The Watcher has quickly established itself as the breakout streaming hit of the fall. Based on the true story of a couple who purchases their dream home only to receive threatening and ominous letters from someone known only as The Watcher, the series is the latest hit from Dahmer producer Ryan Murphy. After you’ve binge-watched the first season, here are 10 books that have the same kind of creepy suspense.
1. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
At the heart of The Watcher is a story about surveillance and obsession. Perhaps no recent mystery-thriller novel covered those topics better than The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. To hide the shame of being fired from her job from her roommate, a young woman continues to take the commuter train every
2. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Both The Watcher and the Circleville Letters case feature a cunning criminal mastermind who seems to possess near-paranormal powers of observation. An equally nefarious and mystical villain is at the heart of The Devil in the White City: A Saga of Magic and Murder at the Fair that Changed America, author Erik
3. The Haunted by Bentley Little
The Haunted, from horror maestro Bentley Little, starts with a premise similar to The Watcher. Like The Watcher, a young family has bought their dream home, but after moving in, things quickly go wrong. The couple’s daughter receives menacing text messages, and nightmares plague their son. Although
4. The Exorcist’s House by Nick Roberts
The concept of “the dream home becomes the nightmare home” is given a unique twist in The Exorcist’s House. A husband and wife and their teenage daughter move from Ohio to a charming farmhouse in the hills of West Virginia. All seems well until they discover a boarded-up room in the basement. The
5. The Locked Door by Freida McFadden
A different take on the family home-gone-bad can be found in Freida McFadden’s psychological thriller The Locked Door. When we meet Nora Davis, she’s 11 years old and living what seems to be a picture-perfect life — until the police show up at her home. They’re after her father, who is revealed to be a
Bonus Picks! Watch and Listen to These Titles Similar to Netflix’s The Watcher
1. The Trail Went Cold
On his long-running podcast The Trail Went Cold, host Robin Warder covers bizarre unsolved true crime cases like The Watcher each week. The Trail Went Cold regularly covers topics featured on the classic TV show Unsolved Mysteries, but any claim that still needs answers is fair game. You can listen to
2. Unsolved Mysteries
Speaking of Unsolved Mysteries, Netflix has revived and updated it. With three volumes of episodes, the Netflix reboot covers a wide range of unique mysteries with style.
