Books like Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect — picked by fans

I read this book while sitting on a terrace overlooking the beautiful Cornish coast. It is a fantastic holiday read. I literally had to drag myself away from it to avoid spending the entire time with my nose stuck in a book. It might not be the best one for you if you’re thinking of travelling abroad!

A dream holiday turns into a nightmare for sisters Lori and Erin when, after an argument, Lori takes the onward connecting flight to their island resort destination alone. Fasten your seatbelts for a crash landing. A terrified Lori recounts her fight for survival on a remote island while guilt-ridden Erin searches for the answer to the mysterious disappearance of the plane and the whereabouts of her missing sister. 

My brother introduced me to this writer, and I’m so glad he did. This is the thirtieth book in the Stephanie Plum novels—yes, folks, the thirtieth! After reading this one, I immediately bought another. Only twenty-eight to go! 

This book has it all: humour, action, and great characters. I was particularly charmed by bounty hunter Stephanie Plum's relationship with her sidekick, the slightly bonkers Lula. Tracking down a bail jumper and a security guard suspected of being his accomplice should be simple, but neither finding the culprits nor Stephanie’s love life is straightforward; everything soon spirals into a vortex of complications.

Be prepared for a roller-coaster ride with slick dialogue and quirky characters, including an orange dog. This book will keep you hooked to the end. 

This is the book that got me hooked on reading. I’ve recommended it to loads of people and they’ve all loved it. It’s a truly addictive read.

When Saffron’s beloved Gran, Rose, moves into a care home because of dementia, a pregnant Saffron and her boyfriend, Tom, go to live at 9 Skeleton Place. Having watched too many house makeover TV programmes and not being too keen on the wallpaper, they decide to renovate the old place. Their hopes of creating a dream home are shattered when they discover two dead bodies buried in the garden.

What has Granny been hiding? Will she be able to remember? Wishing they hadn’t dug up the garden, Saffron and Tom dig up the past before the police incarcerate dear old granny. 

I’ve read a few books by this author and have never been disappointed. I particularly like Our Holiday because it’s not only a cracking yarn, but it has something to say about the impact of holiday homes on local communities.  

During their summer visit to their holiday home in Pine Ridge, a picture-postcard coastal village, Sloane Rangers Charlotte and Perry find they need more than sunscreen for protection. Their not-as-wealthy friends, Amy and Linus, have also recently bought a place there, but this is more of a source of irritation to Charlotte and Perry than a comfort. Simmering tension with the locals builds to a violent and unexpected crescendo, and it takes more than a bucket and spade to dig up the dead body.

I was lucky enough to read an early copy of this book, and I am blown away at how Jesse Sutanto continues to smash both her novel concepts and character voices out of the park!

Vera Wong herself is the ultimate amateur sleuth, but she is not reluctant whatsoever. When a dead body turns up in her tea shop, Vera Wong—the most wonderfully grandmotherly non-grandmother—decides the police aren’t up to the task of realizing the young man was murdered, obviously, and so she decides to hunt down the suspects and interview them herself.

Vera is at turns heartwarming and hilarious, infuriating, and delightful. Told through the perspective of Vera and all her murder suspects, this book will keep you guessing until the end—and might just charm your socks off.

I adore the character of Sam Holland. She is a badass cop, not willing to take crap from anyone, even her fellow officers, with a smart mouth that gets her into as much trouble as it gets her out of. Her character is written with such nuance and honesty that she’s someone I’ve willingly followed through 22 books (and counting).

Sam works twice as hard to make sure she’s living up to her own expectations as much as anyone else’s, always afraid of falling short, something I think we all tend to be too hard on ourselves about at times. The love interest throughout the series sometimes struggles with her strong personality, even as he admires her for it, which I think lends a depth of realism to their relationship as it grows and sometimes flounders.

I was glued to every page of this book!

It’s a claustrophobic thriller with a startling visual image at its heart: an ultra-modern glass cabin in the middle of a deep, dark wood. At night, the light against the glass means you can’t see out – but anyone outside can see right in. I loved the way Ruth Ware turned the rickety old building cliché on its head, turning light from a source of comfort into a threat. 

This Agatha Christie doesn’t feature her famous Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple. Instead, it introduces a likable young couple, Bobby and Frankie, who fall into adventure by accident.

This book has the best one-line denouement of all mystery novels. It is a line that will give you chills when you read it. (Or re-read it. This mystery is so good that I have reread it many times in my life, and I get chills each time.)

One question ties the whole mystery together. As a mystery writer, I wish I could find that turning point question for each of my novels. But, alas, Agatha Christie was the queen. 

In Book 11, Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis, fresh from Athens to the picturesque Greek island, must find the perpetrators of a gruesome murder of a young woman found dead in a rural church. Siger, via his blunt investigator Kaldis, is an expert in sprinkling the beautiful Greek landscape with notes of suspense and mystery, and, like the earlier entries in this attractive series, Murder in Mykonos does not disappoint.

I enjoyed being along for this wacky ride as Finlay accidentally gets herself hired as a contract killer, disposes of a body, and navigates the criminal underworld–all while raising her two small children and dealing with her infuriating ex-husband. There’s a love triangle in this book, but the relationship I enjoyed most was the friendship that develops between Finlay and Vero, her former nanny turned partner in crime.

This story is completely absurd, laugh-out-loud funny, and very suspenseful.