Twelve top thrillers in a vacation setting

Karen Hamilton spent her childhood in Angola, Zimbabwe, Belgium and Italy and worked as a flight attendant for many years.

She is the author of The Perfect Girlfriend , The Last Wife, and the newly released The Ex-Husband.

At CrimeReads Hamilton tagged twelve thrillers in "the proud literary tradition of horrible deaths occurring on vacation." One title on the list:

He Started It by Samantha Downing

Speaking of deadly secrets, another book I loved was He Started It. Instead of a paradise setting, it’s set on a road trip which conjures up (for me) images of freedom and endless possibilities. This road trip is obviously not like that. Stuck in a car for hours with siblings and partners, the group stay in motels along the route, all the while secrets from the past unravel. It soon becomes clear that this trip is anything but a vacation. I loved the claustrophobia of this novel, the sense of something which could be so fun and fulfilling, spiraling into something dark and tragic.

Read about another entry on the list.

He Started It is among Megan Collins's eight thrillers featuring dysfunctional families and Hannah Mary McKinnon's ten top psychological thrillers featuring sibling rivalry.

The Page 69 Test: He Started It.

--Marshal Zeringue