Usually when I go to the book store I get something out of the 'Fiction & Literature' section. Every so often I read science fiction, I only read Stephen King from the 'Horror' section. Fantasy novels aren't my thing, but I have never bought something from the 'Thriller' section. What are some of the classic thriller novels?
Do have a certain type of thriller in mind? There's so many types there's psychological thrillers, adventure thrillers , sci-fi thrillers , cyber thrillers , mystery thrillers. I liked James Patterson's Along came a Spider , and Kiss the Girls. Joy Fieldings - See Jane Run Night of the Juggler - William P McGivern
My favorite Thriller writer is Vince Flynn. I wouldn't call him a "classic," though. Off the top of my head, the three "classic" thriller writers I can think of would be John le Carré (Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy), Ian Flemming (James Bond), and Tom Clancy (Jack Ryan -- Clancy is somewhat known as "redefining" the thriller genre, whereas le Carré and Flemming are actually classics). Out of those three, I unfortunately have only read Clancy so far, but I have novels from both of the others and plan to read them soon. Even so, they are highly critically acclaimed, and I'd recommend them. If you like psychological thrillers, I'd recommend Dennis Lehane (Shutter Island) and Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club), and I'm sure there's many more great ones but I haven't read many, unfortunately. For Political Thrillers, I would again recommend Vince Flynn and Tom Clancy, along with Ben Coes, Brad Thor, Alex Berenson, and Steven Hunter. For Mystery Thrillers, I'd recommend Michael Connelly, Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and for an awesome mix of mystery and fantasy, the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher are quite fantastic. ~ Velox
Thrilling stories are very important especially when they contain a moral that has a deep meaning. Among the best authors who write thrilling stories are: Agatha Christie, most of her books are thrilling; Frederick Marryat and his great book the phantom ship; Edgar Allan Poe's stories; and many other writers whom we respect.
As peachalulu mentioned, the genre has quite some varieties that differ immensely from one another. What are you really looking for? Anyway, I really liked the American Psycho novel. It's, well, something else, to say the least. Would recommend.
Dean Koontz is one of my personal favorites, although I don't know if he would be classic as he's only been around for about the same amout of time as Stephen King. His Odd Thomas series is absolutely fantastic, although it may not be considered quite the thriller that his books normally are, more of a supernatural theme. But the two that come to mind right away are By the Light of the Moon, and The Bad Place. Great author.
