500 Steps Down/Read-alikes

Reading list

Books like 500 Steps Down

Fifteen books that share a wedding, a missing woman, a family telling different versions of one night, or a British Columbia setting. A line on each. No affiliate links.

By Tej Arora. Updated 16 September 2026.

4 books

Mysteries set at a wedding

Four books where the wedding is the plot rather than the backdrop.

  • The Guest List

    Lucy Foley, 2020

    A three-day wedding on a small island off the coast of Ireland, told in turn by the guests, with a body by the end of the reception.

  • You’re Invited

    Amanda Jayatissa, 2022

    A bride goes missing during a society wedding in Colombo, narrated by the former best friend who was not supposed to be invited.

  • The Plus One

    S.C. Lalli, 2024

    A destination wedding between two wealthy Indian-American families, told by a guest who has her own reason for being there.

  • One of the Girls

    Lucy Clarke, 2022

    A bachelorette weekend on a Greek island. Six friends, no way off it, and one of them does not come home.

4 books

Domestic suspense built on a family secret

Four books where the mystery is a person rather than a puzzle, and the danger is already in the house.

  • Local Woman Missing

    Mary Kubica, 2021

    A woman and her daughter vanish from a quiet American suburb, and the case reopens years later when the daughter is found.

  • What Happened to Nina?

    Dervla McTiernan, 2024

    A young woman does not come home from a weekend away, and her boyfriend and her family give two accounts of it that cannot both be true.

  • Are You Sara?

    S.C. Lalli, 2022

    Two young women with the same first name take the wrong ride home after a night out, and one of them is killed.

  • Everyone Here Is Lying

    Shari Lapena, 2023

    A nine-year-old girl disappears from a quiet street, and every household on it is holding something back.

500 Steps Down by Tej Arora, front cover: a wooden staircase descending through forest

500 Steps Down

A bride leaves her own wedding reception in Surrey, British Columbia. By morning she is missing.

3 books

Mysteries told by a whole community

Three books where the account of one night changes depending on who is telling it.

  • The Night of the Storm

    Nishita Parekh, 2024

    A hurricane traps an extended Indian-American family in one house in Houston, and one of them is killed before it passes.

  • Take It Back

    Kia Abdullah, 2019

    A courtroom novel set in east London. A teenage girl accuses four classmates, and the neighbourhood takes sides.

  • The Unquiet Dead

    Ausma Zehanat Khan, 2015

    A Toronto police procedural. A man falls from a cliff in Scarborough Bluffs, and the case runs back to the Srebrenica massacre.

4 books

Canadian and British Columbia suspense

Four Canadian writers. Two of the books are set in British Columbia.

  • The Party

    Robyn Harding, 2017

    A sixteenth birthday sleepover in an affluent household ends in an accident, and the families spend the next year lying about it.

  • Still Missing

    Chevy Stevens, 2010

    A realtor is taken from her own open house on Vancouver Island and held in a cabin for a year.

  • The Lost Ones

    Sheena Kamal, 2017

    Vancouver at street level. A woman with a talent for hearing a lie looks for the daughter she gave up.

  • The Maid

    Nita Prose, 2022

    A hotel maid finds a guest dead in his suite and becomes the obvious suspect. Prose is Canadian.

The one I wrote

500 Steps Down belongs on that shelf. A bride leaves her own reception in Surrey, British Columbia, in the car of the family friend she grew up beside. By morning she is missing, and he is the last person who saw her.

500 Steps Down is a mystery set during a Punjabi-Canadian wedding week in Surrey, British Columbia. A wedding mystery and slow-burn domestic suspense, told by the last person who saw the bride.

Forthcoming. Publication date to be announced.

More lists: mystery novels set at weddings and the Surrey, British Columbia of 500 Steps Down.