In literature, the detective story genre is very popular with many readers. Thus, police investigations and other books relating to the escapades of serial killers are often best-sellers. Also, there is a sub-genre of detective stories that have achieved some success in recent years: the psychological thriller.
What is a psychological thriller?
And what makes it the main difference with classic detective fiction is the points of view of the protagonists that mix obsession, stress, and deep traumas. Thus, psychological thriller books often evoke the disorders of the mind and human behavior, during investigations where suspense is at its peak.
Here’s our pick of favorite psychological thrillers to read.
1/ “Red Dragon” by Thomas Harris
It’s hard not to put this masterful novel in first place when talking about psychological thrillers in books. Written quite a few years ago, it is nonetheless still as breathtaking to read when you discover it for the first time. Thus, we follow the horrific journey of Hannibal Lecter, a cannibalistic serial killer, whose intelligence is such that he can foil all the tricks played on him by Graham, a retired cop who is asked to stop the murderer. It is in-depth that the author makes us penetrate the meanders of the tortured mind of the cop in question, to the point of making us doubt his real intentions on many occasions. A classic of the genre to read or reread.
2/ “Puzzle” by Franck Thilliez
We no longer present the author Franck Thilliez, as his many works have become classics in France. And if he has often accustomed us to police investigations tinged with a scientific aspect, here it is therefore to the psychological thriller that he delivers with great talent. Thus, by evoking treasure hunters to tackle a “game” called “paranoia”, he sows disorder in the minds of his protagonists. Thus, the latter find themselves facing a series of murders that are an integral part of this unhealthy game where fiction mixes too closely with reality. Bluffing from start to finish until a most stunning finale!
3/ “Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier
A great classic of literature, adapted for the cinema by the master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock, this psychological thriller is also most certainly one of the very first of its kind. It follows the misadventures of a young woman who meets a much older widower, whom she decides to marry at his insistence. Before finding herself living in his castle in Cornwall, where she meets the ghost Rebecca, her husband’s first wife, who died in terrible suffering. A psychological thriller in a chilling book that we follow with delight.
4/ “The Girl on the Train” by Paula Hawkins
A fast-paced detective story, this book is also a psychological thriller as it blends into the paranoid mind of its protagonist. Thus, this young woman who has just lost her job and husband, finds herself observing too closely the actions of a couple on a train to London. And between disappearance and infidelity, what she will discover will be beyond all understanding, but is this reality or a vision of her tortured mind?
