Mysteries for Fans of Stieg Larsson

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Mysteries and thrillers
• Read-alikes for Stieg Larsson
• Books with a new perspective
  

Smilla’s Sense of Snow
By Peter Hoeg
MYSTERY HOEG
When her six-year-old neighbor falls to his death, and no one is willing to suspect foul play, Smilla Qaavigaaq Jasperson finds her own investigation taking her into the files of a Danish company.

Three Seconds
By Anders Roslun
MYSTERY ROSLUND
Ex-convict Piet Hoffman--a family man, a rising member of Stockholm's Polish mafia, and an undercover police informant--is sent to a maximum security prison to make himself the boss of the amphetamine trade so the police can shut it down.

In the Woods
By Tana French
MYSTERY FRENCH
Twenty years after witnessing the violent disappearances of two companions from their small Dublin suburb, detective Rob Ryan investigates a chillingly similar murder that takes place in the same wooded area, a case that forces him to piece together his traumatic memories.

A Duty to the Dead
By Charles Todd
MYSTERY TODD
Independent-minded Bess Crawford's upbringing is far different from that of the usual upper-middle-class British gentlewoman. At the outbreak of WWI, she volunteers for the nursing corps, serving from the battlefields of France to the doomed hospital ship Britannic. On one voyage, she promises to a deliver a message from a dying officer to his brother. Once she's able to do so, she's disturbed at the brother's indifferent reception of the message, and when an unexpected turn of events provides her with an opportunity to stay with the family for a short time, she takes it.

Entertaining Teen Historical Fiction

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Teen books
• Historical Fiction
• Strong character development
• Read-alikes for Laurie Halse Anderson and Nancy Turner
• Clean reads

Boston Jane
By Jennifer Holm
YA F Holm Boston J #1
In 1854, sixteen-year-old Jane Peck has ventured to the unknown wilds of the Northwest to wed her childhood idol, William Baldt. But her impeccable training at Miss Hepplewhite's Young Ladies Academy in Philadelphia is hardly preparation for the colorful characters and crude life that await her.

The Raging Quiet
By Sherryl Jordan
YA F Jordan
Suspicious of 16-year-old Marnie, a newcomer to their village, the residents accuse her of witchcraft when she discovers that the village madman is not crazy but deaf and she begins to communicate with him through hand gestures.

Hattie Big Sky
By Kirby Larson
YA F Larson
After inheriting her uncle's homesteading claim in Montana, sixteen-year-old orphan Hattie Brooks travels from Iowa in 1917 to make a home for herself and encounters some unexpected problems related to the war being fought in Europe.

A Countess below Stairs
By Eva Ibbotson
YA F Ibbotson
After the Russian revolution turns her world topsy-turvy, Anna, a young Russian countess, has no choice but to flee to England. Penniless, Anna hides her aristocratic background and takes a job as servant, armed only with an outdated housekeeping manual and sheer determination.

Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman?
By Eleanor Updale
YA F Updale Montmore #1
In Victorian London, after his life is saved by a physician, a thief uses the knowledge he gains in prison and from scientific lectures he attends with the physician, to create a double life.

Teen Romantic Suspense

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Teen books
• Romance
• Suspense

Divergent
By Veronica Roth
YA F Roth
In a future Chicago, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomaly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all.

Graceling
By Kristin Cashore
YA F Cashore
In a world where some people are born with extreme and often-feared skills called Graces, Katsa struggles for redemption from her own horrifying Grace, the Grace of killing, and teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king.

Wildwood Dancing
By Juliet Marillier
YA F Marillie
Five sisters who live with their merchant father in Transylvania use a hidden portal in their home to cross over into a magical world, the Wildwood.

Keturah and Lord Death
By Martine Leavitt
YA F Leavitt
When Lord Death comes to claim sixteen-year-old Keturah while she is lost in the King's Forest, she charms him with her story and is granted a twenty-four hour reprieve in which to seek her one true love.

Beautiful Creatures
By Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
YA F Garcia
In a small South Carolina town, where it seems little has changed since the Civil War, sixteen-year-old Ethan is powerfully drawn to Lena, a new classmate with whom he shares a psychic connection and whose family hides a dark secret that may be revealed on her sixteenth birthday.

Issue-driven Books, with Emphasis on Characters

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Books about controversial issues
• Books about characters and relationships
• Books similar to Jodi Picoult’s but cleaner

Please Look after Mom
By Kyong-suk Shin
F SHIN
Follows the efforts of a family to find the mother who went missing from Seoul Station and their sobering realizations when they recall memories that suggest she may not have been happy.

Every Last One
By Anna Quindlen
F QUINDLEN
Mary Beth is first and foremost a mother whose three children come first, before her career, or even her life as the wife of a doctor. Caring for her family and preserving their everyday life is paramount. So when one of her sons becomes depressed, she focuses on him, and is blindsided by a shocking act of violence.

The Language of Flowers
By Vanessa Diffenbaugh
DIFFENBA
The story of a woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own past.

State of Wonder
By Ann Patchett
F PATCHETT
A researcher at a pharmaceutical company, Marina Singh journeys into the heart of the Amazonian delta to check on a field team that has been silent for two years--a dangerous assignment that forces Marina to confront the ghosts of her past.

These Things Hidden
By Heather Gudenkauf
F GUDENKAU
When golden girl teenager Allison Glenn is released to a halfway house, she is more determined than ever to speak with her estranged sister. Their legacy of secrets is focused on one little boy. And if the truth is revealed, the consequences will be unimaginable for the adoptive mother who loves him, the girl who tried to protect him and the two sisters who hold the key to all that is hidden.

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Recent fiction
• Character-driven stories
• Contemporary fiction

State of Wonder
By Ann Patchett
F PATCHETT
Pharmacologist Marina Singh, researcher at a drug company in Minnesota, is sent to the Amazon to investigate the death of a colleague and to check on the progress of Dr. Annick Swenson, a rogue scientist on the cusp of developing a fertility drug that could rock the medical profession.

The Lake of Dreams
By Kim Edwards
F EDWARDS
At a crossroads in her life, Lucy Jarrett returns home, only to find herself haunted by her father's unresolved death a decade before. She discovers some papers in her house that lead her to a mystery that goes back generations and whose resolution will alter long-established family histories and future plans.

Life Sentences
By Laura Lippman
F LIPPMAN
Writer Cassandra Fallows returns to Baltimore and tries to reconnect with three former classmates in an attempt to investigate the case of a mutual friend who has been accused of murder. In the process, she discovers the gulf that separates her memories of events from theirs.

If I Stay
By Gayle Forman
YA F FORMAN
While in a coma following an automobile accident that killed her parents and younger brother, seventeen-year-old Mia, a gifted cellist, weighs whether to live with her grief or join her family in death.

Wolves, Boys, and Other Things that Might Kill Me
By Kristen Chandler
YA F CHANDLER
When wolves are reintroduced to the area near her small Montana town, KJ Carson teams up with the new boy in town, Virgil, to write a column about them for the school newspaper. Her life becomes more complicated as her friendship with Virgil deepens and the townspeople argue about the fate of the wolves.