
The Thrillerfix Book Awards recognize thriller authors and their literary works.
Over the course of 2020 the competition to find out what thriller books came out as being the best of the best got intense!
If you've followed us since last January, you know that we've hosted quarterly "Best Of..." competitions to see what the community's top picks of each season were.
And then at the end of 2020, the winners in each category of the quarterly competitions faced off in a winner-take-all final round where you, the readers, were faced with the difficult choice of deciding which book deserved to come out on top.
With thousands of readers from around the world weighing in on their favorite reads of the past year, it was incredible to see the community come together to debate what we love most: thriller books.
And today we're excited to announce the WINNERS in all 4 categories voted on.
And the winners are...
Best Crime
Save Her Soul (Detective Josie Quinn Book 9)
by Lisa Regan
Josie flinches as she takes in the faded blue sports jacket wrapped around the girl they just pulled from the water. Josie knew someone who’d once owned that jacket. He had died in her arms five years ago.
Heavy rain pours on the small town of Denton causing the riverbanks to break and the body of a young girl to float quietly to the surface. With no crime scene to examine, the odds are against Detective Josie Quinn and her team. Mercifully, the victim’s body is perfectly preserved, right down to the baseball patch on the jacket she was wearing. Josie can’t hide her devastation—her dead ex-husband, Ray, owned one just like it.
Following the trail back to her high school, Josie identifies the girl as Beverly Urban, a troubled student rumored to have been dating Ray before she left town for good. It looks like a tragic accident until the autopsy reveals a bullet in her head and the heart-breaking secret she was keeping.
Josie visits the salon where Beverly’s mother used to work, believing she was at the heart of a terrible scandal around the time her daughter’s life was taken. With the Denton wives remaining tight-lipped, Josie’s only hope is a secret meet-up with a terrified woman willing to talk. But she is murdered moments before giving Josie crucial information. It’s clear that someone is prepared to keep on killing to stop the truth from getting out.
Digging deep into memories of her own past with Ray is the only advantage Josie has on this twisted killer… but at what cost?
Best Thriller
Law of Innocence (A Lincoln Lawyer Novel, Book 6)
by Michael Connelly
Lincoln Lawyer Mickey Haller must defend himself against murder charges in the heart-stopping new thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly.
A CBS The Doctors Book Club Pick
A People Book of the Week Selection
On the night he celebrates a big win, defense attorney Mickey Haller is pulled over by police, who find the body of a former client in the trunk of his Lincoln. Haller is immediately charged with murder but can’t post the exorbitant $5 million bail slapped on him by a vindictive judge.
Mickey elects to represent himself and is forced to mount his defense from his jail cell in the Twin Towers Correctional Center in downtown Los Angeles. All the while he needs to look over his shoulder—as an officer of the court he is an instant target, and he makes few friends when he reveals a corruption plot within the jail.
But the bigger plot is the one against him. Haller knows he’s been framed, whether by a new enemy or an old one. As his trusted team, including his half-brother, Harry Bosch, investigates, Haller must use all his skills in the courtroom to counter the damning evidence against him.
Even if he can obtain a not-guilty verdict, Mickey understands that it won’t be enough. In order to be truly exonerated, he must find out who really committed the murder and why. That is the law of innocence.
In his highest stakes case yet, the Lincoln Lawyer fights for his life and proves again why he is “a worthy colleague of Atticus Finch... in the front of the pack in the legal thriller game” (Los Angeles Times).
Best Psychological Thriller
Never Look Back
by Mary Burton
After multiple women go missing, Agent Melina Shepard of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation makes the impulsive decision to go undercover as a prostitute. While working the street, she narrowly avoids becoming a serial killer’s latest victim; as much as it pains her to admit, she needs backup.
Enter lone wolf FBI agent Jerrod Ramsey. Stonewalled by a lack of leads, he and Melina investigate a scene where a little girl has been found abandoned in a crashed vehicle. They open the trunk to reveal a horror show and quickly realize they’re dealing with two serial killers with very different MOs. The whole situation brings back memories for Melina—why does this particular case feel so connected to her painful past?
Before time runs out, Melina must catch not one but two serial killers, both ready to claim another victim—and both with their sights set on her.
Best Audiobook
The Silent Wife (Will Trent Book 10)
by Karin Slaugter
Narrated by Kathleen Early
Investigating the killing of a prisoner during a riot inside a state penitentiary, GBI investigator Will Trent is confronted with disturbing information. One of the inmates claims that he is innocent of a brutal attack for which he has always been the prime suspect. The man insists that he was framed by a corrupt law enforcement team led by Jeffrey Tolliver and that the real culprit is still out there—a serial killer who has systematically been preying on women across the state for years. If Will reopens the investigation and implicates the dead police officer with a hero’s reputation of wrongdoing, the opportunistic convict is willing to provide the information GBI needs about the riot murder.
Only days ago, another young woman was viciously murdered in a state park in northern Georgia. Is it a fluke, or could there be a serial killer on the loose?
As Will Trent digs into both crimes it becomes clear that he must solve the cold case in order to find the answer. Yet nearly a decade has passed—time for memories to fade, witnesses to vanish, evidence to disappear, and lies to become truth. But Will can’t crack either mystery without the help of the one person he doesn’t want involved: his girlfriend and Jeffrey Tolliver’s widow, medical examiner Sara Linton.
When the past and present begin to collide, Will realizes that everything he values is at stake...

Congrats to all the winners! And a big thank you for all of you who submitted your votes and nominations.
Which thriller was your favorite from the list above? Be sure to join in on the discussion happening now in the Thrillerfix Reader Group on Facebook.