If you’re a book lover like me, there’s nothing better than finding a great psychological thriller that completely sucks you in. I’m talking about the kind of book that you can’t put down, even if it means staying up all night.
So, I have scoured the web and read countless reviews to bring you the ultimate list of the bestselling psychological thrillers of 2023. These books will keep you awake all night, guessing until the very end, and make you question everything you thought you knew about the characters. So, grab a cup of tea or coffee and get ready to dive into these spine-tingling tales!
The Silent Patient
If you haven’t heard of this book yet, where have you been? “The Silent Patient” was one of the most talked-about thrillers of the year and for good reason. It was an instant New York Times #1 Bestseller
Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.
Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.
Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations―a search for the truth that threatens to consume him….
This book is the definition of a psychological page-turner. In this fantastic book, Alicia Berenson, a successful painter, murders her husband Gabriel and then refuses to speak. She is sent to a psychiatric hospital, where Theo tries to piece together Alicia’s story and make her talk. What follows is a mind-bending ride that will leave you gasping until the final twist.
(Via Amazon)
Never Lie
This psychological thriller is a rollercoaster ride that you won’t be able to put down!
A twisting, pulse-pounding thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Housemaid and The Coworker!
Sometimes the truth kills…
Newlyweds Tricia and Ethan are searching for the house of their dreams. They think they’ve found it when they visit the remote manor that once belonged to Dr. Adrienne Hale, a renowned psychiatrist who vanished without a trace years ago. But when a violent winter storm traps them at the estate, the house begins to lose its appeal.
Stuck inside and growing restless, Tricia stumbles on a collection of audio transcripts from Dr. Hale’s sessions with patients. As Tricia listens to the cassette tapes, she learns about the terrifying chain of events leading up to the doctor’s mysterious disappearance.
With each tape, another shocking piece of the puzzle falls into place, and a web of lies slowly unravels. But by the time Tricia reaches the final cassette. The one that reveals the entire horrifying story. It will be too late…
(Via Amazon)
The Girl Who Was Taken
This book is another twisty tale that you won’t see coming.
The bestselling author of Twenty Years Later delivers a chilling thriller where nothing is at it seems and each reveal is more shocking than the last…right up to the jaw-dropping final twist.
Two abducted girls—one who returns, one who doesn’t.
The night they go missing, high school seniors Nicole Cutty and Megan McDonald are at a beach party in their small town of Emerson Bay, North Carolina. Police launch a massive search, but hope is almost lost–until Megan escapes from a bunker deep in the woods…A year later, the bestselling account of her ordeal has made Megan a celebrity. It’s a triumphant story, except for one inconvenient detail: Nicole is still missing.
Nicole’s older sister, Livia, a fellow in forensic pathology, expects that one day soon Nicole’s body will be found and her sister’s fate determined. Instead, the first clue comes from another body–that of a young man connected to Nicole’s past. Livia reaches out to Megan to learn more about that fateful night. Other girls have disappeared, and she’s increasingly sure the cases are connected.
Megan knows more than she revealed in her book. Flashes of memory are pointing to something more monstrous than she described. And the deeper she and Livia dig, the more they realize that sometimes true terror lies in finding exactly what you’ve been looking for…
(Via Amazon)
The Inmate
This one is one of my personal favorite thrillers from this year. I recommend either reading it on Kindle Unlimited or getting an Audiobook from Audible. A printed version is hard to come by!
There are three rules Brooke Sullivan must follow as a new nurse practitioner at a men’s maximum-security prison:
1) Treat all prisoners with respect.
2) Never reveal any personal information.
3) Never EVER become too friendly with the inmates.
But none of the staff at the prison knows Brooke has already broken the rules. Nobody knows about her intimate connection to Shane Nelson, one of the penitentiary’s most notorious and dangerous inmates.
And they certainly don’t know that Shane was Brooke’s high school sweetheart—the star quarterback who is now spending the rest of his life in prison for a series of grisly murders. Or that Brooke’s testimony was what put him there.
But Shane knows.
And he will never forget.
(Via Amazon)
None of This is True
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author known for her “superb pacing, twisted characters, and captivating prose” (BuzzFeed), Lisa Jewell returns with a scintillating new psychological thriller about a woman who finds herself the subject of her own popular true crime podcast.
Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summer crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie, it turns out, is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins.
A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life.
Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realize that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life—and into her home.
But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat.
Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done? Find out in this thrilling tale!
(Via Amazon)
Pretty Girls
This book isn’t for the faint of heart, but if you can handle the gore, it’s definitely worth the read!
Sisters. Strangers. Survivors.
More than twenty years ago, Claire and Lydia’s teenaged sister Julia vanished without a trace. The two women have not spoken since, and now their lives could not be more different. Claire is the glamorous trophy wife of an Atlanta millionaire. Lydia, a single mother, dates an ex-con and struggles to make ends meet. But neither has recovered from the horror and heartbreak of their shared loss—a devastating wound that’s cruelly ripped open when Claire’s husband is killed.
The disappearance of a teenage girl and the murder of a middle-aged man, almost a quarter-century apart: what could connect them? Forming a wary truce, the surviving sisters look to the past to find the truth, unearthing the secrets that destroyed their family all those years ago . . . and uncovering the possibility of redemption, and revenge, where they least expect it.
(Via Amazon)
The Perfect Marriage
Sarah Morgan is a successful and powerful defense attorney in Washington D.C. At 33 years old, she is a named partner at her firm and life is going exactly how she planned.
The same cannot be said for her husband, Adam. He is a struggling writer who has had little success in his career. He begins to tire of his and Sarah’s relationship as she is constantly working.
Out in the secluded woods, at Adam and Sarah’s second home, Adam engages in a passionate affair with Kelly Summers.
Then, one morning everything changes. Adam is arrested for Kelly’s murder. She had been found stabbed to death in Adam and Sarah’s second home.
Sarah soon finds herself playing the defender for her own husband, a man accused of murdering his mistress.
But is Adam guilty or is he innocent? Read this thriller by Jeneva Rose and find out!
(Via Amazon)
Just the Nicest Couple
“This Psychological Thriller grabs you on the first page and doesn’t let go until you reach the end.” —Laura Dave, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me
Jake Hayes is missing. This much is certain. At first, his wife, Nina, thinks he’s blowing off steam at a friend’s house after their fight the night before. But then a day goes by. Two days. Five. And Jake is still nowhere to be found.
Lily Scott, Nina’s friend and coworker, thinks she may have been the last to see Jake before he went missing. After Lily confesses everything to her husband, Christian, the two decide that nobody can find out what happened leading up to Jake’s disappearance, especially not Nina. But Nina is out there looking for her husband, and she won’t stop until the truth is discovered.
(Via Amazon)
The Most Bizarre True Crime Stories Ever Told
Are you a fan of true crime? Do you know all the ins and outs of popular cases and killers?
Inside you’ll find:
Tales of the paranormal: Did a dead woman really solve her own murder? Have dreams helped investigators track down killers? Did a demon possess a man and force him to kill?
Terrifying mysteries: What was happening in the Soka Forest of Horrors? How can authorities have stacks of DNA evidence and still not be able to track down such a careless killer? How many innocent people have been killed because they knew too much?
The strangest details of any true crime cases: How many murder attempts can one man survive? How long can someone live with a corpse in their house? How did a cannibal who committed a horrific crime not only walk free, but become a celebrity?
As horrifying as the details of well-known cases can be, real true crime fanatics are looking for something more than the run of the mill murders they’ve heard about a thousand times. They’re looking for mysteries, twists and turns, and seemingly-impossible circumstances that take a case from lacklustre to legendary.
The Most Bizarre True Crime Stories Ever Told delivers the horrifying, interesting, weird, thrilling and disturbing tales that really get true crime connoisseurs excited. Lock your doors, close your blinds, and get ready to read about some of the strangest, and most bone-chilling true crime cases the word has ever seen.
(Via Amazon)
Those Empty Eyes
The bestselling author of Twenty Years Later and master of modern suspense is back with a brilliantly twisting, skillfully plotted thriller perfect for fans of Jeneva Rose and Colleen Hoover’s Verity.
Alex Armstrong has changed everything about herself—her name, her appearance, her backstory. She’s no longer the terrified teenager a rapt audience saw on television, emerging in handcuffs from the quiet suburban home the night her family was massacred. That girl, Alexandra Quinlan, nicknamed Empty Eyes by the media, was accused of the killings, fought to clear her name, and later took the stand during her highly publicized defamation lawsuit that captured the attention of the nation.
It’s been ten years since, and Alex hasn’t stopped searching for answers about the night her family was killed, even as she continues to hide her real identity from true crime fanatics and grasping reporters still desperate to locate her. As a legal investigator, she works tirelessly to secure justice for others, too. People like Matthew Claymore, who’s under suspicion in the disappearance of his girlfriend, a student journalist named Laura McAllister.
Laura was about to break a major story about rape and cover-ups on her college campus. Alex believes Matthew is innocent, and unearths stunning revelations about the university’s faculty, fraternity members, and powerful parents willing to do anything to protect their children.
Most shocking of all—as Alex digs into Laura’s disappearance, she realizes there are unexpected connections to the murder of her own family. For as different as the crimes may seem, they each hinge on one sinister truth: no one is quite who they seem to be . . .
(Via Amazon)
If you’re looking for a thrilling and mind-bending read
These psychological thrillers will keep you on the edge of your seat. With masterful storytelling, surprising twists, and unforgettable characters, these books prove that psychological thrillers are still the crown jewels of suspenseful fiction. So, what are you waiting for? Add these books to your reading list and get ready for a wild ride!
If you need to grab any of these thrilling titles you can get them here on Amazon. Or get one for free when you sign up for a free trial from Audible.
Until next time, stay brash, stay bookish stay true to you and have a very Merry Christmas!
