Today, we will be listing the ten best thriller books of all time. There are many thriller classics and we will try to narrow it down to only the ten best. That is going to a difficult task but it wouldn’t be fun if it wasn’t!
Previously, we created the best thriller books of all time list and it came out well. Unlike most lists, it got fairly little complaints. That should change with this list as many classics will be left out because there were better ones. The thriller genre varies and has subgenres that makes it hard to properly define it. But we went forward anyway and this is the result.
The Ten Best Thrillers of All Time
- The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
- Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
- The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
- Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith
- The Shining by Stephen King
- In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
- Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
- Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carré
- The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Day of the Jackal
One of my favorite spy novels of all time has to be The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth. It is a brilliant novel that is impossible to put down. When a novel spoils the plot at the beginning, you have to wonder what will keep you reading. But Forsyth does an amazing job it telling the story, making you wonder if it was a red herring.
Shutter Island
One of my favorite all time novels on this list is Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane. If you like reading novels where you can’t trust the protagonist, then this is for you. The movie is also great and I recommend watching it after reading the novel so the plot twist is spoiled. But even if you have seen the movie, you will still enjoy the brilliant writing by Lehane.
The Da Vinci Code
Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code is one of the best selling novels of all time for good reason. The thriller novel was made into a great movie but the novel is also worth reading. Brown does a great job of creating a mystery that protagonist Robert Langdon is dragged into a conspiracy and will change history as everyone knows it.
Strangers on a Train
Guy Haines is sitting on a train when he is approached by Charles Anthony Bruno who tells Guy that they should swap murders. At first, Guy ignores Bruno but Bruno doesn’t stop pestering Guy, eventually trapping him, finding out how twisted Bruno is and how a man can be driven made until he has no other choice.
Strangers on a Train was Patricia Highsmith’s debut and it captured the public’s attention with questions of morality and that everything isn’t always black and white. And it led to one of the greatest movies directed by none other than Alfred Hitchcock in 1951.
In Cold Blood
An influential novel on the list is In Cold Blood by Truman Capote because it birthed the genre of true crime with its success. Helter Skelter would not have existed if this book was never published. With that said, it needs to be mentioned that the book does add fictitious events to make the book feel more real. Capone was able to make a real-life murder into amazing book that raises important points.
Conclusion
That is all for our ten best thrillers of all time list. Trying to get all the best books in a top ten list is never going to work but it highlights books that have come to define a genre. What books should have been on the list? Let us know in the comments below. Until next time, happy reading!
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If you’re into espionage try an unusually thrilling autobiography entitled Beyond Enkription (misspelt on purpose) by Bill Fairclough (ex MI6 agent codename JJ). It’s a must read for espionage cognoscenti. The fact based narrative is set in 1974 about a British accountant working in London, Nassau and Port au Prince who unwittingly works for MI6 and later the CIA.
It’s a compelling read but whatever you do, don’t just surf through the prologue as I did. Also, if like me you could only just stomach the film Jaws don’t be put off by the passing savagery of the first chapter. I finished this huge book in two sittings and a week or so later read it again.
To get the most out of it try researching the real events behind it on the web. There is a lot out there once you start digging but as a minimum include a half hour read of one of the author’s bios which don’t include spoilers. You’ll soon feel like you know his family. After my first reading I did even more research and kept on unravelling increasingly enthralling material that drove me to reread the book. My second reading was richly rewarded and just as captivating as my first.
If you like raw or noir espionage thrillers, you’ll love it. Len Deighton and Mick Herron could be forgiven for thinking they co-wrote it. Atmospherically it’s reminiscent of Ted Lewis’ Get Carter of Michael Caine fame. If anyone ever makes a film based on Beyond Enkription they’ll only have themselves to blame if it doesn’t go down in history as a classic espionage thriller.
I’ll check it out. I do enjoy good spy books. My to read list is a little backed up so it might be a while until I get to it but I definitely will!
The Bourne Identity, by Robert Ludlum. It’s absolutely brilliant, and infinitely better than the movie.
Marathon Man, by William Goldman.
Yea, the books are hard to put down!
Marathon Man is page for page one of the best thrillers ever written. Goldman is a master at keeping the reader at the edge of the seat.
I see the more well known books on this list, such as Bourne or Jackal. However I think Parsifal Mosaic by Ludlum and (dessa File by Forsyth are better reads. Finally The Pied Piper by Ridley Pearson is every bit their equal.
I’m sure you are right but book sales also and mass bool appeal does play a part. Many books that are better go unheard of by most people unfortunately including me.
Agree, also in my opinion think Angel’s and Demons is the superior Robert Langdon story.
I have a certain bias since I read Angels and Demons first and then the Da Vinci Code and loved the first novel and realized the second novel is the same exact formula and wasn’t a fan of the second one. I put Da Vinci Code because it was the blockbuster novel while Angels and Demons struggled when published
No Thomas Harris? Come on.
I had to make some tough calls. He would have been 11th or 12th. I enjoyed the novels (the ending was weird but that’s another discussion for another day) and thought about the book and it didn’t feel like it was the ten best thrillers (in my opinion).
As mentioned by others, Marathon Man, by William Goldman is a must read thriller. And while I’m at it, Magic, also by Goldman is as gripping as anything you will ever read. Many of Goldman’s books are damn fine thrillers that demand re-reading.
The Firm is an outstanding read
Smilla’s Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg is the most amazing thriller, and novel, I’ve ever read. With a female protagonist, no less. You should read it, but on a weekend, as you won’t be able to put it down.
Do read Bill Fairclough’s fact based spy thriller, Beyond Enkription, the first stand-alone novel of six in The Burlington Files series. One day he may overtake Bond, Smiley and even Jackson Lamb!
Beyond Enkription is a must read for espionage illuminati. It’s a raw noir matter of fact pacy novel. Len Deighton and Mick Herron could be forgiven for thinking they co-wrote it. Coincidentally, a few critics have nicknamed its protagonist “a posh Harry Palmer.”
It is a true story about a maverick accountant, Bill Fairclough (MI6 codename JJ) aka Edward Burlington in Porter Williams International (in real life Coopers & Lybrand now PwC). In the 1970s in London he infiltrated organised crime gangs, unwittingly working for MI6. After some frenetic attempts on his life he was relocated to the Bahamas where, “eyes wide open” he was recruited by the CIA and headed for shark infested waters off Haiti.
If you’re an espionage cognoscente you’ll love this monumental book. In real life Bill Fairclough was recruited by MI6’s unorthodox Colonel Alan Brooke Pemberton CVO MBE and thereafter they worked together on and off into the 1990s. You can find out more about Pemberton’s People (who even included Winston Churchill’s bodyguard) in an article dated 31 October 2022 on The Burlington Files website.
This epic is so real it made us wonder why bother reading espionage fiction when facts are so much more exhilarating. Whether you’re a le Carré connoisseur, a Deighton disciple, a Fleming fanatic, a Herron hireling or a Macintyre marauder, odds on once you are immersed in it you’ll read this titanic production twice. For more detailed reviews visit the Reviews page on TheBurlingtonFiles website or see other independent reviews on your local Amazon website and check out Bill Fairclough’s background on the web.