Here are 71 books that Subject to the Tide fans have personally recommended if you like Subject to the Tide. Book DNA is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of One Last Kill

Gary Corbin Author Of Lying in Vengeance

From my list on genre-busting indie mysteries.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a retired IT manager and tech writer, a guy who studied political science and economics and ended up writing computer programs for a living. I’ve never lived fully inside my own lane, so to speak, so genre-crossing stories appeal to the nonconformist in me. Along these lines, my book crosses genre boundaries, a legal thriller without lawyers or judges, told from the perspective of a guilty everyman instead of the innocent, wrongly-accused defendant. Having served on a few juries, I’m fascinated by the role of the common person in this pivotal process that underpins democracy.

Gary's book list on genre-busting indie mysteries

Gary Corbin Why Gary loves this book

This might be the closest to a traditional police procedural in this list, but his literary flourishes, romantic elements, and thoughtful character arcs expand the Tracy Crosswhite series onto the radar of fans of any genre.

Crosswhite’s glass-ceiling-busting endeavors as a Seattle-area detective who forges her own path while tending to her family’s needs make her an endearing hero. And she’s a tough little lady, too.

By Robert Dugoni ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked One Last Kill as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling series.

Detective Tracy Crosswhite draws a long-dormant serial killer out of hiding in a nerve-shattering novel by New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni.

Tracy Crosswhite is reopening the investigation into Seattle's Route 99 serial killer. After thirteen victims, he stopped hunting and the trail went cold, stirring public outrage. Now, nearly three decades after his first kill, Tracy is expected to finally bring closure to the victims' families and redeem the Seattle PD's reputation. Even if it means working with her nemesis, Captain Johnny Nolasco.

Lead detective of the original task…


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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 Forgotten Shadows

Gary Corbin Author Of Lying in Vengeance

From my list on genre-busting indie mysteries.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a retired IT manager and tech writer, a guy who studied political science and economics and ended up writing computer programs for a living. I’ve never lived fully inside my own lane, so to speak, so genre-crossing stories appeal to the nonconformist in me. Along these lines, my book crosses genre boundaries, a legal thriller without lawyers or judges, told from the perspective of a guilty everyman instead of the innocent, wrongly-accused defendant. Having served on a few juries, I’m fascinated by the role of the common person in this pivotal process that underpins democracy.

Gary's book list on genre-busting indie mysteries

Gary Corbin Why Gary loves this book

Another mystery with heavy overlays of the paranormal, Mertz’s spare, tight prose and down-to-earth characters are evocative of Cormac McCarthy. It’s also a bit of a period piece, set in eastern Oregon in the 1980s.

His selective employment of technology and cultural markers gives the period elements life as characters in the story.

By Erick Mertz ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Sometimes a simple walk down memory lane can be terrifying.In Whistler's Grove, where things are never what they seem, a look behind the veil can be deceiving. Newly elected sheriff August Melville is about to get an unwanted look into his past. Returning to the halls of his childhood elementary school after many long years was supposed to be easy. But as Melville soon discovers, upholding the law in Canyon County, Oregon, means confronting an array of strange and frightening secrets.Aware of the old story that a woman named Roberta Hancock had been murdered, a bizarre meeting with her daughter…


Book cover of Refuge Bay

Gary Corbin Author Of Lying in Vengeance

From my list on genre-busting indie mysteries.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a retired IT manager and tech writer, a guy who studied political science and economics and ended up writing computer programs for a living. I’ve never lived fully inside my own lane, so to speak, so genre-crossing stories appeal to the nonconformist in me. Along these lines, my book crosses genre boundaries, a legal thriller without lawyers or judges, told from the perspective of a guilty everyman instead of the innocent, wrongly-accused defendant. Having served on a few juries, I’m fascinated by the role of the common person in this pivotal process that underpins democracy.

Gary's book list on genre-busting indie mysteries

Gary Corbin Why Gary loves this book

Rural, eastern Canada yields a literary mystery with rough, gritty characters, both men and women, with a clash of Anglo and Francophone cultures in a struggle for coexistence.

Tensions resurface over a decades-old murder, forcing unlikely alliances and character-driven plot twists, all floating in a sea of rich, beautiful, descriptive prose.

By Carol Burrows ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Homeless after a boating accident in which her husband and two sons are killed, fifty-year-old sailor and travel writer Tristen Morgan leaves the rehab center where she has fought her way back to sobriety, for the shores of a pristine wilderness named Marrow Griff along the north shore of Georgian Bay.Confronted by the austere beauty of the land, she is soon joined by an unlikely cast of allies. The first is Patrick, a young dreamer with a drinking problem who is trying to fix up an old sailboat. Then there are Maddie and Remi, a sister and brother team at…


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Book cover of The Year Mrs. Cooper Got Out More: A Great Wharf Novel

The Year Mrs. Cooper Got Out More by Meredith Marple,

The coastal tourist town of Great Wharf, Maine, boasts a crime rate so low you might suspect someone’s lying.

Nevertheless, jobless empty nester Mallory Cooper has become increasingly reclusive and fearful. Careful to keep the red wine handy and loath to leave the house, Mallory misses her happier self—and so…

Book cover of Tempered

Gary Corbin Author Of Lying in Vengeance

From my list on genre-busting indie mysteries.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a retired IT manager and tech writer, a guy who studied political science and economics and ended up writing computer programs for a living. I’ve never lived fully inside my own lane, so to speak, so genre-crossing stories appeal to the nonconformist in me. Along these lines, my book crosses genre boundaries, a legal thriller without lawyers or judges, told from the perspective of a guilty everyman instead of the innocent, wrongly-accused defendant. Having served on a few juries, I’m fascinated by the role of the common person in this pivotal process that underpins democracy.

Gary's book list on genre-busting indie mysteries

Gary Corbin Why Gary loves this book

Some might object to my including this one on this list, and to be fair, it isn’t so much a whodunnit as a “What the heck DID actually happen?” sort of tale.

A beautiful rendering of the psychological horror endured by a man tormented by blocked memories, his attempts to unlock his past may indict his own conscience–and put his entire future at risk. Riveting.

By Kate Kort ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Once Murray understands he can control his violent impulses, he's left with a far more unsettling question: does he even want to?

Ten years after losing both his beloved mentor and his abusive father, Murray Henderson is still yearning for direction. He's treading water in Cleveland, failing in his career and relationships. Anger, guilt, and distrust continually derail his chances at happiness. When an opportunity calls him to New York City, Murray finally sees a path out of his relentless grief.

But as he navigates a hopeful new life, he soon falls back into old patterns of self-loathing and violence.…


Book cover of What A Mother's Love Don't Teach You

Curdella Forbes Author Of A Tall History of Sugar

From my list on genre-busting love and other improbable things.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was born in a Jamaican far-district just before independence. That historical fact is only one aspect of my in-between childhood. My daily imaginative fare was European fairy tales; my mother’s stories of growing up; and folktales, rife with plantation monsters, that my grand-uncle told. There was no distance between life and those tales: our life was mythic. The district people were poor. So they understood inexactitudes profoundly enough to put two and two together and make five. They worshipped integrity, and church was central. Inevitably, genre-crossing, “impossible” realities, and the many ways love interrupts history, were set in my imagination by the time I was seven and knew I would write.

Curdella's book list on genre-busting love and other improbable things

Curdella Forbes Why Curdella loves this book

The love triangle in this debut novel is unusual but wholly believable, when you consider the history between its two settings: Jamaica and the USA. A frightened 18-year-old from Kingston’s inner city gives up her baby to the wealthy American couple for whom she works as a maid. Years later when a young American man and his parents come to the island, Dinah is convinced that he is her long-lost son, and she cannot be unconvinced. At the end, we think about the astonishing ways love crosses but never dissolves barriers of race, class, national origin, and above all, family. Sharma Taylor’s purposive genre-bending (love story, crime story, yard fiction), is part of the book’s riches, as is the tenderness of her empathic insight.

By Sharma Taylor ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked What A Mother's Love Don't Teach You as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'An outstanding debut' CHERIE JONES, author of How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps her House

'Vivid and authentic' LEONE ROSS, author of This One Sky Day

'Cacophonic, alive and heartbreaking' KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE, author of The Mercies

As featured on BBC's Cultural Frontline podcast

At eighteen years old, Dinah gave away her baby son to the rich couple she worked for before they left Jamaica. They never returned. She never forgot him.

Eighteen years later, a young man comes from the US to Kingston. From the moment she sees him, Dinah never doubts - this is her son.

What happens next…


Book cover of The Institute

Clayton Graham Author Of Milijun

From my list on otherworldly encounters with alien characters.

Why am I passionate about this?

Growing up I read a lot of science fiction: HG Wells, Isaac Asimov, John Wyndham; those kind of authors and their inspiring tales. In my early twenties, I penned a few short stories as I worked as an aeronautical engineer. Always being at the leading edge of technology certainly helped shape my dreams of the future. I have an interest in writing novels that place humankind within a universe [or multiverse] we are only just starting to understand. To date, I have written six novels, two of them extensive short story collections. They are light years from each other, but share the future adventures of mankind in an expansive universe as a common theme.

Clayton's book list on otherworldly encounters with alien characters

Clayton Graham Why Clayton loves this book

It’s not often that I rave about a Stephen King novel, but I really loved this one.

It's long, but it does keep you interested. And you almost believe it could happen. The fact that it is about missing and mentally mistreated children lends a contemporary and a futuristic feel to the tale. 

Fans will love it, and it will bring a few more to the fold. Recommended.

By Stephen King ,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Institute as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'It does everything you'd expect of a masterpiece - and it is one' Sunday Express

'Hums and crackles with delicious unease' Independent

'Captivating' The Sunday Times

'An absorbing thriller' Mail on Sunday

NO ONE HAS EVER ESCAPED FROM THE INSTITUTE.

Luke Ellis, a super-smart twelve-year-old with an exceptional gift, is the latest in a long line of kids abducted and taken to a secret government facility, hidden deep in the forest in Maine.

Here, kids with special talents - telekinesis and telepathy - like Luke's new friends Kalisha, Nick and Iris, are subjected to a series of experiments.

There seems…


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Book cover of That First Heady Burn

That First Heady Burn by George Bixley,

Don’t mess with the hothead—or he might just mess with you. Slater Ibáñez is only interested in two kinds of guys: the ones he wants to punch, and the ones he sleeps with. Things get interesting when they start to overlap. A freelance investigator, Slater trolls the dark side of…

Book cover of Carolina Moon

Kelly Moran Author Of Ghost of A Promise

From my list on paranormal romances with a ghostly twist.

Why am I passionate about this?

I adore all things ghostly, from TV shows to books to movies. I immerse myself. For me, I think it began as a young girl with poems from my grandmother’s favorite book and films or programs we’d watch together. The what-if factor and the vast unknown is addicting. It chronically makes us think or sit at the edge of our seats. I’ve even visited haunted locations before and had a couple of experiences. Romance ties into that for me. We all strive for it and hope to find it. It can be as elusive as fog. By combining the two genres, readers like me get the best of all worlds. 

Kelly's book list on paranormal romances with a ghostly twist

Kelly Moran Why Kelly loves this book

Though a romantic suspense, this book’s setting in my home state of South Carolina is hauntingly chilling and pays homage to the sins of our past. There’s just something innately real about a small-town story that could be right next door. The heroine has visions, adding the psychic factor, plus the bump-in-the-night brushes bring an almost gothic ghostly quality. Nora has been a dominating force in the romance world for decades, and with good reason. Whether suspense, paranormal, or contemporary, no one writes a story like she can.

By Nora Roberts ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

#1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts presents a novel of redemption and suspense, as a woman haunted by the unsolved murder of her childhood friend returns to her small South Carolina hometown...

Tory Bodeen grew up in a run-down house where her father ruled with an iron fist and a leather belt-and where her dreams and talents had no room to flourish. Her one escape was her neighbor Hope, whose friendship allowed Tory to be the child she wasn't allowed to be at home. Then Hope was brutally murdered, and everything fell apart.

Now, as she returns to…


Book cover of Before Autumn Fades

Tricia Copeland Author Of To be a Fae Queen

From my list on Indie Fantasy books with creative spins.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been obsessed with fantasy since my grandmother bought me the entire Dorothy and the Land of Oz series as a kid. I love discovering new types of fantasy characters, spins on characters, new lore in genres, and mythology woven in creative ways. For my fantasy group, I’ve researched many interpretations of fae, witches, elves, vampires, and shapeshifters. I’m always looking to add to my list, and I love finding Indie authors new to their niche. I feel so privileged to interview many authors like these and Jennifer L. Armentrout (squeal) for my podcast, The Finding the Magic Book Podcast. I hope you love these books as much as I did.

Tricia's book list on Indie Fantasy books with creative spins

Tricia Copeland Why Tricia loves this book

This book is a solid paranormal YA read with lots of great twists and surprises. I liked that this book shared a new type of paranormal being, at least to me, and that the plot wasn't predictable.

Wren, a sasayakimasu who can see departed souls, is damaged, and that aspect of the book is hard to read. I liked that we got two sides of the story from Wren and Jordan, her ghost. I loved that it’s hard to tell who saves who in this one. 

By Christian Andreo ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Before Autumn Fades as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The residents of the old Victorian are killing themselves. Or are they?

The girl in the bathtub didn’t kill herself for no reason. The guy by the lake didn’t drown by accident. But Wren has bigger questions than why they’re dead. Like why she can see them… and shatter lightbulbs with a scream. As if she’s not self-destructive enough, now she has feelings for one of them?

Someone is pulling Wren’s strings. She needs to find out why and soon, or there may not be an after-life for anyone. Ever again.

Find out for yourself why readers rave!

★★★★★ 'A…


Book cover of Resurrection Road

Tyffany Hackett Author Of Daylight's Curse

From my list on indie works you might not have heard of.

Why am I passionate about this?

The theme of this list is so important to me as an independently published author. Ever since I was about 14 years old I knew I wanted to tell stories, and my way, so even then I was looking into indie publishing. The idea of offering my books up to the traditional publishing chopping block, to be edited and mulled into what’s most marketable, scared me so much! I didn’t want to tell my stories another person’s way. So here we are, and I’m giving you guys a list of indie recommendations whose authors feel very much the same way. We just want to tell our stories. And have control over how that’s done. ;)

Tyffany's book list on indie works you might not have heard of

Tyffany Hackett Why Tyffany loves this book

So this book. Post the ending of Supernatural, I was of course deep in my Supernatural feelings and this book absolutely filled that road trip, paranormal adventure vibe the SPN television series had given me for so many years. Naturally, it helps that two of the main characters are also fan casted after Reylo. ;) But this book is the perfect mesh of adventuring, paranormal creatures, and a delicious rivals-to-lovers slow-burn romance that even after the second book I can’t get enough of.

By Hannah Marae ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

For as long as she can remember, Eden has been on the run.
The open road is the only freedom she’s ever known, the only life she’s ever had. But when the road ends in a backwater town, a mysterious phone call sends her on a new journey.

Lazarus is no stranger to ghosts.
Shades and spirits are his constant companions, it’s the living that set him on edge. The decision to help a troubled mage will find him taking on more than he bargained for.

Becoming a hunter was never part of Zeke’s plan.
He finds himself stepping into…


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Book cover of My Book Boyfriend

My Book Boyfriend by Kathy Strobos,

Lily loves her community garden. Rupert wants to bulldoze it. When feelings grow, will they blossom or turn to rubble?

"It literally had everything! - Bookworm Characters - Humor - Banter - Swoon-worthy lines."  - Book Reviewer.

Book cover of Edisto

William Mark Habeeb Author Of Venice Beach

From my list on poignant coming-of-age about boys.

Why am I passionate about this?

My novel Venice Beach—like the five books I recommend here—has been classified as a “coming-of-age” novel, a classification that I have no quarrels with as long as it’s understood that coming-of-age is not regarded simply as a synonym for “adolescence” or “being a teenager.” The coming-of-age years—generally defined as between ages 12 and 18—are so much more than a period of life wedged between childhood and adulthood. Coming of age is a process, not a block of time; it is a hot emotional forge in which we experience so many “firsts” and are hammered, usually painfully, into the shapes that will last a lifetime. 

William's book list on poignant coming-of-age about boys

William Mark Habeeb Why William loves this book

Edisto was the first coming-of-age novel I fell in love with as an adult reader and the book that showed me the tremendous literary potential of the genre. Padgett Powell endows his protagonist, twelve-year-old Simons, with what comes across as precociousness, but in fact reflects the depth of thinking that many young tweens and teens have. Simons wrestles with his narcissistic parents’ competing visions of his future—although neither bothers to ask him what he wants—while hanging out on the sultry island of Edisto off the coast of South Carolina with an enigmatic older acquaintance, Taurus, who offers him tastes of adult life and the kind of attention his parents are incapable of providing. Powell’s deft prose and realistic dialogue make it all fully believable, and at times riotously funny. Edisto is nothing short of brilliant.

By Padgett Powell ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Finalist for the National Book Award: Through the eyes of a precocious twelve-year-old in a seaside South Carolina town, the world of love, sex, friendship, and betrayal blossoms
Simons Everson Manigault is not a typical twelve-year-old boy in tiny Edisto, South Carolina, in the late 1960s. At the insistence of his challenging mother (known to local blacks as “the Duchess”), who believes her son to possess a capacity for genius, Simons immerses himself in great literature and becomes as literate and literary as any English professor.
When Taurus, a soft-spoken African American stranger, moves into the cabin recently vacated by…


Book cover of One Last Kill
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Book cover of Refuge Bay

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Interested in South Carolina, the paranormal, and indie music?

South Carolina 54 books
The Paranormal 273 books
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