When we published our list of the 50 best thrillers of the 21st century, we suspected we would hear from passionate readers who felt injustices had been done. (Guess what … we did!)
As we always do with these projects, we like to make room for readers to offer their own thoughts. So here are the best thrillers of the 21st century, as chosen by New York Times readers. Their choices were so fascinating — and wide-ranging — that we extended the list from 50 to 100. (To make their picks, readers played a game we designed for this project.)
We’d love to know: What do you still think is missing? Tell us in the comments!
1-10
Three of the books here — “Never Let Me Go,” “Wolf Hall” and “The Road” — didn’t make the Book Review’s list, and are good reminders that the definition of what constitutes a thriller is not only broad, but deeply personal.
1. THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, by Stieg Larsson; translated by Reg Keeland
No. 4 on the Book Review’s list, this thriller kicked off America’s obsession with Scandinavian noir. Read our review.
3. MYSTIC RIVER, by Dennis Lehane
No. 2 on the Book Review’s list. Read our review.
4. SLOW HORSES, by Mick Herron
No. 9 on the Book Review’s list, this 2010 novel has been back in the limelight ever since its TV adaptation first aired. It’s part of our spy fiction starter pack.
5. NEVER LET ME GO, by Kazuo Ishiguro
This science fiction thriller is also a gorgeous, achingly sad dystopian novel. Read our review.
6. IN THE WOODS, by Tana French
No. 3 on the Book Review’s list, and French’s debut novel. Read our review.
8. WOLF HALL, by Hilary Mantel
Mantel won the 2009 Booker for this novel about the rise of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII. Read our review.
10. THE ROAD, by Cormac McCarthy
This postapocalyptic thriller won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Read our review.
11-20
All three of the books in Tana French’s Cal Hooper trilogy, as well as two of Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie books.
11. STATION ELEVEN, by Emily St. John Mandel
A novel is about nothing less than the collapse — and rebirth — of civilization. Read our review.
12. THE HUNTER, by Tana French
The second book in French’s trilogy about Cal Hooper, a Chicago lawman who retires to rural Ireland. Read our review.
13. STARTED EARLY, TOOK MY DOG, by Kate Atkinson
The fourth of Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie novels, which our critic called “nettlesome marvels.” Read our review.
14. THE GOLDFINCH, by Donna Tartt
No. 23 on the Book Review’s list,this novel won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Read our review, by Stephen King.
15. THE KEEPER, by Tana French
French’s third Cal Hooper novel came out earlier this year. Read our review.
16. THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, by Stieg Larsson; translated by Reg Keeland
Our crime columnist thought Larsson’s sequel to “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” got off to a slow start: “Unless you take a voyeur’s intense interest in which tattoo Salander had removed or how her breast implants turned out, it’s more gratifying when the plot finally kicks in.” Read our review.
17. CASE HISTORIES, by Kate Atkinson
No. 13 on the Book Review’s list, and Atkinson’s first novel in the Jackson Brodie series. Read our review.
18. THE SEARCHER, by Tana French
The first book in French’s Cal Hooper trilogy. Read our review.
20. A MOST WANTED MAN, by John le Carré
In 2008, Alan Furst called this “le Carré’s strongest, most powerful novel.” Read our review.
21-30
Two more of Mick Herron’s Slough House spy novels, two more of Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad books and two more Jackson Brodie mysteries from Kate Atkinson.
21. WHEN WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS?, by Kate Atkinson
“It’s hard to imagine a novel starting in a more gripping or terrifying way than Kate Atkinson’s new mystery,” our critic wrote of this Jackson Brodie novel. Read our review.
22. LONDON RULES, by Mick Herron
Another installment in Herron’s Slough House series, which — as the spy novelist David McCloskey wrote in The Times — “show the office politics of espionage in all its grimy glory.”
23. SPOOK STREET, by Mick Herron
Season 4 of Apple TV’s “Slow Horses” is based on “Spook Street.” (Fun fact: Mick Jagger, who co-wrote and performed the show’s theme song, is fan of Herron’s Slough House books.)
25. FAITHFUL PLACE, by Tana French
The third book in French’s Dublin Murder Squad series. Read our review.
26. THE MARTIAN, by Andy Weir
In 2011, unloved by publishers, Weir began posting chapters of this book to his website. The rest is science fiction history.
28. SHUTTER ISLAND, by Dennis Lehane
No. 17 on the Book Review’s list. Read our review.
29. THE LIKENESS, by Tana French
No. 34 on the Book Review’s list, and French’s second Dublin Murder Squad book. Read our review.
30. THE GUARDS, by Ken Bruen
Back in 2003, our columnist called Bruen’s Irish crime novel “bleak and brutish,” which was a compliment of the highest order. Read our review.
31-40
Two more Tana French novels (only one of hers, “The Trespasser,” does not make this list of 100).
31. WINTER’S BONE, by Daniel Woodrell
No. 25 on the Book Review’s list. Our critic wrote that this novel “is as serious as a snakebite, with a plot that seems tight enough to fit on the label of a package of chew.” Read our review.
32. THE WITCH ELM, by Tana French
No. 33 on the Book Review’s list, and French’s first stand-alone novel. Read our review, by Stephen King.
33. DEAD LIONS, by Mick Herron
The second novel in Herron’s Slough House series. The first installment, “Slow Horses,” sold so poorly that Herron could not find a British publisher for “Dead Lions.”
34. SMALL MERCIES, by Dennis Lehane
A mother searches for her daughter during the tumultuous summer of 1974 in South Boston. Read our review, by J. Courtney Sullivan.
35. THE ROUND HOUSE, by Louise Erdrich
This novel — the second in Erdrich’s justice trilogy — won the 2012 National Book Award for fiction. Read our review.
36. BROKEN HARBOR, by Tana French
No. 20 on the Book Review’s list, and French’s fourth Dublin Murder Squad novel. Read our review.
37. THE POWER OF THE DOG, by Don Winslow
Winslow has said that this first volume in his epic Cartel crime trilogy was tough to write. “There were times I just laid my head on the keyboard and said, ‘I can’t do this.’”
38. THE GOD OF THE WOODS, by Liz Moore
No. 7 on the Book Review’s list, this thriller is set in a remote corner of the Adirondacks. Read our review.
39. PRESUMED GUILTY, by Scott Turow
Interviewed about this book, Turow said, “I’ve always been struck by how terrible it is … for a parent when a child gets accused of a serious crime. They think, ‘Is my love for this child so huge that I can’t recognize that he or she is a monster?’”
40. CONCLAVE, by Robert Harris
Power machinations rattle the Vatican. Read our review.
41-50
A real mix here — a spy novel, a serial-killer thriller, village mysteries, historical fiction and more.
41. HARLEM SHUFFLE, by Colson Whitehead
The first book in Whitehead’s Harlem trilogy, which just concluded with “Cool Machine.” Read our review.
42. ORDINARY GRACE, by William Kent Krueger
Not part of Krueger’s Cork O’Connor series but a stand-alone about, in his words, “a family in a small town who experience something awful.”
43. PIRANESI, by Susanna Clarke
Our columnist wrote that this long-awaited novel — Clarke’s first since “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell” — was “rich, wondrous, full of aching joy and sweet sorrow.” Read our review.
44. THE SNOWMAN, by Jo Nesbo; translated by Don Bartlett
After reading this novel, you’ll never think of Frosty the same way. Read our review.
45. STILL LIFE, by Louise Penny
The first book in Penny’s series set in the bucolic Canadian hamlet of Three Pines introduced Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec. Read our review.
46. BURY YOUR DEAD, by Louise Penny
In every village mystery, some beloved local must inevitably be culled from the herd. Read our review.
47. ABSOLUTE FRIENDS, by John le Carré
“John le Carré never, ever phones it in — not even on a secure line,” our critic wrote. Read our review.
48. HORSE, by Geraldine Brooks
Shuttling between the present day and the 19th century, Brooks tells the story of one of the world’s most famous thoroughbreds. Read our review.
49. THE LOVELY BONES, by Alice Sebold
Narrated by a murdered girl, Sebold’s novel was the breakout hit of 2002. Read our review.
50. THE FROZEN RIVER, by Ariel Lawhon
Lawhon’s novel about an 18th-century midwife who investigates a murder became a massive best seller after it was published in late 2023. Read our review.
51-60
Three Michael Connelly books enter the list — each from a different series.
51. THE DOG STARS, by Peter Heller
“Writing to me is like kayaking a river,” Heller has said. “You are paddling down and you come to a walled-off canyon and you make a sharp turn and you don’t know what’s around the corner. It could be a waterfall, it could be a big pool. The narrative current carries you.”
52. MAGPIE MURDERS, by Anthony Horowitz
No. 49 on the Book Review’s list, and Horowitz’s first book featuring the book editor Susan Ryeland. Read our review.
53. THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE, by James McBride
Our critic called this book “a murder mystery locked inside a Great American Novel.” Read our review.
55. CROOK MANIFESTO, by Colson Whitehead
The second novel in Whitehead’s Harlem trilogy. Read our review, by Walter Mosley.
56. THE SECRET HOURS, by Mick Herron
Not a “Slough House” novel from Herron, but a stand-alone thriller about an MI5 mission in Cold War Berlin.
57. THE LINCOLN LAWYER, by Michael Connelly
No. 16 on the Book Review’s list, this novel introduced the larger-than-life lawyer Mickey Haller, whose office is the back seat of a Lincoln Town Car. Read our review.
58. CITY OF BONES, by Michael Connelly
Our critic called Connelly’s novel, the eighth to star the L.A.P.D. detective Harry Bosch, “a clean, tight, propulsive thriller.” Read our review.
59. THE LATE SHOW, by Michael Connelly
In 2017, with two main characters — Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller — firmly established, Connelly began a series with a female detective, Renée Ballard. Read our review.
60. SPIES OF THE BALKANS, by Alan Furst
Furst told The Times he didn’t just want to set his historical spy novels in the ’30s and ’40s: “I want them to read as if they had been written then.” Read our review.
61-70
A North Korean thriller, some grisly Nordic noir, a hard-boiled crime novel and more.
61. DEAD WATER, by Ann Cleeves
The fifth book in a series set in Shetland, a remote, rocky archipelago north of the Scottish mainland. Read our review.
62. THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN, by Paula Hawkins
No. 12 on the Book Review’s list, this thriller introduced one of the most unreliable narrators of all time. Read our review, by Jean Hanff Korelitz.
63. THE TREES, by Percival Everett
Another installment of Everett’s boundary-exploding, genre-defying project in American fiction. Read our review.
64. A LEGACY OF SPIES, by John le Carré
Published when le Carré was 85, this novel “delivers a writer in full,” our critic wrote. “Le Carré’s prose remains brisk and lapidary. His wit is intact and rolls as if on casters.” Read our review.
65. THE ORPHAN MASTER’S SON, by Adam Johnson
This thriller, set in North Korea, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2013. Read our review.
66. TRANSCRIPTION, by Kate Atkinson
Not one of Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie books, but a stand-alone novel about wartime espionage. Read our review, written by Jennifer Egan.
67. THE KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES, by Jussi Adler-Olsen; translated by Lisa Hartford
“Scandinavian sadism, which took a nosedive after the untimely death of Stieg Larsson, perked up when the Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen muscled onto the scene,” our crime columnist wrote.
68. THE CARTEL, by Don Winslow
Our critic wrote that this big, sprawling crime novel “culminates in a near-symphonic array of lethal coups de grace.” Read our review.
69. A DARKNESS MORE THAN NIGHT, by Michael Connelly
The seventh novel in Michael Connelly’s series featuring the L.A.P.D. detective Harry Bosch. Read our review.
70. CARTER BEATS THE DEVIL, by Glen David Gold
This tale of Houdini-era magicians soars on Gold’s “ability to unfurl a story before our eyes and in his crackerjack skill at recapturing a lost era.” Read our review.
71-80
The queen of British crime, P.D. James, makes just one appearance here, as do Dan Brown and Liane Moriarty.
71. THE PRIVATE PATIENT, by P.D. James
The final novel in P.D. James’s celebrated series starring the melancholy Scotland Yard detective Adam Dalgliesh. Read our review.
73. RAVEN BLACK, by Ann Cleeves
The first in Cleeves’s series set in Shetland. Read our review.
74. THE PASSAGE, by Justin Cronin
Cronin has said he wrote “The Passage” after his then 9-year-old daughter asked him to write a book about “a girl who saves the world.” Read our review.
75. THE DA VINCI CODE, by Dan Brown
No. 26 on the Book Review’s list,this blockbuster hit spent more than two years on the hardcover best-seller list. Read our review.
76. THE SYMPATHIZER, by Viet Thanh Nguyen
No. 30 on the Book Review’s list, this spy novel won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Read our review.
77. SHARP OBJECTS, by Gillian Flynn
No. 19 on the Book Review’s list. Flynn once said she wrote the novel because she “wanted to write about a dark, damaged, screwed-up, troubled female protagonist.”
78. ROOM, by Emma Donoghue
No. 21 on the Book Review’s list, this novel was one of our 10 best books of 2010. Read our review.
79. LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE, by Celeste Ng
“I wanted this book to be a space for looking at people who seem like villains to us in order to understand how they got to where they are,” Ng said in an interview. Read our review.
80. BIG LITTLE LIES, by Liane Moriarty
No. 27 on the Book Review’s list, Moriarty’s novel spawned a hit TV series. Read our review.
81-90
Three spy novels, along with two thrillers — “The Dry” and “Wild Dark Shore” — set in some of the most remote places on earth.
81. A DELICATE TRUTH, by John le Carré
“By the end of ‘A Delicate Truth,’ you either share le Carré’s anger at the injustices between its covers, or you don’t. If you do, then you’re one of le Carré’s people,” our critic wrote. “If not, you’re one of Smiley’s.” Read our review.
82. THE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT, by Alan Furst
Not every spy story, as Furst shows so elegantly, needs to end with the hero scratching his head as he tries to figure out whether to cut the red wire or the green. Read our review.
83. THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME, by Mark Haddon
Read our review, by Jay McInerney.
84. PRUSSIAN BLUE, by Philip Kerr
Kerr’s unorthodox German hero, who survived World War II as a hotel detective, revisits his past. Read our review.
85. THE DRY, by Jane Harper
No. 24 on the Book Review’s list. Harper took an online novel-writing course from a literary agent before publishing this, her debut. Read our review.
86. WILD DARK SHORE, by Charlotte McConaghy
Settings don’t get any more bleak than they do here: an island off the coast of Antarctica. Read our review.
87. WITH NO ONE AS WITNESS, by Elizabeth George
One of 22 books in George’s series starring the blue-blooded Scotland Yard detective Thomas Lynley and his colleagues.
88. THE LONG DROP, by Denise Mina
Mina’s jumping-off point is a real serial-killer case that terrified Glasgow in the 1950s. Read our review.
89. THE GOOD LORD BIRD, by James McBride
Our critic described McBride as “a modern-day Mark Twain: evoking sheer glee with every page” in this take on the abolitionist John Brown. Read our review.
90. RAZORBLADE TEARS, by S.A. Cosby
No. 8 on the Book Review’s list, this go-for-baroque pulpfest is Cosby’s fourth novel. Read our review.
91-100
A Tudor mystery, a thriller set in the Australian outback, a “bad seed” thriller and more.
91. A BANQUET OF CONSEQUENCES, by Elizabeth George
The 19th book in George’s Thomas Lynley series.
92. FINGERSMITH, by Sarah Waters
No. 39 on the Book Review’s list, this novel tips readers into a Victorian stew. Read our review.
93. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, by Lionel Shriver
No. 14 on the Book Review’s list, this is the ultimate “bad seed” thriller. Read our review.
94. DARK FIRE, by C.J. Sansom
The second in a series of Tudor mysteries starring Matthew Shardlake, a hunchbacked lawyer in the court of Henry VIII.
95. DRIVE YOUR PLOW OVER THE BONES OF THE DEAD, by Olga Tokarczuk; translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
“This book is not a mere whodunit,” Sloane Crosley wrote in 2019. “It’s a philosophical fairy tale about life and death.” Read our review.
96. THE LOST MAN, by Jane Harper
Harper’s thriller is set in an unforgiving stretch of Australian outback, where you can drive 12 hours without encountering another car. Read our review.
97. THE KIND WORTH KILLING, by Peter Swanson
When The Times asked Swanson, “What’s the best murder you ever wrote?,” he replied that it took place in “The Kind Worth Killing”: “Early in the book, [Lily] offs an unfaithful college boyfriend by first hiding his EpiPen, then crushing up some cashews (he’s very allergic) and adding them to a chicken korma.”
98. WHITE TIGER, by Aravind Adiga
Adiga’s novel won the Booker Prize in 2008. Read our review.
99. ALL THE SINNERS BLEED, by S.A. Cosby
No. 35 on the Book Review’s list. “Cosby keeps his eye on the story and the pedal to the metal,” Stephen King wrote in 2023. Read our review.
100. THE OLD MAN, by Thomas Perry
Nobody — not even Lee Child — writes cat-and-mouse books like Perry does. Read our review.
