The most recommended new thrillers books

Who picked these books? Meet our 162 experts.

162 authors created a book list connected to new thrillers, and here are their favorite new thrillers books.
When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

What type of new thrillers book?

Loading...

Book cover of An Evil Heart

Elena Taylor Author Of All We Buried: A Sheriff Bet Rivers Mystery

From my list on female sleuths in small, rural towns.

Why am I passionate about this?

I started reading crime fiction when I was a very young child. My granny introduced me to mysteries through authors like Tony Hillerman, who wrote books set in the Four Corners region of the American Southwest. That early introduction into mysteries set in small towns and rural areas stuck. My books also focus on smaller towns and rural areas, which I love to visit through fiction or in real life. I have often made my home in a small town and work as a crime fiction author and a developmental editor, so I have an eye for both solid mysteries and life in a rural community.

Elena's book list on female sleuths in small, rural towns

Elena Taylor Why did Elena love this book?

I loved how this book immerses the reader in the Amish community. Not only is it set in a small, rural town, but it’s also centered around an insular subgroup in that area. Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is a character I truly admire.

She’s tough and smart but also struggles with her own personal issues, making her an authentic character that I can relate to. I love this series and can’t wait to read more.

By Linda Castillo,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked An Evil Heart as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Chief of Police Kate Burkholder investigates the brutal death of a young Amish man in An Evil Heart, the latest installment of the bestselling series by Linda Castillo.

On a crisp autumn day in Painters Mill, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder responds to a call only to discover an Amish man who has been violently killed with a crossbow, his body abandoned on a dirt road. Aden Karn was just twenty years old, well liked, and from an upstanding Amish family. Who would commit such a heinous crime against a young man whose life was just beginning?

The more Kate…


Book cover of The Armor of Light

Stephanie Storey Author Of Raphael, Painter in Rome

From Stephanie's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Art nerd History buff Hollywooder Traveler Dreamer

Stephanie's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Stephanie Storey Why did Stephanie love this book?

I’m a historical novelist because of Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth—the way he applied thriller techniques to the historical genre lit up my heart and mind—and this book is the final installment of his Kingsbridge series, which was kicked off by Pillars.

I wept when I started it and wept when it ended. This novel embodies everything I aspire to be as a writer: a historically informative page-turner with characters I love to love and others I love to hate.

If you love Ken Follett, then this final piece of the Kingsbridge series will keep you reading long into the night and cursing Ken: “Please do something boring, Ken, so I can go to sleep already!” No luck. I slept once the book was over.

By Ken Follett,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Armor of Light as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The long-awaited sequel to A Column of Fire, The Armor of Light, heralds a new dawn for Kingsbridge, England, where progress clashes with tradition, class struggles push into every part of society, and war in Europe engulfs the entire continent and beyond.

The Spinning Jenny was invented in 1770, and with that, a new era of manufacturing and industry changed lives everywhere within a generation. A world filled with unrest wrestles for control over this new world order: A mother’s husband is killed in a work accident due to negligence; a young woman fights to fund her school for impoverished…


Book cover of The Nurse

Annie Payne Author Of The Doctor

From my list on medical thrillers featuring doctors and nurses behaving very, very badly.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have always been fascinated by medicine and the people who are there to care for us when needed. I have worked as a nurse and midwife, and the thought that someone, anyone, could actively harm those in their care is horrific. But it happens. At first, I read medical thrillers as I would have read any murder mystery, but now, post-Shipman et al., I also want to know why they kill. I think that these books give us some ideas about this, but we can still never really know what goes on in the mind of a murderous doctor or nurse, and that’s what makes these books so thrilling. 

Annie's book list on medical thrillers featuring doctors and nurses behaving very, very badly

Annie Payne Why did Annie love this book?

This book is different because the protagonist actually starts her murderous spree before she is a nurse and throughout the story, there are always good reasons for the crimes she commits, which helps you develop an understanding and even relate to her problems, if not her methods of dealing with them. Becoming a nurse just enables her sociopathic and psychopathic tendencies, which is very worrying.

The author is not from a medical background, but the nursing side is well-researched, even if I have a few questions about the authenticity of the medical aspects (like the actions of the drugs used.)

There are lots of twists and turns in this cat-and-mouse story as Lissa learns more about herself and the people she works alongside, which makes it a real page-turner.

By Valerie Keogh,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Nurse as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The NUMBER ONE bestselling psychological thriller from Valerie Keogh!

'Keogh is the queen of compelling narratives and twisty plots' Jenny O'Brien

'A wonderful book, I can't rate this one highly enough. If only there were ten stars, it's that good. Valerie Keogh is a master story-teller, and this is a masterful performance.' Bestselling author Anita Waller

Do No Harm...

Bullied, overlooked and under-appreciated, Lissa McColl learns at an early age to do very bad things.

As a nurse, she is respected and valued for the first time in her life. But Lissa hates her job and the selfish, rude and…


Book cover of The Missing Mother

Lynn Slaughter Author Of Missing Mom

From my list on featuring missing mothers.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a mystery author, I’ve long been drawn to stories about missing persons, particularly novels featuring missing mothers. I suspect the special appeal of books about missing moms is because my own mother was M-I-A during my childhood. Whereas my older sisters lost our mother to mental illness at the tender ages of four and seven, in some ways, I was fortunate because I was an infant when our mom was institutionalized and, thus, had never fully bonded with her. And yet, the longing for my mother was ever-present. She left behind a large empty space in our family. 

Lynn's book list on featuring missing mothers

Lynn Slaughter Why did Lynn love this book?

I’m drawn to characters whose emotional wounds from childhood affect their determination as adults to make the world a more caring place.

I found Jenna Stone, a dedicated investigative journalist in this book, a particularly appealing character. Abandoned as an infant in an apartment building’s hallway, Jenna doesn’t want any child to experience the same fate and doggedly works to uncover the identity of a mother who has left her abandoned baby in a “safe haven” at her local fire station.

Alarmed by the note the mother left indicating that her baby is “in danger,” Jenna hopes to unravel the mystery of what led the new mom to fear for her infant’s safety and reunite her with her child. This is yet another psychological thriller that I had trouble putting down!

By Casey Kelleher,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Missing Mother as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

I place my tiny, newborn baby in the box. A ‘safe haven’, they call it, for unwanted babies. She’ll be warm, someone will find her soon. She’ll be cared for. But not by me. I will always want her, but I can never be her mother. And she can never know why.

Jenna has never truly known who she is or where she came from. Abandoned as a baby, she grew up with a caring adopted family, and never felt the need to know more about her birth parents. Until one night, nearly thirty years later, when she sees a…


Book cover of The Traitor Among Us

K.M. Krenik Author Of Danger Lies Within

From my list on thrillers with slow burn love and fantastic worlds.

Why am I passionate about this?

I get a fuzzy, euphoric feeling when I see a room full of books I can smell and touch. Thrillers, mysteries, epic fantasies, classics, romance… Ah, to find narratives with strong characters, amazing worlds, and thick plots that I can get lost in! A little spice is always nice, but please don’t violate me with explicit obscenities. My soul is not meant for these modern times. I’m especially impressed when writers have the ability to paint sensual scenes in a subtle, crafty way that leaves the details to a reader’s imagination. My happy place is reading in a treehouse library that overlooks my forest. One day I’ll go there.

K.M.'s book list on thrillers with slow burn love and fantastic worlds

K.M. Krenik Why did K.M. love this book?

I go insane over a killerrific suspense thriller, and this one checked all the right boxes for me. The setting is 1930s England, for one. So many of my favorite mysteries are set in that era.

The main character was easy to fall in love with. I loved that she was a female spy in that time period. It was thought-provoking and torturous trying to guess how to solve the crime. 

By Anne Perry,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Traitor Among Us as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The fifth novel in Anne Perry's breathtakingly tense and exciting spy thriller series, featuring young British photographer and secret agent Elena Standish, set in the 1930s when the world was a place of increasing fear and uncertainty...

As Hitler's influence spreads across Europe, the future of Britain is at stake...

It is late summer 1934 when retired MI6 agent John Repton's body is found near Wyndham Hall in the Cotswolds. Repton was killed while investigating the Wyndham family's ties to fascist sympathisers, and Elena Standish is assigned to discover if one of them resorted to murder . . .

Meanwhile,…


Book cover of Battle Song

Matthew Harffy Author Of A Day of Reckoning

From Matthew's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Rock star Writer Cowboy Viking Podcaster

Matthew's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Matthew Harffy Why did Matthew love this book?

I loved how this book captured the feeling of what life must have been like in the Middle Ages.

What separates mediocre historical fiction from great historical fiction is a true sense of authenticity, and Battle Song has that in spades. The characters are deep and engaging, but their outlook on the world is not modern.

Surrounded by casual violence, and pervasive religious and racial bigotry, the hero, Adam de Norton has to navigate his way along a dangerous path from lowly squire at tournaments across Europe to a knight in battle in a bloody uprising on British soil in the book’s epic conclusion. I can’t wait for the sequel!

By Ian Ross,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Battle Song as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'A very promising historical adventure' - THE TIMES

'A terrific novel' - HISTORIA MAGAZINE

***

'There is a fury in England that none shall suppress - and when it breaks forth it will shake the throne'

1264

Storm clouds are gathering as Simon de Montfort and the barons of the realm challenge the power of Henry III. The barons demand reform; the crown demands obedience. England is on the brink of civil war.

Adam de Norton, a young squire devoted to the virtues of chivalry, longs only to be knighted, and to win back his father's lands. Then a bloody…


Book cover of An Evil Heart
Book cover of The Armor of Light
Book cover of The Nurse

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,847

readers submitted
so far, will you?