Suspense

Lit Picks: 6 Books that Redefine Suspense, Mystery & Thrillers

Mystery, suspense and thrillers unfold through tension and anticipation, not chaos or contrived shocks. True suspense emerges from uncertainty, discovery and the sense that something essential lies just beyond reach. The six books below demonstrate this with precision. Each constructs its world with deliberate pacing and psychological insight, delivering plots…

BookTribNovember 5, 2025

Listicles Thrillers

Twisty Tales for Chilly Nights: Suspense with a Mythic Edge

Cooler nights call for twisty tales — the kind that blur the edges of reality and myth to make suspense feel haunted by something older than fear. These suspense novels aren’t full-blown fantasy, but they’re laced with folklore, haunted by history and steeped in mythic echoes that make you glad…

Janyre TrompOctober 9, 2025

Fiction Thrillers Thrillers - Featured

Strand Unearths Shirley Jackson’s Lost Short Story “Adventure on a Bad Night”

As the story goes, Andrew Gulli, Managing Editor at The Strand Magazine, was in the midst of research when he came across a work of Shirley Jackson’s that he had never read. Curious, he reached out to her agent and, lo and behold, discovered that the 3,000-word short story had…

Judy MorenoDecember 17, 2020

Book Club Network Fiction Thrillers

“The Devil Wears Prada” Meets “Get Out” in “The Other Black Girl”

In The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris (Atria), 26-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers loves her New York City publishing job. She has longed to become an editor at Wagner Books ever since reading their groundbreaking bestseller Burning Heart when she was a teenager. Nella’s dream has come true,…

Jodé MillmanJune 2, 2021

Fiction

Family Dynamics and the Surprising Truth Between Twins in Sally Hepworth’s “The Good Sister”

The Good Sister (St. Martin's Press) by Sally Hepworth is entertaining, captivating and addictive. I love her storytelling, atypical characters and the tricky twists and turns which are always surprising in the end. Rose and Fern are sisters: Rose is the responsible one, married with a white picket fence and…

Jennifer BlankfeinJune 3, 2021

Recommended Thrillers

Thrilling Legal Showdown Delivers Justice, Drama, and Razor-Sharp Wit

If in another life author Richard A. Danzig decided to become a standup comic, well, he could probably do a lot worse, given his spot-on talent for writing funny monologues for his comedian character Verne Slater in the recently released legal thriller, Punch Line. Despite what the book’s title might…

Jim AlkonDecember 19, 2024

Fiction Listicles Thrillers

Killers, Secrets and Crimes from King, Baldacci and Turow

Jon LandNovember 3, 2022

Recommended

Epic Space Adventure Told Through Neurodivergent Lens

Set in an epic voyage through outer space, Space City by William Spencer effortlessly weaves together science fiction, action, suspense, drama and romance. It’s the 22nd century, and everyone knew Earth was about to be destroyed — just not so soon. With a meteor within days of destroying Earth, 27-year-old…

Katie BloomerNovember 11, 2024

Recommended

Terrorism & Tech Industry Collide in Hollywood Screenwriter’s Cinematic Spy Thriller

Nine Minutes Eleven Seconds explodes off the page with cinematic action and a clever, tech-terror driven plot. L.V. Pederson’s immersive thriller features a diabolical mastermind with connections to the attacks on the twin towers, and an unsuspecting heroine who must find the strength to overcome personal trauma and help stop…

Michael FerryJanuary 28, 2025

Thrillers

Uncover Dark Secrets in “The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby”

Ellery Lloyd has written a richly nuanced, densely layered literary mystery thriller The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby. The author’s name is a pseudonym for the English husband-and- wife writing team of Paul Vlitos and Colleen Lyons. He is a professor of creative writing at the University of Greenwich and…

Linda HitchcockAugust 14, 2024

Fiction Thrillers Thrillers - Featured

Imprisoned University Official Must Sort Out Implications of Huge Financial Gift

“The gift seems promising, but how do we know what we do not know?” “We will do our best, but I am positive we will not know everything.” Of that later point, our narrator, Bill — a university administrator in way over his head in Robert Berne’s intriguing Tuscan Son…

Jim AlkonSeptember 9, 2022

Fiction Thrillers Thrillers - Featured

“Shadow Music” Orchestrates a Perfect Symphony of Missing Artwork, Mafia Men and Murder

Helaine Mario’s latest suspense novel, Shadow Music (Oceanview), begins in 1985 at the border between Austria and Hungary with two women on the run: aspiring nun Donata and her best friend Tereza, both raised behind the iron curtain and seeking freedom abroad. Tereza clutches her baby daughter and her father’s…

Nikki ErlickSeptember 21, 2021

Fiction Young Adult Young Adult - Featured

Two Teens Find Themselves the Unwilling Subjects of Experiment in “Secrets of the Building”

Grief can gut you completely. Anyone who has experienced trauma that's resulted from the loss of someone close to them knows how deeply true this is. Some find their memories of the event so unbearable that they’d do anything to escape them. What if there was a way to do…

Cynthia ConradOctober 4, 2021

Fiction Listicles Listicles - Featured

An Unconventional Ride: 8 Daring Novels of Train Travel

You love to travel. No, wait, I’m not overgeneralizing! Hear me out, because I have an argument all prepared. You might have instantly thought, “yes, she read my mind!” Maybe you’re a bold backpacker who is willing to risk the discomfort of hostels in order to get that authentic experience.…

Judy MorenoJanuary 31, 2022

Listicles Thrillers

6 Thrillers For Fans of Jack Carr’s “The Terminal List”

The last few years have been major for thrillers going mainstream on streaming services, with both The Terminal List (starring Chris Pratt) and The Gray Man (starring Ryan Gosling) turning heads on Amazon Prime and Netflix, respectively. And if you enjoyed those, you might be looking for a book series or two that’s…

Wyatt SemenukJune 5, 2023

Miscellany Thrillers

Bestselling Author Shares Inspiration for New Thriller That Will Test Your Moral Compass

A stranger leaves you $3.5 million in his will — do you take the money and run? Or do you assume it’s a mistake and fork over the cash when someone comes looking for it? Regardless of your knee-jerk response here, the answer may not simply come down to which…

Dawn IusMay 24, 2023

Lit Picks: 6 Books that Redefine Suspense, Mystery & Thrillers

Twisty Tales for Chilly Nights: Suspense with a Mythic Edge

Strand Unearths Shirley Jackson’s Lost Short Story “Adventure on a Bad Night”

“The Devil Wears Prada” Meets “Get Out” in “The Other Black Girl”

Family Dynamics and the Surprising Truth Between Twins in Sally Hepworth’s “The Good Sister”

Thrilling Legal Showdown Delivers Justice, Drama, and Razor-Sharp Wit

Killers, Secrets and Crimes from King, Baldacci and Turow

Epic Space Adventure Told Through Neurodivergent Lens

Terrorism & Tech Industry Collide in Hollywood Screenwriter’s Cinematic Spy Thriller

Imprisoned University Official Must Sort Out Implications of Huge Financial Gift

“Shadow Music” Orchestrates a Perfect Symphony of Missing Artwork, Mafia Men and Murder

Two Teens Find Themselves the Unwilling Subjects of Experiment in “Secrets of the Building”

An Unconventional Ride: 8 Daring Novels of Train Travel

6 Thrillers For Fans of Jack Carr’s “The Terminal List”

Bestselling Author Shares Inspiration for New Thriller That Will Test Your Moral Compass

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