5 Mysteries & Thrillers Where Psychopaths Wreak Havoc
By Mark Edwards
In my new novel, The Wasp Trap, a group of recent graduates who are working on a dating site during the dotcom boom of 1999 come up with the idea of creating a test that will tell if someone is a psychopath. Of course, this being a psychological thriller, this sets in motion a series of chilling events that come back to sting them when they get together at a reunion dinner years later.
I have always been fascinated by psychopaths, especially in fiction. It’s because they don’t play by the rules. They don’t feel guilt or empathy or remorse. They believe they are better than the rest of us, and are willing to lie, manipulate and destroy lives to get what they want, whether that’s money, power or a nice chianti with some fava beans.
Here are my top novels in which psychopaths wreak havoc.
Edward Shank is a retired Seattle police chief who is famous for taking down a notorious serial killer called the Beacon Hill Butcher. We readers discover very quickly that Edward, who is now 80 years old, actually was the Butcher – and his advanced years haven’t softened him. When he moves into a retirement village, the other residents have no idea what’s about to hit them. I love this novel because it’s taboo-busting and subversive with a gloriously twisted sense of humour. I can picture Jennifer laughing darkly to herself as she wrote this. Definitely not for the faint of heart.
Format
Hardcover
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This mixes one of my favourite genres–books about psychopaths–with another of my favourites: the campus novel. Gil is a creative writing professor in Vermont, living a modest life with his wife and their daughters. When his sister and her husband are killed in a car accident, Gil finds himself having to take in his 17-year-old nephew, Matthew. Gil has long suspected there is something off about Matthew, but when he joins Gil’s class and starts turning in ‘If I Did It’-style stories about his parents’ deaths, Gil has to figure out if Matthew is evil or if he’s being paranoid. Beautifully written with a thrilling ending. .
Format
Trade Paperback
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I will read anything and everything Peter Swanson writes, so could have chosen any of his books, almost all of which are about psychopaths destroying the lives of ordinary folk, written in an elegant noir style that makes his novels an absolute joy. This is his most popular book and a great place to start, partly because it introduces Lily Kintner, one of modern fiction’s most charming and intriguing villains-you-love-to-hate. The Kind Worth Killing is like a 21st century Strangers on a Train with one, possibly two, of the most fiendish murders you will ever encounter.
Format
ebook
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Oh look, it’s another campus psychopath novel. Perhaps that should be a sub-genre of its own. Really Dark Academia. Never Saw Me Coming has a brilliant premise: seven freshmen at a DC college are given free tuition in return for taking part in an academic study. Why have they been chosen? Because they are all psychopaths, of course! Our main psycho is Chloe, who is plotting the revenge-killing of a childhood friend (as you do). But when one of the students taking part in the study is murdered, Chloe has to track down and befriend her fellow psychopaths–and, of course, none of them can trust each other. Great fun.
Format
Hardcover
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I had to include this one because it’s the granddaddy of modern psychopath books and Patrick Bateman is the vilest anti-hero in literature. It’s also a greatly misunderstood novel. Yes, American Psycho is horribly violent, but it’s also extremely funny and ridiculously clever. As a satire of eighties excess and materialism, it’s unmatched, and there are many hilarious scenes, from the business card competition to the critiques of artists like Huey Lewis and the News. A tip if you haven’t read this book: it’s possible to enjoy it without reading any of the gory bits. You can skip them, which is what I do whenever I reread it, and marvel at the rest of it. Now, excuse me: I need to return some videotapes.
Format
Trade Paperback
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