Sometimes you want a thriller you can finish in one night or over a weekend. Maybe the year is winding down and you’re still a few books short of your reading goal. Maybe you’re trying to break out of a slump, or you simply don’t want to commit to 500 pages. Whatever the reason, a short thriller can still give you plenty of secrets, bad decisions and reasons to keep turning the pages.
Every thriller on this list comes in under 250 pages in at least one commonly available edition. Page counts can vary between hardcover, paperback and ebook editions, so check the version you’re buying if that cutoff matters to you.
If you want something even shorter, I also have a list of books that are 200 pages or less, including several you can easily finish in one sitting.
Short Crime and Psychological Thrillers
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Korede knows exactly what to bring when Ayoola calls after another boyfriend ends up dead: bleach, rubber gloves and a strong stomach. She has been cleaning up after her sister for years, but things change when Ayoola sets her sights on the man Korede loves. The murders are darkly funny, but the real question is how far Korede will go to protect her.
My Sister, the Serial Killer: A Novel
Korede’s sister Ayoola is many things: the favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic. And now Ayoola’s third boyfriend in a row is dead, stabbed through the heart with Ayoola’s knife.
Confessions by Kanae Minato
On her last day as a teacher, Yuko tells her class that two students in the room killed her four-year-old daughter. Then other people begin telling their sides of the story, and every new version makes the situation uglier. This one is cold, angry and built around a revenge plan that does not stop where you expect it to.
Confessions
After a teacher’s young daughter dies at school, she reveals that two of her students were responsible—and sets a chilling revenge plan in motion. Told through multiple perspectives, this Japanese psychological thriller is dark, clever, and nearly impossible to put down.
In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes
Women are being murdered across postwar Los Angeles, and former airman Dix Steele has taken a suspicious interest in the investigation. Following the story from his perspective makes this classic noir especially unsettling. You are not trying to figure out who the dangerous man is—you are waiting to see whether the women around him will recognize him in time.
In a Lonely Place
A former airman moves through postwar Los Angeles while a killer targets women across the city. Told from inside the mind of a dangerously unreliable man, this classic noir thriller is tense, unsettling, and surprisingly ahead of its time.
If you find that point of view fascinating, I have another list of dark thrillers told from inside the killer’s mind.
Piercing by Ryū Murakami
A new father is terrified that he will stab his baby, so he comes up with a plan that is somehow even worse: kill a stranger instead. He chooses a woman he assumes will be an easy victim, but she brings her own secrets and violent impulses into the hotel room. Neither person is prepared for the other.
Piercing
A man checks into a Tokyo hotel with a carefully planned murder in mind, but the woman he chooses as his victim has dark compulsions of her own. Piercing is a disturbing psychological thriller in which control slips away almost immediately.
The Grownup by Gillian Flynn
The narrator makes a living telling people what they want to hear, first as a sex worker and later as a fake psychic. When a woman offers her money to cleanse a supposedly haunted house, she sees an easy paycheck. Soon she cannot tell whether the house is haunted, the woman’s stepson is dangerous or she is the one being conned.
The Grownup
A young con artist agrees to investigate a supposedly haunted Victorian home, but the family living inside may be more dangerous than any ghost. This sharp, twisty novella from the author of Gone Girl keeps changing the story just when you think you understand it.
Sisters by Daisy Johnson
July has always followed her older sister September’s lead. After something terrible happens at school, their mother takes them to an isolated family home near the Yorkshire coast. The house is falling apart, their mother barely speaks to them and July’s memories do not quite add up.
Sisters
After a disturbing incident at school, teenage sisters July and September retreat with their mother to an isolated family home. Their unusually intense bond hides something darker in this claustrophobic psychological thriller about memory, control, and family secrets.
I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid
A woman travels with her boyfriend to meet his parents while privately wondering whether she should end their relationship. The longer the night goes on, the stranger everything becomes. This is the kind of psychological thriller that makes you question what is happening, who you can trust and whether you missed something important ten pages earlier.
I m Thinking of Ending Things: A Novel
Iain Reid explores the depths of the human psyche, questioning consciousness, free will, the value of relationships, fear, and the limitations of solitude.
I also included this one in my list of psychological horror books that will break your brain, because it absolutely belongs there.
Short Speculative and Horror Thrillers
The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
Joanna expects life in Stepford to be quiet. What she does not expect is a town full of women who are perfectly dressed, endlessly cheerful and completely devoted to housework. When the few women she connects with begin changing too, she starts asking what the men of Stepford are really doing.
The Stepford Wives
Joanna’s new neighborhood looks perfect, but the women of Stepford are becoming disturbingly obedient, cheerful, and interchangeable. This short classic blends psychological suspense, science fiction, and social satire into a story that remains frighteningly relevant.
The Test by Sylvain Neuvel
Idir is in the middle of his British citizenship test when armed men burst in and take everyone hostage. Suddenly, his answers could determine who lives and who dies. The story moves quickly, but the questions it raises about immigration, prejudice and who gets to decide whether someone belongs are not so easy.
The Test
Idir expects his British citizenship test to involve twenty-five difficult questions. Instead, he is trapped in a terrifying situation where every answer carries life-or-death consequences. This fast speculative thriller reads like a particularly cruel episode of Black Mirror.
The Murders of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson
Whenever Molly bleeds, her blood creates another version of her, and every copy wants her dead. She has spent her life cleaning up every drop, killing the duplicates and following rules designed to keep her alive. The copies are terrifying, but what Molly has to become to survive them may be worse.
The Murders of Molly Southbourne
For as long as Molly Southbourne can remember, she’s been watching herself die. Whenever she bleeds, another molly is born, identical to her in every way and intent on her destruction.
Guillotine by Delilah S. Dawson
Fashion student Dez Lane accepts an invitation to spend Easter with her boyfriend’s wealthy family on their private island. She thinks the weekend could give her the connections she needs to start her career. Instead, she walks into a world full of rich people who treat everyone below them as disposable—and people who have finally had enough.
Guillotine
A fashion student accepts an invitation to her wealthy boyfriend’s private island estate, hoping to make the connection that will launch her career. Instead, the luxurious getaway erupts into a brutal fight for survival filled with privilege, rage, and revenge.
If the private-island setting is what caught your attention, I have a whole list of island thrillers where paradise turns deadly.
And Then I Woke Up by Malcolm Devlin
A strange plague has left people certain that monsters are roaming the streets. But the disease changes how reality is perceived, so there may not be any monsters at all. The book keeps circling one ugly question: What happens when you hurt real people while believing you are saving the world?
And Then I Woke Up
In a world reeling from an unusual plague, monsters lurk in the streets while terrified survivors arm themselves and roam the countryside in packs. Or perhaps something very different is happening. When a disease affects how reality is perceived, it’s hard to be certain of anything…
If your attention span is shot or your reading challenge is glaring at you, one of these books may be exactly the right size. They are quick reads, but they are not necessarily easy ones, and a few are strange enough to stay in your head for a while.
