Holiday Book Recommendations

For the thriller lovers

Do you have any thriller lovers on your list? If so, read on for some recommendations for thrilling gifts!

FYI, my previous recommendation post featured some series that are great for the thriller fan too. Future recommendations will feature Private Investigators, Traditional Mysteries, Art Crime and Suspense Novels.

2025 has been a great year for thrillers. I am including some of my favorites on this list, as well as a couple that were released late in 2024.

The Bone Thief by Vanessa Lillie was just named one of the ten best mysteries of 2025 by the Washington Post and is currently a USA Today bestseller—all for good reason. Lillie weaves a propulsive thriller around a story about stolen land and missing Indigenous women. She manages to instruct the reader in the history of ongoing colonialism that haunts tribal land but never at the expense of the story.

Lillie has been busy. She collaborated on Desperate Deadly Widows with Kimberly Belle, Layne Fargo and Cate Holahan. The follow up to Young Rich Widows, the book follows four women, brought together initially by their deceased husbands, and now working together to clear one of their names. The story is fast-paced, witty and, because it is set in Rhode Island in the 1980s, completely over-the-top. Great for a thriller lover who also enjoys quirky characters and a good laugh.

For the more serious-minded, Society of Lies by Lauren Ling Brown is a superb dark academia thriller. The plot delves into secret societies and the suspicious death of a student. But you might want to warn your gift recipient that they will likely be reading this one late into the night!

Isabella Maldonado and Jeffrey Deaver have penned a follow up to last year’s Fatal Intrusion which is every bit as explosive. In The Grave Artist, Homeland Security Agent Carmen Sanchez is back with Jake Heron, a civilian security expert, to investigate a serial killer more interested in the havoc he causes in the lives of his victim’s family and friends.

For the spy novel aficionado, The Summer Guests by Tess Gerritsen centers on a group of friends in very different circumstances. Set in a quiet Maine town, The Summer Guests is the follow up to The Spy Coast. A group of ex-CIA agents now living in retirement meet regularly, dubbing themselves The Martini Club. When Maggie Bird’s neighbor’s daughter goes missing, with the trusted neighbor as the prime suspect, the Martini Club thinks there might be more to the story, more that may well be related to one of them.

For the puzzle lover, Danielle Trussoni’s The Puzzle Box is a perfect gem of a thriller. Puzzle Master Mike Brink has been invited to Tokyo to attempt to solve the legendary and deadly Dragon Box. The quest sends Mike on a breakneck odyssey across Japan to attempt to solve the puzzle and recover the secret hidden inside.

All This Could Be Yours by Hank Phillippi Ryan follows a debut author on book tour as she begins to realize she has a stalker. Worse yet, the stalker seems to be targeting her family at home. And they seem to know a dark secret from her past.

And if reading about a trip through Japan in the winter or a book tour is not your giftee’s cup of tea, 2025 has offered up three other stellar thrillers set in warmer climes. Saltwater by Katy Hays is set among the ultra rich as they vacation in Capri, where one family continues to visit yearly, even after one of them has fallen to their death—or was it murder?

Katie Bishop’s High Season has a similar premise. Decades after the shocking murder of her older sister, Nina Drayton, the youngest person ever to give witness testimony at a murder trial, returns to her family’s villa in hopes of gaining some clarity about the death of her sister and her own confused memories years later. Nina attempts her own investigation, all while a true crime podcaster races to unearth the truth as well.

And finally, Andrea Bartz’s The Last Ferry Out has a refreshing twist on the secluded island murder mystery. Devastated with grief, Abby travels to Isla Colel, the place where her fiancee Eszter died in a tragic accident. Hoping to gain more information about Eszter’s mysterious last days on the island, Abby quickly falls in to a group of expats who claim to have known Eszter. But one of their number goes missing just as he alludes to a deeper mystery surrounding Eszter’s death. Deeply atmospheric and twisty, your recipient will find themself thinking about this thriller long after the last page.

Did I miss any thrillers that you think should be included? Let us know in the comments.

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