The most recommended books about sergeants

Who picked these books? Meet our 13 experts.

13 authors created a book list connected to sergeants, and here are their favorite sergeant books.
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Book cover of Far from the Tree

Russ Thomas Author Of Nighthawking

From my list on crime novels set in the grim North of England.

Why am I passionate about this?

Thereā€™s a saying in England: Itā€™s grim up north! Largely used pejoratively (by the south), itā€™s true to say it is generally colder and wetter, the landscape more unforgiving, the people ā€“ friendlier in my opinion ā€“ are more outspoken and candid. The cities of Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, with their declining industries and rising unemployment, provide fertile ground for crime writers. So when I started my own series following the investigations of DS Adam Tyler and his cold case team it didnā€™t take long to settle on my adopted home of Sheffield as the setting. Be warned: weā€™re a long way from the sleepy villages of Agatha Christie here.

Russ' book list on crime novels set in the grim North of England

Russ Thomas Why did Russ love this book?

The first book in Rob Parkerā€™s excellent Thirty Miles Trilogy sees twenty-seven bodies discovered, vacuum-packed, and buried in a woodland trench. DI Brendan Foley and his newly established police force are the ones tasked with cracking the case but is it a coincidence that these bodies have been buried in Foleyā€™s hometown? Set in the historic town of Warrington, located midway between Manchester and Liverpool, the book explores the murky underworlds of the two cities and the consequences of a war between two drug-dealing gangs as it spills out into the surrounding area.

By Rob Parker,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Brendan Foley has worked to balance the responsibilities of a demanding job and a troublesome family. He's managed to keep these two worlds separate, until the discovery of a mass grave sends them into a headlong collision. When one of the dead turns out to be a familiar face, he's taken off the case. 

Iona Madison keeps everything under control. She works hard as a detective sergeant and trains harder as a boxer. But when her superior, DI Foley, is removed from the case, her certainties are tested like never before. 

With stories of the Warrington 27 plastered over theā€¦


Book cover of Sorry for the Inconvenience/Going Your Way

Paul Levinson Author Of It's Real Life: An Alternate History of The Beatles

From Paul's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Singer-songwriter Professor Podcaster Time travel fan

Paul's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Paul Levinson Why did Paul love this book?

I rode the New York City subways on a daily or more frequent basis as a kid and through my 20s. Thereā€™s a culture all its own on those subway platforms and trains ā€“ do you hold the door open, and how long for people rushing to board in rush hour? Do you eat a slice of pizza on the train? Do you complain when someone squeezes into the seat youā€™re sitting in? 

R. J. Nobleman treats us to the treasure trove of his own experience in this under- and above-ground world, and will have you laughing, shaking your head in disbelief, and even sometimes crying.

By R. J. Nobleman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Sorry for the Inconvenience/Going Your Way as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Well, I hope you enjoyed the storiesā€”all are TRUEā€”that I wanted to share with you in this book! I promise to keep tabs on things that occur from this point on so that I can put them into the ā€˜sequelā€™.
Like I stated in the Preface, anyone can write a book of this kindā€”about the crazy, exotic experiences they have experienced or witnesses on subways, buses, cruises, tour buses, elevators, and the like. Itā€™s just a matter of putting your experiences to paper, or computer files.
Throughout this book, I made references to the fact that many people who alsoā€¦


Book cover of Soldier in the Rain

Martin LimĆ³n Author Of War Women

From my list on GI life as told by GIs.

Why am I passionate about this?

I spent 20 years in the US Army with 10 of those years in Korea. Everybody thought I was crazy. Why would you like being stationed in such an odd country as Korea? Whenever I tried to explain, their noses would crinkle and theyā€™d stare at me as if I were mad. I started collecting books that explained better than I did. To supplement it I purchased a manual Smith Corona typewriter at the PX and to assuage my angst began writing mystery stories about two 8th Army investigators in Seoul, Korea. Fifteen novels and over 50 short stories later Iā€™m still attempting to explain the odd beauty of GI life through the eyes of a GI.

Martin's book list on GI life as told by GIs

Martin LimĆ³n Why did Martin love this book?

Iā€™ve known plenty of GIs like Master Sergeant Maxwell Slaughter. Non-commissioned Officers who hustle and make deals and wrap military bureaucracy around their little fingers. Slaughterā€™s supply room had air conditioning, plenty of pristine underwear, socks, and long johns to bargain with, and his own vending machine to satisfy his addiction to cold bottles of soda. He also had a protĆ©gĆ©, in this case, the young Eustis Clay, who tried to out-hustle his mentor but never quite made it. He did, however, introduce Master Sergeant Slaughter to the even younger Bobby Jo Pepperdine, but instead of kindling a romance, the two lost souls started a father/daughter affection that the teenage girl had never before experienced.

Ultimately tragic, Goldman shows his dramatic flair with the simple line of farewell uttered by Slaughter:  ā€œUntil that time, Eustis. Until that time.ā€

By William Goldman,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Unbelievable as it may sound, William Goldman has pulled off a minor miracle by writing at this late date a genuinely funny and touching novel about barracks life. If nothing else, the book is worth the price of admission for its explanation of the ground rules of a game called 'Grading Women'... There is a full, rich measure of reading pleasure in this book that expertly runs the gamut from belly laughs to tearjerking. Long after you've forgotten the details of the incidents, you'll remember the warm thread of compassion that runs through the book. Soldier in the Rain, toā€¦


Book cover of 400 Things Cops Know: Street-Smart Lessons from a Veteran Patrolman

David Swinson Author Of The Second Girl

From my list on law enforcement who became authors.

Why am I passionate about this?

I retired from the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC, as a detective assigned to the Major Crimes Unit, but Iā€™ve always been a writer at heart and an avid reader. I graduated from California State University in Long Beach, CA, with a major in Film. I am the author of six crime fiction books, three of which involve retired detective turned PI Frank Marr. This trilogy was critically acclaimed. 

David's book list on law enforcement who became authors

David Swinson Why did David love this book?

Platinga is a sergeant with the San Francisco police department. I love his book because so many of the stories are similar to ones that I experienced as a cop. It brought back some good and some not-so-good memories.

You donā€™t have to be a cop or a former cop to love the read, though. Itā€™s not only a great reference book for crime writers who want to learn and add authenticity to what theyā€™re writing but also a wonderful read for those who want to take a wild ride inside a copā€™s head during the course of their tour of duty.

By Adam Plantinga,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked 400 Things Cops Know as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"The new bible for crime writers." ā€•The Wall Street Journal

How does it feel to be in a high-speed car chase? What is it like to shoot someone? What do cops really think about the citizens they serve? Nearly everyone has wondered what it's like to be a police officer, but no civilian really understands what happens on the job. 400 Things Cops Know shows police work on the inside, from the viewpoint of the regular cop on the beatā€•a profession that can range from rewarding to bizarre to terrifying, all within the course of an eight-hour shift. Written byā€¦


Book cover of Adam's Witness

Nikki Dudley Author Of Volta

From Nikki's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Reader Thinker Collaborator Socialiser

Nikki's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Plus, Nikki's 5, and 7-year-old's favorite books.

Nikki Dudley Why did Nikki love this book?

This is a self-published author, who Iā€™m glad I discovered. The characters she paints are really intriguing and likeable.

I loved how their professions interlinked and the crimes being investigated became a shared mission. The characters bounce off each other well, too. The criminal in the book was also fascinating to spend time with and I kept turning the pages to get to the end!

By J.C. Paulson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Adam's Witness as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Where does justice end and vengeance begin?

When newspaper journalist Grace Rampling learns that the Pride Choir has been banned from performing in the cathedral, she rushes to the church to get some answers.

Instead, she literally stumbles onto a grisly crime scene: the bishop is lying in a pool of his own blood before the altar. Suddenly, Grace is no longer the observer and reporter. She finds herself central to the case ā€” not only as the key witness, but a suspect and even potential victim.

Lead investigator Detective Sergeant Adam Davis is thrown by the fierce attraction heā€¦


Book cover of Buyer's Remorse

EJ Kindred Author Of In Harm's Way: The Annie Velasquez Mystery Series

From my list on intriguing characters in unusual situations.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™ve read everything I could lay my hands on since I was young, and like so many others, Iā€™ve always preferred to read about unusual characters, uncommon situations, or both simultaneously. The books I described here fulfill those requirements for me, even though they are superficially very different from one another. Now that I write my own novels, my over-arching goal is for each of my books to be better than the one that precedes it. I do my best to offer my readers interesting characters in compelling situations, and if my readers think Iā€™ve succeeded, I will be a very happy author.

EJ's book list on intriguing characters in unusual situations

EJ Kindred Why did EJ love this book?

I always want to read a good story, but the characters must be compelling. The protagonist in this book is Leona Reese, a sergeant in the Saint Paul police department. Sheā€™s worked hard for that position, but when she ignores her vision problems and fails her shooting range test, sheā€™s reassigned to another unit.

In her new assignment, she works with Thom, another investigator who is wheelchair-bound. He has an off-beat sense of humor about his condition, which adds humor to an otherwise serious book. Those bits of humor play off nicely against Leoā€™s ongoing vision problems while they work together to solve a murder. There are two books in this series, and Iā€™ve heard a third one is in the works. Itā€™ll be worth the wait.

By Lori L. Lake,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Buyer's Remorse as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Leona "Leo" Reese is a 33-year-old police patrol sergeant with over ten years of law enforcement experience. After she fails her bi-yearly shooting qualification due to a vision problem, Leo is temporarily assigned to the investigations division of the state's Department of Human Services. She's shell-shocked by her vision impairment and frustrated to be reassigned to another department, even temporarily. On her first day on the new job, she's saddled with a case where a woman at an independent living facility has been murdered by an apparent burglar. But all is not as it seems, and it will take allā€¦


Book cover of Unbreakable

'Nathan Burgoine Author Of Faux Ho Ho

From my list on queer audiobooks to walk your dog by.

Why am I passionate about this?

As someone whoā€™s never been allowed to drive, but gets motion-sick reading in a bus or car, Iā€™ve been a lover of audiobooks since I had my Walkman and a backpack full of audiobook cassettes. As a queer man, Iā€™m always looking for more immersive stories about people like me. Finding queer voices and queer narratives is so important to me as a way to offset how queer people donā€™t have an inherited continuance of our culture as most marginalized people do; books are a way to fill that gap. I do own a rescued husky, and thereā€™s nothing like an engrossing audiobook to get me through those minus-forty Canadian winter walks with a dog.

'Nathan's book list on queer audiobooks to walk your dog by

'Nathan Burgoine Why did 'Nathan love this book?

Cari Hunter never fails to invoke Northern England with every sense, and Nicola Victoria Vincentā€™s performances continue to be among the absolute best experiences. This story starts off with an EMT, Grace, being taken hostage by a wounded woman at gunpoint, and then manages to twist and shift the entire time youā€™re listening. Hunterā€™s ability to weave in a secondary romantic plot while people are dodging bullets, outwitting villains, and desperately trying to stay alive is brilliant, and my dog always gets a longer walk while Iā€™ve got a Hunter thriller to listen to. If youā€™re a fan of thrillers and audiobooks, and have yet to bump into Hunter or Vincent, thank me later, once youā€™ve enjoyed the whole backlist.

By Cari Hunter,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Dr. Grace Kendal never stands a chance. The injured woman comes out of nowhere, bleeding heavily and holding a gun. Compelled to help her, Grace is dragged into Elin Breckenridgeā€™s nightmare. Their fight to survive will take them across the country and to the limits of their endurance. But who is Elin running from? As Grace struggles for answers, one thing becomes clearā€”Elin is somehow connected to a dead man, and Grace could be next.

For Detective Sergeant Safia Faris, the case should have been easy: one dead body, one suspect. But the deeper she digs, the more obvious itā€¦


Book cover of Deception on His Mind

Aime Austin Author Of Judged

From my list on crime fiction that made me love the human race.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™m agnostic to book genre. If I see it, I will try it. I read all over the place. I just finished a book on online dating and race, the buzzy fiction of the moment, and a self-help book. There are two genreā€™s that are my absolute favorites, though, womenā€™s fiction, and police procedurals. Iā€™ve read Elizabeth George, Julia Spencer Fleming, Michael Connelly, and Tana French since they started publishing. While I enjoy the whodunit nature of the books, my favorite parts are those quiet moments of pure, unfettered relations between people who care for each other in an otherwise chaotic world. Itā€™s what I write and what I read.

Aime's book list on crime fiction that made me love the human race

Aime Austin Why did Aime love this book?

In this ninth installment of the Inspector Lynley series, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers is recovering from a broken nose and ribs she earned on the job.

Throughout the series, Havers, has become friendly with the neighbors who lives in the front house, single father Taymullah Azhar, and his eight-year-old daughter Khalidah Hadiyyah. After the bookā€™s opening scene of murder, thereā€™s this lovely moment where Havers and Hadiyyah discuss the latterā€™s invitation to take the police detective for ice cream.

The little girl comes over, reads about ā€˜throbbing membersā€™ in one of Haverā€™s romance novels, then announces she has to take back her invitation because she and her father are traveling to an Essex seaside town.

This scene, and this book, really delve into the relationship between a motherless girl and a loner cop, two people who unexpectedly need each other.

By Elizabeth George,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Deception on His Mind as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Balford-le-Nez is a dying seaside town on the coast of Essex. But when a member of the town's small but growing Asian community is found dead near its beach, the sleepy town ignites. Working without her long-time partner, Detective Inspector Lynley, Sergeant Barbara Havers must probe not only the mind of a murderer and a case very close to her own heart, but also the terrible price people pay for deceiving others . . . and themselves.


Book cover of L.A. Noir

Gary Van Haas Author Of E.B.E.: Extraterrestrial Biological Entity

From my list on that will take you into an extraordinary world.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have picked these books because I have a passion for good reading material. All the books I have chosen have become reading classics in their own way. They are well written and have plots that go well beyond normal literature in a sense that they unveil the 'human condition' into the realm of the protagonist being up against all odds, where in the end, truth reveals all!       

Gary's book list on that will take you into an extraordinary world

Gary Van Haas Why did Gary love this book?

I loved this compelling James Elroy story because of his straightforward writing, which captured the intense mood of the 1960s in Los Angeles, and the misguided spirit of the main character, "Detective Sergeant Lloyd Hopins," who focuses all his attention on his unrelenting search for the killer and his search for justice in a violent, murderous, corrupt city.   

By James Ellroy,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked L.A. Noir as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Three of Ellroy's most compelling novels featuring Detective Sergeant Lloyd Hopkins in one volume. Blood On The Moon: 20 random killings of women are unconnected in police files. But Det. Sgt. Lloyd Hopkins sees a pattern. As he is drawn to the murderer, the two men face a confrontation pitting icy intelligence against white-heated madness. . . Because The Night: Jacob Herzog, hero cop, has disappeared. A multiple murder committed with a pre-Civil War revolver remains unsolved. Are the two cases connected? As Det. Sgt. Lloyd Hopkins pieces the puzzle together he discovers the darker threat of John Haviland, aā€¦


Book cover of Sergeant Salinger

George J. Berger Author Of Four Nails: History's Greatest Elephant and His Extraordinary Trainer

From my list on shedding new light on famous figures.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a youngster, my single momā€™s bedtime stories did not come out of childrenā€™s books. They came out of real historyā€”Hannibal and his elephants, the marauding Huns, or Captain Cook. It seemed preordained that Iā€™d have a life-long love of history, that Iā€™ve written three published historical novels, and am on the review team of the Historical Novel Society. My immersion in history and historical novels provides constant learning and pleasure.

George's book list on shedding new light on famous figures

George J. Berger Why did George love this book?

This fictionalized, but mostly true, account covers enigmatic author J. D. Salingerā€™s little-known WWII years (1942-47). Salinger is conscripted by the US Counter Intelligence Corps. These hard-edged soldiers interrogate captives, seek out hidden danger (poisoned pretzels, booby-trapped toilet seats), and uncover traitors. Salinger absorbs deeply the carnage close to him. At warā€™s end, he has become ā€œa guy made of glassā€ with a facial tic and trembling hand. In the novelā€™s last scenes, his older sister helps him set up in the suburban loft where he can live alone, write, and heal. J. D. Salingerā€™s time immersed in the horrors of War helps explain his reclusive life and out-of-the-mainstream but best-selling creations. 

By Jerome Charyn,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

"Charyn skillfully breathes life into historical icons." -New Yorker

J.D. Salinger, mysterious author of The Catcher in the Rye, is remembered today as a reclusive misanthrope. Jerome Charyn's Salinger is a young American WWII draftee assigned to the Counter Intelligence Corps, a band of secret soldiers who trained with the British. A rifleman and an interrogator, he witnessed all the horrors of the war-from the landing on D-Day to the relentless hand-to-hand combat in the hedgerows of Normandy, to the Battle of the Bulge, and finally to the first Allied entry into a Bavarian death camp, where corpses were piledā€¦


Book cover of Far from the Tree
Book cover of Sorry for the Inconvenience/Going Your Way
Book cover of Soldier in the Rain

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