Books like 'The Painter'

Readers who enjoyed The Painter by Peter Heller also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

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  • Thunder and Rain by Charles Martin

    Thunder and Rain by Charles Martin

    Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Third generation Texas Ranger Tyler Steele is the last of a dying breed-- a modern day cowboy hero living in a world that doesn't quite understand his powerful sense of right and wrong and instinct to defend those who can't defend themselves. Despite his strong moral compass, Ty has trouble seeing his greatest weakness...
    Categorized as:
    crime  drama  family  literary-fiction  suspense  western  abuse  adult
  • Breaking the Silence by Diane Chamberlain

    Breaking the Silence by Diane Chamberlain

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Laura Brandon had promised her dying father she would visit Sarah Tolley, but her own agony is drowning out the old woman's ramblings. Her husband killed himself, and the only witness--her daughter, Emma--now refuses to speak. Desperate, Laura turns to a man she met once five years ago: Emma's real father...
  • No Child of Mine by Susan Lewis

    No Child of Mine by Susan Lewis

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    From internationally bestselling British author Susan Lewis comes an unflinching, thoroughly suspenseful novel—perfect for readers of Jodi Picoult—about the darkest secrets a family can hide.   Alex Lake’s life is centered on helping people. Her job as a social worker in a British seaside town is more than a career: It’s the very essence of who she is...
    Categorized as:
    crime  drama  family  realistic  suspense  abuse  adult  book
  • Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

    Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    If you knew your future, would you try to fight fate? Aside from a delay, there will be no problems. The flight will be smooth, it will land safely. Everyone who gets on the plane will get off. But almost all of them will be forever changed. Because on this ordinary, short, domestic flight, something extraordinary happens. People learn how and when they are going to die...
  • All That Is Mine I Carry with Me by William Landay

    All That Is Mine I Carry with Me by William Landay

    Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars
    · 9 ratings
    A mother vanished. A father presumed guilty. There is no proof. There are no witnesses. For the children, there is only doubt. From the New York Times bestselling author of Defending Jacob. . . .One afternoon in November 1975, ten-year-old Miranda Larkin comes home from school to find her house eerily quiet. Her mother is missing. Nothing else is out of place. There is no sign of struggle...
  • Secrets Mothers Keep by Anya Mora

    Secrets Mothers Keep by Anya Mora

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    On Friday night in the clay fields of Bethel Creek, seventeen-year-old Daniel Reyes is found brutally attacked and left for dead. 
On Saturday morning, Cora Maxwell finds her teenage son’s clothes covered in blood.
A small town torn apart by a horrific hate crime. 
An investigative reporter hell bent on finding the truth. 
A mother’s worst nightmare...
  • Deserve To Die by Miranda Rijks

    Deserve To Die by Miranda Rijks

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Dom and Stacey have the perfect life. Until they meet Tamara. Brilliant, beautiful, she hides a horrifying secret. One that may destroy them all.Happily married with two wonderful children, Dom and Stacey are living the dream. He runs a successful design agency, she is finding fame as an author of children’s books.Everything is perfect...
  • Juste une ombre by Karine Giébel

    Juste une ombre by Karine Giébel

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Cloé Beauchamp est une jeune femme à qui tout semble réussir; belle, brillante, sur le point d'être nommée à la tête d'une prestigieuse agence de publicité... Et amoureuse, depuis peu, d'un homme charmant. Elle cache à la perfection ses failles et les horreurs qui ont jalonné son passé. Mais lentement, sa vie va se transformer en cauchemar...
  • You Need to Know by Nicola Moriarty

    You Need to Know by Nicola Moriarty

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    From the bestselling author of The Ex and Those Other Women comes a thrilling family drama about the secrets we keep, the lies we tell and the truths that won't stay hidden.The holidays are here. The extended family has gathered. The cars are packed and the convoy sets off.The cottage is a few hours' drive - but not everyone will live to see it ..
  • The Ex-Wife by Jess Ryder

    The Ex-Wife by Jess Ryder

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    You’ve got everything she wants …Newly married Natasha has the perfect house, a loving husband and a beautiful little girl called Emily. She’d have it all if it wasn’t for Jen, her husband’s ex-wife who just won’t leave them alone …Then Natasha returns home one day to find her husband and Emily gone without trace...
    Categorized as:
    crime  drama  family  suspense  adult  audiobook  book  contemporary
  • The Last Thing She Told Me by Linda Green

    The Last Thing She Told Me by Linda Green

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    Even the deepest buried secrets can find their way to the surface...Moments before she dies, Nicola's grandmother Betty whispers to her that there are babies at the bottom of the garden.Nicola's mother claims she was talking nonsense. However, when Nicola's daughter finds a bone while playing in Betty's garden, it's clear that something sinister has taken place...
    Categorized as:
    crime  drama  family  suspense  abuse  adult  audiobook  book
  • The Art of Hiding by Amanda Prowse

    The Art of Hiding by Amanda Prowse

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    What would you do if you learned that the life you lived was a lie? Nina McCarrick lives the perfect life, until her husband, Finn, is killed in a car accident and everything Nina thought she could rely on unravels.Alone, bereft and faced with a mountain of debt, Nina quickly loses her life of luxury and she begins to question whether she ever really knew the man she married...
  • A Bend in the Road by Nicholas Sparks

    A Bend in the Road by Nicholas Sparks

    Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars
    · 41 ratings
    Miles Ryan's life seemed to end the day his wife was killed in a hit-and-run accident two years ago. Missy had been his first love, and Miles fervently believes she will be his last. As a deputy in the North Carolina town of New Bern, Miles Ryan not only grieves for Missy, but also longs to bring the unknown driver to justice. Then Miles meets Sarah Andrews...
  • Things We Never Say by Caitlin Weaver

    Things We Never Say by Caitlin Weaver

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Three mothers. Three secrets. One devastating scandal.Anna has always been the quiet one, the soft-spoken mother who kept her head down and her secrets close. But when she's thrown together with Maggie and Rhea on a PTA project, they begin to bond over wine and gossip, and slowly share the truths behind their picture-perfect lives...
  • The Perfect Family Man by M.M. DeLuca

    The Perfect Family Man by M.M. DeLuca

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Five years ago, my little boy went missing. Now my husband’s vanished, too.I wish I could say that the tragedy of little Jack disappearing brought me and Nate closer together. But my husband is more distant from me now than he’s ever been. Perhaps that’s why I don’t ask him exactly where he’s going when he sets off on another business trip...
  • Learning Not to Drown by Anna Shinoda

    Learning Not to Drown by Anna Shinoda

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Family secrets cut to the bone in this mesmerizing debut novel about a teen whose drug-addicted brother is the prodigal son one time too many.There is a pecking order to every family. Seventeen-year old Clare is the overprotected baby; Peter is the typical, rebellious middle child; and Luke is the oldest, the can’t-do-wrong favorite. To their mother, they are a normal, happy family...
    Categorized as:
    crime  drama  family  grief  realistic  suspense  abuse  book
  • One Little Mistake by Emma Curtis

    One Little Mistake by Emma Curtis

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Vicky Seagrave is blessed: three beautiful children, a successful, doting husband, great friends and a job she loves. She should be perfectly happy. When she risks everything she holds dear on a whim, there's only person she trusts enough to turn to. But Vicky is about to learn that one mistake is all it takes; that if you're careless with those you love, you don't deserve to keep them . .
  • The Halo Effect by Anne D. LeClaire

    The Halo Effect by Anne D. LeClaire

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    In this tour de force, a father, shaken by tragedy, tries to avenge his daughter’s murder—and restore his family’s shattered life. It was supposed to be a typical October evening for renowned portrait artist Will Light...
  • You Let Me In by Lucy Clarke

    You Let Me In by Lucy Clarke

    Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    Spine-tingling, chilling, and utterly compulsive, YOU LET ME IN is the stunning new novel from Richard & Judy Book Club author, Lucy Clarke Nothing has felt right since Elle rented out her house . . . I’M IN YOUR HOUSE There’s a new coldness. A shift in the atmosphere. The prickling feeling that someone is watching her every move from the shadows...
  • After the End by Clare Mackintosh

    After the End by Clare Mackintosh

    Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    Max and Pip are the strongest couple you know. They're best friends, lovers—unshakable. But then their son gets sick and the doctors put the question of his survival into their hands. For the first time, Max and Pip can't agree. They each want a different future for their son...
  • The Ones We Choose by Julie Clark

    The Ones We Choose by Julie Clark

    Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Lisa Genova meets 23andMe in this exploration of the genetic and emotional ties that bind, as debut author Julie Clark delivers a compelling read about a young boy desperate to find his place in this world, a mother coming to terms with her own past, and the healing power of forgiveness...
  • Her Perfect Family by Teresa Driscoll

    Her Perfect Family by Teresa Driscoll

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 28 ratings
    A gripping psychological thriller from the bestselling author of I Am Watching You. The perfect family? Or the perfect lie?It’s their daughter’s graduation and Rachel and Ed Hartley are expecting it to be one of their family’s happiest days...
  • When You Disappeared by John Marrs

    When You Disappeared by John Marrs

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    When Catherine wakes up alone one morning, she thinks her husband has gone for a run before work. But Simon never makes it to the office. His running shoes are by the front door. Nothing is missing - except him.Catherine knows Simon must be in trouble. He wouldn't just leave her. He wouldn't leave the children.But Simon knows the truth - about why he left and what he's done...
  • One Breath Away by Heather Gudenkauf

    One Breath Away by Heather Gudenkauf

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    In her most emotionally charged novel to date, New York Times bestselling author Heather Gudenkauf explores the unspoken events that shape a community, the ties between parents and their children and how the fragile normalcy of our everyday life is so easily shattered.In the midst of a sudden spring snowstorm, an unknown man armed with a gun walks into an elementary school classroom...
  • What Happened to the Bennetts by Lisa Scottoline

    What Happened to the Bennetts by Lisa Scottoline

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    From #1 bestselling author Lisa Scottoline comes a pulse-pounding new novel.Your family has been attacked, never again to be the same.Now you have to choose between law…and justice.Jason Bennett is a suburban dad who owns a court-reporting business, but one night, his life takes a horrific turn...
    Categorized as:
    crime  family  grief  suspense  adult  audiobook  book  contemporary
  • Secrets She Left Behind by Diane Chamberlain

    Secrets She Left Behind by Diane Chamberlain

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    One afternoon, single mother Sara Weston says she's going to the store--and never returns. In her absence, she leaves her teenage son alone with his damaged past and a legacy of secrets...
  • The Escape Artist by Diane Chamberlain

    The Escape Artist by Diane Chamberlain

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    Susanna Miller may have lost legal custody of her beautiful eleven-month-old son, Tyler, but that doesn't mean she is giving him up. Even if her ex-husband, Jim, an attorney, and his new wife, Peggy, have every advantage to offer a child, Susanna knows the two of them cannot be as caring, loving, and devoted as she has been...
    Categorized as:
    crime  drama  family  grief  suspense  adult  audiobook  book
  • She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper

    She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Eleven-year-old Polly is smart far beyond her years. But she's a loner. Her mother tells her she has 'gunfighter eyes', like the father she's never met. In prison, about to be released, Nate runs afoul of the powerful leader of the Aryan Brotherhood. Marked for death on his release, Nate soon realizes that everyone he has ever loved is a target - including his daughter, Polly...
  • Faultlines by Barbara Taylor Sissel

    Faultlines by Barbara Taylor Sissel

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    It’s the phone call every parent dreads: in the middle of the night, Sandy Cline learns that her twenty-year-old son, Jordan, has been in a car accident. Her nephew, Travis, was also in the car, along with Travis’s girlfriend. All three are alive—but barely. The car was smashed against a tree along a remote and winding road, beautiful but deadly, in their rural Texas Hill Country town...
  • Come Back to Me by Sara Foster

    Come Back to Me by Sara Foster

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Do you have to honour a promise you made in the past if it means losing all you have now? When Mark introduces his date, Julia, to Chloe and her husband at a London restaurant, it's obvious that something is very, very wrong. Alex and Julia pretend not to know one another, but the shocked expressions on their faces tell another story...
  • I Made a Mistake by Jane Corry

    I Made a Mistake by Jane Corry

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    IT STARTED WITH A KISS... AND ENDED WITH MURDER. The darkly addictive new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of I Looked Away, Blood Sisters and My Husband's Wife. --------------------------------------------------------In Poppy Page's mind, there are two types of women in this world: those who are faithful to their husbands, and those who are not...
    Categorized as:
    crime  drama  family  suspense  adult  audiobook  book  contemporary
  • Behind Closed Doors by Susan Lewis

    Behind Closed Doors by Susan Lewis

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    The powerful new novel about how life can change course in a heartbeat. From the Sunday Times Top Ten bestselling author of Never Say Goodbye. When fourteen-year-old Sophie Monroe suddenly vanishes one night it looks at first as though she's run away from home.Her computer and mobile phone have gone, and she's taken a bag full of clothes...
  • No Hiding in Boise by Kim Hooper

    No Hiding in Boise by Kim Hooper

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    When Angie is awakened by a midnight call from an officer with the Boise Police Department, she thinks there must be a misunderstanding. The officer tells her that her husband was involved in a shooting at a local bar, but how can that be possible when her husband is sleeping right next to her? Except when she turns to wake him, he isn’t there...
  • Good Little Liars by Sarah Clutton

    Good Little Liars by Sarah Clutton

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Emma held the photo for a long moment before her eyes focused on the girl’s face. She dropped it and let out a muted cry.The girl in the photograph was Tessa.Twenty-five years after losing her friend Tessa in a tragic accident, Emma’s life is happy and settled. She rarely thinks about the day that Tessa fell to her death, or the secret that she made Emma swear to keep just hours before...
  • Sophie Last Seen by Marlene Adelstein

    Sophie Last Seen by Marlene Adelstein

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Six years ago, ten-year-old Sophie Albright disappeared from a shopping mall. Her mother, Jesse, is left in a self-destructive limbo, haunted by memories of her intense and difficult child, who was obsessed with birds...
  • The Ninth Session by Deborah Serani

    The Ninth Session by Deborah Serani

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    An edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller that brings a unique mix of Psychotherapy, American Sign Language and Coda Culture. Just when you think you have it figured out, think again! Dr. Alicia Reese takes on a new patient. Lucas Ferro suffers with crippling anxiety, and as sessions progress, he begins to share the reasons why he's struggling...
  • Whisper Me This by Kerry Anne King

    Whisper Me This by Kerry Anne King

    Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars
    · 28 ratings
    Single mother Maisey Addington has always fallen short of her own mother’s expectations—never married, a bit adrift, wasting her high IQ on dead-end jobs. The only thing Maisey’s sure she’s gotten right is her relationship with her twelve-year-old daughter, Elle…until a phone call blows apart the precarious balance of their lives...
  • The Good Father by Diane Chamberlain

    The Good Father by Diane Chamberlain

    Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    A beloved daughter. A devastating choice. And now there's no going back. Four years ago, nineteen-year-old Travis Brown made a choice: to raise his newborn daughter on his own. While most of his friends were out partying and meeting girls, Travis was at home, changing diapers and worrying about keeping food on the table. But he's never regretted his decision. Bella is the light of his life...
  • Working Fire by Emily Bleeker

    Working Fire by Emily Bleeker

    Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    From the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of When I’m Gone comes a compelling novel of a bond between sisters, tested by tragedy…Ellie Brown thought she’d finally escaped her stifling hometown of Broadlands, Illinois; med school was supposed to be her ticket out...
  • My Sister's Secret by Tracy Buchanan

    My Sister's Secret by Tracy Buchanan

    Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    What if everything you’d built your life on was a lie? Willow’s memories are happy: full of smiles, love and laughter. But a mysterious invitation to a photographic exhibition exposes a secret that’s been buried since a tragic accident years ago. Willow is forced to question everything she knew about Charity, her late mother, and Hope, the aunt she’s lived with since she was a child...
    Categorized as:
    crime  drama  family  suspense  adult  book  contemporary  female-mc
  • That Day You Left by Dorothy Koomson

    That Day You Left by Dorothy Koomson

    Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    A powerful, thought-provoking emotional thriller from Sunday Times bestseller Dorothy Koomson. Previously published as THE FLAVOURS OF LOVE.Would you protect your husband's killer?It's been 18 months since that day when Saffron's husband, Joel, was murdered. Everyone in her life believes she is coping well. And no one suspects the mother-of-two knows who killed Joel...
    Categorized as:
    crime  drama  family  suspense  adult  book  contemporary  fiction
  • Swimming at Night by Lucy Clarke

    Swimming at Night by Lucy Clarke

    Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    People go traveling for two reasons: because they are searching for something, or they are running from something. Katie’s world is shattered by the news that her headstrong and bohemian younger sister, Mia, has been found dead at the bottom of a cliff in Bali. The authorities say that Mia jumped—that her death was a suicide...
  • Three Sisters by O.J. Mullen, Owen Mullen

    Three Sisters by O.J. Mullen, Owen Mullen

    Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    One chance meeting. A night that changes everything.The Kennedy sisters, Molly, Alex and Sam, have a Christmas tradition – a night out, just the three of them, sisters together.Lewis Stone can’t face the work Christmas party, but as he’s one of the bosses, he has to put in an appearance. He leaves as soon as he can politely get away, ready for the holidays to begin...
  • The Secrets Mothers Keep by Jacquie Underdown

    The Secrets Mothers Keep by Jacquie Underdown

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    In the enchanting landscapes of Tasmania, "The Secrets Mothers Keep" unravels a captivating tale of three generations bound by a shared purpose—to restore the family manor into a charming bed and breakfast. But beneath the surface lies a lifetime of concealed truths that threaten to tear them apart...
  • 34 Days by Anita Waller

    34 Days by Anita Waller

    Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    34 Days: A gripping psychological thriller from an international best-selling authorHow much can your life change in just 34 days?Anna and Ray have been married for thirty-five years. They are parents and grandparents and appear to be a normal couple. But behind closed doors something isn't right...
    Categorized as:
    crime  family  suspense  adult  book  contemporary  fiction  murder
  • Until the Day I Die by Emily Carpenter

    Until the Day I Die by Emily Carpenter

    Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    If there’s a healthy way to grieve, Erin Gaines hasn’t found it. After her husband’s sudden death, the runaway success of the tech company they built with their best friends has become overwhelming. Her nerves are frayed, she’s disengaged, and her frustrated daughter, Shorie, is pulling away from her. Maybe Erin’s friends and family are right...
  • An Inconvenient Woman by Dominick Dunne

    An Inconvenient Woman by Dominick Dunne

    Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Jules Mendelson is wealthy. Astronomically so. He and his wife lead the kind of charity-giving, art-filled, high-society life for which each has been carefully groomed. Until Jules falls in love with Flo March, a beautiful actress/waitress. What Flo discovers about the superrich is not a pretty sight. And in the end, she wants no more than what she was promised...
  • In Her Wake by Amanda Jennings, Kate Rawson

    In Her Wake by Amanda Jennings, Kate Rawson

    Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    A tragic family event reveals devastating news that rips apart Bella's comfortable existence. Embarking on a personal journey to uncover the truth, she faces a series of traumatic discoveries that take her to the ruggedly beautiful Cornish coast, where hidden truths, past betrayals and a 25-year-old mystery threaten not just her identity but her life...
    Categorized as:
    crime  drama  family  suspense  adult  audiobook  book  contemporary
  • The Choice by Susan Lewis

    The Choice by Susan Lewis

    Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Sometimes the choice is too hard to bear...Nikki Grant is only twenty-one when she discovers she's pregnant. Despite her parents' disappointment and anger, she welcomes the news with joy. The baby will complete the happy home she shares with the man she adores, Spencer James. Baby Zac arrives and is perfect in every way...
  • Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro

    Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro

    Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    A GRIPPING NEW NOVEL FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF INHERITANCEOne Night. One Fateful Choice. A Constellation of Lives Changed Forever.SIGNAL FIRES opens on a summer night in 1985. Three teenagers have been drinking. One of them gets behind the wheel of a car, and, in an instant, everything on Division Street changes...
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