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
- Kate Waters series
- Gardiner and Renner series
- Myron and Micky Bolitar series
- standalone psychological thrillers
- standalone psychological thrillers
Rebecca Drake
- standalone psychological thrillers
- 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
- 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
- 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
- standalone psychological thrillers
Barbara Vine
- standalone psychological thrillers
Minette Walters
- standalone psychological thrillers
S.J. Watson
- standalone psychological thrillers