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The 2025 International Thriller Writers Award finalists are here!
The winners will be announced at the annual ThrillerFest conference in New York City in June 2025.
The ITW Thriller Awards celebrate the best thriller writers from around the world.
In this post we’ll break down a few of the fiction categories to see what’s on offer.
How many on this list have you read? We’re always looking for new thrillers to read, and what better place to find them than on a nominee list!
Six experienced saturation divers are locked inside a hyperbaric chamber. Calm and professional, they know that rapid decompression would be fatal and so they work in shifts, breathing helium, and surviving in hot, close quarters. Then one of them is found dead in his bunk. With four days of decompression to go before the locked hatch to the chamber can be safely opened, the group must watch one another’s backs at all times. And when another diver is discovered unresponsive, everyone is on edge. What…or who…is taking them out one by one? And will any of them still be alive by the time the four days is up or will paranoia, exhaustion, suspicion, and pressure destroy them all?
The International Nuclear Event Scale tracks nuclear disasters. It has seven levels. Level 7 is a Major Accident, with only two on record: Fukushima and Chernobyl. There has never been a Level 8. Until now. In this heart-stopping thriller, ordinary people-power plant employees, firefighters, teachers, families, neighbours, and friends- are thrust into an extraordinary situation as they face the ultimate test of their lives. It will take the combined courage, ingenuity, and determination of a brave few to save not only their community and loved ones, but the fate of humanity at large.
Frank Szatowski hasn’t seen his daughter Maggie in years, and it breaks his heart every day. So when she calls him out of the blue, to tell him that she’s getting married and he’s invited, Frank is overjoyed. Maggie is marrying into one of the richest families in the country, and Frank finds himself overwhelmed by the social circle she now moves in. He’ll do anything to reconnect, though, and arrives at their New Hampshire estate ready to bond however he can with Maggie’s in-laws. But as the wedding weekend gets underway, it becomes clear to Frank that although they have spared no expense, there’s something strange about Maggie’s fiance. And maybe Frank shouldn’t be celebrating just yet…
TJ Devlin is the charming disappointment in the prominent Devlin family, all of whom are lawyers at their highly successful firm-except him. After a stint in prison and rehab for alcoholism, TJ can’t get hired anywhere except at the firm, in a make-work job with the title of investigator. But one night, TJ’s world turns upside down after his older brother John confesses that he just murdered one of the clients, an accountant he’d confronted with proof of embezzlement. It seems impossible coming from John, the firstborn son and Most Valuable Devlin. TJ plunges into the investigation, seizing the chance to prove his worth and save his brother. But in no time, TJ and John find themselves entangled in a lethal web of deception and murder. TJ will fight to save his family, but what he learns might break them first.
Martin Wade lived hard in his youth, but unlike many of his former bandmates and roadie friends, he didn’t die young. Instead he hit the recovery path, cleaned up his life, and became a private investigator in a dying city in upstate New York. When his heavily tattooed and scarred assistant Valerie sets up an appointment with a young woman who needs help keeping her biological father away from her, none of the three realise that the father is Martin’s old bandmate, still using, and on a destructive path that will soon be headed straight for Martin’s clean life. As Martin struggles, Valerie becomes increasingly obsessed with their new client’s life.
One beautiful Californian evening, a wealthy businessman falls to his death from his secluded cliff-top house onto the rocks below. A tragic accident? Or murder? Nora and her half-brother Sam suspect it may be the latter, and team up to uncover the truth of what really happened that night. But their relationship has never been easy, and it is about to be tested to the limit as they start to question how well either of them really knew their elusive father. Unravelling his mysterious past takes them back to a world they knew nothing about, to a tangled love affair and a web of relationships that other people would far rather stay buried…
It was supposed to be a romantic getaway to New York City. Breanna’s new boyfriend, Ty, took care of everything – the train tickets, the sightseeing itinerary, the four-story Jersey City rowhouse with the gorgeous view of the Manhattan skyline. But then Bree wakes up one morning and discovers recently missing dog-walker Janelle Beckett dead in the foyer. Ty is gone, vanished without a trace. A Black woman alone in a strange city, Bree is stranded and out of her depth. There’s only one person she can turn to: her ex-best friend, a lawyer with whom she shares a very complicated past. As the police and a social media mob close in, all looking for #Justice4Janelle, Bree realises that the only way she can stay out of jail is if she finds out what really happened that night. But when people see only what they want to see, can she uncover the truth hiding in plain sight?
Dallas private investigator Dylan Fisher hasn’t seen his ex-wife, Rose, in three years-which is why he’s surprised when she asks him to meet her at a hotel. Rose Doucette is a homicide detective, and she wants Dylan’s help with a murder investigation that she’s been asked to step back from but can’t seem to let go. They review the details of the case and part ways-but as Rose is leaving the parking lot, Dylan sees a suspicious car begin to follow her. Feeling uneasy, he tails the car and tries to warn Rose, but he’s too late-the driver of the car shoots her, killing her instantly, before speeding away. The police are determined to pin the murder on Dylan, so he’s left with no choice but to find the killer himself. Teaming up with Rose’s widower, a defence attorney named Tito, the pair dive into Rose’s past to figure out who could’ve wanted to kill the woman they both loved-and what they were trying to hide.
What happened to Nina? Nobody knows. Simon’s explanation about what happened in their last hours together doesn’t add up. Nina’s parents push the police for answers, and Simon’s parents rush to protect him. They hire expensive lawyers and a PR firm that quickly ramps up a vicious, nothing-is-off-limits media campaign. Soon, facts are lost in a swirl of accusation and counter-accusation. Everyone chooses a side, and the story goes viral, fuelled by armchair investigators and wild conspiracy theories and illustrated with pretty pictures taken from Nina’s social media accounts. Journalists descend on their small Vermont town, followed by a few obsessive ‘fans.’ Nina’s family is under siege, but they never lose sight of the only thing that really matters – finding their daughter. Out-gunned by Simon’s wealthy, powerful family, Nina’s parents recognise that if playing by the rules won’t get them anywhere, it’s time to break them.
Desperate to break free of small-town Florida, Addie Anne Buckley dreams of following in the path of her glamorous aunt Jean-known to the world as Marilyn Monroe. When Aunt Jean plans a trip to Hollywood for Addie’s eighteenth birthday, Addie sees her chance to escape. One thing stands in her way: her boyfriend. Truitt Holt is Addie’s first and only love and will be joining her in California. But days before Addie’s due to leave, Truitt does an about-face and gives her a painful ultimatum: stay and marry him, or they’re through. Addie chooses her dream. Hurt and angry, Truitt unwittingly exposes the illegal bolita game he’s been running in mob territory. Now the Tampa Mafia is after him, and he has until midnight to cut a deal that will save his life and Addie’s. What he doesn’t know…his trouble with the mob has already found Addie and her family. She’s already in a fight for her life.
When Dwayne and Alice Odom are killed, the police report states clearly that it was a drug overdose. So why is their daughter, who was there when they died, claiming that’s not the truth? Betsy Odom doesn’t trust the police but when she finds herself in the FBI’s custody after her parents’ deaths, she knows she has to be careful. Her uncle wants to adopt her and as he is a very rich and powerful man, she wants to let him. His criminal connections, however, mean the authorities aren’t so sure. Enter Travis Devine. Trying to escape a skilled predator who wants him dead, Devine finds himself as Betsy’s bodyguard. But when an informant is found murdered, Devine knows this job is perhaps even more dangerous than the one he’s running from . . . and the true enemy may be on his side.
When Carter McCoy learns he hasn’t got long to live, it’s time to take care of something he has wanted to do for years – kill the man responsible for his daughter’s death. But Carter has no experience killing and isn’t even sure he can do it. Breanna needs to escape her toxic home life or end up living a life of regret. When she happens upon the old man with a rifle, she sees a light at the end of her dark tunnel. Carter may be the answer to her problems, if he lives long enough to help her. Carter is a man on borrowed time, and what he does with the rest of it could change who he has been his whole life. With the police closing in one step ahead of death, Carter has the opportunity to change Breanna’s life and give her the chance his daughter never had. With his trusty dog, Chester, at his side, Carter’s last act will be the one that defines who he is.
Kendra Michaels uses her heightened powers of deduction to draw out a serial killer who has not been seen or heard from in over fifteen years. Chloe and Sloane Morgan were only children when their mother was the second victim of the Bayside Strangler. Now, after spending years trying to discover his identity, the sisters have suddenly vanished. Were they getting too close to the truth? The police consider their interest in the crime to be just a coincidence and have little motivation to pursue the cold case. Armed with a box of photos, videos, police reports, and notes gathered by the sisters over the years–plus the extraordinary senses from being blind before recovering her sight via a revolutionary surgical procedure–Kendra follows the sisters’ trail of clues. Little does she realise that her search is about to unleash a long-dormant killer on San Diego. With help from government agent-for-hire Adam Lynch, Kendra must race to discover the identity of an infamous killer, not only to save the lives of the two sisters but also untold others.
FBI Special Agent Daniela “Dani” Vega was seventeen when her mother murdered her father. Ten years after Dani’s own damning eyewitness testimony sealed her mother’s fate, she’s starting to have doubts. What if she got it all wrong? A veteran NYPD homicide detective agrees to reopen the closed case on one condition-Dani must help him find a serial killer who’s been operating throughout New York City for the past decade. If anyone can decipher his patterns, and his riddles, it’s a trained codebreaker like Dani. The killer knows this too. And his next riddle-and victim-is meant just for her. For Dani, stopping a killer-and learning what really happened to her father-becomes more personal and more dangerous with each new twist. As secrets of the past are unearthed, the truth could forever change Dani’s life…and the lives of everyone she loves.
Teddy Angstrom is no stranger to morbid public interest in her family’s tragedies. And when her father dies suddenly, ten years to the day after her sister Angie’s disappearance, she intends to maintain as much privacy as she always has. Clearing out her father’s office, however, Teddy discovers her father’s double life- a decade-long investigation into wild conspiracies from a Reddit community of true crime fans fixated on Angie. Repelled and compelled in equal measure by this new online dimension, Teddy finds herself falling down that same rabbit hole. So when nineteen-year-old Mickey, a charming amateur internet sleuth, materialises in real life, Teddy determines that the two of them are going to team up to find out what really happened to Angie and whether there’s any chance she might still be alive. But as she struggles to reconcile new information with old memories, Teddy doesn’t notice that her obsession is making her increasingly self-destructive. And she’s in way over her head before she’s realises that Mickey, too, is not all she seems.
Iggy Guerra is out of prison, but his homecoming is anything but smooth. His beloved mother is gone, his grief-stricken father Armando is deep in debt, and they are about to lose the butcher shop that has been in their family for generations. Iggy must earn his father’s lost trust in order to save La Carniceria Guerra from the threats imposed by a new rival business, a vigilante activist, and big-game hunter Orin, who has dragged Armando into his dangerous money-making schemes deep in the Everglades, where more than secrets are buried. Iggy will wrestle with the beauty and the danger of the place he calls home as he tries to save his family – without losing himself forever.
Margot needs a minute. She’s been working eighty-hour weeks as a newly minted partner at her law firm. She’s disconnected from her brother, the only family she has left. And she’s still not pregnant after years of trying. Stars Harbor Astrological Retreat promises rest, relaxation, and wisdom for Margot and her friends. With Instagram-worthy views and nightly astrology readings in an impeccably restored waterfront Victorian house, this resort should be the ultimate getaway. For Margot’s brother, Adam, it’s the perfect opportunity to invigorate his romantic life and inspire his writing. But his wife, Aimee, hides the darkness of her past with a beautiful social media feed. Their friend, Farah, is a successful doctor who cannot admit that she’s losing control. Yet no one holds a greater secret than their astrologer host, Rini. She has a plan for her guests, and one of them won’t be leaving Stars Harbor alive.
Thirteen-year-old Ava Bonney is unlike other children. Exceptionally bright, she has an obsessive interest in the rate at which dead animals decompose. The motorway she lives by regularly offers up roadkill, and in the dead of night Ava likes nothing better than to pull her latest discovery into her roadside den so she can study it. But one day when she arrives she stumbles across the body of fellow pupil, Mickey Grant. DI Seth Delahaye is given the case, one of the most challenging of his career. But Ava is not the sort of person who will step back and let someone else take charge when children like her are dying. She uses all her unusual skills and deep local knowledge to try to track down the serial killer in her community.
When The Speaker posts, his followers must listen … no matter the consequences. Exposed as the masked social media influencer The Speaker by shy misfit Crystal, Aaron Fortin embarks on an insidious campaign to erase her – permanently. Having already committed multiple brutal murders to try and feel some form of emotion, he charms and recruits Crystal’s friends as his latest loyal followers. Aaron’s influence is powerful and wide-reaching, and so begins his deadliest and most gruesome plan yet. But has Aaron underestimated quiet Crystal? And can she stop him before it’s too late?
In the months after Cam and Blair broke their small hometown’s legendary missing-girl story and catapulted to accidental fame, they vowed never to do it again. No more mysteries, no more podcasts, and no more sticking their heads where they don’t belong. Until Mattie Brosillard, a freshman at their high school, shows up on their doorstep, begging Cam and Blair for help. Mattie’s sister Lola disappeared mysteriously five years ago. No trace of her was ever found. Now, she’s back–but Mattie is convinced the girl who returned is an impostor. Nobody believes Mattie’s wild story–not Mattie’s brother, not Mattie’s mother, and not even Cam and Blair. But something is definitely wrong in the Brosillard family. And Blair has her own reasons for wanting to know what really happened to Lola while she was gone.
A seemingly ordinary high school student. A mysterious summer internship. And a legendary games designer, now dead. When an ad for an internship with the Louisiana Veda Foundation appears, Arcadia ‘Dia’ Gannon rushes to apply. Veda’s game-making empire, Darkly, was renowned for its ingenious and terrifying games back in the day and Dia is as obsessed with them as anyone. The remaining games are priced like highly sought-after works of art, with the rarest and most notorious commanding tens of millions of dollars at auction. Now, Dia is thrust into the enigmatic heart of the operation. But who are these other interns? Why do they all seem to have something to hide? And why was she really chosen? It soon becomes clear that this summer will be the most twisted Darkly game of all.
A wealthy businessman is dead, and fifteen-year-old Ruby Monroe is in a Dallas jail awaiting trial for his murder. Ruby has no one she can count on-no one, except her state-appointed caseworker, a woman named Cadence Ware. In Ruby’s experience, that’s not anyone she can trust. Cadence is familiar with the cold reality of Ruby’s situation, even before Ruby was arrested. Angry and alone, homeless and hungry, breaking the law just to survive, she is the kind of girl no one wants to listen to, especially not the prosecutor who wants to put her away for life. But no one knows the story-the real story-of what happened the day Ruby met the man who would end up dead. As the layers of truth are peeled away and time is running out, Ruby and Cadence will both have desperate choices to make-choices that could mean the difference between Ruby spending her life in prison or her name being cleared.
A year ago, Katie and her cousin Aster survived a night that left their world and easy friendship fractured. Desperate to heal and leave the past behind them, they tackle four days of hiking in the Utah backcountry. But the desert they’ve loved for years has tricks up its sleeve. An illness, an injury, and a freak storm leave them short on confidence and supplies. When they come across a young couple with extra supplies on the trail, they’re grateful and relieved—at first. Riley exudes friendliness, but everything about her boyfriend Finn spells trouble. That night, after some chilling admissions about Finn from Riley, Katie and Aster wake to hear the couple fighting. Helpless and trapped in the darkness, they witness Riley’s desperate race into the night, with Finn chasing after. In the morning, they find the couple’s camp, but Riley and Finn? Vanished. Katie is sure Riley is in trouble. And with help a two-day hike away, they know they are the only ones who can save her before something terrible happens. The clock is ticking and their supplies are dwindling, but Katie and Aster know they have to find Riley before Finn—or the desert—gets to her first.
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