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Provocative literary psychological thrillers
Novelist Matt Cahill, author of Radioland, recommends his favourite psychological thrillers.
We have a decent understanding of what makes a book “psychological”— characters with interior depth faced with situations that invite the reader into a more ambiguous and complex world (closer to the one we live in). But with “thriller” I feel we get stuck with “protagonist is chased by x.” I’d like to showcase an array of works I think constitute as Psychological Thrillers—even if not all of them necessarily advertise this fact—drawing from various angles in order to better appreciate the wide variety available.
Tales of Pirx the Pilot
Lem is a favourite of mine, and this collection of science fiction short stories is one that I treasure. Not every piece here qualifies as a thriller, but there is a dark psychological edge that he wields effortlessly. In particular is the story On Patrol where our protagonist, Pirx, investigating the separate disappearances of two fellow cosmonauts in deep space discovers quickly that his life depends on solving this mystery before he suffers a similar fate.
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The Devil in the White City: A Saga of Magic and Murder at the Fair that Changed America
If you assumed that thrillers are fiction, Erik Larson offers a page-turner that is straight out of history—the events leading up to the gargantuan world’s fair of Chicago in 1893, to be exact. What’s notable here is the structured pacing merged with an exacting historical perspective of the technology, politics and people of the day, all without sacrificing momentum… or an impending sense of dread.
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Your Life is Mine
Blanche is a documentary filmmaker on the verge of either selling out or cracking open to a new level of success. So, when a charming young man attending her premiere uses her real name – the name she’s spent years running away from, with its attachment to her cult-leader father – her life begins to unwind when this stranger brings news of her mother’s untimely death.
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The Blondes
'There are worse circumstances in which to be born, my little womb-raider. This is what I tell myself. You will not be a child of war, for instance, just a child of plague.' But this cold-blooded genre-bender isn’t about COVID but rather the “Blonde Fury” in which those of the light-haired persuasion turn into murderous agents of chaos, told in the protagonist’s chilling dispatch to her unborn child.
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Everything Turns Away
Welcome to the domestic thriller, and this tautly paced novel riffs on domesticity itself. Choices, compromises and winded aspirations. A dinner party with dry chicken. While the toll on those involved is in the foreground, illuminating like the crimson sun of dawn, a young babysitter flees for her life from a blood-soaked murder scene. And lurking like a harbinger further in the background? Why, 9/11, of course. Buckle in.
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Nine Dash Line
The world of international espionage is an uncomfortable fit for Jess, a US intelligence officer running from a destructive past. Her mysterious mission in the South China Sea dovetails with the journey of Zi Shan, a political exile desperate to find salvation. There’s much to savour here in the balance between imminent danger and the sordid, ominous backstories of its fated protagonists. ◼︎
View eBookMATT CAHILL is a novelist and psychotherapist living in Toronto. His works include Showshoe, Second World, and The Society of Experience. His newest novel is the thriller Radioland.
Radioland
Dead bodies are being found in Toronto. There are whispers on the streets of a murderer stalking the bars and clubs. No one knows who the killer could be. Maybe it’s Kris, a troubled musician who has just reached a level of fame only to have his life collapse around him. Maybe it’s Jill, a young woman cursed with a dangerous magic that calls strangers to her. In bits and pieces, they share their stories, discovering truths about themselves and the people surrounding them, until they must face the danger that is stalking them both.
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