This year’s best psychological thrillers are distinguished by their comedic edge, clever reversals, and exploration of everyday cruelties. They also show the merging of political and personal that has become a hallmark of the genre’s revival, as private concerns become ever-more publicly policed, while public goods have become privatized for profit. The psychological thriller is, at heart, a response to gaslighting—no one pretends anything is better than it really is in a thriller. We accept the darkness, the extremes, the suffering, the dissonance, for what they are: real.
Dervla McTiernan, What Happened to Nina?
(William Morrow)
I’ve been circling around the work of Dervla McTiernan for a while and finally took the plunge with her latest. What Happened to Nina? is a sensitive, complex and disturbing riff on the crime case that captivated a nation and became a lightning rod for discussions of domestic violence, missing white woman syndrome, and true crime culture: the disappearance of Gaby Petito. In Whatever Happened to Nina, a young woman goes missing while staying with her boyfriend at his family’s second home, and it’s up to her family to seek the truth; a truth his family seems hell-bent on concealing as rumors swirl and the case becomes a media circus. The final page left me stunned, ending with a mic drop of a sentence. I’ll have to go back through previous novels from McTiernan to find out if they all have such well-put-together conclusions.
Iman Hariri-Kira, The Most Famous Girl in the World
(Sourcebooks Landmark)
In this sardonic and witty take on the Anna Delvey Affair, Iman Hariri-Kira’s journalist heroine is thrown into a tizzy when the scam artist who she helped put in jail gets an early release—and seems like she’s bent on revenge. At least, when she’s not making insta posts about her new brand sponsorships. Hariri-Kira’s debut is snarky and self-assured, as sharp and biting as an autumn wind…Okay I know that sentence was hokey but this book is not!
Jesse Q. Sutanto, You Will Never Be Me
(Berkley)
Everything that Jesse Q. Sutanto turns her hand to is gold, and You Will Never Be Me is no exception. In this vicious psychological thriller, two influencers face off against one another in a battle for the ages. Meredith and Aspen are friends-turned-bitter rivals, their laundry list of resentments eclipsing their once-powerful bond. When one goes missing, the other falls under suspicion, but there’s plenty of twists and turns before we find out what’s really going on.
Sara Koffi, While We Were Burning
(Putnam)
In this well-plotted cat-and-mouse thriller, a surburban white woman still reeling from the death of her best friend hires a Black personal assistant to help her with day-to-day tasks. Little does she suspect that her new employee only took the gig so she can keep investigating the circumstances surrounding her son’s death, and figure out which “concerned citizen” was the person who called the cops and put her beloved child in their cross-hairs. The looming, inevitable confrontation between the two is forceful and stunning. Koffi has used the thriller genre with great effect for a prescient critique on the petty resentments and deliberate ignorance that underpin our racist power structure.
Kristina Pérez, The Many Lies of Veronica Hawkins
(Pegasus)
I have such a soft spot for the viciously status conscious and their baroque internecine disputes, and this Singapore-set thriller checks all the boxes. Perhaps it’s because she went to private school, or perhaps it’s just living in one of the wealthiest cities on the planet long enough to cease to become disillusioned, but Kristina Perez writes class like a mid-century Brit (but thankfully with the twists of an American). In The Many Lives of Veronica Hawkins, a close observer of the elite moves to the famously clean city-state with her finance bro of a husband, only to find herself welcomed into the upper crust by a charismatic heiress who then has the gall to go missing. Fabulous, and so closely observed as to be deserving of the word “gimlet”. If Iris Murdoch had written a Graham Greene novel, it would read like this.
Elizabeth Staple, The Snap
(Doubleday)
Elizabeth Staple’s clever and furious thriller follows four women who have fought for a place in the cutthroat world of professional athletic organizations, only to find themselves enabling and covering up the sins of more powerful men. They must confront their participation in a system that has also victimized them in order to move forward with their lives (and careers).
Lori Brand, Bodies to Die For
(Blackstone)
I devoured this novel faster than the winner of a body-building contest drinks water after their win (a joke you’ll totally get if you dive into this searing critique of diet culture and the pressures of professional body-building). Lori Brand has had a long career in fitness that has led to her embracing strength, not weight-loss, and I’m pretty sure this book is the most physically—and emotionally—healthy thriller I’ve read in some time. I may even sign up for a boxing class now…
Chelsea Bieker, Madwoman
(Little, Brown)
Madwoman is a harrowing psychological thriller about a mother determined to keep her past a mystery; she’s forced to confront her darkest secrets when a figure from her childhood crawls out of the woodwork and threatens to expose all. Chelsea Bieker’s fierce literary style makes for a perfect match with the thriller form, and her careful plotting leads to a genuinely surprising conclusion.
Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding
(Flatiron)
Jason Rekulak’s sophomore thriller follows an estranged father attending his daughter’s wedding to a shady tech billionaire. Something’s off with her soon-to-be-husband and his creepy family, but those familiar with them aren’t giving up any secrets, and if he pushes too hard, the father of the bride could lose his relationship with his daughter for good. Suspensefully told, and disturbingly realistic.
Olivia Muenter, Such a Bad Influence
(Quirk)
Muenter’s Such a Bad Influence is a nasty little gem of a novel with a perfectly shocking twist. Hazel Davis is the underachieving sister of a social media star; when her influencer sibling vanishes in the middle of a live video, Hazel investigates the disappearance, but her quest for her beloved younger sister will lead her to a far darker place than she could have ever predicted. Muenter’s debut is wickedly clever and incredibly self-assured; I can’t wait to see what she does next.
