18 Thrillers to Read Instead of Going Outside This Winter

Starz is currently airing the TV adaptation of Tana French's thriller hit In the Woods, which makes this the perfect time to check out this startling mystery. Detectives Rob Ryan and Cassie Maddox are called to the town where Rob grew up to investigate the murder of a 12-year-old girl, and the investigation forces Rob to reconnect with his past as they travel deeper and deeper into the eerie woods where the girl was found.

If you're still missing Big Little Lies, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of Amber Cowie's Raven Lane. Set in a tight-knit suburban community, the murder of a beloved neighbor turns friend against friend as long-held secrets are exposed and no one knows who to trust. Don't be surprised if you finish this compelling mystery in a single chilly Winter evening.

Set against the backdrop of the snowy Adirondacks, A Cold and Lonely Place by Sara J. Henry expertly mixes traditional mystery tropes with a story about loyalty and friendship. A young woman named Troy spots her roommate's boyfriend encased in a frozen lake during the building of the town's Winter Carnival, and sets out on a journey to find out what led to his death. With the boy's girlfriend and his sister by her side, Troy will uncover a secret that could change their entire town forever.

Kate Marshall is an instantly fascinating thriller hero in Robert Bryndza's Nine Elms. She starts out as a young police detective who makes waves when she nabs the Nine Elms serial killer, but her triumph quickly becomes her downfall. Fast-forward a few years, and Kate is working as a lecturer when a copycat killer strikes, offering her a second chance to get things right.

Pro-tip: Don't read Shari Lapena's An Unwanted Guest while you're on a Winter getaway to a secluded cabin, because a cozy hideaway turns deadly fast for the characters in this novel. When the electricity goes out during a blizzard, a group of guests are left helpless as someone picks them off one by one.

Alex North's The Whisper Man is one of 2019's scariest books. A father and son's move to a small town for a fresh start coincides with the return of a serial killer. Soon the man's son is hearing whispering at his window, a sign that the Whisper Man has marked him as his next victim.

A night of binge drinking unravels Cassandra Bowden's life in Chris Bohjalian's The Flight Attendant. Cassandra wakes up next to a dead man in Dubai with no memory of the night before, and instead of going to the police, she tells one lie after another as she tries to piece together what happened.

Angie Kim's Miracle Creek is a haunting novel that tackles heady subjects like parenting a special needs child with care. In a small Virginia town, a hyperbolic chamber is a cure-all device until it explodes leaving two people dead and plenty of blame to go around. The book changes perspectives with each chapter as we try to unravel the truth behind the explosion.

Any thriller that includes letters to Alfred Hitchcock as a major plot point is bound to be good, as Jennifer McMahon's The Night Sister proves. As children, sisters Margot and Piper spend their days exploring an abandoned motel with their friend Amy until they make a horrific discovery. Years later, Amy stands accused of a dark crime that requires the sisters to investigate the motel and the eccentric sisters — one of whom dreamed of being Hitchcock's leading lady — who once called it home.

Marisha Pessl's Night Film is as much an ode to cult cinema as it is a thrilling mystery. An investigative journalist named Scott McGrath is consumed by the inconsistencies surrounding the apparent suicide of Ashley Cordova, the daughter of a reclusive filmmaker, and the more he looks into her death, the more he finds himself drawn to her father's strange films.

Liane Moriarty's best known book may be Big Little Lies, but her lesser known titles like The Last Anniversary are equally compelling. There's quite a bit of humor in this tale of a quartet of women living in a tourist hot spot that's known for the unsolved Munro Baby mystery, but there's darkness lurking at the edges of the story that only gets more intense as you read.

If you're looking for a more psychological and less murder-filled thriller to cozy up with this Winter then try Bruce Holsinger's The Gifted School. The story about four sets of parents who will stop at nothing to ensure their kids get into the best school feels ripped from the headlines, but it was actually released before the world knew about the college admissions scandal.

Alex Michaelides's The Silent Patient is a labyrinthine tale of secrets and murder. A woman shoots her husband in the face five times and then refuses to speak, launching her into infamy, and catching the attention of a psychotherapist, Theo. Soon, Theo becomes obsessed with making her speak again, but his motives may not be as pure as they initially appear.

Danya Kukafka's debut novel Girl in Snow follows three people deeply affected by the death of a teenage girl: the boy who loved her, the girl who wanted to be her, and the officer investigating her murder. Their lives intertwine to create an unexpected story about the delicate line between love and obsession.

The Death of Mrs. Westaway is a modern Gothic tale from Ruth Ware that will have you pulling the covers under your chin to stave off the chills as you read. When a woman named Hal receives a letter bequeathing her a hefty inheritance, she knows it's a mistake, but she's just desperate enough to use her skills as a Tarot card reader to try and pull off a con. It doesn't take her long to realize that the price of claiming the inheritance could be more than she's willing to pay.

The Vanishing Season by Joanna Schaffhausen not only has an enthralling mystery, it also has two richly drawn characters at the center of its story. Ellery Hathaway is the only person who survived a serial killer's reign of terror, but no one in her sleepy small town knows that. However, when a number of disappearances occur, Ellery is afraid the killer is back, and the only person who can help her is the FBI agent who saved her life.

Escape rooms are already a little unnerving, but Megan Goldin goes ahead and pushes them into nightmare territory in her novel The Escape Room. A group of corporate ladder climbing co-workers are invited to take part in a team-building exercise, but the escape room experience becomes all too real when they realize they're trapped. Soon, they're pushed to their limits as the game turns deadly.

Hannah Kent's The Good People is extra creepy because it's based on a true story. Set in 19th-century Ireland, the book follows three women who are on a journey to retrieve a child from a superstitious community that believes he's a changeling.