If The Silent Patient kept you guessing until the final page, these 13 authors like Alex Michaelides write the kind of psychological thrillers that make you question everything you just read.
Alex Michaelides was working as a screenwriter in Los Angeles when he wrote The Silent Patient — a psychological thriller about a famous painter who shoots her husband and then never speaks again. Published in 2019, it became one of the biggest debut thrillers in years, spending over a year on the New York Times bestseller list and selling in 50 countries. He followed it with The Maidens (2021), set among a secret society at Cambridge, and The Fury (2024), a locked-island mystery with an unreliable narrator.
What sets Michaelides apart is his background in psychotherapy. He studied at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and trained in psychodynamic psychotherapy, which gives his psychological portraits real depth. His books aren’t just whodunits — they’re explorations of trauma, obsession, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive. Greek mythology runs through his work like a thread, adding layers of meaning beneath the thriller surface.
For more recommendations, explore our guides to best thriller authors, authors like Gillian Flynn, and best plot twist books.
Authors Like Alex Michaelides
1. Ruth Ware
Ruth Ware is one of the most reliable names in psychological suspense. Her debut, In a Dark, Dark Wood, traps a group of old friends in a remote house for a hen party that goes horribly wrong. She followed that with The Woman in Cabin 10, The Lying Game, and One by One — each built around an isolated setting and escalating paranoia.
Ware’s books share Michaelides’ interest in how groups of people hide secrets from each other. Her pacing is excellent — she builds dread slowly and then pulls the rug out. If you appreciate how The Silent Patient uses its therapy sessions to slowly reveal the truth, Ware uses setting and atmosphere to achieve the same effect.
“I think we all have monsters inside us, and sometimes they win.”
Ruth Ware, In a Dark, Dark Wood
2. A.J. Finn
A.J. Finn’s The Woman in the Window follows an agoraphobic child psychologist who witnesses something terrible in her neighbour’s house — or does she? The unreliable narrator device is similar to Michaelides’ approach, and the book became a massive bestseller despite controversy around the author’s real identity and background.
The novel is a love letter to classic Hitchcock thrillers, particularly Rear Window, and it layers psychological complexity with genuine suspense. Like The Silent Patient, it uses a protagonist’s mental health as both a plot device and a source of empathy. The twist at the end reframes everything you’ve read.
“I’ve been looking out the window for so long, I’ve forgotten what’s inside.”
A.J. Finn, The Woman in the Window
3. Lisa Jewell
Lisa Jewell started her career writing romantic comedies before pivoting to domestic suspense with devastating results. Then She Was Gone is about a mother still searching for her missing daughter years after she vanished, and the truth is far more disturbing than you’d expect. Jewell has since published The Family Upstairs, Invisible Girl, and None of This Is True.
Jewell excels at the kind of slow reveal that Michaelides uses. Her books feel domestic and ordinary on the surface, then gradually expose something deeply wrong. She writes characters you think you understand, then shifts your perspective entirely. Her recent work has been consistently excellent.
“There are so many versions of every story. And some of them are lies.”
Lisa Jewell, Then She Was Gone
4. Freida McFadden
Freida McFadden is a practicing physician who writes thrillers at a pace that would be alarming if the books weren’t so consistently good. The Housemaid became a BookTok sensation in 2023, and its sequel kept the momentum going. McFadden’s specialty is the double twist — just when you think you’ve figured out the game, she flips the board.
Like Michaelides, McFadden uses enclosed settings and power dynamics to build tension. Her medical background adds clinical precision to her portrayals of psychological manipulation. If you loved the structural surprise of The Silent Patient’s ending, McFadden delivers similar “wait, what?” moments in nearly every book.
“I’ve learned the hard way that you can never really know what goes on behind closed doors.”
Freida McFadden, The Housemaid
5. B.A. Paris
B.A. Paris’ debut Behind Closed Doors is a claustrophobic thriller about a marriage that looks perfect from the outside but hides something monstrous. Paris writes about domestic situations with a mounting sense of horror that makes you want to scream at the characters to run.
Paris shares Michaelides’ ability to make you deeply uncomfortable in a controlled, deliberate way. Her books are short, sharp, and built around a single devastating premise. The Breakdown and Bring Me Back follow similar patterns — ordinary lives concealing extraordinary lies. She doesn’t waste words.
“Everyone thought we had the perfect marriage. That’s exactly what he wanted them to think.”
B.A. Paris, Behind Closed Doors
6. Alice Feeney
Alice Feeney’s Sometimes I Lie opens with one of the best first lines in recent thriller fiction: “My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me: 1. I’m in a coma. 2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore. 3. Sometimes I lie.” If that doesn’t hook you, nothing will.
Feeney, a former BBC journalist, writes the kind of structurally inventive thrillers that Michaelides favours. Multiple timelines, unreliable narrators, and endings that force you to reconsider everything — her toolkit overlaps heavily with his. Rock Paper Scissors and Daisy Darker are equally clever. If you’re a writer who wants to study how these twists are constructed, Grammarly can help you tighten your own prose during the editing process.
“Sometimes I lie. My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me.”
Alice Feeney, Sometimes I Lie
7. Shari Lapena
Shari Lapena’s The Couple Next Door starts with every parent’s worst nightmare: a couple returns from a dinner party next door to find their baby missing from her crib. The investigation peels back layers of secrets between all the neighbours, and nobody is as innocent as they seem.
Lapena writes fast, propulsive domestic thrillers with short chapters and constant reveals. She’s less atmospheric than Michaelides but compensates with pure momentum. Her books — including A Stranger in the House and An Unwanted Guest — are perfect for readers who want the paranoid, trust-no-one feeling of The Silent Patient in a slightly more grounded setting.
“It’s the people closest to you who are the most dangerous.”
Shari Lapena, The Couple Next Door
8. Claire Mackintosh
Claire Mackintosh spent twelve years in the British police force before writing I Let You Go, a thriller about a hit-and-run that killed a child. The book contains one of the most effective twists in modern crime fiction — the kind that makes you physically stop reading and stare at the wall.
Mackintosh’s police background gives her books procedural authenticity that grounds even the most shocking reveals. Like Michaelides, she understands that the best thrillers aren’t about the crime — they’re about the people connected to it and what they’re willing to hide. I See You and Hostage are equally gripping.
“The truth doesn’t always set you free. Sometimes it locks you in a cage.”
Claire Mackintosh, I Let You Go
9. J.P. Delaney
J.P. Delaney’s The Girl Before is a high-concept thriller about two women, years apart, who move into the same architecturally extreme house — which was designed by a controlling genius who imposes strict rules on his tenants. The dual timeline structure gradually reveals terrifying connections between the two women’s stories.
Delaney (a pen name for Tony Strong) writes thrillers with a literary sheen and clever structural gimmicks. Playing Nice, about two families who discover their babies were switched at birth, is equally unsettling. His work shares Michaelides’ interest in how the spaces we inhabit shape — and trap — us psychologically.
“Nothing about this house is what it seems. Including me.”
J.P. Delaney, The Girl Before
10. Sarah Pekkanen
Sarah Pekkanen, writing solo and with Greer Hendricks, has produced some of the sharpest domestic thrillers of the last decade. The Wife Between Us, co-written with Hendricks, pulled off a perspective twist that became the gold standard for the genre. Their follow-up, An Anonymous Girl, explored the ethics of psychological research in ways that would make Michaelides’ therapist characters squirm.
Pekkanen’s solo novels are equally strong. She writes about women in impossible situations — marriages, friendships, rivalries — with the precision of someone who has studied human behaviour obsessively. The Hendricks-Pekkanen partnership ended in 2023, but both continue writing separately.
“You think you know the whole story. You don’t even know which story you’re in.”
Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen, The Wife Between Us
11. Rachel Hawkins
Rachel Hawkins transitioned from YA fantasy to adult thrillers with impressive results. The Wife Upstairs is a modern retelling of Jane Eyre set in an exclusive Alabama neighbourhood, and it’s wickedly fun. The Villa and Reckless Girls continue her streak of atmospheric, twisty reads.
Hawkins brings a sense of dark humor to her thrillers that Michaelides shares — both writers understand that the best suspense doesn’t have to be relentlessly grim. Her settings are gorgeous (Italian villas, luxury developments, remote islands), and her characters are smart enough to be interesting but flawed enough to make terrible decisions.
“Everyone has secrets. Some are just darker than others.”
Rachel Hawkins, The Wife Upstairs
12. Laura Dave
Laura Dave’s The Last Thing He Told Me was one of the biggest thrillers of 2021 — a woman’s husband disappears, leaving only a note that says “Protect her.” The “her” is his teenage daughter, who hates her stepmother. Together, they unravel the truth about who he really was.
Dave’s approach is quieter than Michaelides’ — she builds suspense through emotional connection rather than clinical psychology. But the effect is similar: you keep reading because you need to know the truth, and the truth changes everything you thought you understood. The Apple TV+ adaptation raised her profile even further.
“We spend so much time protecting ourselves from the truth. And the truth is all that can save us.”
Laura Dave, The Last Thing He Told Me
13. Jean Hanff Korelitz
Jean Hanff Korelitz’s The Plot is a thriller about a struggling novelist who steals a dead student’s brilliant story idea and publishes it as his own — only to receive an anonymous message: “You are a thief.” It’s a book about storytelling itself, and it works both as a page-turner and as a meditation on creativity and ownership.
Like Michaelides, Korelitz builds her thriller around a psychological trap that tightens with every chapter. The Plot won the Edgar Award nomination it deserved and was followed by The Sequel. For readers who appreciate the literary quality of Michaelides’ work alongside the suspense, Korelitz delivers both in equal measure.
“A great story is the most dangerous thing in the world.”
Jean Hanff Korelitz, The Plot