Books like “The Daughter of Time”

What to read after “The Daughter of Time” by Josephine Tey: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
The Name of the Rose
Umberto Eco · 1980
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical”
- Philosophical
In a medieval abbey, a monk and his sharp-witted teacher investigate a series of bizarre deaths among the scribes. Clues lead to a forbidden book and a labyrinthine library that hides more than manuscripts. A historical mystery steeped in philosophy and dread.
2
Childhood's End
Arthur C. Clarke · 1953
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical”
- Philosophical
Giant alien ships appear above Earth's cities and impose a peaceful rule under the Overlords. Decades of calm and progress pass, but humanity's golden age hides a purpose no one can guess until the Overlords finally reveal themselves.
3
The Remains of the Day
Kazuo Ishiguro · 1989
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical”
- Philosophical
Stevens, a butler at an English country house, sets out on a motoring trip in 1956 and looks back over decades of service. Recalling his employer's political misjudgements and his own missed chances with the housekeeper, he begins to see what a life given to duty has cost him.
4
Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad · 1899
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical”
- Philosophical
A sailor tells of his journey up an African river to reach a mysterious ivory trader who has become a god to the locals. The deeper he goes, the more he sees of greed and cruelty, and of what people become when no one restrains them. A short, unsettling classic.
5
The Old Man and the Sea
Ernest Hemingway · 1952
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical”
- Philosophical
An aging Cuban fisherman, Santiago, has gone eighty-four days without catching a fish. When a huge marlin finally takes his line far out to sea, he must hold on through a long, painful contest of endurance and will.
6
Whose Body?
Dorothy L. Sayers · 1923
Same genre: “Detective fiction”
- Missing Person
Lord Peter Wimsey is intrigued when a corpse is found in a bathtub wearing nothing but a pair of gold pince-nez, while a financier has gone missing. Aided by his butler Bunter and a Scotland Yard inspector, he works out how the body came to be there.
7
Lord of the Flies
William Golding · 1954
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical”
- Philosophical
A group of schoolboys survives a plane crash on a deserted island and tries to govern themselves. Order slips first into fear and then into savagery as the boys turn on one another. An allegory about civilisation, violence and what people become without rules.
8
The End of Eternity
Isaac Asimov · 1955
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical”
- Philosophical
Andrew Harlan works for Eternity, an organization that lives outside time and edits human history for what it believes is the greater good. His work is upended when he falls in love with a woman from his own past.
9
The Red House Mystery
A. A. Milne · 1922
Same genre: “Detective fiction”
- Missing Person
- Twist Ending
At a country house party, the host's brother is found shot in a locked room and the host has vanished. Antony Gillingham, a guest with a taste for detective stories, and his friend Bill play at being Holmes and Watson, poking into the household's secrets before the police arrive.
10
Foundation
Isaac Asimov · 1951
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical”
- Philosophical
As the Galactic Empire begins to decay, mathematician Hari Seldon foresees thirty thousand years of chaos. To shorten the coming dark age he gathers scholars on the remote world Terminus, where the Foundation must survive plots, warlords and its own predictions.
11
Dark Matter
Blake Crouch · 2016
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical”
- Philosophical
A physicist is knocked out and wakes in a version of Chicago where he never married and never had a son. To get home, he must cross a multiverse of his own choices while another version of himself hunts him.
12
Solaris
Stanisław Lem · 1961
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical”
- Philosophical
A scientist arrives at a station orbiting the ocean planet Solaris, where the crew is haunted by visitors shaped from their own memories. As the planet resists every attempt to understand it, he confronts what the living sea seems to be doing to them.