We chose the 10 best thrillers of 2023. See the complete list.
I want a novel filled with jaw-dropping twists and turns
Big Time, by Ben H. Winters
This weird and wonderfully cautionary tale about futuristic technology run amok features a plucky kidnapped schoolteacher and a schlumpy bureaucrat in the Food and Drug Administration who, roused to action, turns into an ingenious accidental heroine. The book raises an intriguing though academic (at least so far) question: Is it possible to steal time from one person and give it to someone else?
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Give me a fat, satisfying, character-driven novel I can lose myself in for hours
The Hunter, by Tana French
We first met Cal, a retired American cop, in the pages of French’s previous novel “The Seeker,” when he moved from Chicago to rural Ireland. He’s formed a family of sorts with a local woman and a rebellious teenager at odds with her own parents, but the community’s equilibrium is shattered by the unexpected return of the teenager’s silver-tongued father, who’s peddling a dodgy get-rich-quick scheme. The mysteries of the town are so complicated and so satisfying that by the time the actual murder comes, you’re already hooked.
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I want characters I can root for
The Princess of Las Vegas, by Chris Bohjalian
Crissy works as a Princess Diana impersonator at a down-on-its-heels Las Vegas casino, where all is not well: Barely have its owners wafted into the story than both are dead, eliminated under unsavory circumstances. Meanwhile, Crissy’s younger sister, Betsy, has moved to Vegas with her daughter and her boyfriend, a walking red flag of a man. The ensuing mayhem includes murder, cryptocurrency, bribery and blackmail, but beneath it lurks a poignant story of two sisters with a tragic shared history.
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I love thrillers that keep me guessing
The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels, by Janice Hallett
In a provincial English town, members of a cult who believe they are angels in human form persuade a teenager that her baby is the Antichrist and thus, alas, must be killed in a ritual sacrifice. Years later, a journalist revisits the case — which resulted in multiple deaths, though not of the baby — in an effort to find out who was covering up what. Hallett tells her story in texts, emails, WhatsApp messages, newspaper clippings, interview transcripts and more, inviting the reader to help discover the shocking truth.
What Happened to Nina?, by Dervla McTiernan
Nina, 20, never comes home from a weekend spent with her controlling boyfriend, Simon, at his parents’ secluded country house. Despite its title, the central question posed by this disturbing, enthralling book isn’t so much what happened to Nina (you’ll find out soon enough), but how the parents — all terrified and desperate in their own ways — respond to the exigencies of the moment.
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