The 15 Best Thriller Novels of the 1970s

Cold-war spycraft, ripped-from-the-headlines terror plots, and killers hiding in plain sight — the decade that invented the modern page-turner. Which one keeps you up at night?

1. 1
   The Day of the Jackal

   Frederick Forsyth's 1971 procedural thriller tracking a professional assassin's plot to kill Charles de Gaulle.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Marathon Man

   William Goldman's 1974 thriller pitting a graduate student against a fugitive Nazi war criminal.
   930pts
3. 3
   The Eiger Sanction

   Trevanian's 1972 espionage thriller about an art collector and assassin drawn into a mountain-climbing hit.
   818pts
4. 4
   Shibumi

   Trevanian's 1979 cult espionage novel following a cultured master assassin pursued across the globe.
   752pts
5. 5
   The Boys from Brazil

   Ira Levin's 1976 thriller about a Nazi hunter uncovering a scheme to clone Adolf Hitler.
   734pts
6. 6
   The Dogs of War

   Frederick Forsyth's 1974 thriller about mercenaries staging a coup in a fictional African state.
   734pts
7. 7
   The First Deadly Sin

   Lawrence Sanders's 1973 thriller pitting a weary detective against a random serial killer in New York.
   734pts
8. 8
   Black Sunday

   Thomas Harris's 1975 debut about a terrorist plot to attack the Super Bowl from a blimp.
   636pts
9. 9
   The Odessa File

   Frederick Forsyth's 1972 thriller following a reporter tracking a hidden network of former SS officers.
   636pts
10. 10
    Jaws

    Peter Benchley's 1974 bestseller about a great white shark terrorizing a New England beach town.
    520pts
11. 11
    Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

    John le Carré's 1974 masterwork in which George Smiley hunts a Soviet mole at the top of British intelligence.
    382pts
12. 12
    The Eagle Has Landed

    Jack Higgins's 1975 WWII thriller about a German plot to kidnap Winston Churchill.
    382pts
13. 13
    The Honourable Schoolboy

    John le Carré's 1977 sequel following George Smiley's Circus into Southeast Asia against a Soviet operation.
    382pts
14. 14
    The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

    John Godey's 1973 thriller about armed hijackers seizing a New York City subway train for ransom.
    212pts
15. 15
    Coma

    Robin Cook's 1977 medical thriller about a young doctor uncovering a deadly conspiracy inside a hospital.
    212pts