Genre
The best Thriller books
Plot-engine fiction where the stakes are usually national, the antagonist is usually personal, and you read 80 pages in one sitting against your will.
11 reviews in this genre.
Editor's picks
Highest-rated thriller on the shelf
The Lincoln Lawyer
by Michael Connelly
The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly 2005 review. Mickey Haller, a Los Angeles defense attorney who works out of the back of a Lincoln Town Car, takes a case that pulls him into something larger. The novel that launched a series and a film franchise.
The Secret History
by Donna Tartt
The Secret History by Donna Tartt 1992 review. A new student at a Vermont college is drawn into an exclusive Greek-studies seminar and the murder that the small clique conceals. The novel that defined the dark-academia register before it had a name.
Tell No One
by Harlan Coben
Tell No One by Harlan Coben 2001 review. A pediatrician receives an email containing a video clip of his murdered wife, eight years after her death. The single best Coben standalone and the one that defined the contemporary domestic-thriller register.
Along Came a Spider
by James Patterson
Along Came a Spider by James Patterson 1993 review. Alex Cross, a Washington D. C. detective and psychologist, hunts a kidnapper who has taken two children from an elite Georgetown school. The first Alex Cross novel and the entry point to the highest-selling American thriller series of its generation.
Heart-Shaped Box
by Joe Hill
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill 2007 review. An aging metal star buys a ghost on the internet. The ghost belongs to a former groupie's stepfather, and he is not happy. The debut novel that established Joe Hill as the heir to his father's horror legacy.
Postmortem
by Patricia Cornwell
Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell 1990 review. The debut Kay Scarpetta novel that invented the modern forensic-pathologist thriller. A Richmond, Virginia serial killer is targeting women, and the chief medical examiner is the one who can stop him.
The Silent Patient
by Alex Michaelides
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides 2019 review. A forensic psychotherapist works with an artist who has not spoken since the night she shot her husband. The thriller debut that topped the New York Times bestseller list for over a year and became the most-discussed contemporary psychological thriller of its decade.
Verity
by Colleen Hoover
Verity by Colleen Hoover 2018 review. A struggling writer hired to finish an injured bestseller's series finds an autobiographical manuscript in the family home. The Hoover thriller that broke out years after publication on BookTok and remains the most-discussed contemporary domestic thriller of the decade.
The Plot
by Jean Hanff Korelitz
The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz 2021 review. A failed novelist steals a dead student's masterwork-plot and publishes it as his own. The canonical contemporary literary thriller about plagiarism and authorship.
Out of Sight
by Cherry Adair
A T-FLAC romantic suspense. Cherry Adair in mid-period form. The formula working hard.
The Trident Deception
by Rick Campbell
The Trident Deception by Rick Campbell review. A 2014 submarine thriller about a rogue US ballistic-missile submarine. Insider-rendered by a former Navy submariner.
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