I’m a books critic – these are the best modern page-turners to read on holiday

You’ve got one week to read by the pool and you want to make it count. If you’re struggling to unwind and need something to hook you from the get-go, here are my top modern page-turners. From literary thrillers to domestic dramas, each is a story so engrossing you’ll race through it. In fact, I’d probably take two. Strangers by Belle Burden There’s already a TV adaptation of this in the works starring Gwyneth Paltrow, and no wonder. This bestselling memoir by Wasp-y East Coast heiress Belle (her grandmother was Babe Paley, a Manhattan socialite who was friends with Truman Capote) about her divorce is unputdownable. One day in the middle of the pandemic, Burden discovered out of the blue that her nice, reliable hedge fund manager husband was having an affair. But then, even worse, he upped, left and basically ghosted her, and their three children. What had she done? Were there signs she missed? And how much can we feel sorry for a person with a multimillion-dollar New York apartment and a luxurious second home in Martha’s Vineyard? The Correspondent by Virginia Evans A word-of-mouth bestseller for good reason, this tells the tale of the irascible 70-something Sybil Van Antwerp. Sybil writes letters – she always has – and through these (and very occasionally a reply) we learn about everything from her surprisingly active romantic life, a twilight years interest in her adoption history, the difficulties that persist with her children, and a terrible family trauma. In an age of WhatsApp and fast-food content, there is something deeply relaxing about Sybil’s considered but always characterful letter prose. “Isn’t there something wonderful […] to think that a story of one’s life is preserved in some way, that this very letter may one day mean something […] to someone?” she writes. You’ll turn the last page and immediately want to start cultivating pen pals. Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner Sure, you can watch the excellent drama starring Claire Danes, but first read this funny, sneaky, clever book. Toby Fleishman’s ex-wife has gone missing (which he barely notices at first because of all the app-sought sex he’s having). Between dropping his children off at holiday camps and a fair bit of agonising self-pity over what he has done with life, we explore the Fleishmans’ marriage, the rat race of New York and the discontent of middle age. There’s a Trojan Horse reveal at the end that some critics hated but which I adored. A perfect way to while away days at the pool while re-evaluating your entire life. The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty If you’re not yet a Moriarty fan, lucky you. There’s a huge backlist of summer reads for you to get stuck into, but maybe start with this one. Less well-known than Big Little Lies (made into the 2017 Golden Globe-winning drama starring Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon), it’s the tale of a woman who discovers her husband is keeping just about the worst secret you could ever imagine. Moriarty writes with the energy and easy readability of an airport thriller, but with far more nuance, humour and understanding of human behaviour than you’d expect. Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister Gillian McAllister is a prolific thriller writer – so much so that you could be mistaken for thinking of her books as silly airport stuff. Not so. Wrong Place Wrong Time is a great example of how tightly this writer can plot, how cleverly she can take a premise to its extreme. When Jenn sees her teenage son Todd kill someone in cold blood, she’s appalled. But when the next morning she wakes up only to discover it’s yesterday, not tomorrow, she is given the opportunity to solve the crime through the prism of family secrets, and potentially save her son. Groundhog Day meets Agatha Christie. Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka Anyone who thinks focusing on women’s dead bodies or the psyche of the men who killed them are the only ways to grip readers in a murder mystery should read this book. This atmospheric and smart literary thriller homes in instead on the lives of the women themselves, and the cop who tries to achieve justice for them. It’s also carefully compassionate to the man himself when we do spend time with him – not because he’s fascinatingly complicated or forgiven, but because life is messy. A haunting tale that will stay with you long afterwards. Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson If you liked the Belle Burden memoir (see above), maybe try this for a fictional (and jollier) palate cleanser afterwards. It’s a rollicking tale of well-to-do sisters from Brooklyn living the upper-middle-class East Coast dream (Giant brown stone? Check. Lots of tennis? Check), when their brother marries a woman who doesn’t come from that world at all. There are lots of delicious examinations of money and our varying attitudes to it (and, naturally, a TV show in the works) but the real joy comes from just how funny this book is. All the Colours of the Dark by Chris Whitaker It’s incredible that a Briton has so perfectly captured the American Midwest. Whitaker’s 70s Missouri is all white pines and diners, children on bikes while adults smoke on porches. When Patch is kidnapped trying to save the local popular girl Misty from a bad guy, it sets off a chain of events that will haunt him, his best friend Saint and the other residents of Monta Clare for decades to come. Part love story, part crime thriller, this is not quite like anything else. The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue Oh, for more books that capture the tenderness of platonic love the way this one does. Like a cross between Sally Rooney and Bridget Jones, it’s about Rachel from Cork and her best friend James, and the awful cringeworthy, unforgettable awkwardness of life in your twenties. Such brilliant, awful times – you won’t be able to look away, though sometimes you’ll wish you could. Consider Yourself Kissed by Jessica Stanley How can a book detailing the arguably mundane details of middle-aged motherhood burn-out be a page-turner, you ask? By being this funny, thoughtful and genuine, that’s how. Coralie is an Australian copywriter and wannabe novelist living in east London when she meets single dad Adam, whose political book choices she questions but whose Mr Darcy-esque looks she likes. Soon there’s a home and children and Adam’s career as a political journalist is taking off (be prepared for lots of wry Brexit observations). But what happened to Coralie’s dreams and sense of self? A smart, hopeful and very human book that cleverly captures the best and worst of ordinary life. The Bee Sting by Paul Murray At 650 pages, this isn’t an obvious poolside choice, but actually this Booker-shortlisted, darkly comic Irish family saga makes for compulsive reading. We itch to find out what happens to the seemingly doomed Barnes clan, as Murray takes us through their different perspectives, from the stream-of-consciousness of grasping, ruined mother Imelda, to that of worryingly naive 12-year-old gamer PJ.