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Fiction authors who do brilliant twists or shocks in their plots
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Back on here again (and thanks for all recommendations on other threads) ... still seeking out my perfect read! 
I have read a few over the last few months but really long to find a book that surprises or even shocks me. An ending I don't see coming in particular. The "wow, I never saw that one coming!" factor!
I generally have been reading female authors... The one that came closest to what I was looking for was Susan Lewis (Summer Madness). This was a book with lots of elements I enjoyed but ultimately
Does unpredictable ending mean unhappy ending??! Help!
I have read a few over the last few months but really long to find a book that surprises or even shocks me. An ending I don't see coming in particular. The "wow, I never saw that one coming!" factor!
I generally have been reading female authors... The one that came closest to what I was looking for was Susan Lewis (Summer Madness). This was a book with lots of elements I enjoyed but ultimately
the ending was too sickly and predictable, and unrealistic by far for me.
I sound like a right grump! Does unpredictable ending mean unhappy ending??! Help! 0
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Shutter Island (Dennis Lehane) had a good twist but you may now have seen the film.
Most of Harlan Coben's thrillers have surprising endings: Tell No One especially.
These are just off the top of my head. I may think of more.
Also, Agatha Christie is the Queen of the plot twists.
The problem is, I don't like anything too frightening or gory and it seems most twists/shocks are reserved for horror/graphic thriller fiction (by definition I realise, but I don't see why other fiction I can see the ending coming half or 2/3 way through - again I qualify that by saying I certainly don't consider myself well-read yet). I'm not averse to trying a good thriller, Amberite I would be interested to know where you put those that you mention on the 'scary' scale!
If I can comment on Iain Banks - his books aren't really "scary" as such, but they do often deal with quite disturbing and/or shocking themes. They can be quite gory and some include fairly graphic violence, but I don't think they can't really be described as "horror". I'd absolutely agree that he tends to quite often throw in completely unexpected twists and surprises though.
The Wasp Factory and Use of Weapons probably do fall in to his, err, fairly disturbing category, but some of his other books are less so but still have unexpected twists - such as The Crow Road, The Steep Approach to Garbadale, Espedair Street.
(His books written under the name Iain M Banks such as Use of Weapons are actually technically Sci-Fi novels.)
Personally I think he's brilliant, one of my all time top 3 favourite authors.
Lol so not predictable at all then
haha thanks anyway for these posts guys
As Coen has already said Iain Banks' books can be gory. "The Wasp Factory" was described by one critic as "the literary equivalent of a video nasty" Brilliant twist ending though. "Walking on Glass" is disturbing but not at all gory. When you get to the last page and you find out what was really happening in the book, it sends shivers down your spine.
Harlen Coben writes page-turning thrillers. A bit violent but nothing you wouldn't expect from the genre. "Tell No One" manages to turn the whole story on its head in the very last paragraph.
I've only read one of her books and, yes, that's exactly what the plot was. I read it assuming that there would be a twist at the end and the bleedin' obvious (sympathetic neighbour is really the baddie; suspicious cousin is really a knight in shining armour) wouldn't be the ending. It was.:(
I must have been reading a different Mary Higgins Clark because the books of hers I've read didn't subscribe to that formula!
Milmol, have you read any Nora Roberts? She writes romantic thrillers that are worth a read. Also, in the thriller genre, I like Nicci French and Sophie Hannah.
I'm probably alone in thinking that, although agatha christie was a brilliant writer and storyteller, her plots were absolute rubbish. The "twists" were along the lines that someone hadn't recognised his wife when she was disguised as a waitress, half the characters had a false name and "a past"; come to think of it, in one a woman who thought she was a widow married her disguised husband, and never realised that fact.
I was going to say something similar, his twists are now a little obvious.