We love a good thriller. The Stylist offices have been obsessed with The Perfect Couple since it landed on Netflix last week. That adrenaline rush coupled with your heart rate spiking (and Nicole Kidman on terrific form, and in terrific clothes) that a tense thriller can deliver is unrivalled. Well, to me anyway. But there’s a dark side to this genre that leaves a bitter taste in my mouth every time.

So many – too many – television series and films that sit in the thriller or crime genres are heavily focused on violence against women as a core part of the plot. Even The Perfect Couple begins with the murder of a woman. Many popular British shows, like Line Of Duty and Happy Valley, involve women being assaulted, raped or killed and there are too many crime and police shows to count that have platformed storylines reflecting the horrific reality that so many women experience in their lives. But is this really something women need to be reminded of? Especially when we can turn on the news or open up a newspaper and quickly find these very real experiences of violence reflected back to us.

However, there are great thrillers that don’t centre on gendered violence. Here are 14 of our favourites series and films that are tense and suspenseful – and, more importantly, don’t feature women being murdered.

14 tense and gripping thrillers (in which no women get killed)