11 Thrilling Books For People Who Don’t Read Thrillers

by Russ Marshalek. Flavorpill -  Wednesday Jul 25, 2012

Though as readers we try our best to keep an open mind, we have a confession. We admit it, it’s a dirty word to us: genre fiction. That said, when we were breathlessly devouring Tana French’s newly-released Broken Harbor, we were struck by something: the power of a well-written, perfectly plotted, tightly-wound literary thriller. While the “t” word might throw off some high-minded snobs (admittedly, us), there’s absolutely nothing wrong in delighting in a great book that is, well, thrilling. As an entry point, we’ve gathered some of our favorite recent literary thrillers here, for your perusal. Note that we set the guideline of “recent” (so, please, no “where’s Agatha Christie?”), we chose not to focus on true crime (though we did have to make one exception), and that we highly recommend all of these. Also note that we don’t recommend starting any of them before bedtime.



Tana French, Broken Harbor

Everything Tana French touches turns to thrilling, nightmare-creating gold. In The Woods became an instant thriller classic, and every other entry into her “Dublin Murder Squad” series has been just as good, if not better. Broken Harbour puts detective Mike “Scorcher” Kennedy (ridiculous name, but stay with us) and his new partner, rookie Richie, on what seems like an open-and-shut, albeit grizzly, murder. It appears standard: husband kills wife and family and then himself. Things get incredibly strange very quickly, though as they discover random holes in the walls of the family’s house being videotaped, and, in a reddit-ish plot twist, increasingly unhinged forum posts from the father. Broken Harbor is the great writing nightmares are born from.

Franck Thilliez, Syndrome E
If you couldn’t handle The Ring, stop here with this selection and move on. We won’t be mad. Syndrome E may actually be more terrifying in concept than The Ring, because it’s grounded in fact. A man acquires a bevy of old films from a yard sale, watches an unlabeled one, and goes blind. Somehow, this is connected to a trail of international murders involving in which the corpses have their heads cut open and the brains/eyes removed. As Inspector Franck Sharko and detective Lucie Hennebelle travel around the world to piece seemingly unconnected events together, they unravel an authentically terrifying piece of history that time forgot. Your every sense will be disturbed. And you’ll love it.

Richard Lloyd Parry, People Who Eat Darkness

This is the one exception to the “no true crime” rule of this post. The full title of the book is People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo — and the Evil That Swallowed Her Up , and that about sums it up. When Lucie Blackman disappeared in Tokyo in 2000, she descended into the deepest, darkest parts of the city’s underground. Journalist Richard Lloyd Parry embarked on a discovery for truth in the case, and in doing so created a stunningly bizarre and frightening account of how a person can simply vanish into hell.

Full list at Flavorpill