85 books like A Study in Scarlet

This is an enthralling adventure story that drags the reader across the rugged mountains, glens, and cities of 18th-century Scotland as the hero seeks to recover his stolen inheritance.

The story gallops along with vivid descriptions that transport the reader back to a time when loyalty and honour were really cherished. The character development, as David Balfour and Alan Breck risk all amongst the failed Jacobite uprising, is exceptional. This is another timeless classic that transports the reader to another age.

I love the interplay of real characters and real events with the underlying story, a technique that I use fully in my novels; it adds depth, veracity, and interest. Stevenson’s prose is also exceptional, creating images that make this a compelling and memorable adventure story.

The world of The Hunger Games is eerily similar to our own, making readers think about “just war” and the spectacle of violence through the eyes of a 16-year-old girl. While Katniss Everdeen is a teenager, I still pick up this book (more than) annually, and each time I revisit it, I come away with new insight into the real world.

Katniss is strong, caring, and resilient in the face of all the challenges of her environment. As an adult, I can learn from her strengths and even from her flaws. She inspires me to watch the world around me with a careful eye, to understand how the powers that be shape my experiences, and ultimately, to always watch out for my fellow human beings.

The Long Goodbye, the sixth novel in Chandler’s Phillip Marlowe series, is a classic noir with gritty gangsters, brutal cops, femme fatales, and plenty of cocktails.

Marlowe drinks his way through the novel on his quest to find out who killed his friend’s wife. In one scene, a character instructs the bartender how to make a proper gimlet using only gin and Rose’s lime juice, leaving you to wonder what bitter truths the man is trying to dilute with the overly sweet concoction.

As you ponder the forces of good and evil in American society, you can look forward to a twist at the end that is worthy of a good French 75. 

This book blew me away! 

Lisbeth Salander, the lead female character, is one of the most beautifully drawn, exciting, indomitable, and powerful women I have ever read about in a story. She is not just strong, she is also brilliant – as a super-hacker on the internet to boot.

Thankfully there were two sequels as I could read book after book with her in it.  

I love stories where the hero is a normal guy that we can all identify with in some way or another and where there is an arc to the story that transforms that normal guy into something extraordinary. 

With just wits and creativity, our hero, Wade Watts, finds a way to survive against all odds. And no matter how bad things get, he never quits. He embodies the best of the human spirit—and by the end of the book, you’re cheering for him. Because he is you (or who you want to be), the "everyman" who stands up to injustice, unfairness, and those powers that are wrecking humanity (which in this case happens to be a trillion-dollar Mega Corporation).

Some have called this the first of the Victorian detective genre. It is a classic, timeless masterpiece that is full of mystery and intrigue.

A valuable diamond, the moonstone, is stolen, and the story involves a complex web of deception and suspense with twists and turns until the final chapter reveals all. Collins’s innovative writing style, told through different narrators, adds depth to the story and keeps the pages turning. 

It is a novel that still, today captures the imagination and drips with atmosphere. Also, I was honoured in one review to have my writing style compared favourably with Collins, so definitely a book to add to my list with the added benefit of having the period atmosphere and plot complexity that captivates me!

I’m basically a big kid at heart. The story of an ordinary boy being told on his eleventh birthday he is actually a wizard, is brilliant! Hogwarts is probably the only school every kid would love to attend. Hermione is a brilliant witch if a tad bossy. But the boys would have been a bit lost without her.

It’s a story kids can relate to—as they have to go through the usual youth challenges such as new friendships, exams, and young love, albeit with a magical twist—and gain inspiration from.

As a mother of four daughters, I love stories that empower girls (and children in general), help them believe in themselves, and encourage them to reach for the stars! The value of loyal friends is a great message throughout the books as well.

I knew the author when I worked for his literary agent in London, and this is a fascinating and frightening look at the London crime world of the Kray Twins. They ruthlessly ruled parts of London, including the East End, and was an essential background re-read when I wrote my own London crime novel. I was trying to show behind the scenes of the world of striptease, but this book is a reminder of what’s behind even that behind-the-scenes world. I used to send a 6-monthly royalty cheque to their mother as their share for co-operating with the book, which is why it’s so authentic.

This is an obvious follow-on from my first choice, a gritty fictionalised version of the kind of world the Kray Brothers moved in. It features the gangster Harry Starks, who is both a porn king and a sociology graduate, and has one of those great openings that grips you from the start:

"You know the song, don’t you?" “There’s no business like show business.” Harry gets the Ethel Merman intonation just right as he heats up a poker in the gas burner.

How can you not read on, albeit a little nervously?

As a multi-genre author, I was interested to see how the creator of a world-famous boy wizard was going to change her name and turn her hand to crime writing. I relished the result: the first outing for a new private investigator, a character called Cormoran Strike.

Known simply as Strike, he is a P.I. with a handicap (aren’t they all?). Not just the common ones; excessive drinking, difficult relationships, and so on, Strike lost half his right leg whilst serving in Afghanistan. Retiring from service, the ex-MP becomes a private investigator. He has few clients, no money, and is scruffy and unkempt because he sleeps in his office. But he does have a motto, "Do the job and do it well."

In social relationships, Strike isn’t a likable character; demanding and sometimes just plain rude. He has lost his last assistant. I warmed to him the more his traits… show more.