5 Thriller Books That Hollywood Needs To Adapt Into Movies And TV Shows

I read a lot of thriller books. At this point, it’s probably my main hobby. I love nothing more than curling up with a bizarre, twisted, and upsetting thriller centering around a small-town murder, missing people, hostages, kidnap victims, or even all of the above, somehow. Yes, that’s all very dark and weird, but it’s a fact; if a thriller book came out with a title like “The Sister-Cousin in my Brother’s Basement,” I would for sure read it.

This is all to say that I consider myself a bit of an expert on the genre. When BookTok videos show up on my algorithm, I usually realize I’ve read the entire list of recommendations. I consume new thrillers like candy every week. A lot of really worthwhile thrillers, like Andrea Mara’s “All Her Fault,”  Liane Moriarty’s “Big Little Lies,” and Gillian Flynn’s outright masterpiece “Gone Girl,” have been adapted into successful TV shows and movies, but some of the best thriller books I’ve read haven’t gotten that same treatment. They should, though!

In compiling this list, I learned that a bunch of thrillers I really love have either been optioned or are already being made into movies or TV shows, so I cut them from the list (sorry, “None of This is True” by Lisa Jewell, but I can’t wait to see the Netflix adaptation when it does drop). None of the books on this list, as of this writing, have any adaptations in the works at all, and that’s a crying shame. All of them are cinematic, absolutely riveting, and deeply twisted, which I mean in the best possible way. Here are five dark, bizarre, and satisfying thrillers that Hollywood needs to adapt as soon as they can.

“Strange Sally Diamond,” the 2023 novel from acclaimed Irish novelist Liz Nugent, opens with the most startling scenario imaginable: the titular Sally Diamond burns her father’s body in the incinerator on their property, only stopping her attempts to dispose of him when the police are called. To be totally fair to Sally, she’s doing what her father apparently told her to do — as he succumbed to a long illness, he told Sally to get rid of his body after he died — but it still draws attention to her in a very uncomfortable way. Sally, a solitary woman who lives in almost complete isolation in Ireland, becomes a public figure thanks to news stories about her burning her father’s corpse. And, unfortunately for Sally, her newfound and strange notoriety leads to a genuinely shocking reveal about her childhood and her past.

“Strange Sally Diamond” is one of the weirdest and darkest thrillers I’ve ever read by a long shot, but it’s also astounding; you absolutely won’t be able to put this book down once you pick it up, so make sure to clear your schedule whenever you get around to reading it. Told across two distinct timelines — Sally’s in the present and a young boy named Peter’s in the past — “Strange Sally Diamond” is bleak, gripping, and full of increasingly lurid twists and turns. It would make a really phenomenal miniseries or movie, albeit one that would require a whole bunch of trigger warnings.

Almost any book from Canadian author Chevy Stevens could go on this list, but out of the pack, I’ve chosen “Still Missing,” the writer’s 2014 novel about a young woman grappling with the after-effects of a terrifying kidnapping. Told through therapy sessions, “Still Missing” centers around Annie O’Sullivan, a 32 year old realtor who’s living a normal and happy life when, during a showing, she’s abducted by a sadistic man. Annie then spends a full year as the man’s captive in a remote cabin. She does manage to escape, but even in her therapy sessions she’s understandably full of fear and apprehension, worried that her captor — who is evading the police — will strike again.

“Still Missing” is incredibly intense, filled with a sense of creeping dread, and is also horrifically sad — there’s an aspect to Annie’s captivity that ends in a way that will absolutely break your heart — but it’s also unbelievably cinematic. It’s easy to imagine an incredible actor, as Annie, delivering monologues to a therapist about her experiences as this psychopath’s victim. Plus, the twist ending has to be read to be believed, and I can only imagine how wild it would be to see that particular storyline take place on screen. Stevens has written several excellent, twisted, and dark books, but “Still Missing” might just be her best, and it definitely deserves the Hollywood treatment.

Former police officer and British author Clare Mackintosh actually does have some books with potential adaptations in the works — her 2026 novel “It’s Not What You Think” has already been optioned, and her series that centers around Welsh detective Ffion Morgan is also reportedly being adapted — but I’m here to champion her 2011 novel “I Let You Go.” When the story begins, we’re introduced to our protagonist, Jenna Gray, who’s moved into an isolated home on the coast of Wales to escape something traumatic from her recent past: the death of her son. We then learn the heartbreaking detail that’s the key to this entire sordid story, which is that the young boy was killed in a hit-and-run car accident and Jenna couldn’t save him.

I cannot and will not spoil the massive twists and turns found within the pages of “I Let You Go,” but rest assured that you’ll be glued to this book with your jaw firmly on the floor across its 400 pages. Mackintosh’s entire body of work is, in my opinion, pretty unimpeachable. I almost put her plane thriller “Hostage” on this list before settling on “I Let You Go,” only because “Hostage” is set almost entirely upon a moving aircraft. But when it comes to books written by Mackintosh that absolutely deserve high profile adaptations, “I Let You Go” is the clear winner.

At face value, Nicci Cloke’s 2025 novel “Her Many Faces” sounds almost reductive: a young waitress named Katie is accused of murdering multiple men at an exclusive members only club in London, and her story is then told by a group of men. In practice, though, “Her Many Faces” is a fascinating character study and gripping thriller told from the perspective of five characters: Katie’s father, John; her childhood best friend, Gabe; her lawyer, Tarun; a journalist trying to tell her story, Max; and her lover, Conrad. Across these men, we see radically different versions of Katie. Is she, like her father claims, a young woman with a traumatic past, or, as Gabe indicates, is she a troubled girl caught up in conspiracy theories?

The most fascinating thing about “Her Many Faces” turns out to be the very framework that almost seems frustrating at first; why would we want to hear Katie’s story told by a bunch of guys? As the book continues, though, you realize Cloke’s intention — specifically, that she wants to explain how men can view one singular woman in vastly varied ways, and how their perceptions and views of her can skew their own biases. Add in a truly shocking conclusion and twist ending, and it’s easy to see why “Her Many Faces” would make a gripping miniseries.

Kia Abdullah is known for her sharp, twisty legal thrillers, and in the British author and journalist’s 2021 book “Next of Kin,” a genuinely horrifying incident kicks off the story and leaves sisters Leila and Yasmin in opposite corners. When Yasmin and her husband Andrew find themselves unable to drop their three year old son Max off at daycare, Leila offers to do it. But when the successful attorney heads into work with Max in the car, she forgets he’s in the back seat and heads to the office for a long day at work. It’s the middle of summer, and as a result, Max dies from vehicular hypothermia, leaving both Leila and Yasmin grief-stricken and horrified. 

Told largely in the courtroom itself as Leila finds herself on trial for manslaughter, “Next of Kin” is a shocking, almost unbelievable legal thriller that keeps twisting and turning its narrative until you’re left absolutely shaken by what you’ve just read and learned. Like the other authors on this list, Abdullah is a prolific and talented writer with a body of work that lends itself well to adaptation — people love legal dramas, and all of Abdullah’s books fit that bill nicely — but “Next of Kin” is one of her darkest and most gut-twisting stories, which is to say that it would make a stunning and unforgettable TV show or movie.