The Five Best Mystery Thriller Books to Read Tonight
Craving a dark mystery or thriller book that will keep you turning the pages until late at night? The best mystery and thriller books make you guess who the killer is and place you in the detective’s shoes. These books make the best beach reads, but you can enjoy them in front of a fire during winter or at any time of year.
These mystery thrillers are difficult to categorize, but you know one when you see it. Think Silence of the Lambs, Gone Girl, and The Silent Patient. Ready for a great new read? Grab your paperback or fire up your Kindle. Here are our picks for the five best mystery thriller books on Amazon.
Dark Purpose – Mary Stone
Everyone has a purpose. Some are just darker than others.
Always calm, cool, and collected, Savannah PD Detective Charli Cross compensates for her petite five-foot frame with an impenetrable exterior and pragmatic competence. It’s an approach that catapulted her to the rank of detective at twenty-three and contributes to her and her partner’s unequaled murder clearance rate. But when a bird-watching couple discover the remains of a teenage girl stuffed in a storage container, Charli’s composure starts to crack.
Not only is the murder horrifying, it dredges up memories of Charli’s best friend. Madeline was only sixteen when her body was found a mere half-mile from the grisly discovery. Add the sadistic sexual component to this recent crime, as well as the location of the body, and Charli fears they are facing the hallmarks of the worst kind of serial killer—one who’s organized and thorough. One intent on fulfilling his dark purpose.
Charli wants to stay unemotional. But when more victims are discovered, she is determined to stop the killer before he strikes again.
This time, it’s not just her job. It’s personal.
A thrilling mystery, and the classic first book in the Charli Cross series.
Foreign Deceit – Jeff Carson
His brother is dead. He’s not getting the whole truth.
Living in a ski resort town in the middle of the Colorado Rockies should be paradise, but deputy David Wolf is stretched thin hunting a missing person and dealing with his ex-wife coming back into the picture. All that trouble drops to the wayside, however, when he gets word his brother has died half a world away while traveling in northern Italy.
A nagging suspicion there’s more to the story than officials are telling him is enough to pull Wolf from his volatile life to Lecco, Italy, a city along the shores of picturesque Lake Como. Five thousand miles from home in this place where Wolf struggles to even communicate with another soul, a disturbing secret awaits among the ancient cobblestone alleys, one that has already proven deadly to one foreigner.
With the aid of a Carabinieri agent with a chip on her shoulder, can Wolf piece together what really happened to his little brother without suffering the same fate?
Foreign Deceit is the first of the 16-book David Wolf Mystery Thriller Series.
Her Last Breath – Dan Padavona
He’s hunting a psychopath. And now the killer wants him dead.
After he’s shot in the line of duty, Detective Thomas Shepherd returns to Wolf Lake to pick up the pieces of his shattered life. Living beside the water, he finds peace…until the body of a missing woman washes up on his shore and the town blames a teenage boy with a history of violence.
Is a killer stalking the sleepy resort village?
Thomas isn’t convinced the teenager committed murder. Challenging a village that wants justice at any cost, he pursues the real killer as evidence mounts against the teenager. If he fails, an innocent boy will go to prison.
Can Thomas clear the boy’s name before he becomes the killer’s next victim?
The chilling first novel in the Wolf Lake Mystery and Thriller series.
A story that fascinates and thrills readers. You’ll come to love Thomas Shepherd, a law enforcement officer with autism, who proves there are no boundaries.
Gone – Sharon A. Mitchell
A sheltered mother. A medically fragile child. They can’t just vanish. But they did.
A typical day of medical appointments and errands. Elizabeth can handle it, she tells herself. She’ll do it all until her husband returns on the weekend.
But someone else has a plan – several someones, throwing Elizabeth’s orderly life into chaos and danger.
Now, she’s on her own; no one knows where they are.
If her son is to get out of this alive, it’s up to Elizabeth.
Ordinary people, thrown into extraordinary circumstances. Read Gone, Book One of the psychological thriller series When Bad Things Happen.
The first book in the When Bad Things Happen mystery thriller series.
The Recipient – Audrey J. Cole
Sergeant Wade McKinnon knows who killed Samantha the moment he arrives at her crime scene. Problem is, he watched her killer die a year ago.
A year after serial killer Michael Rhodes is executed and allowed to donate part of his brain as an organ transplant, Wade gets called to a murder scene that shares uncanny similarities to those of the late Michael Rhodes. Other similar killings happen around Seattle, and Wade seems to be the only person still alive who knows enough about Michael Rhodes’s murders to be able to replicate them. When evidence found at one of the crime scenes points to Wade as the killer, he races to find the real culprit before it’s too late to clear his own name.
Elle is overjoyed when her husband, Brian, receives a lifesaving organ transplant. Their lives seem to return to normal, but Elle notices a disturbing change in Brian’s behavior. When Elle learns that her husband’s organ donor was Michael Rhodes, she fears that Brian now has the mind of a serial killer.
The Recipient is a chilling crime thriller mixed with domestic suspense that will leave you on the edge of your seat until the very end.
The perfect mystery thriller book to curl up with this weekend.
Those are our picks for the most-chilling mystery thriller books to read right now. Best of all, many of these titles are available for FREE through Kindle Unlimited. If you enjoyed this list then check out my list of the best thriller book series!
Speaking of free thriller mysteries. Bestselling thriller & mystery author Dan Padavona is offering his heart-pounding novel, Dead and Buried, for free download to your Kindle, Nook, Kobo, tablet, or phone. This is one scary thriller. Download your copy now before the promotion ends.