Whitcoulls Recommends: Don't Let Him In and We Are All Guilty Here

Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell. She’s a terrific writer of domestic thrillers, and this is about Nina who’s mourning the death of her husband, Paddy, after he fell under a train. A year on she receives a gift and a note in the mail from a man who knew Paddy and is sending condolences – which develop into an ongoing relationship, but Nina’s daughter is deeply suspicious of this newcomer and starts digging around. Meanwhile, Martha lives in a nearby town where she runs a florist shop and has a baby, and a husband who travels extensively for work and spends long periods of time away from home. As these characters all connect, things turn explosive.

We Are All Guilty Here by Karin Slaughter. She’s best known for the series she wrote with the characters Sara Linton and Will Trent, but this is the start of a brand new series set in a small town in the state of Georgia where there are secrets and lies a plenty. Emmy Clifton is the Deputy Sheriff who  starts an investigation when two teenage girls disappear from a 4th of July fireworks display. Karin Slaughter writes great thrillers – there’s plenty of misdirection and twists and turns, all while reminding us that even small towns can house a lot of darkness.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks a'b.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Joan McKenzie, Good morning, Hello, good to have you with us.
You've got a couple of thrillers in mysteries, my mysteries from.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Well known names. Yes. The first one is by Lisa Jewell,
whom many readers may know of. It's called Don't Let
Him In. She's a writer with a number of best
selling thrillers to her name, but the ones that I've read,
I would say tend to be more domestic thrillers, which
is how I described this new one. And it's the
story of a guy named Nick who, for about thirty

(00:44):
years has assumed a number of different identities in order
to seduce and marry and sometimes murder women for their money.
And now he set his sights on Nina, whose husband
Paddy died prematurely when he fell under a train, and
she's inherited the chain of restaurants that he owned. So
Nick knows that there's an awful lot of money sloshing
around it he might be able to get his hands on,

(01:06):
and he's very keen, so he launches a full on
charm offensive, and Nina's happy to have someone pay her
some attention after the awful year that she's had since
her husband died. But her daughter is less impressed and
becomes quite suspicious and starts digging around in his background
to see what she can find out about him, and
the stuff that she uncovers means that she's then desperate

(01:26):
to protect her mother. And in a neighboring town not
too far away, there's a woman named Martha who's married
with a baby and runs a florist. But she's busier
than she ought to be because her husband's job takes
him away for work for long periods of time and
he doesn't come home as much as you think that
he should. And I have to say, she's a bit gullible,

(01:47):
and I thought it didn't ask the right questions. But
when Nina and Martha's worlds collide, it is explosive.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Okay, all right, I just love this term domestic thriller.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
Well, yeah, I mean she's a good one, like Leslie
Pears in the way that she has very strong women
characters and writes really good narrative around them. And in
this case, they tend to be yeah thrillers or mystery.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Okay, that sounds intriguing, And we have a new book
from a crime writer with one of the best names
in the business, Karen Slaughter.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
Yeah, great name for a thriller writer. She's best known
for the series she did which features two characters called
Sarah Linton and will Trent. But she's branching out here
and she started a new series which is going by
the name of North Falls, which is apparently a little
town in the state of Georgia where she sets I
think pretty much all of her writing. And in this state,

(02:41):
there's a county called Clifford County and the sorry Clifton County,
and the Cliftons are the big people in town, if
you like. And the mayor is a guy called Clifton,
and his daughter is the deputy mayor. Her name's Emmy.
And on the night of a huge Fourth of July
public fireworks display, two teenage girls go missing, and one

(03:02):
of them is the daughter of Emmy's best friend, and
so she's determined to find the girls. But of course
what happens when she starts digging into all of this
is that there's a role call of really bad people,
and you get reminded that even in small towns there
are all sorts of secrets and underground stuff going on
and lies and all of that's great. And to help
her in all of this, a retired FBI agent turns up,

(03:25):
who it turns out, also has something to do with
the Cliftons of Clifton County. So it's lots of intrigue,
lots of lies, lots of secrets. It's really good.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
I love small towns, yeah, dramas and thrillers because they
are interesting places and there's lots of people there with
hidden secrets.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
But on the surface, they all know one another really well,
and it's all very civilized, and it's not till you
start scratching the surface.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
In a way, small towns in big urban areas are
perfect for the crime thrillers, and actually they seem to
be most of the settings. You either have that gritty
sort of urban crime thriller or you have that small
small town.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
As you knows everybody else, but they're.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
All hiding something. I love it. Okay, two great recommendations here,
Don't Don't Let Him In by Les Jewel and We
Are All Guilty here by Karen Snaughter, both very good titles.
We'll talk next week.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
See you then.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio