Thriller Book Reviews

The best thriller book reviews, including crime, fantasy, historical fiction, horror, legal thrillers, medical, psychological thrillers, sci-fi and more.

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

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 Night Trade, a new Livia Lone Thriller by Barry Eisler

The Bottom Line: Livia Lone proves why she’s Barry Eisler’s best protagonist yet. Like many longtime Barry Eisler fans, my entry point was A Clean Kill in Tokyo. To be honest, I never truly loved Eisler’s John Rain, whose dispassionate outlook on life added little narrative thrust. But Eisler’s insider knowledge of spycraft was blatantly obvious on every page, and together with his ingeniously drawn

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In a Cottage In a Wood, a New Thriller by Cass Green

The Bottom Line: If you love big, never-saw-it-coming endings, this wintertime gem is for you. With the audiobook version weighing in at a brisk eight hours (compare that to The Goldfinch’s 32 hours), the payoff rests on a carefully-crafted crescendo, starting when a woman, Neve, meets troubled Isabelle on Waterloo Bridge late one night. Isabelle forces a parcel into Neve’s hands and jumps to her death

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One of Us, an Essential YA Whodunnit by Karen M. McManus

The Bottom Line: An essential whodunnit for both YA and adult crime fiction fans. Karen M. McManus’ teen murder mystery is the perfect antidote to Netflix’s Riverdale, the Twin Peaks-meets-Archies mashup that never really feels set in high school. By contrast, McManus artfully sets up a believable single-setting high school atmosphere that feels inspired by both Clue and the Breakfast Club. On Monday afternoon, five

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The Immortality Trigger, a Highly Recommended Thriller by Douglas Misquita

The Bottom Line: A powerhouse medical thriller with all the right ingredients: a secret order, illicit wonder drugs and a relentless hero that never gives up. Highly recommended. Nazi Germany, 1945.  As a ragged group of loyal soldiers await the inevitable Allied invasion, hope for the Third Reich is all but lost until SS OberstgruppenfĂ¼hrer Frederick Mauer arrives in one of the country’s last remaining

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The Wife Between Us, a Crime Thriller by Greer Hendricks

The Bottom Line: Fans of Gone Girl will love Venessa Thompson, the book’s deliciously unreliable narrator. From the start, The Wife Between Us is a grand setup, a literary house of mirrors intended to invite expectations and then destroy them one by one. So yes, it’s contrived. But is it good? You betcha. This fast-paced story about a love triangle gone really wrong is driven

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Oathbringer: Book Three of the Stormlight Archive, by Brandon Sanderson

The Bottom Line: only word word will suffice: Epic! For the uninitiated, Oathbringer is the third volume of the New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive. The epic fantasy series began its live on a website and is now a runaway bestseller. Roshar is the native name for the planet on which The Stormlight Archive is set. It is also the name of the supercontinent on which the main

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Rising Fury, an Explosive Action Thriller by Wayne Stinnett

The Bottom Line: Can you think of a better way to spend a few hours than with sunny killing machine Jesse McDermitt in the Florida Keys? Read it. Retired Marine-turned-charter boat captain Jesse McDermitt is back for another adventure. As thriller characters go, Jesse isn’t all that unique. His skills as a sniper, diver and sailor are simply table stakes. What makes Wayne Stinnett’s highly entertaining

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Spirits, a Sexy Psychological Thriller by Alex Jones

The Bottom Line: A timely and explosive psychological thriller about sexual power, BDSM, systemic sexual abuse and harassment. When FBI agents arrive at the lavish Las Vegas home of psychologist Dan Whitney, they find local police and CSI technicians responding to an alleged abduction of Dan’s girlfriend, Francesca Capellini, during a housewarming party. It takes only a few moments for law enforcement to connect the

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Best Thrillers of 2017

The Best Thriller Books of 2017

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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