66 books like The Son

A multi-day walking trip requires a page-turning thriller. It is one of the most intriguing mysteries I’ve ever read. It dragged me into another world and then deeper into a story within a story. Lying in uncomfortable beds in noisy hostels while backpacking in Australia, I was beguiled and forgot my own reality.

Years later, this book stayed with me and influenced my debut novel despite, I think, never really understanding it. However, writing this review has made me start reading it again. I’m already baffled, but I'm hooked!

I remain astonished at how Nabokov could write a novel with such an objectionable premise (in essence, of an adult man sexually attracted to a 12 year old girl) and yet write it in a talented and compelling way such that I as a reader felt involved and even sympathetic to Humbert.

On re-reading the book, I am impressed by the author's ability to write about a forbidden sexual relationship without dwelling on the erotic. Humbert is witty, intelligent, and self-aware. He is damaged in everyone’s judgment and unaware of the effect of his actions on others. 

Although the film version is better known, Dickey’s gut-wrenching saga of four men who decide to take one last canoe trip in the remote North Georgia wilderness is one of my favorite novels of all time. I love Dickey’s vivid prose, which is at times poetic but never obtrusively so.

Simply put, To me, this book represents thriller storytelling at its finest.

I’m one of those readers who sometimes read a book because they have to. I started this book with the idea that I couldn’t possibly miss Stephen King’s debut novel. On paper, it stood at the antipodes of my liking— a horror story, but also a mystery and a thriller, set in a high school and so drenched in blood you might fear staining your finger at each turning page. Yet, I was so absorbed by Carrie’s tormented personality that I forgot all the above and went all the way down to the end in a single breath.

This book confirmed one of my firmest tenets—if you come across a book that is not your genre and love it, it means that you indeed loved it. A lot. 

There’s a reason James Patterson is a popular, best-selling author. His books are well-written, entertaining, and – when he turns his pen to nonfiction – informative.

Jeffrey Epstein rose from humble origins into the New York City and Palm Beach elite. A college dropout with an instinct for numbers – and for people – Epstein amassed his wealth through a combination of access and skill. But even after he had it all, Epstein wanted more. That unceasing desire – and especially a taste for underage girls – resulted in sexual abuse charges, to which he pleaded guilty and received a shockingly lenient sentence.

Included in Filthy Rich are police interviews with girls who alleged sexual abuse by Epstein, details of the investigation against him, and a new introduction with up-to-the-minute developments on the case, including Epstein's death by suicide. 

Filthy Rich is a riveting tale of wealth, power, and the… show more.

I’d already written several books in my AJ Bailey series when Girl beneath the Sea came out. With the might of a large publisher behind the book it hit best-seller lists and proved to me that I was writing books with a subject matter appealing to a broad audience.

Mayne’s protagonist, Sloan McPherson, is a police diver in Florida, who takes cases much farther than her role suggests. She’s an imperfect person with baggage and problems, but her gutsy determination drives the stories forward.

I dive into each new book in the series on the day they’re released.

I was wowed by this book. Denton looks beyond the immaculate white fences and princely politics of Lexington, Kentucky’s thoroughbred horse culture and sees into a drug ring run by a thoroughly corrupt former cop. Her account of a lone police investigator’s confrontation with powerful forces bent on keeping their secrets stands the test of time. It’s a look at how justice too often runs offtrack—a harrowing tale well told.

Fenton climbed a mountain here and reached the top. Freddie Gray has died in the back of a police van in Baltimore. Something’s wrong with that picture, but who’s going to question the city’s elite Gun Trace Task Force—a vanguard unit in the war on crime—when most civic leaders hold it in awe? Fenton, a reporter for the Baltimore Sun, digs in, doing the meticulous research and insightful writing that expose powerfully guarded secrets and plant a flag for accountability.

This is a memoir by a former narcotics agent who writes about a major drug importation masterminded by a combination of crooks and cops (though it is hard sometimes to work out who was who!).

On a broader scale, Operation Jungle also details the high-level corruption which existed in Queensland under disgraced senior police and politicians in league with each other. Shobbrook – as a brave, serving narcotics agent who transferred into the Australian Federal Police – “ratted” on the corrupt police and politicians before the Australian Royal Commission of Inquiry into Drugs, and so sealed his fate.

Australia was not ready for the truth. Instead of treating his evidence with respect, the author was forced out of the Australian Federal Police in 1980. It’s a gripping, thrilling true story.

Police departments are comprised of, and are considered, the largest gangs in the country. They have developed a culture all its own. Within that culture are good cops and bad cops. I have personally encountered both while an FBI Agent and working cases of joint jurisdiction. Corruption within certain departments was so great during my tenure with the Bureau that we were ordered not to share information. That is why the author’s position as head of NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau for nearly two decades is incredible. It is a position where its chief is the most disliked cop in the entire department. Blue on Blue goes deep into the world of cops. Its content has provided a major portion of my Criminal Justice syllabus and teachings on “Leading Police Resilience.”