Thrillers that are a must-read

Do something different in the New Year. Instead of mindlessly partying in your leisure time, curl up at home with a hot cup of chocolate and some of these writers. Here are some of the thrilling authors who will leave you panting for more with their intricate plots and in-depth research. Travel the world with them on exciting journeys that even your imagination couldn't think of!

Steve Berry: This lawyer-turned-author has written five books with such fabulous plots – ranging from art history to Western mythology to actual historical facts that knit his books together. Start from ‘The Templar Legacy’ and move on to his latest ‘The Alexandria Link’.

Steve Berry is a Georgia based lawyer whose books have been more about art, Western history and art history than about law. So, he’s not followed in John Grisham’s footsteps but in Dan Brown’s shoes - at least where his first bestseller was concerned – The Templar Legacy. This book has so much fast paced action thrown in with superbly researched facts about a secret society called the Knights Templar, which did actually exist.

Steve Berry looks into the Templar’s own history and the fact that this society was forced to go underground by the Church and generations of vengeful popes because they really didn’t concede that Christ was the divine saviour after all. To them, Christ was just another human preacher - that he lived and died like a mortal human and was not a immortal son of God. And they can prove this fact. How? Well, that’s the plot of this book!

There is treasure to be found and everyone is trying to get to it for their own agenda. And they have to do it via complicated epigrams and maps which point the way. It is high stakes danger and thrills all the way till the very end.

Mary Higgins Clark: She’s the modern day answer to Agatha Christie. All her books have been topping bestselling lists and with good reason. Her tight plotting and with believable characters who fight all odds to win against psychopaths, will leave you breathless. Mary Higgins Clark is the right person to have inherited the crown of the 'Queen of the Suspense Novel' from Agatha Christie.

Her books have great penetrative psychology and they are about issues plaguing us these days - kidnappings, rapes, murders. What's more, her perpetrators are not always the poor, disenchanted scum-of-the-earth kind of people and her victims don't always deserve what's been done to them. There are no stereotypes in her novels.

In the book 'No Place Like Home', the assumed murderer is a child and she's carried the 'perceived' guilt of having killed her own mother for almost 20 years, when only she knows how her mother died because the only other witness is her stepfather, who implicates her in the first place.

Then as an adult, her husband buys her a house as a present and it turns out to be the same one she lived in and in which her mother was killed. So, she's got haunted memories associated with it. So, does she battle with old ghosts? Does she clear her name and convince people of her innocence? Or is someone still out to paint her as a killer and why? Enjoy this book.

Clive Cussler: His books are for the marine aficionados. The plots are better than Ian Fleming’s and he does do research on marine archaelogy, underwater technology and exploration, the latest military and defense wizardry and he really explores the country he situates his stories in.
Clive Cussler’s books sell out as soon as they hit the stands and that is because he knows how to keep the action moving at breakneck speed. After reading his books, you will think Ian Fleming’s James Bond is so tame!

He’s written close to 30 books and all of them are worth reading. But lately he’s introduced a fresh crew of heroes. They operate from a hi-tech ship called the Oregon and which carries a helicopter, speedboats, weapons and a magic shop – a Hollywood kind of design studio that can come up with anything from costumes to latex face masks – the kind that Tom Cruise used in Mission Impossible 2.

This ship is run by a firm called The Corporation and it offers its services out to wealthy clients and governments who need their expertise. They fight the bad guys and so don’t work for terrorists. The ship is captained by an ex-CIA man called Juan Cabrillo and he’s put together the best team under him. So, with such a great backup cast, ‘The Sacred Stone’ makes for a fantastic read. To tell you more would be to ruin it for you, so just grab a copy now!

Ken Follett: His espionage novels are superb. His books will grab you by the seat-of-your-pants and leave you stunned. Ken Follett’s books are heavy on espionage and in one of them he’s also brought up the issue of corporate spying as well. Recommending any one book to read is difficult but ‘Code to Zero’ is a great way to begin.

It’s got a sexy rocket scientist for a protagonist and his gorgeous wife and what everyone thinks is their perfect life. But as the saying goes, looks can be deceptive and that is just the case here. There are military secrets that are being leaked and no one knows who is doing it and there is a top secret rocket launch that has to go off without a hitch. So, will it happen or will the spy get away with a catastrophic interference? And more importantly, who is the spy?

Read the book to find the answer to all these questions and more. Follett’s books are so much more thrilling than boring everyday life – even though the thrills are between the pages of a fabulous book!