Are you looking for your next thriller book to read?
This genre is one of the most sought after by readers, due to its ability to keep them trapped in its pages until the end of the story.
They are exciting and fast-paced stories that manage to hook the reader with their intrigue, plot twists, cases to be solved, and their incredible characters.
Ingenious, cruel, with their own fears, motivations and concerns. “Real” characters with whom you can easily create empathy, and hence one of the keys to the great popularity of this genre.
If you want to accompany the “hero” – or antihero – to solve the case and catch the “villain”, here is a collection of some of the best thriller books, mixing classic novels with recent issues.
So if you want to disconnect and escape from the routine, any of the following books is an excellent choice to have a good time between pages.
The gypsy bride
- Author : Carmen Mola
- Number of pages: 408
- ISBM: 978-8420433189
- Edition year: 2018
Susana Macaya, a young daughter of a gypsy and a paya, is tortured and murdered a few days before her wedding celebration, a fact that is related to a case that occurred years before whose perpetrator is locked up in prison.
This circumstance draws the attention of the police and they assign the case to the Case Analysis Brigade (BAC). Elena Blanco, leader of the unit, will try to do everything possible to solve the crime, while she fights her own demons with a combination of work, sex and karaoke.
A story that does not mince words and does not shy away from recounting violent scenes, murders, pedophiles, combined with dark characters tormented by their past.
Combined all this with a strong and groundbreaking female protagonist who has managed to win the hearts of readers and who gives a plus to the plot.
As a curious fact, The Gypsy Bride is the first novel by Carmen Mola. The point is that nobody knows who she is, since it is a pseudonym. We cannot even be sure if it is a “she” or, on the contrary, it is a man.
Wedding dress
- Author : Pierre Lemaitre
- Number of pages: 296
- ISBM: 978-6071135339
- Edition year: 2015
If there has ever been a book that should be read without first knowing even a measly detail of history, it is this one.
What the French Pierre Lemaitre has achieved with this book is to honor the psychological thriller genre. At first it doesn’t seem like a big deal, we have a woman with what seems like a mental problem that makes her forget everything that happens around her.
But as we get deeper into the story and discover more details about the abrupt plot created by Lemaitre, it becomes more interesting and at times surprising.
Pierre Lemaitre is a French writer with a career in psychology behind him and several successes achieved with his novels, since in 2006 he decided to dedicate himself to writing completely.
A psychological thriller that is out of the ordinary and that requires approaching it from complete ignorance to enjoy its story.
Wayward Pines: Paradise
- Author : Blake Crouch
- Number of pages: 400
- ISBM: 978-9507322754
- Edition year: 2015
Secret agent Ethan Burke and his partner suffer a car accident when they left the road when they were traveling to the town of Wayward Pines in search of two lost companions.
Because of the accident, Ethan loses consciousness, and when he manages to wake up a few hours later, he has serious problems remembering who he is or why he is in that place.
When he finally manages to remember and wants to contact his relatives, he will begin to realize that the charming town of Waywrad Pines is not at all what it seems.
You may know something of the story from the television series based on the book that aired on FOX. And although said series was canceled due to lack of audience, the development of the book’s story has nothing to do with it and its pages are a real hook for the reader.
A story comparable to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks , The X Files or Lost.
Scar
- Author : Juan Gomez-Jurado
- Number of pages: 576
- ISBM: 978-8466657990
- Edition year: 2020
Simon Sax is a young computer scientist who is about to be ruined, but he is also about to make a huge sum of money by selling his invention to a multinational.
However, although he is close to achieving the American dream of being rich, he still feels lonely and miserable at times.
Just as his computer skills and genius are amazing, his social skills are also incredibly low.
But one day he plucks up his courage and accesses a popular dating website where he meets the enigmatic Irina, for whom he falls madly in love.
Irina, who for many is the true protagonist of this story and the one who makes it roll, has a scar on her face, a mark that keeps a dark past.
Cicatriz hooks you quickly and takes you through its pages with blinding speed. It is a story that takes place in three stories set in three different time lines and with different perspectives that contextualize the events.
An intriguing story with an unexpected ending worthy of any good thriller.
Hart’s war
- Author : John Katzenbach
- Number of pages: 688
- ISBM: 978-8413140872
- Edition year: 2009
In a German camp for prisoners of war during World War II, the inmates are divided into two zones, in one are the Americans and in the other the rest of the prisoners belonging to other nationalities.
A kind of life with a clear hierarchy and organization. But everything goes to hell when Lyndford Scott, the only black in the camp, finds the remains of one of the prisoners and is accused of being the culprit.
Now everything will depend on whether he is found innocent in a trial held by some American officers with the permission of a German colonel, and the invaluable help of the young Tommy Hart.
An excellent thriller from the hand of the great John Katzenbach , author of renowned works including The Psychoanalyst , a reference for suspense novels.
Hart’s War is a mixture of a war thriller with a trial novel, found in an unusual setting for books of the genre.
The Pelican Brief
- Author : John Grisham
- Number of pages: 464
- ISBM: 978-8422649106
- Edition year: 2009
Two judges are murdered within hours of each other, the FBI having no idea what is happening or why. Meanwhile, the young law student, Darby Shawn decides to investigate the event on her own.
After a few days of beginning her private investigation, she almost escaped unscathed from a car bomb explosion.
Scared and with her life in danger, she decides to go with the journalist Gray Granthan, who will try to convince her that she is facing a case similar to the Watergate scandal.
This is one of the best legal thrillers , written by the prolific writer of the genre, lawyer John Grisham, who has also written best-sellers such as A Time to Kill or The Cover, both with successful film adaptations in addition to this Pelican Brief.
And in fact, you surely know the story created by Grisham thanks to its film adaptation starring Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts in 1993.
The dumas club
- Author : Arturo Perez-Reverte
- Number of pages: 464
- ISBM: 978-8490628348
- Edition year: 2015
One of the best works of the great Spanish author Arturo Perez-Reverte and a success in the foreign market.
In the story, a book expert named Corso, our protagonist, receives an assignment to verify if a book called “The Nine Doors” is authentic or not, which will take him to different libraries, archives and any place he can think of to get answers.
What Corso had no idea was going to happen, is the danger that such a search holds, drawing the attention of certain characters who want a copy of a book in his possession.
Will our protagonist survive the search and manage to solve the mystery of the book?
The Dumas Club is quite an addictive book with hints of a detective novel, action and suspense, with a great story that does honor to literature in general, something that the most passionate readers will appreciate.
As you sleep
- Author : Alberto Marini
- Number of pages: 352
- ISBM: 978-8401339196
- Edition year: 2011
Cillian is a doorman of a building in New York with a very particular hobby, he loves to make life miserable for the residents of the place he guards.
Having finished with his latest victim, he has now set his sights on Clara, a cheerful and optimistic neighbor with a permanent smile on her face, something Cillian doesn’t like at all and which is why he tries to change Clara’s joy into despair and fear creeping into your home while you sleep.
The story is told from the perspective of Cillia, an excellently characterized character who is easy to identify with in certain ways.
He is one of those characters with whom you create a love-hate relationship, and that you hope will change for the better because of the affection that is taken for him despite being bad.
A curiosity about this work is that the book usually comes out first and then a movie is made based on it, if it is popular enough and there is some interest. In the case of While You Are Sleeping , the script for the film was written first, and then the book based on it.
In short, it is a very interesting book in which we are fully immersed in the mind of a psychopath, and which is read super fast due to its agile style, not at all dense.
I know what you’re thinking
- Author : John Verdon
- Number of pages: 432
- ISBM: 978-8492833399
- Edition year: 2011
Dave Gurney is a homicide detective just one year out of retirement. One day he receives a desperate call from his former college roommate Mark Mellery, who has started receiving a series of disturbing letters.
In the first one, the author of the letter tells him that he knows him so well that he can choose any number from one to a thousand and he will guess it. Greater was Mark’s surprise when when choosing a number, it appears in the sealed envelope that came with the same letter, 658.
It all gets weirder and weirder as Mark keeps getting letters until he’s finally killed. Now Dave will have to manage to find the culprit and solve the mystery.
A great book that every lover of crime novels and thrillers will love. He discovers who the murderer is, how he managed to read the minds of his victims, and his motives for doing so.
The snow girl
- Author : Javier Castillo
- Number of pages: 512
- ISBM: 978-8491292661
- Edition year: 2020
The Snow Girl is a book narrated in the first person by the journalist Miren Triggs, who decides to investigate the disappearance of little Kiera.
In 1998, during the famous New York Thanksgiving parade, Kiera, the little daughter of Aaron and Grace, a young married couple, disappears when her father loses sight of her.
It is never found again until, five years later, a recording is sent to the parents of a girl playing in an unknown room, which seems to indicate that it is about Kiera.
Miren will do everything in her power to discover the whereabouts of the little girl and the mystery of her disappearance, while trying to unravel the unknowns of her own life.
An excellent book that brings its good dose of mystery and intrigue to this list and the last of our selection of the best books in the thriller genre.
A novel that grabs you from the first moment and is not willing to let go until you find out what happened to little Kiera.
