Suspense Thriller Books

The best suspense thriller book reviews. While all thrillers contain elements of anticipation, suspense thrillers spend ample time building a state of mental uncertainty and anxiety in the story’s core characters, often delaying acts of violence over long periods of time to maximize the effect of the ensuing climactic scene.

James Swain

The King Tides, a Gripping Crime Thriller by James Swain

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The Bottom Line: A delicious book about vigilante justice that will surprise you at every turn. Most of us never have to deal with even a single stalker. What if you had a seemingly endless string of them? In the first book in James Swain’s Lancaster & Daniels series, Nicki Pearl is the perfect daughter. Almost too perfect. Wherever she goes, she’s being watched. Each […]

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The Reckoning, a New Legal Thriller by John Grisham

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The Bottom Line: One of Grisham’s finest. The release of a new John Grisham book is like an annual holiday – reliable, full of intense strife, and in the end, sheer pleasure that you look forward to repeating.  As usual, Grisham embraces his trademark southern gothic style here, packing the book with just enough courtroom drama to keep the attention of hardcore legal thriller fans,

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The Crooked Staircase: A Jane Hawk Novel by Dean Koontz

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The Bottom Line: Koontz lives up to his reputation as one of the most reliable crime thriller novelists of our time. In Koontz’s latest outing, his fierce heroine Jane Hawk picks up right where she left off in The Whispering Room. That’s great news for Koontz completionists, but this won’t be a great entry point for anyone not already invested in the series. With that said, this

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Red Stick Two, a Highly Recommended Action Thriller by Kenneth Kirkeby

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Bottom Line: Highly recommended. Red Stick Two is an absolute godsend for military thriller fans, in which life and death is determined by skill, not technology. When an American engineer is abducted by communist group The Shining Path, American intelligence taps two of its best to head into the Peruvian highlands: agent Richard Creole, a regional expert, and master tracker Virgil Cleary. Set in the

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Restitution, One of the Year’s Best Thrillers

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The Bottom Line: One of the year’s best thrillers. Rose Edmunds proves that her Crazy Amy series is only getting better with each installment. Has a long-lost Picasso really resurfaced in Prague? That’s the hope of 84-year-old London resident George Smithies, whose father, a gallery owner, was allegedly tortured and killed by the Nazis in 1939. Having avoided his homeland since his escape to England

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The Greatest Good, an Explosive Police Procedural by Craig Hooper

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The Bottom Line: An explosive police procedural with an endearing hero at its core. Readers will be longing for another Craig Hooper novel. Shamed federal agent Garrison Chase is dealing with some first day on the job jitters. After facing legal issues because of his somewhat unorthodox collection of assault weapons, Chase just landed a new gig as the governor’s son’s bodyguard. Things escalate quickly,

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Give Place to Wrath, a Highly Recommended Crime Thriller by Steven C. Harms

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The Bottom Line: A must-read crime thriller about revenge and race relations that is reminiscent of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. When a bomb kills golf pro Mary Hale and her caddie at the sixth hole Pine Creek Country Club, Milwaukee Detective Roger Viceroy, divisional head of the Midwest Region Special Crimes Unit, is tasked with finding the perpetrator. Was this an act of terror,

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The Demon Crown a new Sigma Force Novel by James Rollins

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The Bottom Line: Rollins’ typically audacious mix of science, technology and horror is as reliable as ever in this hugely entertaining thriller. Off the coast of Brazil, a team of scientists discovers a horror like no other, an island where all life has been eradicated, consumed and possessed by a species beyond imagination. Before they can report their discovery, a mysterious agency attacks the group,

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HYBRID, One of the Year’s Best Thrillers, by James Marshall Smith

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Bottom Line: One of the year’s best thrillers. Exhilarating and original, HYBRID demonstrates that even wildlife conservation can have a sinister underbelly. Dieter Harmon seems to be nothing more than an unassuming veterinarian. He’s also the new guy in town. Not long after stumbling upon a mutilated body in the woods, just the latest in a string of animal attacks, he finds himself at a

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Backfill, a Superb Conspiracy Thriller by Cynthia Soule Levesque

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The Bottom Line: Much more than a superb conspiracy thriller, Backfill is an absolute must-read for any environmentally conscious reader. Mary Ann Hodges seems to have hit the mother load with her new job at a near-emission power plant in Utah. But the idyllic setting hides something much more sinister. While she’s no gumshoe or private eye, Hodges is smart. It’s thanks to her curious

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