23 Best Thriller Books to Read in 2023

23 Best Thriller Books to Read 2023 is finally a list I’m sharing!

If you’ve read a thriller, or even if you haven’t, you may have thought to yourself, “I wonder what are the best thriller books to read?” I know I’ve asked myself that, especially when I first got into the genre!

Lucky for you, I have binged hundreds (and I’m not exaggerating) of thriller books. I have put together a list of 23 best thriller books to read 2023 just for you all. Now you don’t have to reach the entire interest to figure out what to read!

Carly-Rae’s Best Thriller Books to Read 2023

Best Twists: The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

“This book kept me up! It was so twisty and so OMG that I always recommend it!”

Best Cover: The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

“There is something about having the Sun Down Motel on the cover and how it relates to both timelines in this twisty read!”

Best Writing: The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

“Ruth Ware books I always enjoy because her writing style never fails to disappoint! She has a way with words in thrillers that makes me want to hold my breath until the final page!”

1. The Maidens by Alex Michaelide

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides falls into the psychological thriller category. It centers around a group of friends at Cambridge University who find themselves intrigued by a murder investigation. The protagonist is Mariana, who is a therapist and struggling to cope with her late husband’s death. After her best friend’s niece is found murdered on campus, Mariana is positive that Edward Fosca, a former professor, killed her.

Edward, though, has a dedicated following that many call “the Maidens.” However, the more Mariana digs, the more convinced she is that he is a murderer and his accomplices are his Maidens. A heart-pounding thriller that will keep you guessing!

2. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weird centers around Ryland Grace. He awakes on a spaceship with zero memories of how or why he got there or what he’s supposed to do. As Ryland slowly starts to piece together his memories, he realizes it’s up to him to save the Earth from extinction as it’s threatened. He decides to try to get samples from a star with the help of an alien creature and a highly advanced artificial intelligence. The sci-fi mixed with the thriller is a pitch-perfect mashup in this book!

3. The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse

The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse is a hair-raising thriller centering around a remote hotel in the Swiss Alps. The protagonist, Elin Warner, is a detective who is on leave and is at the hotel when her brother’s estranged girlfriend suddenly goes missing. Elin is tapped to help in the investigation, but soon she learns this hotel has a dark history. It used to be a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients, but current guests detail weird things that have happened to them while staying there.

Decades worth of secrets start to get dug up by Elin, and soon the mystery becomes as gripping as the missing girlfriend.

4. The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey centers around Evelyn Caldwell. She is a scientist who is absolutely brilliant at what she does and has created a clone of herself in order to serve as the perfect partner. But Evelyn never expected her husband to fall in love with the clone she created. Soon there’s a web of lies and secrets that start to come to the surface, and this thought-provoking thriller will keep your heart racing!

5. The Therapist by B.A. Paris

The Therapist by B.A. Paris centers around the couple Alice and Leo, who moved to a newly renovated home. It’s located in The Circle, which is an exclusive gated community. In short, it’s their dream home. But not everything is as it seems.

Alice soon discovers their new home has a dark secret that no one wants to address. But when they learn their neighbors are hiding something, they soon find out that even if something looks perfect on the outside, it might not be on the inside.  

6. The Shadow Box by Luanne Rice

The Shadowbox by Lucanne Rice centers around Claire Beaudry Chase. She gets attacked and left to die in her house, that is located on the coast of Connecticut. Suddenly, Claire has no idea who to trust. Worse? The prime suspect is her husband, Griffin, who’s also running for governor.

Right before she got attacked, Claire was prepping for a shadow box exhibit that could tie Griffin not only to an attack but a crime that he committed decades ago. It makes Claire realizes it’s something she or her husband’s powerful acquaintances would kill for if it stopped anything from leaking. She must decide what to do, especially after a friend of hers is murdered and the police think it’s linked to her attack.

7. The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave

Hannah Hall gets a mysterious note from her new husband right before he goes missing. It simply says, protect her. Hannah, though, knows exactly what it means. Protect his 16-year-old daughter, Bailey, who lost her mother when she was a kid. But Bailey wants zero to do with Hannah.

But when the FBI arrests her husband, Owen’s boss, and then federal agents show up at her house, she starts realizing just how little she knows about him. But Bailey may be the only one who can uncover this mystery.

8. The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish

What if you’re living the life you always wanted and going to work on a ferry with her neighbor, Kit, next to you? But then Kit goes missing, and his wife reports him missing, and you’re the number one suspect? A fellow passenger reported that you were arguing with Kit and the last person with him. Who is this perfect, and why are you being told you did this? You did nothing, didn’t you?

9. The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

The story followed Lynnette Tarkington. She survived a brutal massacre, and for more than a decade, she’s been meeting with other girls who were the only ones to survive. The support group is only for the ‘final girls.’ But when one turns up missing, they realize someone knows about them, and they are bound determined to come after them.

10. The Hunting Wives by May Cobb

Sophie O’Neill left behind everything in Chicago to settle down with her young son and husband in Texas. But the small town is too small, and soon Sophie finds herself going stir-crazy. Then she meets Margot Banks, who sweeps her into the Hunting Wives. A secret clique who meet for late-night target practice and partying. Sophie suddenly becomes so enthralled she loses sight of her family and everything else.

Then when a teen girl’s body is found right where the Hunting Wives meet, Sophie is thrown into the center of a murder investigation.

11. The Push by Ashley Audrain

Protagonist Blythe Connor is determined to be a great mother to her new baby Violet. A mother who is nothing like her own mother was to her.

But Blythe soon finds motherhood is not only hard, but she doesn’t connect with Violet. Violet is a hard baby, but her husband thinks she is dreaming all this up. It causes Blythe to question herself until her son is born. She and Sam just connect, and he connects with Violet. This all shatters in a split second, and Blythe is left facing reality.

12. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Protagonist Alicia Berenson has a perfect life. She is a famous painter who married a fashion photographer, Gabriel, that is in demand. The two live in a luxurious home overlooking a park in a desirable area in London. One night, when Gabriel comes home, Alicia shoots him five times in the face. Then Alicia becomes mute.

Her refusal to say a word becomes a mystery that captures everyone. Alicia’s art skyrockets and she is sent to North London to live at the Grove. The “silent patient,” as she comes deemed, soon becomes someone everyone wants to try and crack to talk. Then comes Theo Faber. He’s a criminal psychotherapist who gets the chance to try and get Alicia to talk. But the search may just consume his world.

13. The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn

Anna Fox lives alone in NYC. She won’t go outside. Instead, she stays in and drinks wine, watching movies, and spying on those around her.

She becomes intrigued by the Russells, who moves in across the street. There’s a mom, dad, and teenage son. They appear to be perfect, but one night Anna sees something she shouldn’t, and now nothing is the same. Did she make it up? Is what she saw true? Who should she call?

14. The Silent Corner by Dean Koontz

haunting words leave Jane determined to find out what led her husband to kill himself. But her path is hardly straight.

She becomes the most wanted fugitive in America. Worse? Her enemies are powerful, and they will get rid of anyone threatening to expose the secret. But Jane is clever even if they are dangerous. Will Jane be above to bright to light what’s really been happening?

15. The Whisper Man by Alex North

After his wife dies suddenly, Tom Kennedy decides the best way to help himself and his son Jake heal is by starting somewhere fresh. He buys a new house in Featherbank.

The town, though, harbors a dark secret. Twenty years ago, a serial killer known as The Whispering Man whispered in windows to lure his victims outside before they turned up dead. This happened to five local residents, but Frank Carter was got and put in jail.

But as this father-son duo settle down, a young boy vanishes, mirroring the MO of The Whispering Man. It’s a race against the clock when the detectives have to try and find the boy before it’s too late, and then Jake hears a whisper…

16. The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter

GBI investigator Will Trent gets thrown a curve ball when he goes to investigate a killing of a prisoner in a state penitentiary. An inmate confronts him, claiming he’s innocent of a crime a corrupt law team led by Jeffrey Tolliver framed him for. The serial killer remains at large, and if he investigates, he will give him information about the killing that happened in the penitentiary.

Trent starts digging after a woman is violently killed, but after decades the cold case is tricky, especially after he needs to talk to Tolliver’s widow to get information.

17. The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

The story follows twenty-five-year-old Libby Jones, who arrives back home to find a letter telling her who her birth parents are. Libby learns she is the inheritor of a million-dollar mansion in London and decides to go to the Chelsea neighborhood.

However, Libby soon learns a haunting secret. Twenty-five years ago, the police arrived at the home to find a baby crying upstairs and three dead bodies in the kitchen, with four kids, reported missing. Will Libby be the key in unraveling this mystery?

18. The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

Rowan Caine decides to take a job as a live-in nanny. Granted, it was not the job she wanted for herself, but the money was good, and the opportunity was even better. She gets to live in a beautiful home in the Scottish Highlands. A dream, right? Rowan never imagined she’d be charged with murder after a child ends up dead.

She writes her lawyer in prison about what happened and declares she murdered no one. That doesn’t mean she didn’t behave the best, but between the surveillance and the glitches in the technology, someone did something…but who?

19. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Rachel rides the same commuter train day and night. She always finds herself looking out the window and seeing the same couple in the morning eating breakfast on their deck. Rachel calls them “Jess and Jason” and sees their life as picture perfect until one day, something happens.

Rachel goes to the police, but she isn’t reliable and soon becomes entangled in the web of secrets. Has she helped investigators or hurt them in finding out what really happened by opening her mouth?

20. The Chain by Adrian McKinty

A mother, Rachel Klein, drops her daughter off at the bus stop and goes on about her day. But one day, she gets a call from a no-caller ID. A woman on the other end of the line tells her she has her daughter bound and gagged. Rachel will only see her daughter again if she follows the exact instructions she is given, which is to pay a random and then kidnap another child. If Rachel doesn’t, the woman on the other end of the line’s son will be killed.

The Chain is a scheme that continues to go on because parents will do anything to protect their children. Is there any way to break the Chain before more crimes get committed?

21. The Guest List by Lucy Foley

A gorgeous wedding is taking place off the coast of Ireland. A beautiful bride who is a magazine publisher. A handsome groom who’s an upcoming TV star. It’s a wedding fit for a celebrity in this remote area. But as the champagne starts flowing and jealousies start to unravel the picturesque wedding at the seams, a body turns up. Who is trying to separate this couple?

22. The Survivors by Jane Harper

Kieran Elliot decides to head home with his young family. But going home means bringing up his past mistakes that had tragic consequences.

A body is found on the beach, and this threatens to expose things that have long been buried. Now, answers are needed to questions that have been looming around for years.

23. The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

In 1982, Viv Delaney decided she wanted to move to NYC. She starts working at the Sun Down Motel as a night clerk in order to save enough money. But the hotel holds secrets that soon cause her to go missing…

In 2017, her niece Carly Kirk couldn’t shake off the stories she heard of her aunt Viv. Carly decides to visit this motel and soon finds the place looks as it was decades earlier. Still, the same eeriness lurks there, and Carly becomes as intrigued about it as her aunt.