Who doesn’t love a great thriller?
Thrillers are suspenseful stories filled with loads of mystery, drama, twists and turns.
The fun thing about psychological thrillers is the suspense. You, the reader gets to play detective, looking for clues throughout the story, trying to guess the next twist, trying to figure out “who dun it’.
If you love thrillers, here’s a compilation of 15 psychological thrillers that are sure to keep you feverishly turning the pages, and will definitely blow your minds.
15. The Plot By Jean Hanff Korelitz
“I’ve learned so much about writers. You’re a strange kind of beast, aren’t you, with your petty feuds and your fifty shades of narcissism? You act like stories don’t belong to everyone. You act like stories don’t have real people attached to them.”
~
When a writer dies before completing his first novel, his teacher, Jake – a failed novelist himself, helps himself to the plot. The resulting novel becomes a success. Jake is being lauded as a great writer.
But someone out there knows he’s a fraud and the plot of ‘his book’ isn’t his. Jake needs to figure out who he’s dealing with because if he doesn’t, a lot more than his reputation and his career is in danger.
Year of Publication: 2021
Number of Pages: 336
14. People Like Her By Ellery Lloyd.
“I found that the more authentic I was, the more followers I won, and the more those followers “liked” me. If that sounds patronizing, I honestly don’t mean it that way. Sorry, the sisterhood, but when it comes to online life, women don’t just respond well to other women’s success – if the comparison is the thief of joy, Instagram is the Cat burglar of contentment”
~
Followed by millions,
Hunted by one.
To her adoring fans, Emmy Jackson popularly known as @mamabare is an honest Instamom who always tells it like it is. To her sceptical husband, a washed-up novelist who knows just how creative Emmy can be with the truth, she is a breadwinning powerhouse chillingly brilliant at monetizing the intimate details of their family life.
To one of Emmy’s dangerously obsessive followers, she’s the woman that has everything but deserves none of it.
Year of Publication: 2021
Number of pages: 288
13. The Golden Couple By Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
“Time is a chameleon. It’s ever-changing, cannily adapting to circumstances.”
~
Marissa and Bishop are the golden couples – wealthy, successful, beautiful looking together. Up until Marissa cheats.
Trying to repair things for the sake of their eight-year-old son and because she still loves her husband, she decides seeing a therapist is the way to go.
If Avery Chambers can’t fix you in 10 sessions, she won’t take you on as a client. Although she’s lost her professional license for her somewhat creative and unorthodox ways of getting the desired results, she still comes highly recommended.
When the Bishops glide through Avery’s door and Marissa reveals her infidelity, all three are set on a collision course. Because the biggest secrets in the room are still hidden, it’s no longer simply a marriage that is in danger.
Year of Publication: 2022
Number of Pages: 336
12. The Heights By Louise Candlish
“Well, it wouldn’t be the place to live if he did,’ Selena says with a smirk, as he turns and walks the length of his terrace to its river-facing corner. That’s when it happens. The impossible. The grotesque. There’s a self-consciousness to the way this man lifts his chin, an exaggerated bounce to his step, that I recognize. That makes me put my hand to my mouth to muffle a gasp, my heart punching a savage rhythm in my chest.
It’s him.”
~
The Heights is a tall, slender apartment building among warehouses in London. Its roof terrace is so discreet, you wouldn’t know it existed if you weren’t standing at the window of the flat directly opposite. But you are. And that’s when you see a man up there- a man you’d recognize anywhere. Except he’s older now and his appearance has been subtly altered by age, but it’s him.
But that’s not possible, because he’s been dead for over two years.
You know this for a fact.
Because you’re the one who killed him.
Year Of Publication:2021
Number Of Pages: 416
11. Notes on an Execution By Danya Kukafka
“The night was an open sore. The heart was an organ that beat on and on. The trees created their unanimous sorrow”.
~
Ansel Packer, an inmate on Death Row at Polunsky prison in Texas is scheduled to die in 12hours. He killed four women and now awaits execution, the same fate he forced on his victims, years ago. But he doesn’t want to die; he wants to be celebrated, understood.
But this isn’t his story. Instead, this is the story of Ansel’s mother, Lavender, his wife’s twin sister Hazel, and Saffy, the detective hot on his trail, who finally brings him to justice.
Year Of Publication: 2022
Number Of Pages: 306
10. True Crime Story By Joseph Knox
“But then, the theft of Zoe’s items, especially the soiled feminine hygiene products, spoke to someone who was sexually obsessed with her specifically. We couldn’t figure out which order it went in. Did the intruder lie in wait behind those walls for just anyone? Or did he notice Zoe first and happen upon the panel afterwards? Wasn’t that too much of a coincidence?
~
Zoe Nolan, a first-year student at Manchester University walks out of a party taking place in the shared apartment where she lives, never to be seen again.
Evelyn Mitchell, a struggling writer decides to write a book about her strange disappearance. She interviews her friends, and family, digging digger into Zoe’s life. Enlisting the help of Joseph Knox, a well-known crime author (and the author of this book) in hopes that between the two of them, they can figure out the truth behind Zoe’s disappearance.
Zoe Nolan may be presumed dead, but her story is only just beginning.
Year Of Publication: 2021
Number Of Pages: 448
9. Good Rich People By Eliza Jane Brazier
“Everyone is playing a game all the time. It only matters when you are losing.”
~
In Good Rich People, we meet Lyla and Graham, a bored wealthy couple and Lyla’s domineering mother-in-law Margo, who live together in a Hollywood Hills estate.
The trio has found a way to relieve their boredom. They rent out their guesthouse to self-made success stories – people who have painstakingly climbed the ladder to the top, just so they can tear them down and ruin them.
Until they meet their newest tenant Demi. A destitute woman who deceived her way into their guesthouse and unwittingly becomes the subject of their entertainment.
But Demi has many secrets she’s hiding and she completely changes the game from the way it is played, as she isn’t going down without a fight.
Year Of Publication: 2022
Number Of Pages: 336
https://collider.com/best-psychological-thrillers/
https://earlybirdbooks.com/psychological-thriller-books-that-mess-with-your-mind
https://www.morganable.com/buried-beneath-the-baobab-tree-by-adaobi-tricia-nwaubani-a-review/
https://www.morganable.com/about-the-girl-with-the-louding-voice-by-abi-dare/
https://www.morganable.com/about-his-only-wife/
https://www.morganable.com/review-in-the-name-of-our-father-by-olukorede-s-yishau/
8. When You Are Mine By Michael Robotham
“Two wrongs don’t make a right, but they make a good excuse”.
~
Philomena McCarthy the daughter of London gangster Edward McCarthy has defied all odds to become a promising young officer with the Metropolitan police despite coming from a family that is always on the wrong side of the law.
Responding to a domestic violence call, she rescues Tempe Brown, the girlfriend of a married decorated Detective, Darren Goodall.
As Philomena tries to pursue a case against him, she meets with resistance on all sides from her police force colleagues- as she gets dangerously entangled with Tempe who isn’t exactly what she seems to be, and whose stories don’t quite match.
Year Of Publication: 2021
Number Of Pages: 368
7. The Wife Upstairs By Racheal Hawkins
“There’s a trick to spinning lies. You have to embed the truth in there, just a glimmer of it. That’s the part that will catch people, and it’s what makes the rest of your lies sound like truth, too.”
~
The Wife Upstairs is the story of Jane, a dog walker in the exclusively rich Thornfield estates, who meets the handsome and wealthy widower, Eddie Rochester.
Jane has always imagined being one of the rich and classy ladies of the community. So when she meets Eddie, she realizes that this is her one chance to have the life she has always wished for, and to further sweeten the pie, she genuinely falls for him.
But Jane’s fairytale romance is complicated as details of the death and disappearance of his former wife Bea, and her best friend begin to come to light.
Year Of Publication: 2021
Number Of Pages: 290
6. Jane Doe By Victoria Helen Stone
“They like a woman with no shame. We’re rare you see because we are told to be ashamed of everything every day by everyone. Ashamed to give them what they want, ashamed not to give it to them. Afraid to show our average bodies, ashamed not have a perfect one.”
~
Jane, a self-diagnosed sociopath is out for revenge. She has put her high-powered career abroad on hold to insinuate herself into the life of Steven, a control freak abusive religious zealot who frustrated the only person she has ever loved, Meg into committing suicide.
Steven has no idea that the new, shy, demure co-worker he’s hitting on is anything but that, and that he’s walking into his ruin.
Year Of Publication: 2018
Number Of Pages: 267
5. Not A Happy Family By Shari Lapena
“He’d be the first to admit that the world is better without certain people in it”.
~
Fred and Sheila Merton are a wealthy and well-established couple living in Brecken Hill in upstate New York….They were, that is.
After a particularly tense Easter Sunday dinner with their three children and their partners, the Mertons are found brutally murdered in their home. Their children stand to inherit millions, but maybe, just maybe, money isn’t the only motivation for murder.
Year Of Publication: 2021
Number Of Pages:349
4. A Slow Fire Burning By Paula Hawkins
“Accidents do happen, and they especially happen to drunks, but mother and son, eight weeks apart? In fiction, that would never stand.”
~
When a young man is found gruesomely murdered in a London houseboat, it triggers questions about three women who knew him. Laura is the troubled one-night-stand last seen in the victim’s home. Carla is his grief-stricken aunt, already mourning the recent death of yet another family member. And Miriam is the nosy neighbour keeping secrets from the police.
Three women with separate connections to the victim. Three women who are – for different reasons – simmering with resentment. Who are, whether they know it or not, burning to right the wrongs done to them.
When it comes to revenge, even good people might be capable of terrible deeds. How far might any one of them go to find peace? How long can secrets smoulder before they explode into flame? Look what you started.
Year Of Publication: 2021
Number Of Pages: 307
3. Dream Girl By Laura Lippman.
“Oh, Gerry, you’re so funny. It’s Aubrey Gerry. We need to talk. About my story, about what happened between us, that mess with your wife. I think it’s time the world knows I’m a real person.”
~
Gerry Anderson, a famous novelist is confined to a hospital bed in his glamorous high-rise apartment after being injured in a freak accident. Dependent on two women he barely knows; his assistant and his slow, dim-witted nurse, he receives a call one night from a caller one night who claims to be Aubrey, the fictional character from his most successful novel, Dream Girl. But Aubrey doesn’t exist. She isn’t real. She’s just a figment of the author’s imagination.
And now, here is Aubrey, threatening to visit him, suggesting that something is owed to her. Is the threat real or is it a sign of dementia?
Could the cryptic caller be one of his three ex-wives playing a trick after all these years? Or is Margot, an ex-girlfriend who keeps trying to insinuate herself back into Gerry’s life?
Year Of Publication: 2021
Number Of Pages: 320
2. His & Hers By Alice Feeney.
“We all have cracks, the little dents and blemishes that life makes in our hearts and minds, cemented by fear and anxiety, sometimes plastered over with fragile hope. I choose to hide the vulnerable sides of myself as well as I’m able at all times. I choose to hide a lot of things”.
~
When a woman is murdered in Blackdown, a quintessentially British village, newsreader Anna Andrews is reluctant to cover the case. Detective Jack Harper is suspicious of her involvement until he becomes a suspect in his
murder investigation. Someone isn’t telling the truth, and some secrets are worth killing to keep.
Year Of Publication: 2020
Number Of Pages: 304
1. The Photographer By Mary Dixie Carter.
“We get to the part where Mary Poppins friend Bert does a sidewalk chalk drawing of the English countryside. Mary Poppins, Bert, and the children jump into the picture. They land inside the drawing and the scene comes to life. The picture is real because they want it to be”.
~
Delta Dawn is a brilliant photographer for the upper class. She observes the seemingly perfect lives of New York city’s elites, through the lens of her camera. Her niche is children’s parties, her fees are high and she’s highly sought for her craft.
Hired by Amelia and Fritz Straub to take pictures at their daughter Natalie’s eleventh birthday, she becomes fascinated with them, and does everything possible to insinuate herself into their lives; babysitting Natalie, befriending Amelia, getting closer to Fritz, dating one of their employees, even offering to be their surrogate.
Soon she’s bathing in their master room bathtub, drinking their expensive wine until she realizes that not only pictures can be manipulated.
Year Of Publication: 2021
Number Of Pages: 296
Have you read any of the books on the list? Do you have any bookish recommendations? Please share your thoughts in the comment section.
Xoxo,
