Best Thriller Book Lists

Our editors rank the top thriller and mystery books by year, decade or subgenre. These lists include legal thrillers, crime thrillers, cozy mysteries, FBI thrillers and more.

Kill Shot book cover by Vince Flynn

Ranking The Best of Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp Books

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Vince Flynn ushered in his counter-terrorism hero, Mitch Rapp, in the late 1990s and never looked back. His Mitch Rapp political thrillers are reliable best-sellers, and even after Flynn died far too young at age 47, the series continues through author Kyle Mills, who has done incredibly well with big shoes to fill. The Rapp character was finally brought to big screen in 2017 with […]

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Writers Like Janet Evanovich

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Since the 1996 novel One For the Money, Janet Evanovich has been the gold standard among humorous mystery novelists. The book featured Stephanie Plum, a former lingerie buyer who becomes a bounty hunter to make ends meet after losing her job. Plum often finds herself in hilarious conundrums as she goes about her business. There have been 26 Plum novels in total, with the last

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The Best Medical Thrillers of the Decade (2010-2020)

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At a time when it can seem like we’re all living in a medical thriller, it can be oddly therapeutic to escape to a world where the worst case scenario is actually far worse than our own. Maybe that’s why we’ve gotten so many requests for our favorite medical thriller recommendations over the past few weeks. Over the past decade, we’ve had the pleasure of

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The Best Thriller Books of 2020

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We all know 2020 hasn’t been our favorite year. With that said, it has been an amazing year for fans of mystery and thriller books. We have been blessed with an abundance of amazing choices is coming from all categories. As always, it’s a daunting job to narrow the list down from the hundreds of books our team receives to just a handful. In terms

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Brad Thor Best Books

The Best Brad Thor Books Ranked in Order (Updated!)

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Brad Thor, the author of 19 novels, is a rapidly rising figure in both literature and politics. Since publishing his first novel in 2002, Thor has steadily built a massive fan base with his series built around Scot Harvath, a secret service agent, ex-navy seal, and blunt instrument. Thor has appeared as a pundit on numerous TV shows, including Hannity, Piers Morgan, Glenn Beck and

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The Best Thriller Books of 2018

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Our 2018 fall list of the best mystery and thriller books so far is incredibly diverse, ranging the gamut from political thrillers to crime thrillers and everything in between. If there’s one thing that distinguishes this excellent batch of books, it’s character development. While losing sleep is practically guaranteed with any of our mid-year picks, each is a fast-moving tapestry of emotionally-driven art that you’ll

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Best Thrillers of 2017

The Best Thriller Books of 2017

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Our 2017 list of the best mysteries and thrillers is incredibly diverse, ranging the gamut from psychological thrillers such as Rose Edmunds’ second Crazy Amy book to Douglas E. Richards’ latest sci-fi mindbender. Unlike previous years, we’re highlighting exceptionally read audiobooks in our list as well – a nod to the growing popularity of the format. Infinity Born by Douglas E. Richards The Bottom Line:

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The Best Thriller Books of 2016

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What a stellar year for mystery and thriller books! There’s something here for everyone, ranging from dark (really dark!) crime thrillers, to the paranormal, spy thrillers, science fiction and virtually everything in between. Our criteria is very simple: novel-length books published as early as December 2015 and as late as December 1, 2016, fitting at least one of the specialized thriller or mystery subcategories we feature here on

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Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Books like Gone Girl: Five Irresistable Thrillers

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A phenomenon like Gone Girl comes along rarely in the book world. Just two years after becoming a massive literary sensation, the film – which ended up being quite good – was catapulted into theaters with a screenplay penned by original author Gillian Flynn. And the film, in turn, has since reignited interest in the book. If you’re just now getting around to finishing it, then you’re no doubt looking for other

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Sanctus by Simon Toyne

The Five Best Religious Thrillers of All Time

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For this list, we’re defining a ‘religious thriller’ as a pulse-pounding mystery, conspiracy or quest that uses religious artifacts, secrets or clergy at the core of the story. We chose not to be constrained in our criteria by claims of religious accuracy, Biblical or otherwise. After all, even the most devout authors often take liberties with commonly held beliefs in their storylines. Here are five great religious thriller books that have

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