Books like 'Magic'
Readers who enjoyed Magic by William Goldman also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical horror mystery supernatural 20th century psychological action / adventure urban fantasy historical suspense
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This Present Darkness by Frank E. Peretti
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 40 ratings"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:12Ashton is just a typical small town... -
Lightning by Dean Koontz, Peter Marinker
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsA storm struck on the night Laura Shane was born, and there was a strangeness about the weather that people would remember for years. But even more mysterious was the blond-haired stranger who appeared out of nowhere – the man who saved Laura from a fatal delivery. Years later – another bolt of lightning – and the stranger returned, again to save Laura from tragedy...Categorized as:
crime paranormal suspense 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history angels -
From the Corner of His Eye by Dean Koontz, Stephen Lang
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsTwelve cassettes, 21 hrs.Read by Stephen Lang Bartholomew Lampion is born in Bright Beach, California, on a day of tragedy and terror, when the lives of everyone in his family are changed forever. Remarkable events accompany his birth, and everyone agrees that his unusual eyes are the most beautiful they have ever seen... -
Reliquary by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsWhen police find two skeletons locked in a bony embrace deep in the mud off the Manhattan shoreline, Natural History Museum curator Margo Green is called in to aid in the investigation. She soon realizes that the expertise the cops want is the result of her ordeal last year, battling the horrific beast loose in the basement corridors of the Museum... -
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Last Call by Tim Powers
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsTwenty years ago Scott Crane abandoned his career as a professional poker player and went into hiding, after a weird high-stakes game played with Tarot cards. But now the cards - and the supernatural powers behind them - have found him again.Crane's father killed gangster Bugsy Siegel in 1948 to become the Fisher King, and to keep that power he is determined to kill his son... -
Everville by Clive Barker
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsOn the borderland between this world and the world of Quiddity, the sea of our dreams, sits Everville. For years, it has lived in ignorance of the gleaming shore on which it lies. But its ignorance is not bliss...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magic paranormal suspense 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
Phantoms by Dean Koontz
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsThey found the town silent, apparently abandoned. Then they found the first body, strangely swollen and still warm. One hundred fifty were dead, 350 missing. But the terror had only begun in the tiny mountain town of Snowfield, California.At first they thought it was the work of a maniac. Or terrorists. Or toxic contamination. Or a bizarre new disease.But then they found the truth... -
Written in the Blood by Stephen Lloyd Jones
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratings"Chilling . . . A neo-gothic treat; original, richly imagined, and powerfully told." --The Guardian (UK) for The String Diaries See the girl. Leah Wilde is twenty-four, a runaway on a black motorbike, hunting for answers while changing her identity with each new Central European town... -
Cold Fire by Dean Koontz
Rated: 3.81 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsReporter Holly Thorne is intrigued by Jim Ironheart, who has saved 12 lives in the past three months. Holly wants to know what kind of power drives him, why terrifying visions of a churning windmill haunt his dreams, and just what he means when he whispers in his sleep that an enemy who will kill everyone is coming.“A master storyteller, sometimes humorous, sometimes shocking, but always riveting...Categorized as:
crime literary-fiction paranormal suspense 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King
Rated: 3.84 of 5 stars · 60 ratingsFive interconnected, sequential narratives, set in the years from 1960 to 1999. Each story is deeply rooted in the sixties, and each is haunted by the Vietnam War.Stephen King, whose first novel, Carrie, was published in 1974, the year before the last U.S. troops withdrew from Vietnam, is the first hugely popular writer of the TV generation...Categorized as:
historical literary-fiction magical-realism paranormal suspense 20th-century action-adventure adult -
The Course of the Heart by M. John Harrison
Rated: 3.74 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsJohn M. Harrison delivers an extraordinary, genre-bending novel that weaves together mythology, sexuality, and the troubled past and present of Eastern Europe. It begins on a hot May night, when three Cambridge students carry out a ritualistic act that changes their lives...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure adult book contemporary dark -
Insomnia by Stephen King
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 65 ratingsRalph Roberts has a problem: he isn't sleeping so well these days. In fact, he's hardly sleeping at all. Each morning, the news conveyed by the bedside clock is a little worse: 3:15...3:02...2:45...2:15. The books call it "premature waking"; Ralph, who is still learning to be a widower, calls it a season in hell...Categorized as:
gothic literary-fiction magical-realism paranormal suspense 20th-century action-adventure adult -
Odd & True by Cat Winters, Nathalia Suellen
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsTrudchen grew up hearing Odette’s stories of their monster-slaying mother and a magician’s curse. But now that Tru’s older, she’s starting to wonder if her older sister’s tales were just comforting lies, especially because there’s nothing fantastic about her own life—permanently disabled and in constant pain from childhood polio...Categorized as:
gothic historical magic magical-realism paranormal 20th-century action-adventure book -
The Tale of the Body Thief by Anne Rice
Rated: 3.74 of 5 stars · 62 ratingsIn a gripping feat of storytelling, Anne Rice continues the extraordinary Vampire Chronicles that began with the now-classic Interview with the Vampire. For centuries, Lestat—vampire-hero, enchanter, seducer of mortals—has been a courted prince in the dark and flourishing universe of the living dead. Now he is alone... -
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Song of Kali by Dan Simmons
Rated: 3.61 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsCalcutta: a monstrous city of immense slums, disease and misery, is clasped in the foetid embrace of an ancient cult. At its decaying core is the Goddess Kali: the dark mother of pain, four-armed and eternal, her song the sound of death and destruction...Categorized as:
crime gothic magical-realism paranormal suspense 20th-century action-adventure adult -
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 1—Phantom Blood, Vol. 1 by Hirohiko Araki
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsYoung Jonathan Joestar’s life is forever changed when he meets his new adopted brother, Dio. For some reason, Dio has a smoldering grudge against him and derives pleasure from seeing him suffer. But every man has his limits, as Dio finds out...
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