Mystery · Similar reads
Books like In the Woods
The best books like In the Woods are The Maltese Falcon, The Likeness, and Gone Girl. In the Woods by Tana French is about memory and trauma, identity and self-deception, childhood and loss. If that's what drew you in, here are 12 books that share its DNA — each summarized on Superbook, and ready to chat with in the app.
- The Maltese Falcon
01
Dashiell Hammett · Mystery
San Francisco private detective Sam Spade is hired by a woman calling herself Miss Wonderly to find her missing sister — a lie within thirty seconds of the novel opening.
A kindred mystery read.
Read the summary → - The Likeness
02
Tana French · Mystery
Detective Cassie Maddox — introduced as Rob Ryan's partner in In the Woods — is pulled back to undercover work when a murdered woman is found bearing her exact face and carrying a false identity Cassie herself once used as an operative.
A kindred mystery read.
Read the summary → - Gone Girl
03
Gillian Flynn · Thriller
On the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary, Amy Dunne disappears from her home in Missouri.
A kindred mystery read.
Read the summary → - No Country for Old Men
04
Cormac McCarthy · Literary fiction
No Country for Old Men begins in the Texas desert in 1980 where a Vietnam veteran named Llewelyn Moss stumbles on the aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong: a ring of dead men, trucks, a cache of heroin, and two million dollars in a case.
A kindred mystery read.
Read the summary → - In Cold Blood
05
Truman Capote · Memoir
Truman Capote's account of the 1959 murders of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas — and of the investigation, capture, trial, and execution of the killers Perry Smith and Richard Hickock — is the founding document of the true crime genre and one of the most admired works of American nonfiction of the twentieth century.
A kindred mystery read.
Read the summary → - Beloved
06
Toni Morrison · Literary fiction
Beloved is set in post-Civil War Ohio, where Sethe, a formerly enslaved woman, lives with her daughter Denver in a house shadowed by the ghost of a baby she killed rather than let be taken back into slavery.
Both dig into memory and trauma.
Read the summary → - Dead Souls
07
Nikolai Gogol · Literary fiction
Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov arrives in a provincial Russian town with a plan of remarkable ingenuity: he will travel from estate to estate buying up "dead souls" — serfs who have died since the last census but still appear on the tax rolls, and whose owners are still liable for taxes on them.
Both dig into identity and self-deception.
Read the summary → - Great Expectations
08
Charles Dickens · Classics
Great Expectations follows Pip, an orphan boy on the Kent marshes who is yanked from modest obscurity into the orbit of wealth and social aspiration when an anonymous benefactor funds his move to London.
Both dig into identity and self-deception.
Read the summary → - The Apprentice
09
Tess Gerritsen · Thriller
The Apprentice is the second book in the Rizzoli & Isles series and the novel where forensic pathologist Dr.
Both dig into partnership and trust.
Read the summary → - The Castle
- The Girl on the Train
11
Paula Hawkins · Thriller
Rachel Watson takes the same commuter train every day, passing the house where she used to live with her ex-husband Tom, who now lives there with his new wife.
Both dig into identity and self-deception.
Read the summary → - The Mill on the Floss
12
George Eliot · Classics
The Mill on the Floss opens with one of the most fully realized childhoods in Victorian fiction.
Both dig into childhood and loss.
Read the summary →
Books like In the Woods: quick answers
What are the best books like In the Woods?
The best books like In the Woods by Tana French are The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, The Likeness by Tana French, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with In the Woods, such as memory and trauma, identity and self-deception, childhood and loss.
What should I read after In the Woods?
A natural next read after In the Woods is The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett. A kindred mystery read. Other strong choices are The Likeness by Tana French, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy.
What books are similar to In the Woods by Tana French?
In the Woods centers on memory and trauma, identity and self-deception, childhood and loss. Books with a similar feel include The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, The Likeness by Tana French, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, Beloved by Toni Morrison — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
