100 Best Thriller Books of All Time

Neal O'GormanCertainly, a previous non-business book which I really enjoyed (along with many other people) was the Da Vinci Code. I was living in the States at the time, and it was a rare occasion to be on a plane and not see someone reading it. (Source)

Kelly Vaughn@ceeoreo_ Great book! (Source)

Barack ObamaJust like us, the president enjoys a good beach read while relaxing in the sun. In 2016, he released his list of summer vacation books: Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, William Finnegan H Is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins Seveneves, Neal Stephenson The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead (Source)

Jessica Northeyshaw@TheBrandyClark It's awesome! Did you read the book? It's super twisted and dark. Enjoy! 😘 (Source)

James TwiningHarris breaks a story in that he popularised or exposed the workings of the FBI’s criminal profiling unit. He put them on the map. (Source)

Peter JamesIf you want to be a crime writer it is one of the books that you absolutely have to read. It has been one of the most successful, if not the most successful, crime novel of the 20th century. (Source)

Nic NemethDeception Point is the best Dan Brown book... https://t.co/DBhQVzsqVH (Source)

Daisy JohnsonIf you think you know the story because you’ve seen the film then you’d be wrong. This book is an absolute classic and a great way into the vast King oeuvre. (Source)

R J ElloryI have always rated Stephen King. I think he is so much more than just a commercially successful horror writer. (Source)

Rian Johnson@AdamLanceGarcia I think And Then There Were None is her best book, but The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd and Curtain are probably tied for my personal favorite. (Source)

Craig BarrettThis book didn’t really change my mind, but rather reinforced the concept of the power of the individual. At a time when we depend more and more on big institutions to solve our business and social problems the real solutions are crafted by individual actions and initiative. This is true in the business world, where ideas from individual researchers or entrepreneurs can create mega companies... (Source)

Dan Christensen@EconTalker @cable_co1 The Martian... hey it can’t all be economics and it’s a great book (Source)

Patrick Chovanec@acgleva The book was great. (Source)

Richard Osman‘You’ by Caroline Kepnes is an extraordinary book. So brutal, yet so funny, so cool, yet so terrifying. I can see now why there is praise on the back from Stephen King AND Lena Dunham. Amazing writing. https://t.co/g2SAfjCkBo (Source)

Richard BransonToday is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. (Source)

Lindsay BerraI had a great time working out with the #SpecialForces crew from @GhostRecon and @sofletehq in NYC last week! @jonnybernthal even did a drive-by. Fun fact: My dad had me read my first Tom Clancy book, Hunt for Red October, when I was 10. #GhostRecon https://t.co/VgjPCYBRna (Source)

Bill Gates[On Bill Gates's reading list in 2012.] (Source)

Robert MuchamoreA brutal, exciting, action-based sci-fi novel. Hugely popular and excellent fun. (Source)

Tess GerritsenThis is a domestic thriller, by a man writing from a female point of view. I read it when it was still in manuscript form, after an editor asked me if I wanted to do a blurb for it. I get these requests all the time. I thought, Ah, that sounds like just a clever trick. But he had me convinced from the first paragraph. (Source)

Jacqui PrettyWhen it comes to fiction, there are so many to choose from! Some books I've loved in the past year include Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. (Source)

Rob Anderson For Louisiana@CrazyVetDem80 @blu_joon Great book, great movie (“Misery”). Nice reference. We are all in this together. I’m honored to have your support - y’all are the important ones. (Source)

James TwiningThis is not a brilliantly written book, but the movies are fantastic and quite different really from the book. (Source)

Mukesh AmbaniI just finished [this book]. I like [the author]. (Source)

Ben ShapiroThe best action novel ever written. By a looong shot! (Source)

James TwiningIt’s very well-written in a way that perhaps my next choices aren’t, and it depicts France in the 1960s in an incredibly convincing way. (Source)

Sam BourneWhat makes the book compelling is that you are observing the mechanics of an assassin who is a really blank character. He is unnamed, apart from being called ‘the Jackal.’ He should be very blank, but it works because you buy into the idea of a traceless, faceless, ruthless killer. (Source)

Harry Khachatrian@redsteeze great book though (Source)

Anders Roslund and Börge HellströmThis is the best non-Swedish crime book I have ever read. It has the same ingredients as his other more serial-like books – the surprising end and the language. He was in Stockholm not long ago and I missed that and I am still angry I wasn’t there. He is someone I really admire because he writes the almost complete crime. (Source)

Ryan HolidayI’m amazed how many young people haven’t read this book. Truly life-changing. This is the classic of my generation; it is the book that defines our age and ultimately, how to find meaning in it. It’s a cautionary tale too—about being too caught up in revolutionary ideas. (Source)

Van BadhamSUPER EXCITED to receive my copy of “Solved! How Other Countries Have Cracked the World’s Biggest Problems and We Can, Too” by Andrew Wear. SO GREAT to read a political book that’s about both pragmatic action *and* hope. Squee! #auspol https://t.co/jIYgr36kZO (Source)

The Secret BarristerThis was the holiday-reading book which, as a teenager, inspired me to pursue criminal law. The gritty reality of criminal practice is of course somewhat removed from the fictionalised ideal, and any lawyer acting in the way that our hero Jake Brigance does in securing a just outcome for his innocent client would have to deal with fairly serious professional consequences, but the underlying... (Source)

Richard OsmanJust finished this wonderful book by the brilliant @sharilapena. So full of twists, yet so utterly believable. Loved it! https://t.co/af4xSjwXT1 (Source)

Gary BuryThe book at the side of my bed is The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena. Unusually for me I choose it from a book store based on the current charts. I just wanted a book that was neither Children's, work or current affairs related, something to switch off to, bedtime reading. (Source)

Roman Mars@justrobgrant I LOVE that book. That one and The Talisman are the only ones I’ve read multiple times. (Source)

Darren AronofskyI proceeded to pound through procrastinating by reading [this book], scaring the living crap out of myself. (Source)

Louise BagshaweThis was probably the last book I read where I literally stayed up until three o’clock in the morning because I could not stop reading it. I just think it is such a brilliant fast-paced story. The characterisation is sparse, terse, but nevertheless really well-drawn. He doesn’t do psychology but it’s a chase story with an ongoing mystery in the back. (Source)

Cat Williams-TreloarA close second favourite is "I am Pilgrim" by Terry Hayes. I was gifted this book from a close friend who was living in the Middle East. I was blown away by the intricacies, empathy and human angle of conflict. I hadn't walked in someone else's shoes like that for a very long time. (Source)

Tess GerritsenJohn le Carré is very cerebral. There is an intellectual puzzle of trying to figure out who the characters are. Eye of the Needle was an out-and-out chase thriller. (Source)

Louise BagshaweThis is another terrific chase story with a bit more characterisation, Ken Follett’s first really big success as an author. It’s interesting because the protagonist is a German spy who has to transmit important information to Germany and he goes on the run to try to do it. (Source)

Eric BerkowitzThe case is about racism, but it’s also about white sexual fear of the black man, and the failed effort of white America to stop intermixing. I think the notion of the scary black man still permeates the American justice system today. I don’t think To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the greatest pieces of literature ever, but it is a very good window into the ingrained sexual fear that permeated at... (Source)

Scott TurowIt’s dated in many ways; it’s extremely sentimental. But it’s beautifully done – you can’t take a thing away from it. (Source)

David Heinemeier HanssonReally liking this one so far. I’m sure a lot of people here probably read it in high school or whatever, but it wasn’t on the Danish curriculum, so here I am! (Source)

Kurt Busiek Resists…rereading FINDERS KEEPERS by Stephen King instead. I’ve only read it once and I was probably ill at the time, so I don’t remember the details all that well, but it’s pretty much exactly the right book for my mood right now. I love libraries and e-books. (Source)

Tess GerritsenThis was the first science thriller I ever read. I remember thinking it was the first book to make real science so exciting. (Source)

Dez Blanchfield@isotopp wasn't that an awesome book ( and movie ) (Source)

Simon KernickThis is one of those classic thrillers, and it’s brilliantly plotted. It starts with a husband and wife celebrating the anniversary of their first kiss in their lakeside holiday home. The wife is kidnapped and murdered by a known serial killer and the husband is beaten and left for dead. And then we fast-forward eight years to the present and the man is a doctor who, although still traumatised,... (Source)

Cristian-Dragos BaciuAnd let's not forget Along Came a Spider by James Patterson. Actually, Patterson is really something else. He doesn't even write the books himself. He just puts together a very detailed brief, that he hands over to a talented writer and bang!, you have a best-seller. (Source)

Tess GerritsenThroughout the story, she feels the first wife haunt the house, and she can never quite measure up to her. And then the heroine begins to wonder: What if Rebecca was murdered? What if my husband did it? (Source)

Katie KitamuraIt’s a novel that uses the narrative form of the psychological thriller, but in the service of exploring a single emotion: jealousy. (Source)

Lucy AtkinsThe main thing about Rebecca that I find completely compelling is the way that you, the reader, become complicit in a situation which, eventually, turns into a crime. (Source)

Bill GatesIt seems like everyone I know has read this book. I finally joined the club after my brother-in-law sent me a copy, and I’m glad I did. Towles’s novel about a count sentenced to life under house arrest in a Moscow hotel is fun, clever, and surprisingly upbeat. Even if you don’t enjoy reading about Russia as much as I do (I’ve read every book by Dostoyevsky), A Gentleman in Moscow is an amazing... (Source)

Henry MedineI promote range and diversity. Thus, I recommend readers to expose themselves to as many different topics as possible. I usually have 2-4 books I refer back to at any given time. They range in topics from management, art, spirituality and philosophy. Trying to get the engineering thing going but don't much of a mind for science. (Source)

Bryony GordonEveryone must read this book by @jeaninecummins. I cannot stop talking about it. I want to immediately start reading it all over again. Utterly magnificent. https://t.co/f3HHqddskD (Source)

Jonny GellerThink this the best (non Curtis Brown) book I read last year. https://t.co/NjKExF5dZ8 (Source)

Ben MacintyreI think it sets the standard for all spy literature. It’s very hard to improve on The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. It’s the classic le Carré recipe of compromised individuals trying to find their way through a labyrinth of deception and self-deception (Source)

Keith JefferyThis is at the far end of the spectrum from James Bond, but it also says a lot about the bureaucracy of the Service. (Source)

Estelle FrancisThis has got to be one of my all-time favourite books. As you say, Crichton manages to incorporate countless scientific details without it becoming too overwhelming. (Source)

John SmedleyBeen a while since I waited for a book to be released at midnight. But for a new @StephenKing heck yeah. The Institute is awesome as expected. Now I’m too tired to keep reading. (Source)

Matt GalliganBest book I read this year was @blakecrouch1’s Recursion. Holy hell was it a crazy ride. Brilliant concept, packed with deep questions, and an emotional rollercoaster. https://t.co/zhYG2wLPGX (Source)

Sam BourneThis is an example of the meticulously supreme thriller. John le Carré really is the master of the form, and any list of thrillers has to include that book. It’s a very emboldening book for thriller writers, because it teaches you not to underestimate the understanding of your reader. They can be pushed and pushed. It is an incredibly intricate plot and yet, if you write it well enough, as he... (Source)

Robert BaerLe Carré has the ability to add drama and colour. For classic espionage in a little town in Germany, you can’t do better than le Carré. (Source)

Andy BeckettI find the darkness in le Carré particularly interesting because it’s quite melancholic. It evokes a sadness about Britain and the establishment at that time. There’s a sense of the world closing in. He really captures that in the book. (Source)

Nicky CullenThat is such a tough question. I'm going to say The Godfather because I couldn't stop until it was finished. (Source)

Michal PtacekMy most favourite book is Godfather by Mario Puzo. I think it is even slightly more interesting and better than a movie which is almost perfect. Total masterpiece :) (Source)

Cal FlynSet in Lagos, it follows hardworking nurse Korede as she attempts to cover up the crimes committed by her insatiable sister Ayoola, a beautiful sociopath with black widow tendencies. As well as a crime thriller, it’s a razor-sharp dissection of gender dynamics that never feels preachy or pretentious. (Source)

Meena KandasamyGo, go, go, get this book if you haven't already. It's the best thing (except if you discount having a serial-killer sister). Such a fun, fast-paced, brilliant read. https://t.co/05xCcaoQdU (Source)

Clive Stafford SmithIt’s an immensely courageous book for such a famous author to write. It’s written from the perspective of the warder, whose job is to supervise death row and the execution of prisoners. The story is ultimately about a guy called John Coffey, a Christ-like figure who gets executed. (Source)

Denise HamiltonIt’s a very lush, richly imagined book. It just bursts with sensuality and the smells of Paris in the 18th century. (Source)