If you regularly describe your favorite books as “pulse-pounding”, “fast-paced”, or “impossible to put down”, then perhaps the thriller genre is perfect for you! Let’s take a look at these thrilling novels!
What are Thrillers?
Thrillers are suspense novels that keep the reader’s attention with nonstop action and pulse-pounding thrills (or, in the case of psychological thrillers, with rising tension that rarely gives you breathing room). These books are meant to get you deeply invested and keep you glued to the page. As with any genre, there is plenty of room for variety and thrillers often feature tropes like unreliable narrators, intensifying action, and flawed, but resourceful protagonists to keep the reader wondering what will happen next.
Why Do Readers Love Them?
Thrillers are fun because they keep you guessing. A well-written thriller is rarely ever boring, and plays with suspense, plot twists, and even a little bit of fear to keep you wondering what comes next. Like mysteries, these are books that you can really mull over, trying to guess what comes next and how the central mystery will unravel. But, unlike a mystery, which focuses on discovering the truth, thrillers are inherently about danger, and like reading a horror novel, it’s fun to dabble with danger while not being in any danger oneself. For example, in a thriller, we might enjoy the tantalizing terror of a woman realizing that her husband is not who he said he was…but we also can enjoy it from the comfort of our armchairs, without having to worry that he’ll lock us up in the attic, too.
Pulse-Pounding Subgenres
There are many types of suspense novels, so today let’s look at a few subgenres:
- Domestic Thrillers: Husband, wife, or household staff are not who they say they are!
- Psychological Thriller: Most of the drama is all in your head
- Legal Thrillers: Intense courtroom drama
- Political Thriller: Government corruption, power plays, and secrets
Related Genres
- Mystery: A crime has been committed and must be solved
- Horror: A pulse-pounded collection of scares
- Gothic: Crumbling mansions, dark secrets, and hidden threats
- Espionage: Spies!
Reading Recommendations
The Boy at the Keyhole (Stephen Giles) Nine-year-old Samuel lives alone in a once-great estate in Surrey with the family’s housekeeper, Ruth. His father is dead and his mother has been abroad for months, purportedly tending to her late husband’s faltering business. She left in a hurry one night while Samuel was sleeping and did not say goodbye. Beyond her sporadic postcards, Samuel hears nothing from his mother. He misses her dearly and maps her journey in an atlas he finds in her study. Samuel’s life is otherwise regulated by Ruth, who runs the house with an iron fist. Only she and Samuel know how brutally she enforces order. As rumors in town begin to swirl, Samuel wonders whether something more sinister is afoot. Perhaps his mother did not leave but was murdered–by Ruth.
Pelican Brief (John Grisham) To Darby Shaw it was no more than a legal shot in the dark, a brilliant guess. To the Washington establishment it was political dynamite. Suddenly Darby is witness to a murder–a murder intended for her. Going underground, she finds there is only one person she can trust–an ambitious reporter after a news-break hotter than Watergate–to help her piece together the deadly puzzle. Somewhere between the bayous of Louisiana and the White House’s inner sanctums, a violent cover-up is being engineered. For someone has read Darby’s brief. Someone who will stop at nothing to destroy the evidence of an unthinkable crime.
The Housemaid (Freida McFadden) Every day I clean the Winchesters’ beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor. I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband. I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out… and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late. But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am. They don’t know what I’m capable of…
The Woman in Cabin 10 (Ruth Ware) In this tightly wound, enthralling story reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s works, Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea. At first, Lo’s stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a dark and terrifying nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for–and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo’s desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong…
The Hunt for Red October (Tom Clancy) Somewhere under the freezing Atlantic, a Soviet sub commander has just made a fateful decision. The Red October is heading west. The Americans want her. The Russians want her back. The chase for the highly advanced nuclear submarine is on–and there’s only one man who can find her… Brilliant CIA analyst Jack Ryan has little interest in fieldwork, but when covert photographs of Red October land on his desk, Ryan soon finds himself in the middle of a high-stakes game of hide-and-seek played by two world powers–a game that could end in all-out war.
