Literate Thrillers
Discover the best literate thrillers—gripping, intellectually rich novels that blend suspense with literary brilliance. Explore top picks for smart, page-turning reads.
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The Eight
by Katherine Neville
New York City, 1972—A dabbler in mathematics and chess, Catherine Velis is also a computer expert for a Big Eight accounting firm. Before heading off to a new assignment in Algeria, Cat has her palm read by a fortune-teller. The woman warns Cat of danger. Then an antiques dealer approaches Cat with a mysterious offer: He has an anonymous client who is trying to collect the pieces of an ancient chess service, purported to be in Algeria. If Cat can bring the pieces back, there will be a generous reward. The South of France, 1790—Mireille de Remy and her cousin Valentine are young novices at the fortresslike Montglane Abbey. With France aflame in revolution, the two girls burn to rebel against constricted convent life—and their means of escape is at hand. Buried deep within the abbey are pieces of the Montglane Chess Service, once owned by Charlemagne. Whoever reassembles the pieces can play a game of unlimited power. But to keep the Game a secret from those who would abuse it, the two young women must scatter the pieces throughout the world. . . .
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The Flanders Panel
by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
While restoring a fifteenth-century masterpiece, Julia, a young art expert in Madrid, stumbles upon a real-life mystery as she sets out to find the killer responsible for a five-hundred-year-old murder and becomes the target of modern-day intrigue, betrayal, and death. Reprint. 50,000 first printing.
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The Shadow of the Wind
by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The New York Times bestseller “The Shadow of the Wind is ultimately a love letter to literature, intended for readers as passionate about storytelling as its young hero.” —Entertainment Weekly (Editor's Choice) “One gorgeous read.” —Stephen King Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.
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The Book of Air and Shadows
by Michael Gruber
A fire destroys a New York City rare bookstore—and reveals clues to a treasure worth killing for. . . . A disgraced scholar is found tortured to death. . . . And those pursuing the most valuable literary find in history are about to cross from the harmless mundane into inescapable nightmare. From the acclaimed, bestselling author of Tropic of Night comes a breathtaking thriller that twists, shocks, and surprises at every turn as it crisscrosses centuries, from the glaring violence of today into the dark shadows of truth and lies surrounding the greatest writer the world has ever known.
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Labyrinth
by Kate Mosse
July 2005. In the Pyrenees mountains near Carcassonne, Alice, a volunteer at an archaeological dig, stumbles into a cave and makes a startling discovery-two crumbling skeletons, strange writings on the walls, and the pattern of a labyrinth. Eight hundred years earlier, on the eve of a brutal crusade that will rip apart southern France, a young woman named Alais is given a ring and a mysterious book for safekeeping by her father. The book, he says, contains the secret of the true Grail, and the ring, inscribed with a labyrinth, will identify a guardian of the Grail. Now, as crusading armies gather outside the city walls of Carcassonne, it will take a tremendous sacrifice to keep the secret of the labyrinth safe.
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Orphan of Creation
by Roger MacBride Allen
An anthropologist stumbles across a stunning secret that will put the very definition of humanity suddenly in doubt. Are the bone she discovers buried on a old Mississippi plantation the remains of humans, or apes -- or something else? The answer will turn her life, and the world, upsidedown. What the critics said about ORPHAN OF CREATION Allen's attention to detail is sterling...totally believable...well portrayed...dead accurate.... This book goes a long way toward doing for anthropology what Timescape did for high-energy particle physics: humanizing it, making its real workings accessible to a new audience. Anyone who likes good hard science in their fiction will have to go a long way to find a better-done book.' --Locus 'a novel that reminds us that moral and social evolution depends not only on our knowing where we are going, but remembering where we have been.' --Christian Science Monitor 'Allen's writing technique is a well-balanced blend of dialogue, action, description and narrative-each in proper proportion to the other... a fine read ... word of mouth will bring acclaim that is more than deserved.' --Otherrealms Orphan of Creation takes an interesting scientific premise and lets it loose upon real human beings revealing to the reader a higher level of understanding of the world. Orphan is science and fiction; in examining the human condition, it does what both ideally intend to do.' --The New York Review of Science Fiction Mr.Allen has found an idea worthy of his talent. The book has that unmistakably correct feel of authenticity. A very readable as well as thoughtful story. Bravo to Mr.Allen for writing this risky book. Read it. Then pass it on to your mundane friends. With any luck, it will drive them crazy.' --Lan's Lantern FoxAcre Press is proud to present its books on the Google Play store.
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The Thirteenth Tale
by Diane Setterfield
In this rousingly good ghost story, Setterfield's debut novel rejuvenates the genre with a closely plotted, clever foray into a world of secrets, confused identities, lies, and half-truths.
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Drood
by Dan Simmons
A tale inspired by the mysterious final years of Charles Dickens finds the fifty-three-year-old literary master irrevocably changed when a train journey with his mistress ends in violence.
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The Historian
by Elizabeth Kostova
An "innovative" (The New Yorker) retelling of the story of Dracula. Told with the flourish and poise of a talented storyteller, Kostova turns the age-old tale into a compelling "late night page-turner" (San Francisco Chronicle) When a young woman discovers a cache of ancient letters, she is thrown into the turbulent history of her parents' dark pasts. Uncovering a labyrinthine trail of clues, she begins to reconstruct a staggering history of deceit and violence. Debut novelist Elizabeth Kostova creates an adventure of monumental proportions, a relentless tale that blends fact and fantasy, history and the present, with an assurance that is almost unbearably suspenseful and utterly unforgettable.