Books like 'The River'
Readers who enjoyed The River by Peter Heller also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary action / adventure mystery horror psychological thriller suspense literary-fiction outdoors survival
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Different Seasons by Stephen King
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 67 ratingsFrom the Magical Pen of Stephen King, Four Mesmerizing Novellas…“Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption”An unjustly imprisoned convict seeks a strange and startling revenge…the basis for the Best Picture Academy Award nominee The Shawshank Redemption... -
![Billy Summers by Stephen King]()
Billy Summers by Stephen King
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 59 ratingsBilly Summers is a man in a room with a gun. He’s a killer for hire and the best in the business. But he’ll do the job only if the target is a truly bad guy. And now Billy wants out. But first there is one last hit. Billy is among the best snipers in the world, a decorated Iraq war vet, a Houdini when it comes to vanishing after the job is done... -
![After the Fire by Will Hill]()
After the Fire by Will Hill
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe things I've seen are burned into me, like scars that refuse to fade.Before, she lived inside the fence. Before, she was never allowed to leave the property, never allowed to talk to Outsiders, never allowed to speak her mind. Because Father John controlled everything—and Father John liked rules. Disobeying Father John came with terrible consequences... -
![The Moonlight Child by Karen McQuestion]()
The Moonlight Child by Karen McQuestion
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsA gripping and emotional novel that will leave you wondering about the neighbors next door...On a cold January night, Sharon Lemke heads outside to see a lunar eclipse when she notices something odd at the house behind her backyard. Through her neighbor's kitchen window, she sees what appears to be a little girl washing dishes late at night... -
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![Die Again by Tess Gerritsen]()
Die Again by Tess Gerritsen
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe latest enthralling case in Tess Gerritsen's New York Times bestselling Rizzoli & Isles series, the blockbuster books behind the smash hit TNT series.Boston Detective Jane Rizzoli is on the case of a big game hunter found dead in his apartment, alone with the body of a beautiful white snow leopard he had recently been commissioned to procure and stuff for a high-profile museum in the area... -
![A Killer's Mind by Mike Omer]()
A Killer's Mind by Mike Omer
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsA chilling thriller of serial murder and dark secrets that will leave you wondering, is the past really in the past?Three Chicago women have been found strangled, embalmed, and posed as if still alive. Doubting the findings of the local PD’s profiler, The FBI calls on forensic psychologist Zoe Bentley to investigate... -
![Stranded by Sarah Goodwin]()
Stranded by Sarah Goodwin
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsEight strangers.One island.A secret you'd kill to keep.When eight people arrive on the beautiful but remote Buidseach Island, they are ready for the challenge of a lifetime: to live alone for one year.Eighteen months later, a woman is found in an isolated fishing village... -
![In the Barren Ground by Loreth Anne White]()
In the Barren Ground by Loreth Anne White
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn the Barrens, a vast wilderness in northern Canada bordering the Arctic Circle, night consumes every hour of the winter. Humans are scarce; ferocious predators roam freely. Locals say spirits do, too. Rookie cop Tana Larsson doesn’t mind the dark and quiet. Five months pregnant and hoping to escape the mistakes of her past, she takes a post in Twin Rivers, population 320... -
![The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison]()
The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 76 ratingsNear an isolated mansion lies a beautiful garden.In this garden grow luscious flowers, shady trees…and a collection of precious “butterflies”—young women who have been kidnapped and intricately tattooed to resemble their namesakes. Overseeing it all is the Gardener, a brutal, twisted man obsessed with capturing and preserving his lovely specimens... -
![These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant]()
These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsNo electricity, no family, no connection to the outside world. For eight years, Cooper and his young daughter, Finch, have lived in isolation in a remote cabin in the northern Appalachian woods. And that's exactly the way Cooper wants it, because he's got a lot to hide. Finch has been raised on the books filling the cabin’s shelves and the beautiful but brutal code of life in the wilderness... -
![The Last Thing to Burn by Will Dean]()
The Last Thing to Burn by Will Dean
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA woman being held captive is willing to risk everything to save herself, her unborn child, and her captor’s latest victim in this claustrophobic thriller in the tradition of Misery and Room. On an isolated farm in the United Kingdom, a woman is trapped by the monster who kidnapped her seven years ago... -
![Small Spaces by Sarah Epstein]()
Small Spaces by Sarah Epstein
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWe don’t pick and choose what to be afraid of. Our fears pick us.Tash Carmody has been traumatised since childhood, when she witnessed her gruesome imaginary friend Sparrow lure young Mallory Fisher away from a carnival. At the time nobody believed Tash, and she has since come to accept that Sparrow wasn’t real. Now fifteen and mute, Mallory’s never spoken about the week she went missing... -
![The Memory Wood by Sam Lloyd]()
The Memory Wood by Sam Lloyd
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsTHE MUST-READ RICHARD & JUDY BOOK CLUB PICK. Chilling, moving and unputdownable, The Memory Wood is a thriller like no other. 'Beautifully told, with two superbly drawn young protagonists, Lloyd is a rare new thriller talent' Daily Mail'Superbly creepy, with an unexpected twist' Guardian'Brilliant writing, a terrifying story, and characters so real it feels like you know them... -
![The Whisperer by Donato Carrisi]()
The Whisperer by Donato Carrisi
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA gripping literary thriller and smash bestseller that has taken Italy, France, Germany and the UK by storm.Six severed arms are discovered, arranged in a mysterious circle and buried in a clearing in the woods. Five of them appear to belong to missing girls between the ages of eight and eighteen. The sixth is yet to be identified... -
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![Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton]()
Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsThe extraordinary new novel everyone is talking about from the Sunday Times best-selling author of SisterThree hours is 180 minutes or 10,800 seconds.It is a morning's lessons, a dress rehearsal of Macbeth, a snowy trek through the woods.It is an eternity waiting for news. Or a countdown to something terrible.It is 180 minutes to discover who you will die for and what men will kill for...Categorized as:
crime drama literary-fiction realistic suspense thriller 21st-century action-adventure -
![Blood of My Blood by Barry Lyga]()
Blood of My Blood by Barry Lyga
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsJazz Dent has never been closer to catching his father.Jazz has been shot and left to die in New York. His girlfriend, Connie, is in the clutches of Jazz's monstrous father, Billy--the world's most notorious serial killer. And his best friend, Howie, is bleeding to death on the floor of Jazz's new home... -
![No Exit by Taylor Adams]()
No Exit by Taylor Adams
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsA brilliant, edgy thriller about four strangers, a blizzard, a kidnapped child, and a determined young woman desperate to unmask and outwit a vicious psychopath.A kidnapped little girl locked in a stranger’s van. No help for miles. What would you do?On her way to Utah to see her dying mother, college student Darby Thorne gets caught in a fierce blizzard in the mountains of Colorado... -
![The Last Child by John Hart]()
The Last Child by John Hart
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsThirteen year-old Johnny Merrimon had the perfect life: a warm home and loving parents; a twin sister, Alyssa, with whom he shared an irreplaceable bond. He knew nothing of loss, until the day Alyssa vanished from the side of a lonely street. Now, a year later, Johnny finds himself isolated and alone, failed by the people he'd been taught since birth to trust... -
![Game by Barry Lyga]()
Game by Barry Lyga
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsBilly grinned. “Oh, New York,” he whispered. “We’re gonna have so much fun.”I Hunt Killers introduced the world to Jazz, the son of history’s most infamous serial killer, Billy Dent.In an effort to prove murder didn’t run in the family, Jazz teamed with the police in the small town of Lobo’s Nod to solve a deadly case... -
![The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes]()
The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsSeventeen-year-old Cassie is a natural at reading people. Piecing together the tiniest details, she can tell you who you are and what you want. But it’s not a skill that she’s ever taken seriously. That is, until the FBI come knocking: they’ve begun a classified program that uses exceptional teenagers to crack infamous cold cases, and they need Cassie... -
![The Elephant Tree by R.D. Ronald]()
The Elephant Tree by R.D. Ronald
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsMark Fallon is an overworked detective investigating a spate of attacks at a string of high profile city centre nightclubs. Scott is a dejected 24 year old struggling to make ends meet working for his brother and supplementing his income with a small-scale drug dealing operation... -
![The Woodcutter by Reginald Hill]()
The Woodcutter by Reginald Hill
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"Thefertility of Hill's imagination, the range of his power, the sheer quality ofhis literary style never ceases to delight." —Val McDermid,author of Fever of the BoneIn a stand-alone psychological thrillerfrom acclaimed mystery master Reginald Hill, a mysterious ex-con returns to hisremote childhood home on a deadly hunt for revenge... -
![A Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong]()
A Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsDetective Casey Duncan has noticed fewer and fewer residents coming in to the hidden town of Rockton, and no extensions being granted. Her boyfriend, Sheriff Eric Dalton, presumes it’s the natural flux of things, but Casey’s not so sure. Something bigger is happening in the small town they call home... -
![Trespassing by Brandi Reeds]()
Trespassing by Brandi Reeds
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn a novel of mounting psychological suspense, a young mother follows a dangerous path to find her missing husband.Veronica Cavanaugh’s grasp on the world is slipping. Her latest round of fertility treatments not only failed but left her on edge and unbalanced. And her three-year-old daughter, Elizabella, has a new imaginary friend, who seems much more devilish than playful... -
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![The Likeness by Tana French, Heather O'Neill]()
The Likeness by Tana French, Heather O'Neill
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsListening length: 22 Hours and 18 MinutesIn this follow-up to Tana French’s runaway bestseller In the Woods, itʼs six months later and Cassie Maddox has transferred out of the Dublin Murder Squad with no plans to go back—until an urgent telephone call summons her to a grisly crime scene... -
![A Faint Cold Fear by Karin Slaughter]()
A Faint Cold Fear by Karin Slaughter
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsThe third pulse-pounding novel in the Grant County series from New York Times bestselling author Karin Slaughter.Sara Linton, medical examiner in the small town of Heartsdale, Georgia, is called out to an apparent suicide on the local college campus... -
![The Blackhouse by Peter May]()
The Blackhouse by Peter May
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsA brutal killing takes place on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland: a land of harsh beauty and inhabitants of deep-rooted faith.A MURDERDetective Inspector Fin Macleod is sent from Edinburgh to investigate. For Lewis-born Macleod, the case represents a journey both home and into his past.A SECRETSomething lurks within the close-knit island community. Something sinister... -
![Never Lie by Freida McFadden]()
Never Lie by Freida McFadden
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsNewlyweds Tricia and Ethan are searching for the house of their dreams.But when they visit the remote manor that once belonged to Dr. Adrienne Hale, a renowned psychiatrist who vanished without a trace four years earlier, a violent winter storm traps them at the estate… with no chance of escape until the blizzard comes to an end... -
![Room by Emma Donoghue]()
Room by Emma Donoghue
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 85 ratingsTo five-year-old-Jack, Room is the world....Told in the inventive, funny, and poignant voice of Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience—and a powerful story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible.To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play... -
![Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes]()
Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsAlternate cover for this ISBN can be found hereWhen young, pretty Catherine Bailey meets Lee Bright-man, she can't believe her luck. Gorgeous, charismatic, and a bit mysterious, Lee seems almost too perfect to be true... -
![The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith]()
The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 75 ratingsPrivate investigator Cormoran Strike returns in a new mystery from Robert Galbraith, author of the #1 international bestseller The Cuckoo's Calling.When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days—as he has done before—and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home... -
![One Fear by Belle Brooks]()
One Fear by Belle Brooks
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratings“My one fear is now my reality.” He didn’t offer his name when he fulfilled his need to include me as a player in his game. I’m number thirteen. Just a number given to the bitches who wronged him. I was blindsided. Stolen from my life. In his devilled eyes, I have a debt to pay…he wants my final breath to see us even... -
![Either Side of Midnight by Tori de Clare]()
Either Side of Midnight by Tori de Clare
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWHAT IF THE BEST DAY OF YOUR LIFE TURNED INTO YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE? When nineteen-year-old Naomi Stone is snatched from her husband at knifepoint on the night of their wedding and taken to a deserted cemetery, she knows her life is finished. Drugged and disorientated, she loses consciousness as she lies in an open grave with a gun to her head... -
![The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die by April Henry]()
The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die by April Henry
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratings“Take her out back and finish her off.”She doesn’t know who she is. She doesn’t know where she is, or why. All she knows when she comes to in a ransacked cabin is that there are two men arguing over whether or not to kill her.And that she must run.In her riveting style, April Henry crafts a nail-biting thriller involving murder, identity theft, and biological warfare... -
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![Dear Child: A Novel by Romy Hausmann]()
Dear Child: A Novel by Romy Hausmann
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA woman held captive finally escapes—but can she ever really get away?Gone Girl meets Room in this page-turning, #1 internationally bestselling thriller from one of Germany’s hottest new talentsA windowless shack in the woods. A dash to safety. But when a woman finally escapes her captor, the end of the story is only the beginning of her nightmare.She says her name is Lena... -
![FantasticLand: A Novel by Mike Bockoven, Angela Dawe]()
FantasticLand: A Novel by Mike Bockoven, Angela Dawe
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsSince the 1970s, FantasticLand has been the theme park where ““Fun is Guaranteed!” But when a hurricane ravages the Florida coast and isolates the park, the employees find it anything but fun. Five weeks later, the authorities who rescue the survivors encounter a scene of horror... -
![Tell No One by Harlan Coben]()
Tell No One by Harlan Coben
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsFor Dr. David Beck, the loss was shattering. And every day for the past eight years, he has relived the horror of what happened. The gleaming lake. The pale moonlight. The piercing screams. The night his wife was taken. The last night he saw her alive.Everyone tells him it's time to move on, to forget the past once and for all. But for David Beck, there can be no closure... -
![The Stillwater Girls by Minka Kent]()
The Stillwater Girls by Minka Kent
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsTwo sisters raised in fear are about to find out why in a chilling novel of psychological suspense from the author of The Thinnest Air.Ignorant of civilization and cautioned against its evils, nineteen-year-old Wren and her two sisters, Sage and Evie, were raised in off-the-grid isolation in a primitive cabin in upstate New York... -
![The Naturalist by Andrew Mayne]()
The Naturalist by Andrew Mayne
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 45 ratingsProfessor Theo Cray is trained to see patterns where others see chaos. So when mutilated bodies found deep in the Montana woods leave the cops searching blindly for clues, Theo sees something they missed. Something unnatural. Something only he can stop.As a computational biologist, Theo is more familiar with digital code and microbes than the dark arts of forensic sleuthing... -
![Trapped by Greg Iles]()
Trapped by Greg Iles
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratings24 HOURS --- that's how long it takes a madman to pull off the perfect crime. He's done it before, he'll do it again, and no one can stop him.But this time, he's just picked the wrong family to terrorize. Because Will and Karen Jennings aren't going to watch helplessly as he victimizes them. And they aren't going to let him get away with it... -
![The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen]()
The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen
Rated: 3.99 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsCarl Mørck used to be one of Copenhagen’s best homicide detectives. Then a hail of bullets destroyed the lives of two fellow cops, and Carl—who didn’t draw his weapon—blames himself. So a promotion is the last thing he expects. But Department Q is a department of one, and Carl’s got only a stack of Copenhagen’s coldest cases for company... -
![Right Behind You by Gail Giles]()
Right Behind You by Gail Giles
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhen he was nine, Kip set another child on fire. Now, after years in a juvenile ward, he is ready for a fresh start. But the ghosts of his past soon demand justice, and he must reveal his painful secret... -
![The Drowning Game by L.S. Hawker, Amanda Dolan]()
The Drowning Game by L.S. Hawker, Amanda Dolan
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThey said she was armed.They said she was dangerous.They were right.Petty Moshen spent eighteen years of her life as a prisoner in her own home, training with military precision for everything, ready for anything. She can disarm, dismember, and kill and now, for the first time ever, she is free... -
![Pressure by Jeff Strand]()
Pressure by Jeff Strand
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAlex stared at the red pocketknife shown to him by his daughter. A pocketknife owned by somebody he hadn't seen in years …CHILDRENThey met first in boarding school at age twelve. Alex Fletcher, shy and scared. Darren Rust, always furiously scribbling away in a private journal... -
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![Forward Slash by Louise Voss, Mark Edwards]()
Forward Slash by Louise Voss, Mark Edwards
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA terrifying novel about internet dating, secret desires and a chilling serial killer. From bestselling authors Mark Edwards and Louise Voss.He's posted on your wall.He's following you on Twitter.He knows where you are right now…When Amy receives an email from her older sister, Becky, announcing that she's off travelling and "don't try to find me", she is worried... -
![Missing You by Harlan Coben]()
Missing You by Harlan Coben
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsIt's a profile, like all the others on the online dating site. But as NYPD Detective Kat Donovan focuses on the accompanying picture, she feels her whole world explode, as emotions she’s ignored for decades come crashing down on her. Staring back at her is her ex-fiancé Jeff, the man who shattered her heart—and who she hasn’t seen in 18 years... -
![No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay]()
No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsFourteen-year-old Cynthia Bigge woke one morning to discover that her entire family, mother, father, brother had vanished. No note, no trace, no return. Ever. Now, twenty-five years later, she'll learn the devastating truthSometimes better not to know. . . Cynthia is happily married with a young daughter, a new family. But the story of her old family isn't over... -
![Kiss the Girls by James Patterson]()
Kiss the Girls by James Patterson
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 45 ratingsIn Los Angeles, a reporter investigating a series of murders is killed. In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a beautiful medical intern suddenly disappears. In Washington D.C. Alex Cross is back to solve the most baffling and terrifying murder case ever. Two clever pattern killers are collaborating, cooperating, competing - and they are working coast to coast... -
![The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes]()
The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA hard-hitting and hopeful story about the dangers of blind faith—and the power of having faith in yourself The Kevinian cult has taken everything from seventeen-year-old Minnow: twelve years of her life, her family, her ability to trust. And when she rebelled, they took away her hands, too... -
![Those Who Wish Me Dead by Michael Koryta]()
Those Who Wish Me Dead by Michael Koryta
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe newest thriller from Michael Koryta, New York Times bestselling authorWhen fourteen-year-old Jace Wilson witnesses a brutal murder, he's plunged into a new life, issued a false identity and hidden in a wilderness skills program for troubled teens. The plan is to get Jace off the grid while police find the two killers. The result is the start of a nightmare...Categorized as:
coming-of-age crime realistic season-summer survival suspense thriller action-adventure
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