Best of the year: Thrillers

Train by Pete Dexter

So raw it makes your eyes bleed, Train is the story of a young black caddy who works at an elite golf course. Dexter's real story, though, is about what happens when white and black and rich and poor lives collide. The result is as pretty as, well, a train smash.


* William Heinemann, $49.95


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Nobody Dies by Zirk Van der Berg

Set in Cape Town, this is a frightening book about lonely people: a civil servant, a small-time crim and a terrifying woman called Erica who runs the police protection programme but regards herself as a vigilante. When Erica makes people disappear, they really disappear. Terrific.

 
* Black Swan Crime, $26.95

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When the devil holds the candle by Karin Fossum

there are horrible people out there in the 'burbs. Especially in the'burbs of Norway — at least you'd think so if you read Fossum. Another deftly nasty tale about two teenage boys who inadvertently kill a baby and end up in the clutches of an old woman who may even be more horrible than they are.


* Harvill, $34.95

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Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason

More gloom and madness, Nordic thriller style. There are lots of murders in Jar City because people to tend to go stark raving nuts in a place where it's always wet and dark and where they eat cold boiled sheep heads.


* Harvill, $34.95

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The Cryptographer by Tobias Hill


Now out in paperback, this is the most elegant thriller I've read in years. Anna Moore, a tax inspector who works in a world set just slightly in the future, is assigned to investigate the richest man in the world; the man who made cash money obsolete. Hill's book is like his wonderfully realised character, Anna: cool and intriguing, and always surprising.

* Faber and Faber, $28