Best Thriller series

The 38 best Thriller series, scored across every volume.

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By year of first publication, 1961–2025. The busiest stretch is 2000–2009, with 13. Select a bar to narrow the list.

Why Shadow of the Leviathan is #1

Shadow of the Leviathan (Robert Jackson Bennett) scores 8.7/10 from 710 ratings — 0.4 points ahead of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder in second place.

The score is a weighted average across 3 independent rating sources. A title with few ratings is pulled toward the category average, so a handful of enthusiastic reviews cannot outrank a book that thousands of readers have judged. Method →

A thriller asks what happens next

Crime looks back at a deed done. A thriller looks ahead: someone is in danger now and time is short. Choose by the stakes.

Stakes you can feelNot the world: one room and one captor, as in “Misery”, suffocate more.
Tension despite a known endingIn “The Day of the Jackal” you know how the plot ends, yet you hold your breath.
Pace from decisions, not chasesA good thriller speeds up because people must choose under pressure, and every choice costs.

Frequently asked questions

Which title here has the most ratings?

Robert Langdon series (Dan Brown) — 11.9K ratings and 7.3/10, which puts it at #38 on this list.