My favorite Girls Trip Thriller Books, ranging from a hen party in an isolated Northumbria cabin to murder at a Maldives resort to a national park getaway gone wrong. Complicated female friendships. Isolated locations. Secrets that can’t be kept.
Girls Trip Thriller Books
There’s something about a girls trip: fun, escapist, a bonding opportunity. And then (in these books at least) things go very, very wrong.
These are the girls trip thrillers I keep recommending!
Quick Girls Trip Thriller Picks by Vibe
| If you want… | Read this |
|---|---|
| Closed-circle psych thriller | In a Dark Dark Wood by Ruth Ware |
| Friends having a divorce party | Bad Tourists by Caro Carver |
| Missing friend in Lisbon | The Weekend Away by Sarah Alderson |
| Palm Springs friend drams | We Were Never Friends by Kaira Rouda |
| Summer camp friends in the Hamptons | The Note by Alafair Burke |
| A wilderness thriller with a bookish twist | The Girls Trip by Ally Condie |
| A past/present narrative with a spooky feel | The Villa by Rachel Hawkins |
| Unreliable narrators; psych thriller vibe. | We Were Never Here by Andrea Bartz |
In a Dark Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
Where: An isolated, ultramodern cabin in the forests of Northumbria, England
The setup: Nora hasn’t seen her old friend Clare in years. So when a bachelorette party invitation arrives out of nowhere, she’s perplexed. Then she wakes up in hospital, and someone is dead.
Perfect for: Fans of Lucy Foley, Agatha Christie, anyone who loves a good locked-room setup
Bad Tourists by Caro Carver
Where: Sapphire Island Resort, the Maldives
The setup: Three pals head to one of the most beautiful places on earth to celebrate one friend’s divorce. Sun, sand, turquoise water … then a body washes up on the beach, and nothing about their paradise getaway is what it seemed.
Perfect for: Anyone who loves an escapist resort thriller!
The Weekend Away by Sarah Alderson
Where: Lisbon, Portugal
The setup: Two friends (one a new mom desperate for a break, the other still happily unattached) head to Lisbon for a long weekend. Then one of them vanishes. And the other is left alone in a foreign city, trying to find her, while starting to wonder how well she actually knows her best friend.
Perfect for: Readers who want a page-turner with a twisty reveal
We Were Never Friends by Kaira Rouda
Where: A private estate in Palm Springs
The setup: Four sorority sisters gather in Palm Springs to celebrate the upcoming wedding of one woman’s son to another’s daughter. It should be a joyful occasion. Except the estate where they’re staying is a near-exact recreation of the hotel where a fifth sorority sister died on a spring break trip years ago.
Perfect for: Fans of Big Little Lies, readers who love a cast of women-with-secrets setup, book clubs who want something to debate
The Note by Alafair Burke
Where: The Hamptons, New York
The setup: Old friends from summer camp reconnect for a Hamptons getaway. It’s the perfect setup until there’s a dead body.
Perfect for: Readers who love a glamorous coastal setting.
The Girls Trip by Ally Condie
Where: Eden National Park (based on Zion National Park in Utah)
The setup: Three friends who met in a virtual pandemic book club plan a trip together to a stunning national park. Then one of them goes missing.
Perfect for: Book clubs (so meta!), fans of wilderness thrillers, readers who love a national park setting
The Villa by Rachel Hawkins
Where: Villa Aestas in Umbria, Italy
The setup: Emily and Chess: a mystery writer and a self-help coach, head to a writing retreat at a lavish and secluded Italian villa. But the villa has a dark past as the site where a friends’ gathering turned to murder. The past present narrative shift between past and present, with murdery vibes in both.
Perfect for: fans of past/present narratives, spooky vibes, and a story within a story./
We Were Never Here by Andrea Bartz
Where: Chile
The setup: College friends Kristen and Emily are doing their yearly adventurous get-together in Chile. But a random meet-up turns deadly and the two women end up burying a body and fleeing the country. What is really happening and who can you believe?
Perfect for: fans of unreliable narratives and toxic relationships!
Love this list? Save it for your next vacation — or your next book club meeting! And if you want more thrillers with amazing settings, check out my Vacation Thrillers list and Beach Thrillers.