45 books like Bloodline

By Sidney Sheldon,

Here are 45 books that Bloodline fans have personally recommended if you like Bloodline. Shepherd is a community of 11,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Carpetbaggers

Michael Callahan Author Of The Lost Letters from Martha's Vineyard

From my list on beach reads from midcentury America.

Why am I passionate about this?

When I was a little boy growing up in Philadelphia, I couldn’t have dolls. So I collected Hot Wheels, gave them all wild names and backstories, and moved them around through scandal and adventure on our pool table. As a voracious reader, I devoured hefty novels from my parent’s bookcase as a teenager, and in the 1980s, I adored prime-time soaps like Dallas and Dynasty. I also discovered great midcentury melodramas from filmmakers like Douglas Sirk and Mark Robson, leading to reading related books. Today I review books for the New York Times, and I remain passionate for period melodrama. (Don’t get me started on my Mad Men obsession!)  

Michael's book list on beach reads from midcentury America

Michael Callahan Why did Michael love this book?

This roman à clef about billionaire Howard Hughes has everything you covet in a great beach read: money, power, sex, betrayal.

The rugged tycoon Jonas Cord and the screen siren Rita Marlowe tussle, tangle, couple, uncouple, and everything in between over decades and continents, and Robbins’s talent for saucy dialogue and spicier plotlines furiously bubbles to the surface in perhaps the last great book he wrote before his own life—as dramatic as anything he penned—and his work both began to crumble.

It’s hardly short (the original hardback clocks in at a hefty 650-plus pages), but I could not get enough of its blazing, take-no-prisoners leads as they barreled through the worlds of show business, aviation, and business to conquer the world.   

By Harold Robbins,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Carpetbaggers as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Attacked, damned, praised and read around the world, THE CARPETBAGGERS was first published in 1961 and shelved high enough that the kids couldn't get their hands on it.

Set in the aviation industry and Hollywood in the 1930s, it is said the lead protaganist Jonas Cord is based on Bill Lear and Howard Hughes. It is the original sex and money blockbuster: a cracking story driven relentlessly forward by the sheer power and boldness of Robbins' writing.


Book cover of Peyton Place

Michael Callahan Author Of The Lost Letters from Martha's Vineyard

From my list on beach reads from midcentury America.

Why am I passionate about this?

When I was a little boy growing up in Philadelphia, I couldn’t have dolls. So I collected Hot Wheels, gave them all wild names and backstories, and moved them around through scandal and adventure on our pool table. As a voracious reader, I devoured hefty novels from my parent’s bookcase as a teenager, and in the 1980s, I adored prime-time soaps like Dallas and Dynasty. I also discovered great midcentury melodramas from filmmakers like Douglas Sirk and Mark Robson, leading to reading related books. Today I review books for the New York Times, and I remain passionate for period melodrama. (Don’t get me started on my Mad Men obsession!)  

Michael's book list on beach reads from midcentury America

Michael Callahan Why did Michael love this book?

The first great American trashy novel, Peyton Place today seems rather tame, but in its day, it was scandalous. Plucking it from my mother’s bookcase when I was 14, I was engrossed by its roaring passion and sensational secrets.

Set in a small New England town, the book set the stage for the modern soap opera, and I wolfed it down like a big box of candy. It reminds me of those great, heady melodramas of the 1950s (and was itself made into a fabulously sudsy film in 1957), an intoxicating mix of all things forbidden.

I adored the fact that it was literary, which it doesn’t get enough credit for. I think its opening line—“Indian summer is like a woman…”—is one of the best in mid-20th Century literature. 

By Grace Metalious,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Peyton Place as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When Grace Metalious's debut novel about the dark underside of a small, respectable New England town was published in 1956, it quickly soared to the top of the bestseller lists. A landmark in twentieth-century American popular culture, Peyton Place spawned a successful feature film and a long-running television series—the first prime-time soap opera.

Contemporary readers of Peyton Place will be captivated by its vivid characters, earthy prose, and shocking incidents. Through her riveting, uninhibited narrative, Metalious skillfully exposes the intricate social anatomy of a small community, examining the lives of its people—their passions and vices, their ambitions and defeats, their…


Book cover of Evening In Byzantium

Michael Callahan Author Of The Lost Letters from Martha's Vineyard

From my list on beach reads from midcentury America.

Why am I passionate about this?

When I was a little boy growing up in Philadelphia, I couldn’t have dolls. So I collected Hot Wheels, gave them all wild names and backstories, and moved them around through scandal and adventure on our pool table. As a voracious reader, I devoured hefty novels from my parent’s bookcase as a teenager, and in the 1980s, I adored prime-time soaps like Dallas and Dynasty. I also discovered great midcentury melodramas from filmmakers like Douglas Sirk and Mark Robson, leading to reading related books. Today I review books for the New York Times, and I remain passionate for period melodrama. (Don’t get me started on my Mad Men obsession!)  

Michael's book list on beach reads from midcentury America

Michael Callahan Why did Michael love this book?

One of the great lions of mid-20th-century literature, Irwin Shaw is probably best known for Rich Man, Poor Man, which became television’s first big miniseries. But this book, chronicling the dark glamour of the Cannes Film Festival in 1970, centers on the antihero Jesse Craig, a burned-out film producer trying to regain relevance in an arena that worships the new.

Reading it today, you can’t help but wish that kind of effortless European style and chic still existed. It also contains one of my favorite exchanges in a novel, when a young woman asks Craig, “If you had to do it all over again, would you?” and he responds wearily, “No one gets to do it all over again.” Oh, snap!

By Irwin Shaw,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Evening In Byzantium as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'They were honest mean and thieves, pimps and panderers and men of virtue. Therewere beautiful women and delicious girls, handsome men with the faces of swines...' 'They were all gamblers in a game with no rules, placing their bets debonairly or in the sweat of fear...' These are some of the characters in Irwin Shaw's bestselling EVENING IN BYZANTIUM. The place is Cannes, the setting, a film festival. The hero is Jesse Craig, forty-eight years old, whose survival is at stake in the midst of this gaudy carnival.


Book cover of From the Terrace

Michael Callahan Author Of The Lost Letters from Martha's Vineyard

From my list on beach reads from midcentury America.

Why am I passionate about this?

When I was a little boy growing up in Philadelphia, I couldn’t have dolls. So I collected Hot Wheels, gave them all wild names and backstories, and moved them around through scandal and adventure on our pool table. As a voracious reader, I devoured hefty novels from my parent’s bookcase as a teenager, and in the 1980s, I adored prime-time soaps like Dallas and Dynasty. I also discovered great midcentury melodramas from filmmakers like Douglas Sirk and Mark Robson, leading to reading related books. Today I review books for the New York Times, and I remain passionate for period melodrama. (Don’t get me started on my Mad Men obsession!)  

Michael's book list on beach reads from midcentury America

Michael Callahan Why did Michael love this book?

I once asked Agnes Nixon, the creator of All My Children and other legendary daytime serials, how she became so good at plotting them. She replied, “I am a very good eavesdropper.”

I suspect O’Hara was, too. His 1959 epic (900 pages!) about a social-climbing, status-mad banker and the fashionable coterie of vipers he navigates to attain success at any cost is dipped in old-money style and privilege masking an ever-rotting core.

It’s packed with the one thing any great beach read needs: people keeping secrets who will do anything to protect them.    

By John O'Hara,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked From the Terrace as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Used classic novel


Book cover of Milkman

Nell Freudenberger Author Of The Limits

From my list on what it’s really like to be a teenage girl.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up in Los Angeles in the 80s and 90s. I was a shy teenager, an obsessive reader, and a secret writer.  I went to an all-girls high school where we wore uniforms, did a lot of homework, and mostly had no idea how to meet boys. The teen girls I encountered in movies, TV shows, and even literature were sexualized to the point of being unrecognizable to me. Now that I work with teenagers (and am a mom to one), I’m fascinated by the variability of girls this age, their wide-ranging intelligence, passions, and ways of being in the world. I love novels that reflect that complexity.

Nell's book list on what it’s really like to be a teenage girl

Nell Freudenberger Why did Nell love this book?

I loved this book because it tells the story of a young woman in a perilous political situation who doesn’t cave to horrifying violence or conform simply to stay safe. I admire the voice Burns creates for the main character, called “middle sister,” because it’s unlike any narration in any other novel. 

For me, the strangeness of middle sister’s narration gets at the disconnect between the way a young woman sees herself and the way the rest of the world sees her—as inconsequential, as a sexual object, as a target. I love the way that she thinks her way out of the traps all around her, using humor and clear-sightedness to survive ‘the troubles’ in Northern Ireland during the 1970s.  

By Anna Burns,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked Milkman as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Liberty fabric covered editions bring classics from the Faber backlist together with important modern titles, putting them in conversation and celebrating both the history and the future of Faber & Faber.

In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. But when first brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle, and rumours start to swell, middle sister becomes 'interesting'. The last thing she ever wanted to be. To be interesting is to be noticed and…


Book cover of I See You

Marilyn Levinson Author Of Dewey Decimated

From my list on psychological thrillers I've recently read.

Why am I passionate about this?

I write mysteries and I love to read them. The mysteries I write are traditional and cozy. The focus is on my sleuth as she solves murders, her relationships, and on the local setting. These past few years I've enjoyed reading mysteries quite a bit edgier than the ones I write. These books are filled with characters that are often unstable or emotionally damaged. The murders are more brutal; the plots are more complex. Psychological thrillers veer off in many directions, and the person narrating the story is not always reliable. You can't take for granted that what a character says is true. Your best bet is to observe the action and enjoy the ride!

Marilyn's book list on psychological thrillers I've recently read

Marilyn Levinson Why did Marilyn love this book?

Zoe commutes to her job every day on a crowded train on the London underground. She discovers that someone is posting advertisements in a local paper saying which women take which trains. And there's a photograph of herself, claiming she's up for some "discreet casual action." Who is behind this and why? Zoe becomes suspicious of everyone in her life—her boss, her significant other—wondering who is cruel enough to set up unsuspecting women that commute by train. She's shocked when she finds out the truth, part of which she never discovers. A final zinger.

By Clare Mackintosh,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked I See You as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Discover the twisty, gripping Richard & Judy Book Club pick and Sunday Times Number One bestseller. And don't miss the next nail-biting thriller from Clare Mackintosh. Hostage is out now.

You do the same thing every day.
You know exactly where you're going.
You're not alone . . .

When Zoe Walker sees her photo in the classifieds section of a London newspaper, she is determined to find out why it's there. There's no explanation: just a grainy image, a website address and a phone number. She takes it home to her family, who are convinced it's just someone who…


Book cover of The Night Whistler

Sherryl Clark Author Of Mad, Bad and Dead

From my list on Australian crime to have you on the edge of your seat.

Why am I passionate about this?

I started reading crime fiction as a teenager, so maybe it was inevitable that one day I would start writing it. I began with short stories, but then found an idea for a novel that wouldn’t let me go. One small paragraph about a tape recording left by a dead man. The books I love reading now are often set in small towns and communities, like the one I grew up in, where normal people tend to hide the worst secrets! Hidden motivations and seeing how the past plays out in the present are two elements I love in crime fiction—they help to work out who the killer is.

Sherryl's book list on Australian crime to have you on the edge of your seat

Sherryl Clark Why did Sherryl love this book?

I love a good historical crime novel that’s set within a time I almost remember. It’s 1966 and Mick Goodenough arrives in Moorabool, demoted and depressed to be back. We all know killers often start by killing animals, so a dead, tortured dog raises Mick’s alert level, even though it’s dismissed by the other cops. A lone woman starts receiving weird, whistling phone calls and from there, the tension gradually racks up. Mick Goodenough has all the qualities I enjoy in a detective—intelligence, good hunches, and he loves his dogs.

By Greg Woodland,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Night Whistler as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The summer of 1966–7. Hal and his little brother have just come to live in Moorabool. They’re exploring the creek near their new home when they find the body of a dog.

Not just dead, but killed.

Not just killed, but horribly maimed.

Constable Mick Goodenough, recently demoted from his big-city job as a detective, is also new in town—and one of his dogs has gone missing. Like other pets around the town.

He knows what it means when someone tortures animals to death. They’re practising. So when Hal’s mother starts getting late-night phone calls—a man whistling, then hanging up—Goodenough,…


Book cover of Protecting Piper

Laura Hunsaker Author Of Dark Past

From my list on books where the hero falls in love first.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have always been a reader, and with Irish and Scottish families, I’ve grown up hearing beautiful stories of magic and the fair folk. When I discovered romance novels, I was able to combine my love of happily ever afters and the myth and legend of my childhood. I even took classes on the Mythology of Ireland and Britain while I was obtaining my degrees. With a specialty in British Literature, I have been able to ensure my stories, while full of myth and magic, are also steeped in historical accuracy. The lush and vivid descriptions in my stories are paired with magic and time travel, with every story leaving the reader satisfied with the happily ever after the characters have earned.

Laura's book list on books where the hero falls in love first

Laura Hunsaker Why did Laura love this book?

I love this book because the hero, Eric, has been in love with the heroine Piper since they were teenagers. However, the heroine is his brother’s best friend so he pulled back so as not to step on any toes. The entire time, Piper believed he hated her. I love when she realizes that not only doesn’t Eric hate her, but she loves him too.

This author is a master at romantic suspense, so while they are falling in love, there’s so much more going on in the background that when Piper realizes Eric loves her, it makes their story all the sweeter.

By Cynthia Eden,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Protecting Piper as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

She was off-limits.

Eric Wilde has always known that Piper Lane isn’t for him. She is his younger brother’s best friend…and probably more. But that hasn’t stopped Eric from wanting her, from longing for the one woman that he can’t have. Sure, he’s rich, successful—he’s built a security empire, and he’s got the world at his feet. Only he doesn’t have her.

He is the one man she needs the most.

Free-spirited Piper Lane has always considered Eric to be the enemy. He’s seemed to resent her, and the guy just flat-out makes her nervous. Every time she’s around him,…


Book cover of Confessions on the 7:45

Karen E. Olson Author Of An Inconvenient Wife: A Modern Tudor Mystery

From my list on mysteries told from more than one point of view.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a former journalist, I was trained to look at all sides of a story. When I read, I am drawn to books that have multiple characters with their own narratives. Sometimes the stories intersect with an “aha!” moment, and sometimes they’re told side-by-side inside each character’s head. Either way, it’s intriguing to have different perspectives—especially in a mystery or thriller. That’s why I use the points of view of three wives in An Inconvenient Wife to give my readers insight into each of these fascinating women.

Karen's book list on mysteries told from more than one point of view

Karen E. Olson Why did Karen love this book?

I am a huge fan of Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train, and this book is an homage to that film—but in the form of a domestic thriller.

A mysterious stranger on the train, a wife troubled by her husband’s infidelity, a missing nanny: each has her own story to tell that eventually intersects with the others and kept me guessing until the end.

By Lisa Unger,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Confessions on the 7 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'WHAT A READ!... Completely engrossing, undeniably enthralling... The biggest five stars.' NetGalley reviewer, 5 stars

'A masterclass in storytelling... Unforgettable.' Samantha Downing, author of My Lovely Wife

Everyone has a secret. Who would you trust with yours?

On Selena Murphy's train home from work, a mysterious woman named Martha strikes up a conversation and shares a confession: she's having an affair with her boss. In turn, Selena shares her own secret: she suspects her husband is sleeping with the nanny.

At Selena's station the two women part, and Selena never expects to see her again. Until she receives a message.…


Book cover of Never Let You Go

Heather Gudenkauf Author Of Not a Sound

From my list on thrillers and mysteries about dogs.

Why am I passionate about this?

Some of my fondest memories have been of curling up with the family dog and reading a good book. This started as a child with our golden retriever OJ, and continues today with Lolo, our sweet but spoiled German shorthaired pointer. Dogs are such wonderful companions, always up for anything: hiking, exploring, car rides, sitting on the couch, and lounging. It’s no surprise, then, that not only do I love reading books featuring dogs I’ve also included a canine sidekick in each of the nine thrillers that I’ve written. I hope you enjoy this dogged list of mysteries and thrillers as much as I have. 

Heather's book list on thrillers and mysteries about dogs

Heather Gudenkauf Why did Heather love this book?

Chevy Stevens is one of my favorite go-to authors and Never Let You Go, the story of a woman and her child who escape an abusive relationship and eleven years later the threat returns, is a book that has lingered with me for years. In the very first chapter Stevens manages to capture such intense fear and helplessness in Lindsey and her daughter Sophie as well as a sense of determination and a will to survive. But Lindsey can’t do it alone. At her side is Angus – a lug of a German shepherd mix, whom Lindsey found at the local animal shelter. Angus doesn’t make an appearance until about halfway in the novel, but what an appearance he makes. He instantly becomes a beloved family member, providing a sense of comfort and security to Lindsey and Sophie. As Lindsey’s ruthless ex-husband draws ever closer, Lindsey, Sophie, and Angus…

By Chevy Stevens,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Never Let You Go as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In Never Let You Go, Chevy Stevens delivers a chilling, twisting thriller that crackles with suspense as it explores the darkest heart of love and obsession.

"Stevens's taut writing and chilling depiction of love twisted beyond recognition make this a compelling read." ―Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"Disturbing, suspenseful, and just a little nerve-wracking." ―Library Journal

Eleven years ago, Lindsey Nash escaped into the night with her young daughter and left an abusive relationship. Her ex-husband, Andrew, was sent to jail and Lindsey started over with a new life.

Now, Lindsey is older and wiser, with her own business and a…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in stalking, inheritances, and wealth?

Stalking 35 books
Inheritances 88 books
Wealth 61 books