Psychological Thriller Authors

Psychological thriller authors know to keep us in constant suspense not by presenting us with gore and twisted serial killings, but with their focus on emotional unstable perpetrators who terrorize their prey in different ways.

The bad guys are usually struggling to grasp reality, their thoughts are distorted and issues of morality and ethics are non-existent. Betrayal and identity crisis are common these in these books. The victims often have amnesia and are questioning their realities as well.

In fact amnesia has been used quite often lately by psychological thriller authors (see Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson, or She’s Not There by P.J. Parrish for example, or even See Jane Run by Joy Fielding) with great success, resulting in books that remain unforgotten for a long time.

Many books in this genre have been turned into blockbuster movies. Interesting to note is that psychological thrillers are for the most part standalone novels, as opposed to being part of a series.

Many crime mystery novels have also been classified as psychological thrillers as well, however here we focus on authors of books that embraced this genre fully by using emotional triggers for their villains hunting the prey. Often authors write in different genres – i.e. crime mystery book series, and psychological thriller standalone novels (Harlan Coben is a prime example of this).

Here is a list of popular and newcomer psychological thriller authors worth reading.


Tom Bale (pseudonym for David Harrison)

  • standalone psychological thrillers

Fiona Barton

  • Kate Waters series

Lisa Black

  • Gardiner and Renner series

Harlan Coben

  • Myron and Micky Bolitar series
  • standalone psychological thrillers

Susan H. Crawford

  • standalone psychological thrillers

Rebecca Drake

  • standalone psychological thrillers

Mark Edwards

  • standalone psychological thrillers

J.T. Ellison

  • Taylor Jackson series
  • Dr. Samantha Owens series
  • standalone psychological thrillers

Joy Fielding

  • standalone psychological thrillers

Gillian Flynn

  • standalone psychological thrillers

Nicci French

  • Frieda Klein series
  • standalone psychological thrillers

Thomas Harris

  • Hannibal Lecter series

Paula Hawkins

  • standalone psychological thrillers

Morag Joss

  • Sarah Selkirk Mystery
  • standalone psychological thrillers

Andrew E. Kaufman

  • standalone psychological thrillers

Mary Kubica

  • standalone psychological thrillers

Shari Lapena

  • standalone psychological thrillers

Dennis Lehane

  • Kenzie & Gennaro series
  • Coughlin series
  • standalone psychological thrillers

Lisa Lutz

  • The Spellmans series
  • standalone psychological thrillers

Gilly Macmillan

  • standalone psychological thrillers

Daphne du Maurier

  • standalone psychological thrillers

Adam Mitzner

  • standalone psychological thrillers

T. Jefferson Parker

  • Charlie Hood series
  • Merci Rayborn series
  • standalone psychological thrillers

P.J. Parrish

  • Louis Kincaid mystery series
  • standalone psychological thrillers

Iain Reid

  • standalone psychological thrillers

Shari J. Ryan

  • Schasm series

Rosamond Smith

  • standalone psychological thrillers

C.L. Taylor

  • standalone psychological thrillers

Kara Thomas

  • standalone psychological thrillers

Carlene Thompson

  • standalone psychological thrillers

Mary Torjussen

  • standalone psychological thrillers

Barbara Vine

  • standalone psychological thrillers

Minette Walters

  • standalone psychological thrillers

S.J. Watson

  • standalone psychological thrillers

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