Single and Single, John le Carre Rogue Male, Geoffrey Household The Quiller Memotamdum, Adam Hall The Light Of Day, Eric Ambler (in fact, any Ambler is a great read...)

39 Steps by John Buchan - I haven't read it yet, but I read that it inspred a bunch of movies besides 39 Steps and North by Northwest.

The above strike me as a bit creaky. Thrillers have evolved. A couple newish books that show the evolution: Niceville by Stroud, The Mirage by Ruff, Patient Zero by the Patient Zero guy. The biggest thriller in publishing at the moment: Gone Girl by Flynn. I'd probably hit the women's thrillers hardest, because that's where the growth is, in novels. Everything by Picoult (though I'm not a fan), The Room by Donoghue (sp?), some people I haven't read, Scottoline and Unger (sp?) and everyone whose stuff is shelved in both thrillers and women's fiction. If I wanted older, I'd go for Mary Higgins Clark. Very 70s, but she knew how to structure a story. Maybe some stupid-ass men's stuff like Vince Flynn just to remind ourselves that novels can be every bit as bad as movies. I half-assed a TV series pitch, and through a bunch of coincidences I'm getting meetings next week. I don't know wtf I'm doing with that, other than wasting everybody's time.

This is such a huge genre, it is really hard to nail down a reasonable selection. Wikipedia's list of major thriller writers athttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_thriller_writers probably has close to 500 names, each of which has written lots of novels! Some from that list that I like: Joseph Conrad (The Secret Agent) Arthur Conan Doyle (duh) James Ellroy (The Black Dahlia, L.A. Confidential, etc) Stephen Hunter (Sniper, etc) John le Carré (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, etc) Sue Grafton (alphabet mysteries) John Grisham (The Firm, etc) Jack Higgins (The Eagle Has Landed) David Morrell (First Blood) John Mortimer (the Rumpole series, which I guess could fall into this genre) Edgar Allan Poe (The Murders in the Rue Morgue, 1841)

Farewell My Lovely, The Little Sister and The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler. Please read them in that order though. The Long Goodbye packs a wallop that only hits hard if you know the Marlowe character. Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest.

Some of these are older, but they're outstanding examples of the craft: 1. THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD - John LeCarre 2. TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY - John LeCarre 3. THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST - Stuart Neville 4. THE BREACH - Patrick Lee 5. THE KILLING FLOOR - Lee Child 6. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN - Cormac McCarthy 7. THE BIG SLEEP - Raymond Chandler 8. GONE BABY GONE - Dennis Lehane 9. GENERATION LOSS - Elizabeth Hand 10. I AM THE CHEESE - Robert Cormier All of these authors offer a lot more work you could read and not go wrong. Some of them mix a little supernatural and SF in there.

Here is the list so far, with many thanks to the contributors. Suggestions by Author Arthur Conan Doyle David Morrell (First Blood) Edgar Allan Poe (The Murders in the Rue Morgue, 1841) Jack Higgins (The Eagle Has Landed) James Ellroy (The Black Dahlia, L.A. Confidential, etc) John Grisham (The Firm, etc) John le Carré (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, etc) John Mortimer (the Rumpole series, which I guess could fall into this genre) Joseph Conrad (The Secret Agent) Mary Higgins Clark Picoult Scottoline Stephen Hunter (Sniper, etc) Sue Grafton (alphabet mysteries) Unger   Suggestions by Title (Please read them in that order though. The Long Goodbye packs a wallop that only hits hard if you know the Marlowe character.) 39 Steps by John Buchan Farewell My Lovely, The Little Sister and The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler. Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane Gone Girl by Flyn I Am The Cheese by Robert Cormier Niceville by Stroud No Country For Old Men by Cormac Mccarthy Patient Zero Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household Single and Single by John le Carre The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler The Breach by Patrick Lee The Ghosts Of Belfast by Stuart Neville The Killing Floor by Lee Child The Light Of Day by Eric Ambler (in fact, any Ambler is a great read…) The Mirage by Ruff The Quiller Memotamdum by Adam Hall The Room by Donoghue (sp?) The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by John Lecarre Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John Lecarre