11 Suspenseful Reads for Riley Sager Fans

Granite Harbor is a twisted new murder mystery that’s sure to please Sager fans hungry for their creepy crime fix. The atmospheric novel by Peter Nichols is set in the coastal Maine town of Granite Harbor, where a local teenager is found murdered at a nearby archeological site. Single father Alex Brangwen, the town’s sole detective, is assigned to crack the case — his first murder investigation. Meanwhile, single mother Isabel is grappling with the fact that the body was found at the historical site where she works and that the victim was close friends with her son. When a second body is found, Alex and Isabel team up to unmask the killer in their midst and protect their children from harm. As the pair begin to dig, however, they discover long-buried secrets beneath the surface of this seemingly tranquil small town — secrets that threaten to shake the tight-knit coastal community to its core. 

Amy Tintera’s New York Times bestseller Listen for the Lie has everything a Sager fan could want: thrills, chills, and a wicked sense of dark humor. The novel focuses on Lucy, who once was the belle of her small Texas town along with her best friend, Savvy. But everything changed on the terrible night of Savvy’s murder. Afterward, Lucy was found dazed and covered in Savvy’s blood with no memory of what happened.  Authorities eventually cleared her of suspicion — though that didn’t stop everyone in town from declaring Lucy a killer. When true crime podcaster Ben Owens chooses Savvy’s unsolved case for his latest investigation, Lucy knows it's time to revisit her past. She’s deadest on finding out what happened that night, even if it turns out that she murdered her best friend. Recommended by Stephen King as a “world-class whodunit,” Listen for the Lie will have you racing through its pages and devouring every twist and turn. 

Bestselling thriller author Alex North has published three books in four years — all of them great — and his first, The Whisper Man, is sure to hook Sager fans. The instant New York Times bestseller is a frightening supernatural thriller with a pulse-quickening plot. It introduces us to Tom Kennedy and his young son Jake, who have moved to the small town of Featherbank for a fresh start in the wake of a devastating family loss. Featherbank seems like the perfect place to begin again, until Tom learns of the town’s grisly past. Twenty years ago, a serial killer stalked the community, luring multiple victims to their deaths by whispering at their windows in the night. Eventually, authorities captured Frank Carter and convicted him of the slayings, though there were always rumors he had an accomplice. Then a young boy goes missing and Jake begins hearing strange sounds at night, and it starts to feel like the monsters of the past have returned to strike again.  

Sager recommends Simone St. James’ Murder Road, stating that “from its nerve-shredding start to its thrilling end… it’s a trip well worth taking.” We co-sign Sager’s praise, as Murder Road makes for a fun and twisted read. In July 1995, April and Eddie get lost on their way to a small resort town where they plan to spend their honeymoon. They pick up a hitchhiker, who they realize is covered in blood only after she jumps in the car. When the hitchhiker later dies, the newlyweds find themselves answering to the local police. It turns out that mysterious murders have been happening on that road for years, forcing April and Eddie to investigate the situation to clear their names. Murder Road contains your usual dark secrets and hidden town history, but it eventually becomes clear that something paranormal may be at play. 

The Gathering is a brand-new thriller by C. J. Tudor with a genre-blurring narrative and a wide array of twisty revelations — two things Sager is known for. In the novel, Tudor unspools a compelling mystery that’s part crime procedural and part horror thriller. It’s set in a small Alaskan town named Deadhart, where a young boy is found with his throat ripped out and the blood drained from his body. The town’s residents immediately suspect The Colony, an ostracized community of vampyrs that live deep in the woods. Detective and vampyr expert Barbara Atkins is tasked with cracking the case, and while the killing appears vampyr-related, she begins to suspect an all-too-human monster is at work. Together with Jenson Tucker, Deadhart’s haunted and reclusive former sheriff, Atkins searches for clues, unearthing deeply troubling secrets about the town and its shadow vampyr community. 

Nightwatching, Tracy Sierra’s debut, is a delectable locked-room suspense novel with a claustrophobic premise and just the right amount of dread. In other words, Sager fans are sure to love it. The novel centers on a mother, home alone with her kids during a blizzard and trapped in a creaky old home. As she tucks her son into bed in the middle of the night, she hears footsteps up the stairs and then sees a shadowy figure in the hallway. Petrified, she grabs her kids and shepherds them to a safe room. The mysterious figure attempts to scare them into coming out, but once the mother hears the intruder’s voice, she realizes who it is — and that makes her all the more terrified. 

Only If You’re Lucky is the latest from Stacy Willingham, author of the New York Times bestselling psychological thriller A Flicker in the Dark. Like Sager’s work, the novel combines icy thrills with deeply compelling characters. What’s more, its college setting and focus on female friendships reminds us of Final Girls. South Carolina college student Margot lives off campus with three other roommates: the sarcastic Sloane, the goodhearted Nicole, and Lucy, the ringleader and Margot’s friend since freshman year. Margot is finally emerging from the pain of a tragedy, and it’s Lucy who has helped her heal. The world seems to be brightening, until a frat boy next door gets murdered and Lucy vanishes without a trace. As Margot scrambles to make sense of this terrifying new reality, a wave of secrets, lies, and betrayal further upends her fragile world.    

Alex Finlay’s If Something Happens to Me is a white-hot new thriller perfect for Sager fans. Its gripping narrative of intersecting storylines and the tragedies of the past returning to wreak havoc on the present is reminiscent of Sager’s The Last Time I Lied. The novel introduces us to Ryan Richardson, a man who remains haunted by the night violent attackers tore him from the car and sped away with his girlfriend, Ali. Flash forward to five years later: Ryan has adopted a new last name, is studying law, and trying to move on. That is, until he receives word that authorities have found Ali’s car at the bottom of a lake. Inside are two dead men and a baffling note in Ali’s handwriting: If something happens to me... So begins Ryan’s dizzying search for the truth that spans multiple countries and includes a Philadelphia mobster, a Kansas sheriff’s deputy, and a bevy of shocking revelations. 

Laura Dave’s The Last Thing He Told Me was recently turned into a splashy Apple TV+ series starring Jennifer Garner. In spite of its popularity, we suspect some of you are still sleeping on the celebrated thriller and so we’re here to make the case for it. Sager fans, in particular, are sure to enjoy its finely calibrated twists and fractured family secrets. Hannah Hall is stunned by the sudden disappearance of her husband Owen Michaels — as well as the cryptic note Owen leaves behind imploring Hannah to protect his teenage daughter Bailey. When Owen’s boss is arrested and federal agents descend upon her home, Hannah realizes that the life she had been living with Owen was a lie. Hannah and Bailey are determined to get answers about the man they thought they knew — but they’ll have to work through past grudges if they hope to find the truth. 

Lucy Foley needs no introduction. Like Sager, she excels at delivering blockbuster thrillers packed with pulse-pounding fun. Her novels include The Guest List, The Paris Apartment, The Hunting Party, all of which dazzled us. Her newest work, The Midnight Feast, was released on the same day as Sager’s newest — which makes it the perfect follow up to Sager’s Middle of the Night.  In The Midnight Feast, guests arrive at The Manor, an extravagant new vacation getaway, expecting lavish treats and a fantastic time. And indeed the drinks frow freely beneath the twinkling fairy lights. But darkness looms in the woods beyond the gates, and it won’t be long before murder strikes. Like Sager did in Lock Every Door, Feeney creates an insulated setting to slowly unravel her mystery while offering plenty of red herrings along the way. With a cast of characters that double as suspects, there are plenty of secrets to come to light. The question is, whom do you trust?

Alice Feeney’s bestselling thrillers, from Daisy Darker to Rock Paper Scissors to Sometimes I Lie, have earned her a devoted following. Like Sager, Feeney is a master at creating a trail of clues and then hitting you with a mind-boggling twist. In Good Bad Girl, the author unspools a tale about two seemingly unrelated crimes — a baby stolen from a stroller 20 years ago and a woman murdered at a care facility. In the wake of the killing, 80-year-old Edith must learn to trust Patience, a caregiver at the nursing home who has lied to her about almost everything. She also needs to reckon with her daughter Clio, who no longer speaks to her and who is about to experience a surprising visit of her own. In the end, the three women must come together if they hope to find the lost baby, solve the murder, and link these two baffling crimes.