Pulse Pounding Reads!
These titles will leave you on the edge of your seat, from jaw-dropping openings to heart-stopping finishes!
 
Linwood Barclay
Barclay's thrilling, fast-paced, and twist-filled stories focus on ordinary, often personally troubled protagonists suddenly thrust into extraordinary situations full of chilling violence and intrigue, with thoroughly detailed and plausible characterizations, slow-building suspense, and often unbearable personal stakes.
 
Books by this author
Sara Blædel
Blædel writes fast-paced Scandinavian crime fiction with strong female characters. Her writing style is gritty, and the tone of her work is bleak.
 
Books by this author
Christopher Bollen
Bollen writes thrillers with a large cast of characters. His intricately plotted, suspenseful stories have authentic and flawed people in character-driven storylines.
 
Books by this author
Jack Carr
Carr writes thrillers and suspense novels with intricately plotted storylines, with an intensifying pace and a compelling writing style.
 
Books by this author
Ben Coes
Coes's stories are timely and exciting, outstanding black-ops thrillers that hold the reader's attention - with believable characters, charismatic leads, and a compelling narrative drive. His stories are action-packed, fast-paced, and full of suspense.
 
Books by this author
Sandrone Dazieri
Dazieri writes fast-paced, intricately-plotted thrillers and suspense stories with strong female characters, written in a disturbing, menacing, and violent tone.
 
Books by this author
Fuminori Nakamura
Japanese writer Nakamura pens fast-paced crime fiction featuring cold-blooded, emotionless protagonists. His work is often set in dangerous, seedy parts of large cities, home to his nefarious characters and their unsavory dealings. He's perfect for crime fiction fans who crave substance with their grit. 
 
Books by this author
Joshua Hood
Hood writes action-packed, fast-paced, suspenseful thrillers that call on his military and SWAT team experiences. His books are plot-driven, high-adrenaline, and ultraviolent thrillers.
 
Books by this author
Joe Ide
 
Ide combines light and dark in unpredictable ways, blending comic capering with real-life bloodletting that diminishes neither and taps a vein of deep emotion lurking amid the laugh lines and spurts of violence. His stories have likable characters and present the bleakest aspects of humanity. 
 
Books by this author
Iris Johansen
Iris Johansen builds complex characters in her thrillers and suspense books, often blending in romance. Her stories are intricately plotted, fast-paced, richly detailed, and written in a menacing, steamy and suspenseful tone.
 
Books by this author
Christobel Kent
Kent writes mysteries and psychological suspense novels with well-developed characters and intricate plots written in an atmospheric, creepy, and suspenseful tone.
 
Books by this author
Josh Malerman
Malerman's unpredictable works defy easy categorization, frequently blurring the boundaries between horror, science fiction, thriller, and weird fiction. Known for creepy, atmospheric prose and intricately plotted nonlinear storylines, his books frequently feature strong female characters struggling to persevere against seemingly insurmountable challenges.
 
Books by this author
Jo Nesbø
Norwegian author Jo Nesbø is best known for his intricately plotted, gritty, and thrilling mystery fiction. His twist-filled, fast-paced crime stories frequently feature the personally troubled and substance-abusing Detective Harry Hole as he wades through the seedy underbelly of Oslo to solve brutal murders. 
 
Books by this author
Liz Nugent
Nugent writes domestic fiction and psychological suspense novels with complex, flawed, and unforgettable characters. Her storylines are character-driven and intricately plotted, and her compelling writing style often produces stories with a disturbing tone.
 
Books by this author
B. A. Paris
Paris crafts twisty thrillers populated with unreliable narrators and full of increasingly unsettling tension. Her plots often feature sympathetic protagonists who are thrown off-kilter by circumstances that don't align with their memories or perception of reality, which leaves them questioning their sanity and the motives of those around them.
 
Books by this author
Brad Parks
Journalist Brad Parks brings his newsroom experience to his much-lauded mystery novels. Parks' prose is journalistic, terse yet descriptive, and it mixes utter seriousness with dark humor. It features well-developed portraits of a gritty urban landscape and his quirky characters, whose snappy dialogue illuminates as it entertains. 
 
Books by this author
Peter Swanson
Swanson's bar-raising psychological suspense stories are fast-paced and intricately plotted, with surprising twists that keep the suspense high to the end and give readers an adrenaline rush through all the hairpin turns.
 
Books by this author
Brad Thor   
The shadows of a post-9/11 world hang heavily over the novels of Brad Thor, whose complex thrillers frequently involve terrorist plans to subvert and destroy American interests. His stories offer a relentless pace and are full of politics and international
intrigue.
 
Books by this author
Ask a librarian for more reading suggestions! 
Get Reading Recommendations
Forsyth County Public Library | #WeKnowBooks