Stuck in a reading rut? Want to expand your reading horizons in 2026? You’re in luck! Every month this year, we will be delving deep into popular genres at the library. If you’re already a fan, find readalike suggestions for popular authors and ideas for similar genres to explore. If you’re brand new to the genre in question, you will find a helpful explanation of the hallmarks of the genre, a breakdown of its most common subgenres, and explanations of what readers find so appealing about the most popular authors writing those types of books. Let’s explore thrillers for May!
One of the most popular genres in our system is thrillers. Numerous thriller writers circulate frequently, and I have been asked multiple times for reader’s advisory readalike lists that provide suggestions for thrillers, as well mysteries and suspense. Reader’s advisory is the service we offer that provides tailor-made suggestions for people based on their own personal reading history and preferences.
At this point, you may be wondering exactly what a thriller is and why it is different from suspense. There are a lot of different opinions on this in the book world, but as I explained to my coworkers in a training last year, one of the key ways I (and many other reader’s advisory specialists) differentiate them from each other is thrillers have a focus on professions that suspense does not.
There are, subsequently, a lot of different subgenres of thrillers. There are legal thrillers about lawyers, medical thrillers about doctors, forensic thrillers about forensic scientists and/or coroners, police thrillers about police officers, espionage thrillers about spies, etc. But you get the picture. What all of them share are a vivid depiction of this particular professional world, complete with jargon and technical details, and a story that emphasizes the danger and action these professionals face in their work.
That’s also what sets a police thriller apart from a police procedural mystery. A mystery is more focused on solving, well, a mystery rather than emphasizing the danger the detective is in, whereas a thriller will emphasize that.
This booklet was a little tricky to write because many of these writers work in multiple thriller subgenres–and some of them even write in genres outside of thrillers–so I focused on the works that they are best known for when I classified them. My genre booklet, my rules. 🙂
Whether you’re a complete newbie to thrillers or a veteran thriller reader, there should be something new for you in the booklet.
We also have some cool thriller recommendation lists already uploaded on our Readers’ And Viewers’ Advisory Resources page on the right-hand sidebar under Crime Fiction/Mysteries/Suspense/Thrillers.
You can also use the “thriller” tags and categories feature on the top left-hand side of this post to search for other thriller recommendations on the blog. Just click on it, and you can pore through every single post that highlights a thriller.
If you are still not finding anything new and appealing to read (or you are not interested in thrillers), use our Google Form or contact the library in person or by phone or email to request a reader’s advisory consultation. I will write you a personalized list of suggested authors and titles based on your reading preferences.
If you’re a thriller fan, also check out our Suspense booklet. In my experience, thriller readers often (but not always) also enjoy suspense novels.
Happy reading!
What’s your favorite genre? What new-to-you genre are you exploring in 2026? Who’s your favorite thriller writer? Tell us in the comments! As always, please follow this link to our online library catalog for more information on any of our items or to place them on hold.
The following resources have been especially helpful in preparing this booklet and post:
NoveListPlus. Ebsco.
Joyce G. Saricks. Reader’s Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction. ALA: Chicago and London, 2001.
Joyce G. Saricks. Reader’s Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction. 2nd edition. ALA: Chicago, 2009.
Syndetics Unbound library catalog enrichment service.
Berryville Book Buzz 