The bestselling husband-and-wife crime-writing duo – Sean French and Nicci Gerrard – choose their favourite books. Their latest thriller, "The Last Days of Kira Mullan" (Simon & Schuster, £18.99), is out this week
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë, 1847
This Victorian classic about an unloved orphan growing into a woman who is free, equal and passionately loved is a gothic romance, an erotic masterpiece, a work to read when you’re young, old, and all the ages in between.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Lolly Willowes
Sylvia Townsend Warner, 1926
Miss Willowes is a young spinster living with her stiflingly respectable London family when she decides to move to the countryside and discover her destiny. Which is to become a witch. Townsend Warner's debut novel is like a joyously funny and sexy hand grenade.
The Silver Chair
C.S. Lewis, 1953
The most underrated of the Narnia books, in which Eustace and Jill find themselves in Narnia on a quest for a lost prince. In some ways this is a thriller for children, brilliantly plotted, with great twists and moments of genuine terror.
The Unwomanly Face of War
Svetlana Alexievich, 1985
In WWII, Soviet women could be soldiers and pilots as well as nurses. In the 1970s, Alexievich interviewed them. The resulting tapestry of voices – old women recalling their teenage years – is overwhelming, a work of art and one of the great acts of remembrance.
Presumed Innocent
Scott Turow, 1987
A lawyer is charged with murdering a fellow lawyer with whom he was having a secret affair. The legal process is evoked with pungent authority; the plot is genuinely startling. This couldn’t be more different from our own work, but Turow’s debut is a key inspiration.
Skippy Dies
Paul Murray, 2010
A story of coming of age, sex, death, betrayal and the meaning of the universe in an Irish private school. It’s hilarious, compelling, deeply sad. How on earth does Ireland keep producing these great writers?
-
October 13 editorial cartoonsCartoons Monday's political cartoons include Donald Trump's consolation prize, government workers during shutdown, and more
-
Can Gaza momentum help end the war in Ukraine?Today's Big Question Zelenskyy’s request for long-range Tomahawk missiles hints at ‘warming relations’ between Ukraine and US
-
The Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners being releasedThe Explainer Triumphant Donald Trump addresses the Israeli parliament as families on both sides of the Gaza war reunite with their loved ones
-
The delightful, smutty world of Jilly CooperIn the Spotlight Millions mourn the ‘Mrs Kipling of sex’
-
Lee Miller at the Tate: a ‘sexy yet devastating’ showThe Week Recommends The ‘revelatory’ exhibition tells the photographer’s story ‘through her own impeccable eye’
-
6 eye-catching rounded homesFeature Featuring a central spiral staircase in Michigan and a Balinese-style estate with ocean views in Hawaii
-
A House of Dynamite: a ‘nail-biting’ nuclear-strike thrillerThe Week Recommends ‘Virtuoso talent’ Kathryn Bigelow directs a ‘fast-paced’ and ‘tense’ ‘symphony of dread’
-
The Finest Hotel in Kabul: a ‘haunting’ history of modern AfghanistanThe Week Recommends Lyse Doucet’s sensitively written work traces over 50 years of Kabul’s ‘Inter-Con’ hotel
-
The Smashing Machine: Dwayne Johnson is ‘magnetic’ in gritty biopicThe Week Recommends The wrestler-turned-Hollywood-actor takes on the role of troubled UFC champion Mark Kerr
-
Shadow Ticket: Thomas Pynchon’s first novel in over a decadeThe Week Recommends Zany whodunnit about a private eye in 1930s Milwaukee could be the 88-year-old author’s ‘last hurrah’
-
Southern barbecue: This year’s top threeFeature A weekend-only restaurant, a 90-year-old pitmaster, and more
