The novels I write aren’t typically like other thrillers out there. I want to stand out from the crowd and not be restricted by the expectations readers have nowadays. I compiled this list of thrillers I’ve read that I feel either redefine the genre or break the mould completely. These aren’t conventional. These don’t conform with mainstream expectations. They’re original and much better for it. These are the novels I want people to place alongside mine one day.
This author was one of my own discoveries as a young reader. Predominantly known for his horror novels, he had a sideline in gritty crime thrillers, and Exit Wounds is by far his best one. Set in London, it focuses on a small group of ageing criminals planning a robbery, only to get caught in the middle of a turf war between two gangs of Yardies. It’s violent, and you need a strong stomach at times, but this is one of the most gripping thrillers I’ve ever read. The signed copy I have stands proudly on my bookshelf!
It begins with a murderous chase through the streets of Kingston, Jamaica. When a local hard man escapes, the action moves to an unsuspecting Britain where Yardie drug dealers and criminals begin to die horribly. Meanwhile a small-time crook, Frank Newton, has gathered his posse to pull off the robbery that will finally give them financial independence - unaware that half the haul belongs to a London gang boss who knows who they are.In return for their lives they have to eliminate a merciless new Yardie chief, while they themselves are being shadowed by a tenacious police team. With millions…
I’ve been a bookworm ever since my grandfather lent me his Louis L'Amour books when I was in grade school. Eventually, I gravitated towards mystery/thrillers as my all-time favorite reads (including the various subgenres brought up in my book recommendations). In addition, I’ve been writing mystery/thrillers for the past dozen years. I am the author of the Mace Reid K-9 mystery series about the danger Reid and his pack of human remains detection dogs (cadaver dogs) get into and, hopefully, out of.
Legal Thrillers: The Defense by Steve Cavanagh is the best legal thriller I’ve ever read. Eddie Flynn, a former con artist turned lawyer, is forced to defend the head of the Russian mob in New York City who is on trial for murder. But that’s just the beginning of this Perry-Mason-on-steroids thriller as Flynn brings his A-game to thwart their plans and free his kidnapped daughter. Sleep in late the day you begin reading this legal thriller as you won’t sleep again until after you’ve finished it. Then you’ll be thrilled to discover that Cavanagh’s written several more Eddie Flynn thrillers (The Plea, Thirteen, The Liar).
'Everything a great thriller should be and I can't wait to see more of Eddie Flynn.' Mark Billingham
'So Hollywood, punchy and cool and pacy as hell.' Eva Dolan
Eddie Flynn has 48 hours to save his daughter...
Eddie Flynn used to be a con artist. Then he became a lawyer. Turned out the two weren't that different.
It's been over a year since Eddie vowed never to set foot in a courtroom again. But now he doesn't have a choice. Olek Volchek, the infamous head of the Russian mafia in New York, has strapped a bomb to Eddie's back…
I have always been a storyteller and I’m fascinated by the use of language and how a story can be told well. I’ve used storytelling as an entrepreneur, executive, and management consultant, and my two business books for enlightened entrepreneurship use real-life stories to make the messages and lessons learned more memorable. Fictional versions of those stories were wandering through my imagination to make them more fun to read (and to write) for about fifteen years before they emerged in the Dale Hunter crime thriller series to show that entrepreneurs are not all evil, selfish monsters; sometimes they’re the hero!
I was introduced to Ian Hamilton’s Ava Lee Novels when I was looking for a successful Canadian writer of “business fiction.” We never call it that, of course, it has to be written as an action-adventure, thriller, mystery, suspense novel, and Hamilton meets those criteria with Ava Lee as a tough-as-nails, lesbian Chinese-Canadian forensic accountant tracking down money stolen from business clients.
Her connections and family investments lead her to Hong Kong and Macau for a settling of accounts with local organized crime and Ava Lee knows that violence is the only negotiating tactic they understand.
A forensic accountant attempts to rescue her half-brother and his business partner from a bad real estate deal in Macau that involved gangsters posing as developers in the third novel of the series following The Wild Beasts of Wuhan.
Robert-Houdin, Houdini's first and greatest inspiration, famously said that a magician is an actor playing the role of a sorcerer. When I started out writing professionally, I quickly found myself drawn to characters who are at odds with themselves, living in their own shadows. There's a core tension in the stories these people inhabit that, for me, reflects the structure of a magic trick, with its misdirection and layered realities. I always try to incorporate the principles of magic into my writing, and the figurative masks my characters wear to function in worlds that alienate them are a major part of that.
As a model unreliable narrator, you couldn't pick a more disarming armed robber than Mark "Chopper" Read. He described his pseudo-autobiographical book series as "the truth, the half-truth and nothing like the truth," which may be the most honest statement he ever made. None of this is to suggest that Read wasn't every inch the ultra-violent toecutter he sketches out in his writing. It's just that every word in Chopperis working toward the same goal: building a larger-than-life self-caricature to outshine and outlast the man himself. The cover quote boldly declares, "I regret nothing." The final line of the book admits, "I regret everything." Chopper Read lived and died within that contradiction, and his story's all the more mesmerising for its gunsmoke and mirrors.
Bullied at school, and growing up dreaming of revenge, Mark 'Chopper' Read determined to be the toughest in any company. He became a crime commando who terrorised drug dealers, pimps, thieves and armed robbers on the streets and in jail - but boasts never to have hurt an innocent member of the public. Streetfighter, gunman and underworld executioner, he has been earmarked for death a dozen times, but has lived to tell the tale. This is his story.
Usually I’m not much for novels set in the criminal underworld, so I opened A Man of Lies with some skepticism.
Then I read the first paragraph: “So here’s the short version of things: I did something stupid, some people got hurt, and I’m about to try something far worse.” Who could stop reading after that? Not me. I zipped through the book, happy to live in the company of this tough, worldly, bluntly frank narrator pursuing a goal motivated, we soon learn, by love.
I also wondered about the background of the author. Nothing in the jacket flap biography suggests a con man with a gun. So how does he know all this stuff without having lived it? Who is this guy?
When his lover is killed by their mob boss, a hardened criminal insider decides to pursue one last elaborate heist in an effort to rid himself of his underground lifestyle for good.
Barrett Rye has always been told he can be only one thing in life: an enforcer. He's a seven-foot wall of muscle and the most effective collector in the largest criminal enterprise in the Midwest. After he realizes he wants more out of life than hurting people, he and his mob accountant boyfriend, Mickey, decide to steal enough money from their boss to disappear and start over. But…
I love thrillers that give you something to think about, keep you on the edge of your seat and take you to new places. And, although I also like Daniel Silva and Lee Child and Tess Gerritsen et al, I love to find new voices in the thriller genre, especially ones (like mine) that haven’t become household names. And I am especially drawn to thrillers with great prose and great characters. Try some of the books I recommended. You will not be sorry.
Even though it was almost fifty years ago, I still remember where I was and what I was doing when I read this book. (I was on Cape Cod on a family vacation in the eighth grade.) The book is that good.
MacLean basically invented the thriller, although Edgar Allen Poe might beg to differ. If you are looking for characters that will stay with you for a long time—over forty years in my case—give it a read. MacLean’s dry humor and a twisty plot are added bonuses, but it’s the characters you will remember.
A classic novel of ruthless revenge set in the steel jungle of an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico - and on the sea bed below it.
Off the Gulf of Mexico lies a sunken DC-3. Its cargo: millions of dollars in gold ingots and jewels guarded by the remains of two men, one woman and a very small boy.
The fortune is there for the taking, and ready to grab it are a wealthy oilman, a gangster and a psychopathic hired assassin.
Against them stands Talbot, a man out for justice. He will see the dead given a…
Growing up on a diet of The Godfather, The Sopranos, thrillers, and gangster novels, and living in New York City with eye-opening trips to Sicily, I became slightly obsessed with the Mafia. I came to see the American Mafia as a quintessentially American fabric, woven of family, power, immigrants, money, history, loyalty, legacy, and, yes, crime.
Retired hitman Frankie Machianno thinks he’s left the past behind and can focus on the things that matter—wife, mistress, daughter, surfing, perfect kitchen, roasting coffee, cooking.
But someone is coming for him and wants him dead. The problem is: Frankie doesn’t know who. As he tries to figure it out, we learn about Frank, his family, his lover, and his past, from San Diego beach bum to mafia “button man.”
He’s my favorite kind of gangster—the good guy bad guy—and I couldn’t help but like Frank and fear for his life, as the novel hurtles toward its bittersweet conclusion.
Frank Machianno is the guy, a late-middle-aged ex-surf bum who runs a bait shack on the San Diego waterfront. That's when he's not juggling any of his other three part-time jobs or trying to get a quick set in on his long board. He's a beloved fixture of the community, a stand-up businessman, a devoted father to his daughter. Frank's also a hit man. Well, a retired hit man.
Back in the day, when he was one of the most feared members of the West Coast mob, he was known as Frankie Machine. Years ago, Frank consigned his mob ties…
My name is Alister Dray Penborn. I am a lifelong mystery lover, all the way back to my favorite childhood cartoon, Scooby-Doo, and my favorite anime, Detective Conan, or Case Closed as it was called in the US at the time of airing. It's a passion that grew over the years as I was exposed to even more great mysteries. One of the most appealing aspects is the investigation process, where a character sees the inconsistencies of crime scenes, analyzes and makes sense of events, and collects and relies on the slightest clues to act as puzzle pieces to the full picture.
The Gentleman Bastards are a fun, exciting group with a connection that feels genuine throughout the story and has, by far, some of the best and most hilarious dialogue I've ever read in a book. I've also learned quite a bit about fantasy storytelling from this story, in that you can craft a compelling fantasy story without huge, world-changing stacks by making the characters emotionally motivated in their goal.
The mystery was also a pleasant surprise, as it incorporated clever clues and plot points that came together nicely for a satisfying conclusion. Actions and choices actually weighed in on the events.
'One of my top ten books ever. Maybe top five. If you haven't read it, you should' Patrick Rothfuss, New York Times bestselling author of The Name of the Wind
'Fresh, original and engrossing' George R.R. Martin, the phenomenon behind A Game of Thrones
They say that the Thorn of Camorr can beat anyone in a fight. They say he steals from the rich and gives to the poor. They say he's part man, part myth, and mostly street-corner rumor. And they are wrong on every count.
Only averagely tall, slender, and god-awful with a sword, Locke Lamora is the…
Having grown up in Minnesota, I didn’t even know about the existence of the Mafia until I saw The Godfather! After I moved to New York to work in journalism, I was stunned to see how intertwined mob guys were with every facet of life, from government to entertainment to grocery stores. I became a passionate reader (and now writer) of Mafia history so that I could understand it. I find mob stories endlessly fascinating because of what they reveal about human nature. Organized crime hasn’t gone away, and we ignore it at our peril. I think you'll enjoy these recommendations.
I read this book about the wily and ruthless Genovese mob boss Chin Gigante in one sitting. Veteran New York reporter Larry McShane’s writing is so fluid that he just carries you through the story. He wisely goes well beyond Chin’s well-known ruse of acting crazy by walking the streets in his bathrobe to fool the cops and explains the life that led up to the crazy act—a satisfying read.
He started out as a professional boxer—until he found his true calling as a ruthless contract killer. Hand-picked by Vito Genovese to run the Genovese Family when Vito was sent to prison, Chin raked in more than $100 million for the Genovese family and routinely ordered the murders of mobsters who violated the Mafia code—including John Gotti. At the height of his power, he controlled an underworld empire of close to three hundred made men, making the Genovese Family the most powerful in the U.S.
And yet Vincent “Chin” Gigante was, to all outside appearances, certifiably crazy.…
Having grown up in Minnesota, I didn’t even know about the existence of the Mafia until I saw The Godfather! After I moved to New York to work in journalism, I was stunned to see how intertwined mob guys were with every facet of life, from government to entertainment to grocery stores. I became a passionate reader (and now writer) of Mafia history so that I could understand it. I find mob stories endlessly fascinating because of what they reveal about human nature. Organized crime hasn’t gone away, and we ignore it at our peril. I think you'll enjoy these recommendations.
I couldn’t stop reading this book because I was so captivated by the story of hitman Frank Sheeran, as told by his lawyer, Charles Brandt. Sheeran manages to be both charming and earnest, even as he kills for the mob.
I don’t put much stock in many mobster stories because I know they embroider the truth, but I believed this one. The last chapter of the book literally made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It’s worth reading even if you’ve seen Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, which is based on it.
The book behind the Oscar- and BAFTA-nominated Netflix film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci and Harvey Keitel
'The movie event of the year' - Rolling Stone 'One of Martin Scorsese's best films ever' - Guardian
~
The Irishman is an epic saga of organised crime in post-war America told through the eyes of World War II veteran Frank Sheeran, a hustler and hitman who worked for legendary crime boss Russell Bufalino alongside some of the most notorious figures of the 20th Century.
Spanning decades, Sheeran's story chronicles one of the greatest unsolved…
