The best thrillers that just won’t stop…

This is a classic “I Can’t Put It Down” book.

Ashley is lost in the woods, an emotional and physical wreck, and she’s got to figure a way out. The two things she has going for her are serious survival skills and a fierce determination to never give up. Some of her challenges border on the unbelievable, but then, so do so many real-life stories we’ve all read about.

The reader gets to know and understand Ashley, with all her flaws exposed, as the worsening events force her to dig deep into who she is and what she’s capable of. The author might push the limit of what qualifies as YA, and as an adult I loved it, but when I was fifteen, I would have loved it even more.

The Hunger Games is considered YA Fantasy but I believe Thriller can added to the descriptors.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. Fifty pages in, I had three thoughts: this type of event has happened in the past—think Roman coliseum shows—and will happen again in our future; it’s too believable and making me angry and I should stop reading; no way could I ever put this book down.

We stand by Katniss as she gets everything possible thrown at her and again, never gives up. The best part is that this is only the first in the three-part series.

The primary setting is a hunting club in New York’s Adirondack Mountains that caters to rich and powerful men who secretly call themselves the Lost Boys.

Evie grew up nearby, and now, as an art restorer living in Paris, is remembering traumatic experiences involving club members. She returns to her childhood home to settle the matter and the action begins. The plot is multi-layered and the true nature of the characters is often a mystery, all of which appeals to me.

I also like the accuracy of the Adirondack setting (it’s where I grew up) and how the club itself captures the spirit of the areas Great Camps. But a favorite aspect is the fact that the author, a man like myself, so obviously detests the toxic masculinity of the Lost Boys. I applaud that.

Claire is seven years old when her college-age sister is found dead at a resort on the Caribbean island of Saint X.

Years later, Claire is living and working in New York City when a brief but fateful encounter brings her together with a man originally suspected of murdering her sister. This book is not your standard Thriller; the cast of characters is large and the plot complex, but the author pulls it off.

It’s also not a book to keep you up all night. Try three or four nights. The writing is brilliant in ways not often seen in the genre and I was forced to slow down and give myself over to the story. It’s one I will never forget.

This is one of the best-known real-life survival stories out there.

The author accompanied an expedition up Mt. Everest, made it to the top, and then descended into the hell of nature at its most unforgiving. The book spawned at least three others with first-hand accounts of the event, but this one is the original, and I believe, the best.

Personally, I have climbed many mountains in all seasons, camped out in snowstorms, even trekked in Nepal and mingled with climbers on their way to another Himalayan peak. As a kid, I believed my future involved catching views from the planet’s highest summits. I still love the outdoors as much as anything but am content now to only read about these more dangerous adventures.