Books like 'Headlong'
Readers who enjoyed Headlong by Michael Frayn also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical mystery 20th century action / adventure europe british-isles united-kingdom england historical-fiction literary-fiction
-
Checkmate by Dorothy Dunnett
Rated: 4.70 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsFor the first time Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles are available in the United States in quality paperback editions.Sixth in the legendary Lymond Chronicles, Checkmate takes place in 1557, where Francis Crawford of Lymond is once again in France, leading an army against England...Categorized as:
classics england europe historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
The Twelve Chairs by Ilya Ilf, Yevgeny Petrov
Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsOstap Bender is an unemployed con artist living by his wits in postrevolutionary Soviet Russia. He joins forces with Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobyaninov, a former nobleman who has returned to his hometown to find a cache of missing jewels which were hidden in some chairs that have been appropriated by the Soviet authorities...Categorized as:
classics crime historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
The Physician by Noah Gordon
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 45 ratingsIn the 11th century, Rob Cole left poor, disease-ridden London to make his way across the land, hustling, juggling, peddling cures to the sick—and discovering the mystical ways of healing. It was on his travels that he found his own very real gift for healing—a gift that urged him on to become a doctor... -
The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsA glorious novel of the controversial Richard III - a monarch betrayed in life by his allies and betrayed in death by history... -
-
A Portrait of Loyalty by Roseanna M. White
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsZivon Marin was one of Russia's top cryptographers, until the October Revolution tore apart his world. Forced to flee after speaking out against Lenin and separated from his brother along the way, he arrives in England driven by a growing anger and determined to offer his services to the Brits...Categorized as:
british-isles england europe historical-fiction united-kingdom 20th-century action-adventure adult -
The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures by Mike Ashley
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe biggest collection of new Sherlock Holmes stories since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle laid down his pen - nearly 200,000 words of superb fiction featuring the Great Detective by masters of historical crime, including Stephen Baxter, H. R. F. Keating, Michael Moorcock and Amy Myers. Almost all the stories here are specially written; the cases presented in the order in which Holmes solved them...Categorized as:
classics crime historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies fiction -
The Promise by Michelle Vernal
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA wonderfully heartwarming, touching and romantic story - Tammy Robinson Author of Differently Normal Two women from different generations brought together by another’s wrongdoing. When British backpacker, Isabel Stark happens across a car accident on a lonely stretch of road in the South Island of New Zealand her life changes forever...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction humor romance historical 20th-century fiction mystery -
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 87 ratingsA remarkable tale of the island of Guernsey during the German Occupation, and of a society as extraordinary as its name.“Treat yourself to this book, please - I can’t recommend it highly enough.” (Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love)“I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers...Categorized as:
british-isles classics europe historical-fiction humor literary-fiction united-kingdom 20th-century -
Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Illustrated Short Stories by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThey're among the most influential, enduring, and popular short stories in the English language; marvelous mysteries that feature the "most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has ever seen." Here are all 56 Sherlock Holmes tales in one very handsome collection, accompanied by the original artwork in facsimile reproduction...Categorized as:
classics crime historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsOne enemy spy knows the secret to the Allies' greatest deception, a brilliant aristocrat and ruthless assassin -- code name: "The Needle" -- who holds the key to ultimate Nazi victory. Only one person stands in his way: a lonely Englishwoman on an isolated island, who is beginning to love the killer who has mysteriously entered her life...Categorized as:
british-isles classics crime england europe historical-fiction united-kingdom 20th-century -
Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada, Geoff Wilkes
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsInspired by a true story, Hans Fallada's Alone in Berlin is the gripping tale of an ordinary man's determination to defy the tyranny of Nazi rule. This Penguin Classics edition contains an afterword by Geoff Wilkes, as well as facsimiles of the original Gestapo file which inspired the novel. Berlin, 1940, and the city is filled with fear...Categorized as:
classics crime historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
Flashman in the Great Game by George MacDonald Fraser
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsOne of literature's most delightful rakes is back in another tale of rollicking adventure and tantalizing seduction. The plucky Flashman's latest escapades are sure to entertain devotees as well as attract new aficionados...Categorized as:
classics crime historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsThirteenth-century Wales is a divided country, ever at the mercy of England's ruthless, power-hungry King John. Then Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, secures an uneasy truce with England by marrying the English king's beloved, illegitimate daughter, Joanna. Reluctant to wed her father's bitter enemy, Joanna slowly grows to love her charismatic and courageous husband who dreams of uniting Wales... -
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 89 ratingsIn this beloved story, readers travel with Mary Lennox, a spoiled and sullen orphan, from colonial India to Misselthwaite Manor, a forbidding estate on the Yorkshire moors. There, in the unlikeliest of places, Mary discovers and helps restore an abandoned garden and, in the process, blossoms herself into a creature of loving kindness... -
-
Collected Stories by Raymond Chandler
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratings(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)The only complete edition of stories by the undisputed master of detective literature, collected here for the first time in one volume, including some stories that have been unavailable for decades...Categorized as:
classics crime literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies fiction -
Trustee from the Toolroom by Nevil Shute
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA novel tells the story of a man who leads an ordinary, uneventful life, until overnight he becomes the trustee of his 10-year-old niece, and involved in the search for some missing money...Categorized as:
classics crime historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
The Mysterious Affair at Styles and The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFor the first ime in one volume are Agatha Christie's first two mysteries that introduced the world to Hercule Poirot and to Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, all sleuths who have starred in the PBS Mystery! series: with a sudden death as the initiation of his career, Hercule Poirot calls upon the sprawling estate of the Styles Court to identify the murderer of a wealthy heiress from a crowd of...Categorized as:
classics crime literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies cozy -
Death in the East by Abir Mukherjee
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratings1905, London. As a young constable, Sam Wyndham is on his usual East London beat when he comes across an old flame, Bessie Drummond, attacked in the streets. The next day, when Bessie is found brutally beaten in her own room, locked from the inside, Wyndham promises to get to the bottom of her murder. But the case will cost the young constable more than he ever imagined.1922, India...Categorized as:
british-isles crime england europe historical-fiction united-kingdom 20th-century action-adventure -
When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsA.D. 1135. As church bells tolled for the death of England's King Henry I, his barons faced the unwelcome prospect of being ruled by a woman: Henry's beautiful daughter Maude, Countess of Anjou. But before Maude could claim her throne, her cousin Stephen seized it. In their long and bitter struggle, all of England bled and burned... -
The Hound of the Baskervilles: A Sherlock Holmes Story by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsCould the sudden death of Sir Charles Baskerville have been caused by the gigantic ghostly hound that is said to have haunted his family for generations? Arch-rationalist Sherlock Holmes characteristically dismisses the theory as nonsense. And immersed in another case, he sends Watson to Devon to protect the Baskerville heir and observe the suspects close at hand...Categorized as:
british-isles classics crime england europe historical-fiction literary-fiction united-kingdom -
The Great Swindle by Pierre Lemaitre
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsOctober 1918: the war on the Western Front is all but over. Desperate for one last chance of promotion, the ambitious Lieutenant Henri d'Aulnay Pradelle sends two scouts over the top, and secretly shoots them in the back to incite his men to heroic action once more... -
The Footman by A. O'Connor
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the country mansions of 1930s Ireland, to the decadence of 1940s wartime Paris to the courtrooms of London in modern times.What the Footman saw . . .In 1930s Ireland, Joe Grady becomes the footman at the stately home Cliffenden, owned by the glamorous Fullerton family...Categorized as:
europe british-isles historical-fiction classics literary-fiction ireland urban france -
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 73 ratingsCould the sudden death of Sir Charles Baskerville have been caused by the gigantic ghostly hound that is said to have haunted his family for generations? Arch-rationalist Sherlock Holmes characteristically dismisses the theory as nonsense. And immersed in another case, he sends Watson to Devon to protect the Baskerville heir and observe the suspects close at hand...Categorized as:
british-isles classics crime england europe historical-fiction literary-fiction united-kingdom -
Quarantine In The Grand Hotel by Jenő Rejtő
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsQuarantine in the Grand Hotel centers around a mysterious murder in a hotel on the island of Little Lagonda, which is put under quarantine because one of the guests seems to have contracted bubonic plague. However, just before the quarantine is declared, the police arrive, and so does a young man, who hides in his pyjamas in the wardrobe of Miss Maud Borckman... -
-
Manalive by G.K. Chesterton
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsPerhaps the most light-hearted of all Chesterton's "serious" works, Manalive pits a group of disillusioned young people against Mr. Innocent Smith, a bubbly, high-spirited gentleman who literally falls into their midst. Later accused of murder and denounced for philandering everywhere he goes, Smith prompts his newfound acquaintances to recognize an important idea in most unexpected ways...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
The Lost Heiress by Roseanna M. White
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBrook Eden has never known where she truly belongs. When her friend Justin uncovers the fact that she is possibly a missing heiress from Yorkshire, Brook leaves the sun of the Mediterranean to travel to the moors of the North Sea and the estate of her supposed family...Categorized as:
british-isles crime england europe historical-fiction united-kingdom 20th-century action-adventure -
Fields of Fire by James Webb
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOriginally published in 1978, Webb's classic novel of the Vietnam War follows three soldiers from different worlds who are plunged into a white-hot murderous realm of jungle warfare as it was fought by one Marine platoon in the An Hoa Basin in 1969.'They each had their reasons for being a soldier. They each had their illusions. Goodrich came from Harvard...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
A Long Shadow by Charles Todd
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"New Year's Eve, 1919. Scotland Yard's Inspector Ian Rutledge has accompanied his sister to the home of mutual friends for dinner but is called away by work. On the steps outside, he finds a brass cartridge casing that is seemingly identical to the countless others he'd seen during the war he still cannot forget. But this one has an engraving in the metal. Curious, he pockets it...Categorized as:
british-isles crime england europe historical-fiction united-kingdom 20th-century action-adventure -
Fish Preferred by P.G. Wodehouse
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHugh Carmody loved Millicent, Lord Emsworth niece, but he was very good friends with Sue Brown - an attachment which Millicent, perhaps, could hardly be expected to enthuse over. Ronnie Fish loved Sue, and entertained feelings o unrestrained ferocity towards Pilbeam, a blister of the first water, who was pestering her with flowers...Categorized as:
classics crime historical-fiction humor literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
Riiginõunik by Boris Akunin
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSince the publication of The Winter Queen, a New York Times Notable Book and the first mystery featuring Erast Fandorin, Boris Akunin’s historical mystery series has become a worldwide sensation, selling millions of copies and propelling Akunin into the ranks of Russia’s most widely read contemporary novelists...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
Think of England by K.J. Charles
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsLie back and think of England... England, 1904. Two years ago, Captain Archie Curtis lost his friends, fingers, and future to a terrible military accident. Alone, purposeless and angry, Curtis is determined to discover if he and his comrades were the victims of fate, or of sabotage...Categorized as:
british-isles crime england europe historical-fiction humor united-kingdom 20th-century -
Strangers in Time by David Baldacci
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Calamity of Souls comes David Baldacci’s newest novel, set in London in 1944, about a bereaved book shop owner and two teenagers scarred by the second world war, and the healing and hope they find in one another. Fourteen-year-old Charlie Matters is up to no good, but for a very good reason... -
Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsShe's going too far to go it alone.It is 1950. London is still reeling from World War II, and Margery Benson, a schoolteacher and spinster, is trying to get through life, surviving on scraps...Categorized as:
british-isles crime england europe historical-fiction humor literary-fiction united-kingdom -
Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsMystery novelist Harriet Vane knew all about poisons, and when her former lover died in the manner prescribed in one of her books, a jury of her peers had a hangman's noose in mind. But Lord Peter Wimsey was determined to find her innocent...Categorized as:
british-isles classics crime england europe historical-fiction humor literary-fiction -
-
Be Careful What You Wish For by Jeffrey Archer, Otakar Brousek ml.
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsBestselling author Jeffrey Archer's Be Careful What You Wish For opens with Harry Clifton and his wife Emma rushing to hospital to learn the fate of their son Sebastian, who has been involved in a fatal car accident. But who died, Sebastian or his best friend Bruno? When Ross Buchanan is forced to resign as chairman of the Barrington Shipping Company, Emma Clifton wants to replace him...Categorized as:
british-isles crime england europe historical-fiction literary-fiction united-kingdom 20th-century -
Sharpe's Honor by Bernard Cornwell
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsThe Vittoria Campaign is February to June 1813. Victory depends on the increasingly fragile alliance between Britain and Spain. Majpr Sharpe's enemy, Pierre Ducos, seizes a chance to both destroy the alliance and take revenge on Sharpe. The lovely spy, La Marquesa, traps Sharpe in a web of deadly intrigue; he is hunted by allies and enemies alike...Categorized as:
classics crime historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
China Blues by Ki Longfellow
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Roaring Twenties, Chinatown, San Francisco: back-street blues and bathtub gin… hardball mobsters and hardheaded cops… seductive speakeasies and sizzling scandals. As the young Louis Armstrong blows his horn in the infamous Blue Canary, impetuous Nob Hill Socialite Elizabeth Stafford Hamilton plunges into a reckless affair with mysterious Li Kwan Won...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book female-author -
A Dangerous Fortune by Ken Follett
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsAn alternate cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.By the 1860s, the Pilasters are one of the world's greatest banking families, with connections that reach from the City of London to far-afield colonies...Categorized as:
british-isles crime england europe historical-fiction literary-fiction united-kingdom 20th-century -
Black Wings Has My Angel by Elliott Chaze
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsShe had the face of a madonna and a heart made of dollar bills.She was sitting on the floor, naked, in a skitter of green bills. Beyond her was the custodian, still simpering in death. She was scooping up handfuls of the green money and dropping it on top of her head so that it came sliding down along the cream-colored hair, slipping down along her shoulders and body... -
The Call of the Wild/White Fang/To Build a Fire by Jack London
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsThe Call of the Wild—Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all timeTo this day Jack London is the most widely read American writer in the world," E. L. Doctorow wrote in The New York Times Book Review. Generally considered to be London's greatest achievement, The Call of the Wild brought him international acclaim when it was published in 1903... -
The Sixteen Trees of the Somme by Lars Mytting
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsAn engrossing literary novel about a family mystery, revenge, and forgiveness by the bestselling author of Norwegian Wood and The Bell in the LakeThe Sixteen Trees of the Somme is an intricately plotted and enthralling novel by the award-winning author of Norwegian Wood and The Bell in the Lake... -
Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsThis delicious, steamy debut novel chronicles the adventures of Nan King, who begins life as an oyster girl in the provincial seaside town of Whitstable and whose fortunes are forever changed when she falls in love with a cross-dressing music-hall singer named Miss Kitty Butler... -
The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 41 ratings'When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.'In this, the final collection of Sherlock Holmes adventures, the intrepid detective and his faithful companion Dr Watson examine and solve twelve cases that puzzle clients, baffle the police and provide readers with the thrill of the chase...Categorized as:
british-isles classics crime europe historical-fiction literary-fiction united-kingdom 20th-century -
The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsDunnett introduces her irresistible hero Francis Crawford of Lymond, a scapegrace nobleman of elastic morals and dangerous talents whose tongue is as sharp as his rapier. In 1547 Lymond is returning to his native Scotland, which is threatened by an English invasion. Accused of treason, Lymond leads a band of outlaws in a desperate race to redeem his reputation and save his land... -
-
A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsAward-winning author Alan Bradley returns with another beguiling novel starring the insidiously clever and unflappable eleven-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce. The precocious chemist with a passion for poisons uncovers a fresh slew of misdeeds in the hamlet of Bishop's Lacey--mysteries involving a missing tot, a fortune-teller, and a corpse in Flavia's own backyard...Categorized as:
british-isles crime england europe historical-fiction humor united-kingdom 20th-century -
Queen of Clubs by Beezy Marsh
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsLondon, 1957: After rising up against gangland’s queen, Alice Diamond, formerly downtrodden Nell is living the perfect life of crime. Far from the East End slums where she was raised, she’s now an accomplished professional thief by day—lifting luxury goods from high-end department stores—and a glamorous nightclub owner after dark... -
Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski, Anne Sebba
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsHilary Wainwright, an English soldier, returns to a blasted and impoverished France during World War Two in order to trace a child lost five years before. But is this small, quiet boy in a grim orphanage really his son? And what if he is not? In this exquisitely crafted novel, we follow Hilary’s struggle to love in the midst of a devastating war...Categorized as:
europe classics historical-fiction literary-fiction western-central-europe france fiction ww2 -
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre by B. Traven
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA CULT MASTERPIECE—THE ADVENTURE NOVEL THAT INSPIRED JOHN HUSTON'S CLASSIC FILM, BY THE ELUSIVE AUTHOR WHO WAS A MODEL FOR THE HERO OF ROBERTO BOLAÑO'S 2666 Little is known for certain about B. Traven. Evidence suggests that he was born Otto Feige in Schlewsig-Holstein and that he escaped a death sentence for his involvement with the anarchist underground in Bavaria...Categorized as:
classics crime historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
The Elusive Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsIt is the early days of the French Republic, and Robespierre's revolutionaries find their wicked schemes repeatedly being thwarted. It appears that Sir Percy Blakeney--the cunning and heroic Pimpernel--is more than a match for them all. But Sir Percy's spy-catching archenemy, Chauvelin, has devised a plan... -
The Capture of the Earl of Glencrae by Stephanie Laurens
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThree heros, three rescues, three weddings.We joyfully request your attendance at the wedding of Miss Angelica Cynster...but not until she and her hero confront a devious enemy and lay to rest an ancient grudge in the Scottish Highlands! Headstrong Angelica Cynster is certain she'll recognize her fated husband at first sight...
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.