List of thriller writers

This is a list of thriller or suspense novelists. Note that some of these may overlap with authors of crime, mystery or spy fiction.

A
• Edward S. Aarons

• Christopher Abani

• Jane Adams

• Eric Ambler

• Gosho Aoyama

• Jeffrey Archer

• Campbell Armstrong

• Ashurbanipal

• Margaret Atwood

B
• Desmond Bagley

• David Baldacci

• Ashok Banker

• Iain Banks

• Linwood Barclay

• J.D. Barker

• Nevada Barr

• Earle Basinsky

• Brett Battles

• Ted Bell

• Saul Bellow

• Don Bendell

• Kenneth Benton

• William Bernhardt

• Steve Berry

• Charles Bock

• Roberto Bolaño

• Larry Bond

• Jorge Luis Borges

• Sam Bourne

• T. C. Boyle

• Gary Braver

• Andrew Britton

• Dale Brown

• Dan Brown

• Don Brown

• Sandra Brown

• Robert Gregory Browne

• John Buchan

• Christopher Buckley

• William F. Buckley Jr.

• M. L. Buchman

• Joe Buff

• Alafair Burke

• James Lee Burke

• W.R. Burnett

• William S. Burroughs

• Richard Francis Burton

• A. J. Butcher

C–D
• Chelsea Cain

• Tom Cain

• Brian Callison

• Ramsey Campbell

• Stephen J. Cannell

• Victor Canning

• Caleb Carr

• John le Carré

• Leslie Charteris

• Charlie Charters

• James Hadley Chase

• John Cheever

• Lee Child

• Lincoln Child

• Erskine Childers

• Agatha Christie

• Tom Clancy

• Mary Higgins Clark

• Brian Cleeve

• Harlan Coben

• Manning Coles

• Richard Condon

• Michael Connelly

• Joseph Conrad

• Robin Cook

• Stephen Coonts

• Glenn Cooper

• James Fenimore Cooper

• Patricia Cornwell

• Desmond Cory

• Jack Coughlin

• William J. Coughlin

• Harold Coyle

• Joe Craig

• Robert Crais

• Michael Crichton

• Linda Crockett

• Chris Culver

• Charles Cumming

• Clive Cussler

• Brian D'Amato

• Jordan Dane

• Jeffery Deaver

• Len Deighton

• Ted Dekker

• Don DeLillo

• Nelson DeMille

• Alan Dershowitz

• Bill DeSmedt

• P. T. Deutermann

• Graham Diamond

• Philip K. Dick

• William Diehl

• Adam Diment

• Craig Dirgo

• David Docherty

• David Dodge

• Arthur Conan Doyle

• Jack DuBrul

• Alexandre Dumas, père

E–F
• Umberto Eco

• C. M. Eddy, Jr.

• Barry Eisler

• J.T. Ellison

• James Ellroy

• Paul Erdman

• Jeffrey Eugenides

• Janet Evanovich

• Linda Fairstein

• Joseph Finder

• Ian Fleming

• Vince Flynn

• Ken Follett

• Allan Folsom

• Rubem Fonseca

• Frederick Forsyth

• Dick Francis

• Brian Freemantle

• Celia Fremlin

• Nicci French

• A. C. Frieden

• Alan Furst

• Frances Fyfield

G
• Leighton Gage

• Stephen Gallagher

• Meg Gardiner

• John Gardner

• William Garner

• Tess Gerritsen

• William Gibson

• Michael Gilbert

• Anton Gill

• Robert Goddard

• Steven Gore

• Juan Gómez-Jurado

• Sue Grafton

• Heather Graham

• Winston Graham

• Andrew Grant

• Andrew Greeley

• John M. Green

• Graham Greene

• W.E.B. Griffin

• James Grippando

• John Grisham

• Michael Gruber

• Sara Gruen

• Jan Guillou

• Elizabeth Gunn

• Andrei Gusev

H
• H. Rider Haggard

• Brian Haig

• Adam Hall

• Donald Hamilton

• Nick Harkaway

• John Harris

• Robert Harris

• Thomas Harris

• A.J. Hartley

• Rakib Hasan

• Monika Hausammann

• John Twelve Hawks

• Mo Hayder

• J.M. Hayes

• Victor Heck

• Joseph Heller

• Zoë Heller

• Carl Hiaasen

• Jack Higgins

• Patricia Highsmith

• Charlie Higson

• Raelynn Hillhouse

• Tami Hoag

• Elisabeth Sanxay Holding

• Homer

• Anthony Horowitz

• Geoffrey Household

• Dorothy B. Hughes

• E. Howard Hunt

• Gwen Hunter

• Jack D. Hunter

• Stephen Hunter

• Gregg Hurwitz

• Qazi Anwar Hussain

• James Huston

I–J
• David Ignatius

• Greg Iles

• Hammond Innes

• Ian Irvine

• Alan Jacobson

• PD James

• Steven James

• Geoffrey Jenkins

• Jerry B. Jenkins

K–L
• Joseph Kanon

• John Katzenbach

• Alex Kava

• Faye Kellerman

• Jesse Kellerman

• Jonathan Kellerman

• Lauren Kelly

• Simon Kernick

• Philip Kerr

• Alexander Key

• Raymond Khoury

• Laurie R. King

• Stephen King

• Rudyard Kipling

• Fletcher Knebel

• Dean Koontz

• Tim Krabbé

• Ken Kuhlken

• Ross Laidlaw

• Lori L. Lake

• Jon Land

• Stieg Larsson

• William Lashner

• John le Carré

• William Le Queux

• Stephen Leather

• Harper Lee

• Dennis Lehane

• Elmore Leonard

• Gaston Leroux

• John Lescroart

• Paul Levine

• S. E. Lister

• Robert Littell

• Robert Ludlum

• Gavin Lyall

• Gayle Lynds

M–N
• Jonathan Maberry

• John D. MacDonald

• Helen MacInnes

• Ian Mackintosh

• Alistair MacLean

• Norman Mailer

• Richard Marcinko

• Phillip Margolin

• George Markstein

• Stephen Marley

• Ngaio Marsh

• Faith Martin

• Somerset Maugham

• Peter May

• Ed McBain

• Charles McCarry

• Val McDermid

• Andy McDermott

• Andy McNab

• H. C. McNeile (Sapper)

• Brad Meltzer

• Deon Meyer

• Alex Michaelides

• Margaret Millar

• Mark Mills

• Zygmunt Miłoszewski

• Rick Mofina

• Aly Monroe

• Brian Moore (also under the pseudonyms Michael Bryan and Bernard Mara)

• David Morrell

• John Mortimer

• Robert Muchamore

• Marcia Muller

• James Munro

• Margaret Murphy

• Thomas F. Murphy

• Michael Nava

• Christopher Nicole

• Audrey Niffenegger

• Ingrid Noll

• Oliver North

O–P
• Manning O'Brine

• T. Lynn Ocean

• Michael Ondaatje

• E. Phillips Oppenheim

• Baroness Orczy

• Perri O'Shaughnessy

• Sara Paretsky

• Michael Parker

• James Patterson

• Richard North Patterson

• Stel Pavlou

• Matthew Pearl

• Ridley Pearson

• Kira Peikoff

• Hayford Peirce

• Don Pendleton

• Thomas Perry

• Ralph Peters

• James Phelan

• Christopher Pike

• Edgar Allan Poe

• Henry Porter

• Douglas Preston

• Anthony Price

• Christopher Priest

• Mario Puzo

R
• Ron Rash

• Ishmael Reed

• Christopher Reich

• Kathy Reichs

• Matthew Reilly

• Ruth Rendell

• Osvaldo Reyes

• Stella Rimington

• J.D. Robb

• Jeremy Robinson

• Kim Stanley Robinson

• Patrick Robinson

• James Rollins

• Santiago Roncagliolo

• Nancy Taylor Rosenberg

• David Rosenfelt

• Judith Rossner

• M. A. Rothman

• J. K. Rowling

• Greg Rucka

• Craig Russell

• Eric Frank Russell

• Chris Ryan

• Vladimir Rybakov

S
• Lawrence Sanders

• John Sandford

• John Saul

• Dorothy L. Sayers

• Arthur Schnitzler

• Lisa Scottoline

• Yulian Semyonov

• Gerald Seymour

• A. T. M. Shamsuddin

• Robert Shea

• Sidney Sheldon

• Daniel Silva

• Elizabeth Sims

• Desmond Skirrow

• Karin Slaughter

• Martin Cruz Smith

• Rosamond Smith

• Mickey Spillane

• Jason Starr

• Peter Steiner

• Olen Steinhauer

• Neal Stephenson

• Brooke Stevens

• Robert Louis Stevenson

• R.L. Stine

• S. M. Stirling

• Jon Stock

• Bram Stoker

• Nick Stone

• Paul Sussman

T–W
• Robert K. Tanenbaum

• Bernard J. Taylor

• Ron Terpening

• Josephine Tey

• James Thayer

• Craig Thomas

• Ross Thomas

• Brad Thor

• Guillermo del Toro

• Peter Townend

• Arthur Train

• Scott Turow

• James Twining

• Lisa Unger

• Andrew Vachss

• Eric Van Lustbader

• Abraham Verghese

• Jules Verne

• Barbara Vine

• Vyasa

• Edgar Wallace

• Irving Wallace

• Minette Walters

• Charlie Wells

• Morris West

• Jeri Westerson

• Donald Westlake (pseudonyms include Richard Stark)

• Dennis Wheatley

• Lionel White

• Michael White

• Stephen White

• Kate Wilhelm

• Alan Williams

• F. Paul Wilson

• Robert Anton Wilson

• Leslie Wolfe

• John Wray

Y–Z
• Dornford Yates

• Helen Zahavi