Tension-Filled Fiction That Will Keep You Awake
Discover gripping, tension-filled fiction books that will keep you awake all night. Explore our curated list of thrilling reads packed with suspense and edge-of-your-seat drama.
Book
Lady Killer
by Lisa Scottoline
Mary DiNunzio is a trademark Lisa Scottoline heroine—she's strong, she's smart, and she's got plenty of attitude. In recent years, she's become a big-time business-getter at Rosato & Associates, but the last person she expects to walk into her office one morning—in mile-high stilettos—is super sexy Trish Gambone, her high school rival. Back then, while Mary was becoming the straight-A president of the Latin Club and Most Likely to Achieve Sainthood, Trish was the head Mean Girl, who flunked religion and excelled at smoking in the bathroom. As it turns out, however, Trish's life has taken a horrifying turn. She's terrified of her live-in boyfriend, who's an abusive, gun-toting drug dealer for the South Philly mob. There's only one problem—Mary remembers the guy from high school too. Unbeknownst to Trish, Mary had a major crush on him. Then Trish vanishes, a dead body turns up in an alley, and Mary is plunged into a nightmare, one that threatens her job, her family, and even her life. She goes on a one-woman crusade to unmask the killer, and on the way, finds new love in a very unexpected place. But before the novel's shocking surprise ending, Mary is forced to confront some very uncomfortable truths about her own past, and the profound effects of lifelong love—and hate.
Book
Tourist Season
by Carl Hiaasen
The only trace of the first victim was his Shriner's fez washed up on the Miami beach. The second victim, the head of the city's chamber of commerce, was found dead with a toy rubber alligator lodged in his throat. And that was just the beginning... Now Brian Keyes, reporter turned private eye, must move from muckraking to rooting out murder, in a caper that will mix football players, politicians, and police with a group of fanatics and a very hungry crocodile.
Book
Lie Down with the Devil
by Linda Barnes
Boston P.I. Carlotta Carlyle's allegedly unfaithful fiancé disappears right after his supposed mistress turns up dead.
Book
The Chase
by Clive Cussler
The 1950 discovery of four bodies inside a sunken steam locomotive in a Montana lake gives way to the story of a murderous 1906 bank robber whose ruthlessness challenged Isaac Bell, a talented detective whose struggle to identify and capture the killer had been complicated by the great San Francisco earthquake. 750,000 first printing.
Book
Plain Truth
by Jodi Picoult
In the small town of Paradise, Pennsylvania, peace is shattered by the discovery of a dead infant in the barn of an Amish farmer.
Book
Desperation Moon
by Ken Douglas
When racecar driver Sara Hackett arrives home from a desert road race, she finds her niece and another girl have been kidnapped and a dead man has turned up in her bed. The kidnappers want a million dollars she doesn't have or they say they'll kill the kids.
Book
The Chamber
by John Grisham
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • "A dark and thoughtful tale... Grisham is at his best." —People In the corridors of Chicago's top law firm: Twenty -six-year-old Adam Hall stands on the brink of a brilliant legal career. Now he is risking it all for a death-row killer and an impossible case. Maximum Security Unit, Mississippi State Prison: Sam Cayhall is a former Klansman and unrepentant racist now facing the death penalty for a fatal bombing in 1967. He has run out of chances -- except for one: the young, liberal Chicago lawyer who just happens to be his grandson. While the executioners prepare the gas chamber, while the protesters gather and the TV cameras wait, Adam has only days, hours, minutes to save his client. For between the two men is a chasm of shame, family lies, and secrets -- including the one secret that could save Sam Cayhall's life... or cost Adam his. Don’t miss John Grisham’s new book, THE EXCHANGE: AFTER THE FIRM!
Book
Strangers in Death
by J. D. Robb
Technology may be different in 2060 New York, yet the city is still a place of many cultures and great divides. And as ever, some murders receive more attention than others -- especially those in which the victim is a prominent businessman, found in his Park Avenue apartment, tied to the bed -- and strangled -- with cords of black velvet ... It doesn't surprise Lieutenant Eve Dallas that Thomas Anders's scandalous death is a source of titillation and speculation for the public -- and humiliation for his family. While everyone else in the city is talking about it, those close to Anders aren't so anxious to do so. Fortunately, because Dallas's billionaire husband, Roarke, happens to own the prime real estate where Anders's sporting-goods firm was headquartered, she has some help with access. Before long, she's knocking on doors -- or barging through them -- to look for the answers she needs. But the facts don't add up. Physical evidence suggests that the victim didn't struggle. The security breach in the highly fortified apartment indicates that the killer was someone close to Anders, but everyone's alibi checks out, from the wife who was off in the tropics to the loving nephew who stands to inherit millions. Was this a crime of passion -- or a carefully planned execution?
Book
Flower Net
by Lisa See
“Lisa See begins to do for Beijing what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did for turn-of-the-century London or Dashiell Hammett did for 1920s San Francisco: She discerns the hidden city lurking beneath the public facade.” –The Washington Post Book World In the depths of a Beijing winter, during the waning days of Deng Xiaoping’s reign, the U.S. ambassador’s son is found dead–his body entombed in a frozen lake. Around the same time, aboard a ship adrift off the coast of Southern California, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Stark makes a startling discovery: the corpse of a Red Prince, a scion of China’s political elite. The Chinese and American governments suspect that the deaths are connected and, in an unprecedented move, they join forces to see justice done. In Beijing, David teams up with the unorthodox police detective Liu Hulan. In an investigation that brings them to every corner of China and sparks an intense attraction between the two, David and Hulan discover a web linking human trafficking to the drug trade to governmental treachery–a web reaching from the Forbidden City to the heart of Los Angeles and, like the wide flower net used by Chinese fishermen, threatening to ensnare all within its reach. “A graceful rendering of two different and complex cultures, within a highly intricate plot . . . The starkly beautiful landscapes of Beijing and its surrounding countryside are depicted with a lyrical precision.” –Los Angeles Times Book Review “Murder and intrigue splash across the canvas of modern Chinese life. . . . A vivid portrait of a vast Communist nation in the painful throes of a sea change.” –People “Fascinating . . . that rare thriller that enlightens as well as it entertains.” –San Diego Union-Tribune A Finalist for the Edgar Award for Best First Mystery A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK
Book
Tree of Smoke
by Denis Johnson
Once upon a time there was a war . . . and a young American who thought of himself as the Quiet American and the Ugly American, and who wished to be neither, who wanted instead to be the Wise American, or the Good American, but who eventually came to witness himself as the Real American and finally as simply the Fucking American. That’s me. This is the story of Skip Sands—spy-in-training, engaged in Psychological Operations against the Vietcong—and the disasters that befall him thanks to his famous uncle, a war hero known in intelligence circles simply as the Colonel. This is also the story of the Houston brothers, Bill and James, young men who drift out of the Arizona desert into a war in which the line between disinformation and delusion has blurred away. In its vision of human folly, and its gritty, sympathetic portraits of men and women desperate for an end to their loneliness, whether in sex or death or by the grace of God, this is a story like nothing in our literature. Tree of Smoke is Denis Johnson’s first full-length novel in nine years, and his most gripping, beautiful, and powerful work to date. Tree of Smoke is the 2007 National Book Award Winner for Fiction.
Book
The First Patient
by Michael Palmer
In his most high-concept suspense novel to date, "New York Times" bestselling author Palmer delivers a thriller pitched at the crossroads of presidential politics and cutting-edge medicine.
Book
Book of the Dead
by Patricia Daniels Cornwell
Relocating to Charleston after a particularly grueling case, Dr. Kay Scarpetta opens a private forensic pathology practice but is quickly targeted by local politics and a covert saboteur before a series of violent deaths bring her skills into high view. 1,500,000 first printing. BOMC, Lit Guild, Doubleday, & Mystery Guild Main.
Book
Dark of the Moon
by John Sandford
Virgil Flowers is sent to Bluestem, a small town where everyone knows everyone else, to investigate the murders of a man burned to death in his home and a doctor and his wife, unaware that he is tracking a murderer who may be targeting Virgil as his nextv
Book
Dearly Devoted Dexter
by Jeff Lindsay
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Life’s tough for Dexter Morgan. It’s not easy being the world’s only serial killer with a conscience, especially when you work for the Miami police. • The Killer Character That Inspired the Hit Showtime Series Dexter To avoid suspicion, Dexter’s had to slip deep into his disguise: spending time with his girlfriend and her kids, slowly becoming the world’s first serial killing couch potato. Then a particularly nasty psychopath starts cutting a trail through Miami — a killer whose twisted techniques leave even Dexter speechless. When his sister Deborah, a tough-as-nails cop, is drawn into the case, it becomes clear that Dexter will have to do come out of hiding and hunt the monster down. Unless, of course, the killer finds him first. . .
Book
Hold Tight
by Harlan Coben
Mike and Tia Baye, worried about their sixteen-year-old son Adam, wrestle with whether to spy on his computer, and discover details about their son's friend Spencer's suicide while a killer stalks the neighborhood.
Book
The Shooters
Â
Remaining in Argentina to tie up loose ends pertaining to the UN food-for-oil scandal, Delta Force officer Charley Castillo learns about the disappearance of a key DEA agent who has become a casualty of diplomatic complacency and the international drug trade. 400,000 first printing.
Book
The Bone Garden
by Tess Gerritsen
Julia Hamill is pulled into a nineteenth-century mystery when she discovers a human skull bearing the signs of a violent death in her backyard.
Book
The Shell Game
by Steve Alten
American intelligence agents plan an terrorist attack to trigger a war against Iran.
Book
Third Degree
by Greg Iles
Pregnant with another man's child, Elizabeth Pike returns home to find her husband, already distraught over an IRS audit, with a letter from her lover and a gun in his hands.
Book
Sweet Revenge
by Diane Mott Davidson
Goldy Schulz is thrilled to be catering a holiday breakfast feast for the staff of the Aspen Meadow Library. But little does she know that on the menu, alongside the Great Expectations Grapefruit, Chuzzlewit Cheese Pie, and Bleak House Bars, is a large helping of murder. While setting up at the library, Goldy spots a woman lurking in the stacks who bears a striking resemblance to Sandee Brisbane—the Sandee Brisbane who killed Goldy's ex-husband, the Jerk. But Sandee is supposed to be dead. Or so everyone believes. Goldy's suspicions mount when the body of Drew Wellington, a former district attorney, is found in a corner of the library with a map worth thousands of dollars stashed in his clothing. She's convinced that Sandee is involved. But the holiday madness is only just beginning for Goldy. Soon she's drawn into the dangerous, double-crossing world of high-end map dealing. And like the ghost of Christmas past, Sandee keeps making an appearance. Could she be out to prove that revenge is sweet?
Book
Robert Ludlum's (TM) The Arctic Event
by Robert Ludlum
On a remote island in the Canadian Arctic, researchers discover the wreckage of a mysterious World War II-era aircraft, a discovery that forces the Russian Federation into a shocking admission. The unmarked plane is a Soviet strategic bomber that disappeared with its crew more than fifty years ago while carrying two metric tons of weaponized anthrax. Desperate to prevent a political and diplomatic firestorm, the U.S. president dispatches a Covert-One team led by Lieutenant Colonel Jon Smith to the crash site. But others have reached the frigid, windswept island first, including an international arms dealer and his crew of vicious mercenaries. As for the Russians, they are lying: a second, even deadlier secret rests within the hulk of the lost bomber, a secret the Russians are willing to kill to protect. Trapped in a polar wilderness, Smith and his team find themselves fighting a savage war on two front--against an enemy they can see and another hiding within their own ranks.
Book
Stalked
by Brian Freeman
Obsession. Blackmail. Murder. In zero degrees. A chilling new thriller featuring detectives Jonathan Stride and Serena Dial
Book
Candy Cane Murder
by Joanne Fluke
A collection of three holiday mysteries includes stories by Joanne Fluke, Laura Levine, and Leslie Meyer, and features fourteen Christmas recipes.
Book
Creation in Death
by J. D. Robb
Reopening an unsolved case from years earlier when the body of a torture victim is discovered, Lieutenant Eve Dallas becomes worried when clues reveal links between the killing and her billionaire husband's store that suggest Eve herself is being targeted
Book
The Secret Servant
by Daniel Silva
In the aftermath of an Amsterdam-based terrorism analyst's murder by a Muslim immigrant, Gabriel Allon investigates clues pertaining to the victim, in a case with ties to a secret terrorist organization and the abduction of an ambassador's daughter.