The Best Hardcover Thriller Novel 2020 Nominees

In Denise Mina's Conviction, a normal housewife's life gets turned upside down and swirls around a true crime podcast. One morning while she listens to her favorite escape, her husband comes downstairs and announces he's leaving her. When she gets back to the podcast, she listens to an episode with a crime she knows on a personal level. She knew one of the victims in an earlier life, and is certain she knows what really happened. With her podcast at her side, she goes on a wild adventure through her secret past to solve the crime.

In David Baldacci's latest fast-paced historical thriller, One Good Deed, a World War II veteran is forced to investigate a small-town murder or risk going back to prison. Aloysius Archer is released from prison and sent to Poca City on parole with a few rules to keep him in line. He has to get a job, stay away from booze, and report regularly to his parole officer. But he doesn't stick to those rules. While on his job hunt, he finds himself at a local bar. And he gets a job: collect a debt owed to a powerful local businessman. But the indebted man holds a deep grudge, and the people he surrounds himself with make for a messy situation for Archer. He catches wind of a murder, Archer realizes that he'll be back in prison if he doesn't find the real killer.

Related: Which David Baldacci Book Should You Read First?

The Chain by Adriann McKinty is the epitome of thriller. One person gets a phone call from a stranger who says their child was kidnapped. The caller's child was also kidnapped. The only way for the receiver of the call to get their child back is to kidnap another child in the next 24 hours, and that child's parents kidnap another child. But if the receiver of the call doesn't kidnap a child, their child will be murdered. And on, and on, and on the chain goes.