Here are 22 books that A Gentleman and a Thief fans have personally recommended if you like A Gentleman and a Thief. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Paper Moon

Robert Rioux Author Of Idol Pursuits: Complete Edition

From my list on novels that inspired cinema classics.

Why am I passionate about this?

Books and movies offer unique advantages and challenges when it comes to storytelling. They each appeal to different preferences and engage audiences in different ways. Novels, for instance, leave more room for imagination as readers visualize characters and scenes at their own pace and from their own perspectives. Movies, on the other hand, provide specific visual interpretations that unfold in real-time, producing emotional engagement that is often immediate and visceral. When novels are adapted into movies, significant changes inevitably occur, leading many to conclude that "the book was better." While this is often the case, there are many fine examples where the original source material inspired not only good movies but all-time classics. 

Robert's book list on novels that inspired cinema classics

Robert Rioux Why Robert loves this book

During the Great Depression, a charming con artist and his precocious young accomplice navigate the American Midwest, pulling off small-time scams while forging an unexpected bond. Their adventures blend humor and heartache in a vivid portrayal of survival and unlikely family ties.

Originally released as Addie Pray, the novel inspired the 1973 Peter Bogdanovich film, Paper Moon. Tatum O'Neal, who played Addie Loggins, won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at the age of 10, making her the youngest competitive Oscar winner in history.

The film is also known for its nostalgic depiction of Depression-era America and the vibrant chemistry between Tatum and her father, Ryan O'Neal. This movie was so successful that modern printings of Addie Pray use the better-known film title. 

By Joe David Brown ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Paper Moon as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The classic tale of a female Huck Finn, Peter Bogdanovich's film version of the book was nominated for four Academy Awards. Set in the darkest days of the Great Depression, this is the timeless story of an 11-year-old orphan's rollicking journey through the Deep South with a con man who just might be her father. Brimming with humour, pathos, and an irresistible narrative energy, this is American storytelling at its finest. Paper Moon is tough, vibrant, and ripe for rediscovery.


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Book cover of Aggressor

Aggressor by FX Holden,

It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.

The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…

Book cover of Jack Dawkins

Jaq D Hawkins Author Of Dance of the Goblins

From my list on non-fantasy books for fantasy readers.

Why am I passionate about this?

I've been an avid reader across many genres since I learned to read as a child and have wandered into all sorts of categories to find literature I love. Fantasy became my first love, but that didn't mean I had to abandon everything else. I like finding great books that don't make the big publisher lists with their generic output. Since the rise of indie publishing, I've developed a habit of sampling anything that sounds like it might be interesting and have found some amazing and very original stories!

Jaq's book list on non-fantasy books for fantasy readers

Jaq D Hawkins Why Jaq loves this book

Most Fantasy readers enjoy an occasional change and Historical Fiction is a popular companion genre, especially when it's set in England. Whether you love Classics or your experience of Dickens is limited to seeing the musical, Oliver!, the Artful Dodger is a fascinating character and this book follows him into adult life when he returns to Turn of the Century Victorian England. It's an easy read which is historically accurate but doesn't get bogged down in teaching history. A fast-moving adventure with humour and dastardly villains with a flavour that only this era can produce.

Overall it's a fun story with much of that 'different world' quality that Fantasy readers so love.

By Charlton Daines ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Jack Dawkins as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Artful Dodger returns with new adventures!

Jack Dawkins, once known as the Artful Dodger in the streets of London, was sent to Australia on a prison ship when he was little more than a boy. Now he has returned to find that London has changed while the boy has turned into a man.

With few prospects provided by his criminal past and having developed mannerisms that allow him to move amongst a higher strata of society, Jack turns his back on the streets that would have primed him as a successor to the murderer, Bill Sikes, and quickly remodels…


Book cover of False Starts

F. Scott Service Author Of The Book of Jack

From my list on exploring the essence of connection and the mystery of who a person is.

Why am I passionate about this?

Who can really claim that they know everything about the human heart, the mind, the soul? The infinite mysteries and complexities of what makes someone who we can call “human.” I'm betting no one. Certainly not me. But what's important is the passion to keep exploring, to keep digging through the mind in an effort to understand myself. That effort, along with what I discover, is one of the most tangible things that not only enriches my living life, but also gives me comfort facing the inevitable end. These books were passionate companions, inspiring me, for however long, to further my efforts in self-discovery.

F. Scott's book list on exploring the essence of connection and the mystery of who a person is

F. Scott Service Why F. Scott loves this book

I love this book because it resonates with my sense of self-discovery and how society often muddles it.

It took me a lifetime of questioning who I was to finally discover the motivations behind why I was behaving in certain ways, or why I was getting involved with certain people and certain activities.

While none of what I have done in life was illegal, the sense of identity confusion remains, and reading about Malcolm finding who he is was most gratifying and inspiring.

By Malcolm Braly ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked False Starts as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Malcolm Braly spent the better part of his life behind bars. Arrested for a botched teenage burglary, he made one mistake after another, always returning to the institution that turned a sensitive young man into a hardened con. This is his story, an indictment of both his own failings and those of a system that seeks to reform those weaknesses, but instead only reinforces them. From foster child to delinquent to armed robber to escaped convict, we follow Braly as he chases after his freedom—continually confronted by his own self-destructive actions—before turning to the outlet of writing that allowed him…


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Book cover of Trusting Her Duke

Trusting Her Duke by Arietta Richmond,

A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.

Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…

Book cover of A Burglar's Guide to the City

John D. Mayer Author Of Personal Intelligence

From my list on intriguing perspectives on who we are and how we live.

Why am I passionate about this?

In 1990, I introduced the idea of emotional intelligence with my colleague Peter Salovey. This was followed, in 2008, with the introduction of the theory of personal intelligence. Emotional, personal, and social intelligence form a group I labeled the “people-centered intelligences,” which are partly distinct from intelligences focused on things such as objects in space and mathematical symbols.

One quality the diverse books I recommend here share in common is that they help us reason about who we are—a key element of personal intelligence.

John's book list on intriguing perspectives on who we are and how we live

John D. Mayer Why John loves this book

This unusual book deserves to be included in some list or another; to that end, I have included it here.

It views cities, from their urban high rises to McDonald’s roadside eateries, from the standpoint of a burglar (with an architect’s eye), examining how to break in, steal, and make a clean getaway. Although I’ve never broken into a home (other than my own after locking myself out), I found the book eye-opening.

Don’t put it down until you get to the description of the movie Die Hard, which rethinks the skyscraper as one of the key characters of the movie. Okay, I admit it may not be central to who we are, but it is different!

By Geoff Manaugh ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Burglar's Guide to the City as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

At the heart of Geoff Manaugh's A Burglar's Guide to the City is an unexpected and thrilling insight: the city as seen through the eyes of robbers. From experts on both sides of the law, readers learn to understand the city as an arena of possible tunnels and picked locks and architecture itself as an obstacle to be outwitted and second-guessed. From how to pick locks (and the tools required) to how to case a bank on the edge of town, readers will learn to detect the vulnerabilities, blind spots, and unseen openings that surround us all the time. This…


Book cover of Puppet Boy

Kevin Klehr Author Of Winter Masquerade

From my list on gay themed not about romance.

Why am I passionate about this?

I usually write queer fiction with an urban fantasy or magic realism bent, although I’ve dabbled in dystopian novels and a couple of romance novellas. I have an interest in bringing to light modern queer works that aren’t rooted in erotica or romance because I know firsthand the misconceptions that are placed on writers of gay fiction. And too often I’ve had to find tactful ways to explain what I write when people assume I’m limited by genre.

Kevin's book list on gay themed not about romance

Kevin Klehr Why Kevin loves this book

This is deliciously dark. It’s a tale about Eric, a twisted teenager who has tied up a home invader and is keeping him downstairs while his mother has left him alone. She’s busy trying to seek fame overseas. Eric keeps his teachers and his classmates unsettled while paying his daily expenses by entertaining older clients in Sydney’s richer suburbs. There is nothing charming about this story, yet its cast of disturbing eccentric characters makes this a real page turner.

By Christian Baines ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Puppet Boy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A school in turmoil over its senior play, a sly career as a teenage gigolo, an unpredictable girlfriend with damage of her own, and a dangerous housebreaker tied up downstairs. Any of these would make a great plot for budding filmmaker Eric's first movie. Unfortunately, they're his real life. When Julien, a handsome wannabe actor, transfers to Eric's class, he's a distraction, a rival, and one complication too many. Yet Eric can't stop thinking about him. Helped by Eric's girlfriend, Mary, they embark on a project that dangerously crosses the line between filmmaking and reality. As the boys become close,…


Book cover of Burglar Bill

Tina Matthews Author Of Out of the Egg

From my list on stealing - when, why, and whether to do it.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve found kids to be interested in difficult topics - like stealing, racism, inequality, environmental catastrophe to name a few! But I don’t want to lecture or frighten them about their future. I believe picture books can tell a story about things going awry but coming right again through a good idea, or act of kindness or a magic wand or the intervention of fate. When the story unfolds in the comfort and security of a carer’s lap or a safe classroom and there are accompanying pictures of absorbing detail that communicate the artist’s emotion and humor I think you provide universal foundation blocks for a good life.

Tina's book list on stealing - when, why, and whether to do it

Tina Matthews Why Tina loves this book

This is another great story about stealing—and in this book it’s about what the burglar accidentally acquires. It’s very funny and unexpected when Bill the burglar picks up a baby without realizing and becomes preoccupied with its needs. Luckily another lovely burglar turns up and helps out. I’ve never read this book to kids as I found it after mine had grown up but we all enjoyed Ahlberg’s work for many years. I love the detail in the pictures, which show chaotic houses and unexpected items. There are lots of words too which is not so usual in picture books now, but I think kids really enjoy being lulled by a reading voice while they dream about the pictures.

By Janet Ahlberg , Allan Ahlberg ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Burglar Bill as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Burglar Bill is an entertaining picture book by the iconic British husband and wife picture book team Janet and Allan Ahlberg, creators of Peepo!

Who's that creeping down the street? Who's that climbing up the wall? Who's that coming through the window? Who's that? ... It's Burglar Bill.

Burglar Bill lives all by himself in a tall house full of stolen property. Every night (after eating his stolen fish and chips) he goes out to work... stealing things.

But one day, Burglar Bill steals something very unexpected indeed!

The Janet and Allan Ahlberg classic is the perfect bedtime story for…


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Book cover of The Duke's Christmas Redemption

The Duke's Christmas Redemption by Arietta Richmond,

A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.

Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man she…

Book cover of The Saltwater Murder

Tessa Floreano Author Of Slain Over Spumoni

From my list on Jazz Age mysteries by the sea.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am fascinated by all that was happening in the world before WWII. Amidst a silent, looming economic collapse, many social norms were turned on their head, women broke out of their molds, and art, literature, technology, and music all flourished. And a heady mix of cultures blended not altogether seamlessly to influence the Roaring Twenties like no other decade before it. The juxtaposition of this exciting yet challenging tumult lures me into reading books and writing immigrant-forward stories about this period—and as an author with deep roots in the boot—I particularly enjoy doing so through an Italian lens.

Tessa's book list on Jazz Age mysteries by the sea

Tessa Floreano Why Tessa loves this book

Even if there’s just a hint of something Italian in a story by the sea, I’m smiling. When you first meet Miss Posie Parker in this story, she’s wearing a scent reminiscent of Parma Violet, first distilled by the second wife of Napoleon I. For the next 300 pages, I couldn’t stop thinking about how wonderful Posie smells and how she must leave behind a whiff of her violet-scented perfume everywhere she goes a-sleuthing. Such a telling detail about a character and one that stayed with me as I tried in vain to solve the mystery.

By L.B. Hathaway ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Saltwater Murder as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

MURDERED WITH A BOX OF TEARS…

London, 1924

Posie Parker has been called to her most baffling case yet.

Amyas Lyle, London’s top young lawyer, has been found with his head in a box of poisoned saltwater.

It’s the perfect murder. But who hated him enough to do such a thing?

Following a trail of strange notes, all of which speak of the sea, and saltwater, Posie travels from London to the seaside resort of Whitley Bay, looking for answers. But nothing can prepare her for what she finds there.

Can Posie find Amyas Lyle’s cold-blooded killer before further deaths…


Book cover of Mystery by the Sea

Tessa Floreano Author Of Slain Over Spumoni

From my list on Jazz Age mysteries by the sea.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am fascinated by all that was happening in the world before WWII. Amidst a silent, looming economic collapse, many social norms were turned on their head, women broke out of their molds, and art, literature, technology, and music all flourished. And a heady mix of cultures blended not altogether seamlessly to influence the Roaring Twenties like no other decade before it. The juxtaposition of this exciting yet challenging tumult lures me into reading books and writing immigrant-forward stories about this period—and as an author with deep roots in the boot—I particularly enjoy doing so through an Italian lens.

Tessa's book list on Jazz Age mysteries by the sea

Tessa Floreano Why Tessa loves this book

When I really need to recharge, I go to the sea, which is why I instantly gravitated to this book. As a busy amateur detective, Lady Swift seeks some downtime, too, but it doesn’t last. Not only does a body turn up almost as soon as she lets out a big exhale at the resort where she’s staying, but her husband whom she thought was dead six years ago, is the victim. Of all the people that had to “die” while she was on vacation, it had to be him, and that’s just where this storyteller’s mastery begins. Add humor, Englishness, and the interwar years—things I often gravitate toward in my beach reads—and I had a great whodunnit on my hands.

By Verity Bright ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Mystery by the Sea as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

‘OMG! What an incredible read! Where to start?… I read this entire book in a few sittings… I was so enraptured that I couldn’t put it down!’ Celebrating Authors ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A magnificent seaside hotel, striped deckchairs, strawberry ice cream… and a rather familiar dead body? Lady Swift is on the case!

Spring, 1921. Lady Eleanor Swift, explorer extraordinaire and accidental sleuth, hasn’t had a vacation since she arrived in England a year ago. Being an amateur detective can be a rather tiring business and she is determined to escape any more murder and mysteries. So she books into the Grand…


Book cover of The Great Gatsby

Gary Van Haas Author Of E.B.E.: Extraterrestrial Biological Entity

From my list on that will take you into an extraordinary world.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have picked these books because I have a passion for good reading material. All the books I have chosen have become reading classics in their own way. They are well written and have plots that go well beyond normal literature in a sense that they unveil the 'human condition' into the realm of the protagonist being up against all odds, where in the end, truth reveals all!       

Gary's book list on that will take you into an extraordinary world

Gary Van Haas Why Gary loves this book

Everybody loves this book because it, of course, has become an international classic of literature and one of the best works F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, which takes the reader on a time-traveling secretive world of the upper-class set in New England life in the 1920s.

In F. Scott's work, we are casually and comfortably introduced to an America where new money met old money, and the tender tightrope one had to walk in order to vie for position, marriage, and peer acceptance in a world founded on wealth and prestige.    

By F. Scott Fitzgerald ,

Why should I read it?

34 authors picked The Great Gatsby as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

As the summer unfolds, Nick is drawn into Gatsby's world of luxury cars, speedboats and extravagant parties. But the more he hears about Gatsby - even from what Gatsby himself tells him - the less he seems to believe. Did he really go to Oxford University? Was Gatsby a hero in the war? Did he once kill a man? Nick recalls how he comes to know Gatsby and how he also enters the world of his cousin Daisy and her wealthy husband Tom. Does their money make them any happier? Do the stories all connect? Shall we come to know…


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Book cover of Old Man Country

Old Man Country by Thomas R. Cole,

This book follows the journey of a writer in search of wisdom as he narrates encounters with 12 distinguished American men over 80, including Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve, and Denton Cooley, the world’s most famous heart surgeon.

In these and other intimate conversations, the book…

Book cover of The Moonlit Murders

Tessa Floreano Author Of Slain Over Spumoni

From my list on Jazz Age mysteries by the sea.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am fascinated by all that was happening in the world before WWII. Amidst a silent, looming economic collapse, many social norms were turned on their head, women broke out of their molds, and art, literature, technology, and music all flourished. And a heady mix of cultures blended not altogether seamlessly to influence the Roaring Twenties like no other decade before it. The juxtaposition of this exciting yet challenging tumult lures me into reading books and writing immigrant-forward stories about this period—and as an author with deep roots in the boot—I particularly enjoy doing so through an Italian lens.

Tessa's book list on Jazz Age mysteries by the sea

Tessa Floreano Why Tessa loves this book

This book stands out from other historical mysteries near the sea because it is about a mystery on the high seas. On a steamship, to be exact, on its way to New York harbor. My mom was once a young Italian woman on a steamship sailing to Halifax, and while she was nothing like Fen Churche, the heroine in this story, I’ve always imagined my mom having lots of wild adventures on that Atlantic crossing. The way the author has woven this twisty, tricky tale, I could almost believe mom had an alter ego.

By Fliss Chester ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Moonlit Murders as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When a journey to New York is interrupted by missing diamonds and a body in the lifeboat, there is only one woman who can help: Fen Churche!

1945. Fen Churche follows her dreams and sails for New York. She books passage on a steam ship from France to America, excited to dance the night away in the glamorous ballroom and play games on deck. Nothing will stand in the way of her trip, not even when an eccentric heiress’s diamond tiara goes missing…

Looking forward to relaxing with her favourite crossword puzzles, Fen’s quiet passage is horribly disrupted by another…


Book cover of Paper Moon
Book cover of Jack Dawkins
Book cover of False Starts

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Interested in the Jazz Age, jazz, and London?

The Jazz Age 15 books
Jazz 144 books
London 901 books