Books like 'Run River'
Readers who enjoyed Run River by Joan Didion also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical mystery psychological literary-fiction classics historical-fiction wlw suspense realistic family
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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:
classics crime historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic suspense 20th-century action-adventure -
![The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, John Bayley]()
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, John Bayley
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 73 ratingsDostoyevsky's passionate concern for people and his intense desire to grasp the meaning of life led him to explore the secret depths of humanity's struggles and sins. No action or thought was ever too corrupt or too inhuman for his understanding. The Brothers Karamazov was his last and greatest work... -
![The Room in the Attic by Louise Douglas]()
The Room in the Attic by Louise Douglas
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA child who does not know her name…In 1903 fishermen find a wrecked boat containing a woman, who has been badly beaten, and a young girl. An ambulance is sent for, and the two survivors are taken to All Hallows, the imposing asylum, hidden deep on Dartmoor... -
![It Happened in Silence by Karla M. Jay]()
It Happened in Silence by Karla M. Jay
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsHonorable Mention in the 2022 Eric Hoffer Book Award Historical Fiction Category2021 Benjamin Franklin Silver Award 2021 Finalist Wishing Shelf Book AwardRiveting Southern Fiction by the award-winning author of When We Were Brave. ~Set in a world where women of the KKK betray their neighbors, horrors of unscrupulous foundling homes come to light, and buried mysteries are not all that hidden... -
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![The Key by Kathryn Hughes]()
The Key by Kathryn Hughes
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom the #1 bestselling author of The Letter Kathryn Hughes comes The Key, an unforgettable story of a heartbreaking secret that will stay with you for ever. 'Riveting' Lesley Pearse on The Letter. 'Gripping' Good Housekeeping on The Secret. 1956 It's Ellen Crosby's first day at work as a student nurse at Ambergate County Lunatic Asylum... -
![Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada, Geoff Wilkes]()
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 family historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense 20th-century action-adventure -
![Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey]()
Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe magnificent second novel from the legendary author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Following the astonishing success of his first novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey wrote what Charles Bowden calls "one of the few essential books written by an American in the last half century...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic suspense 20th-century adult -
![The God of the Woods by Liz Moore]()
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom the New York Times bestselling author of Long Bright River, an immersive, propulsive novel about a missing child whose disappearance sends equal shockwaves through three very different worlds—an opulent Adirondack summer estate, the rustic teen summer camp that operates in its shadow, and the blue-collar community that serves them both...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense family mystery fiction historical thriller -
![The Pit and the Pendulum - an Edgar Allan Poe Short Story by Edgar Allan Poe]()
The Pit and the Pendulum - an Edgar Allan Poe Short Story by Edgar Allan Poe
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 48 ratingsGet set for true terror in one of Edgar Allan Poe's most famous short stories.We enter the mind of a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition. The dank prison room is without light and he begins to feel his way around the walls...Categorized as:
classics crime historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense anthologies audiobook dark -
![Venom by Colin Falconer]()
Venom by Colin Falconer
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom Saigon to Paris, from Bangkok to the Ganges, this thriller is the story of Michel Christian. Abandoned on the streets of Saigon when he is only a child, he grows up with a fatal attraction for women and an insatiable desire for revenge...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense action-adventure adult book drama -
![Unnatural History by Jonathan Kellerman]()
Unnatural History by Jonathan Kellerman
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe most enduring detectives in American crime fiction are back in this electrifying thrillerof art and brutalityfrom the #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense.Los Angeles is a city of stark contrast, the palaces of the affluent coexisting uneasily with the hellholes of the mad and the needy. It is that shadow world and the violence it breeds that draw brilliant psychologist Dr... -
![Appalachian Justice by Melinda Clayton]()
Appalachian Justice by Melinda Clayton
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsBilly May Platte is a half Irish, half Cherokee Appalachian woman who learned the hard way that 1940s West Virginia was no place to be different.As Billy May explains, “We was sheltered in them hills. We didn’t know much of nothin’ about life outside of them mountains. I did not know the word lesbian; to us, gay meant havin’ fun and queer meant somethin’ strange... -
![The Caretakers by Eliza Maxwell]()
The Caretakers by Eliza Maxwell
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn the isolated estate she’s found the perfect getaway. But there’s no escaping the past in this chilling novel from the bestselling author of The Unremembered Girl. Filmmaker Tessa Shepherd helped free a man she believed was wrongly imprisoned for murder. When he kills again, Tessa’s life is upended.She’s reeling with guilt, her reputation destroyed... -
![The Woman in the Wood by Lesley Pearse]()
The Woman in the Wood by Lesley Pearse
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFifteen-year-old twins Maisy and Duncan Mitcham have always had each other. Until the fateful day in the wood . . . One night in 1960, the twins awake to find their father pulling their screaming mother from the house. She is to be committed to an asylum. It is, so their father insists, for her own good... -
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![Past Caring by Robert Goddard, Paul Shelley]()
Past Caring by Robert Goddard, Paul Shelley
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAt a lush villa on the sun-soaked island of Madeira, Martin Radford is given a second chance. His life ruined by scandal, Martin holds in his hands the leather-bound journal of another ruined man, former British cabinet minister Edwin Strafford...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense adult amateur-sleuth audiobook book -
![Absent in the Spring by Mary Westmacott, Agatha Christie]()
Absent in the Spring by Mary Westmacott, Agatha Christie
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsReturning from a visit to her daughter in Iraq, Joan Scudamore finds herself unexpectedly alone and stranded in an isolated rest house by flooding of the railway tracks. This sudden solitude compels Joan to assess her life for the first time ever and face up to many of the truths about herself...Categorized as:
classics crime family historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense 20th-century adult -
![Only Time Will Tell by Jeffrey Archer]()
Only Time Will Tell by Jeffrey Archer
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsFrom the internationally bestselling author of Kane and Abel and A Prisoner of Birth comes Only Time Will Tell, the first in an ambitious new series that tells the story of one family across generations, across oceans, from heartbreak to triumph. The epic tale of Harry Clifton’s life begins in 1920, with the words “I was told that my father was killed in the war...Categorized as:
crime family historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![The Cherry Robbers by Sarai Walker]()
The Cherry Robbers by Sarai Walker
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsSarai Walker has done it again. With The Cherry Robbers she upends the Gothic ghost story with a fiery feminist zeal. --Maria SempleThe highly anticipated second novel from Sarai Walker, following her "slyly subversive" (EW) cult-hit Dietland--a feminist gothic about the lone survivor of a cursed family of sisters, whose time may finally be up... -
![The Madness of a Seduced Woman by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer]()
The Madness of a Seduced Woman by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAgnes is on her way to Montpelier, when she sees a young man rescue a girl from a burning building. Agnes falls in love with this man, a local stonecutter, but the hero is also a betrayer, the apex of a triangle that eventually leads Agnes to commit murder... -
![A Season in Purgatory by Dominick Dunne]()
A Season in Purgatory by Dominick Dunne
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThey were the family with everything. Money. Influence. Glamour. Power. The power to halt a police investigation in its tracks. The power to spin a story, concoct a lie, and believe it was the truth. The power to murder without guilt, without shame, and without ever paying the price. America's royalty, they called the Bradleys. But an outsider refuses to play his part... -
![Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose]()
Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA landmark American drama that inspired a classic film and a Broadway revival—featuring an introduction by David MametA blistering character study and an examination of the American melting pot and the judicial system that keeps it in check, Twelve Angry Men holds at its core a deeply patriotic faith in the U.S. legal system...Categorized as:
classics crime historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic suspense 20th-century audiobook -
![Veil of Doubt by Sharon Virts]()
Veil of Doubt by Sharon Virts
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhen a mother is charged with murder in a town already convinced of her guilt, can defense attorney Powell Harrison find truth and justice in a legal system where innocence is not presumed? Emily Lloyd, a young widow in Reconstruction-era Virginia, is accused of poisoning her three-year-old daughter, Maud... -
![Destroyed & Restored: The Baron's Courageous Wife by Bree Wolf]()
Destroyed & Restored: The Baron's Courageous Wife by Bree Wolf
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA fearful lady. A shamed lord. And a hand at cards that will change both their lives. Terrified of her father’s temper, LADY ADELAIDE has lived a life of complete obedience. However, now, when her father threatens to gamble away her hand in marriage in the next card game, she turns to a trusted friend for help... -
![The Mansion by William Faulkner]()
The Mansion by William Faulkner
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe Mansion completes Faulkner’s great trilogy of the Snopes family in the mythical county of Yoknapatawpha, Mississippi, which also includes The Hamlet and The Town. Beginning with the murder of Jack Houston, and ending with the murder of Flem Snopes, it traces the downfall of this indomitable post-bellum family, who managed to seize control of the town of Jefferson within a generation...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense 20th-century adult book fiction -
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![The Hound of the Baskervilles, with "the Adventure of the Speckled Band" by Arthur Conan Doyle]()
The Hound of the Baskervilles, with "the Adventure of the Speckled Band" by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe Hound of the Baskervilles (1901–02) is Arthur Conan Doyle’s most celebrated Sherlock Holmes adventure. At the end of the yew tree path of his ancestral home, Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead. Close by are the footprints of a gigantic hound. Called to investigate, Holmes seems to face a supernatural foe...Categorized as:
classics crime historical-fiction literary-fiction mystery fiction industrial-era victorian -
![The Emerald Comb by Kathleen McGurl]()
The Emerald Comb by Kathleen McGurl
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratings'If you want a book that is exciting, fast-paced and impossible to put down, with plenty of twists and turns, then you need to buy this book! I can't wait to read more of Kathleen's novels.' – Emma's Book ReviewsSome secrets are best left buried… Researching her family tree had been little more than a hobby – until Katie stepped onto Kingsley House’s sprawling, ivy-strewn drive... -
![Keeping Watch by Laurie R. King]()
Keeping Watch by Laurie R. King
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAcclaimed as one of the most original talents to emerge in the last decade, award-winning author Laurie R. King returns to Folly Island to deliver her most stunning achievement yet--a breathtaking novel of suspense that explores the very essence of good and evil.Allen Carmichael came back from Vietnam a lifetime ago--but only now was he ready to return home... -
![Mysteries by Knut Hamsun]()
Mysteries by Knut Hamsun
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsMysteries (1892) is the story of Johan Nilsen Nagel, a mysterious stranger who suddenly turns up in a small Norwegian town one summer-and just as suddenly disappears. Nagel is a complete outsider, a sort of modern Christ treated in a spirit of near parody... -
![The Beast Within by Émile Zola]()
The Beast Within by Émile Zola
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsHis haunting, impressionistic study of a man's slow corruption by jealousy, Emile Zola's The Beast Within (La Bete Humaine) is translated from the French with an introduction and notes by Roger Whitehouse in Penguin Classics.Roubaud is consumed by a jealous rage when he discovers a sordid secret about his young wife's past... -
![Cape Fear by John D. MacDonald]()
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...Categorized as:
classics crime family literary-fiction realistic suspense 20th-century action-adventure -
![Truths I Never Told You by Kelly Rimmer]()
Truths I Never Told You by Kelly Rimmer
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom the bestselling author of The Things We Cannot Say comes a poignant novel about the fault in memories and the lies that can bond a family together—or tear it apart.With her father recently moved to a care facility for his worsening dementia, Beth Walsh volunteers to clear out the family home and is surprised to discover the door to her childhood playroom padlocked... -
![The Edge of Lost by Kristina McMorris]()
The Edge of Lost by Kristina McMorris
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsNEW YORK TIMES & USA TODAY BESTSELLEROn a cold night in October 1937, searchlights cut through the darkness around Alcatraz. A prison guard’s only daughter—one of the youngest civilians who lives on the island—has gone missing. Tending the warden’s greenhouse, convicted bank robber Tommy Capello waits anxiously...Categorized as:
crime family historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense 20th-century adult audiobook -
![The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin]()
The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsIn these four stories, Kate Chopin subtly captures the intricate interior lives of a generation of women. From the famous proto-feminist tale "The Story of an Hour" to the subtly sexy "A Respectable Woman," Chopin sheds light on the frustrations, desires, and dreams of her own era and their reverberations today...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic anthologies audiobook death -
![What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown]()
What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA teenage girl breaks free from her father's world of isolation in this exhilarating novel of family, identity, and the power we have to shape our own destinies—from the New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Things and Watch Me DisappearThe first thing you have to understand is that my father was my entire world...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense crime family north-america usa california -
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![Dreams of Falling by Karen White]()
Dreams of Falling by Karen White
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom the New York Times bestselling author of The Night the Lights Went Out comes an exquisite new novel about best friends, family ties and the love that can both strengthen and break those bonds.It's been nine years since Larkin fled Georgetown, South Carolina, vowing never to go back... -
![The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier]()
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:
classics crime family historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense 20th-century action-adventure -
![Folly by Laurie R. King]()
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 -
![In Pale Battalions by Robert Goddard]()
In Pale Battalions by Robert Goddard
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSix months after her husband's sudden death, Leonora Galloway sets off for a holiday in Paris with her daughter Penelope. At last the time has come when secrets can be shared and explanations begin... Their journey starts with an unscheduled stop at the imposing Thiepval Memorial to the dead of the Battle of the Somme near Amiens. Amongst those commemorated is Leonora's father...Categorized as:
crime family historical-fiction realistic suspense 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver]()
Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThis novel is a meticulously detailed account of a celebrated murder trial. It concentrates on defense attorney Paul Biegler from the moment he accepts the case until the verdict is brought in. Biegler's client is accused of murdering a man who his wife claims assaulted her... -
![A Million Drops by Víctor del Árbol]()
A Million Drops by Víctor del Árbol
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAn intense literary thriller that tears through the interlocked histories of fascism and communism in Europe without pausing for breath. Gonzalo Gil is a disaffected lawyer stuck in a failed career and a strained marriage, dodging the never-ending manipulation of his powerful father-in-law... -
![Famous Last Words by Timothy Findley]()
Famous Last Words by Timothy Findley
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn the final days of the Second World War, Hugh Selwyn Mauberley scrawls his desperate account on the walls and ceilings of his ice-cold prison high in the Austrian Alps. Officers of the liberating army discover his frozen, disfigured corpse and his astonishing testament - the sordid truth that he alone possessed...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense 20th-century adult alternate-history book -
![The Pearl Locket by Kathleen McGurl]()
The Pearl Locket by Kathleen McGurl
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWe’ll Meet Again… When Ali inherits her great-aunt’s house she immediately moves her whole family in, despite the warnings that there is something strange about the place. Unfazed Ali begins redecorating, going through the rooms, making each one her own with the help of her daughter, Kelly... -
![The Forgotten Gift by Kathleen McGurl]()
The Forgotten Gift by Kathleen McGurl
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWhat would you do to protect the ones you love?1861. George’s life changes forever the day he meets Lucy. She’s beautiful and charming, and he sees a future with her that his position as the second son in a wealthy family has never offered him. But when Lucy dies in a suspected poisoning days after rejecting George, he finds himself swept up into a murder investigation...Categorized as:
crime family historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense action-adventure adult audiobook -
![An Unthinkable Thing by Nicole Lundrigan]()
An Unthinkable Thing by Nicole Lundrigan
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA tragedy brings a young boy into the home of a "perfect" family--one whose dark secrets begin closing in, until a horrifying moment changes everything.Tommie Ware’s life is turned upside down the summer of 1958, just after his eleventh birthday... -
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![In My Father's House by Ernest J. Gaines]()
In My Father's House by Ernest J. Gaines
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA compelling novel of a man brought to reckon with his buried past...In St. Adrienne, a small black community in Louisiana, Reverend Phillip Martin—a respected minister and civil rights leader—comes face to face with the sins of his youth in the person of Robert X, a young, unkempt stranger who arrives in town for a mysterious "meeting" with the Reverend...Categorized as:
classics crime family historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense 20th-century adult -
![Leave Her to Heaven by Ben Ames Williams]()
Leave Her to Heaven by Ben Ames Williams
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThis classic bestselling novel about a man who encounters a woman whose power to destroy is as strong as her power to love evokes Hemingway in its naturalistic portrayal of elemental forces in both nature and humanity. Ellen’s beauty was radiant, and Harland had been so struck with her personality and the strength of her character that he knew he could never leave her... -
![A Whispered Name by William Brodrick]()
A Whispered Name by William Brodrick
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA hugely moving and intelligent novel from the bestselling author of The Sixth Lamentation and The Gardens of the Dead, A Whispered Name reaches into the mysteries of one man's past and casts light on the long shadows war leaves... -
![Last Seen Alive by Carlene Thompson]()
Last Seen Alive by Carlene Thompson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsChyna Greer was sixteen when her best friend, Zoey, disappeared. Though very different in looks and temperament, the two girls shared a bond that was stronger than blood. But even Chyna's urgent warnings couldn't prevent a love-struck Zoey from sneaking out to the lake to meet her secret crush--and being swallowed up into the warm summer night forever…... -
![Before the Killing by Marjory Kaptanoglu]()
Before the Killing by Marjory Kaptanoglu
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA time-travel tale of love and murder…In the summer of 1973, 19-year-old Cassie returns to her home town on the Massachusetts coast after her first year away at college. The next day, her boyfriend, Julian, is implicated in a brutal killing.Seven years later, a freak occurrence gives Cassie the ability to travel through time without altering it... -
![Women Crime Writers: Four Suspense Novels of the 1940s: Laura / The Horizontal Man / In a Lonely Place / The Blank Wall by Vera Caspary, Helen Eustis]()
Women Crime Writers: Four Suspense Novels of the 1940s: Laura / The Horizontal Man / In a Lonely Place / The Blank Wall by Vera Caspary, Helen Eustis
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWomen writers have always had a central place in American crime writing, although one wouldn’t know it for all the attention focused on the men of the hardboiled school. This collection, the first of a two-volume omnibus, presents four classics of the 1940s overdue for fresh attention...
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