The New York Times’ Best Thrillers of the 21st Century

A “mind-blowing” (Entertainment Weekly) speculative thriller about an ordinary man who awakens in a world inexplicably different from the reality he thought he knew — from the author of Upgrade, Recursion, and the Wayward Pines trilogy. Dark Matter is a mind-bending thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we’ll go to claim the lives we dream of.

1975 is a time of change in America. The Vietnam War is ending. Muhammad Ali is fighting Joe Frazier. And in the small town of Monta Clare, Missouri, girls are disappearing … A missing-person mystery, a serial killer thriller, a love story, a unique twist on each, Chris Whitaker has written a novel about what lurks in the shadows of obsession and the blinding light of hope.

The thrilling first book in the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series: Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families, disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pierced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.

From the bestselling author of The Passenger and the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Road comes a “profoundly disturbing and gorgeously rendered” novel (The Washington Post) that returns to the Texas-Mexico border, the setting of the famed Border trilogy. Here, McCarthy simultaneously strips down the American crime novel and broadens its concerns to encompass themes as ancient as the Bible and as bloodily contemporary as this morning’s headlines. No Country for Old Men is a triumph.

Korede’s sister Ayoola is many things: The favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic. And now Ayoola’s third boyfriend in a row is dead, stabbed through the heart with Ayoola’s knife. Korede’s practicality is the sisters’ saving grace. She knows the best solutions for cleaning blood and the best way to move a body. Not that she gets any credit … Korede has long been in love with a kind, handsome doctor at the hospital where she works. But when he asks Korede for Ayoola’s phone number, she must reckon with what her sister has become and how far she’s willing to go to protect her.

While in Paris, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is awakened by a phone call in the dead of the night. The elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum, his body covered in baffling symbols. As Langdon and gifted French cryptologist Sophie Neveu sort through the bizarre riddles, they are stunned to discover a trail of clues hidden in the works of Leonardo da Vinci. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle — while avoiding the faceless adversary who shadows their every move — the explosive, ancient truth will be lost forever.

The bestselling first novel in the Dublin Murder Squad series: As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, three children do not return home. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children gripping a tree trunk in terror, unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours. Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad. When a girl is found murdered in the same woods, he finds himself investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.

In this follow-up to In the Woods, Detective Cassie Maddox has transferred out of the Dublin Murder Squad — until an urgent telephone call brings her back to an eerie crime scene … The victim looks exactly like Cassie and carries ID identifying her as Alexandra Madison, an alias Cassie once used as an undercover cop. Suddenly, Cassie is back undercover to find out not only who killed this young woman, but, more importantly, who she was. The Likeness is a supremely suspenseful story exploring the nature of identity and belonging.

Mick “Scorcher” Kennedy is the star of the Dublin Murder Squad. He plays by the book and plays hard, and that’s how the biggest case of the year ends up in his hands. Patrick Spain and his two young children have been murdered. His wife, Jenny, is in intensive care. At first, Scorcher thinks it’s going to be an easy solve, but too many small things can’t be explained. And this neighborhood — once called Broken Harbor — holds memories for Scorcher and his troubled sister, Dina: Childhood memories that Scorcher thought he had tightly under control.

Toby is a happy-go-lucky charmer who’s out celebrating with friends when the night takes a turn that will change his life — he surprises two burglars who beat him and leave him for dead. Struggling to recover from his injuries, he takes refuge at his family’s ancestral home to care for his dying uncle Hugo. Then a skull is found in the trunk of an elm tree in the garden — and as detectives close in, Toby is forced to face the possibility that his past may not be what he has always believed. A spellbinding standalone novel, The Witch Elm asks what we become, and what we’re capable of, when we no longer know who we are.

A tense, page-turning psychological drama about the making and breaking of a family — and a woman whose experience of motherhood is nothing at all what she hoped for — and everything she feared …

Early morning, August 1975: A camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any 13-year-old: She’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished 14 years ago, never to be found. As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds, inviting readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances.

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning and night. And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel goes to the police. But is she really as unreliable as they say? Soon she is deeply entangled not only in the investigation but in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?

Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in the care of Mrs. Sucksby, a “baby farmer,” who raised her with unusual tenderness. Mrs. Sucksby’s household also hosts a transient family of petty thieves — fingersmiths. One day, the most beloved thief of all arrives — Gentleman, who carries an enticing proposition for Sue: If she wins a position as the maid to Maud Lilly, a naive gentlewoman, and aids Gentleman in her seduction, then they will all share in Maud’s vast inheritance. Once the inheritance is secured, Maud will be disposed of — passed off as mad, and made to live out the rest of her days in a lunatic asylum. But no one and nothing is as it seems in this Dickensian novel of thrills and reversals.

A murder … A tragic accident … Or just parents behaving badly? What’s indisputable is that someone is dead … Big Little Lies is a brilliant take on ex-husbands and second wives, mothers and daughters, schoolyard scandal, and the little lies that can turn lethal.

She has the keys to their apartment. She knows everything. She has embedded herself so deeply in their lives that it now seems impossible to remove her. Building tension with every page, The Perfect Nanny is a compulsive, riveting, bravely observed exploration of power, class, race, domesticity, motherhood, and madness — and the American debut of an immensely talented writer.

Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney for two decades. He is respected. Admired in the courtroom. Happy at home with the loves of his life: His wife, Laurie, and their teenage son, Jacob. Then Andy’s quiet suburb is stunned by a shocking crime: A young boy is stabbed to death. And an even greater shock: The accused is Andy’s own son — shy, awkward, mysterious Jacob. It is the ultimate test for any parent: How far would you go to protect your child? It is a test of devotion. A test of how well a parent can know a child. How far would you go?

For Dr. David Beck, the loss was shattering. And every day for the past eight years, he has relived the horror of what happened. The gleaming lake. The pale moonlight. The piercing screams. The night his wife was taken. The last night he saw her alive … Then a message appears on his computer, a phrase only he and his dead wife know. Suddenly, Beck is taunted by the impossible — that somewhere, somehow, his wife is alive … and he’s been warned to tell no one.

An isolated mansion. A chillingly charismatic aristocrat. And a brave socialite drawn to expose their treacherous secrets … From the author of Gods of Jade and Shadow comes “a terrifying twist on classic gothic horror” (Kirkus Reviews), set in glamorous 1950s Mexico.

Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: She must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family’s Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims — a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story — and survive this homecoming.