"As we approach the end of summer and start to get ready for what has to be the best season of the year (if you ask me), it’s the perfect time to add some thriller books to your TBR list. While I’m taking in the last few morsels of summer I can, truthfully, I’m just about ready to curl up on the couch with a cup of hot apple cider, my coziest blanket, my favorite B&BW works fall scented candle crackling in the background (“Leaves,” obviously), and a book I can’t put down. Whether reading about supernatural creatures is your thing, or you’re like me and would rather investigate a murder and bring a heinous killer to justice, there’s something for everyone available this year.
Plus, you can pick them up at your local CVS right now!
Some of our favorite authors, as well as some new faces, are delivering us thriller books just in time for the fall. You may even find that a sequel to one of your previous favorites has come out. There’s no better way to start spooky season than with a book, or two, that will keep you up all night.
Read on for 15 thriller books that will make you want to hit “add to cart” before the first leaf can fall.
Out Now
Nothing creates a bond quite like trauma. Jenna, Donna, and Nico know this all too well after spending their childhood at a group home where residents were abused and several went missing. After the home shutdown, each set out to make relatively 'normal' lives for themselves. They're forced to reunite and relive their troubled pasts when they realize someone is trying to kill them.
Release date: March 7, 2023
From the author who brought us The Last to Vanish is her latest gripping thriller. After two vans filled with high school seniors crash into a ravine, all but nine teenagers perish. On the first anniversary of the crash, one takes their life. The rest, bonded by guilt and tragedy, vow to come together once a year to commemorate the fateful night. This year, though, Cassidy Bent decides it's time to distance herself from the group and go off the grid. That is, until she receives an obituary of one of the usual attendees. When she feels obligated to attend the annual event, she quickly notices something isn't right—the organizer of the event goes missing shortly after their gathering begins. With more questions and suspicions than ever before, the group must stick to their vow of keeping one another safe no matter what.
Release date: April 11, 2023
Jack and her husband, Gabe, knew their career of choice came with some risks—they get hired to break into buildings and hack security systems, after all. What Jack could never have imagined is that she'd come home one day to find Gabe dead and herself at the top of the police's suspect list. Now she's on the run and searching for the real killer. This one is a mystery until the bitter end.
Release date: June 20, 2023
Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred. Decades later, Lenora, now in her seventies, tells her home-health aide she’s finally ready to tell the truth.
Release date: June 20, 2023
The bright and shiny new life Kelly was promised by her now ex-fiancé is ruined when he calls off the wedding and she's stuck with him in their apartment during lockdown. Things start looking up when she rekindles a friendship with her childhood friend, Sabrina, who invites her to stay in the spare bedroom in the mansion she shares with her husband. Soon Kelly starts forming feelings for both of her hosts, and it becomes clear they feel the same. After one steamy night, she finds herself in an exciting new world. That is, until she realizes the last woman the couple welcomed into their marriage has gone missing. She's left to wonder if she's next and if there's a way out.
Release date: June 20, 2023
If you loved the Reese's Book Club Pick, Wrong Place, Wrong Time, you're going to want to pick this one up by the same author immediately. 22-year-old Olivia disappeared in a dead-end alley and hasn't been seen in the last day. At first glance, head detective Julia expects this case to be a 'typical' missing person's case. She soon finds out, though, that her life and her family's safety depends on her not solving the case. The perpetrator knows something about Julia, and now she's forced to frame someone else for the disappearance, or else.
Release date: August 1, 2023
Said to be a combination of The Push and The Silent Patient is this gut wrenching tale. Anna Alcott is no stranger to the spotlight, or sharing the intricate details of her IVF journey with her fans. But when everything seems to be going wrong, like missing medications and mis-scheduled appointments, she suspects that someone out there is desperately trying to prevent her from growing a family. She knows something is terribly wrong when her doctor tells her she's miscarried but she still feels the baby inside of her. When no one, not even her husband, believes that someone is playing twisted games with her, she's left feeling alone and terrified, and is forced to take matters into her own hands.
Release date: August 1, 2023
Ruth and Catherine Sterling are a mother-daughter duo to be reckoned with. They know each other better than anyone. It isn't until Catherine is ready to leave the coop and start a life of her own that things start to change. Ruth is desperate to keep her daughter home. safe from the world, and unaware of her questionable past. As one fights to leave and the other fights to keep things the same, lies and deception become all too common between them.
Release date: August 1, 2023
Coming Soon
Popular true crime podcast host Alix Summer and Josie Fair meet by a twist of fate when they're at the same local pub each celebrating their forty-fifth birthday on the same night. When they run into each other again a few days later outside of Alix's child's school, Josie convinces her to let her be on her podcast. As the two work together more, it becomes clear that Josie is hiding some very dark secrets. When Josie disappears, Alix realizes she has become the subject of her own podcast and she and her family are in grave danger.
Release date: August 8, 2023
Calling all fans of the ABC series Will Trent! This August, Karin Slaughter is gifting us with the 11th book in the written series. Sara Linton's world was flipped upside down 15 years ago after a violent attack. Ever since, she's worked to rebuild a life she's proud of as a successful ER doctor. Now, as she works to save the life of a young woman who's been brutally attacked, Officer Will Trent realizes this attack may have a sinister link to Sara's.
Release date: August 22, 2023
Although a bit odd, Dawn is known for being meticulously on time for her job at Vixed as an accountant. When she doesn't show up one morning, Natalie, a top sales rep in the company, is surprised but doesn't think much of it. But when Natalie receives an anonymous phone call, she realizes there was more to Dawn than met the eye, and someone really hated her—enough to kill. Now Natalie finds herself in over her head in a game of cat and mouse that leaves her with more questions than answers.
Release date: August 22, 2023
In his new novel, Stephen King thrills readers by bringing back a repeat character, Holly Gibney. Holly is just about to go on leave from her strenuous detective job when she hears the desperation in a mother's voice who's daughter, Bonnie Dahl, has gone missing. Down the road from where Bonnie disappeared is a seemingly distinguished couple who may just be harboring a sinister secret.
Release date: September 5, 2023
Memorial Day in Jewel, Minnesota is generally reserved for showing patriotism and honoring those lost. This year, though, the town is plagued by mystery when one of the most powerful men in the city, Jimmy Quinn, is found dead by a gunshot wound. Sheriff Brody Dern, a war hero himself, heads the investigation, but before he can even begin to look into the case, rumors start spreading. Throughout the town, word has gone around that the killer is newly returned to town Noah Bluestone, a Native American WWII veteran. As the town finds itself on the edge of more violence, Dern struggles to uncover the truth of the case while battling the demons of his own past.
Release date: September 5, 2023
If you couldn't get enough of The Haunting of Hill House, prepare for your next obsession. Like any struggling writer, Holly Sherwin is looking for her big break. After receiving a grant to develop her latest play, all she needs is the time and space to finish it. When she stumbles upon the Hill House on a weekend getaway, she knows she's found the perfect place. Holly convinces her girlfriend, Nisa, and a troupe of actors to rent the place with her for a month. What they don't realize is that something is waiting for them at the Hill House besides the individual baggage each brought with them.
Release date: October 3, 2023
Fans of Spells for Forgetting, listen up! Adrienne Young is back again with this page turner. It's no secret that the Farrow women are cursed—June herself lost her mother after she disappeared decades ago. Now it's been a year since June started seeing and hearing things that weren't there—namely a mysterious door. Determined to end the curse placed on her family, June knows she must sacrifice love and a family of her own. After losing her grandmother, June encounters some cryptic clues to her mother's disappearance, and realizes there might be more to the vision of the door than she realized. When she learns she can touch and even enter the door, she embarks on a journey to find answers unlike anything she could have imagined.
Release date: October 17, 2023