My TOP-30 in fiction (literary/thriller/mystery) with religious themes
Explore my top 30 fiction picks—literary, thriller, and mystery books with gripping religious themes. Discover page-turners that blend faith, suspense, and profound storytelling.
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The Da Vinci Code
by Dan Brown
Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon and French cryptologist Sophie Neveu work to solve the murder of an elderly curator of the Louvre, a case which leads to clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci and a centuries-old secret society.
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Angels & Demons
by Dan Brown
The explosive Robert Langdon thriller from Dan Brown, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Da Vinci Code and Inferno—now a major film directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks and Felicity Jones. Angels & Demons careens from enlightening epiphanies to dark truths as the battle between science and religion turns to war. This is the book that started it all: we meet Robert Langdon for the first time, caught up in a race against time to find an apocalyptic time-bomb, planted by an ancient secret society that has surfaced to carry out its ultimate threat: to destroy the Vatican.
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Rapture of Canaan
by Sheri Reynolds
At the Church of Fire and Brimstone and Gods Almighty Baptizing Wind, Grandpa Herman makes the rules for everyone, and everyone obeys, or else. Try as she might, Ninah hasn't succeeded in resisting temptation her prayer partner, James and finds herself pregnant. She fears the wrath of Grandpa Herman, the congregation and of God Himself. But the events that follow show Ninah that Gods ways are more mysterious than even Grandpa Herman understands.
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The Aguero Sisters
by Cristina García
Reina and Constancia Agüero are Cuban sisters who have been estranged for thirty years. Reina--tall, darkly beautiful, and magnetically sexual--still lives in her homeland. Once a devoted daughter of la revolución, she now basks in the glow of her many admiring suitors, believing only in what she can grasp with her five senses. The pale and very petite Constancia lives in the United States, a beauty expert who sees miracles and portents wherever she looks. After she and her husband retire to Miami, she becomes haunted by the memory of her parents and the unexplained death of her beloved mother so long ago. Told in the stirring voices of their parents, their daughters, and themselves, The Agüero Sisters tells a mesmerizing story about the power of myth to mask, transform, and finally, reveal the truth--as two women move toward an uncertain, long awaited reunion.
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Parable of the Sower
by Octavia E. Butler
In a futuristic society filled with chaos, young Lauren Olamina begins a journey that will test her will and ultimately start a new faith. Includes questions for discussion.
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Doomsday Book
by Connie Willis
Connie Willis draws upon her understanding of the universalities of human nature to explore the ageless issues of evil, suffering, and the indomitable will of the human spirit. “A tour de force.”—The New York Times Book Review For Kivrin, preparing to travel back in time to study one of the deadliest eras in humanity’s history was as simple as receiving inoculations against the diseases of the fourteenth century and inventing an alibi for a woman traveling alone. For her instructors in the twenty-first century, it meant painstaking calculations and careful monitoring of the rendezvous location where Kivrin would be received. But a crisis strangely linking past and future strands Kivrin in a bygone age as her fellows try desperately to rescue her. In a time of superstition and fear, Kivrin—barely of age herself—finds she has become an unlikely angel of hope during one of history’s darkest hours.
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In the Garden of Iden
by Kage Baker
Trained by The Company as a botanist and rendered immortal, Mendoza is sent back amidst the turmoil of Renaissance England with the assignment to safeguard a species of holly that contains properties to cure cancer for future generations.
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Contact
by Carl Sagan
In December, 1999, a multinational team journeys out to the stars, to the most awesome encounter in human history. Who -- or what -- is out there? In Cosmos, Carl Sagan explained the universe. In Contact, he predicts its future -- and our own.
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I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem
by Maryse Condé
Blending the fictional with the factual, this highly praised novel ranges from the warm shores of seventeenth-century Barbados to the harsh realities of the slave trade, and the cold customs of Puritanical New England. It tells the story of Tituba, the only Black victim of the Salem witch trials and in doing so recalls a life of extraordinary experiences and mystical powers. Foreword by Angela Davis. Winner of France's prestigious Grand Prix Literaire de la Femme.
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Babylon Rising: the Secret on Ararat
by Tim LaHaye
Michael Murphy, a field archaeologist and scholar of biblical prophecy, embarks on a quest that takes him to Mt. Ararat in search of Noah's Ark, an expedition that leads to dramatic discoveries about the Bible's prophecies.
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God Knows
by Joseph Heller
As the Biblical David lies on his death-bed he looks back on his own, crowded life and tells all.
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The Name of the Rose
by Umberto Eco
In 1327, finding his sensitive mission at an Italian abbey further complicated by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William of Baskerville turns detective.
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The Last Temptation of Christ
by Nikos Kazantzakis
In this story, Jesus is presented as both fully human and fully divine, free of sin but subject to all temptations.
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The Devil's Apocrypha
by John DeVito
The battle between good and evil began long ago. Before the birth of humanity, God and Satan fought for the domination of heaven. And, as everyone knows, God was triumphant over Satan’s evil. The tale has been told for thousands of years. But it’s all a lie. A manuscript has been discovered, written over a century ago by a priest who was visited by the Devil himself. A priest who left the church to seek out Three Mad Prophets and learn the truth. An Amazon.com bestseller, The Devil's Apocrypha is a tale that begins in another universe, before creation, and ends with a chilling prophesy. Here is the truth about the origin of God, his journey to our universe, and the battle for heaven. Discover why God manipulated the flesh of our race, the reason for his commandments…and why one being dared to try and stop him. This is the true story of Satan and God…and it’s unlike anything you’ve been told. "A terrifying blend of science, religion and philosophy!"—OccultForums.com, R.I. Davis "Dark and terrifying...the next Omen!"—Daniel Farrands, screenwriter, producer, director
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The Story of Adele H.
by François Truffaut
Based on a true story, this film concerns Adèle, the younger daughter of the famous author Victor Hugo, who follows her lover, Lt. Pinson, to Nova Scotia in 1863. Refusing to acknowledge his rejection of her, Adèle continues to pursue Pinson for years, until her obsession gives way to madness.
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The Secret Supper
by Javier Sierra
Milan, 1497: Leonardo da Vinci is completing his masterpiece, The Last Supper. Pope Alexander VI is determined to execute him after realizing that the painting contains clues to a baffling -- and blasphemous -- message, which he is determined to decode. The Holy Grail and the Eucharistic Bread are missing, there is no meat on the table and, shockingly, the apostles are portraits of well-known heretics -- none of them depicted with halos. And why has the artist painted himself into the scene with his back turned toward Jesus? The clues to Leonardo's greatest puzzle are right before your eyes....
