7 Crime & Thriller Books That Aren’t About Women Being Murdered

Alright, alright, crime thrillers might not spring to mind as the 'cool' books to be seen reading poolside during your hot book summer.

But, cool or not, there's no escaping that the genre is the biggest selling in the UK, which means that at least some of you are out there snaffling up whodunnits behind closed doors.

And that's fine. The genre is huge and is certainly not limited to women being told they're crazy (The Woman in the Window, The Girl On The Train) and the big James Patterson thrillers your dad reads. There are plenty of brilliantly written crime and thriller books out there by a huge number of talented writers for everyone to enjoy. But as you'll know after spending a lockdown winter watching crime dramas on TV, it is a genre that has a weird obsession with violence against women. If there is a murder victim, it's often a woman, she's nearly always young and beautiful and there's nearly always some sort of creepy sexual motive involved in her death. Why?

Considering violence against women plays out daily in the news and real life, we say it's a topic best avoided as a plot device in the escapist books you read this summer. It's been a tough 12 months for so many people and whatever your holiday looks like this year, from an Airbnb in Northumbria to lounging on your balcony in your pants, you deserve to devour some literature that lets you finally switch off.

And so ahead is a list of our favourite whodunnits, mysteries, psychological thrillers and crime books out this summer which found something else to focus on than women being murdered.

Any other recommendations? Drop them in the comments below.