I need an “edge of your seat” book that I won’t want to put down

I’d recommend *Annihilation* by Jeff VanderMeer and *Rosemary’s Baby* by Ira Levin. Incredibly atmospheric and very difficult to put down. Also, they’re around 200-300 pages, so definiely won’t put you in a reading slump.

The Great Zoo of China by Matthew Reilly

The Chinese government has been keeping a secret for forty years: they have found a species of animal no one believed even existed that will amaze the world. Now the Chinese are ready to unveil their astonishing discovery within the greatest zoo ever constructed. A small group of VIPs and journalists has been brought to the zoo deep within China to see its fabulous creatures for the first time. Among them is Dr Cassandra Jane ‘CJ’ Cameron, a writer for NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC and an expert on reptiles. The visitors are assured by their Chinese hosts that they will marvel at these beasts, that they are perfectly safe, that nothing can go wrong . . .

Leviathan James Byron Huggins

On an Icelandic Island, an illegal experiment intended to create the perfect biological weapon has transformed a once-innocent creature into the biblical Leviathan that once terrorized the world. Able to shatter steel and granite as easily as it can melt the strongest containment shields, Leviathan escapes from its pen and is loose in a vast underground chamber harboring soldiers and scientists.

The installation cannot allow Leviathan to reach the surface. For if Leviathan reaches the world, it could well be the end of the Earth. They must hold the line, here, and destroy it… even if they must detonate a last-chance nuclear failsafe built into the chamber itself. But, first, they must fight with every weapon at their disposal to discover if the beast can be killed at all.

It is a battle many will not survive.

As soldiers and scientists are vaporized by Leviathan’s hellish flame, or ripped apart by the dragon’s claws and fangs, a lone electrical engineer is forced to join the fight. And in the midst of what might well be the last battle for Mankind, Connor must find a way – any way – to save his family and kill this powerful, bloodthirsty Beast of Legend that has never been killed before.

Before it feasts upon the world.

Hunter by James Byron Huggins

Hunter is the ultimate tracker, the world’s best. If you’re lost, Hunter can find you — whether you want him to or not. Still, Hunter is particular about the searches he takes on. So when the military men seeking his help are very secretive about the mission they’re recruiting him for, Hunter’s instincts tell him to refuse. But there is a beast loose somewhere north of the Arctic Circle and it’s already charged through a secret research facility, wiping out the elite military squad that had been guarding it. And this raging superhuman monster is headed south for civilization, ready to wreak bloody devastation. It’s a job that Hunter can’t turn down, but what he discovers here in the wilderness is that terror has a form, that a renegade agency has let a half-human abomination escape into the wild. This almost invulnerable creature was created through a series of outlawed genetic experiments that have left it with a hunger for human blood. And may have made it immortal.

Intensity by Dean Koontz.

If you want to go hard on the horror, The Deep by Nick Cutter. I took it on a flight recently and plowed through the whole thing even though it’s…a lot and not for the squeamish.

One of my all-time favourites that I’d put in mystery/thriller is Night Film by Marisha Pessl. I brought it camping and finished it that weekend.