A lesser-known gem is 'The Other Passenger' by Louise Candlish. It’s about two couples who become friends commuting by riverboat. One day, one of the men disappears, and the narrator becomes the prime suspect. His narration of the events leading up to the disappearance is slick and defensive, clearly trying to convince you (and the police) of his innocence. But flashbacks and the testimonies of others slowly puncture his story. The twist reveals a intricate, petty revenge plot that the narrator either didn’t see coming or is deliberately omitting.
My hot take: 'The Kind Worth Killing' by Peter Swanson is the modern heir to 'Strangers on a Train' but with fantastically dueling unreliable narrators. Two people meet on a plane and jokingly plot a murder. But as each takes turns narrating, you realize neither is telling the whole truth, and their motivations are far darker than they first appear. The twists come from the shifting power dynamics and the revelation of who is really manipulating whom. It’s deliciously nasty and clever.
For a locked-room mystery with a twist, 'One by One' by Ruth Ware uses the classic setup of a tech company retreat stranded in an alpine chalet. The multiple narrators are all colleagues with professional rivalries and hidden agendas. Their accounts of events differ based on who they’re trying to impress or undermine. The unreliability is corporate and petty, which makes the eventual murders and the final twist feel like a brutal extension of the backstabbing office politics you’ve already been witnessing.
Megan Abbott is brilliant at teen girl unreliability. 'Dare Me' follows a high school cheerleading squad where the narration is filtered through intense friendship, rivalry, and obsession. The narrator’s loyalty and jealousy color every event. When a crime occurs, you can’t trust her version of who is innocent or guilty because her entire world is built on performative strength and hidden vulnerabilities. The twist feels inevitable because it’s the culmination of the toxic dynamics she’s been describing (and participating in) all along.
I love when the setting amplifies the unreliability. 'The Sanatorium' by Sarah Pearse is set in a converted sanatorium high in the Swiss Alps. The narrator, a detective on leave, is haunted by a childhood trauma involving her brother. The imposing, clinical architecture and the isolating storm play on her PTSD, making her question if the threats are real or manifestations of her guilt and fear. The twist involves secrets from the building’s past that mirror her own, blurring the line between her psyche and the mystery.
2026-07-24 22:08:35
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Secret and Lies series
Katherine petrov
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Lying and holding secrets comes to us naturally, as natural as breathing and looking on either side of the road before crossing. We all do it to protect ourselves because sometimes the truth can hurt us.Some are harmless little white lies, but some secrets hide horrible things. Those lies will always come haunting those who seek to keep their lips sealed. Follow Caroline, Charlotte, Chloe, and Caleb's journey, as their life is turned upside down as they fight to keep their lips sealed about the murder they accidentally committed.Everyone keeps secrets. Everyone lies. You better make sure no one saw what you've done before making up your lies because all it takes is one person with the truth on their lips for your life to be destroyed.
Lena Mercer makes a living off saving and believes that love can be saved no matter what. However, when a frightened woman named Claire Reynolds appears at her office door insisting she is being purposely murdered by her husband, Lena is hesitant to trust her.
Days go by, and Claire vanishes into thin air. Worrying but brushing it off as coincidence, Lena attempts to pick up where they left off—until she uncovers unsettling information connecting Claire's life to her own. The same scent. The same coffee order. Even bruises in identical locations.
And then Lena begins receiving ominous messages: "You know the truth. Don't look for me."
She thought she had it all—a peaceful life, a loving relationship, and a future she could finally count on. But everything shattered the moment she discovered the truth.
He never planned to stay. He never planned to love her.
He only wanted the child.
Forced to make an impossible choice, she vanished, determined to protect the life growing inside her. For years, she lived in silence, hiding the truth, raising a secret no one could ever know.
But fate has a cruel way of circling back.
When the past resurfaces in the most unexpected way, everything she fought to protect hangs in the balance.
The lies. The love. The billion-dollar secret.
Some stories aren’t meant to stay buried.
And some truths refuse to stay hidden.
“Just who is the woman behind that mask?”
It’s no lie that Evangeline Laendler is one of the best con artists around. The trail of devastated moneybags who are both heartbroken and near bankruptcy because of her is enough proof. It’s all owed to her impeccable skills of switching through disguises and emanating the characteristics that her targets want to see. But this was not the life she and her dear brother had wanted for Evangeline.
So when a high-priced opportunity to retire early suddenly comes, Evangeline accepts it. It was easy anyway. Seduce the billionaire heir, sway him to do terrible things so he doesn’t inherit the company, break his heart, then leave. Easy. It’s not like there was more to this guy’s story, right?
What was unknown to her was just how messy and tangled this new job was, revealing secrets that even she never knew about her life. In any case, she will keep fighting to keep the facade on.
Although this time, someone might just be able to unveil the real Evangeline hiding underneath.
Even as her husband pushes for a divorce, Addalyn is determined to save her failing marriage. Desperate to keep her marriage, she gets into a car accident and pretends to have amnesia. But, by chance, she discovers a hidden world of danger and intrigue.
As she navigates this dark new reality, a mysterious man with mesmerizing green eyes who promises to reveal the truth about her past draws her in.
However, as she struggles to separate the truth from the lies, she realizes that everything she thought she knew could all be lies. With her world unraveling around her, Addalyn must face the reality of her situation and make decisions that will change her life forever.
On her unconscious bed, her husband gave the order to abort her child. Their child. Driven by lust and desperation for power, Killian Powell framed Rose Webster just to divorce her and marry her twin. At what price? To easily buy his way into her family's corporation. Rose had the evidence to expose her husband's true face to the world and tear him down. But of what use was it when her vicious parents threatened to stop the treatment of her sick daughter if she dared release the evidence? Like always, they cared more about what they stood to gain from a traitor who stabbed their daughter—a man they once despised when he was nothing. As much as Rose couldn't trade the life of her daughter, she couldn't bear the internet stigma and mockery. Not to mention her job as a detective was suspended as if she were some criminal. The whole world seemed to close in on Rose until redemption came in the form of a dangerous offer. When solving a risky murder case was the only way to get back at her ex-husband and also keep her child safe, how far would she go to ruin her ex?
'The Sanatorium' by Sarah Pearse uses an isolated, converted sanatorium in the Swiss Alps to heighten the protagonist’s unreliable state. Elin, a detective on leave, is already emotionally fragile when a storm traps her and others with a killer. Her past trauma, the eerie setting, and the high-altitude isolation make her doubt her own senses and judgments. The twists are as much about her personal history as they are about the murders happening around her. It’s an atmospheric, chilly thriller where the location is a key player in creating the narrative unreliability.
Wait, has anyone mentioned Paul Tremblay? 'The Cabin at the End of the World' is a relentless exercise in this. The narration is close third-person, following a family being held hostage by four strangers who claim they must make an impossible choice to prevent the apocalypse. The 'unreliability' here isn't from a single voice, but from the unbearable pressure of the situation.
You experience the family's terror, their doubts, their fleeting moments of wondering if the captors might be telling the truth. The narrative never confirms or denies the apocalyptic claim. Are the intruders delusional cultists, genuine prophets, or something else? The horror is in being trapped with the characters in that state of radical uncertainty, where every piece of information is filtered through fear and the desperate need to survive. It will leave you utterly wrecked and questioning everything.