The best psychological thriller books of 2017

Laura has it all. A successful career, a long marriage to a rich husband, and a twenty-three year-old son, Daniel, who is kind, handsome, and talented. Then Daniel meets Cherry. Cherry is young, beautiful and smart but she hasn't had the same opportunities as Daniel. And she wants Laura's life.

Cherry comes to the family wide-eyed and wants to be welcomed with open arms, but Laura suspects she's not all that she seems. When tragedy strikes, an unforgiveable lie is told. It is an act of desperation, but the fall-out will change their lives forever.

One July morning, Ruth Malone wakes to find a bedroom window wide open and her two young children missing. After a desperate search, the police make a horrifying discovery.

Noting Ruth's perfectly made-up face and provocative clothing, the empty liquor bottles and love letters that litter her apartment, the detectives leap to convenient conclusions. Sent to cover the case on his first major assignment, tabloid reporter Pete Wonicke at first can't help but do the same. But the longer he spends watching Ruth, the more he learns about the darker workings of the police and the press. Soon, Pete begins to doubt everything he thought he knew.

Josie Buhrman has spent the last ten years trying to escape the tragic events of her dark past. Now, Josie has a new life in New York with her boyfriend Caleb. The only problem is that she has lied to Caleb about every detail of her past...

Then investigative reporter Poppy Parnell sets off a media firestorm with a hit podcast that reopens the case of her father’s murder and Josie’s carefully constructed world begins to unravel.

A woman’s body is discovered on a Cornish farm, battered and left for dead. Airlifted to hospital, her life hanging in the balance and no one knows who she is. Three days later she comes round, but her memory is damaged. She knows only her name – Evie – and the name of her three-year-old daughter – Angel.

When the police search Evie’s home, there’s no sign of Angel. More disturbingly, there’s no evidence that she ever lived there, but Evie believes her daughter is alive. The police remain unconvinced – unaware that on the fringes of Evie’s life, there’s someone else. Someone hidden, watching her every move, with their own agenda and their own twisted version of reality.

A psychopath more frightening than Hannibal Lecter... He has planned well. He leads two lives. In one he's just like anyone else. But in the other he is the caretaker of his family's macabre museum. Now the time has come to add to his collection. 

Jakey Frith and Clara Foyle have something in common. They have what he needs. What begins is a terrifying cat-and-mouse game between the sinister collector, Jakey's father and Etta Fitzroy, a troubled detective investigating a spate of abductions.

Talented and determined, Devon is the centre of her ambitious parents' world, and the lynchpin of their marriage. There is nothing Katie and Eric wouldn't do for her.

When a violent hit-and-run accident sends shockwaves through their close-knit community, Katie is immediately concerned for her daughter, a rising star of the gymnastics world. She and Eric have worked so hard to protect Devon from anything that might distract or hurt her. That's what every parent wants for their child, after all. Even if they don't realize how much you've sacrificed for them. Even if they are keeping secrets from you...

Seven years ago, Detective Paul Hoskins and his larger-than-life partner solved one of the biggest serial killer cases of the decade. They dug up 33 bodies in a crawlspace belonging to the beloved Jacky Seever, a pillar of the community and a successful businessman. Sammie Peterson was the lead reporter on the case. Her byline was on the front page of the newspaper every day. Seever's wife, Gloria, claimed to be as surprised as everyone else.

Today, Hoskins has been banished to the basement of the police station, Sammie is selling make-up at the shopping mall, and Gloria is trying to navigate a world where she can't escape condemnation. Then a series of copycat killings take place, with the victims all connected to Seever...

When up-and-coming photographer Kristin begins to receive anonymous emails, her life in a trendy loft in London's Hoxton with Anton, her ultra-cool, street-artist boyfriend, suddenly begins to feel unsafe. The emails come with sinister attachments that suggest the sender has an intimate knowledge of Kristin's past, and soon her life spirals out of control.

Who can she trust? And will she be able to discover the sender's identity before it's too late?

When a man fails in his attempt to murder his wife and then commit suicide, DC Maggie Neville is assigned to be the surviving woman's Family Liaison Officer. As the husband lies in a coma in hospital, the wife sets about making sure everyone knows he's guilty. But there's something about her story that doesn't ring true to Maggie...

Digging deeper, she finds an unexpected link between the couple's case and a series of burglaries she and her colleagues are investigating in the local area - and the mysterious disappearance of a young woman twenty years ago.

When her best friend, Emily, asks Stephanie to pick up her son from school she happily says yes. Their children are classmates and best friends. As a widow and stay-at-home blogger mum, Stephanie was lonely until she met Emily, a glamorous and successful PR executive.

The trouble is that Emily doesn't come back. No matter what the police say, Stephanie knows that she would never leave her son. Terrified, she reaches out to her fellow mummy bloggers. And she also reaches out to Emily's husband to offer her support.

But what Stephanie hasn't shared are the secrets buried in a murky past...