The best thrillers about ordinary people in extraordinary situations

In the early days of World War II, a Paris-based film producer tries to carry on working as usual and ignore the Nazi occupiers. Given the chance to give some minor aid to the British secret service, he agrees, and with each step, he’s drawn deeper and deeper into danger. His best–and only—weapon is his wits. Maybe at first he doesn’t think he’s taking much of a risk. But, with hindsight, I know how precarious his situation is, and I’m silently begging him not to do it! Furst’s riveting spy tales are what first attracted me to stories about ordinary people in extraordinary situations.

Two American housewives—sisters—are on vacation in Morocco (a place I’ve really enjoyed visiting) and one of them disappears. Her sister is determined to find her, but neither has any preparation for the dangers they face. A foreign setting is mysterious, exotic, and always holds unknown possibilities. Finding themselves in a rural area, the women don’t know whom to trust, and they cannot rely on the usual social safeguards. The police and military are actually a threat. For me, a standalone thriller like this packs extra tension because you can’t be certain the characters will survive!

This jigsaw puzzle of a psychological thriller involves a world-class con artist. So, so cleverly done. I didn’t put all the pieces together until the very end, which took my breath away, literally! Most of the story is told via the diary of a naïve college dropout, who wants desperately to work for a fashion magazine. She wangles an internship with an important publication and reveals to the diary her growing admiration for one of the mag’s high-living senior editors. Memoranda and phone messages of other people reveal the authorities are suspicious of the editor, as the intern works merrily on. I wanted her to wake up! I unsuccessfully tried to telepathically communicate the danger signs to her, but no.

In small-town Virginia, the Black owner of a successful landscaping business and a white alcoholic ne’er-do-well who lives in a broken-down trailer might seem to have little in common, but they do. Their gay sons married each other and were murdered. Now both dads regret how they hadn’t accepted their sons’ choices. They form an uneasy alliance to track down the killers. They want more than revenge. They want redemption. And justice. The narrator of the audio version (Adam Lazarre-White) is absolutely brilliant. I especially liked how Cosby doesn’t shy away from fundamental, painful issues in American society and treats them with intelligence and compassion. I felt like a better person for reading it.

A young mother and her four-year-old son are leaving the zoo at closing time. She hears a strange popping noise, and when they near the exit, she sees a number of dead or dying people on the paths in front of them. Finding a place to hide and to keep her voluble, demanding son quiet will take all her skill as a mother. The child’s behavior is so expertly conveyed, every parent will cringe with anxiety every time he talks too loudly or gets ready to wail. Phillips’s excellent writing was so terrifying, I had to take breaks so I could breathe.