Jenny Quintana grew up in Essex and Berkshire, before studying English Literature in London. She has taught in London, Seville and Athens and has also written books for teaching English as a foreign language. She is a graduate of the Curtis Brown Creative writing course. She lives with her family in Berkshire. She is the author of The Missing Girl and Our Dark Secret.At the Waterstones blog, Quintana tagged five of her favorite dark and intelligent thrillers with strong female leads, including:
The Lovely Bones by Alice SeboldRead about another entry on the list.
A beautifully written novel that follows the story of 14-year old Susie Salmon. Quirky and clever, on the edge of falling in love and withall her life ahead, Susie is brutally murdered at the very start of the novel. From a version of heaven, she watches her devastated family coping with their grief, living their lives, interacting even with the killer. The prose is heart-breaking, yet touched with poignancy and humour while the story is so taut with suspense and emotion it’s almost impossible to put down. I don’t often read a book more than once, but I have returned to The Lovely Bones several times and each time my heart aches at the plight of Susie Salmon which I feel is an absolute testimony to Alice Sebold’s brilliant writing.
The Lovely Bones is among Louise Doughty's top ten ghost stories, Tim Thornton's top ten books about the afterlife, Jeff Somers's top eight speculative works with dead narrators, Nadiya Hussain's six best books, Judith Claire Mitchell's ten best (unconventional) ghosts, Laura McHugh's ten favorite books about serial killers, and Tamzin Outhwaite's six best books.
--Marshal Zeringue
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