Plot Twist by Harlan Coben
What better way to lead off this month’s Thrill List than a how-to book from one of the biggest names in the mystery-thriller genre, Harlan Coben. And what he calls his memoir on writing, Plot Twist, takes us inside the mind and minutia of someone who knows, literally in this case, where the bodies are buried.
Plot Twist, though, is much more than a tradecraft manual. It’s a deeply personal account of the foibles and fears even the most successful writers experience. In that respect, details in fascinating fashion how he sausage gets made. From character, to concept, to where his incredible plot twists themselves come from, this is must reading for any writer as well as anyone who wants to experience the creative process up close and personal.
In that respect, Coben truly bares his soul in offering a primer on the ingredients of a bestseller in today’s upside-down world of publishing. But he didn’t reach his lofty status overnight and almost, as we learn, not at all. Stephen King covered comparable ground brilliantly in On Writing, as did David Morrell in The Successful Novelist and, to a different degree, Andy Martin with Reacher Said Nothing. Plot Twist follows in those footsteps, while leaving bigger prints. Brilliant in all respects.
Double Tap by Don Bentley
Double Tap is Don Bentley’s third effort since taking the reins of the late Vince Flynn’s seminal Mitch Rapp series and proves once more he’s a worthy successor to the master.
In fact, his latest is pure Flynn. One of the top chemical weapons scientists in the world is snatched off the streets of Verona, and the race is on to find him before the kidnappers get what they want, leaving millions of lives hanging in the balance. Mitch Rapp toplines the list of agents on the scientist’s trail, finding common ground with allies and enemies alike to stop the maelstrom that will result if he isn’t rescued in time. But even that only touches the surface of the ultimate stakes involved.
Bentley continues the trend Flynn started himself in crafting a tale as cerebral as it is muscular. You need both these days in top-flight thrillers, and Double Tap is that and much more. Perfectly paced, tightly plotted, and laden with action scenes worthy of Mitch Rapp, this is a page-turner in every sense of the word.
Heart of Glass by Jennifer Hillier
Jennifer Hillier knocks another one out of the park with Heart of Glass, which is also her most ambitious and full realized thriller yet.
The action opens a generation ago when a chance meeting three teen girls had with a charismatic stranger leads to murder at the hands of a charming Ted Bundy-like figure it turns out becomes known as the Carnival Killer. Upon his arrest, he confesses to five murders, including the best friend of our heroes in the person of Barb and Nicolette. Twenty-five years later, they’ve moved on and built lives for themselves. But the past resurfaces when the Carnival Killer suddenly insists that his confession was a lie. Then another body is found that matches his MO to a T, leading to an uneasy reunion between the two, now charged with finding the real killer of their friend while learning William Faulkner’s quote that “The past isn’t dead; it’s not even gone” is all too accurate.
Heart of Glass is a psychological thriller extraordinaire that’s also a journey into Barb and Nicolette’s own personal heart of darkness. Bold, bracing, and, quite literally, breathtaking.
These Ancient Bones by Heather Graham
There aren’t a lot of authors out there who have published or sold more books than Heather Graham, but here’s the thing: She’s better than ever, as displayed in her latest sizzler of a tale, These Ancient Bones.
Technically, this is the latest in her paranormal investigative series featuring the Krewe of Hunters, but the Krewe has become the Crows. The rebranding doesn’t diminish the plotting in the slightest as paranormal investigator Shelly Mahoney and the similarly gifted federal agent Grant Markham are brought together on an unusual murder investigation that’s right up their alley. That’s because something called a “curse tablet” was found at the scene of a crime, part of the dark magic being unleashed by opponents as deadly as they are determined to eliminate anyone who gets in their way, starting with Shelly.
These Ancient Bones is a paranormal procedural par excellence and scintillating mix of Dan Brown and Stephen King. Just when you think Heather Graham has done it all, she pens this blisteringly original and relentlessly entertaining thriller that’s as riveting as it is relentless.
Laws of Solomon by Eriq La Salle
The reluctant hero has long been a staple of thrillers in particular and books (as well as movies) in general. Eric La Salle employs that familiar trope with skill and aplomb in Laws of Solomon.
The Solomon of the title actually appeared as a lesser character in earlier entries of the Martyr Maker series and proves himself more than capable of driving the action. Solomon wants no more than to put his violent past behind him, toward which he trades in his guns for gardener’s tools and begins weeding lawns instead of humanity. That is, until an endangered boy named Gaby leaves Solomon no choice but to return to his old ways in order to protect him. I’m not giving anything away by saying the bad guys are none too happy about that, but have no idea of who they’re really dealing with.
At his best, which is pretty much all the time, Solomon is reminiscent of Lee Child’s Reacher, except he’s looking to settle down instead of moving on from place to place. The staccato prose evokes classic noir in the manner of Don Winslow and George Pelacanos, but Solomon is every bit the contemporary anti-hero for whom redemption remains just out of grasp, helping to make Laws of Solomon a marvelous morality play on top of being as good a thriller as you will read this year.
Goodnight Monsters by Suzanne Junered
Suzanne Junered serves up psychological horror in spectacular fashion with Goodnight Monsters, in which the monsters are very much flesh and blood.
Her spectacular debut confronts us with the dark side forever lurking below the surface, in this case possibly brought on by Lia Montgomery’s pre-partum psychosis, if there even is such a condition. Because why else would a perfectly ordinary future suburban soccer mom start fantasizing about murder? The dichotomy surfaces after she forces her way into a forensic anthropology center known as the Body Farm. And before you can say “serial killer,” a body donated for study turns out to be one of those Lia fantasized about killing, the first blood to be spilled but hardly the last.
Goodnight Monsters is a superb exploration of the Mr. Hyde who dwells in all of our psyches and what it takes for the side of us that is Dr. Jeckyll to prevail. Junered masterfully takes Lia right to the edge of madness without ever quite going over the edge, and the result is a chilling character study culled from the likes of Rose Madder and Dolores Claiborne from the master himself, Stephen King.
Main Street Fringe by Matthew Lavoie
Matthew Lavoie’s wildly frantic romp, Main Street Fringe, makes for one of the top debuts of 2026 so far.
Detective Theo Barnes’s believes in doing the right thing, an idealist who sees right and wrong as standing in starkly divergent camps. That is, until a case he’s running topples a state senator steeped in power and national ambitions. Suddenly, the system he believes in turns against him, which makes him splendid fodder for a cult-like group of conspiratorial crazies who believe Theo’s plight makes him worthy of membership. Instead of giving in, he goes undercover to reclaim his career at the risk of both his and his family’s lives.
I can’t remember the last time I read an undercover tale with the vim and vigor of Main Street Fringe. Lavoie is in full command, crafting colorful characters who call the lunatic fringe home, leaving it to Theo to bring sanity to an insane world. An exquisite blend of style and substance that is not to be missed.
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
This was the summer of The Odyssey, as far as films go, but talk about living up to the hype, right? So much so that I found myself on a Trojan War reading spree which brought me to Madeline Miller’s sensational The Song of Achilles, a fresh take that tells the oft-told tale from the point-of-view of Patroclus, best friend and lover of the mythic hero Achilles.
They were mere teenage boys when King Agamemnon’s hundred-ship strong army sailed from Greece to retrieve the kidnapped Helen. And their wondrously portrayed tempestuous relationship reads like an ancient take on John Knowles similarly tragic classic A Separate Peace, with Patroclus, respectively, standing in for Gene and Achilles for Phineas. The scale of the story is shadowed by the inevitability of the young lovers’ fates which doesn’t stop it from achieving a profound emotional resonance, even as the tears fall with the blood of Greeks and Trojans alike.
The fact that history bears scant evidence the Trojan War happened, or that Achilles even existed, proves no impediment to this fully realized, epic tale of forbidden love set against the backdrop of war and testament to the power of friendship. In that respect, The Song of Achilles is a classical romance of epic scale, as wondrously conceived as it is realized.
