If you’re craving pulse-pounding plots, razor-sharp twists, and stories that keep you second-guessing until the very last page, these new LoveReading Crime / Thriller Picks are made just for you. These gripping reads dive into the dark corners of human behaviour, where secrets simmer, tensions tighten, and nothing is ever quite as it seems.

This handpicked selection of crime / thrillers will have you hooked, unsettled, and desperate to know what happens next. We promise!

What is a Crime / Thriller Pick?

Crime and thriller are closely related genres, often overlapping, but they have distinct characteristics that help us all categorise them. Here’s a breakdown of what typically defines each:

Crime Fiction

A crime (usually a murder, theft, or other serious offense) is central to the story, and the plot revolves around solving or understanding it. They involve detectives, police, lawyers, or amateur sleuths and are usually structured around an investigation, often with clues and red herrings and tend to follow a "whodunnit" format. We are big fans!

Thriller Fiction

Thrillers are a little different. A high-stakes situation drives the plot, with tension built around danger, pursuit, or impending threat. The goal is to keep the reader on edge, and boy, do we love that!

They're what we'd call a page-turner, fast-paced, often with short chapters and cliffhangers. Protagonists are often being chased, framed, or under intense pressure with themes of paranoia, betrayal, or psychological manipulation. And they frequently explore what will happen next, rather than who did it.

Subgenres include psychological thrillers, domestic noir, spy thrillers, and action thrillers

Where Crime / Thrillers Overlap

Psychological thrillers often blend the two, with crime elements and intense suspense. Some books are crime thrillers as they involve solving a crime and feature nail-biting suspense.

You Are Fatally Invited: Crime / Thriller Pick, February 2025

This is a sinister masterclass of a locked room mystery from the mind of the man who wrote the book on murder. Chillingly assuring the invited six authors a killer time, the legend that is JR Alastor invites a select group of successful thriller writers to a writing retreat on his private island, NDAs required. 

Between them all, they’ve written a dozen mysteries and read thousands more. But they all have more in common than they realise. Secrets abound, secrets that Alastor has uncovered. And now he plans to seal this cast of guilty characters in a house and force them to fight for their lives. 

Like an episode of Traitors, you are plunged into a real-life game of Cluedo, meticulously planned to uncover the truths, enact revenge and gain confessions. Who will survive the night? Writing his own script for the retreat, cherrypicking murders from their own books, this is a rollercoaster of a ride, and I was hooked from the very first twist. Fatally invited, this is one RSVP the writers will wish they had declined.

Scenes from a Tragedy: Crime / Thriller Pick, March 2025

This is a stellar, suffocating, all-consuming thriller about the search for truth after a scandal in the sky. The disappearance of an Airbus a320 somewhere over the Lake District jolts us straight into the action. A ghost flight with only two people on board, we soon find out that GFA578 crashed into a mountain killing the two pilots Captain Daniel Taylor and First Officer Luke Emery. By page 7 we were in. All in. Scenes from a Tragedy is a page turner if ever there was one, and a thoroughly deserving LoveReading Thriller of the Month and Star Book. Gobsmackingly good with a thumbs-up from us.

The Note: Crime / Thriller Pick, April 2025

Reuniting for a vacation in the Hamptons goes spectacularly wrong for a group of three friends in this entertaining suspense novel. While certainly diverting and entertaining, The Note by Alafair Burke also focuses on the dangerous reality of social politics, privilege, and discrimination. When a joke goes badly wrong and spirals into a police investigation, long buried deadly secrets are dug up and the friendship is tested to its limits. If you are looking to escape reality for a while then step this way. Full of busy attitude and intrigue, this would make a great holiday read.

Be Mine: Crime / Thriller Pick, May 2025

A gripping psychological thriller with sharp twists, layered characters, and a haunting sense of inevitability, Be Mine by Lizzy Barber is a story about identity, obsession, and the cost of reinvention. Flitting between Muswell Hill in 2023 and Marin County 2014, we meet Beth. As her past catches up with her we understand her need for invisibility, and realise that the shell she wears is forged in iron. And the rollercoaster she is on is not showing any signs of slowing down. If you love a twisty turny psychological thriller then strap yourself in, you're in for a wild ride!

FDR Drive: Crime / Thriller Pick, June 2025

New York lawyer Nora Carleton faces her biggest case yet in this gripping legal thriller from the critically acclaimed author and former director of the FBI.

Carleton is drawn into a case that hits close to home – a mysterious murder on the FDR Drive that quickly entangles organised crime, political corruption and the dark side of justice. Comey excels at weaving real-world, and very recognisable, stakes into his fictional universe, making the plot feel timely and eerily plausible.

The strength of this novel lies in its authenticity. The author’s firsthand experience in the justice system adds gravitas to courtroom scenes and investigative procedures, which never feel exaggerated. Instead, readers are given an insider’s look at the pressures and moral ambiguities faced by prosecutors, judges, and law enforcement officers alike. Carleton is a standout protagonist; intelligent, conflicted, and deeply human. Her internal struggles elevate the novel beyond the standard legal thriller to a point where it becomes a reflection on power, integrity and the personal cost of doing what's right.

Comey's prose is crisp and the pacing is brisk, with just enough twists to keep readers hooked without veering into implausibility. Highly recommended.

Whether you’re drawn to slow-burning psychological suspense, taut legal drama, or twist-filled tales of obsession and deceit, these picks deliver the kind of edge-of-your-seat reading that thriller and crime fans crave. Each story offers a different flavour of tension but all share one thing: you won’t want to put them down. Clear your schedule, these are the page-turners to lose yourself in.

If you're looking for more recommendations, check out our Crime / Mystery Fiction and Thriller / Suspense Fiction categories.