RNIB National Library ServiceGiant Print 24
Adventure, Spy stories, Suspense and Thrillers
Adventure.Garland, Alex.
The beach. 1997. 3v.
The Beach is a legend among young travellers in Asia. In this earthly paradise, it is rumoured, a select community lives in blissful innocence. When Richard flies to Thailand he learns of the mysterious beach from a man who subsequently commits suicide. Teaming up with a young French couple, they set off to find it.
PsychologicalBarker, Nicola.
Darkmans 2007. 13v.
'Darkmans' is a very modern book, set in Ashford (a ridiculously modern town), about two very old-fashioned subjects: love and jealousy. It's also a book about invasion, obsession, displacement and possession, about comedy, art, prescription drugs and chiropody. And the main character? The past, which creeps up on the present and whispers something quite dark - quite unspeakable - into its ear.
Grossman, Lev.
Codex. 2002. 3v.
Edward Wozny, a hot-shot young banker, is sent to help one of his firm's most important and mysterious clients. When asked to un-crate and organise a personal library of rare books, Edward's indignation turns to intrigue as he realises that among the volumes there may be hidden a unique medieval codex, a treasure kept sealed away for many years and for many reasons. Edward's intrigue becomes an obsession that only deepens as friends draw him into a peculiar and addictive computer game, as mystifying parallels between the game's virtual reality and the legend of the codex emerge...
Guterson, David
The other. 2008. 3v.
Seattle, 1972: two teenage boys from very different backgrounds begin an extraordinary friendship. As they grow older Neil follows the American dream, but the eccentric, fiercely intelligent John William drops out of college and moves deep into the woods. John William enlists Neil to help him disappear completely, drawing his oldest friend into a web of secrets and deceit and tragedy.
Harris, Joanne.
The lollipop shoes. 2008. 5v. Psychological fiction.
Seeking refuge and anonymity in the cobbled streets of Montmartre, Yanne and her daughters, Rosette and Annie, live peacefully, if not happily, above their little chocolate shop. Nothing unusual marks them out; no red sachets hang by the door. The wind has stopped - at least for a while. Then into their lives blows Zozie de l'Alba, the lady with the lollipop shoes, and everything begins to change...But this new friendship is not what it seems. Ruthless, devious and seductive, Zozie de l'Alba has plans of her own - plans that will shake their world to pieces.
Lawson, Mary.
The other side of the bridge. 2007. 3v.
Arthur and Jake are brothers, yet worlds apart. Arthur is older, shy, dutiful, and set to inherit his father's farm. Jake is younger and reckless, a dangerous man to know. When Laura arrives in their 1930s rural community, am already uneasy relationship is driven to breaking point.
Picoult, Jodi.
Nineteen minutes. 2008. 6v.
Sterling is a small, ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens - until a student enters the local high school with an arsenal of guns and starts shooting, changing the lives of everyone inside and out. The daughter of the judge sitting on the case should be the state's best witness - but with her boyfriend dead and her childhood friend charged with murder, she's struggling to remember what happened in front of her own eyes.
ThrillerAmbler, Eric
Cause for alarm. 2009. 3v.
On the day that Nicholas Marlow proposed marriage to his girlfriend Claire, he lost his job at the Barnton Heath Engineering Company. Marlow is forced to accept a post in Milan for Spartacus Machine Tools. But no sooner has he arrived in Italy than things start to go wrong. Marlow knows that his predecessor had been killed under the wheels of a car but now he has been given a mysterious note which claims Ferning was murdered.
Ambler, Eric
The mask of Dimitrios. 2009. 3v.
It was in Istanbul that Charles Latimer first heard the name Dimitrios Makropoulous, but finding out who this really was might easily cost Charles his life.
Andrews, V C
Twisted roots. 2004. 3v.
Hannah Eaton, Willow De Beers' teenage daughter, lives a charmed life in wealthy Palm Beach, Florida, but inside she is miserable and lonely. Her new boyfriend, sexy guitar player Heyden Reynolds, has a troubled family of his own. Together, Heyden and Hannah decide to run away to New Orleans, where they stumble onto a rundown old farmhouse and a woman who is convinced Hannah is her long-lost daughter.
Andrews, Virginia
Willow. 2003. 4v.
De Beers series; book 1. After discovering deep family secrets in her adoptive father's diary, Willow leaves her North Carolina college and sets out in search of her birth family amid the ritzy glamour of Palm Beach. But as she spirals into a passionate love affair with young lawyer Thatcher Eaton and becomes intoxicated with the lifestyles of the rich and famous, the dark truth about her birth family threatens her fabulous new life.
Archer, Jeffrey.
A prisoner of birth. 2008. 6v.
Danny and Spencer were born on different sides of the track. One evening the end up celebrating in the same wine bar where Spencer Craig is also celebrating - his 30th birthday, along with a select group of university chums. An hour later, one of them is arrested for murder, while the other ends up as the Prosecution's chief witness in an Old Bailey trial.
Banks, Iain.
Complicity. 1994. 2v.
Cameron Colley is a journalist on an Edinburgh paper, on the brink of uncovering the grandfather of all conspiracies; but while he's researching a series of bizarre past deaths, the police are investigating some that are still going on and Cameron, complicit as he seems to be, may be able to help them with their enquiries. Contains language that some readers may find offensive.
Boyd, William
Restless. 2007. 3v.
Eva Delectorskaya is a beautiful 28-year-old Russian émigré living in Paris. As war breaks out she is recruited for the British Secret Service by Lucas Romer, a mysterious Englishman, and under his tutelage she learns to become the perfect spy, to mask her emotions and to trust nobody. Now years later she must complete one final assignment and this time she needs her daughter Ruth's help.
Brown, Dan
Angels and demons. 2001. 5v.
Robert Langdon; book 1. Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is shocked to find proof that the legendary secret society, the Illuminati is alive, well, and murderously active. Brilliant physicist Leonardo Vetra has been murdered, his eyes plucked out and the society's ancient symbol branded upon his chest. His final discovery, anti-matter, the most powerful and dangerous energy source known to man, has disappeared only to be hidden somewhere beneath Vatican City on the eve of the election of a new pope.
Brown, Dan.
The Da Vinci code. 2004. 2v.
Harvard Professor Robert Langton, visiting Paris, is called in when the curator of the Louvre is murdered. Alongside the body is a series of baffling ciphers. Langton and a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, are amazed to find a trail that leads to the works of Da Vinci - and beyond.
Brown, Dan
The lost symbol. 2009. 5v.
Robert Langdon; book 3. Set over a breathtaking 12 hour time span, the book's narrative takes the reader on an exhilarating journey through an unexpected landscape as Professor of Symbology, Robert Langdon, is once again called into action.
Buchan, John
The thirty nine steps. 2004. 2v.
Richard Hannay gets caught up in a situation of extreme danger. Before he knows what is happening he is the obvious suspect for a murder committed in his own flat, and has to go on the run to his native Scotland.
Clancy, Tom
Red rabbit. 2003. 7v.
Jack Ryan; book 3. Long before he was President, before he fought terrorist attacks, before a submarine named Red October made its perilous way across the Atlantic, Jack Ryan was temporarily living in England while researching a book. He came to the attention of the CIA's Deputy Director, Vice Admiral James Greer and Sir Basil Charleston of the SIS. When Greer asked him if he wanted to come aboard as a freelance analyst, Jack was quick to accept. One of his first assignments turns up an amazing tale: Top Soviet officials were planning to assassinate the Pope, John Paul II.
Coben, Harlan.
Hold tight. 2008. 4v.
Tia and Mike Baye never imagined they'd become the type of parents who spy on their kids. But their sixteen-year-old son Adam has been unusually distant lately, and after the suicide of his classmate Spencer Hill, they can't help but worry. They install a sophisticated spy program on Adam's computer, and within days they are jolted by a message from an unknown correspondent addressed to their son: "Just stay quiet and all safe." When Adam goes missing, it soon becomes clear that something deep and sinister has infected their community.
Coben, Harlan.
Promise me. 2007. 4v.
At 2.17 a.m. Myron Bolitar's mobile phone rings. It's Aimee Biel, a frightened teenager who has called the one adult who had promised to help her if she ever got into trouble. Stumbling from his Manhattan bed, he races down to pick up her up from a cold street corner and take her back to safety. But against his better judgment she persuades him to drop her at an unknown address in the suburbs. This is a mistake that he lives to regret, for Aimee Biel's final wave from a darkened porch turns out to be the last time anyone will see her.
Deaver, Jeffery.
The bodies left behind. 2008. 4v.
Kathryn Dance; book 1. A spring night in a small town in Wisconsin. A call to police emergency from a distant lake house is cut short. A phone glitch or something more sinister? Off-duty
deputy Brynn McKenzie leaves her family's dinner table and drives up to the deserted lake to find out. And stumbles onto the scene of a murder. Before she can call for backup, she finds herself the next potential victim. Deprived of her phone, weapon and car, Brynn flees, along with the only survivor of the crime.
Ellory, R. J.
A quiet belief in angels. 2007. 5v.
1939. In the small, rural community of AugustaFalls, twelve-year-old Joseph Vaughan hears of the brutal assault and murder of a young girl, the first in a series of killings that will blight the community over the next decade. Joseph and his friends are determined to protect AugustaFalls against the evil in their midst and form The Guardians. But the murderer evades them and they watch helplessly as one child after another is taken. Fifty years later, Joseph must confront the nightmare that has overshadowed his entire life.
Ellroy, James
The black dahlia. 1993. 4v.
L A Quartet; book 1. Los Angeles, 10th January 1947: a beautiful young woman walked into the night and met her horrific destiny. Five days later, her tortured body was found drained of blood and cut in half. The newspapers called her 'The black dahlia'. Two cops are caught up in the investigation that takes them to the core of the dead girl's twisted life.
Forbes, Colin
Rhinoceros. 2001. 4v.
Tweed and Co; book 18. Tweed, Paula Grey and Bob Newman are on the trail of five heads of state who are conspiring to cause massive civil unrest throughout the Western world. Tweed knows the identity of four of the ringleaders - but who is the fifth?
Francis, Dick.
Even money. 2009. 4v.
When a grey-haired man steps forward from the crowd claiming to be his father, Ned's life is thrown into far deeper turmoil. He'd been told since he was a baby that his parents had died in a car crash. Barely an hour later his newly found father is stabbed by an unknown assailant in the Ascot car park. Blood oozing from his abdomen, he warns Ned: 'Be very careful'. But of whom? Of what? Ned finds himself in a race to solve his father's riddles, a race where coming second could cost him more than even money, it could cost him his life.
Francis, Dick
Second wind. 2007. 3v.
When meteorologist Peter Stuart is offered a Caribbean hurricane-chasing ride in a small plane, he learns more secrets from the flight than windspeeds.
Francis, Dick.
Under orders. 2006. 3v.
Sid Halley former champion jockey turned sleuth knows the perils of racing only too well. But in his day, jockeys didn't usually reach the finishing line with three pistol rounds in the chest which is exactly how he finds Huw Walker, who only a couple of races earlier had won the coveted Triumph Hurdle. Shortly before the horrific discovery, Halley had been called by Lord Enstone to make enquiries into why his horses were on a permanent losing streak. Is there a dangerous game being played by trainers and jockeys? Are they fixing races? Is doping involved? All of these things are a possibility and it's up to Halley to come up with the answer as he is drawn ever deeper into the darker side of the racing world.
Frayn, Michael.
Spies. 2007. 2v.
In the quiet cul-de-sac where Keith and Stephen live there is little evidence of World War II, but the two friends suspect that the inhabitants of the Close are not what they seem. As Keith informs his trusting friend, the whole district is riddled with secret passages and underground laboratories.
French, Nicci.
Killing me softly. 2000. 2v.
Alice Loudon seems to have everything: close friends, a loving boyfriend, a successful career. Then one day she meets a stranger while crossing the street and - impulsively, immediately - abandons her old, safe life for a passionate affair. Adam Tallis, heroic survivor of a disastrous mountaineering expedition, takes her into a world of risk and transgression, but love and sexual obsession overwhelm her until they threaten everything: her safety, her sanity, and finally, her life.
Gerritsen, Tess
The bone garden. 2008. 4v.
Newly divorced Julia Hamill is digging in her back garden when she uncovers a human skull. So begins a story that dates back to the 1830s. Impoverished medical student, Norris Marshall, is forced to procure corpses in order to further his studies in human anatomy. It's a gruesome livelihood that will bring him into contact with a terrifying serial killer.
Golding, William.
Lord of the flies. 2001. 2v.
A plane crashes on a desert island and the only survivors, a group of schoolboys, assemble on a beach and wait to be rescued. By day they inhabit a land of bright fantastic birds and dark blue seas, but at night their dreams are haunted by the image of a terrifying beast. As the boys' delicate order fades, so their childish fears are transformed into something more primitive, and their behaviour starts to take on a murderous, savage significance.
Grisham, John.
The associate. 2009. 4v.
Kyle McAvoy is one of the outstanding legal students of his generation: he's good looking, has a brilliant mind and a glittering future ahead of him. But he has a secret from his past, a secret
that threatens to destroy his fledgling career and, possibly, his entire life. One night that secret catches up with him in the form of some bad men in a dark alley - they have a deeply compromising video of the incident that haunts him. The men make it clear to Kyle that he no longer owns his own future - that he must do as they tell him, or the video will be made public knowledge, with all the unpleasant consequences.
Grisham, John.
The broker. 2005. 3v.
In his final hours in the Oval Office the outgoing President grants a controversial last minute pardon to Joel Backman, a notorious Washington power broker who has spent the last six years hidden away in a federal prison.
Grisham, John.
The testament. 2007. 3v.
Troy Phelan is a self-made billionaire, one of the richest men in the United States. He is also eccentric, confined to a wheelchair, and looking for a way to die. His heirs are circling like vultures. Their lives are forever altered by the startling secret of The Testament.
Hamilton, Patrick and Priestley, J.B.
Hangover Square: a story of darkest Earl's Court. 2001. 3v.
London 1939, and in the grimy publands of Earls Court, George
Harvey Bone is pursuing a helpless infatuation with Netta who is cool, contemptuous and hopelessly desirable to George. George is adrift in hell, until something goes click in his head and he realizes that he must kill her.
Koontz, Dean R
The darkest evening of the year. 2008. 3v.
Amy Redwing recklessly risks everything in her chosen field of dog rescue, when she confronts a violent drunk in order to rescue Nickie, a beautiful golden retriever. Riding shotgun nervously is her friend and lover, Brian, an architect who would marry her if only she were not so committed to these crazy heroics! But everything is due to change in the Redwing household. Someone is trying to destroy Amy.