Verity is the book people hand to each other with a look that says “just read it, then call me”. A struggling writer, a grieving husband, a house full of secrets and a manuscript that was never, ever meant to be found. Then that ending, which has probably ended at least one friendship.
If you are looking for that same delicious feeling of reading something you really shouldn’t be, these ten are the closest I have found. No spoilers, for Verity or anything else. I like having friends.
10 books like Verity
The Housemaid
Freida McFadden · 2022
Millie takes a live-in job with a wealthy couple and moves into a tiny attic room whose door locks from the outside. A beautiful house, a strange marriage and rules nobody will explain. The obvious next read after Verity, and for good reason. If it hooks you, here are more books like Freida McFadden.
Side effects: a sudden interest in which side of your doors the locks are on.
Read it if: you loved being a guest in a house full of secrets.
Find The Housemaid on AmazonBehind Her Eyes
Sarah Pinborough · 2017
Louise falls for her married boss, then befriends his fragile wife. Everybody is lying to somebody. Its ending is every bit as divisive as Verity’s, which is saying something.
Side effects: losing an entire evening to online arguments about the last chapter.
Read it if: you loved arguing about the ending.
Find Behind Her Eyes on AmazonThe Perfect Marriage
Jeneva Rose · 2020
A brilliant defence lawyer takes on the most difficult client of her career: her own husband, accused of murdering the woman he was having an affair with. Short chapters and a marriage that is anything but what the title promises.
Side effects: listening to your partner’s alibis with a new level of attention.
Read it if: you want a fast, twisty marriage thriller.
Find The Perfect Marriage on AmazonThe Wife Between Us
Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen · 2018
An ex-wife, a new fiancée and a man in between. Nothing here is quite what it first seems, and the book is enormous fun precisely because of it.
Side effects: questioning every assumption you made about everyone, ever.
Read it if: you like being tricked, beautifully.
Find The Wife Between Us on AmazonNever Lie
Freida McFadden · 2022
Newlyweds snowed in at the remote home of a missing psychiatrist discover her secret recordings of her patients. Sound familiar? Hidden confessions are exactly what made Verity so addictive.
Side effects: never again telling a therapist the whole truth. Just in case.
Read it if: you loved the manuscript most of all.
Find Never Lie on Amazon
An opening line to keep you up tonight
“At midnight he asked for a bacon sandwich. By 4am he was dead.”
My Lovely Wife
Samantha Downing · 2019
A perfectly ordinary suburban couple, two children, a nice house and one very dark secret they share. Funny, shocking and impossible to put down, in roughly that order.
Side effects: looking at the couple next door slightly differently.
Read it if: you liked how far Verity was willing to go.
Find My Lovely Wife on AmazonRock Paper Scissors
Alice Feeney · 2021
A struggling couple wins a weekend at a remote converted chapel in Scotland. The letters she has written to him every anniversary slowly reveal what has really been going on.
Side effects: going back through old anniversary cards for clues.
Read it if: you liked letters and confessions as part of the story.
Find Rock Paper Scissors on AmazonThe Silent Patient
Alex Michaelides · 2019
A woman stops speaking after shooting her husband, and her therapist is desperate to know why. The other great “just read it” thriller of recent years. Try these books like The Silent Patient afterwards.
Side effects: an immediate reread, against all your plans.
Read it if: you want the other book everyone tells you to read.
Find The Silent Patient on AmazonBehind Closed Doors
B. A. Paris · 2016
Jack and Grace are the perfect couple. You never see Grace without Jack. Some people would call that true love. You will start to wonder. A claustrophobic, frightening debut.
Side effects: a deep appreciation for a partner who lets you go to the shops on your own.
Read it if: you want a marriage thriller that makes your skin crawl.
Find Behind Closed Doors on AmazonSometimes I Lie
Alice Feeney · 2017
A woman in a coma tells you three things about herself, including that sometimes she lies. An unreliable narrator you will keep thinking about for days.
Side effects: side-eyeing every narrator in every book you read next.
Read it if: you loved not knowing who to believe.
Find Sometimes I Lie on Amazon
A quick detour
Which of my thrillers is your next Verity?
Not sure what to read next? Take the 60-second quiz.
Is Verity a standalone book?
Yes. Verity is a standalone psychological thriller by Colleen Hoover, first self-published in 2018. Most of her other books are romance, so if you want more of the Verity feeling, the books on this list are a better bet than the rest of her backlist. For more endings like it, see my list of thrillers with plot twists you won’t see coming.
Your questions answered
What book is most like Verity?
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden is the book most often recommended after Verity, followed by Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough.
What should I read after Verity by Colleen Hoover?
Try The Housemaid, Behind Her Eyes, The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose or Never Lie by Freida McFadden.
Does Colleen Hoover have other thrillers like Verity?
Verity is her best-known thriller. Most of her other books are romance or contemporary fiction, so readers usually move on to authors like Freida McFadden and Alice Feeney.
Are there spoilers on this page?
No. Nothing on this page gives away the ending of Verity or any other book.
Which thriller should I read next?
If you can’t decide, take the 60-second quiz.
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