Top 10 suspense books ever?

July 17, 2009 by Nekkidblogger
Filed under: bestseller, book review, crime book, International bestseller, recommendation

It is hard to say exactly which books are the best in any given category or genre. With books, as with many other things, the beauty is in the eye (or the mind) of the beholder. However, the books below are generally regarded as top suspense books, they are all very famous and written by well known, world class authors. They are all wonderful. They are my candidates for the top ten suspense books ever.

1.	Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier (1938). The heroine, who remains nameless, lives in Europe with her husband,Maxim de Winter, traveling from hotel to hotel. She has memories of a beautiful home called Manderley, which has been destroyed by fire. The story begins with her memories of how she and Maxim first met, in Monte Carlo, years before.	Amazon US Amazon UK (links to order the books)
2.	Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris (1988). This is the second novel by Thomas Harris to feature the sociopathic psychiatrist and cannibal Dr. Hannibal Lecter. In the novel, Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee, is sent to see the imprisoned Lecter in order to ask his expert advice on catching a serial killer given the name Buffalo Bill, who is abducting women and skinning them. The book has been filmed.	Amazon US Amazon UK
3.	Red Dragon, by Thomas Harris (1993). This is the first book about Hannibal Lecter. “Red Dragon” is a wonderfully intense psychological thriller, with plenty of obscene violence and “typical” Thomas Harris plot twists. The story of the ex-FBI agent stalking the “Tooth Fairy” or “Red Dragon” is extremely interesting and detailed, right down to forensic and crime scene evidence. This book, too, has been filmed.	Amazon US Amazon UK
4.	Where Are the Children? by Mary Higgins Clark (1975) This book is very fascinating. The plot is about a woman named Nancy whose children were kidnapped and murdered on her birthday. Everyone pointed their fingers at Nancy, but she left the courtroom on a technicality.Seven years later, Nancy is remarried and has two more children. However, one morning Nancy goes outside where her children were supposed to be playing and finds them gone.. A must read!	Amazon US Amazon UK
5.	Laura, by Vera Caspary (Femmes Fatales: Women Write Pulp) (1942, filmed 1944). Laura Hunt was the ideal modern woman: beautiful, elegant, highly ambitious, and utterly mysterious. No man could resist her charms. As a tough cop probes the mystery of Laura’s death, he becomes obsessed with her strange power. Soon he realizes he’s been seduced by a dead woman.	Amazon US Amazon UK
6.	Beast in View, by Margareth Millar (1945). A chain of events starting with a crank call from an old school chum sets the lonely, aloof, financially comfortable Miss Helen Clarvoe on a path as predictable only as madness. Lured from her rooms in a second-rate residential Hollywood hotel, she finds herself stranded in the more perilous terrain of extortion, pornography, vengeance, and ultimately murder.	Amazon US Amazon UK
7.	A Judgement in Stone, by Ruth Rendell (1977). This novel is famous in the world of crime fiction for its opening line: “Eunice Parchman killed the Coverdale family because she could not read or write“. It has been acclaimed as a keen social examination of the differences between British classes in the 1970s, as well being remarkable in its levels of suspense, despite the reader knowing from the first line what is going to happen.	Amazon US Amazon UK
8.	Rosemary’s Baby, by Ira Levin (1967). The book centers on Rosemary Woodhouse, a young pregnant woman, who begins to suspect her elderly neighbors are not the kindly souls they appear to be. Gradually she discovers they are the leaders of a coven of witches. Her husband, a struggling actor, allowed the devil to impregnate her in exchange for a successful career, but she is unable to convince anyone to believe her.A movie based on the novel was filmed by Roman Polanski. Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes starred in the movie.	Amazon US Amazon UK
9.	The Big Clock, by Kenneth Fearing (New York Review Books Classics)(1946) . George Stroud is a hard-drinking, tough-talking writer for a New York media conglomerate. One day, before heading home to his wife, Stroud has a drink with Pauline, the girlfriend of his boss. Things happen. The next day Stroud escorts Pauline home. The day after that, Pauline is found murdered in her apartment.This novel was the basis for the feature films The Big Clock (1948) and No Way Out (1987).	Amazon US Amazon UK
10.	Brighton Rock, Graham Greene (Penguin Classic Deluxe Edition)(1938). Although this is an underworld thriller, the book is also a very powerful exploration of the nature of sin and the basis of morality (Pinkie and Rose, two of the main characters, are Roman Catholics, as was Greene, and their beliefs are contrasted with Ida’s strong but non-religious moral sensibility).This book was filmed in 1947.	Amazon US Amazon UK