Here are 81 books that The Serial Killer's Wife fans have personally recommended if you like
The Serial Killer's Wife.
Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.
I’m a backpacker at heart, a high school English teacher, and a bestselling author with an eye on what’s really happening under the surface and what people are really thinking. My mum taught me early to "watch the quiet ones," and I’ve always been fascinated by the way people can promote a very public self while maintaining something totally different on the inside. Perhaps that’s why I love a good twist! I also think that in the current climate of extremely savvy thriller readers, it’s impressive to wrongfoot readers and stay true to the clues hidden in the pages.
This literary thriller is a delicious blend of sneakiness, travel, and treachery. The story begins in New York but soon moves to the humid backdrop of Morocco, where the mysteriously pen-named “Maud” is working on her new novel.
Told in the voice of Maud’s assistant, this book drew me into the main character’s desperate need to be somebody. But who is tricking who? The twists in this book are epic.
'Clever, cunning, and diabolical in the best possible way. Anyone longing for a good old-fashioned thrill need look no further' Ann Patchett
Celebrated, bestselling, elusive...who is Maud Dixon?
Florence Darrow wants to be a writer. Correction: Florence Darrow IS going to be a writer. Fired from her first job in publishing, she jumps at the chance to be assistant to the celebrated Maud Dixon, the anonymous bestselling novelist. The arrangement comes with conditions - high secrecy, living in an isolated house in the countryside . Before long, the two of them are on a research trip to Morocco, to inspire…
I’ve been writing crime novels and TV shows for years. For TV, I wrote for Law & Order, Pretty Little Liars, CSI: Miami, and several other crime shows. In the book world, I used to write amateur sleuth novels, and now I write thrillers. My favorite form of relaxation is to get a cup of tea, put my feet up, and read a great thriller. They inspire me. As I read, I study how they’re structured. There’s nothing I appreciate more than a twist I didn’t see coming, a morally good character who turns out to be evil, or a flawed character who ultimately turns out to be good.
When I was a kid, I used to love W. Somerset Maugham short stories. Often they were about two strangers, usually men, meeting in a remote colonial outpost, and one of the two would then proceed to tell the other a strange, violent, heartbreaking, life-altering story that had happened to him or that he had witnessed. Mouth to Mouth, which I loved, reminded me of those stories.
I listened to it on audiobook, and the narration is pitch-perfect. This novel is about two men who meet at an airport when their plane is delayed. They go into a lounge, where one of them, a rich art dealer named Jeff, proceeds to tell the other his life story.
It’s gripping. I sat in my car after I got home so I could listen to the last twenty minutes.
I've been writing for 20 years, and the more I learn about the craft, the less interested I am in big, bombastic thrillers about the end of the world. Now I'm more impressed by books that do a lot with a little. Some talented writers can spin a gripping story out of nothing more than two people in a room (Stephen King's Misery is one of my all-time faves). The domestic noir genre lends itself to this kind of minimalism. Sure, serial killers are scary, but not as scary as the thought that your spouse might not be who they seem.
Pippa has everyone else's dream husband. Not only is Gabe gorgeous and a loving father to their two daughters, but he's also a bona fide hero—they live in a house on the edge of a cliff, and Gabe has talked several would-be jumpers out of committing suicide. But one day, a woman falls to her death. Pippa doesn't see the event, but she does see Gabe a split-second later, arms outstretched—did he reach out to save the woman, or did he push her off the edge?
It's a great set-up, and the author refuses to rest on it. The story takes one bold leap after another (if you'll pardon the expression) but never leaves the reader behind. When I realized that half the chapters would be narrated by the dead woman, speaking from beyond the grave, I should have been disbelieving, but instead, I was even more intrigued.
'Gabe is alone at the cliff's edge. His arms are outstretched, palms facing the empty air.'
He said she jumped. He wouldn't lie.
Before the woman went over the cliff, Pippa and Gabe were happy. They have the kind of marriage that everyone envies, as well as two sweet young daughters, a supportive family, and a picturesque cliff-side home - which would have been idyllic had the tall beachside cliffs not become so popular among those wishing to end their lives.
Gabe has become somewhat of a local hero since they moved to the cliff house, talking seven people down…
I’ve been writing crime novels and TV shows for years. For TV, I wrote for Law & Order, Pretty Little Liars, CSI: Miami, and several other crime shows. In the book world, I used to write amateur sleuth novels, and now I write thrillers. My favorite form of relaxation is to get a cup of tea, put my feet up, and read a great thriller. They inspire me. As I read, I study how they’re structured. There’s nothing I appreciate more than a twist I didn’t see coming, a morally good character who turns out to be evil, or a flawed character who ultimately turns out to be good.
I enjoyed this novel about a serial killer's daughter. The main character is flawed but very rootable, and the ending took me by surprise.
I especially admired the way all the different strands of the plot came together. The author laid out some good cookie crumbs for the reader to follow, and I missed several of them in a way that was very satisfying when they were revealed to me. I also liked that the main character gets a happy ending that I found very believable.
A twisty psychological thriller from the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Housemaid and The Coworker!
Some doors are locked for a reason…
While eleven-year-old Nora Davis was up in her bedroom doing homework, she had no idea her father was killing women in the basement.
Until the day the police arrived at their front door.
Decades later, Nora's father is spending his life behind bars, and Nora is a successful surgeon with a quiet, solitary existence. Nobody knows about her past, and she'll do anything to keep it that way.
Growing up, my mother often shared stories of her evacuation to a small Wiltshire village during World War Two. Far from a warm welcome, the local children viewed the newcomers with suspicion, and they were made to feel unwanted. My mother did, however, form one lifelong friendship that was very important to her. Her tales inspired me to write a novel about an evacuee’s experience for my Creative Writing MA. Living in Dorset at the time, I set my story there. The research was fascinating, allowing me to weave together historical insights with my own memories and experiences of today’s rural life.
As a grandmother myself, I felt the pain of the loss of a baby, fortunately only imagined in my case, and the distress of a bereaved mother. Wartime, by its very nature, brings loss of life, and there is no lack of that in this story.
These losses were, for me, later tempered by a storyline that divided my sympathies. A book that tore at my heartstrings without labouring on detailed violence of war.
EVERY MOTHER'S WORST NIGHTMARE IS ABOUT TO COME TRUE...
Based on a gripping and moving true story, The Stolen Baby is the new Second World War novel from bestselling author Diney Costeloe.
Plymouth, 1941. As sirens blare all around, the Shawbrook family take refuge in a packed shelter. Bombs have already begun to fall through the night sky when they realise their infant son, Freddie, has been forgotten in the rush, left to sleep in his crib. Terrified, Vera, his young mother races to find him and bring him to safety.
The next morning, police officer David Shawbrook returns from…
I’ve been fascinated by time travel and speculative stories since I was a child. I grew up with The Tomorrow People and then later was captivated by Sapphire and Steel. While I love reading most genres and have a book blog and book column in the local press, I feel speculative fiction has just that little extra edge. It answers that clichéd questionwhat if? And transports you into magical visions of slightly different worlds. I hope you enjoy the books on this list as much as I have. And perhaps, one day, The Storytellers might appear on someone else’s. What a joy that would be!
I lost my mother, gosh, about twenty years ago and the idea of being able to time travel back and see her once more is irresistible. What makes this book even more special is that she goes back and meets her mother as an adult at a time when she would have been a child. She even meets her younger self. How amazing would that be? It raised so many thoughts in my mind. What would I tell my younger self, and would there be a way to save my own mother’s life? It’s both a fascinating concept and compelling story. I think anyone who has lost a parent will resonate with its beauty. The ending itself truly took my breath away.
'Nostalgic' The Independent 'Heart-warming' Platinum 'Uplifting' Cosmopolitan 'Beautiful' Stylist 'Quirky' Best
If you could go back in time to find answers to the past, would you?
For Faye, the answer is yes. There is nothing she wouldn't do to find out what really happened when she lost her mother as a child. She is happy with her life - she has a loving husband, two young daughters and supportive friends, even a job that she enjoys. But questions about the past keep haunting her, until one day she finally gets the chance she's been waiting for.
Like most authors, I love reading stories as well as writing them. Being of a certain age, I’ve read plenty. For me, the best tales are those where women overcome deadly odds to create their own happy ending. Those are the books I aim to write too. My characters are much braver than me! While they grapple with challenges, I’m simply tied to a keyboard. Sometimes I take my laptop to a coffee shop (mine’s a flat white, please). I live in Bristol, in the English West Country, and have spent time in Birmingham and London. They all feature in my books and give them a strong sense of place.
Linwood Barclay is adept at dreaming up quirky characters. Find You Firstfrequently switches between points of view, but there is no confusion because the characters are distinct and interesting.
On the face of it, this is a tale of two men with too much money. Tech billionaire Miles donated sperm as a student and wishes to trace his natural children. Meanwhile, sleazy Jeremy, a Jeffrey Epstein-style character, is trying to silence his victims. However, the real stars are two sparky young women, Chloe and Nicky. Chloe, suddenly confronted by the father she never knew, joins forces with Miles to find out why his other kids are being killed. Fifteen-year-old Nicky is the victim who fights back. When the disparate strands of the story come together, these ladies kick butt.
One will change your life. One will end it. Who will ... FIND YOU FIRST?
'The best book of his career' STEPHEN KING
'Insanely paced, wildly entertaining' JOE HILL
'A full-throttle powerhouse of a thriller' T.M. LOGAN
'Sharply drawn' SUNDAY TIMES
'Keeps the engine racing' THE TIMES
It's a deadly race against time...
Tech billionaire Miles has more money than he can ever spend, but he can't buy more time. Diagnosed with a terminal illness, he is forced to take a long, hard look at his past.
Somewhere out there, Miles has children who don't know it, but they might…
In the Spring of 2006, I went to the south of France searching for troubadours. It was my MA year and my thesis was looking at the influence of the courtly love tradition on Chaucer’s writing. Troubadours (and the female, trobairitz) were nowhere to be found. The closest I came was a café named Le Troubadour. However, evidence of their lyrics was there in the beauty and lushness of Languedoc in spring. I'm always drawn to the poetry, landscapes, and love stories of the past and have experienced how these connections enrich my life. I've completed a PhD in seventeenth-century literature and become an historical fiction novelist and a devotee of history and historical fiction.
With a tight cast of characters, I was intimately drawn into the distressing and mysterious predicament of young heroine, Bess Bright.
Set in Georgian London, Bess has been forced to give up her baby, but when she returns to the home to reclaim her, she discovers she has already been taken. Bleak and tense, this book however resolves into an uplifting tale where characters are treated with compassion and justice is achieved. A mother’s love has the power to transform the bitterest of beginnings. Historical fiction at its best.
The captivating Sunday Times bestseller from the author of The Familiars
Two women, bound by a child, and a secret that will change everything . . .
London, 1754. Six years after leaving her illegitimate daughter Clara at London's Foundling Hospital, Bess Bright returns to reclaim the child she has never known. Dreading the worst, that Clara has died in care, Bess is astonished to be told she has already claimed her. Her life is turned upside down as she tries to find out who has taken her little girl - and why.
I’ve had a passion for crime/thriller/suspense/horror novels since high school, when I truly fell in love with reading. Specifically, during my junior year, when my English teacher, after having us read Catcher in the Ryeby J.D Salinger, then announced to the class that we were reading Stephen King the rest of the year. Up until that point I hated to read, but then after reading King—we read just about all of his novellas—I fell in love with the darker side of storytelling, and the macabre in general. Now when I consider buying a book, the darker the better! I hope you enjoy these reads as much as I did!
Because Greg Iles is one of my all-time favorite writers and this book is terrifying. I’ve read it twice, and it cooked even faster the second time around. The family dynamics between Harper Cole and his wife really gripped me, but when this came out in 1997, it really hammered home how evil the internet could be, and how killers could lurk in complete disguise and hide themselves behind facades and masks and computer screens. Greg Iles has so much range in his storytelling it's scary. If you haven’t read him, start with his first and work your way through! You won’t be disappointed!
A man with a secret life risks everything to clear his name in this "ingenious suspense thriller"(The New York Times Book Review) from the bestselling author of the Penn Cage series.
By day, Harper Cole trades commodities from his isolated home in the Mississippi Delta. By night he leads quite a different life, serving as a systems operator for an exclusive, annonymous erotic online service that caters to the rich and famous. But now a stranger has penetrated the network's state-of-the-art security, brutally murdering six celebrated female clients.
Falsely accused of these horrible crimes, Harper realizes there's only one way…
I’ve had a passion for crime/thriller/suspense/horror novels since high school, when I truly fell in love with reading. Specifically, during my junior year, when my English teacher, after having us read Catcher in the Ryeby J.D Salinger, then announced to the class that we were reading Stephen King the rest of the year. Up until that point I hated to read, but then after reading King—we read just about all of his novellas—I fell in love with the darker side of storytelling, and the macabre in general. Now when I consider buying a book, the darker the better! I hope you enjoy these reads as much as I did!
Why did I first pick it up? Because of the cover. Why did I buy it? Because of the story promised on the cover flap. And it was a French, international, multi-translated mega-hit. What happened after I read it? I hunted down the author’s next 2 books and bought them, because holy smokes, this one blew me away. The crime scenes in this novel left absolutely nothing to the imagination, and once the pages started turning there was no stopping this deadly suspense train. Plus, Commandant Camille Verhoeven is about as uniquely cool as a protagonist can get.
For Commandant Camille Verhoeven life is beautiful. He is happily married and soon to become a father.
HE'S ALWAYS ONE CHAPTER AHEAD
But his blissful existence is punctured by a murder of unprecedented savagery. When his team discovers that the killer has form - and each murder is a homage to a classic crime novel - the Parisian press are quick to coin a nickname . . . The Novelist.
HE HATES HAPPY ENDINGS
With the public eye fixed on both hunter and hunted, the case develops into a personal duel, each hell-bent on…
