Best Thriller Books of all Time
Thriller books don't always have to let one's mind conjure images of dark, mysterious men hiding away in alleys, or women in distress after midnight. Thrillers have been known to be full of suspense, drama and bloodshed, with a somber air to every story. Some writers can make it comical and light in some places, even adding romance to jazz up the book's structure. What counts now as a thriller, should also be the kind of book that gives you the classic chills - to let you lay wide-eyed under the sheets, or the kind that occasionally leaves you gaping.
There's nothing like a good spine tingling book to keep you up at night, or glued to all day. If we're going to go down that road where thriller equals creepy besides the usual suspicion or adventure sorts, then we're talking about the king of all that is ghastly - none other than Stephen King.
I can still recount that day back in the 8th grade when I fell in love with this odd, dark writer who spun tales that were shockingly real, with many bordering on the fictitious kind that were hard to ever take as unreal stories. The first book I ever read back then was Bag of Bones, and man did that book creep the crap out of me. It had everything from murder and mystery to rape and the paranormal - enough to turn anyone into an insomniac, and was disturbingly the best thriller book I'd read till date.
Eight years later and I'm still an ardent King fan. You'll find his works mentioned in the list of the best-selling thriller books of all time. We cover reads that have been published over the decades, but are still making it to the top as some of the best so far. Don't miss out on the best thriller books of the decade, that is enlisted at random.
Top Thriller Books - The 50 Most Collectible Reads
These are instantly some of the best books of all time that fall under the thriller genre. Be sure to stack these books up nice and tall, and get down to reading them if you've missed out on what's making it to the top among critics and readers worldwide.
- The Bone Collector: Jeffery Deaver
- The Shining: Stephen King
- Mystic River: Dennis Lehane
- No Country for Old Men: Cormac McCarthy
- In Cold Blood: Truman Capote
- The Likeness: Tana French
- The Talented Mr. Ripley: Patricia Highsmith
- Feed: Mira Grant
- Deadline: Simon Kernick
- What the Dead Know: Laura Lippman
- A Simple Plan: Scott Smith
- The Cairo Dairy: Maxim Chattam
- The Lost Symbol: Dan Brown
- Child 44: Tom Rob Smith
- The First Deadly Sin: Lawrence Sanders
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Stieg Larsson
- Shutter Island: Dennis Lehane
- The Kill Artist: Daniel Silva
- The Woman in White: Wilkie Collins
- Carrie: Stephen King
- Devil May Care: Sebastian Faulks
- Jaws: Peter Benchley
- The Poet: Michael Connelly
- Rebecca: Daphne du Maurier
- Intensity: Dean Koontz
- Sweetheart: Chelsea Cain
- Strangers on a Train: Patricia Highsmith
- Heartsick: Chelsea Cain
- In the Woods: Tana French
- In the Dark: Mark Billingham
- Jurassic Park: Michael Crichton
- The Count of Monte Cristo: Alexandre Dumas
- The Point of No Rescue: Sophie Hannah
- The Silence of the Lambs: Thomas Harris
- Dracula: Bram Stoker
- Spook Country: William Gibson
- The Anatomy of Ghosts: Andrew Taylor
- The Bellini Madonna: Elizabeth Madonna
- The Firm: John Grisham
- The Secret Speech: Tom Rob Smith
- The Tourist: Olen Steinhauer
- Beat the Reaper: Josh Bazell
- Blood Brother: J.A Kerley
- The Vows of Silence: Susan Hill
- Sunday at Tiffany's: James Patterson
- Heart Shaped Box: Joe Hill
- Fearless Fourteen: Janet Evanovich
- Echo Park: Michael Connelly
- The Murder at Road Hill House: Kate Summerscale
- Saturday: Ian McEwan
- Nineteen Minutes: Jodi Picoult
