10 Thrilling Mysteries Guaranteed to Keep You Hooked Until the Very End

In S. J. Watson's Before I Go to Sleep, a married woman named Christine wakes each morning with no idea who she is, requiring her husband, Ben, to explain her life all over again, including the accident that made her an amnesiac. However, when Christine begins to keep a journal, she discovers one morning that she has left an enigmatic and troubling message for herself, one that makes her question everything she thought she knew: "Don't trust Ben."

Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn's debut novel, Sharp Objects, tells the story of a crime journalist named Camille Preaker who returns to her hometown of Wind Gap, MI, to investigate the mysterious murder of a young girl. For Camille, who spent years self-harming after the death of her younger sister, this is a particularly troubling assignment, especially as it forces her to reconnect with her estranged mother and 13-year-old party-girl sister, who might be involved in the case in ways she never expected.

Beginning in a small Dublin suburb in the Summer of 1984, Tara French's In the Woods follows the story of three children who go missing in the woods — of which only one is found, covered in blood and unable to remember what happened — and the events that follow 20 years later, when the boy who was found, Rob, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and learns that a 12-year-old girl was found murdered in the very same woods.

Written by psychological-thriller author Patricia Highsmith in 1955, The Talented Mr. Ripley tells the story of a young man struggling to make a name for himself in New York City and willing to do whatever is necessary to succeed — even if that means secretly murdering the son of an Italian shipping magnate, assuming his identity, and living off his lavish trust fund.

First published serially between 1859 and 1860 and considered one of the earliest works of detective fiction, Wilkie Collins's classic epistolary novel, The Woman in White, revolves around a man named Walter Hartright, who one night encounters a woman dressed in all-white who warns him against an unnamed baronet. It is only after Walter helps the woman get back to London that he discovers she may have escaped from an insane asylum.

Based in the Summer of 1954, Dennis Lehane's Shutter Island follows two US marshals who travel to a hospital for the criminally insane on Shutter Island in Boston Harbor to investigate the disappearance of a patient. However, when a hurricane strands them on the island, they quickly learn that the hospital's chief physician may not be someone they can trust, and they start to fear for their lives.

Shari Lapena's domestic-thriller debut, The Couple Next Door, tells the story of a seemingly perfect couple who — while attending a dinner party next door one night — become suspects for a horrifying crime that occurs during the dinner. It is only when a detective starts to investigate the couple that the truth of what happened is revealed, a truth that is even darker and more complicated than the detective could have ever imagined.

The debut thriller The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins follows three perspectives: a young woman named Megan before she goes missing; a woman named Anne who lives next door; and a divorcé named Rachel, who self-medicates with alcohol and rides by both of the women's houses on the train each day, resenting Anna, who married her ex-husband, and coveting Megan, who she believes to have the perfect life — until the day Rachel notices that Megan is gone.

Lisa Jewell's Then She Was Gone tells the story of Laurel Mack — a mother trying to put her life back together after her 15-year-old daughter goes missing and her marriage crumbles — who meets a man whose daughter reminds her viscerally of her own missing child, compelling her to revisit all of the haunting questions she worked so hard to put behind her.

Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough tells the story of an intensely complicated love triangle, which includes a single mom named Louise; a man Louise hits it off with in a bar one night who is later revealed to be her new, married boss, David; and a woman Louise befriends, Adele, who happens to be David's wife. The more Louise learns about David and Adele's relationship, the clearer it becomes that something is terribly amiss.