100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock πŸ‡³πŸ‡Ώ

Enjoy overnight NZ-wide delivery on in-stock orders πŸš€

Shirl's Crime & Thriller Picks

I've always loved a good crime and thriller read! Here are a few of my favourites from past and present that have kept me turning the page. Expect psychological thrillers, suspense and plenty of twists! Check out my list from Aotearoa thrillers to international bestsellers, you never know, you might just discover your next obsession.

Get the complete list

Some items may ship separately or take a little longer, depending on availability.

$35696
Elsewhere:
$41194
1
The Family Upstairs

The Family Upstairs

ByLisa Jewell

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell is a gripping psychological thriller that weaves together the lives of three intertwined families. It begins with Libby Jones inheriting a house with a dark past, and as she delves into its history, long-buried secrets unravel, exposing chilling connections and the sinister events that occurred years ago. The novel expertly combines mystery, suspense, and complex character dynamics to keep readers on the edge of their seats.

$2300
Elsewhere:
$2600
Paperback
In Stock
Ships today
View details
2
The Vanishing Place

The Vanishing Place

ByZoe Rankin

Jane Harper's Force of Nature meets the wild and atmospheric setting of The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah in this twisty, stay-up-all-night thriller about family, love, and loyalty, and the fight for survival in the most beautiful but dangerous New Zealand wilderness. On the remote West Coast of the South Island, vast forests stretch out between mountain ranges and rugged beaches. There, in the small town of Koraha, not a lot happensβ€”until a young girl with blood on her hands walks out of the bush and into the local store, collapsing to the floor. She can'tβ€”or won'tβ€”speak to anyone. It's the town's sole policeman who recognises her face. She looks exactly like a local girl who disappeared twenty years ago. She has the same red hair. The same...

$3199
Elsewhere:
$3799
Paperback
In Stock
Ships today
View details
3
Wild Dark Shore

Wild Dark Shore

ByCharlotte McConaghy

From the New York Times bestselling author of Migrations and Once There Were Wolves, a novel about a family living alone on a remote island, when a mysterious woman washes up on shore. 'At once a gripping mystery, an exquisitely written ode to the natural world, and a taut, psychological thriller, Wild Dark Shore is a triumph. Charlotte McConaghy is masterful in her ability to show the intricate connections between place and the human heart, and Wild Dark Shore shows her at the height of her powers. Breathtaking.' HANNAH KENT Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world's largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are...

$3199
Elsewhere:
$3800
Paperback
In Stock
Ships today
View details
4
All the Colours of the Dark

All the Colours of the Dark

ByChris Whitaker

A missing persons mystery, a serial killer thriller, and an epic love story - with a unique twist on each... Late one summer, the town of Monta Clare is shattered by the abduction of local teenager Joseph 'Patch' Macauley. Nobody more so than Saint Brown, who is broken by her best friend's disappearance. Soon, she will eat, sleep, breathe, only to find him. But when she does: it will break her heart. Patch lies in a pitch-black room - all alone - for days or maybe weeks. Until he feels a hand in his. Her name is Grace and, though they cannot see each other, she takes him from the darkness and paints their world with her words. In this hopeless place, they fall in love. But when...

$2300
Elsewhere:
$2799
Paperback
In Stock
Ships today
View details
5
Misery

Misery

ByStephen King

Misery by Stephen King follows Paul Sheldon, a famous author who is kidnapped by his "number one fan" after a car accident. Held captive, he is forced to write according to her demands, leading to a tense battle of wits and wills. This gripping thriller explores themes of obsession and survival.

$2999
Paperback
In Stock
Ships today
View details
6
Strange Sally Diamond

Strange Sally Diamond

ByLiz Nugent

I'm lost in admiration. Strange Sally Diamond is vivid, pacy, taut but so very moving . . . defies categorisation. β€” Marian Keyes Sally Diamond cannot understand why what she did was so strange. She was only doing what her father told her to do: to put him out with the rubbish when he died. Now Sally is the centre of attention, not only from the hungry media and worried police, but also from a sinister voice from a past she has no memory of. As she begins to discover the horrors of her childhood, recluse Sally steps into the world for the first time, making new friends, finding independence, and learning that people don't always mean what they say. But when messages start arriving from a stranger...

$2300
Elsewhere:
$2600
Paperback
In Stock
Ships today
View details
7
When the Deep, Dark Bush Swallows You Whole

When the Deep, Dark Bush Swallows You Whole

ByGeoff Parkes

When the Deep, Dark Bush Swallows You Whole is a tale of a missing woman and a townful of suspects. This haunting debut crime novel by Geoff Parkes transports readers back to the 1980s and a small rural town in New Zealand. 'She wasn't the first and she wouldn't be the last; swallowed into the deep, dark recesses of the King Country bush, never to be seen again.' It's January 1983. During his university summer break, Ryan Bradley returns to the remote town of Nashville in New Zealand's rugged King Country. It's a bittersweet tripβ€”he's working long, punishing hours as a woolpresser, needs to sell his late mother's house, and increasingly feels like an outcast in his childhood town. Mostly, however, Ryan is haunted by memories of Sanna...

$2800
Paperback
In Stock
Ships today
View details
8
The Tally Stick

The Tally Stick

ByCarl Nixon

A gripping new novel from one of our leading writers. A compulsive and chilling novel about subjugation, survival, and the meaning of family. Up on the highway, the only evidence that the Chamberlains had ever been there was two smeared tyre tracks in the mud leading into the almost undamaged screen of bushes and trees. No other cars passed that way until after dawn. By that time the tracks had been washed away by the heavy rain... It was a magic trick. After being in the country for only five days, the Chamberlain family had vanished into the air. The date was 4 April 1978. In 2010 the remains of the eldest Chamberlain child have been discovered in a remote part of the West Coast, showing he lived...

$3199
Elsewhere:
$3700
Paperback
In Stock
Ships today
View details
9
Better the Blood

Better the Blood

ByMichael Bennett

Better the Blood is described as 'a compelling, atmospheric page turner with an authentic insight into Māori culture' by Val McDermid. A DETECTIVE IN SEARCH OF THE TRUTH. A KILLER IN SEARCH OF RETRIBUTION. A CLASH BETWEEN CULTURE AND DUTY. THE PAST NEVER TRULY STAYS BURIED. WELCOME TO THE DARK SIDE OF PARADISE. Detective Senior Sergeant Hana Westerman is a tenacious Māori detective juggling single motherhood and the pressures of her career in Auckland’s Central Investigation Branch. When she’s led to a crime scene by a mysterious video, she discovers a man hanging in a hidden room. With little to go on, Hana knows one thing: the killer is sending her a message. As a Māori officer, there has always been a clash between duty and culture for...

$2300
Elsewhere:
$2699
Paperback
In Stock
Ships today
View details
10
Birnam Wood

Birnam Wood

ByEleanor Catton

AΒ landslide has closed the Korowai Pass in New Zealand’sΒ South Island, cutting off the town of Thorndike, leaving a sizable farm abandoned. The disaster presents an opportunity forΒ Birnam Wood, a guerrilla gardening collective that plants crops wherever no one will notice. But they hadn’t figured on the enigmatic American billionaire Robert Lemoine, who also has an interest in the place. Can they trust him? And, as their ideals and ideologies are tested, can they trust eachΒ other? AΒ propulsive literary thriller from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Luminaries,Β Birnam WoodΒ is Shakespearean in its wit, drama and immersion in character. It is a brilliantly constructed tale of intentions, actions and consequences, and an unflinching examination of the human impulse to ensure our own survival. β€˜IΒ wanted the novel to explore the contemporary political...

$2300
Elsewhere:
$2800
Paperback
In Stock
Ships today
View details
11
Wild Animal

Wild Animal

ByJoΓ«l Dicker

From the devious mind of New York Times bestselling author Joel Dickerβ€”master of the plot twistβ€”comes this gripping domestic thriller that transforms into an ambitious heist mystery involving a famed Geneva jewellery boutique. On 2 July 2022, two criminals set out to rob a jewellery shop in Geneva. But even with a foolproof plan, their "perfect" heist will prove far from uneventful. Twenty days earlier, on a luxurious estate along the shores of Lake Geneva, Sophie Braun prepares to celebrate her fortieth birthday. Her life seems perfect: she has a fairytale marriage, two perfect children, and lives in a stylish modern mansion surrounded by lush forest. But her idyllic world is about to crumble. Her husband is becoming embroiled in petty schemes. Her neighbour, a policeman with a...

$3200
Elsewhere:
$3799
Paperback
In Stock
Ships today
View details
12
Pet

Pet

ByCatherine Chidgey

Like every other girl in her class, twelve-year-old Justine is drawn to her glamorous, charismatic new teacher, and longs to be her pet. However, when a thief begins to target the school, Justine's sense that something isn't quite right grows ever stronger. With each twist of the plot, this gripping story of deception and the corrosive power of guilt takes a yet darker turn. Young as she is, Justine must decide where her loyalties lie. Set in New Zealand in 1984 and 2014, and probing themes of racism and misogyny, Pet is an elegant and chilling psychological thriller by the bestselling author of The Wish Child, Remote Sympathy, and The Axeman's Carnival.

$2800
Paperback
In Stock
Ships today
View details
13
The Blue Hour

The Blue Hour

ByPaula Hawkins

The powerful new thriller from the No.1 bestselling author, Paula Hawkins. 'A bloody good read.' LIZ NUGENT 'A gripping, ambitious, big-skied novel about women who refuse to surrender to the tide.' ERIN KELLY The chilling and addictive new thriller from the multi-million-copy bestselling author. Welcome to Eris - a Scottish tidal island with only one house, one inhabitant, one way out... A place that is unreachable from the Scottish mainland for twelve hours each day. Once the hideaway of Vanessa, a famous artist whose notoriously unfaithful husband disappeared twenty years ago. Now home to Grace. A solitary creature of the tides, content in her own isolation. But when a shocking discovery is made in an art gallery far away in London, Grace receives an unexpected visitor. And the...

$2800
Elsewhere:
$3999
Paperback
Available
Ships in 4-6 weeks
View details