8 Psychological Thriller Books with Unhinged Protagonists 

Dr. Jenna O’Hara is desperate to leave the past behind. One death a year ago cost her the private practice she had built.

Now she is focused on the future with her upcoming wedding and move to Scotland. 

But when the anonymous notes begin to arrive, Jenna realizes someone knows the truth about what happened last year, and they are determined to make her pay.

Manipulative and calculating as always, Jenna struggles to maintain control and protect the secrets she’s worked so hard to keep hidden. 

Will this psychological game of revenge and consequences end with a second murder?

Vanessa Baines wants nothing more than to keep to herself and finally feel safe. Fleeing London to escape an abusive relationship, Vanessa returns to the seaside town where she was raised.

Settling into her new flat, she almost immediately realizes she is being watched. She catches the man in the apartment across from her staring at her.

Then the threatening phone calls begin, followed by proof that he’s actually been inside her home. 

While women are being murdered all over own, the police are unable to protect anyone. Vanessa begins to realize that the safe haven she tried to create for herself has become a trap—until something inside her snaps. 

After a lifetime of being intimidated, making herself smaller, and being afraid, Vanessa has had enough. Unwilling to be anyone’s target any longer, Vanessa chooses to fight back.

And revenge isn’t just sweet. It’s addictive.

When Hollywood heart throb Robert Soloman has been accused of murdering his wife and her lover, Eddie Flynn argues the case in his defense. Unfortunately for the accused, the real murderer is on the jury.

Joshua Kane is a brilliant serial killer, evil, manipulative, and very good at what he does. With DNA at the scene, fingerprints on the weapon, and eyewitnesses ready to testify against Soloman, Kane has created the case against the star down to the last detail.

His final stroke of genius is eliminating a jury member and taking their place.

It’s up to Eddie Flynn, former con man turned defense attorney, to prove his client’s innocence and expose the real killer, who happens to be sitting in the jury box.

Lottie Jones retired decades ago. She changed her identity, moved to a small town, and put her crimes behind her.

Now she spends her time at church, playing bingo, gossiping with friends.

All that could be ruined when Plum Dixon, a young documentary filmmaker, shows up at her door. Plum starts asking questions about Lottie’s past and some unsolved murders, and Lottie is forced to “take care” of the situation.

Unfortunately, one murder leads to another as things start to spiral out of control. 

With her sharp mind and years of experience, Lottie must fight to keep the secrets of her past from ruining the life she’s created.

Leah Nachtnebel is a talented and celebrated pianist. She is also a skilled and ruthless serial killer.

Her victims of choice are serial killers who have escaped justice.

By an unfortunate twist of fate, when Leah’s latest target brings up a connection to her dark past, she is put at risk of being exposed. This connection makes her increasingly visible to the two vastly different people in pursuit of her—an FBI agent and a sadistic serial killer.

The FBI agent is obsessed with uncovering her secrets, while the serial killer wants to possess her as a trophy. Leah must find a way to navigate both worlds to survive.

Amanda Davis has the life she always dreamed of—a gorgeous home, perfect career, handsome news anchor husband. But her perfect life is shattered in an instant when her husband Paul kills someone in an accident.

As Paul struggles to cover up the accident, Amanda begins to see through the charming persona he has built into the manipulative, dangerous reality of his true personality.

Paul's fierce determination to keep their secret makes Amanda complicit, forcing her to be isolated and become a prisoner to his web of lies. As his behavior becomes more and more menacing and unpredictable, Amanda must decide how far she will go to escape.

Parker Grant has established himself as an up-and-coming young therapist in Atlanta. He has his life under control with a fashionable home, a meticulously constructed image, and a reasonably professional distance between himself and the couples to whom he provides counseling services.

His carefully crafted existence begins to crumble when one of Parker’s clients turns up dead in his condo. The problem is Parker can’t remember the night before.

And when a package is delivered to him containing incriminating photos and a bloody watch, Parker fears someone knows more about that night than he does.

Someone is playing with Parker’s mind. And it may be Parker himself.

Melody Reed has built the perfect life: a beautiful home in San Francisco, a devoted husband, a perfect son. But her life is starting to inexplicably fall apart. 

Her husband, Michael, was once a bestselling author. Now he is suddenly unable to write.

His mannerisms are off. He doesn’t express any warmth or care for her anymore.

There is something wrong, and it is becoming more and more unsettling.

Her life is turned upside down when she discovers that Michael is quite literally not the man she married.