The best crime fiction reads for an autumn holiday

>SUBSCRIBE FOR THE BEST THINGS TO DO EVERY WEEKEND<

The ‘destination thriller’ is now a summer publishing staple. Usually set in a desirable location, often far-flung and glamourous, it has wealthy or successful characters and a high-gloss surface over-laying a mixture of lies, envy and general toxicity. Tightly plotted, with many a twist and with complex stories unravelling as the truth is revealed, these stories grip the reader as they build to an exciting climax. Here is my pick of this year’s versions.

First, ‘The Guests’ by Nikki Smith (Penguin, £8.99). This follows the fortunes of the Hamilton family, Zach, Cara and Alexa, as they seek to heal after a recent accident by holidaying at a luxurious resort in the Maldives. An atoll resort so plush that the staff are there to fulfill the guests’ every wish. Money and designer labels shout from the page, but there is rot lying not far beneath the surface.

Smith is too intelligent a writer to make this obvious, but she shows the spartan staff accommodation and how the poverty of the indigenous islanders and guest workers is exploited. Even her eco-warrior influencer, another guest, is as slippery as some of the other selfish and wealthy patrons. Indeed, one of the most sympathetic characters is the ‘selfish teen’, Alexa, whose betrayals are confused and human ones. The adult Hamiltons have more damaging secrets, more than one of which threaten their brief sojourn in paradise. Ultimately, they are prepared to take betrayal to a whole different level.

The plot moves quickly, told from different points of view and we begin to glimpse a tangled web of ulterior motives. There’s even a fun reference to Smith’s own ‘The Beach Party’, which came out last year, set in Mallorca. ‘The Guests’ will keep you guessing, with surprising and unexpected twists. As the tagline has it ‘The Resort of Their Dreams, A Destination to Die For.’

Set closer to home, but sumptuous in a very different way is ‘The Festival’ by Louise Mumford (HQ, £9.99).  This is Solstice, a music and New Age festival which celebrates midsummer in the beautiful Welsh borderland.

Down to earth, unassuming, and recently bereaved, heroine Libby wins two tickets to this, the biggest music event of the summer.  She and friend, Dawn, head off for the weekend, with the latter determined to gain access to Sanctum, a series of formal festivities and self-renewal at the heart of Solstice, for the inner circle of the chosen. The central tenet here isn’t wealth (other than that of the festival owners, the Blake family) but exclusivity and desirability. Everyone wants a ticket to Solstice and those who get one are desperate to get into Sanctum.

There are dark undercurrents from the outset, when a local shopkeeper slips a homemade flyer into Libby’s bag, showing a photograph of a missing woman. There is the YouTube True Crime video strongly suggesting murder has been done, although— ‘All of what we’re about to say is personal opinion and has no basis in any proven fact’ (a neat dig at the wilder shores of the true crime genre). The residents of the poor and underpopulated nearby village of Grey Sisters don’t like the festival much either. Nonetheless, our protagonists proceed and begin to have a wonderful time. Needless to say, this doesn’t last and Libby is ejected from the festival and anxious for her friend, who is still inside. In contriving to look for Dawn, she is also forced to reassess her own past as well as to confront the darkness of Solstice.

‘The Festival’ is a variation on the usual destination thriller, it’s more local, more small scale and one likes its characters more, but it packs a twisty punch and there’s also an element of the supernatural stirred into the mix. The village is named for a circle of standing stones in the festival grounds and there is a legend attaching about what happens to them at midsummer.

‘Don’t Look Back’ (Quercus, £8.99) is the latest from best-seller Jo Spain. More typical of the genre, it begins with two lines from Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ as Luke Miller prepares to leave the idyllic Caribbean island of Saint Thérèse.  Miller has been enjoying a surprise honeymoon break in a private villa, organised by his wife, Rose. Another man in finance (so is Zach Hamilton) Miller isn’t looking forward to returning to grey London, but he realises that his wife is terrified of doing so. It’s not a spoiler to say that Rose then confesses to him that she has killed someone before they left, albeit in self-defence, her abusive ex having caught up with her. Miller determines to protect his wife from the consequences of this action and the novel proceeds from that point, showing each decision made and each step into greater darkness, drawing others along with him.

The description ‘twisty’ could have been coined for this novel, with its broken relationships, deceptions, lies and betrayals. Characters are rarely sympathetic and sometimes objectionable, but still one keeps reading, gripped by the events unfolding on the page. There are shocks and misdirection aplenty and the reader should bear in mind that the Milton quote at the beginning is of words spoken by Satan as, even after he has fallen from heaven, he plots his revenge against God.

Finally, a curiosity, ‘Destination Unknown’ (Harper Collins, £9.99) by Agatha Christie. First published by the Collins Crime Club in 1954, this is a departure from the Queen of Crime’s usual cosy mysteries and belongs to the spy/adventure genre. It is also a precursor to the ‘destination thrillers’ of today.  Set in Morocco, where heroine Hilary Craven is about to end her own life, she is visited by a young man who offers her a more interesting way to die. With nothing to lose, she goes on a mission. The book was reasonably well-received when published, critics praised the beginning, but lamented its descent, in the second half ‘into hokum’.  I’m not so sure that would be the case today.

Julie Anderson is a Clapham based crime writer. Her latest book, the first in the Clapham Trilogy, is called ‘The Midnight Man’ (Hobeck Books, £9.99). She will be talking about it and its setting, the South London Hospital for Women, at a free event at Battersea Library on Monday 7^th October (register via email at Heritage@gll.org )