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Gripping thriller

A good thriller makes you say 'just one more chapter' at midnight. These range from a golden-age puzzle to modern psychological suspense, and all of them keep the pages turning.

Books to start with

  • And Then There Were None

    Agatha Christie

    Ten strangers on an island and no way out: the classic closed-circle mystery.

  • Rebecca

    Daphne du Maurier

    A new wife in a house haunted by her predecessor. Slow-building dread and a great twist.

  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

    Stieg Larsson

    A journalist and a hacker dig into a decades-old disappearance. Dark and compulsive.

  • Gone Girl

    Gillian Flynn

    A wife vanishes and the husband becomes the suspect, with twists that keep rewriting the story.

  • The Da Vinci Code

    Dan Brown

    Short chapters and a race through hidden clues make it very easy to keep reading.

  • The Silent Patient

    Alex Michaelides

    A woman stops speaking after a crime, and a therapist is set on finding out why.

How to choose

This list is for readers who want to be pulled forward, from a classic puzzle to modern suspense. Choose by the kind of tension you enjoy. For a puzzle with a closed circle of suspects, start with And Then There Were None. For slow-building dread, try Rebecca. For modern twists about a marriage or a troubled mind, pick Gone Girl or The Silent Patient.

The Da Vinci Code is a good fit if you like a plot that races through clues. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the darkest here and deals with violence against women, so skip it if you want something lighter. If you rarely read thrillers, the Christie is an easy way in: clear, classic and old-fashioned in tone. Save any of them for a long sitting, a weekend or a trip.

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