10 Greatest Thriller Books of the Last 10 Years, Ranked

Image via Celadon Books Published Jul 21, 2026, 3:44 PM EDT Dyah (pronounced Dee-yah) is a Senior Author at Collider, responsible for both writing and transcription duties. She joined the website in 2022 as a Resource Writer before stepping into her current role in April 2023. As a Senior Author, she writes Features and Lists covering TV, music, and movies, making her a true Jill of all trades. In addition to her writing, Dyah also serves as an interview transcriber, primarily for events such as San Diego Comic-Con, the Toronto International Film Festival, and the Sundance Film Festival. Dyah graduated from Satya Wacana Christian University in October 2019 with a Bachelor's degree in English Literature, concentrating on Creative Writing. She is currently completing her Master's degree in English Literature Studies, with a thesis on intersectionality in postcolonial-feminist studies in Asian literary works, and is expected to graduate in 2026. Born and raised between Indonesia and Singapore, Dyah is no stranger to different cultures. She now resides in the small town of Kendal with her husband and four cats, where she spends her free time cooking or cycling. Sign in to your Collider account They may be words on a page, but thriller books deliver the same adrenaline rush as your favorite movie or television series. Over the past decade, the genre has continually reinvented itself, pushing beyond familiar formulas to tell stories that are as emotional as they are suspenseful. Traditionally, a successful thriller was defined by its twists and turns. Today, the best thrillers do more than keep readers guessing about the perpetrator — they also expose the larger systems, institutions, and human flaws that make such crimes possible. Without further ado, here are the 10 greatest thriller books of the past 10 years, ranked. 10 'The Guest List' (2020) Image via HarperCollins On a remote Irish island, a glamorous wedding becomes a marital nightmare when a storm traps guests with their darkest secrets. As betrayals, hidden pasts, and long-buried resentments come to light, nearly everyone has a reason to want the groom dead. Told through multiple perspectives, The Guest List is a locked-room thriller where death literally does a couple part. The Guest List explores the hidden horrors lurking beneath the prestige of elite boarding schools. For all their perceived exclusivity, these institutions can become breeding grounds for cruelty when toxic behavior goes unchecked. Set against the pressure-cooker backdrop of a storm-stranded wedding, the novel reveals that some marriages are doomed long before anyone says, "I do." 9 'Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone' (2022) Image via Mariner Books Ernest Cunningham's holiday is cut short in Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. At a snowbound family reunion in an Australian ski resort, Ernest is forced to confront the one thing every relative shares: each of them has killed someone. Already estranged after testifying against his brother, Ern is pulled into another mystery when a frozen body is discovered outside the lodge. Giving Knives Out energy, everyone is effectively locked inside a resort that grows increasingly claustrophobic. As the blizzard's piercing winds batter the walls, it's only a matter of time before the isolation begins to take its toll. But for these cold-blooded potential murderers, the weather is nothing compared to the buried secrets waiting to surface. 8 'The Last House on Needless Street' (2021) Image via Nightfire No amount of therapy can help Dee Walters in The Last House on Needless Street. Eleven years after her younger sister vanished without a trace, Dee becomes convinced that her reclusive neighbor, Ted Bannerman, is responsible. Determined to uncover the truth, she begins stalking him. What started as her personal vendetta spirals into a shocking realization. Unbeknownst to Dee, Ted is battling dissociative identity disorder born from years of horrific childhood abuse. As he struggles to distinguish reality from the identities that protect him, Dee's obsession with uncovering the truth about her sister's disappearance drives her to the darkest parts of herself. Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would BeYour Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn't work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back. 🎖️Rambo 🍸James Bond 🏺Indiana Jones 🔧John McClane 🎭Ethan Hunt FIND YOUR PARTNER → 01 You're dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you. ASomeone who already has three contingency plans running and is calmly working through all of them. BSomeone who reads the terrain instinctively and knows exactly how to use it against the enemy. CSomeone who keeps their nerve and their sense of humour when everything is falling apart. DSomeone who knows the history of wherever we are and what we're walking into. ESomeone with the right contact, the right cover identity, and the right exit already arranged. NEXT QUESTION → 02 You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission. AOn foot through terrain no one else would attempt — I move where vehicles can't follow. BOn a motorcycle, a cargo plane, or anything else that gets me there before I think too hard about it. CIn something that belongs to someone else — borrowed, stolen, or improvised under fire. DFirst class, with a cover identity and a gadget that does something I won't explain until it's needed. EBy whatever means are available — I've driven, flown, and once arrived by camel. The destination matters, not the method. NEXT QUESTION → 03 You're pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of. ADisappears into the environment, flanks them silently, and ends it before I've reloaded. BCracks a one-liner, grabs a fire extinguisher or a chair, and improvises something that somehow works. CProduces a gadget specifically designed for this exact scenario and uses it with infuriating precision. DPulls out a whip, a pistol, and an archaeological insight that somehow gets us out alive. ENeutralises the threat with maximum efficiency and minimum words — they were already three moves ahead. NEXT QUESTION → 04 The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are. AA bar with terrible lighting, cold beer, and absolutely no questions about feelings. BThe finest restaurant in the city, a bottle of something expensive, and a conversation that is equal parts brilliant and exhausting. CA local dig site, a museum after hours, or a long story about why that particular artefact matters to human civilisation. DPizza. Bad TV. Falling asleep halfway through a movie neither of you were watching anyway. EA debrief that turns into three hours of contingency planning that somehow becomes the most fun you've had all week. NEXT QUESTION → 05 How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability. APrecise and minimal — tell me what I need to know and nothing else. Every word has a cost. BDeadpan and dry — keeping it light keeps me sharp, even when everything is on fire. CEnthusiastic and slightly chaotic — but always with useful information buried somewhere in the noise. DCalm and controlled through an earpiece, with a plan that covers every variable I haven't thought of yet. EBarely at all — silence is a language and they speak it fluently. NEXT QUESTION → 06 Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership. AInfiltrate their inner circle, learn everything, and dismantle them from inside out before they know we're there. BStudy the historical pattern — every villain of this type has a weakness written somewhere in the past. CGet them talking. The more they monologue, the more time I have to figure out how to beat them. DGo through them. Directly. With as much force as the terrain allows. EFind the one thing they haven't accounted for — there's always one thing — and make sure we're holding it. NEXT QUESTION → 07 Things go badly wrong and you're captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters. ACome in alone, quietly, and get me out before anyone knows they were there. BHave already been working on the extraction since the moment I disappeared — the plan is already running. CCome in loud, come in fast, and worry about the collateral damage later — I'd do the same for them. DUse every resource, every contact, and bend every rule until I'm out — they don't leave people behind. ECharm their way in somehow, bluff through the hard part, and still manage to look good doing it. NEXT QUESTION → 08 What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn't replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn't know you had. ATechnology that shouldn't exist yet and the training to use it under any conditions. BSurvival instinct so refined it borders on supernatural — and the scars to prove it's been tested. CKnowledge of history, language, and culture that makes them invaluable in places where force is useless. DThe ability to walk into any room in the world and immediately become the most trusted person in it. EStubbornness that refuses to accept a situation is hopeless — and the improvisational skill to back it up. NEXT QUESTION → 09 Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together. AA partner who never fully switches off — always watching exits, always calculating threats, even at dinner. BA partner who gets the job done brilliantly but has the emotional availability of a locked filing cabinet. CA partner who makes everything ten times more complicated than it needs to be — but who always comes through. DA partner who gets personally attached to every relic, ruin, and artefact we encounter, which slows everything down. EA partner who was not built for this and knows it — but shows up anyway, every time, without being asked. NEXT QUESTION → 10 It's the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one. AOne line. Absolutely dry. Delivered like the world isn't ending. Then we move. BNothing said at all — just a look that means we both already know what has to happen. CA plan I don't fully understand that somehow accounts for everything, delivered in thirty seconds flat. DA piece of historical context that reframes the entire situation and tells us exactly what to do next. ESomeone who steps forward instead of back — because that's who they've always been. REVEAL MY PARTNER → Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse. RamboYour partner doesn't talk much, doesn't need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you've finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You'll never need to ask if he has your back. You'll just know. James BondYour partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it'll take you a moment to remember what's actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You'll never be bored. You'll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing. Indiana JonesYour partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar's eye and a brawler's instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn't matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you'll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them. John McClaneYour partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren't so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay. Ethan HuntYour partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you've finished reading the briefing, and the plan he's settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn't exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 7 'The Plot' (2021) Image via Celadon Books The plot truly thickens in The Plot. The dead can come alive in more ways than one. Once a promising novelist, Jacob Finch Bonner is now a struggling writing professor haunted by creative failure. When he learns that a former student with a brilliant story idea has died before publishing it, Jacob steals the plot for himself. As luck would have it, Jacob strikes it big when his stolen story becomes a bestselling novel. But his success is short-lived after he receives anonymous messages accusing him of literary theft. Jacob never imagined that stealing a manuscript would quite literally make him a target of those whose lives inspired the story. 6 'Wrong Place Wrong Time' (2022) Image via William Morrow Hell hath no fury like a mother's grief. In this time-traveling psychological thriller, Wrong Place Wrong Time follows Jen, whose life is torn apart after witnessing her teenage son, Todd, stab a stranger. But instead of waking to the aftermath, she wakes up one day earlier — and then another. It soon becomes clear that she's trapped in a time loop, carrying her further and further away from the day of the incident. As Jen tries to figure out what went wrong in the days prior, she discovers new secrets about her family, her marriage, and Todd's hidden life. Instead of revelations, Jen begins to question her instincts as a mother and whether she ever truly understood what it meant to be one. 5 'The Chain' (2019) Image via Mulholland Books The Chain proves that nobody should underestimate a mother's love for her child. Divorced mother Rachel Klein is undergoing cancer treatment when she learns that her daughter, Kylie, has been kidnapped by a criminal organization known as the Chain. Faced with every parent's worst nightmare, Rachel is forced into an impossible choice. To secure Kylie's release, Rachel must not only pay a ransom but also kidnap another child, perpetuating the Chain's horrifying cycle. Forced to betray her own morals, she enlists her brother-in-law to carry out the kidnapping. Little does the Chain realize that Rachel has no intention of playing by its rules forever. 4 'All the Sinners Bleed' (2023) Image via Flatiron Books All the Sinners Bleed begins with an unfortunate, all-too-familiar reality in America: a school shooting. One year into his tenure as the first Black sheriff of Charon County, Virginia, Titus Crown is called to the scene of the crime, in which a beloved teacher is murdered before the teenage gunman is killed by deputies. As Titus investigates, he learns that the shooting is just a small part of a larger-scale child abuse conspiracy. One member of the group, whom he calls the "Last Wolf," is still out there hunting Black children. As Titus chases after the killer, he must also face the town's racist history, all while surrounded by blatant white supremacy. 3 'The Silent Patient' (2019) Image via Celadon Books The Silent Patient has readers questioning what is real and what is not. Six years after shooting her husband, Gabriel, five times, celebrated painter Alicia Berenson is now confined to a psychiatric facility. Stuck in the Grove, Alicia is infamous across the wards for her silence. No therapist has been able to break it. Determined to "fix" her, psychotherapist Theo Faber takes on the case. Much of the story, especially Alicia's side, is told from her personal diary entries, gradually revealing the events leading up to Gabriel's death. But as the truth begins to surface, Alicia realizes this isn't the first time she crossed paths with Theo. 2 'The God of the Woods' (2024) Image via Riverhead Books Set in the remote Adirondack Mountains, The God of the Woods follows the influential Van Laar family, whose vast forest estate and summer camp dominate the surrounding working-class community. When 13-year-old Barbara Van Laar disappears from Camp Emerson in 1975, the case reopens old wounds from the unsolved disappearance of her brother, Bear, 14 years earlier. As an inexperienced female investigator searches the sprawling wilderness for answers, she discovers generations of buried family secrets, class tensions, and abuses of privilege that have long been protected by the Van Laars' wealth and influence. The God of the Woods eventually makes it clear that the greatest danger isn't from the forest itself. 1 'Razorblade Tears' (2021) Image via Flatiron Books When their gay sons, Isiah and Derek, are executed by members of the white supremacist biker gang known as the Rare Breed, aging ex-convicts Ike Randolph and Buddy Lee are united by grief despite years of mutual resentment. As local law enforcement fails to deliver justice, the Black and white fathers take matters into their own hands. Razorblade Tears takes readers across rural Virginia, where Ike and Buddy must confront the homophobia and prejudice that drove them to reject their sons. In the midst of their grief, they're also driven to protect the loved ones their sons left behind, including their young daughter. A testament to unconditional love, Razorblade Tears shows just how far a parent is willing to go in the face of unimaginable loss. Release Date November 27, 2019 Runtime 131 minutes Director Rian Johnson Cast Chris Evans Ransom Drysdale