Thriller Book Reviews

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

The K Factor, a High-Octane Action Thriller by L.J. Martin

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The Bottom Line: Author L.J. Martin had me at “secret mission into North Korea.” North Korean ambassador to China Kim Hyun-hee has indicated that he’s willing to defect and spill the country’s nuclear secrets. There’s only one thing standing in his way: doing so would be a veritable death sentence for his entire family. American intelligence decides that a secret mission to extract the family […]

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The Identity Trilogy, a Psychological Thriller Series by Alex Jones

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Alex Jones’ identity trilogy begins with Walls, the first of three psychological thrillers making up The Identity Trilogy. Jones’ insight into the inner conflicts and erotic fantasies of his four main characters opens our eyes to the tragic world of trauma and abuse, its frightening effects on the human mind, and the resiliency and spirit of those who manage to survive. Psychologist Dan Whitney and

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An Interlude in Berlin, a Highly Recommended Spy Thriller by Jefferson Flanders

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Bottom Line: With this meticulously crafted Cold War spy thriller, historical auteur Jefferson Flanders scores big. Highly recommended for fans of John le Carré. In An Interlude in Berlin, author Jefferson Flanders casts a foreboding Cold War spell over 1950s Germany. As American diplomat Dillon Randolph finds himself entrenched in a divided Berlin, he is himself at a crossroads, having gone through some issues of

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The Last Straw, a Hugely Satisfying Crime Novel by Ed Duncan

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The Bottom Line: Another hugely satisfying dose of contemporary noir from budding auteur Ed Duncan. Among mobsters, nobody likes a rat, and teenage girl are no exception. So when sixteen-year-old Chicago native Sandra Yanders agrees to testify against a killer, her life is in immediate jeopardy. It doesn’t take long until an assassin finds her in his rifle scope. As fate would have it, he

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Blood Fund, an Irresistable Financial Thriller by R.C. Westyn

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The Bottom Line: The Wolf of Wall Street meets The Godfather. Gripping, salacious and irresistible. Aqua Capital may seem like just another Wall Street hedge fund, but the company at the core of R.C. Westyn’s new thriller is anything but ordinary. The men behind the fund represent a holy trinity of sleaze. Vincenzo Di Stefano, a small time Staten Island extortionist; Harold Grassler, a dirty

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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 Night Trade, a new Livia Lone Thriller by Barry Eisler

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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

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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

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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

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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 Oberstgruppenführer Frederick Mauer arrives in one of the country’s last remaining

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