This piece boasts of captivating books that will keep you up all night. However, when we speak of captivating, we don’t mean romance fiction but nerve-racking thrillers that will leave you clutching your pillow tightly.
.If you are a true fan of scary and thrilling reads, you should run through the following list to add captivating page-turners to your bucket list.
1. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
This edge-of-your-seat story by Michelle McNamara is a true-crime thriller. The book revolves around the mysterious Golden State Killer, so named because of his characteristic criminal offenses.
Michelle McNamara was a crime journalist who investigated every piece of evidence left behind by a gruesome killer before her eventual demise. The author turned 10 murders and 50 sexual assaults committed by the Golden State Killer into a string of gripping stories. Of course, McNamara adopted captivating plots in her fast-paced narratives. However, the book reads as accurately as a biopic.
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2. The Shining Girls, by Lauren Beukes
If you loved the Resident Evil series, chances are you’ll dig this book by Lauren Beukes. Interestingly, The Shining Girls is one of those thrilling reads that have been adapted for screenplay. The book is about a time-traveling serial killer who travels between dimensions to kill “shining girls.”
In the context of this book, the “shining girls” are bright and high-flying women with a lot of potential. However, after a series of murders, the story took a dramatic turn when one of the girls, Kirby Mazrachi, escaped the killer’s murder attempt and eventually became the hunter. The Shining Girls is one of those mystery thrillers and suspense novels that you can never predict what will appear on the next page.
This book is so good that it has a screen adaptation running on Apple TV.
3. The God of the Woods, by Liz Moore
The God of the Woods is like a classic haunted house story, but its captivating plots are largely in the woods. After reading this story, you would probably think twice when your youngsters announce they’re preparing for summer camp.
The story is unraveling as it throws light on the disappearance of two children at Camp Emerson. The victims are kids of two of the families who own the camp, and the disappearances occurred 10 years apart.
However, right after the second child went missing, a concerted effort was initiated to investigate the mysterious disappearance. Eventually, the hunt brought a lot of secrets about the founding families of Camp Emerson and its neighboring community.
4. Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide, by Rupert Holmes
When you are done reading this book, keep it conspicuously in your cubicle or office to pull a joke on your boss. That advice may be ill-conceived if the said boss is paranoid. Murder Your Employer by Rupert Holmes contains gripping stories of a worker who got motivated to enroll in a school of sly assassins.
At the beginning of the story, the worker’s boss is profiled as an exceptionally bad leader. The worker ended up taking lessons in the many methods of unsuspecting murder with the sole goal of eliminating the uncouth boss.
5. The Secret History, by Donna Tartt
The Secret History is one of those page-turners in the dark academia genre. Indeed, the author, Donna Tartt, is one of the pioneers and arguably one of the best in that niche.
This book is one of those psychological dramas that climaxes in fast-paced narratives. A group of classics students are fascinated by the euphoria of drunkenness. One thing leads to another, and a murder occurs. How the mysteries in the Secret History came to light makes Tartt’s work one of those unputdownable books.
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6. Mother-Daughter Murder Night, by Nina Simon
This is one of Nina Simon’s mystery thrillers set in Italy’s coastal city. Three women, one old enough to be a grandmother, her middle-aged daughter, and the granddaughter, chanced upon a corpse washed ashore close to their residence.
These three women then began an investigative streak to identify the murderer. However, their activities eventually made these women cross paths with a blood-thirsty killer. The Mother-Daughter Murder Night story eventually reveals that the murder and bloodletting are due to some contention over the ownership of a tract of land.
Get flipping and make your night eventful by reading one of the psychological dramas or suspense novels on this list. Rest assured that the six titles above are books that will keep you up all night.
