5 Books Like ‘The Perfect Couple’ to Read After Bingeing the Nicole Kidman Series
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The Perfect Couple, a 2018 thriller by Elin Hilderbrand, is having quite the moment right now. In case you haven't read the book (or watched the smash-hit, Nicole Kidman-starring series), here's the gist: It's Nantucket wedding season, and the lavish Otis-Winbury wedding promises to be a showstopper. But then, tragedy strikes when a body is discovered in Nantucket Harbor just hours before the ceremony. Suddenly, everyone in the wedding party is a suspect—including the groom's famous mystery-novelist mother. It's thrilling, twisty and will keep you guessing until the last page. If you’ve already zoomed through the novel and are looking for books with similar themes of weddings gone sour, secrets and—gasp—murder, I’ve put together this list of five books like The Perfect Couple to add to the pile on your nightstand.
The 33 Best Thrillers to Read Right Now
1. The Unwedding by Ally Condie
Billed as The White Lotus meets Agatha Christie, The Unwedding—Reese’s Book Club’s August 2024 pick—opens with a woman, Ellery, heading to a luxurious resort in Big Sur, California, to celebrate her 20th wedding anniversary. The first hitch? She's there alone, following a recent divorce. And not only is her singleness at the front of her mind, there's also a wedding slated to happen at the resort during her trip. I say slated to happen because it never actually does; Ellery finds the groom's body floating in a pool. Soon, another mysterious death occurs, and to add insult to injury, the investigation is thwarted by a violent storm that leaves the guests trapped at the resort. Like any good thriller, there are twists and turns, seemingly promising leads that go nowhere and a lot of secrets threatening to be uncovered.
2. The Guest List by Lucy Foley
Suspense lovers will hang on every word of Lucy Foley’s (The Paris Apartment) atmospheric thriller about a wedding gone wrong. On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate the marriage of a handsome and charming television star and a smart and ambitious magazine publisher. Everything is lovely, until the Champagne is popped and resentments and jealousies bubble to the surface. Then, someone turns up dead, and perhaps unsurprisingly, everyone in attendance is hiding a secret. As one Amazon reviewer puts it, "Quick moving, twists and human characters well done. You won't be disappointed. A touch of Irish local makes this escapist heaven."
3. You’re Invited by Amanda Jayatissa
When Amaya is invited to Kaavi's over-the-top wedding in Sri Lanka, she’s surprised to hear from her former best friend after so many years of radio silence. But when Amaya learns that the groom is her very own ex-boyfriend, she’s convinced she has to stop the wedding from happening, no matter what. As the weeklong celebrations begin and rumors about Amaya's past swirl, she can't help but feel like she also has a target on her back. When Kaavi goes missing and is presumed dead, all evidence points to Amaya. But as it turns out, each and every wedding guest has their own dark secrets and agenda, and Amaya might not be the only one with a plan to stop the wedding in its tracks.
4. Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty
While there’s not a wedding at the center of this best-seller (which was turned into a show on Peacock), there is a wealthy, seemingly perfect family and plenty of mystery. Stan and Joy Delaney are fixtures in their community. After 50 years of marriage, they’ve sold their tennis academy to start what should be the golden years of their lives. So why are they so miserable? Things come to a head when a stranger named Savannah knocks on their door, bleeding after a fight with her boyfriend, and the Delaneys are happy to help. But when Joy goes missing, and Savannah is nowhere to be found, the police question Stan, who, despite claiming innocence, seems to have a lot to hide. As the Delaneys’ four children pick sides, they start to reexamine their family’s history in a new light.
5. So Happy for You by Celia Laskey
Robin is a queer woman in her early 30s living in Brooklyn and working on her Ph.D. dissertation on society’s obsession with marriage. She’s surprised, then, when Ellie, her somewhat estranged childhood best friend, asks her to be the maid of honor at her wedding. And this isn’t your average wedding, as this isn’t your average society. Laskey’s novel is set in a present day, slightly dystopian version of America, a world where the government incentivizes marriage and where social media has decided that single women are “leftovers” at 27 and “rotten” at 35. As Robin and Ellie fall deeper down the rabbit hole of planning and ensuring the wedding goes off without a hitch, things get darker, as is foreshadowed by the book’s very first lines: “If you want to know the story of how my best friend and I ended up trying to kill each other, I should probably start with the night she asked me to be her maid of honor.”
