Summer Thrillers That Will Have You At The Edge of Your Chaise Lounge

Don't tell the other genres, but thrillers make for the best summer reads. When it comes to plots that keep you physically stuck in one place, thrillers have the highest frequency of magnetism. You'll be compulsively turning the page until the knot is unraveled, the tension is resolved, and you can exhale at last.

Thriller is a broad category — there are crime thrillers, psychological thrillers, suspense thrillers, romantic thrillers. Not to get all existential, but given the breadth of the genre, what is a thriller, anyway? To me, "thriller" is a mood. It's a book that steeps you in an atmosphere of unease and peril, and then devises a mystery to keep you reading. Thrillers mess with your head, but in a good way. And, as HBO's adaptations of Big Little Lies and the forthcoming Sharp Objects demonstrate so aptly, thrillers also make fantastic fodder for prestige TV shows.

These books, all released in 2018, make for fantastic vacation reads. Our only advice is to bring more than one along. You'll inhale one a day.