100 books like The Last Testament

When I opened this book, I first loved the main character, Cotton Malone, a guy who owns a bookshop in Copenhagen…really? Then he journeyed to Rennes Le Chateau, which I went to in 2013 while I led a tour to France in search of the Templar Knights's footprint and uncovering some of their myths and legends. You have to want to get there; it’s miles from anywhere and in the Pyrenees. In the 19th century, a priest suddenly became exorbitantly wealthy there, and Steve Berry’s book picks up the thread.

He’s a really great writer. You sit right in the middle of the action yourself. This book also introduces Cassiopa Vitt, an extraordinarily well thought through complex character. Malone finds that whichever way he turns, he gets himself deeper, and there are lots of little twists in this book. I read it in speedy time as I couldn’t put it… show more.

Despite the similar title to my previous recommendation, James Becker’s The Lost Testament is a very different beast. The sixth installment of Becker’s Chris Bronson series, the testament concerned is an ancient parchment stolen from the Vatican Archives. It later shows up for sale in Cairo; soon the body count rises as various factions fall over themselves to find it and protect its damaging revelation. I think Becker is a vastly underrated author; his use of plot decoys and his descriptive passages are second-to-none. Becker is another author I admired enough to ask him to cover-review my book. 

I may be uncommon in my likes and dislikes, but I’m a fan of carefully constructed prose. I prefer the challenge of interpretation, to be left without all the facts, to be enticed, teased, and misled. For me, author Simon Toyne does all this, and more. His Sancti trilogy begins with the epitome Sanctus. The plot, concerning an ancient secret passed down through generations of monks, is complex, sometimes disturbing, and always compelling. Toyne’s writing, for me, is both intelligent and dynamic, exactly how this genre should be done!

I’ve chosen this final recommendation because it is a little different from the standard religious conspiracy thriller. I love John Case’s writing (actually a husband and wife collaboration). Although The Genesis Code from this pair could be regarded as a better example of the genre, I prefer The Eighth Day because it deviates from the usual strictly Christian or Islamic subject matter. Plus, refreshingly, it doesn’t make the main character a superhero of espionage, an out-of-control academic, or a swaggering investigative journalist. It involves a demonic tribe in the hinterlands of Turkey and a billionaire’s megalomania. Be prepared for some surprising twists! Dark, fast-paced, and full of intrigue. 

Agatha Christie has got to be considered as one of the master craftsmen of the “whodunnit”. In this novel, she presents us with an intriguing mystery and brings in her famous character, Hercule Poirot to solve it. As always, Poirot faces a varied array of possible suspects and the highly-credible reasons as to why he/she may be the guilty party. The pace is consistent and keeps the reader turning the page and trying to guess until the unmasking at the very end.

Logan McKenna isn’t even a cop, but she is ready to go to war to defend a friend falsely accused of murder in a tight-knit artist community. 

She’s determined. She will keep digging even when the danger factor rises. 

The mystery keeps you guessing. 

All these factors make for a fun read.

It was so difficult to pick just one book by the ‘Queen of Crime’, but for me, The Body in the Library is the perfect murder mystery set in an English village. When Dolly Bantry finds the body of a beautiful young woman in her library one morning, she immediately calls her best friend, Jane Marple. Miss Marple arrives at the hotel where the dead girl worked and finds herself in a world of glamorous dancers and wealthy invalids. She sets out to uncover the murderer and restore her friends’ reputations.

Van de Mieroop’s history of the ancient Near East is concise, engaging, and up to date. For anyone new to the subject this book is a great place to start. Find out about the first cities and social institutions, ideologies and religious beliefs, long-distance trade, state formation, and the wars of imperial expansion. Van De Mieroop augments his narrative with passages from ancient sources, plenty of maps and illustrations, and information about important research questions and controversies. 

Part of my job when writing historical fiction is to know the "lay of the land." That means understanding regional maps, the geography, the climate, and the flora and fauna of the era and location of my story. I turned to this book so often that some of the pages are falling out. Beautifully illustrated with color photos, maps, and drawings, this book describes the history and main features of twelve main geographical regions in the Holy Land and connects them to major events in the Old and New Testaments. It's an accessible resource that functions more as a cultural atlas than simply as a map atlas.

I love everything Sara Shepard does.

The story kicks off with Emma, a kind-hearted foster kid, discovering she has an identical twin sister named Sutton, who was adopted by a wealthy family. When Emma agrees to meet Sutton, she's shocked to learn that Sutton has mysteriously disappeared, and she's expected to step into Sutton’s life until she returns. What starts as a simple case of mistaken identity quickly spirals into a compelling mystery as Emma immerses herself in Sutton’s world, uncovering secrets and lies at every turn.

What really draws me to this book is its layered storytelling. As Emma digs deeper into the life of her sister, she encounters the dangerous game that Sutton and her friends played—a game all about deceit and cruel pranks. Shepard masterfully intertwines the suspense of the investigation with the drama of high school life, making each character’s motives murky and adding to the… show more.