Thriller books about love gone wrong are especially creepy, and I think I know why. It’s because we all feel like they could happen to us. Thriller books about serial killers or elaborate kidnapping plots or massive conspiracies all feel very removed from our everyday life, but a spouse that snaps and relationships that turn dark? Those are easily transposed onto our everyday lives. Here are thirteen thriller books about love gone wrong that will have you thinking twice before you say “I do” (if you haven’t already…).
The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins
There’s a lot of love in The Girl On The Train, and none of it goes right. The main character, Rachel, self-medicates with alcohol to deal with her depression over her infertility, and stares creepily from the window of a moving train into the backyards of her ex, his new baby-mumma, and their neighbours. She lives out this routine of black-outs and creepy staring, every day… until one day she witnesses something kind of dodgy, and then all the love goes down the gurgler. This is one of the best-selling thriller books about love gone wrong this century, and it’s gripping as heck. Read my full review of The Girl On The Train here.
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
The Silent Patient begins with a forensic psychotherapist, Theo, drawn to the case of a woman at a psychiatric facility called The Grove. She has not spoken in over six years, since the day she shot her apparently-beloved husband in the face and slit her own wrists. There was no financial motive for the crime, and no apparent conflict in the marriage. She hasn’t said a word to anyone in the years since, not even in her own defense. Something has clearly gone very wrong in this great love story – why is Theo the only one who thinks he can figure it out? Read my full review of The Silent Patient here.
You by Caroline Kepnes
You begins with what would be the perfect meet-cute: an attractive young woman buys a book from a bookstore, and has an instant spark with the intriguing man behind the counter. Only it turns out this bookseller is far from a romantic hero. He’s an obsessive stalker, who has new prey in his sights. The “love” in this thriller book about love gone wrong is actually manufactured connection informed and controlled by a manipulative psychopath who will stop at nothing to live ‘happily ever after’ with his chosen target. The woman’s boyfriend, best friend, everyone who might stand in their way is in danger. Read my full review of You here.
My Husband by Maud Ventura
Many thriller books about love gone wrong have an unreliable narrator (doesn’t love make us all a bit unreliable?), but few do it as well as My Husband. A 40-something French woman seems to have it all: good looks, significant wealth, sophisticated tastes, and (of course) a beloved husband. She has so much, and her fear of losing it occupies her every waking moment. She obsessively controls every interaction she has with her perfect man, to make absolutely sure he remains just as in love with her as she is with him. Until, one day, she realises she may have taken things too far… Read my full review of My Husband here.
The Undoing by Jean Hanff Korelitz
You’d think that a marriage counsellor would be the last person to appear in a thriller book about love gone wrong, right? Well, in The Undoing (also called You Should Have Known), Jean Hanff Korelitz turns that expectation on its head. Grace, the counsellor, thinks she knows everything about love and marriage, she’s even written a book about it – but on the eve of the book’s publication, a series of events unfolds and Grace is left with the shocking realisation that she never really knew her husband at all. This is a thriller about what happens when you discover the truth about those closest to you.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Of all the thriller books about love gone wrong, Gone Girl is probably the most iconic. It starts off the way you’d expect any standard thriller: woman missing, philandering husband looks guilty… Nick and Amy’s perspectives alternate throughout the novel. They describe their marriage in very different ways, each (obviously) more sympathetic to their own cause and critical of the other. Both narrators feel unsteady, unreliable, but it’s not exactly clear why… at first. The “big twist” comes almost exactly half-way through, and it reveals just how messed up this marriage is. Read my full review of Gone Girl here.
56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard
In a lot of ways, 56 Days is a high-octane version of an all-too-familiar real-world “love” story. Single people (like Ciara and Oliver, the main characters) found themselves backed into a corner by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns: either white-knuckle it through alone, or move into the same “household” as someone they’ve been casually dating. Ciara and Oliver choose the latter… and someone ends up dead. It’s well written, well paced, with tantalising clues and a couple of truly excellent fake-out twists. Read my full review of 56 Days here.
Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson
The narrator of Before I Go To Sleep, Christine, has a strange kind of acquired memory loss. Every night, while she sleeps, her memory re-sets. Every morning, when she wakes up, Ben has to explain to her that she’s his wife, what has happened to her, and how she came to be married to him. That all sounds lovely, but here’s the thing: can Christine trust her “husband’s” answers? It’s a portrait of a marriage – one in very unusual and strained circumstances. Read my full review of Before I Go To Sleep here.
All Of Us Are Broken by Fiona Cummins
All Of Us Are Broken is set over the course of one day, as characters move across Northern England and across the border into Scotland. Detective Saul Anguish is hot on the heels of Missy and Fox, a couple on a killing spree reminiscent of Bonnie and Clyde. Meanwhile, the Hardwicke family travels north, blissfully unaware of the horrors that await them at the hotel where they stop for the night. Every “love” story in this high-stakes thriller is twisted, toxic, and full to the brim with trauma. Read my full review of All Of Us Are Broken here.
The Cry by Helen Fitzgerald
You never really know the person you love until you see them at their worst: when the wi-fi goes down, when they break a leg, or when they suffer an unimaginable loss. Unfortunately for Joanna, she discovers that her partner, Alistair, isn’t just cool, calm and collected in the face of a crisis – he’s cold, bordering on psychopathic. The Cry isn’t just for thriller readers; anyone who likes ethical grey areas and/or the complexity of modern families will rip through it. Read my full review of The Cry here.
The Harpy by Megan Hunter
The Harpy is a deliciously dark twist on a fairytale-style story. Lucy, a woman who forsook her career to care for her family, discovers (by receiving a message from a fellow aggrieved spouse) that her apparently-perfect husband has been sleeping with another man’s wife. In the hopes of keeping their family together, Lucy and her husband come to a strange arrangement: Lucy will ‘forgive’ him, but in return, she can hurt him three times. It’s a dangerous game, one that will forever change Lucy and their marriage.
I’m Thinking Of Ending Things by Iain Reid
I’m Thinking Of Ending Things is a thriller book about love gone wrong that begins at the very end. A nameless narrator and her boyfriend, Jake, are in a car en route to visit Jake’s parents for the first time. She’s thinking of ending things, but Jake doesn’t know that yet. But that’s not all Jake doesn’t know: our narrator is also being stalked by The Caller, a man who leaves her cryptic voicemails, somehow calling her from her own number. Something is definitely hinky, and you’ll have to read all the way to the end to discover what exactly. Read my full review of I’m Thinking Of Ending Things here.
Anatomy Of A Scandal by Sarah Vaughan
In Anatomy Of A Scandal, a shocking revelation is coming to ruin Sophie Whitehouse’s ‘perfect’ life. She has it all: successful husband, happy children, and a lovely home. She’s shaken by her husband’s confession of infidelity, but that’s only the beginning. He stands accused of a terrible crime, and Sophie is left wondering how she can possibly know what’s true when she never really knew the man she married. This is one of the most gripping thriller books about love gone wrong, a high-stakes story for the #MeToo era.
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