Adult book ideas for nearly 13 year old boy please

Diana Wynne Jones is great - her YA books are really interesting and I love them as an adult. Charmed Life, the Dark Lord of Derkholm and Howl's Moving Castle are good places to start. I see The Graveyard Book has already been mentioned - Neverwhere, Stardust and Anansi Boys are also really good. An Ember in the Ashes is good, as is the Steerswoman series. Finally Lois McMaster Bujold's Chalion series is good - start with The Curse of Chalion.

Mine is slightly older but likes the old style thriller type books. James Bond, anything by Tom Clancy or Clive Cussler. Grown up themes but not too much sex or bad language.

Oh and also Small Great Things by Jodi Piccoult. Really interesting and relevant discussion on race.

Oh and also Small Great Things by Jodi Piccoult. Really interesting and relevant discussion on race.

Ben Elton is a good suggestion, as is Sherlock Holmes.

How about Bonfire if the Vanities - can’t remember if there’s any sex in it though. It’s about a man who accidentally commits a crime but makes it all worse/in built prejudice etc.

I was just going to suggest Agatha Christie - my 13yo DD loves a bit of Marple!
She is currently devouring the Dan Brown stories (the Da Vinci Code was a suggested book from school before people start criticising).
If he liked His Dark Material has he tried the Lockheart stories also by him - young female amateur detective in the Victorian times. Another hit with my DD.
There are the Young James Bond books by Charlies Higson which my DS enjoyed, or maybe some of the real James Bond?

Robin Hobb's Farswer Trilogy is regularly recommended for fantasy lovers and as a progression from David Eddings. There's quite a bit of torture but don't think it's too gruesome and there's not much sex at all.

A great pile of agatha christie
A great pile of Dick francis

Has he read the Lionboy series?

Arthur C Clarke and Asimov.

John Christopher? Tripods series, prince in waiting trilogy, empty world, death of grass.

Good Omens (if he hasn't already read it)

Ben Elton - stark, gridlock, this other Eden

Robert Heinlein - farmer in the sky, podkayne of mars, starship troopers, space cadet, tunnel in the sky

I don't think I'd offer turn of the screw- it's all a bit disturbing. Nothing at all explicit, but very dark and twisted, whatever you decide happened...

Another vote for Sherlock Holmes
Great Expectations
The Turn of the Screw
Agatha Christie
1984
Catch-22
Another vote for John Wyndham
H G Wells
Wuthering Heights
Yes to Susan Hill
Wilkie Collins
The Marcus Didius Falco Roman mysteries series by Lindsay Davis
Oliver Twist
Oscar Wilde's short stories
The Sunne in Splendour

All 'adult books' I enjoyed in my early teens!

Also some YA suggestions

Lockwood and Co series (if he likes Skulduggery)
Yes to Lian Hearn trilogy
The Bloodsong trilogy by Melvin Burgess
Another vote for Malorie Blackman
Eragon trilogy by Christopher Paolini
The Cup of the World Peter Dickinson
A Gathering Light Jennifer Donnelly

Thought of a couple more - I Capture the Castle is lovely and might be something a bit different for him.

Also tentatively suggesting The Shadow of The Wind - it's a judgment call on your part because there are some adult themes (won't say what for fear of spoilers!) but it isn't at all graphic and it's one of the most thrilling and beautiful narratives ever.

Have you tried him on Terry Pratchett? Lots of humour in those to appeal to a teenage boy!

Has he read the Philip Pullman Dark Materials trilogy? Could be right up his street if he likes magic / fantasy.

The Night Circus is wonderful and not too adult for a 13yo.

It might be a bit soon, but would he read dickens? The plots are so brilliant, and if he got through Tolkien he's probably not going to be daunted - perhaps try him on A Tale of Two Cities first as its the shortest and most accessible.

How about The Dark is Rising - that's a series I LOVED at that age.

Tom Sharpe too

I was like your son. Presumably he’s read Aidan Chambers’ stuff?

George Orwell
Brave New World
Catcher in the Rye
YY to James Herriot, also similar stories about a teacher from Gervais Phinn
Bill Bryson?
Adrian Mole Series
YY to Douglas Adams

There is a set about Arthurian england, by Mary Stuart (? Sounds unlikely now.) called the Crystal Cave.

He might like Biggles, also MC Beaton's Hamish McBeth series.

If he liked Belgariad, he'll like Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. It's big too, so it will keep him going a while.

Piers Anthony's Xanth series is good, and enormous. In the line of Terry Pratchett.

There's enough there to keep him going quite a long time!

Mallorie Blackman?
Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy?
Curious dog author wrote boom,my D's loved that one

How about:

The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman
Stonebird - Mike Revell
Skellig - David Almond

I loved the girl with all the gifts too, and there's a sequel called the boy on the bridge.

I was coming on to say David Eddings, Jasper Fforde, Anne McCaffrey, etc. But they've all been said already.

What about Sherlock Holmes? I've got a bit in my form at school who is steadily reading his way through them and thoroughly enjoying them.

Or Michael Grant. The gone series was very good and I believe he's written another series since that one but I haven't read it.

Kelly Armstrong's young adult books (the proper adult ones are a bit too graphic for what you're after) are good, but they do involve a bit of running away from things.

I would get the Kindle unlimited tbh. Once he's found a few he likes the recommendations learn what sort of books to put at the top of the list. Unless he can find most of the books he's reading either in a library or charity shops I find the Kindle unlimited the most cost effective way of reading for me and dd1 as we're both bookworms.

strumpers we were obviously in sync and posting at same time :)

How about all the Sherlock Holmes books?

Bloody autocorrect. Day of the Triffids and Midwich Cuckoos