From on-screen thrillers to page-turning novels, stories about serial killers have a habit of rendering us unable to look away, or stop turning the pages, even as we’re hiding behind the sofa. 

Whether that’s due to the macabre allure of witnessing dark human impulses enacted as unspeakable crimes, or comes as a result of being intrigued by those who investigate gruesome murders (Clarice Starling being a prime example), there’s no getting away from the fact that many of us can’t get enough of stories about serial killers. 

As a result, here we present 40+ top novels on that very subject. From classic cat-and-mouse murder whodunnits, to darkly funny riffs on the genre, read on to discover a feast of fictional chills.

Our first book is a serial killer thriller that’ll have you seeing office Christmas dos in an entirely different light — it’ll come as no surprise that this light is less the glow of log fires, and more the glint of a weapon in a darkened room! The book in question is SJI Holliday’s The Party Season — a riveting, twisty revenge story that sees a woman dubbed the “party girl killer” seduce her victims in the countdown to Christmas.

Staying on the theme of female serial killers, we’ve recently read a stack of sensational serial killer novels that use the genre to subvert societal norms and expose misogyny in cutting style.

Take Julie Mae Cohen’s Bad Men, for example — an edge-of-your-seat, feminist serial killer thriller that kicks off with a calculated meet-cute romance and winds up with its wealthy young protagonist discovering she has a unique calling: “Killing bad men is my private hobby, the thing that makes me tick. It’s my own humble attempt at smashing the patriarchy.”  

Intrigued? You should also check out Katy Brent’s How to Kill Men and Get Away with It and How To Kill Your Family. The former was a personal favourite of 2023 — a darkly twisted, devilishly funny page-turner that engages with the #MeToo movement.

Staying with another personal fave, My Sister the Serial Killer — one of our Debuts of the Month —  sees an older sister pulled into her sibling’s boyfriend-murdering habit. Wickedly funny, this brilliantly observed book explores sisterhood and the boundaries and ethics of loyalty. Look out for Oyinkan Braithwaite's follow up this September - Cursed Daughters.

Related, one of the assets of fiction is being confronted by contexts that have you questioning black-and-white ethics. For example, while reading Darkly Dreaming Dexter, you may find yourself wondering if it’s OK to root for the serial killer to not get found out! In this case, Dexter is a Miami Police analyst who’s killed 30+ people — all of them serious bad guys.

For an un-put-down-able psychological ride of a read, Alex North’s The Whisper Man — a LoveReading Book of the Month — was given a massive thumbs-up from one of our Editorial Experts. How’s this for high praise? “Clever, beautifully compassionate writing…While the tension reaches almost unbearable levels, there’s a heartfelt balance of empathy and thoughtfulness that packs huge punch and has left a lingering ache. An emotionally beautiful and terrifying read.”

One of the LoveReading team's "favourite" serial killers has got to be CJ Skuse's Rhiannon, who first appears in Sweetpea. It's a dark, twisted read about a female serial killer Rhiannon with dollops of humour, sarcasm and a lightweight approach to a serious subject that shouldn't work but does! Skuse follows it up with three more in the series, so plenty to get your teeth stuck into, if you love Rhiannon as much as we do. We then blitzed the TV series when it premiered in October 2024 on Sky Atlantic.

Love Scandi noir? Try The Chestnut Man, or The Snowman — not to be confused with the Raymond Briggs creation! Or, for a slice of the mean streets of LA, try Michael Connolly’s The Poet.

Into murderous thrillers with a medical angle? Read Tess Gerritsen’s The Surgeon. In fact, you’d do well to browse all her books.

A 2025 addition to this collection is My Wife, The Serial Killer by H.J Garbett throwing you into the mind of a suburban wife with a dark secret right from its intriguing prologue. We meet Gareth Newly, a newly promoted homicide detective, who's been married for 5 years to our unnamed narrator. Their seemingly perfect life is about to teeter on the brink as she confesses (to us, the reader) that she's "done it once before and got away with it."

The story truly kicks off when she kills their next-door neighbour, Angus. The internal conflict is palpable as she grapples with the idea of making Gareth choose between his "dutiful police heart" and her. With the cryptic threat, "Tell the world what you did 20 years ago or I'm going to kill you," hints at a deeper, long-held secret. The universe, our narrator believes, moved Gordon O’Neill next door to them, almost as if she was destined to extract "justice, revenge." 

Garbett masterfully crafts a narrative that is both chilling and compelling, offering a unique perspective from the killer's point of view. If you're looking for a psychological thriller that keeps you guessing and questioning until the very end, My Wife, the Serial Killer is a must-read.

To end, before leaving you to browse the serial killer thrillers showcased below, mention must be made of Patrick Suskind’s Perfume. If you haven’t already experienced the dark pleasure of this surprise global blockbuster (it was originally published in the eighties), prepare to be intoxicated by a murder story like nothing else. In 18th-century Paris, an abandoned baby grows up to have an extraordinary sense of smell that sees him become a master perfumier. An obsession to concoct the one scent that keeps evading him leads to a series of bloody murders, and a rich story of desire and death.