12 of the best race-against-time thrillers

Hunted by Abir Mukherjee

Sajid Khan is in London when armed police storm Heathrow Airport to arrest him. His daughter Aliyah was seen entering the United States with the suicide bomber responsible for an attack in LA and has since disappeared, prompting fears of another attack. Then a woman called Carrie shows up at Sajid’s door, claiming Aliyah is with her son Greg, and she knows where they could be. Can these parents find their children and unravel a wider conspiracy – or will the FBI get to them first? This thought-provoking, high-adrenaline thriller was named the Times Thriller of the Year for 2024.

Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister

Camilla thought she knew her husband Luke: a loving father, successful writer, and generally good-natured man. Then she learns there’s a hostage situation in a bank and Luke is involved. But he’s not one of the hostages – he’s the man wielding the gun. Camilla remembers that Luke left a half-written note in their home that morning, and her next steps are crucial: can she decipher the clues and stop her husband before it’s too late?

This Is Not a Game by Kelly Mullen

In this new locked-room mystery, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and Tom Hindle, an unlikely group of guests gather at a manor house for an extravagant party. Mimi is only in attendance because she is being blackmailed by the host, Jane, and she has invited her heartbroken granddaughter Addie to keep her company. But as they settle in, a scream pierces the festivities: Jane is dead, and everyone is a suspect. As the night draws on, the body count rises. Can Mimi and Addie find the culprit?

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman

This new book from the author of the popular Thursday Murder Club series introduces two new characters: Steve Wheeler, a retired investigator, and his daughter-in-law Amy, a private security officer. Amy’s job protecting a high-profile client on a private island takes a turn when she stumbles upon a dead body, a bag full of cash, and a killer trying to cover their tracks. She enlists the help of her retired father-in-law and, together, the unlikely detective duo race across the world to try to solve the mystery – and stay alive.

The Next Girl by Emiko Jean

Detective Chelsey Calhoun has been looking for her missing sister for 20 years – but her sister is one of many girls who have disappeared in the area. The investigation is at a dead-end until teenager Ellie Black is discovered in the Washington State woods, two years after she vanished. But Ellie won’t disclose where she’s been, or who she’s protecting. Detective Calhoun is in a race against time to get her to talk – before the next girl is taken.

12 Months to Live by James Patterson

Jane Smith is a top criminal defence attorney who has made a name for herself by representing New York’s rich and famous. She goes above and beyond for her clients – often taking on the role of investigator, as well as lawyer. While preparing her defence of a man accused of a triple homicide, she is hired to solve a cold case. But then the bombshell lands: a terminal medical diagnosis. She has just one year to live – unless her enemies kill her first.

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No One Saw a Thing by Andrea Mara

Sive lives every parent’s worst nightmare when her two little girls jump on the train ahead of her – and then the doors close. When she races to the next station, only one of her daughters is waiting for her. Has her daughter been taken? Sive has to piece together the clues but the more time that passes, the less likely it is that she will ever see her daughter again. This is a clever, claustrophobic page-turner with an incredibly fast pace. You’ll devour it in one sitting.

Room by Emma Donoghue

Room is about the most tense of all situations: not only is a young woman imprisoned with her child, but she fears that soon their captor is going to turn off the electricity and stop feeding them. Before they starve or freeze to death, they have to escape. Nobody, apart from her captor, knows where this young woman is, nor even that she’s still alive. It is a deeply personal and lonely race against the clock, told through the eyes of a five-year-old child.

I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes

Unlike Room, with the lives of just two people at stake, this novel has the hero, ‘Pilgrim’, racing against the clock to save the whole of America. The writer’s roots as a screenwriter shows – he paces his story like a bullet and effortlessly transports the reader, along with his main protagonist, all over the world, most hauntingly the Hindu Kush, as he hunts for the man who is planning to execute an atrocity. It’s a blockbuster of a book that is perfect for people that love high concept thrillers, mind-blowingly well plotted.

The Last by by Hanna Jameson

In this strikingly original novel the stakes are even higher – it’s not just America’s fate that’s at stake, but the entire world’s. Or has that race against the clock already been lost? Jon Keller doesn’t know if the hotel he’s staying is the only place left with people still alive following nuclear devastation. Added to which, criminals don’t respect the nuclear apocalypse because he finds the murdered body of a girl and is determined to find out what happened to her. There’s an eerie sense reading the book that the race against the clock is actually in the reader’s real world, with geo-politics potentially leading to catastrophe, making for an extremely unsettling as well as gripping read.

Dark Matter by Michelle Paver

This is not a book to read at night. A terrifying ghost-thriller, it is set in the remote wilderness of the far north. Twenty-eight-year-old Jack is part of an Arctic expedition of five men and eight huskies who camp on a remote, uninhabited bay. But, one by one, Jack’s companions are forced to leave and winter closes in. Then Jack realises he’s not alone: something is out there in the dark. Soon, he will reach the point of no return – when the sea will freeze, making escape impossible.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Uniquely, this story is told by the victim of rape and murder – a 14-year-old girl called Susie Salmon – who narrates the story from heaven. Susie tells us about that terrible afternoon and the identity of her murderer. The tension of Susie not being able to tell the police and her family is almost unbearable. This is the story of what happens when the race against the clock has been lost, when nobody realised in time. But it’s also about what happens next and that is where the depth and genius of the novel lies.

What are your favourite race-against-time thrillers? Let us know in the comments below!

This article has been updated; it was originally published in 2020.

Rosamund Lupton and Katie Russell

Rosamund Lupton’s novel, Three Hours, is a Sunday Times bestseller.
‘A brilliant literary thriller… moving, masterly’ Sunday Times

Rosamund Lupton is the author of Sister, a BBC Radio 4 ‘Book at Bedtime’, a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller, winner of the Strand Magazine critics award and the Richard and Judy Book Club Readers’ Choice Award. Her next two books Afterwards and The Quality of Silence (also a Richard and Judy pick) were Sunday Times bestsellers. Her books have been published in over thirty languages.

Follow Rosamund on Twitter.

1 Comment

I was really underwhelmed by Dark Paver. Was really excited as it was a ghost story, but was very disappointed. 🙁

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12 of the best race-against-time thrillers