Buying a book for someone is a small act of faith. You are telling them you know what keeps them awake at night. Get it right and they vanish on Boxing Day, then reappear at teatime looking slightly haunted. Get it wrong and it sits on the side next to the bath salts until Easter.
So this list is sorted by person, not by book. Find the person you are buying for, then read why that book will land. Every title is real and easy to find, and none of the descriptions give anything away. If you want the whole year in one place, there is also a list of the best thriller books of 2026.
What makes a thriller the perfect Christmas present?
A thriller is the rare present that gets used straight away. Jumpers get exchanged. Candles get regifted. A good thriller gets opened on Christmas morning, started that night and finished on the 27th with a cold cup of tea and the curtains still shut.
It also says something nice about you. A thriller says: I think you are clever enough to work this out, and I want you to have the best afternoon of your whole holiday. That is a lot to say for less than the price of a decent bottle of wine.
Three things make a thriller a good gift. It should start fast, because Christmas is one long interruption. It should be easy to recommend without spoiling, because they will ask what it is about. It should suit them, not you. That last one is harder than it sounds.
The best thriller books to give this Christmas, by who you’re buying for
Each pick says who it is for, what it is about without spoilers, and why it works as a present.
It Could Have Been Her
Lisa Jewell · July 2026 (UK)
For the mum who reads one a week. Jane returns a lost dog to a house she remembers from twenty-five years ago, and slowly realises it might hold the answer to a missing teenager. Nobody writes families with secrets quite like Lisa Jewell.
Side effects: a sudden urge to ring your own mother and ask her some questions.
Why it works as a present: it is a new hardback from one of the best-loved names in the genre, so it feels like a proper present rather than a paperback grabbed at the till.
Find It Could Have Been Her on AmazonMy Husband’s Wife
Alice Feeney · January 2026
For the sister who will text you at 2am. An artist comes home to find another woman living in her house, claiming to be married to her husband. Her own husband insists he has no idea who she is. That is the opening. It gets stranger.
Side effects: a string of 2am messages that just say WHAT.
Why it works as a present: it is the perfect book to read at the same time, so buy yourself a copy too and you have a Christmas book club of two.
Find My Husband’s Wife on AmazonThe Housemaid
Freida McFadden · 2022
For Secret Santa. Millie takes a live-in job cleaning for the wealthy Winchesters. Her room is in the attic, and the door locks from the outside. That is all anyone should know going in.
Side effects: checking which side of the bedroom door the lock is on.
Why it works as a present: the paperback usually costs less than £10, almost everyone has heard of it, and it is now a film, so even the person who never reads will know they have been given something good.
Find The Housemaid on AmazonAnd Then There Were None
Agatha Christie · 1939
For someone who says they don’t read. Ten strangers are invited to an island off the Devon coast. Their host never arrives. Then, one at a time, they start to die. It is short, fast and the best-selling mystery ever written, which is not a coincidence.
Side effects: looking round the Christmas table and quietly counting.
Why it works as a present: it is short enough to finish between Christmas dinner and the Boxing Day leftovers, which might make it the first book they have finished in years.
Find And Then There Were None on AmazonThe Witch
Freida McFadden · October 2026
For the one who wants cosy and creepy on Christmas Eve. Julia Barlow loses her job and her flat and retreats to Pemberton, her family’s old estate in Massachusetts. Part ghost story, part psychological mystery, with a second timeline set during a seventeenth-century witch trial.
Side effects: leaving the landing light on.
Why it works as a present: it is the newest Freida McFadden, and any McFadden fan will want it before someone spoils it for them.
Find The Witch on Amazon
An opening line to keep you up tonight
“A grown woman in a pair of old bed socks, standing in the dark outside her own bedroom at ten past three in the morning, watching her husband sleep beside somebody else.”
The Hollow
Michael Connelly · November 2026 (UK)
For the dad who has read every Harry Bosch. Bosch goes back to the children’s home where he spent part of his childhood, and to a boy whose death there was covered up and never solved. Reviewers have called it one of the most powerful books Connelly has written.
Side effects: Dad going very quiet in his armchair until about four o’clock.
Why it works as a present: it only came out in the UK in November, so there is a fair chance he has not got it yet. Check first, though. Bosch fans tend to buy on the day.
Find The Hollow on AmazonThe Long Firm
Jake Arnott · 1999
For the man who has watched MobLand twice. Harry Starks runs a West End racket in 1960s London, and his story is told by five people who crossed his path. None of them came out the same. Funny, frightening and full of real London.
Side effects: a long argument about whether Harry is charming or terrifying. He is both.
Why it works as a present: it is a modern classic that became a BBC drama, and he is unlikely to have spotted it on a supermarket shelf.
Find The Long Firm on AmazonFaithful
Roberta Kray · 12 November 2026
For the nan who has read every Martina Cole. In Kellston, East London, crime boss Terry Street has just been buried. With his heir dead and his son unwilling, the borough is up for grabs. Marianne Day has waited eleven years for this moment, and she wants her child back.
Side effects: a sudden interest in who really runs your high street.
Why it works as a present: it is as new as a present gets, and Roberta Kray, who was married to Reggie Kray, knows this world better than most.
Find Faithful on AmazonThe Exes
Leodora Darlington · February 2026
For the friend who has read everything. Natalie has blackouts. Her exes keep turning up dead. She is starting to wonder whether the person everyone is looking for is her. A darkly funny debut from a London writer.
Side effects: a careful review of everyone you have ever dumped.
Why it works as a present: it is a debut, so even the most well-read friend is unlikely to have it, and she gets to say she found this author first.
Find The Exes on AmazonCaller Unknown
Gillian McAllister · 2026
For the book club friend. A mother’s teenage daughter vanishes on a trip to Texas. Then the phone rings, and the caller wants her to do something terrible in exchange for getting her child back.
Side effects: jumping every time an unknown number rings.
Why it works as a present: it is made for arguing about. Everyone at book club will have a different answer to what they would have done.
Find Caller Unknown on Amazon
A quick detour
Which thriller should be under your own tree?
Not sure where to start? Take the 60-second quiz.
How to make a book feel like a bigger present
A book on its own can look a bit small under the tree. A few cheap touches change that.
Write a note on the first page saying why you chose it for them. Keep it short and do not mention the ending. Add a bookmark, a bar of good chocolate and the instruction not to be opened until everyone else has gone to bed.
If you are both reading the same one, give it with a date in January to compare notes. It is cheaper than a spa day and far more dramatic.
Buying for someone who loves London crime?
Gangland fans are the easiest people in the world to buy for and the hardest to surprise, because they have usually read everything on the supermarket shelf already.
Start with books like Martina Cole or books like Kimberley Chambers. If they came to the genre through the telly, try books like MobLand. Feeling generous? Take them on a walk round the real London behind the books on Boxing Day and hand over the present at the end.
Your questions answered
What is the best thriller book to give as a Christmas present?
For a keen reader, It Could Have Been Her by Lisa Jewell. For Secret Santa, The Housemaid by Freida McFadden. For someone who rarely reads, And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, which is short and the best-selling mystery of all time.
What thriller should I buy my mum for Christmas?
If she loves family secrets, It Could Have Been Her by Lisa Jewell. If she likes a big twist, My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney. If she has read every Martina Cole, Faithful by Roberta Kray.
What thriller should I buy my dad for Christmas?
If he reads Harry Bosch, The Hollow by Michael Connelly came out in the UK in November 2026. If he loves gangster dramas like MobLand, The Long Firm by Jake Arnott.
What is a good thriller for Secret Santa?
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden. The paperback usually costs less than £10, nearly everyone has heard of it, and it is now a film.
What do you buy someone who has read every thriller?
A debut. The Exes by Leodora Darlington came out in February 2026, so even the most well-read friend may not have found it yet.
Are there any thrillers set at Christmas?
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie is a murder in a country house over the holiday, and The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley takes place over New Year in the Scottish Highlands.
Which thriller should I read myself this Christmas?
Take the three question quiz on this page, or the 60-second quiz, and you will get one picked for you.
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