The most recommended books on claustrophobia

I have rarely felt a compulsion to turn the pages of a book as quickly as I did while reading this book. I grew up as a huge fan of Jurassic Park and read this book many years later with little idea of what to expect.

The claustrophobic surroundings and relentless tension made this a very fast book to read, but the philosophical considerations made sure it is one that has stayed in my mind ever since.

The first thing that drew me into this book is the feeling of “I could see that happening… what would I do if it were me?” The second really enticing element comes when McAllister introduces a future timeline where the three siblings have had a falling out and their cover-up plan seems to have not worked. There is then a constant question of how did they get from here to there? The book is further enriched by the interesting relationships between the two sisters and brother. They each have their role in the family dynamic, largely set by a traumatic event in their childhood, and these have a significant impact on how they respond – individually and collectively – to this new highly stressful event.

I love a book set in a work setting, especially as I’m a full-time author, so I no longer have dodgy colleagues! The Flatmate follows Ria, who has returned to work following an enforced sabbatical after the shocking death of her colleague and best friend, Livvy.

Enter Amanda, her new flatmate, and Livvy’s replacement. When Ria starts receiving messages and gifts from dead Livvy, her colleagues think Ria is losing her mind.

Author Gemma Rogers is great at pacing and creating believable and sometimes unpleasant characters. I loved the believability of this story and read the book in one sitting.

The Institution is a secure unit for the criminally insane, unnerving enough but when the two main characters enter its walls under cover, one as a therapist, the other posing as a patient, the stakes are high.

A horrific crime has taken place and the remote location means the perpetrator was either a patient or a    member of staff. The two lead characters have to find the killer while keeping their real identities a secret.

Add to this a race against time to find a newborn baby and the tension is unbearable.

I wrote about an abducted baby in my second book and keeping the race against time uppermost in the reader’s mind was the most difficult part of the process.

Shalini Boland is one of the authors who got me hooked on psychological thrillers and when she releases a new book, it’s an automatic buy for me. The Couple Upstairs is set in Bournemouth (on the south coast) and features Nina and Zac who move into a new apartment. They quickly befriend their neighbours and soon all sorts of things start to go wrong. There’s a wonderfully claustrophobic feel to this book, plenty of twists and turns and a shocker twist at the end.

It’s about the simplest idea you can hang a story on: three people discover a house in the wilderness and explore it. But this short, black and white, silent graphic novel just sucked me deeper and deeper into the terror of a place that seems to grow impossibly larger, even as your pathway through it becomes narrower and narrower until...well, it’s pretty dark stuff. Simmons’s art is also inky black, but visualizes the concepts at play with beautiful power. There is a terrible force behind the scenes here, but you can never know what it is and you can never defeat it.  

I love a good chilling tale where the reader can never be certain the supernatural is real or just an interpretation of the protagonist's state of mind. And this is exactly what Toon gives us with this tale of hidden secrets and unhealed trauma set in the isolated forests of the Scottish Highlands. 

Lauren is too young to remember a mother who disappeared over a decade ago. Her father drinks to forget, and her neighbours know more than they let on. But then two things happen. Lauren and her father pick up a strange woman from the side of the road who disappears the following morning, and a local teenage girl goes missing, and Lauren finds herself in the middle of a village forced to remember the past.

The Grip of It is among the best-haunted house novels out there. A young couple flees their city life—as well as some potentially life-ruining gambling habits. Julie and James are hopeful, as new homeowners often are, until things begin to go wrong. Odd sounds. Inexplicable spots of decay. Hidden rooms. The novel has all the best markers of a haunted house story while also piling on a sense of unique and unending claustrophobia and suspense that I don’t think I’ve read at quite this level before. It is a brilliant journey into the interior of the human mind. I loved every page.

If you’re a writer, or creative in other ways, or just a fan of the creative process, The Writing Retreat will not just speak to you but sing you an entire opera.

The mystery is great, but what puts it on my list is the way Bartz’s take on what every writer feels but never discusses at parties: the crippling anxiety of not having an idea, the excitement of that "eureka!" moment, the need to write and write and write while the iron is hot, and then the overwhelming fear when the work is finally released into the world.

This addictive page-turner revolves around an extravagant hen party where bride-to-be Jen rents a luxury getaway on a private island.

The fact that the helicopter which brought the guests to the island won't be back for 72 hours ramps up the sense of impending doom and claustrophobia, this further enhanced when the wifi is cut off. I devoured the varied and well-rounded cast of characters, each with their own complex backstories, secrets, and agendas giving them a motive to kill.

When one of the guests disappears, they receive a message telling them that unless someone confesses her terrible secret to the others, their missing friend will be killed. This was such a clever idea and had me itching to know who in the group the message was aimed at.