The Best Thrillers of The Past 10 Years

Not only is Jordan Harper fantastic at writing gritty crime stories with action that make you feel as if you are there with the characters, he also wrote one of my all-time favorite child characters, eleven-year-old Polly. “She had a teddy bear in her arms and murder in her eyes.” I remain utterly confused as to why he’s not a blockbuster author in the crime genre.

Nate and his family get marked for death by the Aryan Brotherhood right before he’s released from prison. Upon release he finds his ex-wife and her new partner murdered, forcing him to grab his estranged 11-year-old daughter Polly and go on the run to keep her alive.

I was floored by emotions reading this book. Courtney Summers is brilliant at writing a novel that keeps the graphic violence off the page while creating a white-knuckle page-turner that will destroy you.

Sadie has one mission: find her sister’s killer and kill him. This is what she sets out to do. On her trail is a radio personality with a new podcast about Sadie’s sister’s murder who wants to find Sadie…

Nick Stone does a hell of a job combining all my favorite things—a court case from beginning to end, firm politics, collecting clues, did-he-or-didn’t he?!—all with a hell of a hook!

Terry Flynt is assigned a new case: after accepting a humanitarian award, Vernon James is accused of murdering a woman in his hotel room. And that’s not even the hook! Flynt knows James from childhood, as his sworn enemy, but he takes the case without revealing this to anyone…

I love a good revenge novel, and not only does Alison Gaylin deliver a revenge thriller, but she also explores the cost of grief and revenge.

Camille Gardner is livid that her daughter’s accused killer is being awarded a humanitarian award instead of facing any level of consequences. The scene she creates in response brings a secret organization, the collective, into her life, allowing her to join an online group where you can enact justice for someone else in the group who is currently grieving…

One of my favorite things about Japanese mystery and thrillers is that most have an element of a character(s) who contemplate(s) the world and society. Isaka manages to do this while also adding comedy of errors, dark humor, and action to a twisty plot.

On a bullet train from Tokyo to Morioka you’ll find criminals and victims—including two criminals with a rescued kidnap victim that they’re doing a terrible job of rescuing. On this train is also a suitcase full of money and a handful of assassins…

A note on the series: Bullet Train published first in the US but in Japan the first book published in the series was Three Assassins. Bullet Train can be read as a standalone, and the series is worth reading.

S.A. Cosby brings his setting and characters to life to the point that you will feel yourself strapped into the car as it flies down the road trying to get away! His books are a great example that fast-paced thrillers can also have all the depth and character development of excellent writing.

Beauregard “Bug” Montage is drowning in debt and hard times. As Beauregard, he’s an honest mechanic and family man. As Bug, he’s the best wheelman/getaway driver. When he’s presented with a heist that will solve his problems, he takes it. And then finds out just how many things can go wrong.

I am a sucker for thrillers with humor, and the character voice here—of a reluctant spy who has nothing about life figured out—shines from the opening.

Jay, a young man in West London, is about to have his life rocked by MI5. He’s a low-level drug dealer with nothing about life figured out other than his love for his BMW (yes, the car). He has zero desire to be involved in political and religious issues, but after a series of events get him in trouble with his supplier, MI5 steps in to blackmail him into going undercover for them. They see a Pakistani Muslim who can infiltrate an extremist group and report back information. Even though Jay is very much not up for being a spy, he feels he has no choice.

I picked this book up with the intention of sampling the beginning to decide whether to put it in my to-read pile or not, and before I knew it I had read the first half of the book because Jennifer Hillier knows how to hook me! I really liked that Hillier wrote a page-turning thriller that didn’t rely on the black-and-white “good and bad” trope but rather explores how everyone is capable of many degrees of good and bad depending on the situations they’re put in.

Marin Machado’s young son was abducted a year ago and the case has remained unsolved. With the FBI no longer actively looking for him, Machado secretly hires a PI. The PI comes with news, not of finding her son, but that her husband has a mistress. Now Machado has something new to obsess about…

I almost came out of my skin with anxiety from Slaughter’s ability to put me in the violent, intense, and terrifying scenes of this thriller. And it always came as a surprise because she’s very good at getting me invested and lulled into the characters’ world and then BAM! I’m gripping the book so hard I could break it!

The patriarch of the Quinn family is a lawyer who represents people accused of crimes like rape and murder, which is why someone burned down their home and then attacked the family. Thirty years later the youngest daughter, still living in the same small town, witnesses a violent crime only to have her father represent the accused…

Catherine Ryan Howard quickly became an automatic buy for me as her thrillers never disappoint in the initial hook and then keep me fully invested in how things will play out. As a testament to how much I can’t resist her books, I read a pandemic-set thriller in the pandemic when I was 100% against reading anything related to the pandemic (56 Days).

I love that all her thrillers are set in Ireland, explore women’s lives, and give voice to victims. The Liar’s Girl is a great did-he-or-didn’t-he mystery perfect for fans of past and present storylines and fictional serial killer stories. In The Nothing Man you get a lead author with a hell of a twist and also the POV of a serial killer, which Howard uses to dismantle the weird and gross obsession with serial killers. Run Time puts you on the set of a psychological horror film and plays with all the fun tropes. The Trap follows two women—the sister of a missing woman and a woman wishing to be a detective—along with a man with a woman in his trunk telling the story of how he came to be a serial killer. You see what I mean about a hook?!

I will be dropping everything to read Howard’s 2025 release, Burn After Reading, the second I get my hands on a copy!