If you are a fan of The Girl on the Train or other suspense books check out these other books I would recommend! *affiliate links used
I did a post just over a year ago about five of my favorite suspense novels that I thought you should read if you liked The Girl on the Train (you can find it here if you are interested) and it was super popular! At that point, I had just begun to dip my toe into the genre and now I can say with confidence that I am fully submerged (ha) and obsessed with all things suspenseful. Here are 10 more books I’ve loved lately:
1. The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter
This one starts off more gruesomely than I would normally go for and is probably the darkest book on this list – not something I would normally be drawn to. But once you get past the first chapter The Good Daughter is a really just a good story about two sisters who survive a terrifying attack on their home as children and what their lives look like now. The sister’s don’t really have a relationship but are thrust back together after another tragedy strikes their home town and effects their family.
From Amazon: Twenty-eight years ago, Charlotte and Samantha Quinn’s happy small-town family life was torn apart by a terrifying attack on their family home. It left their mother dead. It left their father—Pikeville’s notorious defense attorney—devastated. And it left the family fractured beyond repair, consumed by secrets from that terrible night. Twenty-eight years later, Charlie has followed in her father’s footsteps to become a lawyer herself—the ideal good daughter. But when violence comes to Pikeville again—and a shocking tragedy leaves the whole town traumatized—Charlie is plunged into a nightmare. Not only is she the first witness on the scene, but it’s a case that unleashes the terrible memories she’s spent so long trying to suppress. Because the shocking truth about the crime that destroyed her family nearly thirty years ago won’t stay buried forever.
2. The Lying Game by Ruth Ware
While this isn’t my favorite Ruth Ware novel (this one holds steady in first place) it intrigued me and kept my attention throughout! The Lying Game is about four women who have been the closest of friends since their boarding school days and have many, many major secrets kept between them. Their lives have all gone separate ways but they come back together for a reunion of sorts when one of the girls suffers a major blow. It will keep you guessing until the end, that’s for sure!
From Amazon: On a cool June morning, a woman is walking her dog in the idyllic coastal village of Salten, along a tidal estuary known as the Reach. Before she can stop him, the dog charges into the water to retrieve what first appears to be a wayward stick, but to her horror, turns out to be something much more sinister. The next morning, three women in and around London—Fatima, Thea, and Isa—receive the text they had always hoped would never come, from the fourth in their formerly inseparable clique, Kate, that says only, “I need you.” The four girls were best friends at Salten, a second-rate boarding school set near the cliffs of the English Channel. Each different in their own way, the four became inseparable and were notorious for playing the Lying Game, telling lies at every turn to both fellow boarders and faculty. But their little game had consequences, and as the four converge in present-day Salten, they realize their shared past was not as safely buried as they had once hoped…
3. The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn
This book has been much talked about over the last year and for good reason, it will keep you guessing! The main character, Anna, is agoraphobic (which means can not go outside her home without having a panic attack) after a terrible tragedy happens in her life. She spends her time drinking (too much), watching scary movies, and spying on her neighbors. Because of her lifestyle when she witnesses a crime through one of her neighbors window’s her word is not taken seriously. The Woman in the Window will keep you on your toes and the ending really, really surprised me which is hard to do!
From Amazon: Anna Fox lives alone—a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times . . . and spying on her neighbors. Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, a mother, their teenage son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn’t, her world begins to crumble—and its shocking secrets are laid bare. What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control? In this diabolically gripping thriller, no one—and nothing—is what it seems.
4. The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendrick and Sarah Pakkanen
I love a book where the plot twist genuinely surprises me but also feels totally believable and this book does that in a HUGE way. It’s told from two perspectives. The first is an older woman who is licking her wounds and trying to get her life back on track after a divorce and the second is the-soon-to-be new wife of the same man. I think people will either love or hate the way this story is told but it worked for me!
From Amazon: When you read this book, you will make many assumptions. You will assume you are reading about a jealous ex-wife. You will assume she is obsessed with her replacement – a beautiful, younger woman who is about to marry the man they both love. You will assume you know the anatomy of this tangled love triangle. Assume nothing. Twisted and deliciously chilling, Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen’s The Wife Between Us exposes the secret complexities of an enviable marriage – and the dangerous truths we ignore in the name of love.
5. The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine
I thought this book completely lived up to the hype surrounding it. It’s one of my favorites on this list! Amber is a girl from a small, rural town who moves to a new place with one goal – to make another woman’s husband her our. She does this by meticulously researching the man and his wife to know how to get in their good graces – that part alone is chilling enough! While the twist in this book isn’t overly shocking, it’s extremely satisfying and I loved seeing how it would play out.
From Amazon: Amber Patterson is fed up. She’s tired of being a nobody: a plain, invisible woman who blends into the background. She deserves more—a life of money and power like the one blond-haired, blue-eyed goddess Daphne Parrish takes for granted. To everyone in the exclusive town of Bishops Harbor, Connecticut, Daphne—a socialite and philanthropist—and her real-estate mogul husband, Jackson, are a couple straight out of a fairy tale. Amber’s envy could eat her alive . . . if she didn’t have a plan. Amber uses Daphne’s compassion and caring to insinuate herself into the family’s life—the first step in a meticulous scheme to undermine her. Before long, Amber is Daphne’s closest confidante, traveling to Europe with the Parrishes and their lovely young daughters, and growing closer to Jackson. But a skeleton from her past may undermine everything that Amber has worked towards, and if it is discovered, her well-laid plan may fall to pieces.
6. Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell
Oh man, I loved this one, too! It’s the story of a family (mostly the mother, Laurel) of a teen girl who goes missing one day after school and how her mother copes with life almost ten years later. She meets a man in a cafe who seems too good to be true but has a daughter who reminds Laurel so much of her own missing daughter so just can’t stay away. The connections, twists, and turns of this book kept me guessing how it would all play out until the last page!
From Amazon: Ellie Mack was the perfect daughter. She was fifteen, the youngest of three. She was beloved by her parents, friends, and teachers. She and her boyfriend made a teenaged golden couple. She was days away from an idyllic post-exams summer vacation, with her whole life ahead of her. And then she was gone. Now, her mother Laurel Mack is trying to put her life back together. It’s been ten years since her daughter disappeared, seven years since her marriage ended, and only months since the last clue in Ellie’s case was unearthed. So when she meets an unexpectedly charming man in a café, no one is more surprised than Laurel at how quickly their flirtation develops into something deeper. Before she knows it, she’s meeting Floyd’s daughters—and his youngest, Poppy, takes Laurel’s breath away. Because looking at Poppy is like looking at Ellie. And now, the unanswered questions she’s tried so hard to put to rest begin to haunt Laurel anew. Where did Ellie go? Did she really run away from home, as the police have long suspected, or was there a more sinister reason for her disappearance? Who is Floyd, really? And why does his daughter remind Laurel so viscerally of her own missing girl?
7. A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena
While not my favorite on this list, I flew through A Stranger in the House because I just had to find out what exactly was going on! Karen loses almost all her memory from the night that she crashes her car in a strange part of town. When a man shows up dead not far away from the crash site she is suspect #1 but she can’t figure out why she would be involved in any way. The ending won’t be what you expect at all!
From Amazon: Karen and Tom Krupp are happy—they’ve got a lovely home in upstate New York, they’re practically newlyweds, and they have no kids to interrupt their comfortable life together. But one day, Tom returns home to find Karen has vanished—her car’s gone and it seems she left in a rush. She even left her purse—complete with phone and ID—behind. There’s a knock on the door—the police are there to take Tom to the hospital where his wife has been admitted. She had a car accident, and lost control as she sped through the worst part of town. The accident has left Karen with a concussion and a few scrapes. Still, she’s mostly okay—except that she can’t remember what she was doing or where she was when she crashed. The cops think her memory loss is highly convenient, and they suspect she was up to no good. Karen returns home with Tom, determined to heal and move on with her life. Then she realizes something’s been moved. Something’s not quite right. Someone’s been in her house. And the police won’t stop asking questions. Because in this house, everyone’s a stranger. Everyone has something they’d rather keep hidden. Something they might even kill to keep quiet.
8. The Secrets You Keep by Kate White
Another book about a woman trying to move on with her life after an accident, The Secrets You Keep was pretty good! It looks very fishy that a woman the main character, Bryn, gets into a public argument with turns up murdered the next day followed by another person she is close to a few days later. Bryn can’t help but try to make sense of it all! This book is very twisty but not in a natural way. It left me scratching my head in some parts trying to fit it all together. But overall, it was worth the read!
From Amazon: What would you do if you realized that your new husband, a man you adore, is keeping secrets from you—secrets with terrifying consequences? Bryn Harper, an accomplished self-help author, already has plenty to deal with. She’s still recovering from a devastating car accident that has left her haunted by recurring, smoke-filled nightmares. Worse still, she can’t shake the ominous feeling her dreams contain a warning. In the beginning, Bryn’s husband Guy couldn’t have been more supportive. But after moving into a new house together, disturbing incidents occur and Guy grows evasive, secretive. What the hell is going on, she wonders? Then, a woman hired to cater their dinner party is brutally murdered. As Bryn’s world unravels—and yet another woman in town is slain —she must summon her old strength to find answers and protect her own life. Her nightmares may in fact hold the key to unlocking the truth and unmasking the murderer.
9. All These Beautiful Strangers by Elizabeth Klehforth
The first portion of this book makes it seem like a YA novel, because it’s told from a high school girl’s perspective, but that didn’t end up being the case at all! Charlie attends the same boarding school her father did and longs to be part of the same exclusive secret society that he was. Or does she? She quickly gets more than she bargained for after receiving the first task she must complete to become a member. All of this gets tied in with the disappearance of her mother from years ago and I couldn’t wait to see how it was all connected! Loved this one.
From Amazon: A young woman haunted by a family tragedy is caught up in a dangerous web of lies and deception involving a secret society in this highly charged, addictive psychological thriller that combines the dishy gamesmanship of Gossip Girl with the murky atmosphere of The Secret History. One summer day, Grace Fairchild, the beautiful young wife of real estate mogul Alistair Calloway, vanished from the family’s lake house without a trace, leaving behind her seven-year old daughter, Charlie, and a slew of unanswered questions. Years later, seventeen-year-old Charlie still struggles with the dark legacy of her family name and the mystery surrounding her mother. Determined to finally let go of the past, she throws herself into life at Knollwood, the prestigious New England school she attends. Charlie quickly becomes friends with Knollwood’s “it” crowd. Charlie has also been tapped by the A’s—the school’s elite secret society well known for terrorizing the faculty, administration, and their enemies. To become a member of the A’s, Charlie must play The Game, a semester-long, diabolical high-stakes scavenger hunt that will jeopardize her friendships, her reputation, even her place at Knollwood. As the dark events of past and present converge, Charlie begins to fear that she may not survive the terrible truth about her family, her school, and her own life.
10. The Breakdown by B.A. Paris
B.A. Paris and I have a complicated relationship. I pretty much swore her off after reading this novel which was SO disturbing, but end the end I’m glad I sucked it up and read The Breakdown. It was GOOD. Cass is heading home one night and is plagued with guilt after not stopping to see if a seemingly stranded car needed help. Especially once the woman in that car turns up dead. She begins taking anti-anxiety meds to help her cope but they cause her to lose huge sums of time. The ending truly shocked me!
From Amazon: Cass is having a hard time since the night she saw the car in the woods. It was on the winding rural road, in the middle of a downpour, and a woman was sitting inside―the woman who was killed. She’s been trying to put the crime out of her mind; what could she have done, really? It’s a dangerous road to be on in the middle of a storm, and she probably would have been hurt herself if she’d stopped. Not only that, her husband would be furious if he knew she’d broken her promise not to take that shortcut home. But since then, she’s been forgetting every little thing. Where she left the car; if she took her pills; even the alarm code. The only thing she can’t forget is that woman, the woman she might have saved, and the terrible nagging guilt. And the silent calls she’s receiving, or the feeling that someone’s watching her…
Let me know your recommendations down in the comments!
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Related posts: 5 Books to Read if You Liked The Girl on the Train | How I Make Time to Read
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