Get ready to be turning the pages in suspense, because we’ve gathered 20 of the best action-packed mystery-thriller books like The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave for you.
Paris Peralta knows that the situation looks bad when she is arrested for her celebrity husband’s murder. But the thing that worries her more than anything is all of the attention she is getting from the media, because she knows it’s only a matter of time before she is found.
Ruby Reyes was convicted of a similar murder 25 years earlier, and she knows Paris’ secret. Now that Ruby is being released from prison, she threatens to expose who Paris really is, and Paris is left with no other choice than to confront her own hidden past.
You can read Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier here.
Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell
Ellie was fifteen and the perfect daughter. She always got good grades, and was just days away from finishing exams and starting the summer. But then she disappeared.
Now, 10 years later, Ellie’s mother Laurel is still trying to understand what happened. When she meets Floyd in a café, she is surprised by how quickly she falls for him and his charms. Laurel is soon meeting his daughters, and she can’t help but notice how his youngest looks almost identical to Ellie.
This realization has Laurel looking into the past yet again, wondering what really happened to her little girl and if Floyd is actually who he says he is.
You can read Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell here.
The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins
Jane is a broke dog walker who has just moved to Birmingham, Alabama, and her clients are all extremely rich; rich enough that they won’t notice if she swipes some jewelry off of their end tables.
When Jane meets Eddie, a rich, handsome, and mysterious man whose wife died in a boating accident, she finds herself drawn to him. But as they fall for each other, Jane remains haunted by Bea and wonders how she can ever measure up.
The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins can be found here.
Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica
In a community that was once peaceful, people are suddenly going missing. The first is Shelby Tabow, and soon Meridith and her 6-year-old daughter, Delilah, are vanishing too.
11 years later, Delilah has unexpectedly returned, but she is not at all what her father expected.
Told in the past and present, this is a mysterious and thrilling novel that will have you guessing what has happened until the very last page.
You can find Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica here.
Before She Knew Him by Peter Swanson
Hen and her husband Lloyd are living a quiet and peaceful life. But when Hen notices a familiar item on the shelf of one of their neighbors, she can’t ignore it. His sports trophy looks just like the one from an unsolved murder that she has been obsessed with for years.
Hen becomes preoccupied with watching their neighbor Matthew, and she wonders if this is the beginning of another psychotic episode like the one she had in college, or if Matthew could really be the killer.
You can read Before She Knew Him by Peter Swanson here.
A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham
When Chloe was 21, six teenage girls went missing in her small town. Her dad ended up confessing to the crimes and being put in prison for life, and her family was left to move forward and come to terms with the shock of it all.
20 years later, Chloe has found a little bit of happiness and is about to get married. But when local teenage girls start to go missing again, Chloe’s past comes rushing back to her, and she is determined to figure out what is going on.
A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham can be purchased here.
Not A Happy Family by Shari Lapena
Sheila and Fred live in Upstate New York and are very well off. But after they have Easter dinner with their 3 adult kids, the couple are brutally murdered in their own home.
Each of the kids is devastated…or so it seems. After all, they are all in line to inherit millions of dollars, and the family never got along great to begin with. Could someone have snapped that night at dinner and done something they can never take back?
You can find Not A Happy Family by Shari Lapena here.
The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose
Sarah is a very successful defense attorney, but her husband Adam is a struggling writer with little success. He begins having an affair with a woman named Kelly, and they spend most of their time in the woods in Adam and Sarah’s second home.
But when Kelly is found stabbed to death in the home, Adam is arrested for her murder and Sarah finds herself defending her own husband in court. But she wonders; is Adam really innocent?
You can read The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose here.
The Catch by T.M. Logan
Ed’s 23-year-old daughter, Abbey, is head over heels in love with her fiancé, Ryan. Ed is super excited to meet the guy he’s heard so much about, and Ryan turns out to be the perfect son-in-law…on paper. But Ed can’t shake the feeling that something is off about Ryan.
Worried about his daughter’s future with this man, Ed sets out on a quest to uncover Ryan’s past and find out the truth about who he really is.
A wedding is meant to be a joyous occasion, and this one is set in a remote location off the coast of Ireland. This wedding is supposed to go smoothly and perfectly, but petty people, jealousy, and gossip abound.
Before long, someone ends up dead. But who did it, and why?
You can find out and read The Guest List by Lucy Foley here.
Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney
When Adam and Amelia win a vacation to Scotland, they think it may be just what they need to save their failing marriage. But they didn’t randomly win this trip, and one of them is lying, not wanting their marriage to last.
Every anniversary, Amelia has written letters to Adam that she wouldn’t let him read. But now, on this vacation, that will change and this will be an anniversary they will never forget.
You can read Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney here.
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
Millie has a job at the Winchester’s house where she cleans, cooks, and takes care of their daughters, living in her own room just upstairs. She tries to ignore the strangeness of the couple. How Nina is petty and tells lies; how Andrew seems more broken every day.
Millie only tries on one of Nina’s dresses once, though Nina finds out and goes to extreme measures to take care of the problem. But the Winchesters don’t know who Millie really is, or what she is capable of.
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden can be found here.
The Truth and Other Lies by Sascha Arango
Henry Hayden has a seemingly perfect life: He is a bestselling author, a devoted husband, and a generous man. But he has more secrets than he lets on, and only Henry and his wife know that she is the real writer of all his famous novels.
When Henry’s mistress becomes pregnant, he comes up with a permanent solution. But soon the police are after Henry and his hidden past, and Henry’s only choice is to keep weaving his intricate web of lies, trying to escape.
You can find The Truth and Other Lies by Sascha Arango here.
Finding Tessa by Jaime Lynn Hendricks
Jace Montgomery comes home late one night only to discover that Tessa, his wife, is missing, and there are traces of blood around the house. Later, a co-worker he is accused of having an affair with also goes missing, and Jace becomes the prime suspect in both cases.
Meanwhile, Tessa feels safe knowing that she has set her husband up and that she is finally free to live her life. But the past has a funny way of catching up to you, and Tessa is constantly trying to outrun her old life.
You can read Finding Tessa by Jaime Lynn Hendricks here.
The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks
Marissa and Mathew are the perfect couple—until Marissa cheats. So they go to Avery, a successful therapist with controversial methods, trying to solve their problems. But in Avery’s office, there are secrets in the room that are too big to tell, and suddenly it’s not just the couple that’s keeping them…it’s everyone.
The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks can be found here.
The House Across The Lake by Riley Sager
Casey is a recently widowed actress who wants to escape all of the bad press she’s been getting. She goes to her family’s lake house in search of peace and quiet, and ends up developing an obsession with watching Katherine and Tom, the couple in the house across the lake.
Casey and Katherine end up becoming close friends, and the longer Casey gets to know Katherine and watches the couple in their house, the clearer it becomes that their marriage is far from perfect. When Katherine goes missing, Casey suspects Tom, and she is determined to prove it.
You can read The House Across The Lake by Riley Sager here.
The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf
Wylie is a true crime writer who is happy to be snowed in at a rural farmhouse with a cozy fire and complete solitude. Although it is a bit creepy considering that two people were murdered decades earlier in that very farmhouse.
When Wylie discovers a small child outside in the snow, she takes the kid inside to keep them safe. As Wylie learns more about the secrets of the farmhouse, it becomes clear that it’s not as isolated as she once thought, and that someone may be lurking nearby.
You can find The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf here.
My Husband’s Wife by Jane Corry
Lily is a young lawyer who has just gotten married, determined to have a fresh start in her life. When she takes her first murder case she meets Joe, the murderer in whom Lily takes a strange interest. Little does she know that her 9-year-old next-door neighbor, Carla, knows things that Lily doesn’t.
Twelve years later, Lily finds Carla at her doorstep and a chain of events unfolds that simply cannot be a coincidence.
My Husband’s Wife by Jane Corry can be found here.
The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth
Fern and Rose are twin sisters who have dinner together 3 nights a week. When Rose discovers that she cannot get pregnant, Fern knows that it’s her chance to help. Fern goes on a quest to find the perfect man so that she can give a baby to Rose.
But Fern’s quest will uproot the life that she has so carefully crafted herself, and it will threaten to bring back dark secrets from her past.
You can read The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth here.
The It Girl by Ruth Ware
April was the first person that Hannah met at Oxford, and with April’s bright and bubbly personality, Hannah was drawn into her world. They developed a great group of friends and everything was going well for them. But by the end of the year, April was dead.
10 years later, Hannah is expecting her first child with Will, and the man who killed April has died in prison. Hannah is relieved to finally have the past behind her, but when a journalist comes to her door saying that the convicted man may have been innocent, everything is brought back.
Hannah can’t ignore the evidence, and as she investigates deeper, she soon realizes that the friends she thought she had were not at all what they seemed.
The Last Thing He Told Me is a standalone novel and it doesn’t have a sequel.
Does Laura Dave have other books like The Last Thing He Told Me?
Laura Dave currently has 6 novels published, and The Last Thing He Told Me is one of her only mystery-thriller novels. Her other stories are usually romance and fiction, but they are still just as exciting to read as The Last Thing He Told Me.
Freya grew up in Portland Oregon and still resides there now. She has been reading for as long as she can remember, and loves that books allow you to escape into someone else’s reality for a little while. When she is not writing or reading she enjoys playing piano, baking, and going outside.
