Alice Nuttall (she/her) is a writer, pet-wrangler and D&D nerd. Her reading has got so out of control that she had to take a job at her local library to avoid bankrupting herself on books — unfortunately, this has just resulted in her TBR pile growing until it resembles Everest. Alice's webcomic, writing and everything else can be found at https://linktr.ee/alicenuttallbooks. Her debut novel, The Zombie Project, is coming out in January 2025 with Chicken House.
Cordelia Black loves exactly three things: Her chosen family, her hairdresser (worth every penny plus tip), and killing bad men. By day she's a stylish pharma rep. By night, she culls South Louisiana of monsters who think they’ve evaded justice—until they meet her. But when the evening news starts throwing around the term "serial killer" and her best friend starts dating a man who might just unravel everything Cordelia has worked for, she must come face to face with the choices she's made. Her family and her freedom depend on it.
Motives for murder have been discussed and analysed for as long as detection has existed, by law enforcement, psychologists, criminologists, and writers. Crime writers draw on real-world motivations for murder or other horrific crimes, spinning tales of killers and manipulators motivated by personal gain, lust, a fascination with killing — or, often, for revenge. Revenge forms the basis for the murder plot in one of the most famous crime thrillers of all time, Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, and in hundreds of other stories since.
It’s not surprising that many writers have chosen revenge as the basis for their thriller plots. Only a truly evil character will kill for the sake of killing, and carrying out murder, betrayal, or other kinds of harm for personal gain is unlikely to make for a character that the reader will identify with — but a character who is taking revenge can potentially be relatable, depending on what they’re trying to avenge. Revenge plots let the author seed in clues from the past, and shock the reader with stunning twists at the denouement. Here are some of the best thrillers about revenge that will keep you on tenterhooks as you read, from YA and fantasy to contemporary crime stories.
Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
Àbíké-Íyímídé’s twisty thriller, set at a boarding school, is a tale of revenge against a secretive group who run the academy behind the scenes and use their clandestine power to harm people without accountability. The main characters band together to take the group down, but each member of the team investigating the sinister goings-on at the school has their own motive as well — and many are seeking revenge for crimes that have been committed against them or the people they love.
One of the Good Guys by Araminta Hall
Told from multiple perspectives, this tense story follows Cole, a man who has recently separated from his wife, and Lennie, an artist who has moved to the seaside to find inspiration for her work. Both get caught up in a local disappearance of two young women who are walking the coastline go missing. As with all good thrillers, there’s more going on with every character than the reader initially suspects, and the story explores how far people will go for revenge — or justice.
Every Smile You Fake by Dorothy Koomson
The “Queen of the Big Reveal”, Koomson, brings her A-game in this fast-paced read. Kez is a therapist and forensic profiler whose life is turned upside down when a baby is abandoned in her car — a baby that she believes belongs to a young woman she has mentored and cared for. As Kez tries to trace her young friend and find out why she left her child, she discovers a conspiracy based around hatred and vengeance.
Catch Your Death by Ravena Guron
If you like Agatha Christie stories, this locked-door thriller set in an old stately home that’s been cut off by a snowstorm will be right up your street. Three girls find themselves stuck in a manor house, owned by a strange, aristocratic family, and the evening ends in murder — but what initially seems to be a random set of circumstances turns out to be an intricate revenge plot.
Over My Dead Body by Maz Evans
Dr. Miriam Price is dead, but only she knows that she has been murdered — although even she doesn’t remember who committed the crime. She has a short period of time in the afterlife to prove that her death wasn’t a misadventure so that she can move on to the next phase. With the help of her crotchety neighbour, Miriam has to investigate her own murder and soon discovers that she made more enemies in her life than even she anticipated — and that one of them was out for revenge.
The Revenge of Rita Marsh by Nilesha Chauvet
Care worker Rita Marsh seems like a perfectly ordinary person, but she’s secretly a vigilante, catfishing predatory men online. Rita manages to keep both sides of herself totally separate, until someone from her past comes back, and her secret threatens to come out. This twisty tale treads the line between fighting evil and taking revenge — and it isn’t clear which path Nina Marsh will take.
The Hive by Scarlett Brade
The Hive is an intense revenge thriller that looks at the dark side of social media and asks the reader how far they would go for their friends — and what they would be willing to tolerate to punish someone for what they’ve done in the past. A young woman, Charlotte, goes live on Instagram to tell the world that she has already killed one person, and is ready to kill another — if, after hearing the man’s crimes, her viewers vote that he should die.
Black Water Sister by Zen Cho
This contemporary fantasy thriller follows Jessamyn Teoh, a young woman who moves back to her home country of Malaysia. Jessamyn begins hearing voices and realises that she has the ability to listen to the dead. One of these restless spirits is her grandmother, Ah Ma, who has a connection with a god known as the Black Water Sister. Ah Ma tells Jessamyn that a local gang boss has caused trouble for the Black Water Sister and that both their fates depend on helping the god take revenge.
Different Class by Joanne Harris
This is the third in Harris’s series of books set in the fictional town of Malbry, specifically at the elite private school St Oswald’s. Different Class focuses on the lingering impact of a long-ago crime. The school’s new headmaster, Johnny Harrington, attended the school as a student three decades earlier, and elderly teacher Roy Straitley remembers the events that occurred back then — and worries that Harrington has returned with revenge in mind.
For more thriller recommendations, try Back To Sleuthing: 11 New Mystery & Thrillers for September 2024. If you know a teen reader who loves the thriller and mystery genres, have a look at YA Thrillers Like A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.
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