The 50 best thriller books to read now
The best thriller books ranked: psychological thrillers, spy novels, legal and crime thrillers. A top 50 with short reviews and where to read each one.
Thrillers are built to keep you turning pages: a clock is running, someone is in danger and the next chapter starts before you are ready to stop. The list below mixes psychological thrillers, spy fiction, legal and political thrillers and a few modern twist-driven bestsellers.
These are editorial picks, ranked for readability and lasting appeal, and nobody pays to be on the list. Not sure where to start? Try the book finder and get three picks for your mood.
Top 50 thriller books, ranked
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Gone Girl
A wife vanishes on her fifth wedding anniversary and suspicion falls on her husband.
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
A journalist and a young hacker dig into a decades-old disappearance in a powerful Swedish family.
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Silent Patient
A woman shoots her husband and then never speaks again. A therapist is determined to find out why.
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Girl on the Train
A commuter becomes tangled in a missing-person case she has been watching from the train window.
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Da Vinci Code
A symbologist and a cryptologist race to solve a murder at the Louvre and uncover a centuries-old secret.
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Day of the Jackal
A professional assassin is hired to kill French president Charles de Gaulle while police race to stop him.
- Gripping
Where to read
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Before I Go to Sleep
A woman who loses her memory every night pieces her life together from a journal.
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Hunt for Red October
A Soviet submarine captain's attempt to defect sets off a Cold War chase.
- Gripping
Where to read
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Misery
A novelist is rescued from a car crash by his self-described number one fan, and cannot leave.
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Talented Mr. Ripley
A young man's small lie grows into a life of deception and murder in Italy.
- Gripping
- Thoughtful
Where to read
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Rebecca
A new bride is haunted by her husband's first wife.
- Gripping
- Moving
Where to read
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The Boys from Brazil
A Nazi hunter uncovers a plot to clone Hitler.
- Gripping
Where to read
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Tell No One
A doctor receives an email that suggests his murdered wife is alive.
- Gripping
- Moving
Where to read
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Sharp Objects
A reporter returns to her hometown to cover the murders of two girls.
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Silence of the Lambs
A young FBI trainee seeks help from Hannibal Lecter to catch a killer.
- Gripping
Where to read
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Red Dragon
An FBI agent turns to Hannibal Lecter to find a serial killer.
- Gripping
Where to read
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Angels & Demons
Robert Langdon races to stop a threat to the Vatican.
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Bourne Identity
A man with no memory discovers he is a skilled operative.
- Gripping
Where to read
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Along Came a Spider
Detective Alex Cross hunts a kidnapper who has taken two children.
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Firm
A young lawyer discovers his new law firm's dark secrets.
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Pelican Brief
A law student's theory about two murders puts her life in danger.
- Gripping
Where to read
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A Time to Kill
A small-town lawyer defends a man who killed his daughter's attackers.
- Gripping
- Moving
Where to read
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The Girl Who Played with Fire
Lisbeth Salander is accused of three murders.
- Gripping
Where to read
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Killing Floor
Jack Reacher is arrested in a small Georgia town for a murder he did not commit.
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Reversal
Defence attorney Mickey Haller is asked to prosecute a case.
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Lincoln Lawyer
A defence attorney who works from his car takes on a high-profile client.
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Poet
A crime reporter investigates his brother's death and a series of killings.
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Woman in the Window
An agoraphobic woman believes she has witnessed a crime across the street.
- Gripping
Where to read
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Behind Closed Doors
A perfect marriage hides a terrible secret.
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Wife Between Us
A divorced woman, her ex-husband and his new fiancee are not what they seem.
- Gripping
Where to read
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Verity
A writer finds a disturbing manuscript while working in the home of an injured author.
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Housemaid
A woman takes a job as a live-in maid for a wealthy family with secrets.
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Last Thing He Told Me
A woman searches for the truth about her missing husband.
- Gripping
- Moving
Where to read
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Dark Places
A woman revisits the murders of her family that she survived as a child.
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Maid
A hotel maid finds a guest dead and becomes a suspect.
- Funny
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
A weary British agent takes one last job in East Germany.
- Gripping
- Thoughtful
Where to read
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Casino Royale
James Bond takes on a Soviet agent at the baccarat table.
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Thirty-Nine Steps
An ordinary man is caught up in a spy plot and flees across Scotland.
- Gripping
Where to read
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Rogue Male
A hunter who tries to assassinate a dictator is pursued across Europe.
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Eye of the Needle
A German spy tries to warn Hitler about the D-Day landing plans.
- Gripping
Where to read
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Jaws
A great white shark terrorises a New England resort town.
- Gripping
Where to read
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The Bourne Supremacy
Jason Bourne is drawn back into a dangerous world.
- Gripping
Where to read
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Gone Baby Gone
Two private investigators search for a missing four-year-old in Boston.
- Gripping
- Moving
Where to read
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The Bone Collector
A paralysed forensic expert and a young officer hunt a killer.
- Gripping
Where to read
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Inferno
Robert Langdon wakes in Florence with no memory and a deadly puzzle to solve.
- Gripping
Where to read
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Origin
Langdon investigates a murder after a futurist's revelation.
- Gripping
Where to read
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Presumed Innocent
A prosecutor is accused of murdering a colleague.
- Gripping
- Thoughtful
Where to read
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No Country for Old Men
A hunter finds drug money and a killer follows.
- Gripping
Where to read
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Shutter Island
A US marshal investigates a disappearance at a hospital for the criminally insane.
- Gripping
Where to read
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Child 44
A Soviet officer investigates a string of child murders the state denies exist.
- Gripping
Where to read
Each link opens that store’s search for the book. Availability and prices vary by store and country. We may earn a commission from some stores, which never changes the ranking.
Types of thriller books
Looking for something more specific? These are the main kinds of thriller, with the sort of story or subject each one covers.
Psychological thrillers
Unreliable narrators and secrets inside a marriage or family.
Spy thrillers
Espionage, double agents and cold-war intrigue.
Crime thrillers
Hunters and hunted, with a killer in view from early on.
Legal thrillers
Courtroom drama and lawyers under pressure.
Action thrillers
Fast, physical and global in scale.
Techno-thrillers
Military and scientific detail drives the plot.
Want to write and publish your own thriller book?
Many readers of this page are also writers. The stores in the lists above are where readers find books, while Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, IngramSpark, Lulu and Draft2Digital are the tools authors use to publish and distribute a book to those stores. You can also publish to Barnes & Noble Press and Google Play Books directly.
Our free KDP calculators help with print cost, royalties and cover size, and our publishing services can take care of setup for you.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best thriller book of all time?
Gone Girl, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Silence of the Lambs are the titles most often named. Our top five is on this page.
Are psychological thrillers the same as crime thrillers?
No. A psychological thriller focuses on the minds of the characters and what they hide. A crime thriller focuses on the crime and the chase.
Where can I read or buy the best thriller books?
Each of the 50 books has links to Amazon, Kindle, Barnes & Noble and Google Play Books. Authors who want to publish their own thriller book can start with our free guides to Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, Lulu and Draft2Digital.
Not sure what to read next?
Pick a genre and a mood and the book finder will suggest three books to try.