Books like Sharks — picked by fans

When I emigrated from the UK to Western Australia as a child, one of my first big moments was learning about sharks and realising swimming in the ocean was not the same as in the sea. Ever since writing my thriller The Shark, I’ve been on the lookout for novels with sharks in the title or on the page. Real sharks, human sharks, property sharks, sharks of the mind and the heart, these are stories that have influenced me, entertained me, beguiled, terrified, and at times utterly blindsided me.

When I emigrated from the UK to Western Australia as a child, one of my first big moments was learning about sharks and realising swimming in the ocean was not the same as in the sea. Ever since writing my thriller The Shark, I’ve been on the lookout for novels with sharks in the title or on the page. Real sharks, human sharks, property sharks, sharks of the mind and the heart, these are stories that have influenced me, entertained me, beguiled, terrified, and at times utterly blindsided me.

When I emigrated from the UK to Western Australia as a child, one of my first big moments was learning about sharks and realising swimming in the ocean was not the same as in the sea. Ever since writing my thriller The Shark, I’ve been on the lookout for novels with sharks in the title or on the page. Real sharks, human sharks, property sharks, sharks of the mind and the heart, these are stories that have influenced me, entertained me, beguiled, terrified, and at times utterly blindsided me.

When I emigrated from the UK to Western Australia as a child, one of my first big moments was learning about sharks and realising swimming in the ocean was not the same as in the sea. Ever since writing my thriller The Shark, I’ve been on the lookout for novels with sharks in the title or on the page. Real sharks, human sharks, property sharks, sharks of the mind and the heart, these are stories that have influenced me, entertained me, beguiled, terrified, and at times utterly blindsided me.

I have always had an interest in military history.  I have read biographies of numerous senior officers from different countries from World War II, World War I, and the Korean War. I have read books covering the actions of different military groups during the same periods. I have watched many documentaries covering a wide variety of topics that arose from those periods of time, including the socioeconomic impact they all had. Whenever I see this theme rendered in a story, I feel compelled to view it through a more discerning lens, to ensure the author is presenting an environment that has a consistent internal logic. 

I have been fascinated by stories of aerial warfare for as long as I can remember. I can still recall picking up They Fought for the Sky in a bookshop while on a family holiday one year, and I devoured it. The tales of bravery and innovation were all new to me, but that book sparked an interest which has lasted a lifetime. I’ve read dozens of books on the topic and visited air museums to see the aircraft for myself. I’m still reading books on this topic today, and I still marvel at the new perspectives which can be put on this most wonderful and most dreadful period of history.

I grew up hearing the stories of my rugged, determined Mennonite ancestors, and my very first published story at the age of 12 was about my Russian Mennonite great-grandparents' escape to Canada. I now write Amish fiction, which is linked to my Anabaptist Mennonite roots, so I have come full circle. I love a really immersive story that pulls me into a completely different world, and these authors are top of their game. I hope you enjoy these books as much as I have!

I believe many writers suspect they are Strangers in a Strange Land. How ironic that I, a confirmed atheist, should use a biblical quote to describe the mindset of authors. Some discover where they belong through their writing. My book recommendations have a strong sense of place, whether it be the Old West, wartime Berlin, or modern-day Scotland. I was born into a 300-year-old N. Ireland Protestant Plantation family, yet many people saw us as interlopers: we weren’t quite Irish, and we weren’t quite British, yet we held dual passports. It was not until I left Ireland that I realized my Irish Heritage exerted a stronger pull than my British.

The list reflects my interest in history and my own recollections of the days before the current era of mass tourism and online globalisation. I confess to a feeling of painful nostalgia for a time when we all had a very different worldview, and these books are all of that period. They feature temporal grief for an age that has passed. They are all highly readable books by writers at the top of their game.

Humor is based on surprise and the ‘foreign’ is often surprising. As I traveled all over the world for work, I searched out local authors and found myself laughing. It started with At Swim Two Birds and has never stopped.