Summer, holidays, time off, travel. The perfect conditions to get completely swept away by books. That’s why this month we’ve chosen three titles united by one thing: tension – emotional, moral, criminal.
Douglas Stuart tells the story of a boy who loves his mother, even though she continually puts his love to the test. Frederick Forsyth presents an immortal thriller about the chase for an elusive contract killer. And Tess Gerritsen shows how to construct a plot with surgical precision, without any complexes in the company of masters like Robin Cook.
This series is not sponsored. The only criterion for awarding the informal Books Factory quality mark is the subjective value of the books themselves.
Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain
Douglas Stuart’s Booker Prize-winning debut is heartbreaking – yet impossible to put down.
1980s Glasgow doesn’t offer much. There’s poverty, unemployment, alcoholism, catalogue shopping and football. In this world, Shuggie grows up – a boy who is “different,” more sensitive, and for that reason, lonely. His greatest love and greatest burden is his mother, Agnes. A beautiful and proud woman, sinking deeper into alcoholism every year. Shuggie believes he can save her. Loving her enough will save her.
This is a book about impossible devotion, about shame, about a childhood on the edge of survival, but also about tenderness that endures despite everything. A difficult, moving read, yet full of subtle black humour. Perfect to savour on summer evenings.
Frederick Forsyth, The Day of the Jackal
Probably one of the best thrillers of the 20th century. A template for many later spy novels.
France, 1963. The secret OAS organisation hires a professional assassin to kill President Charles de Gaulle. The killer is like a ghost – no name, no past, no identity. Known only as “The Jackal.” A race against time begins: on one side, a ruthless professional, on the other, Claude Lebel – the best detective in the country.
Forsyth not only builds a masterful plot but also portrays the world of Cold War tensions, political intrigue, and the technology of killing. Even decades later, the book has lost none of its pace or relevance.
Tess Gerritsen, The Surgeon
A serial killer is on the loose in Boston. His victims are lone women. His methods are cruel and surgically precise. And that’s what puts the investigators on his trail: the killer knows medicine. He might even be a doctor himself.
Detective Jane Rizzoli and Thomas Moore try to stop him before he strikes again. However, the case becomes complicated when it is discovered that a similar series of crimes occurred a few years earlier. The trail leads to Catherine Cordell – a doctor who has already survived something very similar.
Gerritsen delivers a medical thriller with psychological depth. At times macabre, full of primal instincts and trauma, yet constructed with the skill of Robin Cook or Michael Crichton.
There’s always a season for emotions
Summer is a good time to reach for books that keep you on edge. These three stories take you to completely different worlds: brutal realism, a precise thriller, and a dark crime novel. But they have one thing in common – they’re perfect for a long evening on the balcony, a train journey, or a lazy afternoon by the lake. Because emotions, the really good ones, know no season.