Recommended Reads

This list is by no means complete, but these are books I’ve read in the past three years that I’d highly recommend to anybody. Enjoy!

Ben Aaronovitch (urban fantasy)

Peter Graves

Midnight Riot

Sherman Alexie (young adult; literary)

• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
• The Toughest Indian in the World (short stories)
• War Dances (short stories and poetry)

Lawrence Block (mystery)

• The Night and the Music (short stories)
• Grifter’s Game
• A Week As Andrea Benstock
• No Score
• Chip Harrison Scores Again
• Make Out With Murder
• Keller In Dallas
• The Burglar Who Dropped in on Elvis

Alice Borchartdt (high fantasy)

• The Wolf King
• Night of the Wolf

J.L.Bourne (zombies)

Day by Day Armageddon

T.C.Boyle (literary)

When the Killing’s Done

Marina Bridges (horror)

Pickers and Pickled Punks (short stories)

S.G.Browne (zombies; paranormal)

• Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament
• Fated

Steven Brust (high fantasy)

Vlad Taltos

• Jhereg
• Yendi
• Teckla
• Taltos
• Phoenix
• Athyra
• Orca
• Dragon
• Issola
• Dzur
• Jhegaala
• Iorich

***

• The Sun, the Moon & the Stars (contemporary)
• Brokedown Palace (fantasy)
  

Jim Butcher (high fantasy; urban fantasy)

Codex Alera

• Furies of Calderon
• Academ’s Fury
• Cursor’s Fury
• Captain’s Fury
• Princep’s Fury
• First Lord’s Fury

***

Harry Dresden: The Dresden Files

• Storm Front
• Fool Moon
• Grave Peril
• Summer Knight
• Death Masks
• Blood Rites
• Proven Guilty
• Dead Beat
• White Night
• Small Favor
• Turn Coat
• Changes
• Side Jobs (short stories)
• Ghost Story

Orson Scott Card (science fiction; fantasy)

• Ender’s Game
• The Lost Gate

Caleb Carr (historical mystery)

The Alienist

Lee Child (thriller)

Jack Reacher

• Persuader
• One Shot
• Bad Luck and Trouble
• Nothing To Lose
• The Enemy
• Gone Tomorrow
• 61 Hours
• Worth Dying For

Suzanne Collins (young adult)

The Hunger Games

Michael Connelly (mystery, thriller)

Heironymous Bosch

• The Black Echo
• The Black Ice
• The Black Echo
• The Concrete Blonde
• The Last Coyote
• Lost Light
• Echo Park
• City of Bones
• Trunk Music
• A Darkness More Than Night
• Nine Dragons
• The Overlook
• The Scarecrow
• The Narrows
• Angel’s Flight
• The Closers

***

Mickey Haller

• The Lincoln Lawyer
• The Brass Verdict
• The Reversal
• The Fifth Witness

***

Terry McCaleb

Blood Work

***

• Chasing the Dime
• Void Moon

Larry Correia (paranormal)

• Monster Hunter International
• Monster Hunter Vendetta
• Monster Hunter Alpha

***

Grimnoir Chronicles

Hard Magic

Larry Correia and Mike Kupari (military thriller)

Dead Six

Robert Crais (mystery, suspense)

Elvis Cole

• Demolition Angel
• The Last Detective
• The Forgotten Man
• Chasing Darkness

Joe Pike

• The Watchman
• The First Rule
• The Sentry

***

Hostage

Andrew Davidson (horror)

Gargoyle

Charles De Lint (fantasy; urban fantasy)

• Brian Froud’s Faerielands: The Wild Wood
• Greenmantle
• Muse and Reverie (short stories)
• Widdershins
• Forests of the Heart
• Trader
• Someplace To Be Flying
• Onion Girl

Nelson DeMille (thrillers)

• The Charm School
• Cathedral
• The General’s Daughter
• The Gold Coast
• The Gate House

***

John Corey & Kate Mayfield

• Plum Island
• Night Fall
• Wild Fire
• The Lion

Larry Doyle (humor)

• I Love You, Beth Cooper
• Go, Mutants!

Barry Eisler (thrillers)

John Rain

• The Last Assassin
• Requiem For An Assassin
• The Detachment

***

Inside Out

P.N. Elrod (vampires)

The Vampire Files: Volume I

• Bloodlist
• Lifeblood
• Bloodcircle

Andrew Fox (vampires; science fiction)

• Bride of the Fat White Vampire
• Fat White Vampire Blues
• The Good Humor Man

Dave Freer (high fantasy)

• A Mankind Witch

Robert P. French (mystery, thriller)

• Junkie

Neil Gaiman (fantasy)

• Stardust
• American Gods
• Anansi Boys

Harrison Geillor (zombies)

The Zombies of Lake Woebegotten

Elizabeth George (mystery)

DI Thomas Lynley

• A Great Deliverance
• Payment in Blood
• Careless in Red
• In The Presence of the Enemy
• This Body of Death

Seth Graham-Smith (historical vampires)

• Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Mira Grant (zombies)

Georgia and Shaun Mason

• Feed

Clay & Susan Griffith (vampires)

Vampire Empire

• Book One: The Greyfriar

Sara Gruen

• Water for Elephants

Charlaine Harris (paranormal)

Sookie Stackhouse

• All Together Dead
• Club Dead
• Dead and Gone
• Dead as a Doornail
• Dead to the World
• Dead Until Dark
• Definitely Dead
• Living Dead in Dallas
• Dead In The Family

Homer Hickam (thriller)

The Dinosaur Hunter

Joe Hill (horror)

• Horns
• Heart-shaped Box

Mark Hoddard (steampunk)

The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man

Nina Kiriki Hoffman (fantasy)

• Catalyst
• Fall of Life
• Fistful of Sky
• Past the Size of Dreaming

Charlie Huston (vampires; thrillers; science fiction)

Joe Pitt

• Already Dead
• Every Last Drop
• Half the Blood in Brooklyn
• My Dead Body
• No Dominion

***

Henry Thompson

• Caught Stealing
• A Dangerous Man
• Six Bad Things

***

• The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death
• The Shotgun Rule
• Sleepless

Graham Joyce (paranormal)

How To Make Friends With Demons

Richard Kadrey (urban fantasy)

James Stark aka Sandman Slim

• Sandman Slim
• Kill The Dead

Scott Kenemore

• Zombie, Ohio: A Tale of the Undead

Barbara Kingsolver (literary)

• Pigs in Heaven
• The Lacuna

J.A. Konrath

• Origin

Dennis Lehane (suspense, historical, mystery)

• The Given Day
• Mystic River
• Shutter Island

***

Patrick Kenzie & Angie Gennaro

• A Drink Before The War
• Darkness, Take My Hand
• Sacred
• Prayers for Rain
• Gone, Baby, Gone
• Moonlight Mile

Elmore Leonard (suspense)

• LaBrava
• Out of Sight
• Road Dogs
• Comfort To The Enemy (short stories)

J.F. Lewis (vampires)

Eric Courtney, vampire

• Staked
• Revamped
• Crossed

Marie Loughin (fantasy)

• Valknut: The Binding

Lois Lowrey (young adult)

The Giver

Jeff Lindsay (suspense)

Dexter Morgan

• Darkly Dreaming Dexter
• Dexter by Design
• Dearly Devoted Dexter
• Dexter in the Dark
• Dexter is Delicious

Robert Liparulo (thrillers)

• Comes a Horseman
• Deadfall
• Deadlock
• Germ

Jonathan Maberry (paranormal; horror; zombies)

Joe Ledger

• Patient Zero
• The Dragon Factory
• The King of Plagues

***

• Ghost Road Blues
• The Wolfman
• Rot & Ruin

Stuart MacBride (mystery)

Logan MacRae

• Blind Eye
• Bloodshot
• Cold Granite
• Dying Light
• Flesh House
• Dark Blood
• Shatter The Bones

George R.R.Martin (fantasy)

Suicide Kings, A Wild Cards Novel

A. Lee Martinez (humor; fantasy)

• The Automatic Detective
• Gil’s All Fright Diner
• In the Company of Ogres
• Monster
• A Nameless Witch
• Too Many Curses
• Divine Misfortune

Robert McCammon (historical mystery)

Matthew Corbett

• Speaks The Nightbird
• The Queen of Bedlam
• Mister Slaughter

Robin McKinley (fantasy)

• Deerskin
• Rose Daughter
• Spindle’s End
• Sunshine
• Pegasus

M.H. Mead (cyberpunk)

• Fate’s Mirror
• Good Fences (short story)

Christopher Moore (paranormal; humor)

• Bite Me: A Love Story
• A Dirty Job
• Fluke
• Fool
• Lamb
• Practical Demon Keeping
• The Stupidest Angel
• You Suck

Chuck Palahniuk

• Fight Club
• Survivor

Steff Penney (historical)

The Tenderness of Wolves

Christopher Priest (historical mystery)

The Prestige

Thomas Pynchon (gonzo)

Inherent Vice

Mike Resnick (science fiction; steampunk)

• Ivory
• The Buntline Special

Kat Richardson (paranormal)

Harper Blaine

• Greywalker
• Poltergeist
• Underground

Carrie Ryan (young adult)

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Fred Saberhagen (high fantasy)

Book of the Gods

• Volume I: The Face of Apollo
• Volume II: Ariadne’s Web
• Volume III: The Arms of Hercules
• Volume IV: God of the Golden Fleece

***

Dracula

A Sharpness in the Neck

John Sandford (mystery; thrillers)

Lucas Davenport

• Broken Prey
• Mind Prey
• Invisible Prey
• Wicked Prey
• Storm Prey

***

Kidd

• The Devil’s Code
• The Hangman’s Song
• The Fool’s Run

***

Virgil Flowers

• Dark of the Moon
• Heat Lightning
• Rough Country
• Bad Blood

Ian Sansom (mystery)

A Mobile Library Mystery: Israel Armstrong

• The Book Stops Here
• The Bad Book Affair

Robert J. Sawyer (science fiction)

www:Watch

Diane Setterfield (literary)

The Thirteenth Tale

Michael Shea (science fiction)

The Extra

Scott Sigler (science fiction; horror)

• Infected
• Contagious
• Ancestor
• Blood is Red (short stories)

Dan Simmons (horror; historical; science fiction)

• Fires of Eden
• The Hollow Man
• Black Hills
• Flashback

Scott Smith (suspense; horror)

• The Ruins
• A Simple Plan

David Sosnowski (vampires)

• Vamped

Jeff Strand

• Wolf Hunt
• Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary)
• Single White Sociopath Seeks Same
• Casket for Sale (Used Only Once)

Daniel Suarez (science fiction)

• Daemon
• Freedom™

Duane Swierczynski (thrillers)

• Severance Package
• The Wheel Man
• Fun and Games

Andrew Vachss (suspense)

Burke

• Blossom
• Blue Belle
• Choice of Evil
• Dead and Gone
• Down Here
• False Allegations
• Flood
• Mask Market
• Only Child
• Pain Management
• Sacrifice
• Down in the Zero
• Footsteps of the Hawk
• Safe House
• Terminal
• Another Life

***

• Shella
• Batman: The Ultimate Evil
• Two Trains Running
• The Getaway Man
• Haiku
• The Weight

Joseph Wambaugh (suspense)

• Fugitive Nights
• Hollywood Station
• Hollywood Crows

Connie Willis (science fiction)

To Say Nothing of the Dog

David Wellington (vampires; zombies)

• 23 Hours
• 99 Coffins
• Monster Island
• Monster Nation
• Monster Planet

Dan Wells (suspense)

John Wayne Cleaver

• I Am Not A Serial Killer
• Mr. Murder

Chuck Wendig

• Shotgun Gravy
• Double Dead

Randy Wayne White (thrillers)

Dr. Marion Ford

• Dead of Night
• Black Widow
• Deep Shadow