WHAT SHOULD I READ NEXT?
One of the questions I get asked most on social media (apart from when is the film of The Woman in Cabin 10 coming out) is, “which book of yours should I start with”, or “I just read X, which book should I read next?”
There’s one very obvious answer to “which book should I read next”, which is that if you read The Woman in Cabin 10 and loved it, you should probably read The Woman in Suite 11 next, and vice versa. But other than that, my books can be read in any order, and although I’m often asked which is my favourite, the honest truth is, I don’t have one. I love all my books for different reasons, and I wrote them all for different reasons. I can’t pick just one.
I was curious to find out if that would be different for readers, so a few books back I did a poll on my newsletter and asked people which of my books was their favourite. I used my newsletter rather than social media because I thought that anyone who’d bothered to sign up had likely read several of my books, so the results wouldn’t just skew to the bestselling titles. I thought there would be a clear winner, but I was surprised to find that the results were an almost completely even split. The Death of Mrs Westaway actually won by a whisker, but there was only a few percentage points between all my titles, which made me feel rather happy for some reason. I guess I want someone to love each of my books, and it turns out they do!
However one aspect of writing very different books each time, is that the settings and themes do appeal to different people – and for that reason, which of my books you should pick up, likely depends more on the kind of topics and settings you enjoy reading about than on someone else’s personal preferences.
For that reason, I’ve compiled a cheat-sheet of ingredients to help you pick your next read – so if you’re stuck, scroll down the menu below, and see what you think. Am I missing your favourite trope?
If you love…
Toxic Friendships then read...
In a Dark, Dark Wood
One by One
The It Girl
Workplace Nightmares then read...
The Turn of the Key
One by One
One Perfect Couple
Zero Days
Isolated locations then read...
The Woman in Cabin 10
One by One
In a Dark Dark Wood
The Turn of the Key
Dark Academia then read...
The Lying Game
Technology gone wrong then read...
The Turn of the Key
Zero Days
One by One
Couples who’ve got each others backs then read...
Zero Days
The Woman in Suite 11
Locked room mysteries then read...
The Woman in Cabin 10
The Woman in Suite 11
The It Girl
Narrators gone rogue then read...
Zero Days
The Death of Mrs Westaway
The Woman in Suite 11
Twisted families then read...
The Death of Mrs Westaway
The Lying Game
The Turn of the Key
BFFs then read...
The It Girl
The Lying Game
The Woman in Suite 11
Luxury travel then read...
One by One
One Perfect Couple
The Woman in Cabin 10
The Woman in Suite 11
Messed up marriages then read...
The Lying Game
A hint of gothic then read...
The Death of Mrs Westaway
The Turn of the Key
The Lying Game
Unreliable narrators then read...
In a Dark, Dark Wood
The Turn of the Key
One Perfect Couple
A WTF ending then read...
The Woman in Cabin 10
The Turn of the Key
Main characters with skills then read...
Zero Days
The Death of Mrs Westaway
Intertextual references then read...
The It Girl
The Turn of the Key
The Death of Mrs Westaway
One Perfect Couple
Lo Blacklock then read...
The Woman in Cabin 10
The Woman in Suite 11
Well, I hope that’s given you some ideas for what to read next. And if your favourite ingredient isn’t listed here, then sorry, and come find me on social media to tell me what it is!