Action and adventure fiction is the epitomy of escapist reading. Browse all our articles, starting with the most recent, featuring books that contain elements of action and adventure, whether it is travel, charting new frontiers, hunting down others or being hunted themselves. Often there is some sort of peril to evade, mystery to solve and/or justice to deliver.
Recent stand out reads in this genre for us include The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang, Stuart Turton’s The Devil and the Dark Water and TJ Newman’s Falling, and then of course you can’t go wrong with the iconic bestsellers Life of Pi by Yann Martel, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy. All these novels are guaranteed to entertain. There is a book to satisfy everyone’s quest for adventure from the safety and comfort your favourite reading chair.
The Hunger Games Synopsis Every year, twelve boys and twelve girls are chosen to take part in the Hunger Games. Watched by the entire nation, this is action-packed reality TV at its most exciting – and most dangerous. Katniss Everdeen has…
Conor Grennan’s Little Princes is a story about a young man who sets out looking for fun and adventure and finds maturity and true purpose. Little Princes Synopsis One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal In search…
Flash and Bones by Kathy Reichs (Book 14, Temperance Brennan Novel) in enjoyable light listen/read for existing fans of this long-running crime series. Read my full review. Flash and Bones Synopsis Just as 200,000 fans are pouring into town for Race…
In Jamrach’s Menagerie Carol Birch conjures up a world of kaleidoscopic sights, sounds and smells more vivid and captivating than reality. Jamrach’s Menagerie Synopsis 1857. Jaffy Brown is running along a street in London’s East End when he comes face to…
A simple storyline but Lee Child builds intensity in Echo Burning by peeling back mystery layer by layer (Jack Reacher, Book 5). Read our full review.
The Arranger Synopsis The year is 2023 and ex-detective Lara Evans is working as a freelance paramedic in a bleak new world. She responds to an emergency call and is nearly killed when a shooter flees the home. Inside she…
Oscar & Lucinda won Australian author Peter Carey the 1988 Booker Prize and the 1989 Miles Franklin Award. It was shortlisted for The Best of the Booker. Oscar & Lucinda Synopsis A young Anglican minister who looks like a scarecrow, thinks like an angel, and…
Crack Down Synopsis There was only one reason Manchester-based private eye Kate Brannigan was prepared to let her boyfriend help out with the investigation into a car sales fraud – nothing bad could happen. But by now Kate should know…
Jigs and Reels is international bestselling author Joanne Harris’ first short story collection. Jigs and Reels Synopsis: Each of the twenty-two tales in this enchanting collection is a surprise and a delight, melding the poignant and the possible with the…
Zugzwang Book Synopsis St Petersburg, 1914. Dr Otto Spethmann, a famous psychoanalyst, is implicated in a murder. But he is preoccupied with two disturbing new patients: Anna Petrovna, the troubled society beauty with whom he is inappropriately falling in love,…
The Chicken Thief Synopsis : Alois is The Chicken Thief, an intelligent young man impelled into a life of crime as a means of survival in southern Africa. The political climate is turbulent, with the current President experiencing lagging popularity,…
The White Tiger Synopsis Meet Balram Halwai, the ‘White Tiger’: servant, philosopher, entrepreneur and murderer. Balram, the White Tiger, was born in a backwater village on the River Ganges, the son of a rickshaw-puller. He works in a teashop, crushing…
The Five Greatest Warriors Synopsis IT BEGAN WITH SIX STONES Jack West Jr and his loyal team are in desperate disarray: they’ve been separated, their mission is in tatters, and Jack was last seen plummeting down a fathomless abyss. IT…
This was my first outing with Cara Black and her feisty protagonist Aimee Leduc. Based on the obvious success of this series, Murder in Passy being the 11th instalment, and the Parisian setting, I had high hopes.
In Started Early, Took My Dog Kate Atkinson has plumbed literary depths uncommon in the mystery and crime-detective genre.
Aronson’s simple story telling provides the reader a quick and easy read with just the right mix of technical explanation, humourous observation and personal philosophy.
