The Best Chilling Thrillers to Read in Summer 2024 

Think you’ve seen it all when it comes to murder mysteries? Think again. Author Stuart Turton brings the genre “a fresh twist on dystopian fiction with its share of surprises” (Kirkus Reviews) in this story of an island that is all that is left of the world’s population after a mysterious fog wiped out everyone else. Just over a hundred people live on the island in peace and harmony – but last night, one of them was murdered. 

The problem is, nobody knows who did it or why, not even the murderer, since the island’s sophisticated security system wiped out everyone’s memory. Now, the clock is ticking in this “dazzling and mind-boggling” (Booklist) mix of whodunit and postapocalyptic thriller.

“A blooming good read” is what The Times of London called this story of obsession and murder. Eustacia Rose is a professor of botanical toxicology who keeps rare poisonous plants as a hobby, which makes her uniquely suited to become embroiled in a web of murder when someone close to her lovely neighbor winds up dead, possibly poisoned by one of Eustacia’s own plants. Check it out to see why First Clue raved that it is a “fascinating novel” that is “hugely satisfying.”

Years ago, a chilling crime left sisters Cassie and Lenora alone against the world. Together, they share Cabin Two in an isolated Tennessee campground where they hide out from true crime junkies and anything else that might remind them of the past. 

Until the teenager in the cabin next door goes missing, bringing it all back to the surface and leaving each sister to wonder if the other knows more than she’s letting on in this “searing, blistering thriller that grabs you and doesn’t let you go until its final, dizzying twist” (Jenny Hollander, author of Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead).

What could be better summer reading than a book about a seemingly perfect getaway on a “party island” off the coast of Thailand? Unfortunately for Cass, a diving instructor at the famous Koh Sang Resort, she came there to get away from her past, but when bodies start piling up on the island, it seems that her past has finally caught up with her in this “escapist, up-all-night thriller that holds you under and doesn’t let you surface for air” (Lucy Clarke, author of One of the Girls).

Amalie Lincoln came to Jubilee, Kentucky to leave the past behind and start fresh. With her childhood friend Sean Pope, it seems like she might just have the chance to build the life she always wanted. Then a helicopter explosion kicks off an investigation in the mountain town, and suddenly Sean and Amelie’s perfect new life is thrown into turmoil. 

A master of romantic suspense, see why USA Today calls Sharon Sala’s work “emotionally wrenching, sensually appealing, edgy and suspenseful, and hopeful and endearing.”

In 2022, Freida McFadden published her biggest hit to date, the first book in what became a trilogy and will soon be a movie from Lionsgate. The Housemaid kicked off the series, and The Housemaid is Watching is its latest installment. Millie, the protagonist of the first two books in the Housemaid series, now has a home of her own, a husband and two children. However, her seemingly idyllic new life carries some shocking secrets of its own, and Millie’s sordid past may come back to haunt her in this story that will leave fans in “complete and utter shock from the amount of twists and turns” (Jessica’s Book Biz).

How well do we ever know even those closest to us? That’s the question posed in Freida McFadden’s page-turning thriller, The Perfect Son. When a teenage girl goes missing and Erika’s son Liam was the last person known to have seen her alive, Erika is worried. It seems that Liam has exhibited some… troubling tendencies in the past, though Erika has never let anyone else in the family know about them. Could he have been responsible for the girl’s disappearance? Or was it someone else close to Erika and Liam – someone she doesn’t begin to suspect?

Vixed is an up-and-coming nutritional supplement brand where both Dawn Schiff and Natalie Farrell work. Or worked, until one day Dawn doesn’t show up, and Natalie receives an unsettling phone call that suggests that something is very wrong in the office. Dawn was a quiet worker who kept to herself. No one liked her much… but could anyone have hated her enough to kill? Natalie is going to have to find out if she wants to survive this gripping page-turner from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Freida McFadden.

“Secrets are everywhere in this sparkling narrative that moves like a Japanese bullet train,” hails First Clue, while Library Journal calls The Teacher “a must-read for fans of psychological thrillers.” Eve teaches math at Caseham High, which was recently rocked by a scandal involving a student-teacher relationship. But that has nothing to do with Eve or her life… does it? Read it to see why Booklist raved that, “McFadden piles on secrets and lies, slowly doling out the truth until the explosive conclusion, and then, once the dust has settled, she reveals one more bombshell that changes everything.”

Shane Nelson is serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison for a string of grisly murders. Brooke Sullivan is the prison’s new nurse practitioner. There’s just one problem – she’s also Shane’s old high school sweetheart, and it was her testimony that helped put him behind bars. Nobody at the prison knows about their connection, though. Nobody except Shane. He hasn’t forgotten… and he hasn’t forgiven in this page-turning thriller from the New York Times bestselling author.

Newlyweds Tricia and Ethan are shopping for a new home when a freak winter storm traps them at the remote estate of Dr. Adrienne Hale, a renowned psychiatrist who vanished without a trace. Searching for a book to read, Tricia instead finds audio transcripts from Dr. Hale’s patients – tapes that just might contain the secret of his disappearance in this “perfect thrill ride of a novel” (Karen McQuestion, author of The Moonlight Child) that is “the definition of unputdownable” (Curling Up with Coffee and a Kindle).

“I read this twisty thriller in one day,” raves the Massanutten Regional Library. It’s a common refrain if you start browsing Goodreads reviews of Freida McFadden’s work. And a great place to find out why is in the pages of One by One. 

Claire, her husband, and two other couples have all gone on a hiking vacation together. It’s supposed to be a time to relax and reconnect. When Claire’s minivan breaks down, however, they find themselves lost in the woods… and something or someone is after them, picking them off, one by one.