Heart-Pounding Thrillers

Sometimes, it’s good to step away from the comfort of cozy mysteries and dive headfirst into a thrill ride that will leave you breathless.

Picture being thrust into a life-or-death scenario, where every decision teeters on the edge of disaster. It’s a terrifying reality most of us hope to never face. Fortunately, masterful authors immerse us in these high-stakes situations, allowing us to experience the intensity, suspense, and danger—all from the safety of our favorite reading spot.

Here are 7 heart-pounding thrillers that throw ordinary people into impossible situations—where every choice could mean life or death, the personal stakes are high, and time is running out. These high-octane 'What if ' reads will have you gripping the edge of your seat as the tension escalates with every ticking second.

NO EXIT

by Taylor Adams - 2017

The story follows Darby Thorne, a college student traveling through the Colorado mountains to visit her dying mother, only to be trapped in a blizzard at a remote highway rest stop. With no way out and no cell reception, Darby is stranded with four strangers.

While searching for a signal, she stumbles upon a horrifying discovery—a young girl locked in a cage in the back of a van. Realizing that one of the strangers inside the rest stop is the kidnapper, Darby faces a terrifying dilemma: How can she save the child, and whom can she trust?

No Exit will keep readers on the edge of their seats, questioning every character's motive as Darby fights to outsmart a psychopath and rescue the girl before it's too late.

HUNTED

by Abir Mukherjee - 2024

Too Close to Home. A Parent's Worst Nightmare.

A thrilling and suspenseful novel that follows two desperate parents as they confront the harrowing challenge of locating their children who have become radicalized and may be poised to carry out a bombing. In their race against time, the parents face numerous obstacles, including the growing media frenzy surrounding one of the parents who becomes a suspect himself.

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Characters forced into criminal activities to protect their loved ones. What would you do?

HOSTAGE

by Clare Mackintosh - 2021

Flight attendant Mina is working on a non-stop flight from London to Sydney when she receives a chilling ultimatum: help hijackers crash the plane or her daughter will be killed. She faces an impossible moral dilemma while the plane carries hundreds of passengers in danger.

As tensions rise in the cabin and trust erodes among passengers and crew, Mina must navigate her moral dilemma in a claustrophobic, high-stakes environment. Combining psychological suspense with relentless action, Hostage explores the lengths to which a person will go to protect their loved ones—and the devastating consequences of such choices.

FALLING

by T.J. Newman - 2021

A commercial airline pilot must make an impossible choice—crash the plane to save his family from terrorists, or risk the lives of everyone on board. Bill Hoffman has to navigate the dangerous skies, balancing the survival of 149 passengers against his loved ones' safety.

While the premise shares similarities with Hostage, T.J. Newman kicks off the story with an explosive start and keeps the momentum high, delivering relentless, high-octane action. With less emphasis on character development, this is pure adrenaline—a nonstop thrill ride from start to finish.

THE CHAIN

by Adrian McKinty - 2019

This is a mother's worst nightmare.

A mother must kidnap another child to ensure her own daughter’s safety in this too-close-to-home chilling plot, where victims are forced to become perpetrators in a relentless cycle of crime.

But this isn’t an ordinary abduction. To save her child, the protagonist, Rachel must follow the rules of “The Chain”—a terrifying, unbreakable cycle of extortion and kidnapping. First, she must pay a ransom. Then, she must kidnap another child to release her own. If she fails, her daughter will die, and the next victim’s family will be forced into the same horrifying situation.

The Chain explores the terrifying lengths to which people will go to protect the ones they love.

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Ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances to save the day, at a heavy price.

WORST CASE SCENARIO

by T.J. Newman - 2024

An unimaginable disaster unfolds when a commercial airliner crashes into a nuclear power plant in Minnesota, triggering a catastrophic Level 8 nuclear crisis. As the fallout spreads, chaos erupts, thrusting ordinary individuals into a nightmarish struggle for survival. Amid the growing catastrophe, power plant workers, first responders, and everyday citizens find themselves at the forefront of a desperate race against time. Each decision they make holds the potential to either avert or deepen the crisis, with the fate of the country hanging in the balance.

NINE MINUTES ELEVEN SECONDS

by L.V. Pederson - January 2025

The story follows Madison, a guilt-ridden young woman who starts her first real job as an executive assistant at a Silicon Valley tech giant. It seems like the perfect opportunity for a fresh start—until she begins to suspect her charismatic VP boss is the mastermind behind the 9/11 attack that killed her father twenty years ago. As she tries to uncover the truth, Madison finds herself caught between an FBI Hail Mary mission to thwart a deadly conspiracy and her boss, who has his own deadly agenda.

Brimming with psychological tension and heart-pounding suspense, Nine Minutes Eleven Seconds keeps readers on edge as Madison engages in a high-stakes cat-and-mouse game to outsmart her enemy, while the FBI races against time to prevent an imminent catastrophe.

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