Nine of the best thrillers nominated for the Booker Prizes

There’s a dark art to crafting the perfect thriller – a novel that demands a pitch-perfect blend of tension, peril and control. Whether it’s the creeping dread of a slow-burn psychological unravelling or the breathless pace of a high-stakes chase, the genre thrives on suspense that keeps readers utterly hooked. 

It’s no surprise, then, that crime, thriller, and mystery novels once again topped Amazon’s UK sales charts at the end of 2024 for the most popular genre. These stories don’t just entertain; they reflect the chaos and complexities of the world around us, offering both escape and insight into the darker forces that shape our lives. Perhaps that’s why we keep coming back for more – because danger feels so much safer when it’s on the page. 

And when it comes to the Booker Library, it’s no different. The list below offers nine razor-sharp books that don’t just tell a story – they envelop you in a world of intrigue, deceit, and jeopardy. Whether you prefer a slow, insidious build or a relentless, heart-pounding ride, there’s something here for every reader.

The Birthday Party by Laurent Mauvignier, translated by Daniel Levin Becker 

Laurent Mauvignier’s 2023 International Booker Prize-longlisted novel began life as a script for a home-invasion horror movie. It’s a work he describes as ‘a novel in the vein of Stephen King’ written ‘with the language of Marcel Proust’. Unfolding over a single day in a remote French village, the book follows Patrice as he plans a surprise party for his wife’s 40^th birthday. But as the day progresses, the hamlet’s quiet routine is unsettled by a series of menacing disturbances – anonymous letters, unfamiliar cars lingering on the road, and the creeping sense that something is very wrong. 

Written in long, slow, spiralling sentences, Mauvignier’s book eschews full stops to build near-unbearable tension, drawing readers into a nail-biting world where dread accumulates with every page. Writing for The New York Times, Martin Riker praised the novel for its ability to reconcile ‘two primal feelings: empathy and dread’, noting it as ‘a thriller with an intense focus on its characters’ interior worlds’.  

The Kills by Richard House 

If you’re in the market for a thriller of epic proportions, look no further than The Kills by Richard House, which was longlisted for the Booker in 2013. A 1,000-page novel told in four interwoven books, The Kills spans continents and conspiracies, from a shady multinational corporation in Iraq’s Amrah province to the underbelly of Naples. Weaving those strands together, House crafts a searing commentary on the dark side of modern warfare, corporate greed, and the shadowy world of military contractors. 

While it follows many genre conventions, The Kills is far from a traditional read. House brings an artistic flair to this ambitious novel, packing it with dizzying detail in an experimental format that plays with the boundaries of storytelling. ‘For all its bulk The Kills proves easily digestible,’ wrote The Telegraph’s Jake Kerridge, adding ‘it is well worth ejecting five or six conventional thrillers from your holiday luggage and devoting yourself to The Kills for a few days. Like all the best thrillers, it takes you on a hell of a ride’. 

Snap by Belinda Bauer 

Snap opens with a gut-punch of a scene: three children sit in a sweltering car on the hard shoulder of the motorway, waiting for their mother to return. But she never does. Tragically, Bauer’s novel is inspired by a real-life case – the ‘Riddle of the M50’ – in which a 22-year-old mother was abducted and murdered in the 1980s, leaving her young children stranded while no one stopped to help.  

The book’s harrowing beginning unfolds into a story of survival, as the children grow up in the shadow of the crime, with the eldest, Jack, on a desperate search to find the truth about his mother’s fate. Winner of the Crime & Thriller Book of the Year at the Specsavers National Book Awards and longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2018, Snap was praised by Jenny White for Wales Online: ‘True to its promise, Snap is frightening and gripping, but it’s also clever, elegant and beautifully written, with relatably complex characters’. ‘Like most of Bauer’s work, it is not a simple whodunnit; instead, it explores the way in which people’s lives are influenced by the misdeeds of others.’ 

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton 

It’s a cold, damp night during the 1800s gold rush in Hokitika, New Zealand, and prospector Walter Moody is seeking his fortune like many before him. Yet he bites off more than he can chew when he stumbles upon a clandestine meeting where a dozen local men deliberate over unsolved crimes, plunging him into a labyrinthine murder mystery. And this is merely the opening act of Eleanor Catton’s expansive 800-page novel – teeming with missing persons, vengeful quests, hidden fortunes, and even a ghost story. 

Catton masterfully evokes the 19th-century setting with pseudo-Victorian stylings, including authentic dialogue, vivid costumes, and immersive period detail. It might be a much slower burn than your average thriller, but it remains a page-turner as secrets gradually unravel through intricate detail and layered suspense. ‘Even though it’s a doorstop of a book, readers are rewarded for their diligence,’ wrote Julie Hakim Azzam in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. ‘This is a historical mystery unlike anything else.’ It’s no wonder the novel won the Booker Prize in 2013, making Catton its youngest ever winner at 27 years old.