Lists / Books by themes

FIND BOOK TITLES BY THEMES

Do you find that you read a book with a certain theme you love and then crave ALL the books with that subject manner? I do! This has been 6 months in the making, but I've finally sorted a lot of the books I've read by themes to make it easier for readers to connect to their favourite subject matter. Enjoy!

Just click on the cover to be taken to the book's description on Goodreads.

Updated January 2022

Action packed:

Books about addiction:

Amateur / non-police sleuths investigating a crime:

• Bloggers / Podcasters / Social media personas / Filmmakers:

• Journalists / Writers:

  

Journalist Martin Scarsden (Australia)

   Reporter Tuva Moodyson (Sweden)

• Lawyers:

• Private citizens:

    Nurse Nina Borg (Denmark)

• Private investigators (PI):

      PIs Kenzie & Gennaro (Boston US)

 

• Psychologists:

        Psychologist Frieda Klein (UK)

• Related to the victim:

Books featuring great armchair travel, atmospheric or wilderness settings:

                                                               

Books that feature art:

Best Australian settings:

               

• Best Australian settings in series:

   Woody Creek series

  Paul Hirschausen series

 Martin Scarsden series

  Aaron Falk series

Books that feature books or writers:

   

• Book within a book concept:

    

Captivity:

Cat-and-mouse games:

  

Circus settings:

Best character studies:

 

• Twisted characters (you still want to root for):

             twisted

• Flawed characters

    flawed

• Evil characters

    just plain evil

• Creepy child characters

• Toxic friendships

 

• Vigilantes:

   

Christmas:

Claustrophobic settings / closed door mysteries:

          

Coming of age stories:

      

Favourite crime series:

         DI Maeve Kerrigan (UK)

      DC Fiona Griffiths (UK)

    DC Lacey Flint (UK)

   DI Cormac Reilly (Ireland)

      Dublin Murder Squad (Ireland)

   Reporter Tuva Moodyson (Sweden)

    Children's House series (Iceland)

        Psychologist Frieda Klein (UK)

   Detective Charlie Berlin (Australia)

    Nurse Nina Borg (Denmark)

  Detective Aaron Falk (Australia)

   Detective Sergeant Gemma Woodstock (Australia)

Journalist Martin Scarsden (Australia)

      PIs Kenzie & Gennaro (Boston US)

 Detective Joona Linna (Sweden)

 Dark Iceland series, Ari Thor Arason (Iceland)




Book that made me cry:

       

Disappearances / missing persons:

        

Domestic noir:

      

Books about doppelgängers / lookalikes / assuming someone else's identity: 

Dual timelines:

• Ancient times:

• 1600s:

• 1700s:

• WWI:

• 1930s:

• WWII:

• 1940s:

• 1950s:

• 1960s:

• 1970s:

• 1980s:

Dystopian:

Enemies to lovers:

Great books with ensemble casts:

        

Family sagas:

Mysteries / thrillers revolving around family secrets:

                                         

• How well do you know your spouse?

 
 

 

Fantasy / Historical fiction mix:

Books featuring health professionals as main characters:

            

All the feels (books that touched my heart):

                    

Historical Fiction (not WWII, not dual timelines):

• 1300s:

• 1500s:

• 1600s:

• 1700s:

• 1800s:

• early 1900s:

• 1910s:

• 1920s:

• 1930s:

The Great Depression

• 1940s:

• 1950s:

• 1960s:

• 1970s:

• 1980s:

Hollywood:

Book with a hospital / asylum / sanatorium setting:

Housemates / houseguests / neighbours:

          

Identity changed / characters in hiding or on the run:

      

Intergenerational friendships:

Legal thriller / Courtroom scenes:

    

Books featuring LGBT main characters:

        

Books with a lighthouse setting:

Magical Realism:

Books featuring mental illness:

        

Mysteries / thrillers revolving around mother-daughter relationships:

                   

Books featuring music:

Books featuring a nanny / babysitter / live-in housekeeper as main character:

       

Unusual narrators:

• Animal narrators:

• Child narrators:

 

• Inanimate objects as narrators:

• Death /dead people / ghost narrators:

• Narrator in a coma:

Books that feature neuroscience / amnesia:

          

New beginnings:

Nordic Noir:

 

Millenium series

   Reporter Tuva Moodyson (Sweden)

    Children's House series (Iceland)

 Detective Harry Hole series (Jo Nesbo)

 Detective Joona Linna (Sweden)

 Dark Iceland series, Ari Thor Arason (Iceland)

Ocean / island settings:

Books about obsession / revenge:

             

• Stalkers:

Living off the grid:

Books about pandemics / quarantine / the plague:

   

Books featuring religion / cults / secret societies:

     

Retellings:

  

Books with school / boarding school / college / university settings:

     

Secrets / past mistakes come back to bite you:

       

Serial killers:

Mysteries / thrillers playing out over a very short timeline:

 

Sister mysteries:

                   

Books featuring social media / podcasts / TV / the web:

        

Sociopaths:

Spies:

Spooky / a hint of the supernatural / gothic:

           

• Spooky house settings (old):

            

•  Spooky house settings (modern):                        

  

Sporting theme:

Survival:

    

Time travel / multiverse:

           

Transport (trains, planes, ships) as setting:

   planes

       ships / ferries / boats

     trains

 elevators

 cars

The legacy of trauma:

 

• Childhood trauma: 

    

       

• Generational trauma

 

Based on a true story:

  

Twins: 

Brilliant twist:

                            

Unreliable narrators:

      

Mysteries featuring urban myths / legends:

      

Witches / witchcraft / wise women:

Well written WWII or holocaust novels: