The Offing, along with the rest of our amazing July Summer Reading List, is up for giveaway until the end of the month.

Head over to our giveaways page for your chance to win!

*****

At the heart of every gripping thriller, there's a character messing up. Whether it be trusting that new friend who seems so interested in them; or keeping a secret it would be so much smarter to impart; or letting a total stranger walk right into their home—the ability of central characters in thrillers to turn their everyday lives into whirling hurricanes within 50 pages is just so enticing to watch.

Who doesn't love a flawed protagonist? Nobody wants a story about things going well. And the mistakes in thrillers are so layered, so multi-faceted, so fast. Create a teenager and watch the impetuousness fly. Create a mother and watch her protect her child. Create best friends and give them a history that isn't quite as loyal as they thought.

The slipperiness of the slope is what makes these stories page-turners, and the messy characters are their beating heart.

After all, they deliver us the most delicious, asked-at-a-safe-distance question of all:

What would I be like in this situation?

Am I really so sure that I'd pick right? 

*

Everyone Here Is Lying, by Shari Lapena

In the opening chapter of this great, twisty read, we already know that husband and father, William Wooler, has messed up. He's reeling from the unexpected ending of an affair, and goes home to emotionally gather himself. What he finds there, of course, sets up a domino-effect of mistakes, secrets, and lies against which the small haven of Stanhope suddenly doesn't feel as idyllic as we'd thought. Lapena is so good at taking everyday lives and pressurizing them until the characters snap.

*

The Arrangement, by Robyn Harding

Robyn Harding can spot a social taboo at twenty paces, and in this thriller it's all about the sugar daddies. When Natalie, a young art student in New York city, finds out that there's a whole lucrative world out there waiting for girls who look like her, she agrees to enter into a contract with Gabe, a wealthy, handsome attorney thirty years her senior. Nat's second mistake is to actually fall for him, so when Gabe tries to end the arrangement, Nat can't seem to let go. A delicious, murderous unravelling ensues, worthy of all Robyn Harding's thrillers.

*

High Society, by Daniel Kalla

When Dr. Holly Danvers comes up with a new, pioneering treatment for her psych patients, she thinks she's delivering them relief, a professional service, a career-altering advancement. She uses psychedelics to treat trauma, an idea that works for a little while, then quickly turns catastrophic. Dan Kalla is the master of spotting current medical moral dilemmas and creating characters around them who'll implode. Dr. Holly Danvers must fight for her life—and revisit her own trauma point-blank—if she is to survive.

*

The Off Season, by Amber Cowie

Filmmaker Jane Duvall has taken a professional knock. She needs some time to reset, and in supporting her new husband, Dom, as he works on his latest contractor job, she agrees to go with him to a remote, super creepy hotel that's also, by the way, eerily empty. That's her first mistake. Then, added to the mix is Peter, the hotel's owner, who quietly oversees everything. As Jane becomes more and more uneasy, she starts to unearth facts that threaten everything, including the truth of who she may have married (wait, was that her first mistake?!). Cowie has created a classic destination thriller, with poor Jane at its unsettling heart. 

*

Sister Dear, by Hannah Mary McKinnon

Poor old Eleanor Hardwicke has just lost her father—or so she thinks. As she mourns, she learns that in fact, her true biological father is still out in the world, happily living with another family. Eleanor feels driven to go and find him (cue readers shouting "don't!" at the page), only to discover a half-sister who appears to have some kind of charmed life. But aren't sisters supposed to share? A catalogue of juicy errors, this is a psychological thriller with a vulnerable protagonist at its core.

*

A Friend in the Dark, by Samantha M. Bailey

Eden Miller is a woman who's already falling apart when we meet her in this propulsive new thriller by Bailey. Her marriage is crumbling, her daughter barely talks to her, and in a fit of nostalgia (or desperation), she decides to reach out to her old crush from college, Justin Ward. But as she starts to rekindle a romance online, it becomes clear that she's opening a door to a man who might be a little too invested in her, and chaos ensues as she catapults everyone around her into danger. Bailey is so good at writing pacy thrillers that thrive on the ill-advised choices of the lead character.

*

Little Secrets, by Jennifer Hillier

Our protagonist, Marin, has been wracked by tragedy—the disappearance of her little boy. This, of course, sends her perfect life into a tailspin and while the kidnapping isn't necessarily the result of her mistakes, what she does a year later to rekindle the police investigation definitely spurs a whole string of questionable moves. Intent on finding her son, she instead discovers that her husband is cheating, and there begins an unhinged journey into fixing a problem, one that has a name and a face. This thriller is a favourite of mine because the panic at its centre is so believable, and you can't help but feel sorry for Marin as she blunders further toward peril.

*

Learn more about The Offing:

Two young women are trapped in a deadly chase through the beautiful, dangerous waters around Australia in the new thriller from the bestselling author of Our Little Secret—perfect for fans of The Woman in Cabin 10 and The Drowning Woman.

Ivy is in trouble. A recent break-up has left her humiliated and raw, so when her best friend, Regan, offers her a month-long escape in the form of a trip to Australia, it feels like a lifeline, one that Ivy grabs with both hands.

Regan is everything Ivy’s not—confident, free-spirited, charismatic—and a natural at backpacker fun. But Ivy is drawn to a calmer type of holiday, so when she spots an ad for crewmembers on a small yacht being sailed by a doting father and his daughter, the girls decide to take the job. Together with a handsome third crewmember, they set off north into tropical heat, but it's not long before doubts start to creep in. Are the girls simply claustrophobic on the boat, or have they stumbled into something they don't understand?

Tensions rise as the past threatens to catch up with them, and dark secrets emerge that will change everything. A dangerous cat-and-mouse game on land and at sea, this fast-paced, twisty thriller keeps you guessing until the very last page.