"Must read" thrillers?

Some to consider (using a liberal definition of thriller, and just going by memory):

Rebecca
The Day of the Jackal
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Silence of the Lambs
The Maltese Falcon
The Boys from Brazil (or one of the other books by Levin)
Cape Fear
Eye of the Needle
And Then There Were None
In Cold Blood (not a thriller in the ordinary sense, but worth reading)

One thing to consider, especially if this is the first short story you've written in a while: it's easy to have "too big" of a story for a short story. Then you can end up with a 14,500 word short story. If you are writing this primarily for your own benefit, that's fine, but it would be hard to place anywhere.

Since Silence of the Lambs often ends up on lists of best thrillers, it's hard to imagine anything too cold-blooded.

You might want to read some thriller short stories. Not too many immediately come to mind, but here's a couple of ideas:

A few of Stephen King's short stories could be considered thrillers.

I'm not sure how they are usually classified, but some of Shirley Jackson's (The Lottery) stores could be considered thrillers, I think.

Are you familiar with the Strand Magazine (the modern-day version)? Some of their stories are more thriller or suspense than mystery. I remember one about a book binder who created the most wonderful book covers . . . out of human skin.

Short stories are hard to sell, and correspondingly hard to find to read, or vice versa. Here are some places you can read mystery/crime/thriller shorts:

http://www.spinetinglermag.com/

http://blackpetalsks.tripod.com/yellowmama/

http://thrillskillsnchills.blogspot.com/?zx=d97f739b1a938a0

http://www.beattoapulp.com/webzine.html

Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock Magazines are more mystery than thriller oriented, but there are a lot of quality stories there.

For a newer book, I'd recommend one called Altar of Bones. It's very fast-paced and reads practically like an action movie. Loads of scenes with spraying bullets and car chases if that's your thing.

Or read the best-sellers/greats in the genre: John Grisham, Dan Brown, Patricia Cornwell, etc.

Wilde_at_heart said:

Or read the best-sellers/greats in the genre: John Grisham, Dan Brown, Patricia Cornwell, etc.

Click to expand...

I haven't read Cornwell in years, but Postmortem is one of the only books I've read that creeped me out enough to keep me awake at night. IIRC, it's not terribly long, either.

In a thread about must read thrillers- I have to add Robert Crais and Michael Connelley.
Connelley has a few books out that are collections of his short stories too.

I would recommend the book THRILLER: STORIES TO KEEP YOU UP ALL NIGHT, edited by James Patterson. Thirty-plus top thriller authors contributed to this analogy, so you will get a good overview of the genre.