Things to do in lockdown - read 10 of the best crime novels -

Crime-writing genre is one of the most popular and over-populated on the market. To help you decide we have recommended 10 of the best.

Here they are

1. Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware: Vintage Publishing out nowA live-in nanny position, with a staggeringly generous salary. And, when Rowan arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten by the luxurious ‘smart’ home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands and by this picture-perfect family.What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare - one that will end with a child dead and her in a cell awaiting trial for murder.She knows she’s made mistakes. But, she maintains, she’s not guilty - at least not of murder. Which means someone else is.Full of spellbinding menace, The Turn of the Key is a gripping modern-day haunted house thriller from the pen of Ruth Ware, who has made a name for herself with page-turners including The Woman in Cabin 10 and The Death of Mrs Westaway,Price: £6.99

2 Hitler’s Secret by Rory Clements: published by Zaffre out nowHitler’s Secret is the fourth novel in the superbly entertaining Tom Wilde series. Set in 1941 this is a fast-paced World War Two thriller.Martin Bormann is Hitler’s gatekeeper, controlling access to the Führer by the other Nazi leaders amuses him. Now Bormann has a secret to hide and he has chosen Otto Kalt for a mission that must never come to light.American Cambridge professor and part-time agent Tom Wilde is sent into the heart of Nazi Germany to thwart Bormann’s plan.The series is superb and reads like John Buchan, a little more PC perhaps.Clements is also the author of the John Shakespeare series - about an Elizabethan spy - that starts with Martyr. Clements writes historical crime fiction of the first order.Hardback £8.46 from Amazon

3 Mortmain Hall by Martin Edwards. Published by Head of Zeus out nowWinner of the CWA Diamond Dagger 2020.

England, 1930. Grieving widows are a familiar sight on London’s Necropolis Railway. So when an elegant young woman in a black veil boards the funeral train, nobody guesses her true purpose.But Rachel Savernake is not one of the mourners.She hopes to save a life - the life of a man who is supposed to be cold in the grave. But then a suspicious death on the railway track spurs her on to investigate a sequence of mysteries.Harback £16.99 from Waterstones

4 Broken by Don Winslow. Published by HarperCollins out nowDon Winslow returns with a gripping collection of stories about lost souls on both sides of the law. Broken sweeps across the whole criminal spectrum of modern day America - from high-flying, corrupt businessmen to dope dealers and petty thieves.Packed with suspense and psychological astuteness, this collection shows Winslow at his very finest.Winslow is the thinking readers’ writer.Hardback £17.99

5 The Sentinel by Lee and Andrew Child: Transworld out later this yearHeralding a new dawn for Jack Reacher, The Sentinel is co-written by Lee Child and his younger brother Andrew, refreshing the series for the new decade.But never fear, our favourite moral avenger is still in muscular form, stepping in to right the wrongs done to a band of country musicians.Order online hardback: £16.99

6 Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling): Little, Brown Book Group out later this yearThe fifth installment of J.K. Rowling’s hugely acclaimed and successful pseudonymous crime series lands in September with the promise of more skilful misdirection and enthralling plot twists.Building on the series’ central relationship between Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacot, Troubled Blood is sure to delight Galbraith’s army of loyal fans.Order from Waterstones now and save £10 on £20 cost

7 The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewel: Cornerstone out nowIn a large house in London’s fashionable Chelsea, a baby is awake in her cot. Well-fed and cared for, she is happily waiting for someone to pick her up.In the kitchen lie three decomposing corpses.Close to them is a hastily scrawled note. They’ve been dead for several days.Who has been looking after the baby? And where did they go?Two entangled families. A house with the darkest of secrets. A compulsive new thriller from Lisa Jewell.Paperback: £6.99

8 The Night Fire by Michael Connelly: Orion out nowLAPD Detective Renee Ballard and Harry Bosch come together again on the murder case that obsessed Bosch’s mentor.Back when Harry Bosch was just a rookie homicide detective, he had an inspiring mentor who taught him to take the work personally and light the fire of relentlessness for every case.Now mentor JJ Thompson is dead but, after his funeral, his widow hands Bosch a murder book that Thompson took with him when he left the LAPD 20 years before - the unsolved killing of a troubled young man in an alley used for drug deals.Bosch brings the murder book to Renee Ballard and asks her to help him find what about the case lit Thompson’s fire all those years ago.That will be their starting point.The bond between Bosch and Ballard tightens as they become a formidable investigation team.And they soon arrive at a worrying question ... did Thompson steal the murder book to work the case in retirement, or to make sure it never got solved?Paperback £6.99

9 Walk the Wire by David Baldacci: Pan Macmillan out later this yearFBI Agent Amos Decker is back.

A lone hunter discovers the remains of a woman in North Dakota’s Badlands.FBI investigator Amos Decker and his colleague Alex Jamison, are summoned to seek answers in the local community of London, North Dakota, which sits at the very heart of the fracking industry. that they could destabilize the entire country.Order now from Waterstones for £16.99 and save £2

10 Blood and Sugar by Laura Shepherd-Robinson: Pan Macmillan out nowA new name in historical crime. Spurred on by the discovery of the corpse of an abolitionist on Deptford Dock - mutilated with tell-tale slavers’ marks - an aspiring politician sets out on the trail of a murderer.Paperback: £6.99

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