10 Authors Like Liane Moriarty

Not only does Amy Tintera write with the same kind of wicked wit that makes Liane Moriarty’s twisty books so fun, but the main character in Tintera’s Listen for the Lie is forced to confront her amnesia just like the titular character in What Alice Forgot. Moriarty herself also praised Tintera’s thriller as “laugh-out-loud funny, thrilling and twisty, edgy and scary,” so you know you’re in good hands. The novel follows Lucy, a young woman from a small Texas town who’s haunted by a traumatic mystery from her past. Years ago, Lucy’s close friend Savvy was murdered. Afterward, Lucy was found dazed and covered in Savvy’s blood. Did she kill her best friend? Lucy can’t remember, but that hasn’t stopped everyone else in town from declaring her a murderer. When a hit true crime podcast and its devilishly handsome host reopen the case, Lucy must return to the scene of the crime, piece together her fragmented memories, and try to solve the murder once and for all — even if it means revealing herself as the killer.

As fans of Liane Moriarty know, some secrets are better left buried and exposing the truth is often fraught with peril. Take Moriarty’s The Husband’s Secret as an example, in which the author delivers a modern Pandora’s box parable about a violent act from the past and its devastating impact on the present once the truth is brought to light. Bestselling author Alex Michaelides crafts equally spellbinding narratives suffused with fateful twists and flashes of Greek myth. In The Maidens, Michaelides delivers an dark academia tale of murder and obsession set on the campus of Cambridge University. In The Silent Patient, the author introduces us to Alicia Berenson, a renowned artist who leads a life of luxury with her husband in London – until the night Berenson shoots her husband and then refuses to speak another word to anyone. Criminal psychotherapist Theo Faber is determined to break through to Berenson and unlock the truth. But is he prepared for what he’s about to discover?

Love the way Liane Moriarty invites you into the minds of her characters to reveal their darkest impulses? Then you’re sure to enjoy the stirring work of Jean Hanff Korelitz. The New York Times bestselling author is known for her compelling character studies rich with intrigue — be sure to check out the author’s 2022 novel The Latecomer for a heady dose of complex family drama. In The Plot, Hanff Korelitz presents a washed-up creative writing teacher named Jacob Finch Bonner. The once-promising scribe now teaches at a third-rate writing program and struggles to put together a decent page of prose. He’d do anything for another shot at literary superstardom. So when one of Jacob’s most gifted (and arrogant) writing students dies unexpectedly, Jacob steals the deceased’s blockbuster plot idea and claims it as his own. What could possibly go wrong? Turns out, quite a lot — especially when someone out there knows you’re a thief.

The perfect life, presented on a silver platter, is a trademark Moriarty motif. But of course perfection is a façade in Moriarty’s work, and regularly gives way to a far more troubling reality. Alexis Schaitkin sets a similar scene in her gripping debut novel Saint X. Claire is seven years old when her family departs for a vacation to the gorgeous Caribbean island of Saint X. The trip is a dream come true, but its spell is broken when Claire’s older sister is found dead. While suspects are brought in for questioning, the evidence against them is flimsy, and they’re eventually released. Years later, a now-grown Claire still wrestles with the unresolved trauma of her childhood when a chance encounter with one of the suspects ignites an obsessive search for the truth.

Like Moriarty, Sweden’s M.T. Edvardsson knows that appearances can be deceiving, especially when it comes to the seemingly perfect family unit. Indeed, the more upstanding a family appears — from the gorgeous house and the fancy car to the happy family portraits — the likelier it is that a far messier truth exists behind closed doors. That’s certainly the case in Edvardsson’s compelling, multi-layered thriller, A Nearly Normal Family. When 18-year-old Stella Sandell is arrested for the murder of an older man, it sends shockwaves through her community and stuns her well-to-do parents. Stella’s father is a minister, while her mother is a defense attorney. How could their daughter do such a thing? As the investigation unfolds, bonds are pushed to breaking and the Sandells question everything they thought they knew about one another.

In Big Little Lies, Moriarty invites us to the fictional Pirriwee peninsula, an exclusive beachside suburb bursting with secrets. Moriarty knows that duplicity lurks around every corner in such cookie-cutter enclaves – which is why they make the perfect backdrops for suspenseful narratives. Similarly, Celeste Ng shines at capturing the dark underbelly of insulated communities. In Little Fires Everywhere, she takes us to Shaker Heights, Ohio, an upscale suburb just outside of downtown Cleveland. Elena Richardson is a dedicated family woman and a committed community leader who thrives on social order. But when the free-spirited Mia Warren moves into the neighborhood, Elena’s carefully manicured family life begins to unravel.

Moriarty is a master at painting in big narrative brushstrokes while sketching her characters in the subtlest detail. As the drama escalates – whether it’s a matriarch’s mysterious disappearance in Apples Never Fall or the life-altering letter at the heart of The Husband’s Secret – the characters remain close and you feel as if you intimately understand their motivations. Edgar Award-winning author Megan Abbott skillfully does the same in her novels, crafting thrilling tales that at once feel larger than life and shockingly familiar. In You Will Know Me, Abbot uncoils a dark and twisty narrative about competitive youth gymnastics and the jealousies that emerge after a violent death shocks the tight-knit sports community.

Everyone has a secret to hide – from the neighbor next door to the person with whom you snuggle up at night. Moriarty understands this well, and so does New York Times bestselling author Shari Lapena. Both authors craft narratives that explore deception hiding in plain sight. In The Couple Next Door, Lapena introduces us to Anne and Marco Conti, a loving couple with a wonderful home and a beautiful new baby. But the Contis’ picture-perfect existence shatters when Anne and Marco attend a dinner party next door and a horrific crime occurs back at their house. Soon every dark detail of their lives is exposed, revealing murky secrets and shocking acts of betrayal.

Sally Hepworth, like Moriarty, isn’t afraid to make us work for our thrills. The author regularly plays with point of view, Nine Perfect Strangers-style, revealing divergent sides of a single character and contradictory accounts of the same situation in order to keep us guessing until the very end. Such is the case in The Mother-in-Law, Hepworth’s tense and twisting domestic thriller. Lucy always sensed an icy chill from her mother-in-law, Diana. Sure, she was polite, but Diana never made Lucy feel truly welcome in the family. Then Diana turns up dead of an apparent suicide, and long-suppressed resentments rupture to the surface as the family struggles to make sense of Diana’s demise.

Most readers know Moriarty for thrilling page-turners like Big Little Lies or Nine Perfect Strangers. Yet the author’s novels span genres and styles, and include moving family sagas rich with both humor and heartbreak. Fans of works like The Last Anniversary are sure to find a kindred spirit in Tracey Lange and her bestselling debut novel, We Are the Brennans. It’s a touching story about the good, the bad, and the ugly of a complicated family. As Sunday Brennan returns home to New York and her large Irish Catholic clan, she must mend fractured relationships and navigate her complicated family dynamic. Secrets, betrayals, heartbreak… The Brennans have seen plenty of drama in their day. But when a forbidding figure from Sunday’s past threatens the family business, all the Brennans must put their feuds aside so they can move forward together.