In case you missed it, The New York Times recently released its list of “The 50 Best Thrillers of the 21st Century” (yes, this is linked to Instagram because the actual article is behind a login, which I think is stupid). Topping the list was Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Do I think it is the best thriller book of the 21st century (so far)? No. However, if you’ve been here, you know it holds a special spot in my heart as one of the books that 1. ignited my love of mysteries and thrillers, and 2. helped me fall back in love with reading.

With all of this being said, it’s time for MY list of the best mysteries and thrillers of all time. As someone who primarily reads these genres, I feel I’ve earned the ability to create a list like this. 😉

You can shop all these books in my Amazon Storefront (or click any individual link below). Happy reading!

Psychological Thrillers That Will Mess With Your Head

Psychological thrillers thrive on unreliable narrators, slow-burn dread, and the sense that nothing — and no one — is what it seems.

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell A grand, decaying London house, a family found dead, and a baby who vanished without a trace. Jewell weaves past and present timelines together until the house’s secrets (and the identity of the woman who inherited it) collide in one gut-punch reveal.

When She Returned by Lucinda Berry Kate vanished from a parking lot eleven years ago. When she resurfaces at a gas station, traumatized and clutching an infant, her family’s relief curdles into suspicion fast. Berry, a former trauma psychologist, uses multiple perspectives to ask the question that drives the whole book: is Kate a victim, or is her return more dangerous than her disappearance ever was?

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn The book that redefined the genre. A wife disappears, a husband becomes the prime suspect, and the truth is far stranger than either version of events suggests. If you haven’t read it yet, start here.

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides A woman stops speaking the day she’s accused of murdering her husband. A therapist becomes obsessed with uncovering why, and walks straight into one of the most talked-about twist endings in modern thriller fiction.

My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney A newer entry that’s quickly climbing “best of” lists this year, this one dissects a marriage from the inside out, layering secrets until you’re not sure which version of the truth to trust.

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager A too-good-to-be-true apartment-sitting job at a legendary (and legendarily creepy) New York building comes with a strict list of rules, and Sager makes you feel exactly why breaking them would be a terrible idea. Gothic dread meets modern conspiracy thriller.

The Locked Ward by Sarah Pekkanen Twin sisters, separated at birth and raised in wildly different worlds, are reunited under the worst possible circumstances: one of them stands accused of murdering her sister and is confined to a psychiatric ward awaiting trial. Told in alternating first- and second-person POV, it’s a claustrophobic, nature-vs-nurture thriller about how well we can ever really know our own blood.

Everyone is Watching by Heather Gudenkauf Five contestants. One isolated estate. A live-streamed reality competition worth $10 million (and a producer with a very personal reason for putting them all in the same room). Gudenkauf turns the “trapped house” thriller into a sharp commentary on how far people will go when the whole world is watching.

Cozy & Classic Mysteries for Comfort Reading

Not every mystery needs to leave you rattled. These are the books for curling up with tea and a blanket.

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman Four retirees in a peaceful village solve cold cases for fun…until a real murder lands on their doorstep. Funny, tender, and cleverer than it lets on. Osman’s We Solve Murders series continues this year with a new globe-trotting entry, so this is a great time to catch up on the earlier books.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie Ten strangers, one island, zero survivors expected. Nearly a century later, it’s still the sharpest locked-room mystery ever written and the template for half the books on this list.

The Ernest Cunningham series by Benjamin Stevenson Kicking off with Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, this series follows a narrator who breaks the fourth wall to explain (and gleefully undercut) every whodunit trope in the book. Playful, meta, and genuinely tricky to solve.

The Vacation Mysteries by Catherine Mack Starting with Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies, this series follows mystery novelist Eleanor Dash, who can’t seem to take a trip without stumbling into a real murder. Funny, escapist, and stacked with self-aware genre jokes.

Locked-Room & Isolated-Setting Mysteries

There’s something irresistible about a small cast of suspects trapped somewhere with nowhere to run.

One Step Too Far by Lisa Gardner When a young man vanishes on the first night of his bachelor party in the Wyoming wilderness, recovering alcoholic and self-appointed finder-of-the-forgotten Frankie Elkin joins his father’s last-ditch search party. But as clues stack up that don’t add up, it becomes clear something in these woods is actively working to stop them from finding the truth. Part missing-persons thriller, part survival story, it’s been described as And Then There Were None meets Deliverance, and Frankie’s dry, self-deprecating voice keeps it from ever feeling bleak.

The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley It’s the glitzy opening weekend of The Manor, a luxury resort carved out of the Dorset coast. But the ancient forest next door holds fifteen years of buried secrets, a local grudge against the development, and rumors of a mysterious group called the Birds. By the next morning, there’s a body and a fire, and Foley’s five rotating narrators spend the rest of the book untangling who among the guests had a reason to want The Manor (and its owner) to burn. Folk horror meets social satire in what critics are calling Foley’s most deliciously twisty setup yet.

Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins Two couples sail to a remote, rumor-plagued Pacific island for the trip of a lifetime, then two more strangers show up uninvited. Isolation, old island legends, and fraying trust make this one a beach read with teeth.

One of the Family by Mark Edwards Patrick is thrilled when his girlfriend invites him to her wealthy family’s remote Scottish Highlands estate for New Year’s until whispered rumors, a body found nearby, and one deeply unsettling houseguest turn the holiday into a fight for survival. Edwards has been compared to Succession with a body count, and it shows.

Domestic & Suburban Thrillers

These thrillers prove the most dangerous secrets are often the ones closest to home.

Keep Your Friends Close by Lucinda Berry A tight-knit friend group’s carefully curated lives start to unravel when one woman’s secret threatens to expose them all. Berry’s psychology background shows in how precisely she maps the slow collapse of trust between people who thought they knew each other best.

The Anniversary by Alex Finlay On a single night in 1992, two teenagers’ lives are changed forever: one survives an attack by a serial killer who strikes every May Day, the other is arrested after a fight turns deadly and later comes home to his mother’s unsolved murder. Finlay revisits both of them on the same date, once a year, for the next decade, building a thriller that’s as much about trauma and fate as it is about catching a killer.

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter Two estranged sisters are pulled back together by the resurfacing of their family’s darkest tragedy: the decades-old disappearance of their other sister. Slaughter doesn’t pull punches, and this one is as emotionally brutal as it is twisty.

Legal & Courtroom Thrillers

Nothing raises the stakes quite like a trial, especially when the person defending the accused has secrets of their own.

Dissection of a Murder by Jo Murray A rookie barrister lands the case of her career defending a man accused of murdering a judge, and finds herself facing off in court against her own husband, the prosecutor. Murray, a former criminal barrister herself, builds a courtroom drama with the emotional wallop of a domestic thriller and a twist that critics keep comparing to Gone Girl.

The Trials of Lila Dalton by L.J. Shepherd Lila Dalton comes to in a courtroom with no memory of who she is, how she got there, or why a jury is waiting on her only to learn she’s the defense barrister for a man accused of mass murder, on an island in the Atlantic Ocean reserved for trying the world’s most serious crimes. Equal parts legal thriller and dystopian puzzle box, this one asks how you can prove someone’s innocence when you can’t even trust your own mind.

Detective & Procedural Series Worth Starting

The Eddie Flynn books by Steve Cavanagh A former con artist turned defense attorney uses his hustler instincts to outmaneuver crooked cops, cartels, and worse from the courtroom. Fast, twisty, and packed with legal sleight-of-hand.

Head Cases by John McMahon When DNA links a new murder victim to a serial killer long presumed dead, FBI agent Gardner Camden and his oddball team of specialists, the Patterns and Recognition (PAR) unit, get pulled off cold cases and onto the road, chasing someone who’s hunting killers of their own. As the body count grows, so does an unsettling pattern: the murderer is leaving clues meant just for Camden, and seems to know more about the team than they should. A puzzle-driven procedural for readers who like their FBI thrillers with genuinely distinct characters.

The Susan Ryeland books by Anthony Horowitz Starting with Magpie Murders, this series nests a full whodunit inside a whodunit: book editor Susan Ryeland reads a manuscript with a killer twist, then finds herself investigating a real murder that seems to mirror it. A must for anyone who loves puzzle-box plotting.

Final Thoughts

The best mystery and thriller books share one thing in common: they make you feel like you’re one page away from figuring it all out, right up until the moment they prove you wrong. Whether you want cozy comfort or a full-blown 3 a.m. panic read, there’s a book on this list ready to keep you up way past your bedtime.

Which one’s going on your TBR pile first? Drop a comment below and let us know what you’re reading next.

FAQ: Best Mystery & Thriller Books

What’s the difference between a mystery and a thriller? Mysteries center on solving a crime that’s already happened (usually a “whodunit”), while thrillers focus on preventing a crime or escaping danger, with pacing built around tension and stakes rather than deduction. Many books, like Gone Girl, blend both.

What’s the best mystery book for beginners? And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie is the classic starting point — short, tightly plotted, and the foundation for nearly every locked-room mystery that followed.

What thriller should I read if I loved Gone Girl? Try The Silent Patient or My Husband’s Wife. Both lean into unreliable narration and marriage-as-crime-scene territory.

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