Psychological Thrillers that Bend Your Mind

This is a personal favorite of mine from the many, many Alex Delaware novels (now over 30 of them), all of which are amazing if you’re a fan of psychological thrillers. This particular one…you really, really won’t see the twist coming, because you’ll have been trained so far in advance not to even think of it. The book starts out with Alex, a psychologist who gets involved a little more often than is plausible with police matters (but who cares, that’s what suspension of disbelief is for) meeting an ex who asks for his help, which he’s reluctant to give, since his relationship with his seriously awesome girlfriend is already running through hard times. The next day, his ex is dead. Uh-oh.

The famous British writer who authored The Remains of the Day knows how to weave a psychologically scintillating tale. Sent to England to be raised by an aunt after his parents disappeared, a detective, Christopher Banks, is ready to try to solve that ultimate mystery of his life: where did his parents go? Back to Shanghai, the scene of their disappearance, he goes, obsession leading the way and unreality dogging his steps. Where do what he know and what he fancies he knows meet in the real world? Do they at all?

A complex, dark YA thriller, Damage Done, Amanda Panitch’s debut (she’s written another unrelated thriller that hit shelves in June of 2016) revolves around Lucy Black, a girl who once had another name, another life. All of that changed when she was left as the sole survivor of a killing spree at her school where she watched her best friend and her boyfriend die right in front of her eyes, along with all the others that her brother, her twin, chose to keep alive. The novel starts after these events, when Lucy is settling into her life, trying to get past losing so much so quickly. But it’s not easy, especially when that past suddenly becomes very dangerously present.