Three thrillers for autumn evenings

As the evenings close in and the curtains draw relaxing in the armchair with a good book is a splendid way to spend time immersed in mystery, mayhem and murder. Not literally of course more in a literary way...

Kicking off my recent choices is The Chestnut Man  by Soern Sviestrup (Penguin £12.99 Hardback)  set in Denmark and concerning a crime long thought resolved and the perpetrator imprisoned. A story ranging from a dim past to the modern day full of red herrings and literally little men made of chestnuts found at the scene.

Slow to start but builds as Naia Thulin and a disgraced former Europol officer Mark Hess look at a muder with connections to the missing daughter of a senior politician Rosa Hartung. Then there is another. A race is on. If you are a fan of Scandinavian thrillers this will appeal. Readerss may be familiar with the authors work as scriptwriter for The Killing.

Purchased on a whim after a glance at the book charts in The Sunday Times Peter James latest novel Absolute Proof (Pan Paperback £8.99) proved an entertaining page turner as Journalist Ross Hunter meets with a seemingly wacky professor who says he has evidence of God's actual existence. Crazy huh? So how come this man knows about the strange experience he had when his twin brother passed. More to the point why are all these people trying to stop him.

A multi-national pharmaceutical company, a money grabbing telly-preacher (only $25 a prayer), the Vatican and MI5 have all taken an interest. A globe trotting epic in the vein of The Da Vinci Code. I liked this one and have already picked up his latest hardback, The Secret of Cold Hill which will be reviewed in due course.

Finally I've just completed reading The Wych Elm by Tana French (Penguin £8.99) which was recommended to me by a member of Waterstones staff. I have differences with what she thought of the novel and it's characters. I thought the main protagonist was just an ordinary "Joe" or "Paddy" (since this was set in Dublin) whilst she thought he was unlikable from the beginning. Either way it takes more than a while for the main story to become apparent and even then the twists and turns are unexpected all the way through to the end.

Of the the three this is probably the best in terms of mystery, in-depth characterisation and exploration of the human psyche.