18 books like Faces

What to read after Faces — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

The Faithless Martina Cole · 2011 · ★ 4.2 · 490p · ≈ 16h · Moderate Don't miss NO REGRET, the brand new novel from Martina Cole. Coming October 2025. With family, there's a dangerous line between love and hate... Reaching the darkest corners of family life, THE FAITHLESS by the 'undisputed queen of crime writing' (Guardian) and Sunday Times No.1 bestseller Martina Cole is an unputdownable novel about a deadly ambition that trumps family loyalty... Cynthia Tailor… Shares: Dysfunctional families, Families

Close Martina Cole · 2006 · ★ 4.1 · 512p · ≈ 17h · Moderate Don't miss NO REGRET, the brand new novel from Martina Cole. Coming October 2025. She'll do whatever it takes to keep them together... Hard-hitting and uncompromising, CLOSE by the 'undisputed queen of crime writing' (Guardian) and Sunday Times No.1 bestseller Martina Cole tells the story of a woman determined to protect her family from an increasingly dangerous world... Patrick Brodie knows… Shares: Gangsters, Criminals

Seeds of Yesterday V.C. Andrews · 1984 · ★ 4.2 · 382p · ≈ 12h · Moderate Seeds of Yesterday is a novel written by V. C. Andrews. It is the fourth book in the Dollanganger Series. The story continues from the point of view of the protagonist, Cathy, following her from the age of 52 until her death a few years later. ---------- Also contained in: If There Be Thorns / Seeds of Yesterday Shares: Child Abuse, Dysfunctional families, Families

Betrayal Martina Cole · 2016 · 468p · ≈ 15h · Moderate Betrayal is the twenty-third novel from Sunday Times No. 1 bestseller, Martina Cole, author of DANGEROUS LADY, THE TAKE, GET EVEN and many more. The 'undisputed queen of crime writing' (Guardian) and the biggest selling female crime writer in the UK, Martina's unique, powerful storytelling will appeal to fans of Karin Slaughter and Patricia Cornwell. Survival. It's all down to who you trust.… Shares: Gangsters, Families

The profession of violence John Pearson · 1972 · ★ 3.5 · 336p · ≈ 11h · Moderate John Pearson details the lives of Reggie and Ronnie Kray, the infamous brothers who, for decades, ruled the criminal underground in London's East End. This biography of the identical twins is, at times, humorous and revealing, but always maintains a clear-eyed view of the seriousness of the brothers' crimes. An absorbing read. Shares: Gangsters, Criminals, London

Hot Springs Stephen Hunter · 2000 · 560p · ≈ 18h · Moderate "In the summer of 1946, the most wide-open town in America is Hot Springs, Arkansas, a city of ancient, legendary corruption. While the pilgirms take the cure in the mineral-rich 142-degree water that bubbles from the earth, the brothels and casinos are the true source of the town's prosperity. It is run by an English-born gangster named Owney Maddox, who represents the New York syndicate and… Shares: Gangsters, Criminals

Boy Swallows Universe Trent Dalton · 2018 · ★ 4.3 · 472p · ≈ 15h · Moderate Raw, whimsical, existential, heartbreaking, modern mythology Shares: Dysfunctional families, Criminals, Families

Smaldone Dick Kreck · 2009 · ★ 2.0 I never thought it would end.—Clyde SmaldoneStarted by Italian brothers from North Denver, the high-profile Smaldone crime syndicate began in the bootlegging days of the 1920s and flourished well into the late twentieth century. Connected to such notorious crime figures as Al Capone and Carlos Marcello, as well as to presidents and other politicians, charismatic Clyde Smaldone was the crime… Shares: Gangsters, Criminals

Mafia son Sandra Harmon · 2009 · ★ 4.0 · 301p · ≈ 10h · Moderate In this dark, jagged true crime thriller, wily mob head Gregory Scarpa Sr. (alias the "Grim Reaper") secretly steals and kills under FBI protection for decades. When faced with arrest for his own crimes, he betrays his adoring son, Gregory Jr., whom he'd groomed to take his place. Taking the fall for his father out of familial respect and love, the young Scarpa endures decades of maximum security… Shares: Gangsters, Criminals

A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara · 2008 · ★ 4.3 · 730p · ≈ 24h · Moderate A Little Life is a 2015 novel by American novelist Hanya Yanagihara. The novel was written over the course of eighteen months. Despite the length and difficult subject matter, it became a bestseller. Shares: Child Abuse, Dysfunctional families, Families

Rizzo's daughter Lou Manfredo · 2012 · ★ 3.5 "Brooklyn cop Joe Rizzo is ready to retire and spend the rest of his days with his wife, doting on their grown-up girls. But when his youngest daughter Carol decides to follow her dad onto the force, Joe decides to stay on until she's settled, calling in favors to get her assigned to the easiest house, the best training officer-- anything to protect his baby girl. And while there, he's expected… Shares: Gangsters, Criminals

Live by Night Dennis Lehane · 2012 · ★ 3.5 · 416p · ≈ 13h · Moderate Joe Coughlin is nineteen when he meets Emma Gould. A smalltime thief in 1920s Boston, his task is to tie her up while his accomplices loot the bank she works in. But Joe falls in love with Emma - and his life changes forever. That meeting is the beginning of Joe's journey to becoming one of the most feared and respected gangsters. It is a journey beset by violence, double-crossing, drama and… Shares: Gangsters, Criminals

Tishomingo Blues Elmore Leonard · 1975 · ★ 3.9 · 308p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Dennis Lenahan is a daredevil and the girls love him. Things are going along okay with his gig at the Tishomingo Lodge & Casino in Tunica, Mississippi, "the Casino Capital of the South," until the day he looks down from the high-dive platform and witnesses a mob hit -- Dixie style. The killer looks up and says, "Let's see you dive." Suddenly, being a daredevil has lost its kick. Leonard calls… Shares: Gangsters, Criminals

Secrets of the Morning V.C. Andrews · 1991 · ★ 3.9 · 405p · ≈ 13h · Moderate Shadowed by her tortured past, Dawn has a bright new life of glimmering hopes... Dawn can hardly believe she's a student at one of New York City's best music schools. Now her most precious wish, to become a singer, can come true. But Dawn still dreams about Jimmy, her strong, intense boyfriend, and the love and anguished secrets they share. Then Michael Sutton arrives, a new teacher at the… Shares: Child Abuse, Families

Gangster warlords Ioan Grillo · 2016 · 377p · ≈ 12h · Moderate "In a ranch south of Texas, the man known as The Executioner dumps five hundred body parts in metal barrels. In Brazil's biggest city, a mysterious prisoner orders hit-men to gun down forty-one police officers and prison guards in two days. In southern Mexico, a meth maker is venerated as a saint while enforcing Old Testament justice on his enemies. A new kind of criminal kingpin has arisen: part… Shares: Gangsters, Criminals

Paddy Whacked T. J. English · 2005 · ★ 4.3 · 480p · ≈ 16h · Moderate Here is the shocking true saga of the Irish American mob. In Paddy Whacked, bestselling author and organized crime expert T. J. English brings to life nearly two centuries of Irish American gangsterism, which spawned such unforgettable characters as Mike "King Mike" McDonald, Chicago's subterranean godfather; Big Bill Dwyer, New York's most notorious rumrunner during Prohibition; Mickey… Shares: Gangsters, Criminals

Fall On Your Knees:A Novel Ann-Marie MacDonald · 1996 · ★ 3.9 · 508p · ≈ 16h · Moderate The story of a jinxed family, a catalog of rape, incest and death. James Piper abuses his daughter, atones by sending her to New York to study singing while he goes to war, she returns pregnant, dies in childbirth when her mother opens her to save her twins. One of the twins dies, mother commits suicide, the second twin contracts polio while being baptized in a creek by an aunt, the aunt is raped… Shares: Dysfunctional families, Families

Irma Voth Miriam Toews · 2011 · ★ 3.6 · 272p · ≈ 9h · Moderate The stifling, reclusive life of nineteen-year-old Irma Voth, recently married and more recently deserted, is turned on its head when a film crew moves in to make a movie about the strict religious community in which she and her family live. Shares: Dysfunctional families, Families

About the book Faces →