Books like 'The Thicket'
Readers who enjoyed The Thicket by Joe R. Lansdale also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical horror mystery action / adventure thriller western historical-fiction crime coming-of-age suspense
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Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King
Rated: 4.48 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsAndy Dufresne, a banker, was convicted of killing his wife and her lover and sent to Shawshank Prison. He maintains his innocence over the decades he spends at Shawshank during which time he forms a friendship with "Red", a fellow inmate.Source: stephenking...Categorized as:
crime drama historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense thriller 20th-century action-adventure -
The Labyrinth of the Spirits by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Rated: 4.52 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsThe internationally acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author returns to the magnificent universe he constructed in his bestselling novels The Shadow of the Wind, The Angel’s Game, and The Prisoner of Heaven in this riveting series finale—a heart-pounding thriller and nail-biting work of suspense which introduces a sexy, seductive new heroine whose investigation shines a light on the dark...Categorized as:
crime drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense 20th-century action-adventure -
The Two Dead Girls by Stephen King
Rated: 4.52 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsThey were sisters, and the picture-perfect image of innocence. No one understood their brutal deaths, not even the man who killed them. But John Coffey is about to gain a new insight, about his life in prison, and about the one man who will walk him down that green mile . . . toward destiny.Prepare yourself for Stephen King's boldest exercise in nerve-twisting suspense... -
The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection by Edgar Allan Poe
Rated: 4.46 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsUniversally acclaimed as the maestro of horror and the morbid, Edgar Allan Poe's dark gift has for more than a century and a half set the standard for the genre.Now, Caedmon Audio presents a classic collection of Poe's most terrifying tales performed by two of the most brilliant interpreters of his work ever to be recorded: Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone...Categorized as:
crime drama historical-fiction humor industrial-era literary-fiction suspense action-adventure -
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Boy's Life by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsAn Alabama boy’s innocence is shaken by murder and madness in the 1960s South in this novel by the New York Times–bestselling author of Swan Song. It’s 1964 in idyllic Zephyr, Alabama. People either work for the paper mill up the Tecumseh River, or for the local dairy. It’s a simple life, but it stirs the impressionable imagination of twelve-year-old aspiring writer Cory Mackenson...Categorized as:
coming-of-age crime drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense 20th-century -
The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsSome stories live forever . . .Sage Singer is a baker. She works through the night, preparing the day’s breads and pastries, trying to escape a reality of loneliness, bad memories, and the shadow of her mother’s death. When Josef Weber, an elderly man in Sage’s grief support group, begins stopping by the bakery, they strike up an unlikely friendship... -
Goodnight Lady by Martina Cole
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA tour-de-force thriller of corruption and violence.In the sixties, Briony Cavanagh ran a string of the most notorious brothels in London. Only Briony knew what went on behind those doors, and she never opened her mouth - unless she stood to benefit. Only Briony knew the painful road she'd travelled to get there...Categorized as:
crime family hard-boiled historical-fiction suspense thriller action-adventure adult -
The Ordeal of the Haunted Room by Jodi Taylor
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA Christmas ghost story - Chronicles of St Mary's style! For fans of Doctor Who and Jasper Fforde...and A Christmas Carol. Where better for the annual festive jump than the chance to experience a real Victorian Christmas?On the longest night of 1895, a terrible storm rages above Harewood Hall...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor industrial-era suspense action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook -
Mister Slaughter by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe world of Colonial America comes vibrantly to life in this masterful new historical thriller by Robert McCammon... -
Angels and Demons / The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon, #1-2) by Dan Brown
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsEnter the labyrinthine world of internationally bestselling author Dan Brown with his first two spellbinding thrillers featuring Robert Langdon:Angels and DemonsWhen a groundbreaking scientist is found brutally murdered, world renowned Harvard professor Robert Langdon is summoned to identify the mysterious symbol seared on to the dead man's chest... -
Wuthering Frights by Elise Sax
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMatilda Dare has a ring on her finger, a thriving business, a beautiful, historical home, two dogs, and an amazing group of friends. She should be happy. But her fiancé might be a serial killer, the sheriff’s dead wife is visiting her, and her husband has escaped from prison. All of that is throwing a wrench into Matilda’s celebrations... -
Life at the Coffin Joint by Ann Charles, Sam Lucky
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsDeadwood (late 1876) ... A rowdy and reckless undertaker’s delight. What better place for a killer to blend in?Enter undertaker Clementine Johanssen, tall and deadly with a hot temper and short fuse, hired to clean up Deadwood’s dead … and the “other” problem. She’s hell-bent on poking, sticking, or stabbing anyone that steps out of line...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor industrial-era suspense western action-adventure adult audiobook -
Death Rides Alone by William W. Johnstone, J.A. Johnstone
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe Greatest Western Writers Of The 21st Century Mountain Man Smoke Jensen's long-lost brother Luke Jensen is a dead shot scarred by war--the perfect formula for a bounty hunter. And he's cunning, and fierce enough to bring down the deadliest outlaws of his day. . . Law Of The Gun Luke Jensen has earned this bounty, hunting down the violent man charged with murdering a preacher's daughter... -
The Dollhouse by Sara Ennis
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAlfred needs Dolls. Blonde, blue-eyed human dolls that will help him rewrite his past and change his future.When Peter Baden's daughter Olivia was abducted nearly a year ago, he left his career as a respected journalist to find her... -
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Gangland by Chuck Hogan
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom the acclaimed author of The Town, an epic thriller about the secret right‑hand man of one of the most infamous unprosecuted mob bosses in American history, and the hidden crime that will bring down an empire.In the late 1970s, The Outfit has the entire city of Chicago in its hands. Tony Accardo is its fearless leader... -
Potsdam Station by David Downing
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsApril, 1945. The Third Reich is on the verge of extinction, and its enemies are already plotting against each other. For John Russell, this has personal importance: his son and girlfriend are trapped in Berlin and only the Soviets can get him in there. But the price of their help will threaten both his and the world's postwar future...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction literary-fiction noir suspense thriller 20th-century action-adventure -
The Headless Horseman by Thomas Mayne Reid
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsTexas in the 19th century. The War with Mexico is still a recent memory, marauding Comanches are a daily threat for new settlers of the Lone Star State. Louise Poindexter, a beautiful newcomer, is courted by two men - the arrogant and vindictive Cassius Calhoun and the dashing but poor mustanger Maurice Gerald...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction western action-adventure book children -
Colter's Journey by William W. Johnstone, J.A. Johnstone
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTHE GREATEST WESTERN WRITERS OF THE 21ST CENTURY In this thrilling epic of the American West, bestselling authors William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone capture the human side of the frontier experience in all its glory, grit, and grandeur—through the eyes of one remarkable teenage boy ..Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction industrial-era suspense western action-adventure adult audiobook -
Kissyman & the Gentleman by Scott Sigler
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsNew York City, 1946. No one knows his real name, but when the job is too dirty, too dangerous, they call Kissyman. Once an elite Nazi SS commando, an honorable soldier, a taker of lives. When he was assigned to Dachau and saw what he was actually fighting for, he went AWOL and ran as far away as he could — to America. He still makes his living with a gun, but he no longer kills for his country... -
The Complete Stories of Robert Louis Stevenson: Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Nineteen Other Tales by Robert Louis Stevenson
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe complexity and range of Robert Louis Stevenson's short fiction reveals his genius perhaps more than any other medium. Here, leading Stevenson scholar Barry Menikoff arranges and introduces the complete selection of Stevenson's brilliant stories, including the famed masterpiece Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr...Categorized as:
crime humor industrial-era literary-fiction action-adventure adult anthologies classics -
High Cotton by Joe R. Lansdale
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThis collection of Joe R. Lansdale stories represents the best of the “Lansdale” genre—a strange mixture of dark crime, even darker humor, and adventure tales. The stories are varied in setting and theme, but they are all pure Lansdale—eerie, amusing, and occasionally horrific. In “The Pit,” modern gladiators square off against one another using Roman methods...Categorized as:
crime drama historical-fiction industrial-era suspense western action-adventure adult -
Daddy by Loup Durand
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWho has the key to a $350 million fortune the Nazis have sent their most brilliant operative to find? Thomas, an 11-year old boy with the mind of a genius, the cunning of a fox, and the chance of a snowball in Hell to escape...unless he is helped by one man. An American who doesn't even know he exists. A man he calls Daddy... -
The River of Souls by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe year is 1703. The place: the Carolina settlement of Charles Town. . Matthew Corbett, professional “problem solver,” has accepted a lucrative, if unusual, commission: escorting a beautiful woman to a fancy dress ball.What should be a pleasant assignment takes a darker turn when Matthew becomes involved in a murder investigation... -
The Heavenly Table by Donald Ray Pollock
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom Donald Ray Pollock, author of the highly acclaimed The Devil All the Time and Knockemstiff, comes a dark, gritty, electrifying (and, disturbingly, weirdly funny) new novel that will solidify his place among the best contemporary American authors.It is 1917, in that sliver of border land that divides Georgia from Alabama... -
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Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart, Sandra Brown
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA governess in a French chateau encounters an apparent plot against her young charge's life in this unforgettably haunting and beautifully written suspense novel. When lovely Linda Martin first arrives at Château Valmy as an English governess to the nine-year-old Count Philippe de Valmy, the opulence and history surrounding her seems like a wondrous, ecstatic dream...Categorized as:
crime drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense 20th-century action-adventure -
The Big Nowhere by James Ellroy
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratings1950s Los Angeles: The City of Angels has become the city of the Angel of Death. Communist witch-hunts and insanely violent killings are terrorising the community. Three men are plunged into a maelstrom of violence and deceit when their lives become inextricably linked as each one confronts his own personal darkness... -
Cape Fear by John D. MacDonald
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsHow far would you go to save your family? In John D. MacDonald's iconic masterwork of suspense, the inspiration for not one but two Hollywood hits, a mild-mannered family is tormented by an obsessed criminal--and with the authorities powerless to protect them, they must take the law into their own hands... -
Never by Ken Follett
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsNew York Times Bestseller The new must-read epic from master storyteller Ken Follett: more than a thriller, it's an action-packed, globe-spanning drama set in the present day."A compelling story, and only too realistic." --Lawrence H. Summers, former U.S. Treasury Secretary"Every catastrophe begins with a little problem that doesn't get fixed... -
Old Bones by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe first in the groundbreaking Nora Kelly series from #1 bestselling authors Preston & Child blends the legend of the Donner party with a riveting suspense tale, taking the dynamic duo's work to new heights...Categorized as:
crime drama historical-fiction suspense western thriller 21st-century action-adventure -
Temple by Matthew Reilly
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsFour centuries ago, a precious idol was hidden in the jungles of Peru. To the Incan people, it is still the ultimate symbol of their spirit. To William Race, an American linguist enlisted by the U.S. Army to decipher the clues to its location, it's the ultimate symbol of the apocalypse.. -
The Alienist by Caleb Carr
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsWhen The Alienist was first published in 1994, it was a major phenomenon, spending six months on the New York Times bestseller list, receiving critical acclaim, and selling millions of copies. This modern classic continues to be a touchstone of historical suspense fiction for readers everywhere.The year is 1896. The city is New York...Categorized as:
crime drama historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction suspense thriller 20th-century -
These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsJo Montfort is beautiful and rich, and soon—like all the girls in her class—she’ll graduate from finishing school and be married off to a wealthy bachelor. Which is the last thing she wants. Jo secretly dreams of becoming a writer—a newspaper reporter like the trailblazing Nellie Bly.Wild aspirations aside, Jo’s life seems perfect until tragedy strikes: her father is found dead...Categorized as:
coming-of-age crime drama family historical-fiction industrial-era suspense action-adventure -
The Speckled Band by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsPart of the High Impact series this classic text is retold in an accessible style for those with a reading age of six to seven years...Categorized as:
crime drama historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction suspense thriller action-adventure -
The Lost Girls of Rome by Donato Carrisi
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA grieving young widow, seeking answers to her husband's death, becomes entangled in an investigation steeped in the darkest mysteries of Rome.Sandra Vega, a forensic analyst with the Roman police department, mourns deeply for a marriage that ended too soon... -
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The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBy chance, John and Jean--one English, the other French--meet in a provincial railway station. Their resemblance to each other is uncanny, and they spend the next few hours talking and drinking - until at last John falls into a drunken stupor. It's to be his last carefree moment, for when he wakes, Jean has stolen his identity and disappeared...Categorized as:
crime drama family historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense thriller 20th-century -
Folly by Laurie R. King
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAn acclaimed master of suspense creates a heroine you will never forget in this superbly chilling novel of a woman who begins a desperate undertaking that may transform her life--or end it.WHAT HAPPENS IF YOUR WORST FEARS AREN’T ALL IN YOUR MIND?Rae Newborn is a woman on the edge: on the edge of sanity, on the edge of tragedy, and now on the edge of the world...Categorized as:
crime family historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense action-adventure adult audiobook -
Inspector of the Dead by David Morrell
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLEGENDARY THRILLER WRITER DAVID MORRELL TRANSPORTS READERS TO THE FOGBOUND STREETS OF LONDON, WHERE A KILLER PLOTS TO ASSASSINATE QUEEN VICTORIA.The year is 1855. The Crimean War is raging. The incompetence of British commanders causes the fall of the English government. The Empire teeters...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction suspense thriller action-adventure adult -
Estudio en escarlata/El sabueso de los Baskerville by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLa popularidad de Sherlock Holmes ha sido inmensa e incesante... si muchos le parodiaron (a Conan Doyle) casi todos los escritores posteriores han moldeado sus héroes conforme a uno de los poliédricos aspectos del gran Sherlock. Este dejó de ser un personaje literario, se convirtió en una criatura viviente y borró la memoria de su creador...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction suspense action-adventure adult book -
Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes by Charles Prepolec, Kim Newman
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe fabled tin dispatch box of Dr. John H. Watson opens to reveal eleven all new tales of mystery and dark fantasy. Sherlock Holmes, master of deductive reasoning, confronts the irrational, the unexpected and the fantastic in the weird worlds of the Gaslight Grimoire...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction industrial-era suspense action-adventure adult anthologies fiction -
The History of Things to Come by Duncan Simpson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe mind of a genius can hold the darkest of secrets A razor-sharp thriller A Bosnian gangster is gunned down in a packed London restaurant. In his possession is a notebook once belonging to Isaac Newton. This is just the latest in a series of shocking crimes connected to objects once belonging to the famous scientist. The police are stumped and the pressure for an arrest is mounting...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense thriller action-adventure adult book -
Resurrectionist by James McGee
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsBow Street Runner Matthew Hawkwood brings his own form of justice to the salons and slums of Regency London in the gripping sequel to 'Ratcatcher'. For the body snatchers, death is a lucrative business. But it's the corpse they leave behind, horribly mutilated and nailed to a tree, which sets Bow Street Runner Matthew Hawkwood on their trail...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction thriller action-adventure adult book -
The Coyote by Michael McBride
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe new novel of suspense from the category bestselling author of Burial Ground and Vector Borne!They’re the perfect victims.Arizona shares nearly four hundred miles of international border with Mexico, thirty-six of which are completely unfortified. On one side lies desperation; on the other, opportunity.There’s no record of their destinations... -
Steel Breeze by Douglas Wynne
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA BLACK WIND BLOWS AND LIFE HANGS IN THE BALANCE. It’s been a year since novelist Desmond Carmichael's wife Sandy was brutally murdered. Now, with someone stalking him and his four-year-old son, he fears that the wrong man has been imprisoned for the crime... -
The Copper Man by Debra Castaneda
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratings“The horrible figure from the Prestwich Tunnel hovered there. Not a ghost. Something between a badly disfigured man and a monster. There was a limit to what the human mind could comprehend, and the ghastly thing standing before her was beyond that limit.”In 1985, the Copper Man killed Leah Shaw’s twin brother, Liam, in the mining town of Tribulation Gulch... -
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The Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsIn The Angel of Darkness, Caleb Carr brings back the vivid world of his bestselling The Alienist but with a twist: this story is told by the former street urchin Stevie Taggert, whose rough life has given him wisdom beyond his years. Thus New York City, and the groundbreaking alienist Dr. Kreizler himself, are seen anew. It is June 1897. A year has passed since Dr...Categorized as:
crime drama historical-fiction industrial-era literary-fiction suspense thriller 20th-century -
The North Water by Ian McGuire
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA ship sets sail with a killer on board . . .1859. A man joins a whaling ship bound for the Arctic Circle. Having left the British Army with his reputation in tatters, Patrick Sumner has little option but to accept the position of ship's surgeon on this ill-fated voyage. But when, deep into the journey, a cabin boy is discovered brutally killed, Sumner finds himself forced to act... -
Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsBored and restless in London's Restoration Court, Lady Dona escapes into the British countryside with her restlessness and thirst for adventure as her only guides.Eventually Dona lands in remote Navron, looking for peace of mind in its solitary woods and hidden creeks. She finds the passion her spirit craves in the love of a daring French pirate who is being hunted by all of Cornwall... -
Ruler of the Night by David Morrell
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThomas De Quincey is beginning to control his opium addiction when the excitement of his current case threatens to unravel his grip on reality once and for all. On their way home to the Lake District, the De Quinceys become unwitting witnesses to a truly historic murder: the first to take place on one of England's newly constructed railways...Categorized as:
historical-fiction industrial-era crime suspense thriller mystery fiction historical -
The Jekyll Revelation by Robert Masello
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhile on routine patrol in the tinder-dry Topanga Canyon, environmental scientist Rafael Salazar expects to find animal poachers, not a dilapidated antique steamer trunk. Inside the peculiar case, he discovers a journal, written by the renowned Robert Louis Stevenson, which divulges ominous particulars about his creation of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde...Categorized as:
crime drama historical-fiction industrial-era kidnapping literary-fiction suspense thriller -
Savage by Richard Laymon, Peter Bishop
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 17 ratings"If you've missed Laymon, you've missed a treat." —Stephen KingWhitechapel, November 1888: Jack the Ripper is committing his last known murder and beneath the bed on which he's butchering his victim cowers a fifteen-year-old boy...Categorized as:
coming-of-age crime historical-fiction industrial-era western thriller action-adventure adult
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