Some of us like to escape with a romance novel, living vicariously through happy couples frolicking off into a beautiful sunset or gettin' steamy afterward. Some like to live vicariously through historical fiction, or think about what it's like to walk in someone else's shoes while reading a revealing memoir. Others tend a bit more toward the macabre — diving into a story that's rife with ghosts and ghouls, murder and mayhem and the kind of creeptastic plots that run through your mind as you lay awake at night. These hair-raising psychological thriller books are perfect for those of us in the last category.

While giants like Stephen King and Agatha Christie usually come to mind when we reach for a suspenseful book, they're definitely not the only ones mastering the genre. Writers like Ruth Ware, Liane Moriarty, Gillian Flynn and Riley Sager are all putting out the kind of thrilling reads that may keep us from being able to sleep through the night ever again. And if ghost stories aren't for you, there's plenty of variation within the thriller category. Whether you like realistic stories about friends or family members gone bad or things that go bump in the night, we bet you can find your next favorite spine-tingling read on this list. Oh, and don't forget to browse our guide to the best books of 2020, if you need a lighter come-down to help get to sleep.

1- The Silent Patient


Alicia is a star painter living a seemingly perfect life. That is, until her fashion photographer husband comes home late one night and she shoots him five times in the face. Alicia never speaks again, and becomes a notorious mystery, which just skyrockets her art to even higher demand. But Theo Faber is determined to get her to talk, and his search for the truth soon gets out of control.

2- Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty


The hit TV show was a riveting book first, so pick it up if you just can't get enough. Three moms find themselves embroiled in tragedy, which may have more to it than immediately meets the eye. Each of them have their own crosses to bear and starkly different lives, but they may harbor the same terrible secret.

3- The Woman in the Window: A Novel


Anna Fox is a shut-in who spends her days drinking, watching TV, and spying on the neighbors. She becomes especially enamored with one family across the way. But one day, she sees something shocking, and her entire life (not to mention her carefully kept secrets) all starts to unravel.

4- The Searcher: A Novel


The latest from one of the greatest mystery novelists writing today takes us to a bucolic Irish village so vivid, I dreamed about it. Retired Chicago cop Cal Hooper moves there to spend his twilight years fixing up his house and fishing, but instead he finds a cagey kid whose brother has gone missing, sheep who keep turning up eviscerated, and a town that's a lot more mysterious than it seems.