Just out: The New York Times Best Thrillers of the 21st Century list. What did you think of the list? How many have you read? I have a printable tracker you can download as well! Let’s discuss it all!
New York Times 50 Best Thrillers of the 21st Century: My Take on the List
On August 4, 2026, The New York Times published The 50 Best Thrillers of the 21st Century
Of course, I have a few thoughts.
First, off, if you haven’t see the list, you can either 1) scroll down to read it and/or 2) download my tracker from Dropbox (on a iPhone, after you hit download, you will find it under downloads at the bottom of your phone)
Here’s How the List Was Created
This isn’t a bestseller list, it’s a panel vote. According to the Times’ description of the project, they sent ballots to 291 people: novelists, editors, booksellers, librarians, critics, and avid readers. They asked each voter to select their picks for the top 10 thrillers published since 2000. I asked Ruth Ware on Threads how this worked and she said (to the best of her memory) that they sent a database of all qualifying titles, which she said was very extensive.
It’s also a direct follow-on to the Times’ 2024 project, The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. By their own account, that list didn’t include genre fiction, so they’re now creating lists by genre, starting with thrillers.
Named voters include Freida McFadden, Ruth Ware, S.A. Cosby, Gillian Flynn, Stephen King, plus hundreds more.
A Few Quibbles
First off, the 21st Century is only a quarter over!
So this list feels a little premature, no??
Then, as always, “thriller” is loosely defined. My pet peeve!
On this list, the term “thriller” covers everything from spy and espionage thrillers (Slow Horses, I Am Pilgrim, The Constant Gardener) to domestic and psychological suspense books with unreliable narrations (Gone Girl, Girl on the Train, Silent Patient, Before I Go to Sleep) to classic mysteries like The Magpie Murders, to literary fiction (The Goldfinch!)
I am willing to accept domestic suspense as thrillers but I dispute The Goldfinch as a thriller. I’ve always seen it listed as either literary fiction or coming of age.
My Other Thoughts on the List
I love that Tana French shows up four times
The Likeness is one of my favorites of all time. That’s one writer accounting for 8% of the entire ranking, which either tells you how great is or how much the voters loved her (probably both).
S.A. Cosby is in second place with three titles on the list
I think this is well-deserved. I’m a huge fan. It’s interesting that all his winning books are from the 2020s! He’s one of the defining crime writers of the decade, and he rarely misses!
No Freida McFadden, John Grisham, Lee Child, or James Patterson
Clearly this is not a bestseller list, though Dan Brown made it. To be fair, EVERYONE was reading it back in the early 00s.
No classic mysteries or cozies
Yes, the list says thrillers, but includes procedural mysteries like In the Woods and The Lincoln Lawyer. No Richard Osman, no modern Christie-style classic mysteries.
Very few series mysteries, but one series got multiple books mentioned
I just noticed The Lincoln Lawyer, The Magpie Murders, and Slow Horses … and four of Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad books. Are they a series, or just interconnected standalones?
Gender Equity (yay) and Heavy UK Representation (!)
The list includes 27 books by women and 23 by men. It also features over 15 books written by authors from the UK and Ireland (Tana French, Kate Atkinson, Mick Herron, Paula Hawkins, Sarah Waters, John le Carré, Oyinkan Braithwaite, Anthony Horowitz, Lisa Jewell, Chris Whitaker, S. J. Watson).
The Full New York Times 50 Best Thrillers of the 21st Century List
Here’s the full list, with links to my reviews where I have them. I’m going to try to read one book a month from the list, and if you want to follow my progress:
Bold = I’ve read it. If I reviewed it, my review is linked.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
In the Woods by Tana French
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby
Slow Horses by Mick Herron
Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke
Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Dare Me by Megan Abbott
The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane (LOVED)
11/22/63 by Stephen King
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
Broken Harbor by Tana French
Room by Emma Donoghue
The Constant Gardener by John le Carré
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
The Dry by Jane Harper
Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani
The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Defending Jacob by William Landay
Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka
The Witch Elm by Tana French ( Love her books but I DNF’d it)
The Likeness by Tana French (I LOVE this book so much!)
All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha
I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
Tell No One by Harlan Coben
You by Caroline Kepnes (DNF’d it!)
Lush Life by Richard Price
Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
The Push by Ashley Audrain
All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker (DNF’d and need to try this one again)
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell
Free on Kindle Unlimited: NYT Best Thrillers of the 21st Century
A handful of titles from the list are currently available free with Kindle Unlimited as of August 2026.
| Title | Why You’ll Love It |
|---|---|
| Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby | A furious, propulsive revenge thriller about two ex-con fathers, one Black, one white, who team up to hunt down whoever murdered their sons. |
| Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke | A Black Texas Ranger investigates two murders in one week in a small town where the past and present racial tension collide. |
| Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodress | A stark Ozark Mountains noir following a teenage girl who has to track down her drug-dealer father before the family loses their home. |
| All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby | A spellbinding police procedural about a Black lawman in a small town facing racism and solving crimes. |
| The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides | A fan-favorite twist book that has just been re-optioned for an adaptation. |
| Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier | A twisty psychological thriller about three childhood friends whose lives implode when a serial killer’s decades-old crimes resurface. |
| Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson | Gripping domestic suspense about a woman with amnesia. |
| Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz | A clever novel-within-a-novel mystery pairing a classic English village whodunit with a modern-day murder investigation. |
Want a printable version to track your own progress? Grab my tracker here!
PLEASE LEAVE YOUR THOUGHTS IN COMMENTS!
You missed nothing in DNFing You. I finished it, and really wish I hadn’t. Terrible book. I didn’t find it particularly well written in addition to not liking the story so I am stunned to see it here.
It’s funny that I DNF’d multiple books on the list. Reading taste is very subjective!
Hi, Jen.
It’s so interesting about Witch Elm. I’ve heard many Tana French readers say they don’t like it. It was the first of hers that I’ve read, and I have since DNF’d (3X) In the Woods and The Secret Place. I’ve been told I might enjoy the Cal Hooper books more, since Dublin Murder Squad doesn’t seem to be for me.
That’s so interesting. I didn’t love Witch Elm either and it’s low rated on GR. My favorite was The Likeness and after that Into the Woods. Goodreads says I read Faithful Place but I have no memory of that.
I read the first Cal Hooper book and it wasn’t for me, so maybe our tastes are opposite. He is an American trying to lay low in Ireland and then of course ends up investigating. I didn’t relate to Cal for some reason, so I didn’t continue.
Why didn’t the NYT just call the list Mysteries and Thrillers? IMHO very few thrillers are actual thrillers.
One of my pet peeves is hyperbolic marketing. As you said, 26 years isn’t a century. The list seems to me to be pure marketing, not for the books, but for the NYT.
“Best” is relative, especially when it comes to awards. Look at some of the Best Picture Oscar winners.
My favorite on the list is Defending Jacob followed by Big Little Lies, though I liked the miniseries of BLL better than the book, probably because I saw it before reading. I enjoyed the miniseries of DJ, but prefer the book. I’ve probably read 10-15 others on the list, none of which I’d put on my list of favorites or best.
I want to be able to *feel* the characters, not just experience the twists and turns. I want to love the books so much that I *need* to savor them in print and audio.
The overuse of “thriller” is also SO annoying to me. I can’t remember if I’ve read Defending Jacob or not (if it was in this century I’d probably remember hahaha!) so I will put that high on my list.
I take issue with the inclusion of I Am Pilgrim on the NY Times’ list. Not because it really isn’t a thriller in the sense that any serious thriller reader would describe the genre, but because it is simply a poorly written book, full of sophomoric cliches, cringe inducing dialog, and un-relatable characters. Agree with you about the inclusion of Tana French as one of the best writers of the genre working, and have to note the incredible absence of Scott Turow from this list.
Thanks for that! I will put it lower on my list. I wish instead of 21st Century they had done “in the last 50 years” because I agree with you that Scott Turow has written some great books but many of them before the 21st century. That said, I don’t mind giving a nod to younger writers either.
I, too, was very surprised by books that are included here as “thrillers” that felt like a real stretch yet the absence of genuine mysteries that have a “thriller” component. I find this a lot, the absence of a genuine definition of what it means to be a thriller in other lists, articles, reviews, etc. Maybe that is the bigger problem? Just thought I’d throw this out there for discussion!
It was an odd list. As I mentioned, I asked Ruth Ware on Threads if they had to pick from any book out there, and her impression was that there was a large database of “qualifying” titles.
Why are mysteries overlooked? Why is one excellent series (Dublin Murder) so recognized and other great series writers (Louise Penny, Richard Osman, Karin Slaughter) overlooked? Why is there so much suspense on the list yet suspense never gets recognized as part of crime fiction. As Pink Amy suggests below, are these lists some kind of marketing ploy?
I have a whole series of posts on how I divide up the crime fiction genre and have been thinking of offering it as a series of emails and see what people think.