thriller-diller

thriller-diller

Anything that is especially thrilling, exciting, or nerve-racking. Wow, the last quarter of that game was a real thriller-diller, a constant back-and-forth of advantage between the two teams. She starred in a lot of the thriller-dillers that came out back in the '40s.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

thriller-diller

(ˈθrɪlɚˈdɪlɚ)
n. something like a movie, book, or television program that is thrilling. (see also whodunit.) The film was a real thriller-diller. I remember having to force myself to exhale.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • cat-and-mouse game
  • look as if (one) has seen a ghost
  • look as if you have seen a ghost
  • look as though (one) has seen a ghost
  • the cut and thrust of (something)
  • everything is coming up roses
  • everything's coming up roses
  • get pulses racing
  • set pulses racing
  • bear a resemblance to (someone or something)
References in periodicals archive
Army criminal investigator extraordinaire, makes his fourth foray in No Man's Land (Hachette Audio, 11.5 hours), David Baldacci's latest action-packed, edge-of-your-seat thriller-diller. Puller is pulled back into his mother's mysterious disappearance that occurred 30 years ago when a letter accuses his father, a renowned three-star general now diminished by dementia, of murdering her.
A puff of white smoke
As a matter of professional interest I've been reading Ken Follett to find out just how literary this thriller-diller actually is.
THE INSIDER
Through it all, Ritchie steadily ratchets up the thriller-diller quotient by suggesting two Russian thugs (who resemble refugees from "Eastern Promises") are, quite literally, unkillable.
Ritchie's Return to Form