Here are 65 books that Wilderness fans have personally recommended if you like Wilderness. 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 Trust Your Eyes

John E. Stith Author Of Pushback

From my list on once-in-a-lifetime danger.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love books about everyman/everywoman characters facing danger, puzzles, and romance with a sense of humor. I love the suspense that builds throughout a whole book and the tension that can develop in just a paragraph. It’s easier for me to imagine I’m the protagonist and lose myself in the pages if I’m not reading about a superhero or a serial killer. With so many choices out there, it’s easier to find another person who’s seen the same TV show, for instance, but books are my true love because they are limitless and offer so many choices. It’s a privilege to be able to share some favorites.

John's book list on once-in-a-lifetime danger

John E. Stith Why John loves this book

I love surprises and characters who are not what they seem, and I enjoy a high-tech backdrop when it fits the story. When a character thinks he sees evidence of a crime in what’s basically Google Street View, he will not let go of it and drags our unwilling protagonist into danger.

I loved the emotional core of a man dealing with his brother’s mental health issues and the blossoming romance in his life.

By Linwood Barclay ,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Trust Your Eyes as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

What would you do if you witnessed a murder - but no one believed you . . .?

Another masterful suspense novel from the bestselling author of the Richard & Judy summer read winner, NO TIME FOR GOODBYE and FIND YOU FIRST

Map-obsessed Thomas spends his days and nights on a virtual tour of the world through his computer screen, believing he must store the details of every town and city in his head. Then one day, while surfing a street view program, he sees something that shouldn't be there: a woman being murdered behind a window on a New…


If you love Wilderness...

Book cover of The Realtor's Curse

The Realtor's Curse by John J. Jessop,

The Realtor's Curse: Award-winning comedy mystery. International Firebird Book Award, 1st place in both humor and mystery. 

This is one take-charge lady PI. Her husband has the knots on his head to prove it. 

The realtors are really angry in Florida. When this dysfunctional PI couple travel to the…

Book cover of Six Years

Jill Paterson Author Of The Celtic Dagger: A Fitzjohn Mystery

From my list on mystery that hold you in heart pounding suspense.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love to read. I always have. I also love to write mysteries that, hopefully, keep my reader guessing until the end of the book. I look for books that not only provide me with a mystery to solve but also inform me of situations and/or places I would otherwise never learn about. I have found all the books on my list to fill that need. They are just an example of the many I have found and read.

Jill's book list on mystery that hold you in heart pounding suspense

Jill Paterson Why Jill loves this book

If you like a good mystery full of suspense then this is a must-read. I love books that I can’t put down, and a definite page-turner to the end.

Harlan Coben did this to a T in this book. Turning his main character's reality on its head, to create a fantastic mystery.

By Harlan Coben ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The bestselling author and creator of the hit Netflix drama Fool Me Once explores the dangers of obsession in this #1 bestselling suspense thriller.

Six years have passed since Jake Fisher watched Natalie, the love of his life, marry another man. Six years of hiding a broken heart by throwing himself into his career as a college professor. Six years of keeping his promise to leave Natalie alone, and six years of tortured dreams of her life with her new husband, Todd.

But six years haven't come close to extinguishing his feelings, and when Jake comes across Todd's obituary, he…


Book cover of Down the Rabbit Hole

John E. Stith Author Of Pushback

From my list on once-in-a-lifetime danger.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love books about everyman/everywoman characters facing danger, puzzles, and romance with a sense of humor. I love the suspense that builds throughout a whole book and the tension that can develop in just a paragraph. It’s easier for me to imagine I’m the protagonist and lose myself in the pages if I’m not reading about a superhero or a serial killer. With so many choices out there, it’s easier to find another person who’s seen the same TV show, for instance, but books are my true love because they are limitless and offer so many choices. It’s a privilege to be able to share some favorites.

John's book list on once-in-a-lifetime danger

John E. Stith Why John loves this book

A precocious thirteen-year-old girl with a sense of humor gets into big trouble and has to deal with it without adult help. What’s not to love? Ingrid is a vivid character in a great small-town setting with believable characters and plenty of tension.

And I loved the fact that she has to deal with obstacles adults don’t generally face, like not being able to drive. First of an outstanding trilogy, for my taste.

By Peter Abrahams ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Down the Rabbit Hole as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 8, 9, 10, and 11.

What is this book about?

"My all-time favorite. Astonishing." (Stephen King)

Down the Rabbit Hole is the first book in the Echo Falls mystery series by bestselling crime novelist Peter Abrahams. Perfect for middle school readers looking for a good mystery.

Welcome to Echo Falls, home of a thousand secrets. In Down the Rabbit Hole, eighth grader Ingrid Levin-Hill is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or at least her shoes are. And getting them back will mean getting tangled up in a murder investigation as complicated as the mysteries solved by her idol, Sherlock Holmes.

With soccer practice, schoolwork, and the lead…


If you love Robert B. Parker...

Book cover of Cliff Diver

Cliff Diver by Carmen Amato,

The first female police detective in Acapulco, Emilia Cruz, dives into an ocean of secrets and lies when she is forced to lead the investigation into her own lieutenant's murder.

Caught between the powerful head of the police union and resentful colleagues, Emilia becomes a pawn in a game of…

Book cover of The Third Day

John E. Stith Author Of Pushback

From my list on once-in-a-lifetime danger.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love books about everyman/everywoman characters facing danger, puzzles, and romance with a sense of humor. I love the suspense that builds throughout a whole book and the tension that can develop in just a paragraph. It’s easier for me to imagine I’m the protagonist and lose myself in the pages if I’m not reading about a superhero or a serial killer. With so many choices out there, it’s easier to find another person who’s seen the same TV show, for instance, but books are my true love because they are limitless and offer so many choices. It’s a privilege to be able to share some favorites.

John's book list on once-in-a-lifetime danger

John E. Stith Why John loves this book

I’m always a sucker for a well-done amnesia mystery. A character discovering he might not have been the best person before whatever incident triggered the memory loss is particularly vulnerable. As he tries to start over with a wife who is nearly a stranger, someone is trying to kill him, making for a terrific recipe of empathy and tension.

When you add the possibility of salvaging his relationship with his son, the result for me was a series of sequences with great emotional payoffs and a very satisfying ending. I’m glad I found the book before the movie because I enjoyed the book a lot more.

By Joseph Hayes ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

From the jacket flap:

Here is a gripping story of a man in pursuit of himself--a man suffering a psychological blackout who decides, instead of running way, to face his forgotten life and the riddle of his own character.

Charles Bancroft--although at first he does not know his own name--is the man who, in New York, surfaces from the depths of blankness. He is well dressed, his clothes are disheveled and wet--and his face is startlingly the face of a stranger.

And in the agonizing search for his identity he comes to realize, with compassion and terror, his failures and…


Book cover of Prince of Thieves

William J. Warner Author Of Gold Line to Lenox: An Odyssey of Crime, Love & Betrayal

From my list on cops in pursuit of the bad guys.

Why am I passionate about this?

My passion is writing crime fiction and more. William J. Warner is my name. I am a retired FBI Agent who worked violent crime cases. I developed a wealth of experience interviewing seedy people around the globe. As such, I love writing their dialogue and incorporating it with those of good intentions. I’ve written seven books. My degrees are in business, forensic psychology, and law. My novels include Holdup Number Six, Appalachian Impasse, Gold Line to Lenox, Going Knee to Knee with FBI Polygraph, Ohio Boys, Hoosier Fields, and Jewels In The Sand where I digressed into a love & war saga with a tear-jerking finish.

William's book list on cops in pursuit of the bad guys

William J. Warner Why William loves this book

Having worked bank robberies as a former FBI Special Agent, I have a keen sense as to what makes these people tick. Most are quite ignorant, however, occasionally clever planning takes place by those as brazen as Hogan has portrayed here. A true masterpiece, Chuck Hogan does a splendid job bringing his characters to life in all the real-life depictions you will enjoy. This is a gut-wrenching roller coaster mixing crime with romantic infatuation to the point you can’t stop reading. I’ll admit, once the movie came out, I had to get the book and now it’s one of my all-time favorite crime thrillers.

By Chuck Hogan ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

From the author of The Strain comes a tense, psychologically gripping, Hammet award-winning thriller.

Four masked men—thieves, rivals, and friends from the tough streets of Charlestown—take on a Boston bank at gunpoint. Holding bank manager Claire Keesey hostage and cleaning out the vault were simple. But career criminal Doug MacRay didn't plan on one thing: falling hard for Claire. When he tracks her down without his mask and gun, their mutual attraction is undeniable. With a tenacious FBI agent following his every move, he imagines a life away from his gritty, dangerous work—a life centered around Claire. But before that…


Book cover of One Man's Meat

William Klingaman Author Of The Darkest Year: The American Home Front 1941-1942

From my list on life on the American homefront during WW2.

Why am I passionate about this?

William Klingaman is the author of ten books, most recently The Darkest Year: The American Home Front, 1941-1942, and The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History. He holds a Ph.D. In American History from the University of Virginia, and has taught at the University of Virginia and the University of Maryland.

William's book list on life on the American homefront during WW2

William Klingaman Why William loves this book

No one wrote better than E. B. White, and no one captured the essence of daily life on the home front better than White in this collection of essays. “This is my country and my night,” he wrote from his farm in Maine, “this is the blacked-out ending to the day, the way they end a skit in a revue.” Yet White acknowledged that it was nearly impossible for him or anyone else to truly convey all the ways that the war was changing ordinary Americans. “You write something that sounds informative, throwing the words around in the usual manner, then the thing explodes in your hands, and you look down at your hands,” he explained. “As though you had crushed a light bulb and were bleeding slightly.”

By E.B. White ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked One Man's Meat as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Too personal for an almanac, too sophisticated for a domestic history, and too funny and self-doubting for a literary journal, One Man's Meat can best be described as a primer of a countryman's lessons a timeless recounting of experience that will never go out of style.


If you love Wilderness...

Book cover of Second Story Man

Second Story Man by Charles Salzberg,

Nominated for the Shamus Award for Best Original Paperback, and winner of the Beverly Hills Book Award.

Francis Hoyt, arrogant, athletic, brilliant, manipulative and ruthless is a master burglar who specializes in stealing high-end silver and jewelry. He's never been caught in the act. Recently retired Connecticut state investigator Charlie…

Book cover of Heroes Are My Weakness

Joy Jarrett Author Of Curse of the Orkney Sea

From my list on islands as a setting.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a child, I received an electronic typewriter as a gift and immediately got to work on a story about a family living on an island. Even at ten, I recognized the power of islands, with their built-in problems of isolation and rich possibilities for metaphors. So it only made sense I’d one day publish a book set on one. If you’re like me and can’t resist books with island settings, you’ll love these book recommendations. Each island in this collection has its own personality that becomes a character of its own, and none of these books could exist in the same way without their unique settings. 

Joy's book list on islands as a setting

Joy Jarrett Why Joy loves this book

This was my first delightful introduction to Susan Elizabeth Phillips's romantic comedies. I adore genre-benders, and this romance also has suspense and mystery.

I was curious by the unconventional set-up: a female ventriloquist who talks to her puppets has to live on a remote island off the coast of Maine in winter. There, she encounters an unlikable boy from her childhood—now a man who’s become a huge horror author and may or may not be a killer. The rugged island setting and its quirky cast of characters let Phillips have some fun with gothic tropes, a favorite of mine. 

By Susan Elizabeth Phillips ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Heroes Are My Weakness as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

New York Times Bestselling Author Susan Elizabeth Phillips is back with a delightful novel filled with her sassy wit, dazzling charm, and a threat of danger-a modern Jane Eyre It's going to be a long, hot winter. He is a reclusive writer whose imagination creates chilling horror novels. She is a down-on-her-luck actress who's given up far too much. He knows a dozen ways to kill his characters with his bare hands. She knows a dozen ways to kill an audience with laughs. But she's not laughing now. Annie Hewitt has been forced to return to an isolated island off…


Book cover of Almost Midnight

J L Wilson Author Of Heir

From my list on mystery with first person narration.

Why am I passionate about this?

I've read mystery books since I was a kid in a small Iowa town and my mother was on the library board and in charge of reviewing books for purchase. She would bring home mysteries and I grew up reading about James Bond, The Saint, Miss Marple, and many, many other 'classic' detectives. I wrote my first mystery 'novel' when I was ten and it took me forty more years to finally decide to get serious about it. I found I wanted to write about an older demographic—my heroes and heroines are usually in their 40s or 50s. I try to make my characters believable and down-to-earth—except they get involved in the occasional murder!

J's book list on mystery with first person narration

J L Wilson Why J loves this book

When I first started writing mysteries, I realized that a different approach had to be used when I wrote in a first-person point of view. Only those clues that are seen by the main character can be shown to the reader. So that might limit what I, the author, can use as clues.

In Doiron's book, the main character is in law enforcement, and he has access to methods and information that a non-LEO person can access. But despite that Mike Bowditch, the main character, often doesn't realize that he's found a clue or a key to a mystery until it almost slips out of his hands. That makes him a person I can relate to.

And I also like that he explains a lot about policies and procedures just as he decides he's not going to follow said procedures.

By Paul Doiron ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

While on vacation, Warden Investigator Mike Bowditch receives a strange summons from Billy Cronk, one of his oldest friends and a man he had to reluctantly put behind bars for murder. Billy wants him to investigate a new female prison guard with a mysterious past, and Mike feels honor-bound to help his friend. But when the guard becomes the victim in a brutal attack at the prison, he realises there may be a darker cover-up at play - and that Billy and his family might be at risk.

Then Mike receives a second call for help, this time from a…


Book cover of Olive Kitteridge

Jeannie Zusy Author Of The Frederick Sisters Are Living the Dream

From my list on middle-aged women taking on mid-life things.

Why am I passionate about this?

Mid-life for women is many things, including greatly underrepresented in the stories around us. I am forever in awe of the women around me as they continue to rise to each crazy occasion that life presents, managing and coping with wisdom, humor, and strength. This is why I am recommending these books about kickass middle-aged women. I wrote a novel inspired by some of my own challenges in mid-life. It was published by Atria Books, Simon & Schuster. I hope you love the recommendations as much as I do and that you’ll be inspired to check out my book as well. 

Jeannie's book list on middle-aged women taking on mid-life things

Jeannie Zusy Why Jeannie loves this book

I love this book because it is not afraid to look at deep sadness and disappointment in an honest and complex way. This novel is a collection of short stories that all take place in a coastal Main town and are connected by the large presence of Olive.

Olive is intelligent, acerbic, and abrasive. She is anything but easy. I appreciate the compassion Strout gives her imperfect characters as they struggle with their messy lives. I grew to care more for Olive as I traveled her rocky path with her, even as she was often the one to throw down the rocks before her.

This is a quiet book, which I read in a quiet way. It brought me comfort in its illumination of uncomfortable things. 

By Elizabeth Strout ,

Why should I read it?

15 authors picked Olive Kitteridge as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • The beloved first novel featuring Olive Kitteridge, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Oprah’s Book Club pick Olive, Again
 
“Fiction lovers, remember this name: Olive Kitteridge. . . . You’ll never forget her.”—USA Today
 
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post Book World • USA Today • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • Seattle Post-Intelligencer • People • Entertainment Weekly • The Christian Science Monitor • The Plain Dealer • The Atlantic • Rocky Mountain News • Library Journal
 
At times stern, at…


If you love Robert B. Parker...

Book cover of Nate the Texas Story

Nate the Texas Story by Mark Warren,

Nate Champion might be the most heroic figure of America’s Old West ... and yet one of popular history’s best-kept secrets. Now he finally gets his due in this historical novel duology. His humble beginnings in Texas prepare him for a life with horses and cattle. Though a well-known horse…

Book cover of Off Season

Ryan C. Thomas Author Of The Summer I Died

From my list on testing the endurance of the dark and disturbed.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always been a fan of horror because a good scare makes the adrenaline flow. Personally, I don’t think ghosts and demons are real, and they don’t scare me. But humans…humans can be downright evil. This is why I gravitate toward serial killer and slasher fiction when I’m looking for a scare. Sometimes I just want to test my endurance for the dark side of human nature. Unfortunately, it is all too easy to write a really depraved book without taking the time to make the reader care about the characters, which is why these novels are my favorite works of darkness. These are great, disturbing books with genuine pathos.

Ryan's book list on testing the endurance of the dark and disturbed

Ryan C. Thomas Why Ryan loves this book

Ketchum’s classic survival horror novel about cannibals attacking a cabin of vacationers is pure 80s slasher goodness. It was perhaps the darkest book of its kind for a long time and pulls no punches with the intensity of its chase scenes. Ketchum’s economical writing style makes it a very easy read, one where you will root for the good guys, and be left emotionally drained by the end.

By Jack Ketchum ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

September. A beautiful New York editor retreats to a lonely cabin on a hill in the quiet Maine beach town of Dead River―off season―awaiting her sister and friends. Nearby, a savage human family with a taste for flesh lurks in the darkening woods, watching, waiting for the moon to rise and night to fall…

And before too many hours pass, five civilized, sophisticated people and one tired old country sheriff will learn just how primitive we all are beneath the surface…and that there are no limits at all to the will to survive.

This novel contains graphic content and is…


Book cover of Trust Your Eyes
Book cover of Six Years
Book cover of Down the Rabbit Hole

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