The most recommended mystery thriller books

Road to Perdition takes place during the Great Depression. Like my book, it concerns a man who betrays his Chicago Irish-American mob boss and is forced to flee for his life (accompanied by his young son in this case), pursued by a relentless killer sent by his former boss. Superficially, what appealed to me was the Depression-era atmosphere that the author of Road to Perdition created. On a deeper level, it appealed to me as a story of a man in a battle for the soul of his son. The man, an enforcer for his gangland boss, considers his own soul to be irredeemably lost because of the crimes he has committed, not only survive but to thrive.

I’ll devour any novel by Grisham, and I love that he took a departure from his standard legal thrillers to pen a story about the theft of rare books and the man suspected of selling them on the black market.

The hook is Mercer Mann, the young novelist who’s not only suffering from writer’s block but she’s also just been canned from her job. How can Mercer possibly turn down the mysterious woman who offers her a hefty fee to work undercover and infiltrate Bruce Cable’s illegal operation? 

Grisham’s flawless storytelling had me looking at the world through Mercer Mann’s eyes and pondering what choice I would have made if I were in her shoes.

Graham Greene is another master craftsman of thriller novels that explore political, moral, and ethical ambiguities in a way that both entertains and provokes. Better known for Our Man in Havana, Greene was sufficiently uncomfortable with The Confidential Agent that he wanted it published under a pseudonym. Yet I agree with critics that this tale of a foreign agent’s covert efforts to buy British coal to fuel a European civil war is among his best. Greene reputedly wrote it in six weeks, assisted by a diet of amphetamines and an affair with his landlady’s daughter, giving the novel a pace and rawness that reflect its creation.  

While not your typical cut-and-dried cold case mystery—the first half of this suspense thriller centers around the present-day case of Maddie Lane, a 12-year-old girl who is either a runaway or abducted from her bedroom—the second half is set four years in the future, and in my opinion, this is where the book really comes into its own. I found the past/present structure—no back and forth, no fancy flashbacks—refreshing, and Mofina does a fine job detailing the scrutiny Maddie’s family faces in the aftermath of her disappearance, while slowly and methodically revealing not only their secrets but their feelings of guilt.

This book is thought-provoking and I love how the author switches it up and keeps it interesting through her use of different story-telling devices including text messages, police interviews, and diary entries.

This inspired me in my own writing because of how much I appreciated it as a reader. This riveting novel has a quick pace and I found it original. I was fascinated by the fact that everyone’s perspective on the murder of a teenaged boy is included—except for his girlfriend’s—the one who was accused of killing him. 

I LOVE anti-heroes, and Okiku, as a vengeful ghost who horrifically kills child murderers, is perfect.

A lot of books end with a character’s trauma as if surviving is the only important part of the story. But Okiku didn’t survive her trauma-—and she is furious, taking out all her pain and rage on people who prey on the weak. When Okiku makes a connection with a lonely, cursed boy, she starts to wonder if she can help prevent tragedy instead of cleaning up after it. Through an unlikely friendship, Okiku and Tark come together and show that it’s never too late to heal.

If I’m making it sound like this is a sweet story of friendship and redemption, be warned—this book is terrifying.

This book is an entertaining thriller about a woman who discovers, or thinks she discovers, that her husband has killed at least one woman in the past. She needs to figure out how to extricate herself and her daughter from this situation in a way that will be least damaging to the two of them.

It's difficult to talk about this novel without spoilers, but the second half of The Serial Killer's Wife has great twists, and the ending packs a wallop. It's not often that a final twist surprises me as much as this one did!

I was shocked when I realized S.A. Lelchuck was male.

Nikki Griffin, a hardnosed San Francisco detective slash bookstore owner, is such a dynamic, fleshed-out female character I just assumed she’d been penned by a woman. Well, you know what they say about assuming. Nikki is a kick butt, take no prisoner’s PI with an agenda.

Like the PIs in the books above, she veers onto the wrong side of the tracks often. Actually, she jumps over them and runs along the wrong side of the tracks while brandishing brass knuckles and a baton.

Even when she’s breaking the law, you’re kinda okay with it because, well, Lelchuck’s bad guys are really bad. 

Who is Vera Kelly isn’t your typical 1960s Cold War spy novel.

Although Vera’s sexuality is unresolved and she’s had a rocky road to adulthood, the CIA recruits her. She goes to work as an undercover agent in Buenos Aires. Her day job is to infiltrate a campus Marxist group with ties to the KGB. At night, she transcribes wiretaps taken from the presidential palace. When her handler goes dark, Vera is caught in the middle of a coup.

Who is Vera Kelly takes us into the mindset of lovely Vera. She’s fresh, funny, quirky, and comes off as a (relatively) regular gal, albeit one who is scrambling to stay alive in South America.

The Wolf and the Watchman took me by surprise. I don’t usually fall for historical crime/mystery fiction (the story is set in 1793, in Sweden). However, this novel grabbed me immediately and didn’t let go.

The Wolf and the Watchman delivers a captivating whodunit with literary flare. The plotline is utterly convincing. The descriptions are lyrical yet on point. You get a heartrending page-turner peopled by characters you won’t forget, driven by motivations as dark as a Stockholm winter night.

As for the whodunit angle, the twists and red herrings will hook even the most exacting mystery lover.