My Top 10 Thrillers

This past week, I was having drinks with a writer I admire enormously - William Landry, author of The Strangler and his new bestselling book, Defending Jacob.  We got to talking about books we admire, as all writers do, and it got me thinking to one of the questions I'm often asked: What are your favorite books?

I've decided to stick to thrillers, as (a) they're what I write, and (b) the goods ones - the really, really good ones - are few and far between.  Defending Jacob made my list, and I'm not saying that because Bill's a friend.  His book, which has been riding the bestseller's list for weeks, is that rare combination of an amazing story with amazing writing, characters and an ending that I'm still thinking about days later.  It really is that good, and you should read it.  If you don't, you're missing out.

Here's my top 10 thrillers, in no particular order.  Each one of these books share a single distinction: I couldn't put them down.  Everything else in my life - my family, my own writing, sleep - fell by the wayside in order to finish reading.  Do yourself a favor and read them.

• The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris.
• Red Dragon by Thomas Harris
• Pale Horse Coming by Stephen Hunter
• The Killing Kind by John Connolly
• The Standoff by Chuck Hogan
• You're Next and The Kill Clause by Gregg Hurwitz
• The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow
• Defending Jacob by William Landry
• Misery by Stephen King
• Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

New Darby Book

A lot of you have been asking me if there's going to be a new Darby book.  The answer is yes.  She's not going anywhere.  I'll keep writing them as long as the interest is there from readers.

Later this fall, you'll see a book featuring Malcolm Fletcher from my first book, Deviant Ways, and the second Darby book, The Secret Friend.  It's called The Killing House (you can find out more about it on the website's front page).  I'm not going to lie to you: It wasn't a fun book to write.  Every once in awhile a writer tackles a book that somehow ends up tackling him again ... and again ... and again.  I went through this oh so wonderfully fun process with The Missing, and I went through it with The Killing House.  This is where a good editor becomes invaluable - and I was so fortunate to have a great one by my side, a woman who has helped guide me through all the Darby books, the wonderful Mari Evans.  All that hard work and all those restless night paid off, and I'm really excited by the results.  One of my early readers, a bookseller, called it the best thing I've ever written.  I hope you'll feel that way too.  It was a lot of fun writing about Malcolm Fletcher.  I have more stories with him in mind.

Back to Darby: all the work on The Killing House pushed off the fifth Darby book, but rest assured, I'm back with her - and Coop.  I don't want to tell you too much - things have a way of changing - but it's not going to be a sequel to The Soul Collectors.  At the moment Darby's currently lost in the middle of the Colorado mountains during a snowstorm, and she's trying to figure a way out.  I don't have a title yet, so if anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to send them my way!

I've made a promise to myself to blog once a week to keep you all updated as to what's going on with Darby and everything else in my writing life, so stay tuned.  

And, as always, thanks for your support and kind words.

Cheers,

Chris