Best Psychological Thrillers by Reese's Book Club
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Ready to second-guess every character, every memory, every truth?
What makes psychological thrillers stand out isn’t just the twists — it’s the way they make you feel slightly unsteady. They ask you to sit with doubt. To question what’s real. To wonder whether anyone, including the narrator, is telling the full truth.
Over the years, Reese’s Book Club has quietly chosen some incredibly strong psychological picks. Not just twist-for-the-sake-of-it thrillers, but haunting stories about memory, manipulation, complicated relationships, and the fragile line between truth and perception.
These are the selections that truly lean psychological — tense, immersive, and impossible to stop thinking about once you’re done.
Happy Reading!
Reese’s 2026 Psychological Thriller Picks
In Her Defense
by Philippa Malicka
February ’26 Pick
In this high-profile courtroom thriller, fame and power collide as the truth fractures under national scrutiny. As beloved TV icon Anna Finbow accuses her daughter’s therapist of abuse, dueling testimonies grip the country and expose a battle over who controls the story.
The First Time I Saw Him
by Laura Dave
January ’26 Pick
In this sequel to The Last Thing He Told Me, five years after Owen vanished, Hannah Hall comes face-to-face with her husband at her own art exhibition—alive, silent, and not alone. As the fragile life she rebuilt with her stepdaughter shatters and old enemies close in, Hannah is forced to run again, realizing his return may be far more dangerous than his disappearance.
Reese’s Recent Psychological Thriller Picks (2022–2025)
Wild Dark Shore
by Charlotte McConaghy
November ’25 Pick
At the edge of a drowning world, survival depends on who you let inside the gates. A storm tears across a remote Antarctic island as Dominic Salt and his three children drag a half-drowned stranger from the freezing surf into the last sanctuary guarding the world’s final seed bank.
First Lie Wins
by Ashley Elston
January ’24 Pick
A perfect Southern life can be the most convincing lie of all. Evie Porter has the boyfriend, the house, and the friends—except Evie Porter doesn’t exist, and when her latest assignment makes her fall for the man she’s meant to destroy, one misstep could expose her past and turn the con deadly.
Before We Were Innocent
by Ella Berman
December ’23 Pick
A scandal that once made them infamous is ready for a second act. Ten years after their friend Evangeline was found dead on a cliffside in Greece, former suspects Bess and Joni are thrust back into the glare of suspicion when Joni shows up demanding an alibi that could destroy them both.
The House in the Pines
by Ana Reyes
January ’23 Pick
A death she tried to forget is happening all over again. Seven years after watching her best friend collapse across from a magnetic stranger named Frank, Maya sees him in a viral video—moments before another young woman drops at his table—and follows the trail back to his cabin in the Berkshires, where the truth about that summer may finally surface or claim her next.
Wrong Place Wrong Time
by Gillian McAllister
August ’22 Pick
A mother witnesses the unthinkable—and then gets a second chance to stop it. At midnight on Halloween, Jen watches her eighteen-year-old son step out of the dark and stab a stranger, but when she wakes to find it’s yesterday—and each sleep drags her further into the past—she realizes she must uncover what turns him into a killer before time runs out for good.
Reese’s Earlier Psychological Thriller Standouts
We Were Never Here
by Andrea Bartz
August ’21 Pick
A girls’ reunion in the Chilean mountains ends in blood when Emily walks into her hotel suite and finds a dead backpacker at her best friend’s feet—for the second year in a row. When Kristen follows her home to Wisconsin and tightens her grip on their shared secret, Emily realizes the most dangerous thing she brought back from the trip isn’t the trauma—it’s her best friend.
The Last Thing He Told Me
by Laura Dave
Save for Later
The Sanatorium
by Sarah Pearse
February’21 Pick
High in the Swiss Alps, a former sanatorium turned luxury hotel becomes a snowbound trap when a storm seals the guests inside. When her brother’s fiancée vanishes overnight and another woman disappears without anyone noticing, off-duty detective Elin Warner realizes the mountain isn’t hiding just one secret—and the killer may already be among them.
The Guest List
by Lucy Foley
June ’20 Pick
A glittering wedding on a remote Irish island turns claustrophobic when a rising TV star and his ambitious bride gather friends with dangerous shared history. Cut off by rough seas and no signal, the guests wake to a body on the rocks—proof someone came to celebrate and settle a score.
The Last House Guest
by Megan Miranda
August ’19 Pick
In the coastal town of Littleport, Maine, Avery Greer’s unlikely friendship with wealthy summer visitor Sadie Loman bridges a deep divide between locals and outsiders. But when Sadie is found dead, and the tragedy is ruled a suicide, Avery can’t shake the feeling that something isn’t right. As she begins revisiting the final days of their last summer together, long-buried secrets about Sadie — and the town itself — start to surface.
Whisper Network
by Chandler Baker
July ’19 Pick
Sloane, Ardie, Rosalita, and Grace have spent years navigating the quiet rules of their corporate workplace — including how to avoid their powerful boss, Ames Garrett. Everyone knows something about him. Everyone has heard the whispers. But when Ames suddenly dies under suspicious circumstances, the women realize the secrets they’ve all been carrying may finally come to light. As investigators begin asking questions, their carefully balanced silence begins to unravel, forcing them to confront how much they’re willing to reveal about the man who controlled their careers.
The Other Woman
by Sandie Jones
November ’18 Pick
Emily believes she has finally found the perfect man in Adam — charming, attentive, and completely devoted to her. The only problem is Adam’s mother, Pammie. From the moment they meet, Pammie makes it clear Emily will never be good enough for her son. What begins as subtle tension slowly becomes something far more unsettling, as Emily starts to question whether Pammie’s cruelty is deliberate or if Adam simply refuses to see it. As the pressure builds, Emily realizes that winning Adam’s love may mean surviving a battle she never expected.
The Last Mrs. Parrish
by Liv Costantine
December ’17 Pick
Amber Patterson is tired of being invisible. When she sets her sights on Daphne Parrish — a wealthy, admired socialite with the perfect life — Amber carefully inserts herself into Daphne’s world with a single goal: take it for herself. Step by step, she earns Daphne’s trust and draws closer to her powerful husband, Jackson. But the glamorous life Amber envies hides darker truths beneath the surface. As the story shifts and secrets are revealed, the perfect marriage Amber covets proves far more dangerous than she ever imagined.
Many of Reese’s picks over the years have proven that the real power of psychological thrillers isn’t just in the twist, but in the emotional aftershock that follows.
Now I’m curious — which of these unsettled you the most? And which one is going straight to your TBR? Let’s talk in the comments.
