Best Thriller Books in the UK

Highly ranked by reputed literature critics, the thriller “Lies” by T.M. Logan is a top-liner in many book ratings and deservedly so. The author managed to convert a seemingly trivial life situation into a truly thrilling story that will unfold with unexpected twists as you read and rush into an ending no one expects.

Every family is unique and every family has its secrets. Following our daily routines and running habitual errands, we refuse even to think that our stable life might turn out to be an illusion and collapse like a card castle in mere minutes. This is what happened with the main character Joe Lynch who is an ordinary married man with a beloved wife and little son. Yet, a one-second decision turns his happy life upside down and casts the seeds of doubt about his wife’s fidelity that will propel into something more than casual marital problems.

While Joe is an obvious protagonist and evokes sympathy and compassion, his wife Mel is a controversial figure. She is selfish and impulsive on one hand and is a really good mother on the other. She looks pretty much like a villain, especially given the secrets she hides. A family friend Ben is yet another complex and ambiguous character that is definitely opposed to Joe in his anger, egoism, and intolerance to other people. Apart from these, there are only a few more characters involved which makes it easy to follow the storyline and some flashbacks. But don’t let that simplicity fool you since the events are really hard to anticipate.

Exploring the themes of domestic violence and abuse, the book is imbued with scenes of murder, sexual acts, and psychological torture that can make you feel uncomfortable at times. Meanwhile, these scenes reveal the characters’ true faces and make the whole plot extremely realistic and authentic.

What a reader normally expects from a well-written psychological thriller is a fast-paced storyline with a time-pressed framework and a multitude of situations that give a strong feeling of inevitability or even fatality. The book “Found” by Erin Kinsley is very different from that. This psychological thriller will call for your deepest emotions via profound empathy.

It is a story of a missing boy Evan who disappeared from the bus station one night and then was suddenly found 8 months later. The book shows the whole gravity of the situation and the impact it has on the boy’s family and each of its members. As such, the novel strikes a perfect balance between a family drama and a crime story, taking the best of both worlds. With the parents’ despair and devastation and Evan’s state of depression and frustration on one side, you’ll enjoy a strong police procedural too. While a little boy tries to cope with the horror of what happened to him, police detectives earnestly endeavour to find the kidnappers and, thus, prevent future abductions.

Written in the third-person, the story is very engaging and provides a sort of detached view of all the characters involved, giving you a chance to make your own assumptions and conclusions. Though covering a timespan of a year, the present tense narration doesn’t lack pacing, dynamics, and tension that creates thriller-specific suspense. Other than that, without the scenes of direct violence or even some disturbing images, the whole situation is pretty clear. Frozen in his trauma, Evan doesn’t talk and constantly hides, so, via his behaviour, it’s obvious what happened to him. And the author treats this problem very discreetly which evokes nothing but sympathy and compassion.

If you are a fan of dynamic and murky criminal stories imbued with riddles and well-rounded characters, the thriller “Blood Orange” by Harriet Tyce is definitely worth a read. The book is a perfect sample of the so-called domestic noir genre that has gained extreme popularity in recent years. Usually, these are psychological thrillers with a strong procedural component showing the dark side of marriage and domestic or partner relationships and what crimes it can lead to.

A practising barrister with a decade of experience behind her back, Harriet Tyce knows the procedural inner workings, so, it’s no wonder the main character of her debut novel is also a criminal lawyer. At work, Alison is a smart and ambitious attorney with a rising career who has just gained her first murder case to defend. At home, she is the wife of a loving husband and the mother of an adorable little daughter. It seems she has it all. Yet, the reality is often not what it seems. The reverse side of this bliss is Alison’s drinking problem and marital infidelity that eventually destroys her marriage. Besides, someone knows all of Alison’s dark secrets and wants her to pay for what she did, so, at some point, she is about to lose it all. Conflict in the main character's personal relations goes in parallel with the story of Madeleine who killed her husband and wants to plead guilty for that. Being her defendant in court and trying to save this woman, Alison tries to settle her own problems and save herself.

All the characters are well-thought-out and the plot of the novel is well-written, with the present-time narration creating the suspense and tension peculiar for thrillers. And the first-person story allows the reader not only to see but also to feel all the ebb and flow in Alison’s psychological state and view her emotional growth from within.

When it comes to criminal thrillers, what we want is a captivating story with a twisted plot swirling around some kind of crime, which is usually a murder, imbued with psychological insights and an ending you would never expect to see. That said, if you are a crime thriller addict, “The Suspect” by Fiona Barton will have you covered.

The book tells the story of two teenage English girls Alex and Rosie who were found murdered while spending their gap year in Thailand. The journalist Kate Waters from London arrives in Bangkok to write an article for her paper. Yet, to her horror, she learns that the main suspect, in this case, is her young son who has been travelling for two years and recently settled in Bangkok.

To create a multifold storyline and give the reader a chance to see the whole situation from multiple perspectives, the author splits the novel into small chapters, each narrated from different persons including the mothers of the missing girls, Kate, and even Alex. This way, you’ll get a full picture of the events that happened before and after the girls' deaths. Meanwhile, complex characters contrast each other and reveal their traits against the flaws and downsides of the others. Besides, it’s always interesting to view the case through the eyes of a journalist since, unlike detectives and policemen, journalists need to be smart and resourceful to get the information they need. And an interesting thing is that they often manage to find out much more than police.

While being a professional and confined to do her job, Kate also gets personally involved in the investigation. Not only does she seek to discover the truth with even more eagerness but also she finds herself in the shoes of crime-related families, in the life of which she used to invade before.

“The Whisper Man” by Alex North is a classic psychological thriller with a serial killer aspect. It’s the story of Tom and Jack Kennedy who moved into a new town and new house to heal their wounds and start a new life after the sudden death of their beloved mom and wife. Yet, by the rules of the genre, the town has some dark past and used to be haunted by the maniac Frank Carter who abducted and murdered five people about twenty years ago. Finally, he was caught and got “ The Whisper Man” nickname for luring his victims by whispering at their windows. Once Tom and Jack settle into their new home, a teenager vanishes which reignites old rumours and makes the town citizens think that the killer had an assistant. The whole situation is further aggravated when Jake starts to hear whispers.

It’s worth noting that taking a pretty trivial plot with a seemingly predictable end the author managed to ravel it into a captivating story that will not simply engage you but rather suck you in immediately and hold you on the edge of your seat till the very last page. And it is not only due to smart twists and events that layer up and continue to build and build leading you to a really stunning end.

Yet another aspect that sets this very novel apart from other cookie-cutter thrillers of this type is well-written characters and the dark, terrifying atmosphere the author created without going into the scenes of explicit violence and some graphic details. The whole storyline is well-planned and the tension consistently grows towards the climax. Meanwhile, the spine-tingling scary vibes will surely appeal to all fans of mysterious ghost stories.