army’s representative.

The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons

The untapped natural resources of Sweden’s far north are sparking a gold rush, with the criminal underworld leading the charge. But it’s not the prospect of riches that brings Lisbeth Salander to the small town of Gasskas. Her niece’s mother is the latest woman in the region to have vanished without trace. Two things soon become clear: Svala is a remarkably gifted teenager — and she’s being watched.

The Raging Storm

When Jem Rosco – sailor, adventurer and legend – blows in to the local pub, The Maiden’s Prayer, in the middle of an autumn gale, the residents of Greystone are delighted. The whole place has a strange, unreal quality: the village that time forgot. Backed by a worked-out quarry, with a shingle beach and a north-facing quay, there’s little to recommend it to tourists.

Cross Down

With the country in chaos and corruption on all sides, there’s only one person to turn to. When a series of military-style attacks erupt across the United States, Detective John Sampson is called in to investigate. The attacks are untraceable, with patterns too random to decipher, leaving Sampson struggling to find a link amongst the carnage.

The Rush

The first drops start to fall when Quinn spies the body. With no reception and nothing but an empty road for miles, does she stop to help or keep driving to safety? Back at the iconic country pub where Quinn works, Andrea is sandbagging the place in preparation for heavy rains. Alone with her sleeping son in the back room, she reluctantly lets a biker in to wait out the storm.

Simply Lies

Following a disastrous divorce, former New Jersey detective Mickey Gibson is now employed by a global investigation company, ProEye, to track down some of the extremely wealthy who seem bent on not paying their debts. Mickey misses police work but it has no place for her new role as the sole carer of two small children. When Mickey is asked by Arlene Robinson, a colleague from ProEye, to inventory an old mansion owned by a notorious former arms dealer, Rutger Novak, she discovers a long-decomposed body in a secret room. Apparently, Novak has cheated ProEye clients out of millions in the past and now they want to nail him.

Fire With Fire

Ryan and Elsie Delaney don’t accept the official line that their young daughter drowned on Santa Monica beach. Her body has never been found and their pleas for a proper investigation are rejected. So now the desperate pair are raining hellfire on the police. Taking three hostages at the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center, they give law enforcement an ultimatum: if Tilly isn’t located in the next 24 hours, they will destroy evidence in several major cases.

Dying to Know

Twelve years ago budding journalist Geneva Leighton received a phone call that stopped her life in its tracks. Her terrified sister, Amber, was locked in the boot of a moving car and begging Geneva for help. Amber was never heard from again. Since that night, Geneva’s days have revolved around caring for her traumatised niece and nephew, despite the unpredictable behaviour of their father … and keeping the search for her sister alive. But the knowledge it should have been her in the boot of the car haunts her waking hours.

The Last Orphan

A heavily-armed counter-assault team, sedatives strong enough for large animals, a hood, mouthguard and Secret Service Agents asking for selfies. Not your average meeting with the President. But Orphan X is not your average guest. The last survivor of the off-the-books Orphan programme, Evan was trained to do his government’s dirty work. Until he escaped.

The 6:20 Man

On his daily commute on the 6:20am train to Manhattan thirty-two year old Travis sees the
lavish houses of the wealthy, dreaming to join their ranks. Then one morning his dull routine is
shattered by an anonymous email. His friend is dead, prompting the NYPD to come calling. Before
the day is out another ominous visit threatens to dredge up grim secrets from his past in the army
unless he participates in a clandestine investigation into his firm.

Private Beijing

A brutal attack. An agent on the run. Private Beijing is left devastated after an attack sees its lead agent, Lee Sheung, captured. With Private now under scrutiny by the Beijing police, Sheung’s second-in-command calls on Jack Morgan, global head of the world’s finest PI agency, to investigate.

Tom Clancy Red Winter: Jack Ryan Bk 22

A top secret F117 aircraft crashes into the Nevada desert. The Nighthawk is the most advanced fighting machine in the world and the Soviets will do anything to get their hands on its secrets.

Desert Star

A year has passed since LAPD detective Renée Ballard quit the force in the face of misogyny, demoralisation and endless red tape. Yet after the chief of police himself tells her she can write her ticket within the department, Ballard takes back her badge, leaving ‘the Late Show’ to rebuild the cold case unit at the elite Robbery-Homicide Division.

No Plan B

Gerrardsville, Colorado. One tragic event. Two witnesses. Two conflicting accounts. One witness sees a woman throw herself in front of a bus – clearly suicide. The other witness is Jack Reacher. And he sees what really happened – a man in grey hoodie and jeans, swift and silent as a shadow, pushed the victim to her death, before grabbing her bag and sauntering away.

Long Shadows

Memory man FBI agent, Amos Decker, returns in this action-packed thriller to investigate the mysterious and brutal murder of a federal judge and her bodyguard at her home in an exclusive, gated community in Florida.

Exiles

At a busy festival site on a warm spring night, a baby lies alone in her pram, her mother vanishing into the crowds.

The Stranger

In Darkwater, being female doesn’t amount to much. But Chelsea’s luckier than most. She’s the young lover of the town’s feared leader, which she keeps telling herself is a good thing, what with food getting scarce and the wells drying up. She’s secure and safe and can almost believe she’s happy.

The Brothers

When Special Forces veteran Jake Harlow returns to the hamlet of Lorne on the Victorian south-west coast for his younger brother Tom’s funeral, he finds a sinister series of notes that suggest Tom’s death was no accident.

The 6:20 Man

Having survived combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq and been decorated with medals, Travis Devine mysteriously leaves the Army under a cloud of suspicion. And at thirty-two years old, he’s swapping fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda for a different kind of danger in the cut-throat world of high finance.