Psychological Thriller Books

The best psychological thriller book reviews. Psychological thrillers include a wide-ranging list of themes, including crimes committed by mentally disturbed individuals, the often blurry line between reality and fantasy, and a variety of psychologically suspenseful situations.

Project Purple, a Dystopian Page-Turner by Michael Greco

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The Bottom Line: The Hunger Games meets Survivor. Equal parts dystopian thriller and satire, Project Purple is a truly memorable page-turner. For a tidy sum of cash as well as the promise of bonuses and fame, 13 wildly diverse people agree to recreate a colonial experience as it was in the early 1600s, and have the entirety of their experience broadcast worldwide. The colonists in […]

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The Broadcast, a Psychological Thriller by Liam Fialkov

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The Bottom Line: The Man in the High Castle meets The Circle. A truly innovative sci-fi thriller that should make for lively book club discussion. What if a technological breakthrough could allow people to view video footage of historical events going back thousands of years? That is the promise of a fascinating technology at the center of The Broadcast, a novel about a television network

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Hometown Boys, a White-Knuckled Thriller by Mary Maddox

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The Bottom Line: Don’t miss this white-knuckled thriller from the dark princess of suspense. After the grisly murder of her aunt and uncle, 40-year-old Kelly Durrell returns to her hometown in rural Illinois. Soon, her grief is compounded by another shock – local authorities have arrested Kelly’s ex-boyfriend, a local junkie named Troy, and accepted his confession. His stated motive? Revenge. Kelly broke his heart

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Watching You, a Brilliant Psychological Thriller by Lisa Jewell

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The Bottom Line: Rear Window meets The Woman in the Window. Highly recommended. What’s creepier than a peeping Tom? How about an obsessive, socially dysfunctional teenager who spends all his free time watching and cataloguing the movements of his neighbors? He even has nicknames for them, like “red boots.” Oh, did I mention that his biggest dream is to become a spy? Melville Heights is

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The Girl Next Door, One of the Year’s Best Thrillers

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The Bottom Line: One of the year’s best thrillers, The Girl Next Door had me at “donuts and high heels.” This cheeky, stylish and sophisticated novel is a must for anyone who loves unreliable narrators. Lisa Aurello’s The Girl Next Door begins with a murder, then rewinds a few weeks to eavesdrop on a conspiratorial café conversation between her likely killers. But in a clever

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The Death of Vultures, a Dark Psychological Thriller by Susan Wingate

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The Bottom Line: This grim mystery about guilt, loss and the dark allure of vigilante justice is unlike anything you’ve read this year. Set on an island in the rural Pacific Northwest, Susan Wingate’s The Death of Vultures tells the story of a heartbroken middle-aged woman, Meg Storm, and her struggle to come to grips with the deaths of her husband and daughter. Both died

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A Fan of Death and Shakespeare, a Psychological Thriller by Rick Lacey

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The Bottom Line: One of the decade’s most original and surreal psychological thrillers, Lacey has crafted an impossible-to-put-down murder tale while skewering corporate dysfunction and deftly exploring a rare twin psychopathy. Rick Lacey’s new thriller opens in 1994 – the same day as the O.J. Simpson murders – as BP employee John McCall discovers his boss’ body in his office. McCall calls Cleveland homicide detective

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Nemesis, a Winning Psychological Thriller by Julie Hodgson

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Bottom Line: A blistering psychological thriller that will have readers begging for a sequel. Buy it. When it comes to her clientele, psychologist Kathy Smith – who is also a gifted psychic – has become something of a specialist. Smith takes on murderers, rapists, pedophiles, thieves, violence, junkies and other “generally nasty people.” But she’s taking a year off from her practice to take on

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The Watching, a Must-Read Legal Thriller by Michael Donovan

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The Bottom Line: Chock full of psychological suspense, and gloriously infused with dread throughout, The Watching is a must for legal thriller fans. London criminal defense attorney Kate Walker has plenty of reasons to be paranoid. Her clientele is packed with repeat offenders who, despite Kate’s astonishingly good track record, are rarely grateful for her efforts. In some cases, they are openly menacing. As Walker’s

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End It By The Gun, a Psychological Thriller by Kenechukwu Obi

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The Bottom Line: An ambitious psychological thriller that reads like a fever dream. Tailor-made for fans of Franz Kafka. Beck Blades, a writer from rural Nebraska, is obsessed with creating a Hollywood blockbuster. Movie studios reply to his queries with rejection after rejection. His wife, Julie, isn’t exactly supportive of his creative endeavors. She’s cruel, jealous, and, apparent by the way he readies himself for

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