Possibly unreliable narrator thrillers
First, let me note that just by putting books in this category, I'm not saying that the narrators in all these books are indeed unreliable - that would ruin the suspense! But these are books where part of the tension is created because as you read on, you may come to question whether the narrator is giving you the full picture - or if there are multiple narrators, which one is telling the truth!
As I hinted at above, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is probably the most famous of this genre, and probably the best as well; it didn't invent the unreliable narrator thriller, but it definitely popularized it. If you like psychological thrillers, you've probably already read this one or at least seen the movie. But if you somehow are not familiar with it, this mystery opens on the day of a couple's 5 year anniversary, when the wife goes missing. Was she murdered, and was it by her husband? The book then unfolds from the husband's perspective, as the days go by, and in diary entries by the wife starting from when they first met until the day of her disappearance. The ending was not entirely satisfying but it was a great book which made my 2012 Top 10 favorites list.
Emma in the Night by Wendy Walker - In this book full of crazy twists, two teenage sisters, 15 year old Cass and 17 year old Emma, disappear one night. Three years later, Cass returns home pleading for her parents and the police to help rescue Emma. The reader, and the FBI psychiatrist who is the other main POV character, are left to ponder how reliable Cass's story is, and what if anything this has to do with Cass and Emma's mom's narcissistic personality disorder. I'm not sure how plausible this book was, but the twists did make sense in the world of the book, and I couldn't stop reading.
All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda - This is about a woman who left town after her best friend disappeared ten years ago, and upon her return home, another young woman disappears. Very unusual structure, in that after the first chapter, set on the day she returns home, the book jumps forward two weeks, and then tells the story backwards, one day at a time. Somehow this gimmick not only works but makes the book that much more suspenseful. And because this method makes you call into question whether the narrator is telling us the whole truth, I'm going to include it in the possibly unreliable narrator category.
The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware - This page-turner is set on a small luxury boat, where a travel journalist tries to solve what she thinks was a murder, while everyone else on the boat thinks no one is even missing. Combines the "is this a reliable or unreliable narrator?" gimmick with a set-up out of a classic Agatha Christie mystery. It wasn't all entirely believable, but it was a very fun read.
The Daylight Marriage by Heidi Pitlor - A dark and riveting thriller about a not very happily married couple where the wife goes missing; told from the husband's perspective just before and following the disappearance, intercut with the wife's perspective on the day she disappears. This one certainly sounds like "Gone Girl" based on the description, but is actually pretty original.
Other psychological thrillers
The Marriage Pact by Michelle Richmond - This was a unique and page-turning domestic drama and psychological thriller. A just-married couple receive a gift of membership in "The Pact," a secret and exclusive group dedicated to helping people stay married. But before too much time passes, things take a turn for the sinister. Very entertaining read and while some of it was (intentionally) kind of crazy, it also had some interesting stuff to say about ordinary marriages as well.
Good as Gone by Amy Gentry - A very enthralling novel, about a family whose daughter was kidnapped at age 13, and suddenly comes home 8 years later - but is it really her, and what led to the disappearance and purported reappearance? Told both in the present and in flashbacks, much of the book is really more of a psychological character study, but turns into more of a thriller as the book nears its conclusion.
In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware - Page-turning psychological thriller about a bachelorette weekend (or a hen party as they call them in England and this British book) gone awry. Excellent job leaving the reader in suspense as to why the narrator hadn't spoken to the bride to be in the 10 years prior, and in how the narrator ended up in the hospital afterwards, and then in providing satisfying answers to those questions.
Spy/action thrillers
The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer - This novel is about a woman who used to be an interrogator (via biochemical type methods) for an off the books government agency, and is now on the run from the very people she used to work for. Yes, it's *that* Stephenie Meyer of "Twilight" fame, and it's certainly not literary fiction, but it is a really entertaining page-turner.
The Expats by Chris Pavone - Very enjoyable different take on a spy thriller. The protagonist of this novel is a former CIA agent, who quits the agency to move to Luxemburg for her husband's job, and becomes a stay at home mother. She starts feeling like all is not what it seems, but is something really happening or is she just paranoid by profession? Lots of twists and turns. Both of Chris Pavone's other thrillers are very good as well, but this one is my favorite of his.
Mystery thrillers
I'll discuss regular mysteries in another post, but for these purposes I'll include a few books that are more on the thriller side but where the main focus is a mystery of some sort.
Night Film by Marisha Pessl - Gripping and original literary thriller, where the daughter of a reclusive horror film director turns up dead of an apparent suicide, and a journalist who was previously discredited for his work investigating the director decides to investigate the death. A long book but a good one, very atmospheric and great characterizations. This one made my 2013 Top 10 list.
The Cutaway - Christina Kovac - This is an enjoyable mystery/thriller about a tv news producer who takes it upon herself to investigate the case of a missing woman. Good twists and turns, and I enjoyed the prickly main character.
Boy, 9, Missing by Nic Joseph - In this mystery/thriller, 23 years ago, the protagonist Francis's 9 year old brother drowned in a bathtub during a family get together, and the only witness, 10 year old Sam, would never say what happened. Now, all these years later, Sam's own 9 year old son has disappeared, and Francis's father is a suspect, and Francis decides to investigate. Two solid mysteries - what happened to Francis's brother, and what happened to Sam's brother, and both were resolved in a way that I did not predict, though I found one more satisfying than the other. Good character work too, and an enjoyable and fast paced read.
The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda - Entertaining, page turning thriller about a woman who has fled her recent past and moved to small town western Pennsylvania, only to have a nearby woman turn up almost dead, and her roommate go missing. Multiple elements of the plot were kind of preposterous, but it was a suspenseful and fun book nonetheless.
Science fiction thrillers
Brilliance by Marcus Sakey - A thriller with a science fiction edge, this book is set in a world roughly like the present day - but where for the past 30+ years, about one percent of children have been born with extreme savant/genius like talents, for reasons no one knows. The protagonist is himself one of these "abnorms," but who works for a government agency tasked with hunting down abnorm criminals and terrorists. This is the first book of a trilogy, and while, as with so many trilogies, this one is definitely the best of the three, they are definitely all enjoyable.
Lock In by John Scalzi - Deeply enjoyable near future thriller about a world where a decent slice of humans called Hadens are left "locked in" to their bodies after a meningitis-like disease, but use machines they control with their consciousness to interact with the real world. This book follows one of these Hadens in his very eventful first week of work as an FBI agent. A sequel to this one is coming out next month, which I'm looking forward to.
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