Books like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

01

The Girl Who Played with Fire

Stieg Larsson · Thriller

Lisbeth Salander returns to Stockholm after more than a year abroad and is almost immediately the prime suspect in three murders, including two investigators who were about to publish an exposé on the Swedish sex trade.

A kindred thriller read.

02

In Cold Blood

Truman Capote · Memoir

Truman Capote's account of the 1959 murders of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas — and of the investigation, capture, trial, and execution of the killers Perry Smith and Richard Hickock — is the founding document of the true crime genre and one of the most admired works of American nonfiction of the twentieth century.

A kindred thriller read.

03

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland

Patrick Radden Keefe · History

Say Nothing opens with a scene that sets its register precisely: Jean McConville, a widowed mother of ten, is dragged from her Belfast flat by a gang of masked strangers in December 1972 and never seen alive again.

A kindred thriller read.

04

Killers of the Flower Moon

David Grann · History

In the 1920s, members of the Osage Nation in northeastern Oklahoma were being murdered.

A kindred thriller read.

05

The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War

Ben Macintyre · History

Ben Macintyre tells the story of Oleg Gordievsky, a KGB officer who became the most important British spy of the Cold War.

A kindred thriller read.

06

Blindsighted

Karin Slaughter · Thriller

Blindsighted is Karin Slaughter's debut novel, published in 2001, and the first book in the Grant County series set in fictional Heartsdale, Georgia.

Both dig into violence against women.

07

Rubbernecker

Belinda Bauer · Thriller

Patrick Fort is a student with autism spectrum disorder studying anatomy at Cardiff University.

Both dig into institutional complicity.

08

The Bat

Jo Nesbø · Thriller

The Bat is the first Harry Hole novel, published in Norwegian in 1997 and set almost entirely in Sydney, Australia.

Both dig into violence against women.

09

The Constant Gardener

John le Carré · Thriller

Justin Quayle is a mild, reserved British diplomat stationed in Kenya.

Both dig into corporate corruption.

10

The Firm

John Grisham · Thriller

Mitch McDeere is a Harvard Law graduate who accepts a job at a small, lavishly compensating Memphis firm called Bendini, Lambert & Locke.

Both dig into corporate corruption.

11

The Black Dahlia

James Ellroy · Mystery

In January 1947, the body of Elizabeth Short — a young woman who wanted to be an actress — is found mutilated in a vacant lot in Los Angeles.

Both dig into violence against women.

12

A Time to Kill

John Grisham · Thriller

In Clanton, Mississippi, two white men rape and nearly kill ten-year-old Tonya Hailey.

A kindred thriller read.