Books like The Devouring — picked by fans

This book’s saga swallowed me whole.

I loved being immersed in the Middle Ages with characters so emotionally real I didn’t want to leave them. I’m fascinated by the complexity of Gothic architecture and agonized along with the builders as they struggled to complete their masterpiece.

I also loved how the cathedral’s slow, steady construction provided a solid framework for decades of interwoven stories, like a tall, straight tree growing from tangled roots. The author’s passion for the timeless magnificence of Gothic architecture made me feel as if I were standing before it, spellbound and transported.

I love listening to Evanovich’s hilarious tales of Stephanie Plum’s misadventures as a wannabe bail/bondsman. These books are my wife’s and my favorite distraction on long road trips. While her mysteries may be thin, her characters are so real and her stories so crazy, I didn’t miss the whodunit. I included her in this August list because she captures the seedy side of Trenton, New Jersey, with amazing clarity, even while laughing at the place.

I picture myself riding in one of her cars—which she destroys regularly—along with her friend, the former ho, LuLu, hair flowing in the stinky wind blowing off deserted warehouses, sleezy girl joints and questionable car repair shops. This is the first in a series that is now at 31.

Another strong series is the Joe Pickett books by C.J. Box.

I think you can tell I like to read in series and by author. There are 26 books in this series! I hope to write as many… This is mystery and murder at times, and although not in, on, or around American Indian lands, these books have almost the same feel, starting with this one.

Rather than a cop, he’s a game warden. Almost the same thing, but dealing with laws around fish & game. Now, Joe has some issues that I liked. Not his emotional drama, but the showing of them. It made him more human. Who doesn’t have issues? I know I do. 

I’ve always been drawn to writers who capture such a vivid setting I can actually picture myself right in the pages of the book. I think Kent Kreuger does this better than any author, and readers can select any entry in his Cork O’Connor series and find themselves transported into a mesmerizing scene, but this 21st entry in the series really grabbed me. His word paintings of a field, a blueberry patch and the ancient Indian, Henry Miloux’s cabin is so real I could almost feel, see and smell the scene.

Kreuger has the rare skill to use such colorful and powerful language in his prose; some passages border on the poetic. Not to mention, the story about two missing girls—one white, one Native— is truly gripping, too. 

I love this book! A famous female pianist in Boston who kills bad people, and she has quirks. She also changes boy toys during the story; that whole dynamic is sexy and unusual. 

One of my new favorite books. I hate heavy procedural books, and this is not one. The FBI is involved, but not how you think. The railroad killer was also very creative. She does have the FBI chasing her and has friends in the FBI, which is unique, too. The beginning is good, with lots of action and intrigue, and the middle holds up with a bang for an ending.

There are a few surprises here and there, but it is just a solid story.

I laughed out loud at some of the lines in this book. If you’re looking for something to brighten up your day, then this is the book for you. It’s masterfully clever and intricately woven in a rich tapestry of humour and fun.

Think Murder On The Orient Express but set in Australia with a train whose passengers are all crime writers, including Ernest Cunningham, a “lowly debut author” with writer’s block, who Stevenson uses as the narrator. Ernest hilariously explains the rules of writing a murder mystery novel while at the same time guiding us through the plot, unravelling a complex set of clues that eventually lead to the unveiling of the killer.

I can’t even tell you how much I love Aunt Ginny in Libby Klein’s Poppy McAllister Mystery series! She is an absolute hoot. While I love the whole series, the first introduction to Aunt Ginny in this book remains my favorite. 

Poppy is newly widowed and a grief-stricken disaster when she receives an invitation to her high school reunion. She heads home to Cape May and her eccentric Great Aunt Ginny’s house. As they do in cozy mysteries, a murder happens, and Poppy and Aunt Ginny are on the case.

Poppy and her aunt’s relationship, paired with Aunt Ginny’s crazy antics, always leaves me wiping tears of mirth out of my eyes. Such a fun read!

As with William Kent Krueger, I love all of Sandford’s Prey novels (and there are a lot!). This is the first one I read, and I guess I got hooked because I want to be—if I’m honest—either one of the main characters that persist through his books, and that appear in this one. Virgil Flowers is a lithe, laid-back, really smart guy who has long hair and wears band T-shirts; absolutely not the sort of person you’d associate with the U.S. Marshals Service, yet there he is! (He also has his own series, good for us!). Lucas Davenport is his boss, and Lucas is big, ruthless, and very rich—and loves hunting bad guys. But what I think I’m drawn to most is that he says exactly what he thinks, gets the job done by any means possible, and does not brook fools. At all. And, as I said, I am… show more.

This book is a ‘birder murder’ mystery authored by Steve Burrows–an avid and well-traveled birdwatcher. 

I enjoyed this gripping mystery featuring interesting and complex characters and was fascinated by the exotic setting of Singapore. 

I was drawn into the two parallel, somewhat overlapping stories that form the plot and didn’t anticipate the outcomes of either. 

It was a satisfying read, and as a bonus, this novel includes intriguing facts about birds that are relevant to the story. 

Locke does the thing I’m always chasing. 

She makes the law itself the source of suspense. Her Texas Ranger, Darren Mathews, carries a badge that protects him and endangers him in the same gesture, and every door he opens with it might be the one that gets him killed. I love that she refuses easy heroes. Everyone in that little town off Highway 59 is wired into the same old order, and justice has to be smuggled out past it. 

She taught me a murder mystery can be a way of asking who the system was built to serve, and that the quietest scene is often the most dangerous one.