I love a good thriller, perhaps something with a mystery attached to it, some creepy underlying storyline… I’m here for it! So here are a few thriller books to thrill your fictional socks off.
The Girls I’ve Been, Tess Sharpe
This is the newest addition to my thriller shelf. A young adult book about a girl who has lived her life being raised by a con-artist mum, but who has now tried to start over fresh with her older sister. This book takes place in the middle of a bank robbery that our protagonist Nora is caught up in by being in the wrong the place at the wrong time. The narrative also goes between the present day and Nora’s past as we see the girls she used to be when her mum used her for a con act. I loved the balancing act of memories mixed with mild peril that slow escalates as this bank robbery gets much worse.
One By One, Ruth Ware
I read this book over the Christmas break and wow, it had me completely hooked! It’s set on a ski resort that has fallen prey to an avalanche, trapping the guests inside… and what fun, because it turns out there’s a murderer among them. This was the definition of a brilliant thriller, it kept sending me down different routes, had me guessing up until the last minute and certainly left me turning page after page to reach the conclusion. The isolated setting only added to the suspense and with a wide range of characters, this book felt non-stop, in the very best way!
The Cousins, Karen M McManus
Karen M McManus is a brilliant YA thriller writer, it’s hard to highlight just one of her books when she has four fantastically thrilling titles to her name. The Cousins is her most recent release and the only one not set in a school. Following three cousins on their summer break who have been suspiciously summoned by the grandmother they’ve never met to work on her resort of the holidays. These three teens are thrown together under secrets, mystery and more secrets. This book gave me goosebumps and was very compelling, a brilliant thriller!
The Guest List, Lucy Foley
Another recent read for me, this adult thriller follows a wedding party as the big day progresses on a small and secluded island. The start of the book tells us by the end, someone would be dead and there would be a murderer at large. This book’s chapters cleverly became shorter and shorter which just made it even more of a page-turner. Each character’s perspective we see from is giving us more and more information to feed into this mystery and has us constantly guessing at not only who the killer would be… but also who would die!
I’d love to hear your top thriller recommendations!
I only started reading thrilers this time last year (thanks to the year 3 teacher having a massive clear out and me picking up loads of them!) The only Ruth Ware I’ve read is The Lying Game which I remember reading in two days in my garden! I read The Guest List last month and loved it!