Nobody does a list quite like the New York Times, so you can bet we were sat when they dropped a round-up of the 50 best thrillers of the 21st century.
Then we clocked four - yes, four! - of the titles were by an Irish author who sets all of her stories in Ireland and has even seen some of her books turned into a hit TV show.
To collate the list (which we’ll absolutely be making our way through), 291 crime novelists, editors, booksellers, librarians and book lovers were asked to vote for their favourite thriller reads since 2000.
Big-name authors such as Lisa Jewell and Harlan Coben unsurprisingly made the list for their books "None Of This Is True" (50) and "Tell No One" (41), as did cult read "The Silent Patient" by Alex Michaelides, which placed at 36.
"You" by Caroline Kepnes, which was turned into the hit Netflix series, placed at 42, and other well-known reads such as Liane Moriarty’s "Big Little Lies" and "The God of the Woods" by Liz Moore, which will soon get the big screen treatment, also scored well in the 27th and seventh spots, respectively.
All very impressive, but there was one Irish author who managed to get a whopping four of their books on the NYT's list.
Tana French, who trained as an actor at Trinity College and now lives in Dublin with her family, tends to keep a pretty low profile, but she has long been a big name in the thriller genre.
"In The Woods," the first in Tana’s Dublin Murder Squad series, placed very highly in the top 50 round-up, securing third place.
It tells the story of three children who go into the woods in 1984, but only one returns home. This child goes on to become a detective, and when a young girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and his partner find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery.
Two other books from the Dublin Murder Squad series also appeared on the NYT’s list: "The Likeness," which placed at 34, and "Broken Harbor," which placed at 20.
Tana’s fourth book to make the list is "The Witch Elm," which placed at 33, and tells the story of a man who takes refuge at his family’s ancestral home after being beaten on a night out.
When he finds a skull in the trunk of an elm tree in the garden, he is forced to face the possibility that his past may not be what he has always believed.
Tana wasn’t the only Irish author to get a shout-out on the NYT’s list as Irish-American writer Emma Donoghue’s "Room" also placed highly, securing 21st place.
As for the winner, that award went to "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn. It’s thought that the book has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide since its release in 2012.
*This article was originally published on Evoke.ie.
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