If you’re anything like me, you appreciate a lot of different types of books. To help you land on some reads you may not have considered, I’ve put together a list of the best books of all time from various genres. I did exhaustive research to come up with the best of the best. What you’ll see comes from several sources and my own opinions. Just so you know, an author makes only one appearance on the list no matter how many outstanding books he or she has written, and some obvious choices aren’t here because they are on another genre’s list. The following list is in alphabetical order (the words “a” and “the” don’t count) because I’m a geek that way.
We’re going to start off with the THRILLER genre. Thrillers are dark, engrossing, and suspenseful plot-driven stories. Any novel can generate excitement, suspense, interest, and exhilaration, but because these are the primary goals of the genre, thriller writers have laser-focused expertise in keeping a reader interested.
Ready? These are the best thrillers of all time:
Blowback by Brad Thor
The Alienist by Caleb Carr
The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver
The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin
The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker
Cape Fear by John D. MacDonald
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
Contact by Carl Sagan
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith
The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy
Intensity by Dean Koontz
Jaws by Peter Benchley
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Killing Floor by Lee Child
Kiss the Girls by James Patterson
The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon
Marathon Man by William Goldman
Metzger’s Dog by Thomas Perry
Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow
Psycho by Robert Bloch
The Red Dragon by Thomas Harris
Rules of Prey by John Sandford
The Stand by Stephen King
Subterranean by James Rollins
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
Tell No One by Harlan Coben
A Time to Kill by John Grisham
What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman
Next up: The best Historical Fiction of all time!