Many great things have come out of the U.K.: Princess Kate, for one, and the Spice Girls, for another. But for lovers of the mystery-thriller book genre, the country’s greatest export might be Lisa Jewell.
The romance-novelist-turned-suspense-queen has penned 24 novels to date, with the release of her highly anticipated new book, It Could Have Been Her, selling more than 15 million copies worldwide and dominating the New York Times Best Sellers list.
Fans are routinely blown away by her uncanny ability to weave seemingly unrelated storylines together through multiple points of view and time frames, particularly since she got her literary start writing rom-coms about young roommates living out their single dreams.
Even more incredible, Jewell famously flies by the seat of her pants when it comes to her prose, chucking conventional plot outlines in favor of a good old-fashioned freewrite. “I come to the page with nothing. I've done no research. I've barely actually thought about what it is I'm about to start doing. I'm not a planner," she has said.
Whether you're a fan of her most notable titles or are looking for your next page-turner, her books are worth adding to your TBR stack. Below, find the 15 best Lisa Jewell books ranked.
The Best Lisa Jewell Books, Ranked
Jewell’s first-ever novel, Ralph’s Party, may not be focused on the genre she’s best known for—it’s centered on a group of interconnected tenant dwellers living in London—but it certainly got her name out there: It was the best-selling debut of 1999. British Friends, however, this is not: The deeply flawed characters don’t quite have quite the same charm. In fact, some might even call them downright unlikable. Still, it's worth a read for Jewell aficionados.
Though it’s not cited as frequently as some of Jewell’s other thrillers, The Girls in the Garden has been called a favorite by a number of her readers. It begins when a young girl is found unconscious in a communal garden square, leading neighbors to question each other in their search for the ugly truth. Fans praise the depth of its characters and quirky setting, while critics have pointed to its slower pace and the unanswered questions at the end of the book.
Anticipation for Jewell’s 2025 release was high, and it had a promising plot—a man lives a double life with two different women, weaving a tangled web of lies for each to unravel. While it proved to be too predictable for most hardcore Jewell sleuths, the realistic portrayal of antagonist Simon Smith, who could be any average Joe, is enough to induce shivers.
Before I Met You isn't classified as a thriller, but armchair detectives will still need to put on their thinking caps to solve the mystery of why Betty’s grandmother, Arlette, bequeathed money to an unknown woman named Clara. It’s a love letter to the past that will appeal to sentimentalists, but may be too slow a burn for those who prefer the rush of Jewell's suspense books.
Though Jewell’s Invisible Girl came several years ahead of both Then She Was Gone and The Night She Disappeared, it’s not quite as strong as the latter two, which share similar themes of young women vanishing into thin air. That doesn’t mean it’s not compelling, though. Jewell executes a deep psychoanalysis on all of the characters, including Saffyre Maddox, who turns up missing shortly after developing an obsession with her former therapist. That's more than enough to keep you up all night.
The House We Grew Up In dabbles in the suspense genre, though not in the traditional sense. Centered on a dysfunctional family riddled with mental health issues and beneath-the-surface struggles, it’s less murderous, more emotional. (Read: This tearjerker is not for the faint of heart.) Still, it’s a good sneak peek into the twists and turns of Jewell’s novels to come.
Straddling Jewell’s past works of literary fiction with her current thrillers, this one centers around the titular Melody Browne, who is now in her 30s, but can’t remember what happened in her childhood after being caught in a traumatic fire. After she undergoes hypnosis, memories begin to flood in—and she has more questions than answers about what she recalls.
Fans all but demanded a sequel to 2019's The Family Upstairs, and Jewell delivered with 2022’s The Family Remains. While the first novel's cast of characters, including Lucy, her children, and her brother Henry, are back for round two, perhaps more compelling is the mysterious plot surrounding the death of Michael, Lucy’s abusive ex, and his new wife, Rachel. As with most sequels, it’s not quite as good as the original, but it’s still Top 10 worthy.
This one’s like the Netflix series and books by Caroline Kepnes, You, but instead of one sociopath (ahem, Joe Goldberg) doing the “watching,” there is a whole neighborhood’s worth. Joey is obsessively watching her cute neighbor Tom, while Tom’s son clocks her fascination with his dad, and Tom’s student Jenna is watching his suspicious behavior around her BFF. Oh, and did we mention one of them is a murderer? Told through multiple perspectives, it jumps back and forth in the timeline, so if you prefer a linear read, this won’t be for you, but overall, it’s a solid Jewell pick.
How many secrets can one home hold? That’s the question at the heart of Jewell’s latest thriller, released in June 2026. It’s also the question protagonist Jane Trevally, who was held captive there 25 years earlier, is out to answer when her neighbor goes missing. Readers have already gushed over its compelling pace, realistic characters, and jaw-dropping twists.
Jewell does her thing when it comes to the characters of this book. The backstories are deeply developed for all of them: Alice, a single mom who lets a lost stranger into her home; “Frank,” the man who has appeared at her door; Lily, whose husband has gone missing; and Gray and Kirsty, two teens on a summer holiday. The pacing here is a bit slower (even for Jewell, a master of the slow burn), so we recommend moving along if you seek action. However, once it's clear what really ties them all together, you'll be hooked.
Over a million of Jewell’s books sold came from None of This Is True (which is soon to be adapted into a Netflix film). The premise—two middle-aged women meet by chance in a bar, bond over their shared birthdays, and become enmeshed in each other’s lives to chilling results—was a unique one for Jewell that fans ate right up. "I wanted to do a stalker novel, a little bit of a Single White Female-y thing because I'd never written about that,” she told PEOPLE. Considering that it has notes of the true-crime case of Ruby Franke, we'd say she nailed it.
Of Jewell’s books, Then She Was Gone may have made the biggest splash. Not only has it sold more than 2.5 million copies in the U.S. and held the No. 1 spot on The New York Times Best Sellers list for nearly two months, but it will hit the big screen soon. As the title indicates, it’s about a mother whose teenage daughter goes missing. When a new man comes into her life with a daughter who resembles the one she lost, boy, do shockers abound.
The Night She Disappeared is told from different perspectives: Kim, whose 19-year-old daughter Tallulah has just gone missing; Tallulah, whose narrative is key to piecing together the events leading up to her disappearance; and several others, who only add to the mystery. Though it’s been described as a reworking of Then She Was Gone by Goodreads reviewers, it’s also got a higher reader rating, indicating that Jewell perfected the vanishing trope with this one.
Then She Was Gone and None of This Is True may be more well-known, but dive into some of Reddit’s book threads, and The Family Upstairs wins in a landslide among Jewell fan favorites. (Seriously, even Colleen Hoover devoured this in one sitting.) Centered on an abandoned mansion in Chelsea, it switches between the present, when our protagonist, Libby Jones, inherits it, and its dark past, which begins when the previous owners unwittingly let a sociopath into their home. Beyond the captivating plot, the twist is especially good.
In what order should I read Lisa Jewell's books?
The reading order of Lisa Jewell's books ultimately comes down to personal preference, as she only has a few direct sequels. Should you dive into those books, considering their chronology, you'll want to read The Family Upstairs before The Family Remains and Ralph's Party before After the Party. Otherwise, we would recommend diving into the suspense novels she's known for; you could read the best of the best first (using our guide as a reference) or in the order in which they were published. For the latter, you can read them as follows:
- The House We Grew Up In (2013)
- The Third Wife (2014)
- The Girls in the Garden (2015)
- I Found You (2016)
- Then She Was Gone (2017)
- Watching You (2018)
- The Family Upstairs (2019)
- Invisible Girl (2020)
- The Night She Disappeared (2021)
- The Family Remains (2022)
- None of This Is True (2023).
- Don't Let Him In (2025)
- It Could Have Been Her (2026)
Or, if you're interested in diving into her non-thriller books, you can read those in the order they were published in, as well.
- Ralph's Party (1999)
- Thirtynothing (2000)
- One-Hit Wonder (2001)
- A Friend of the Family (2004)
- Vince & Joy (2005)
- Roomates Wanted (2007)
- The Truth About Melody Browne (2009)
- After the Party (2010)
- The Making of Us (2011)
- Before I Met You (2012)
- Breaking the Dark: A Jessica Jones Marvel Crime Novel (2024)
Are any of Lisa Jewell's books being adapted into movies or TV shows?
With their plots full of intrigue and juicy twists, Jewell's novels are ripe to make for entertaining movies and series—so it's no wonder that at least a handful are being developed for the screen.
None of This Is True is soon to be a movie, and it will likely be the first of Jewell's books to be adapted. According to Deadline, it was picked up by Netflix in June 2024, with Perry Mason’s Eleanor Burgess on board to write the script and Molly Sims’ production company Something Happy Productions tackling the project.
Also on the docket? Fan favorite Then She Was Gone is also soon to be a Netflix movie. Catherine Steadman (The Ex-Wife) will write the screenplay. Jonathan Rubenstein and Ari Pinchot (The Ides of March, The Butler) are set to produce, per Deadline.
There's no word on when either adaptation will be released, so if you have yet read into the source material, now is the time.
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Marie Claire is a trusted voice in the book community for good reason: We love to read. Just like you, we live for a good murder mystery series, swoon over the latest #BookTok romances, and find it easy to get swept up by faeries and dragons galore in a good imaginative fantasy just as much as the latest, buzzy literary fiction. If we’re not getting our book facts straight from the source (A.K.A. by reading them ourselves), we’re investigating them from every angle, taking into account a book’s rankings, awards, and opinions from readers—just like you.
