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Killer Reads: Books About Serial Killers You Need to Read

What is it about fictional serial killers that keeps us coming back for more? Maybe it’s the psychological depth, the terrifying unpredictability, or the thrill of watching brilliant investigators match wits with truly twisted minds. Whatever the reason, serial killer fiction has a way of pulling us in — and refusing to let go.

Whether you’re into slow-burning psychological suspense or high-stakes detective thrillers, the books on this list deliver unforgettable killers, chilling crimes, and plenty of sleepless nights. These killer reads will take you deep into the shadows — where danger lurks on every page.

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Best Fictional Serial Killer Books: Personal Faves & Upcoming Reads

Fiction Books About Serial Killers I’ve Read & Recommend

Over the years, I’ve read my fair share of dark, twisty, and downright chilling books about serial killers — and some have stuck with me long after the final page. Below is a curated list of some fiction titles I’ve personally read and highly recommend. Whether you’re craving a slow-burning psychological thriller or a high-stakes crime chase, these books deliver all the suspense, shock, and sinister characters you could ask for.

Seven Days to Die by Michelle Kidd - Click here for my review

Please note this book is a completely revised version of Seven Days.

A brutal killer who strangles young women and leaves their bodies strewn across London’s parks. A killer who leaves his next victim’s shoe beside the body of his last one. Detective Jack MacIntosh has seven days to find the truth.

A young woman’s body is discovered in Hyde Park. Wearing only one shoe.

Close to the body, Detective Jack MacIntosh finds a black stiletto, diamante buckle glinting in the early morning sun. But it doesn’t belong to the victim.

Two days later, another young woman is found strangled to death in nearby Green Park. Wearing just one shoe — the matching stiletto. Hidden in the long grass beside the body, the police uncover a low-heeled court shoe.

Detective Jack and his team are in a race against time to find the owner of the court shoe before it’s far, far too late.

At the same time, Jack is fighting demons of his own. Demons which rise up from the past and threaten to cloud his judgement just when he needs it most.

Detective Jack is hunting a brutal killer. A killer who delights in playing cat-and-mouse games. Who will win this deadly battle of wits?

I Am Number Four by Trevor Negus - Click here for my review

One, two, three… Someone’s coming for me.

A woman stumbles out of the woods. Gravely injured, she can only utter the words, “I am number four”. Then she passes out.

No one knows who she is, or where she’s come from. Only that she barely escaped with her life.

As DCI Danny Flint begins to investigate, he becomes convinced that a person unknown tried to murder the mysterious ‘Number Four’. And he fears the killer may have already chosen the next victim.

So when a second woman goes missing not far from where Number Four was found, the race is on to find her.

But where is the perpetrator hiding his victims? And how is he choosing them? Who exactly is Number Four? And can Danny find Number Five before it is too late…

I Am Number Four – the ninth in the gripping detective series featuring DCI Danny Flint.

Five Will Die by L.A. Detwiler - Click here for my review

By Friday, one will kill and one will die in the Evermore Publishing offices. But this is just the start of a horrifying chain of murders because the killer has much bigger plans.

From the USA Today bestseller comes a shocking thriller that will keep you guessing up until the very last page.

When a new girl, Becky Rusett, joins the Evermore Publishing team, she’ll start to realize no office setting is as safe as it appears. The secrets, lies, and underhanded dealings of the publishing house are unsettling enough–but now some sinister events are putting the entire office in real danger.

Decades before Evermore Publishing existed, a group of five meanspirited children terrorized a young child in a small town. The Fab 5, as they were called, set off the chain of events that would lead to the horrific events at Evermore. But what’s their connection to the New York City bookworms…and can anyone solve the mystery before there’s a brutal murder?

You never really know if there’s a killer in the cubicle beside you. This tense mystery is only the first of five books tracing the footsteps of a killer.

Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson - Click here for my review

ears ago, bookseller and mystery aficionado Malcolm Kershaw compiled a list of the genre’s most unsolvable murders, those that are almost impossible to crack—which he titled “Eight Perfect Murders”—chosen from among the best of the best including Agatha Christie’s A. B. C. Murders, Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, Ira Levin’s Death Trap, A. A. Milne's Red House Mystery, Anthony Berkeley Cox's Malice Aforethought, James M. Cain's Double Indemnity, John D. Macdonald's The Drowner, and Donna Tartt's A Secret History.

But no one is more surprised than Mal, now the owner of the Old Devils Bookstore in Boston, when an FBI agent comes knocking on his door one snowy day in February. She’s looking for information about a series of unsolved murders that look eerily similar to the killings on Mal’s old list. And the FBI agent isn’t the only one interested in this bookseller who spends almost every night at home reading. There is killer is out there, watching his every move—a diabolical threat who knows way too much about Mal’s personal history, especially the secrets he’s never told anyone, even his recently deceased wife.

To protect himself, Mal begins looking into possible suspects . . . and sees a killer in everyone around him. But Mal doesn’t count on the investigation leaving a trail of death in its wake. Suddenly, a series of shocking twists leaves more victims dead—and the noose around Mal’s neck grows so tight he might never escape.

Mind Games by Nancy Mehl - Click here for my review

Kaely Quinn's talents as an FBI behavior analyst are impossible to ignore, no matter how unorthodox her methods. But when a reporter outs her as the daughter of an infamous serial killer, she's demoted to field agent and transferred to St. Louis.When the same reporter who ruined her career claims to have received an anonymous poem predicting a string of murders, ending with Kaely's, the reporter's ulterior motives bring his claim into question. But when a body is found that fits the poem's predictions, the threat is undeniable, and the FBI sends Special Agent Noah Hunter to St. Louis. Initially resentful of the assignment, Noah is surprised at how quickly his respect for Kaely grows, despite her oddities. But with a brazen serial killer who breaks all the normal patterns on the loose, Noah and Kaely are tested to their limits to catch the murderer before anyone else--including Kaely herself--is killed.

Pressure by Betsy Reavley - Click here for my review

When the submarine departed, none of the ten people on board knew it would turn into a nightmare.

Trapped on the sunken vessel and unable to escape, one of them is discovered dead. The tension escalates as the survivors realise there is a murderer among them, who is preparing to strike again and again…

With mounting desperation, people begin to turn on each other. While they struggle to identify who is responsible, each must contend with their own past and the secrets they are hiding.

But who is who? And which of them will be next to die?

Psycho Analysis by V.R. Stone - Click here for my review

A serial killer who wants to quit. A detective struggling to keep his personal life out of a murder hunt. And a celebrity psychiatrist facing an incredible challenge. Three damaged individuals, linked by their traumatic histories. They’ve chosen very different paths. Now those paths are about to cross.

“A great debut novel with a fantastic female serial killer!” - Mo, Goodreads

“A gritty and modern urban thriller at heart, this page-burner accomplishes what many in the genre don’t: fully developed characters with rich inner-lives.” - DavidK, Amazon.com review

Sarah Silver is a hedge fund manager – from Monday to Friday she makes a killing in the markets. At weekends, though, she hunts men, not profits. Martin White used to be a brilliant detective. But his family, judgement and self-control are deserting him. And Karl Gross has sold millions of books on serial killers. However he’s a controversial figure in the medical community.

Can Martin keep it together and catch a killer who commits almost perfect crimes? Is Karl capable of unravelling Sarah’s psyche and putting an end to the killing? Or will she disappear when she realises that the hunter has become the hunted?

PsychoAnalysis is a psychological crime thriller that explores the grey area between good and evil. Why would a woman kill for fun? Can she be understood? Can she be stopped?

Books About Serial Killers: What’s on My TBR List

Below are the books about serial killers currently sitting on my TBR (to be read) list — titles I’ve heard incredible things about and can’t wait to dive into. From spine-tingling psychological suspense to fast-paced crime thrillers, these are the stories I'm planning to lose sleep over next.

The Dead Don't Dream (Mind Games, Book 1) by Meghan O'Flynn

A psychologist must decide whether her sleepwalking patient is a victim or a brutal serial killer in this unpredictable psychological crime thriller.

A night to remember… if you make it out alive.

Psychologist Maggie Connolly didn’t just stumble into trouble—she was born into it. Her humanitarian but slightly shady parents had no problem breaking the law when it served the greater good. Helping domestic violence victims escape their abusers by vanishing them over state lines might not be exactly aboveboard, but Maggie knows right and wrong don’t always fall within the confines of the law.

So she doesn’t immediately panic when her newest client presents with a suspicious set of symptoms. Tristan Simms claims to be a sleepwalker who has no idea what he does in the nighttime hours, though the wounds on his hands and grime beneath his fingernails indicate he’s doing anything but resting. He also believes that the police are stalking him and asserts that he made his money peddling the secrets of others. He might be a delusional whack job—it’s a clinical term.

But her assessment shifts when a series of bodies are discovered. Stranger, the timeline for the murders matches that of her patient’s sleepwalking episodes.

With the body count rising, and threats mounting from all sides, Maggie is running out of choices—and time. It seems that Maggie’s next on the kill list. And only one thing connects the victims: her patient, with his head full of secrets, his fingernails dark with blood.

The Bone Forest by V. J. Chambers

Can an FBI Academy dropout catch a vicious serial killer?

It’s been fifteen years since Vivian Delacroix unleashed her followers on the town of Cardinal Falls. The cult members killed anyone Vivian told them was a threat to their beliefs.

Now, another killer takes young girls of nine or ten, all related to Vivian’s original victims. He drugs them, suffocates them, and painstakingly arranges them in ritualistic poses. The bodies give up no evidence to the killer’s identity.

When Wren Delacroix happens upon the latest victim, she’s forced to admit to herself that she came back to her home town because of her interest in this case. These dead girls, they remind her of things long buried from her own childhood. And when she sees a certain man lurking at the edges of the crime scene, her past smacks her in the face like a cresting wave of disquiet. Even though she dropped out of the FBI Academy and tried to flee from the dark parts of herself, she can’t run away.

Before she knows what she’s doing, she’s spouting her fully formed profile of the killer to Detective Caius Reilly, head of the tri-state task force, and she’s begging him to let her help.

She needs to solve this case and stop this killer.

If only to prove to herself that she’s nothing like her mother Vivian.

Knock Knock by Chris Merritt

Natasha Mayston wasn’t expecting anyone to knock on her door so late at night. And she has no idea that the face staring back at her is the last one she’ll ever see…

As Detective Dan Lockhart is called to a wealthy London street to investigate Natasha’s death, he’s startled by the similarity to a previous case. Noticing the cable-tie restraints and the tiny scratches on Natasha’s wedding finger, Dan already knows what he will find if he looks in her mouth – the metal ball which choked her to death. He knows Natasha isn’t the killer’s first victim and is certain that he will strike again.

Months earlier, Kim Hardy was found in the same position in a run-down hotel across the city – an identical silver ball in her throat. But Kim’s murderer was caught and sent to prison – did they arrest the wrong man? And what connects the two victims? Fearing that he’s dealing with a psychopathic serial killer, Dan calls in psychologist Dr Lexi Green to help him to get into the perpetrator’s mind. Tough and smart, Lexi will stop at nothing to hunt down the man responsible for the deaths.

Then, another body is discovered, just as Lexi finds a clue online leading to the killer. Dan’s team aren’t convinced, but in pushing Lexi away from the investigation, they force her to dig further into the case on her own. Convinced that she’s on to something, she puts herself in unthinkable danger… but can Dan piece together the clues and identify the killer before it’s too late?