Books like

Books like The Secret History

12 books with a reading profile close to The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Deep and inward-looking; a moderate read.

1

The Likeness

by Tana French

Also inward-looking · narrative, mystery

Detective Cassie Maddox is pulled back into undercover work when a young woman is found murdered in a derelict cottage outside Dublin.
2

Broken Harbor

by Tana French, Stephen Hogan

Also inward-looking · narrative, mystery

Detective Mick "Scorcher" Kennedy arrives at Brianstown, a half-finished "ghost estate" stalled by the Irish financial collapse.
3

When We Were Orphans

by Kazuo Ishiguro

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, mystery

Christopher Banks, a celebrated detective in 1930s London, remains haunted by the unexplained disappearance of his parents in the International Settlement of Shanghai decades earlier.
4

Elizabeth Is Missing

by Emma Healey

Also inward-looking · narrative, mystery

Maud Horsham is an eighty-year-old woman living with worsening dementia.
5

Everything I never told you

by Celeste Ng

Also inward-looking · narrative, mystery

The story begins in 1970s Ohio with the discovery of Lydia Lee’s body in a local lake.
6

Nothing Can Hurt You

by Nicola Maye Goldberg

Also inward-looking · narrative, mystery

In 1997, college student Sara Morgan is murdered by her boyfriend, Blake Campbell, who escapes a prison sentence through a successful temporary insanity plea.
7

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

by Mark Haddon

Also inward-looking · narrative, mystery

Fifteen-year-old Christopher Boone discovers his neighbor’s poodle, Wellington, killed with a garden fork.
8

Skippy Dies

by Paul Murray

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

Skippy is a fourteen-year-old boarding school student at Seabrook College, a Catholic school in Dublin, who dies in the first pages after collapsing in a doughnut shop.
9

L'Avversario

by Emmanuel Carrère

Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

On January 9, 1993, Jean-Claude Romand killed his wife, his children, and his parents before attempting to take his own life.
10

The Robber Bride

by Margaret Atwood, Deborah Simmons

Also inward-looking · narrative, psychology

Set in contemporary Toronto, the narrative follows three former college friends—Tony, Roz, and Charis—who believe their shared nemesis, Zenia, died in an explosion years ago.
11

Lady Oracle

by Margaret Atwood

Also inward-looking · narrative, psychology

Joan Foster fakes her own death by drowning in Lake Ontario to escape a messy entanglement of secret identities.
12

Difficult Women

by Roxane Gay

Also inward-looking · narrative, psychology

Roxane Gay’s collection of short stories centers on the private lives of American women navigating a broad spectrum of class, race, and trauma.

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