100 books like The Outsider

At the time, when I read this book, I’d just become a father. Naturally, the story about a father trying to protect his son in a harsh dystopian world was captivating for me and still is to this day.

I loved the book's gritty realism and felt as if I were walking beside the characters during the entire journey. I also found McCarthy’s writing style unique and something new from the best-selling paperbacks I’d often read before picking up his book.

The ‘zombie apocalypse’ scenario has been used for years by risk management professionals to make the examination of possible societal breakdowns more fun and/or interesting.

By focusing on a hazard people know, like hurricanes or wildfires, audiences come to the discussion with pre-existing biases and, in many cases, first-hand experience. This forces the communicator to counter such bias before getting to key messages.

There’s never been an actual zombie apocalypse (nor is there likely to ever be one…), which means the zombie scenario adequately ‘levels the field’. It forces audiences to think beyond their go-to assumptions and introduces levels of uncertainty and unknown that are typical of major disasters.

This book, written without obvious heroes and heroines, in a documentary style, makes a perfect proxy for a disaster exercise scenario. I also believe it does a great job illustrating how different forms of governance result in different response strategies, which… show more.

Obviously, this book is not going to be for everyone. Some might not be able to get past the fact that it is a Star Wars book based off of a video game from 2005. But, if you can get past that, then buckle up for a gripping tale of war and brotherhood. Set in the first weeks of the Clone Wars, Hard Contact feels more like a Tom Clancy war thriller than a space opera. This entire series is gritty, grueling, gut-wrenching, and impossible to put down. 

In One Second After, everything about our comfortable, familiar world is turned upside-down in the blink of an eye. In his novel, Forstchen examines how reliant we are on our infrastructure and how quickly we degenerate once that network is broken. The book, while not a great feat of literature, is fast-paced and enjoyable. Despite a few one-dimensional characters, gender stereotypes, and occasional flat dialogue, I loved the invaluable information about EMPs (a topic I never knew I wanted to know more about) and appreciated the novel’s harsh, unflinching vision of how fragile our society is. The idea that everything you know and love can change in one measly second is a powerful lesson that should be pondered not just through the lens of EMPs, but in general life.

The ultimate thrill ride from start to finish, Jack Carr’s first novel following Navy Seal Commander James Reece is one to remember. I bought this book at the airport in Anaheim, California, and started reading while waiting for my flight. A few delays and a five-hour flight later I had finished the entire book. It is a fantastically written book, laced with complex characters, government, and corporate conspiracies, and reminds us all why you must always be wary of those closest to us.

What if the remains of Jesus Christ were discovered? What would happen to everyone involved in the archaeological discovery? And this premise is what makes for such an enticing read when it comes to Bones by Bob Springett. Everyone involved from a scientific, religious, and even a political point of view would have clashing opinions if the news got out about such a discovery. And Springett sets up all these scenarios amazingly. A terrific story by a very gifted author.

In terms of pulse-pounding mysteries, they don’t get much better than this. Following a high school student in a rural town, Die Softly is a dark and twisted story that keeps you guessing until the very end. Even though I read this book for the first time many, many years ago, I still enjoy picking it up and bringing it on vacation with me. It is a quick read, perfect for a long-ish flight, and never gets old.

Having worked bank robberies as a former FBI Special Agent, I have a keen sense as to what makes these people tick. Most are quite ignorant, however, occasionally clever planning takes place by those as brazen as Hogan has portrayed here. A true masterpiece, Chuck Hogan does a splendid job bringing his characters to life in all the real-life depictions you will enjoy. This is a gut-wrenching roller coaster mixing crime with romantic infatuation to the point you can’t stop reading. I’ll admit, once the movie came out, I had to get the book and now it’s one of my all-time favorite crime thrillers.

Although many fans consider Crais’s preceding book, L.A. Requiem, to be his masterpiece, I’ve chosen this because it perfectly encapsulates the relationship between flamboyant Elvis Cole and his partner, the enigmatic Joe Pike.

Pike is the ultimate sidekick. He’s taciturn, monosyllabic, and extremely complex. Dangerous as hell and completely loyal to Cole and anyone in Cole’s life; he’s taken bullets, knives—a whole bunch of weapons during the nineteen-book series.

In The Last Detective, the son of Cole’s girlfriend gets kidnapped and the evidence points to Cole’s service in Vietnam. Cole’s first call isn’t to the LAPD, it’s to Joe Pike. His message: ‘Joe, I’m scared.’ Pike drops everything and together they start hunting...

Pike is the third sidekick on my list to get his own series.

Carl Hiaasen’s Florida-set books are dark, clever, and ever so funny, with his perfectly drawn characters being eccentric, shady as hell, or just plain whack-a-doodle.

Sometimes all three at the same time. Most of his books are standalones but his one recurring character, the sidekick to lots of the books’ protagonists, is Clinton Tyree, the ex-governor of Florida. Tyree was one of the few honest men to hold that office, until one day, sick of the corruption, he simply vanished into the Everglades.

He appeared later as Skink, a one-eyed man at one with nature who dined on roadkill and engaged in the occasional act of ecoterrorism. He’s frequently the protector of Florida’s downtrodden. In Stormy Weather, he befriends Bonnie Lamb, an unhappy honeymooner, and kidnaps her new husband.