Books like “In the Woods”

What to read after “In the Woods” by Tana French: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

About “In the Woods”

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1
Gone Girl
Gillian Flynn · 2012
Similar atmosphere: “Psychological Thriller”
On their fifth wedding anniversary, Amy Dunne disappears from a rented house and her husband Nick becomes the prime suspect. Two narrators tell very different versions of the same marriage.
2
The Girl on the Train
Paula Hawkins · 2015
Similar atmosphere: “Psychological Thriller”
Rachel rides the same commuter train every day and invents stories about a couple she sees from the window, until she learns the woman has vanished. Her memory of the night in question is full of gaps, and she cannot tell how much of what she believes is real.
3
A Flicker in the Dark
Stacy Willingham · 2022
Similar atmosphere: “Psychological Thriller”
As a child she helped put her father away for killing girls. Twenty years later she is a therapist about to marry, when young women in her town begin to disappear again and the old case follows her into the present.
4
The Woman in the Window
A. J. Finn · 2018
Similar atmosphere: “Psychological Thriller”
- Psychological Thriller
- Unreliable Narrator
Child psychologist Anna Fox lives alone, unable to leave her home, and spends her days watching her neighbours through a camera. When she sees something in the house across the street, no one believes her, and she is left to work out whether the danger is real or in her mind.
5
Big Little Lies
Liane Moriarty · 2014
Similar atmosphere: “Psychological Thriller”
- Psychological Thriller
- Small Town Secrets
Three mothers at a coastal school become friends while a death at a school event draws nearer. Their polished lives hide abusive marriages, old grudges and rumour, and the night of the fundraiser forces the truth into the open.
6
Dark Places
Gillian Flynn · 2009
Similar atmosphere: “Psychological Thriller”
- Psychological Thriller
- Small Town Secrets
Years after her mother and sisters were killed and her teenage brother was convicted, Libby Day is approached by a group of true-crime enthusiasts who believe he is innocent. Short of money, she agrees to ask questions, and the answers force her to revisit what she remembers of that night.
7
The Kind Worth Killing
Peter Swanson · 2015
Similar atmosphere: “Psychological Thriller”
- Psychological Thriller
- Unreliable Narrator
On a night flight from London to Boston, Ted tells a stranger that he wishes his cheating wife were dead. Lily calmly offers to help him plan it. As their murder scheme takes shape in Boston, each of the narrators hides a past the others know nothing about.
8
Before I Go to Sleep
S. J. Watson · 2011
Similar atmosphere: “Psychological Thriller”
- Psychological Thriller
- Unreliable Narrator
Each morning Christine wakes with no memory of her life, and each day her husband explains who she is. When she starts a diary at a doctor's suggestion, she finds entries in her own hand that contradict what he tells her, and that suggest her past holds a crime.
9
Then She Was Gone
Lisa Jewell · 2017
Similar atmosphere: “Psychological Thriller”
- Psychological Thriller
- Missing Person
Ten years after her teenage daughter disappeared, a mother learns what happened and tries to rebuild her life. Meeting a new partner and his young daughter, she is unsettled by small resemblances to her lost child, which reopen the case.
10
Sometimes I Lie
Alice Feeney · 2017
Similar atmosphere: “Psychological Thriller”
- Psychological Thriller
- Unreliable Narrator
Amber Reynolds is in a coma, though she can hear the people around her and cannot move or speak. In her mind she sifts through the days before the accident and the diary entries from years earlier that do not quite match the life she thought she had.
11
The Couple Next Door
Shari Lapena · 2016
Similar atmosphere: “Psychological Thriller”
A couple leave their sleeping baby at home while they attend a dinner party next door, checking on her every half hour. They return to an empty crib. The police suspect the parents, and both of them start learning what the other has been hiding.
12
Final Girls
Riley Sager · 2017
Similar atmosphere: “Psychological Thriller”
- Psychological Thriller
- Unreliable Narrator
Ten years after surviving a massacre at a remote cabin in the woods, Quincy has built a quiet life out of pills, baking and careful routine. When another survivor from that group of women dies and a third turns up at her door, the past she cannot fully remember starts to close in again.