Love Hungry Ghost? Readers share 100 books like Hungry Ghost...

Graham Greene is my all-time favorite author, and I could easily have filled this review with five of his books alone. He is the king of style and written dialogue.

The Quiet American–which was made into a pretty reasonable 2002 film starring Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser–concerns the life of jaded foreign correspondent and opium addict Thomas Fowler, caught in a love-hate relationship with his estranged wife, from whom he is seeking a divorce, and his young Vietnamese lover, Phuong. The action takes place in French Indochina on the cusp of the Vietnam War.

It is a masterwork of rising dramatic tension and the exploration of themes of love, trust, and Greene’s specialty, betrayal. This is yet another dog-eared paperback I escape to read time and again. 

This wonderful novel features a journalist, Mikala Blomkvist, searching for a highly respected, long-lost member of a notable family. Once again, government corruption is rampant in the investigation.

A special aspect of this novel is the introduction of Lisbeth Salander, a brash, tattooed young woman with an abrasive personality matched only by her singular skills. I loved this character, who is incredibly unique.

The first time I talked to my New York agent, I told her my three favorite novels were The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, the Eye of the Needle, and, of course, the Day of the Jackal. She caught her breath. “I’ve just written an article,” she said, “saying those were the three best thrillers ever.” 

Here’s a secret. Old City Hall is not the first book I’ve written. I spent ten years writing a thriller inspired by Jackal. Set in 1988, an assassin is on her way to Toronto to kill the G-7 world leaders meeting there. The manuscript never sold. Then, last year, I pulled out my “book-in-a-drawer” and updated it as a prequel. Now it’s my new novel. I’ve moved in my writing from legal thrillers to historical dramas (my last novel is based on a Nazi massacre in Italy in 1944) and… show more.

I struggled to put this book on a crime novel list, but this is one of my favorite books of all time. At its heart, it’s a spy novel. It makes the list because the main character hunts bad agents–the internal affairs of the CIA.

The book opens with a murder crime scene in New York. If you haven’t heard about this book, it’s a true phenomenon. Many times, during book signings, I’ve been asked by readers if I knew of this book and how much they absolutely loved it. More importantly, though, they wanted me to tell them when the sequel was coming out. This book came out in 2014, and the sequel came out this year, ten years later. It garners 95k reviews on Amazon, which alone tells you all you need to know.

This is one of the best books in Eisler’s John Rain series, featuring half-American, half-Japanese assassin and Vietnam veteran John Rain.

Eisler himself was a covert operative with the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, and his descriptions of fieldcraft, surveillance, torture, and killing techniques all ring so true, as does his extensive knowledge of modern Japan.

Tokyo is, of course, a fascinating playground for Rain’s adventures. Eisler’s books and unputdownable, and well worth discovering.

This is the first book in Valerie Goldsilk’s extensive ‘Reliable man’ series about former Royal Hong Kong Police inspector-turned assassin Bill Jedburgh, who plies his trade across Asia – and beyond, and who is known to those who use his services only as (you would have guessed it), “the reliable man”.

This thriller is set in Pattaya, Thailand, and involves a high-octane chase between Jedburgh, triad devotees, and European mafiosos, amid the exotic scenery of Southeast Asia. Nothing is missing, including bar girls, massage parlours, and sophisticated shoot outs.

Goldsilk herself has lived in Hong Kong for more than 30 years and is married to a former Hong Kong policeman. The story feels authentic (if not politically correct!) and is well written, as are the other books in the series.

Highly recommended!

This is the latest book in Boczar’s Eric Ketch series, which follows the adventures of an American international man of mystery across Hong Kong, Macao, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Burma, in the pursuit of rubies, exotic women, and ruthless assassins.

Boczar himself knows the region very well, having lived in Hong Kong for over three decades, and worked as a war correspondent, on the porous borders of the golden triangle and in Lebanon during the civil war.

The descriptions, whether of cities, weapons, smugglers, or guerilla fighters, all feel true, and Boczar knows only too well how to tell a convincing and edge-of-your-seat story that is difficult to put down.

A best seller from BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner.

MI6 agent Luke Carlton is on a mission to uncover a secret cave system at a military complex south-east of Tehran, in which scientists work round-the-clock on a banned nuclear device, at the behest of ultra-conservative Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

Gardner himself was ambushed and left paralyzed by Islamist gunmen, while on assignment in Riyadh. This is a rare thriller set in Iran, although the action also extends to neighbouring countries such as Armenia.

Fast-paced, well-written, and authentic. What more can you ask for?

In many ways this is the quintessential Hong Kong book because its very style and approach is, as the title says, somewhat impossible, mixing the intensely personal with the political, closely observed reflections and a large collection of unique Hong Kong voices.

Written during and after the 2019/20 protests, Cheung throws her net wide to give the reader an intimate picture of the real Hong Kong, an exasperating and wonderful place. She is the youngest of the authors I have recommended and, therefore, closer to the generation who gave rise to the protests. People often speak of the unique Hong Kong spirit in Hong Kong, and this book gives profound insight into what that means.

This novel brings readers up close and personal with Hong Kong. Clarke is a young Englishman doing a banking stint in the fabled city. He lives a relatively sedate existence in his corporately antiseptic neighborhood. But one day he decides to get off his beaten path and winds up having his life changed dramatically. He becomes enamored with a shantytown prostitute, embroiled in the geopolitical struggle with Mainland China, and involved in a potential swindle of international proportions. In addition to spinning an interesting tale, Craft is also able to weave in the ticking time bomb of environmental hazards that plague the area without pious preaching and totally within the confines of the story he’s telling.