The 35 Best Psychological Thriller Books to Scare Yourself Silly

Claustrophobics: beware. If your worst nightmare involves getting stranded in a remote locale with your coworkers, just imagine if people started dying. This suspenseful novel from one of our favorite mystery madames will keep you guessing through the last page. 

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Alicia is a star painter living a seemingly perfect life. That is, until her fashion photographer husband comes home late one night and she shoots him five times in the face. Alicia never speaks again, and becomes a notorious mystery, which just skyrockets her art to even higher demand. But Theo Faber is determined to get her to talk, and his search for the truth soon gets out of control. 

The hit TV show was a riveting book first, so pick it up if you just can't get enough. Three moms find themselves embroiled in tragedy, which may have more to it than immediately meets the eye. Each of them have their own crosses to bear and starkly different lives, but they may harbor the same terrible secret.  

Anna Fox is a shut-in who spends her days drinking, watching TV, and spying on the neighbors. She becomes especially enamored with one family across the way. But one day, she sees something shocking, and her entire life (not to mention her carefully kept secrets) all starts to unravel. 

The latest from one of the greatest mystery novelists writing today takes us to a bucolic Irish village so vivid, I dreamed about it. Retired Chicago cop Cal Hooper moves there to spend his twilight years fixing up his house and fishing, but instead he finds a cagey kid whose brother has gone missing, sheep who keep turning up eviscerated, and a town that's a lot more mysterious than it seems. 

Every marriage has its issues — nobody's perfect. But when one couple starts to feel like their relationship is growing distant, they decide a hobby might help. Then young girls start turning up dead all around town. Is there a connection? You'll have to read this gripping thriller to find out. 

As a child, Abby has a recurring nightmare in which she wanders through a field of human bones. And just before her wedding to Willem, the dream returns with a vengeance. Less than 24 hours before they say "I do," she steps into traffic. As she lies in her hospital bed, Willem must find out whether it was intentional act, and why she keeps waking up screaming. 

When Matt's wife falls to her death while they're hiking, it at first seems like a terrible accident. But his first wife also died under suspicious circumstances. And then another body appears. You might get whiplash from the dark plot twists in this murder mystery about how marriage can go sour. 

When Amy Dunne disappears on her and her husband Nick's fifth wedding anniversary, everyone's baffled. Nick seems equally shocked, but also starts behaving oddly suspicious. And Amy's diary reveals a dark side that could almost look like motive. As the pressure mounts, Nick starts to crack, but it remains to be seen whether he's seriously stressed or has something to hide.  

In her first weeks at Hawthorne College, Malin gets swept into a tight-knit circle of friends, all unique people who fit together perfectly. She's an expert at hiding her dark past, but nobody can hide forever. By Senior Day, everyone’s secrets come out and Malin’s missteps set in motion a chain of events that end in murder. Read to unravel some seriously twisted relationships. 

Commuters may recognize themselves in this chilling story. Rachel takes the same train every day, and every day, she watches the same couple going about their lives as she passes by. But one day, she sees something horrible. And before she can say "one MetroCard swipe," she's embroiled in an investigation. Read this one before watching the hit film. 

This one's worth reading for the setting alone, as Noemí Taboada gets a frantic letter from her recently married cousin summoning her to save her from a remote mansion in the Mexican countryside. The house is just as creepy as it sounds, but the glamorous Noemí also has to contend with its inhabitants and their dark secrets. 

Moms know that exhaustion does strange things to your brain. In the wake of insomnia and the anxiety of new motherhood, Molly starts hearing things. Or at least, she thinks she is. This delightfully strange thriller explores the duality of parenthood and the darker side of domesticity in an affecting read that will haunt you. 

This book exploits every parent's nightmare. After two girls go missing while on a gap year in Thailand, journalist Kate Waters is determined to uncover the truth of what happened to them. But she's also distracted by thoughts of her own son, who went radio silent himself while traveling two years ago. 

If you grew up reading Perks of Being a Wallflower, you won't want to miss this one. Kate takes her son Christopher and flees an abusive relationship, and when they land in an idyllic small town, everything seems like it'll be OK. But then Christopher disappears and returns with a compulsion to built a treehouse. If he doesn't complete it by Christmas, the town's residents will pay the price. 

A plane crashes, a daughter disappears, and a mother can't believe her child is actually gone. Follow Allison's struggle to get home after the plane crash and her estranged mother Maggie's desperation to discover the truth in this thriller about two women's unbreakable bond, even through unimaginable adversity.

Gentrification takes a dark turn as Brooklyn native Sydney Green's neighbors start suspiciously disappearing. As she researches the history behind her hometown and uncovers some dark dealings, that background comes terrifyingly close to home. Things really ramp up as she gets closer to the truth, and she might not make it out alive. 

Travel along with this winding historical thriller as it takes us from a Jamaican sugar plantation to the streets of Georgian London. A servant and former slave stands accused of a gruesome double murder, but can’t remember what happened. As the story unwinds, it also unmasks perpetrators of even greater crimes on a much broader level. 

This creepy supernatural thriller will send shivers down your spine. Carly moves to the little town of Fell to suss out what happened when her aunt Viv disappeared from her front desk job at the Sun Down Motel in 1982. She nets the same job, but strange things start happening right away. As she discovers a serial killer preying on women throughout history, things get downright dangerous. 

Based on the true story of Bobby Dunbar's mysterious disappearance, this Southern historical novel os about a child who goes missing in 1913 and the two mothers desperate to claim him as their own. Part historical fiction, part suspenseful thriller, this one explores the role of social class in justice, and will make you hug your own little ones extra tight.