Main article: Thriller (genre)
This is a list of thriller or suspense novelists. Note that some of these may overlap with authors of crime, mystery or spy fiction.
This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.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