NPR Picks The Top 100 Thrillers Of All Time

NPR:

The NPR audience nominated some 600 novels to our "Killer Thrillers" poll and cast more than 17,000 ballots. The final roster of winners is a diverse one to say the least, ranging in style and period from Dracula to The Da Vinci Code, Presumed Innocent to Pet Sematary. What these top 100 titles share, however, is that all of them are fast-moving tales of suspense and adventure.

Read the whole story: NPR

Comments

[JDM73]

06:38 PM on 08/05/2010

Stephen King, Stephen King, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Dan Brown, Stephen King. Wow, how exciting and unpredictable.
Peter Straub's "The Throat" mops the floor with every book on this list--and it was a bestseller and Bram Stoker Award winner.

[Waiting for Something]

08:01 AM on 08/08/2010

Thanks for the recommendation of The Throat. I'll put it on my to-do list.

[JDM73]

05:23 PM on 08/08/2010

You bet! I think it's the single best book he's ever written.

[bobzeschin]

02:57 PM on 08/04/2010

WHERE IS RUTH RENDELL??? For days after reading "A Judgment In Stone," I couldn't look at any man or woman going about their everyday lives without wondering if they, like the book's ordinary-seeming Eunice Parchman, had some terrible secret that would drive them to gruesomely slaughter an entire family of perfectly innocent people. If that's not the mark of a good thriller, I don't know what is. Not only that, Rendell gives away the ending with the very first sentence, but keeps you turning the pages faster and faster to find out WHY.

[Waiting for Something]

08:00 AM on 08/08/2010

Can't wait to read it. Thanks for the recommendation.

[Woodshade]

01:40 PM on 08/04/2010

"Ever written"??? And Mary Shelley's, 'Frankenstein', 1817, isn't on that list? Probably the FIRST best-selling Thriller?
Who wrote this list........? I wanna throw at rather large book at you.

[BlueZoo]

02:08 PM on 08/04/2010

"Frankenstein" was the very first book I looked for on the list! The fact that it is missing negates the entire list for me and gives it little credence. It isn't just an oversight but a sin of epic proportion! I was chilled to the bone when I first read this book and it has thrilled me many times since. Beautifully written and downright scary!

[Woodshade]

03:02 PM on 08/04/2010

Agreed, negates the whole list. It should've held a place of Honor at the top as far as I'm concerned. Has scared the bejesus out of generations. I say we gather the villagers and out the torches and pitchforks!

[reader110]

02:50 PM on 08/04/2010

Since these books were submitted by readers, you're going to have to throw a whole lotta books. My guess is, though, that while Shelley's book was one of the first best-selling thrillers, readers don't consider it as one of the top 100.

[Woodshade]

03:03 PM on 08/04/2010

it's just downright sad...

[naschkatze]

12:38 PM on 08/05/2010

These books weren't chosen for literary qualities but popularity then. There is a lot of junk mixed in with the good stuff.