Simon Beckett: 7 of the best creepy crime books

Let’s face it, most of us enjoy a good scare. Escape rooms, horror films, roller coasters; they’re all designed to provide the illusion of threat without any actual danger. It seems to satisfy some deep-seated psychological itch, and the more unsettling – even macabre – the better. The same applies with crime novels and thrillers. They take us out of our comfort zone, allow us to vicariously experience events we’d never want to encounter in real life. Like hearing a floorboard creak in the middle of the night, the reality might be terrifying. But in the pages of a book it’s guaranteed to evoke an enjoyable shudder.

That’s the response I aim for in my own crime thrillers, because it’s what I enjoy as a reader myself. So what makes a seriously creepy crime novel? Setting, atmosphere, the nature of the crime itself: all can play a part. But sometimes that shiver-down-the-spine quality can be harder to pin down. You’ll know when you come across it, though, because these are the books that stay with you long after you’ve read them.

Here are a few creepy crime books that stayed with me.