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I am delighted to welcome novelist Mark Edwards with his list of terrific thrillers!

Best British Psychological Thrillers of the Decade (So Far)

The Girl on the Train, by London-based author Paula Hawkins, was an enormous hit worldwide, with the movie about to hit cinemas. Hawkins is just one of a large number of British psychological thrillers writers who are producing books with as many twists, shocks and OMG moments as our American counterparts. Here are some of the best from recent years.

Elizabeth Haynes – Into the Darkest Corner
In Haynes’ debut novel, which she wrote during NaNoWriMo, a young woman is in hiding after escaping the terrifying clutches of her new boyfriend. Suffering from OCD, she is struggling to go on with her life…and fears she is still very much in danger. An utterly compelling, sexy, complex masterpiece from one of the UK’s best crime writers.

Clare Mackintosh – I Let You Go
A woman flees to rural Wales after a hit and run accident that kills a child. Inspired by a real unsolved case, the first novel by former cop Clare Mackintosh has the most audacious, breathtaking twist in the middle – and then gets even better.

Sabine Durrant – Lie With Me
The quality of the writing in Lie With Me is a cut above most other thrillers. Durrant can craft sentences that make other authors weep with envy – including the ‘hero’ of this tale, a literary has-been who accompanies a group of old friends, and his new lover, on vacation and finds himself caught in a web of deception. Brilliantly atmospheric.

Alex Marwood – The Darkest Secret
Like Durrant, Marwood is a brilliant writer who is skilled at really getting inside the heads of her characters – in this case a group of awful narcissists who collude to hide a terrible secret. Years later, the shockwaves of their decision are still being felt. Superb writing and a killer ending.

Paula Daly – The Mistake I Made
Best described as Indecent Proposal set in England’s picturesque Lake District, this is another book with a flawed heroine, a physiotherapist who makes a bad mistake that comes back to bite her. I love this novel because Paula Daly has such a warm, conversational tone which makes this an effortless, fun read. It’s like listening to the confession of a good friend.

CL Taylor – The Missing
All three of CL Taylor’s psychological thrillers are great but this one just about edges it because it handles a difficult subject – family secrets and a missing teenager – with such imagination and sensitivity. This is also a masterclass in sleight of hand and misdirection. I defy anyone to figure out what happened before it’s revealed.

Emily Barr – The Sleeper
Another book about a girl (or rather, woman) on a train into London – except this was written before Paula Hawkins’ bestseller and is just as good. A woman who lives in the south-west of England takes a sleeper train every Monday morning, lives in London during the week – leaving her husband behind – and comes home Friday evening. Soon she finds herself living a double life in more ways than one – but is unaware that someone is manipulating her. This book is impossible to put down.

Helen Fitzgerald – The Cry 
Fitzgerald is actually Australian – which is where most of this book is set – but she lives in Scotland so I’m making her an honorary Brit for the purposes of this list. What’s the worst scenario you can imagine yourself in? I bet it’s not as bad as the scenario in this searing book: a couple accidentally give their baby a fatal overdose on a plane, then try to cover it up. It’s dark, painful but humorous and hopeful in places too. Another one-sitting read.

Mark Edwards – The Devil’s Work 
Can I include one of my own books on this list? Why not. The Devil’s Work is a psychological thriller set in the office from hell. When Sophie returns to work after taking a break to raise her daughter, she is full of hope and excitement. But somebody at work is out to get her – she just has to figure out who, and why, and how it connects to a dark secret from her college days…

About The Devil’s Work by Mark Edwards

A gripping psychological thriller from the bestselling author of Follow You Home and The Magpies.

It was the job she had dreamed of since childhood. But on her very first day, when an unnerving encounter drags up memories Sophie Greenwood would rather forget, she wonders if she has made a mistake. A fatal mistake.

What is her ambitious young assistant really up to? And what exactly happened to Sophie’s predecessor? When her husband and daughter are pulled into the nightmare, Sophie is forced to confront the darkest secrets she has carried for years.

As her life begins to fall apart at work and at home, Sophie must race to uncover the truth about her new job…before it kills her.

Photo Mark Earthy
http://www.earthyphotography.co.uk
This image is protected by Copyright

About Mark Edwards

Mark Edwards writes psychological thrillers in which terrifying things happen to ordinary people. His first solo novel, The Magpies (2013), reached the No.1 spot on Amazon UK as did his third novel Because She Loves Me (2014). He has also co-written various crime novels with Louise Voss such as Killing Cupid (2011) and The Blissfully Dead (2015).

Mark grew up on the south coast of England and starting writing in his twenties while working in a number of dead-end jobs. He lived in Tokyo for a year before returning to the UK and starting a career in marketing. As well as a full-time writer, Mark is a stay at home dad for his three children, his wife and a ginger cat.

Website: www.markedwardsauthor.com

Twitter: @mredwards

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ markedwardsbooks

I am delighted to welcome guest blogger Matthew FitzSimmons!

For over a decade, I taught English literature to American twelfth graders. I’ve known people to recoil in horror when I shared what I did for a living. For some, the idea of teaching a classroom of seventeen-year-olds would be akin to the tenth circle of hell. But it was, for me, the best and most important job that I’ve ever had. It reminded me why books mattered to me, and in the end it rekindled a love of writing that I believed had died.

I came to teaching after trying, and failing, to publish a novel in my twenties. I’d given writing a fair go, devoting to it years that felt like wasted time in retrospect. A failure at only twenty-nine, I felt done. Finished. There is something draining about stumbling in so public a fashion, in full view of your friends and family. Burned out, I was certain that I would never write again, and in truth, I didn’t write a word for years.

Instead of writing books, I redirected my energies to teaching them. It turned out I was a good teacher. The kids got me, and I like to think that I got them, too. Most days anyway. At their best, my classrooms were lively, freewheeling spaces. The students energized me, and I loved how often something unexpected happened to make me smile. There was the day that all the boys came to class dressed like me – I didn’t know I had a recognizable style. Or the boy who used video games to analyze Kafka’s The Metamorphosis in an essay (it was brilliant). Or the time a girl argued impassionedly to the entire class that Ernest Hemingway would have been a great rapper, leading to an impromptu homework assignment to write rap lyrics in the voice of a character from The Sun Also Rises. I learned to expect the unexpected – craved it actually.

Which is not to say it was an easy job, or that I ever inspired an entire class to stand on their desks in solidarity. Success in teaching is rarely so cinematic. The truth is that most of my students were not readers by the time they reached me. Although many had been avid readers when they were younger – Harry Potter was a great literary unifier for my students – few read for pleasure anymore and viewed books merely as part of the job of going to school. Each new novel was greeted skeptically, opened by wary high school seniors curious to see what fresh hell I’d inflicted upon them. I saw my job as making the case for books. To make that case, however, I had to think about why I read. I felt passionately enough about reading to teach it, but I’d never given much thought to why. I’d always been a reader and simply left it at that.

To their credit, my students weren’t easy sells. They held their ground, pushed back, and challenged my crusade to make them readers. I like to think I converted a few, but in twelve years I never had a class that all loved the same book. At first it drove me crazy, but eventually I accepted it, eventually I embraced it. Why should they love the same books as me? Wasn’t my job to help them cultivate their own taste in literature? I adopted an expression that I repeated any time a student told me they liked or disliked a particular book: “I don’t care unless you can tell me why.” It was the key to my teaching – they were seventeen, telling me why was in their blood. But to tell me why, they had to read. I won even when I lost.

Somewhere in there, I caught the bug again. I began to write – nothing fully formed, nothing that would ever see the light of day. That dream was dead, I reminded myself. But somewhere along the way, I’d become a much better writer without having done any writing of my own. One day I began to write a book that would become The Short Drop. I realized that in teaching my students, I’d also been teaching myself. Or they’d been teaching me. I learned at least as much from my students as they learned from me, and I know for certain that I would not now be writing my third novel had it not been for them.

About the Author

Matthew FitzSimmons is the author of the bestselling first novel in the Gibson Vaughn series, The Short Drop. Born in Illinois and raised in London, England, he now lives in Washington, DC, where he taught English literature and theater at a private high school for over a decade.

About the book

POISONFEATHER: Book 2 of 3 in the Gibson Vaughn Series

Gibson Vaughn, hero of the bestselling novel The Short Drop, returns in a smoldering thriller.

When jailed billionaire Charles Merrick hints publicly that he has stashed a fortune in an offshore cache, a school of sharks converges upon his release from federal prison.

Among his swindled victims is Judge Hammond Birk, the man who saved Gibson Vaughn’s life when he was a troubled teenager. Now Gibson intends to repay that debt by recovering Merrick’s victims’ money.

But Gibson isn’t the only one on the trail of the hidden fortune.

The promise of billions has drawn a horde of ruthless treasure hunters, including an edgy ex-con, a female bartender with a mysterious history, a Chinese spy with a passion for fly-fishing, and a veritable army of hardened mercenaries. To stay ahead of the sharks and win justice for his mentor, Gibson will need all his formidable skills. But at the end of the road, he’ll still have to face “Poisonfeather”—a geopolitical secret that just might get Gibson killed…or worse.

Click to purchase

I am delighted to welcome novelist Lis Wiehl! Being a popular legal analyst for Fox News, Lis needs to get her glam on at a moment’s notice. Here are some of her tips and tricks.

My Favorite Beauty Tips and Tricks:
How to Keep It Together Fast and Cheap
by Lis Wiehl

1. I always carry a stash of self-adhesive fake eyelashes strips. Press them on and presto! your eyes look fabulous and you skip the always treacherous eyeliner. You can get them at any drug store for between $5 and $7.

2. Gather your hair up in a scrunchy and leave it up as long as you can. When you let it down, you’ll have amazing volume. As if you just had a full blow out!

3. The night before you wash your hair, dip the ends in warm coconut oil, and sleep with it on. It’s the best conditioner ever. Your pillowcases may need a little Shout before you throw them in the wash, but it’s worth it. And the smell of the coconut oil can trigger dreams of a tropical paradise.

4. If you don’t get enough sleep (hello!) a slice or two of cucumber over the eyelids for even a few minutes work wonders.

5. My tried-and-true lemon and honey mask once a week. Just mix them together and slather on. This works well when combined with the hair-in-scrunchy tip.

6. A friend has a posture-perfect mantra: “Display the brooch!” It works wonders on those slouchy days we all have. Just pretend you’re wearing a gorgeous brooch you want the whole world to see. Your shoulders will instantly go down and back, your chest will rise, you’ll walk tall and feel great. And it’s free!

7. Joni Mitchell famously sang, “Happiness is the best facelift.” She’s right. Everyone looks radiant when they’re happy. Having a not-happy day? Well in his classic song, Smile, Charlie Chaplin advises us to, “Smile though your heart is aching.” Good advice, Charlie.

8. Tinted moisturizers are a gift from the beauty gods. They can eliminate the need for foundation and cut your prep time down to almost nothing. For around ten bucks, Neutrogena Visibly Even BB Cream is a bargain. It’s also contains a 30 SPF sunblock. That’s what I call a trifecta.

9. Breathe, baby, breathe. Two minutes of sitting quietly and taking deep breaths is a terrific calming and centering exercise that delivers amazing beauty benefits. You’ll look (and feel) rested and relaxed. Try it. It really works.

10. This is going to sound really weird, but it works. Slosh a tablespoon of the aforementioned coconut oil around and between your teeth for 15-20 minutes. Your teeth will look brighter when you’re done. Do it regularly and you’ll be amazed at the difference. P.S. – don’t spit the oil out in the sink or toilet, it can harden and clog the pipes. Use the wastebasket. (I warned you it would sound weird.)

Author Bio:

Lis Wiehl, author of The Candidate: A Newsmaker Novel is the New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen novels. She is a Harvard Law School graduate and has served as a federal prosecutor in the state of Washington and as a tenured faculty member at The University of Washington School of Law. She is currently a popular legal analyst and commentator for the Fox News Channel.

For more information visit her Website, and connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.

THE CANDIDATE by Lis Wiehl. Thomas Nelson (October 4, 2016). ISBN: 978-0718037680. 352p.