33 Brilliant Thrillers That’ll Keep You Turning the Page

An "average" housewife's life is changed forever when a car accident reveals that her husband is a serial killer. She quickly goes into hiding and assumes a new identity—but soon, as you can probably guess, a new threat finds her.

Picture-perfect newlyweds Jack and Grace are the couple you love to hate. He has the money and perfect job, and she is a beautiful homemaker. But when you look closer, they're almost too flawless, and Grace is nearly unreachable and impossible to get to know—eerily so.

Reclusive writer Leonora attends what's supposed to be an exciting, care-free bachelorette weekend in the English countryside, but it soon turns into something sinister in this psychological thriller.

Named a Reese's Book Club Pick, The Guest List is an Agatha Christie-esque mystery set over the course of a highly exclusive weekend wedding. The groom, the bride, and the other key players narrate their parts in this atmospheric thriller that takes place amid the drizzly vistas of Ireland.

The author of Big Little Lies set this novel at a remote wellness center. Masha, Tranquillum House's charismatic owner (played by Nicole Kidman in the Hulu show), lures nine guests deeper and deeper into her spa's twisted philosophy. Read in preparation for the TV series' upcoming second season.

Author Catherine Steadman is an actress you may recognize from Downton Abbey. She uses her years in the biz to inform this glossy thriller set in Hollywood during pilot-casting season, when actors vie for parts in new shows. Mia Eliot is an English actress who, in her pursuit of a big break, ends up getting swept into big trouble when another actress disappears.

When The Last Thing He Told Me starts, we know as much about Owen as Hannah Hall, his wife of one year, does. He appears to be a nice guy, a devoted dad, and a hard worker. Then he disappears, and Hannah has to reconstruct her understanding of her husband, all while caring for his 16-year-old daughter, who has never been her biggest fan. The Last Thing He Told Me will upend any expectations you formed while reading this paragraph, and is a gripping, surprisingly emotional ride. After reading this, you might want to relive the storyline and watch the Apple TV+'s miniseries of the book starring Jennifer Garner.

Attica Locke, a TV writer turned novelist, writes her acclaimed thrillers with an expert sense of pacing. While The Cutting Season's plot is gripping, its historical and social insight will stick with you long after the ending. The Cutting Season interweaves two murder mysteries: one that takes place on a historic Louisiana landmark, and the disappearance of a slave, 100 years earlier.

In this unnerving thriller, a woman with amnesia fights to discover who she is, despite her inability to recover her past or form new memories.

FBI agent Clarke Sinclair has spent years trying to catch a serial killer named Simon Cross. He has a habit of targeting only redheads, but when he breaks his pattern, Clarke must figure out what he's up to.

All assumptions go out the window with this twisted story of a suffering ex-wife who's stalking her ex's new, younger fiancée. But a twist you won't see coming is what makes this story truly stand out.

T.J. Newman channeled years of working as a flight attendant to inform this airplane-set thriller. In the book, a pilot receives a shocking call: Kidnappers have taken his family hostage, and will harm them...unless he crashes the plane. One hundred forty-three passengers are on board. The flight is in the air. What's he going to do?

The author of The Silent Patient delivers another book that relishes in both unexpected twists and references to classic mythology. In The Maidens, Mariana Andros is summoned back to her alma mater, Cambridge, after her niece's best friend is murdered. Originally there for emotional support, Mariana begins to build a case against the charismatic professor who seems to be at the center of the crime.

The standout 2019 thriller follows Alicia Berenson, a celebrated painter married to a famed fashion photographer. But one day, she shoots her husband in the face...five times...and never speaks again.

This hypnotic novel packs an unexpected twist as it follows a woman named Jessica Farris, who enters into a psychological study to earn extra money. The experiments are led by Dr. Shields, who soon takes the study beyond the lab, infiltrating Jessica's real life.

These Violent Delights will appeal to readers who like their thrillers laced with desire and echoes of Patricia Highsmith. In Micah Nemerever's debut, two lonely college boys find the companionship they've craved from everyone else. In that cocoon, they devise a strange game—one that involves getting away with the perfect crime, just to see if they can. But can they, really?

Megan Abbott has set past acclaimed thrillers in the worlds of cheerleading, science research, and gymnastics. With The Turnout, she delves into ballet. Dara and Marie Durant are sisters who took over from their mother's ballet school after their parents died in an accident. Then another accident occurs in the present day, ruining their studio. Derek is the contractor hired to fix things—but he ends up creating deliberate chaos, and delighting in it. Watch out for the "Dereks" in the real world.

The Upstairs House is an intellectual, thought-provoking thriller. When her husband leaves for a business trip, Megan is left alone with her new daughter. But she's not exactly alone. It appears that Margaret Wise Brown, author of Goodnight Moon and subject of Megan's thesis, is living in the apartment upstairs. Never mind the fact that Brown is long dead—Megan sees her, and she's willing to watch Megan's daughter. Then, Margaret's ex-lover, a woman poet named Michael Strange, appears, and Megan finds herself in a ghostly tale of regret and revenge.

An O, The Oprah Magazine review of Long Bright River called Liz Moore's novel "equal parts literary and thrilling—a compassionate, multidimensional look at an epidemic that surrounds us." A spin on the procedural, the novel follows a police officer who is consumed by looking for her missing sister, last seen struggling with a heroin addiction.

This award-winning novel follows a woman named Korede as she loyally cleans up after and covers for her sociopathic sister, Ayoola—who appears to have now killed her third boyfriend.