If you love Maine, you probably love reading stories that take place in Maine. Unlike other Maine book lists, we’ve tried to include the specific Maine locations in each book, in addition to dividing it by genre. If you have other books we are missing, please comment below and we will add them for all to appreciate! Note: This post contains affiliate links, which help us sustain our website. If you find a book you are interested in reading, clicking through and purchasing helps support our site!
Children’s
1. Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey (Blue Peninsula/Deer Isle)
2. Fandango: The Key To The Wind by Pel Stockwell and Jeff Stockwell (Mount Desert Island)
3. A Little Maid of Old Maine by Alice Turner Curtis (Maine coastal settlement)
4. The Adventures of Bubba Jones (#3) Time Traveling Through Acadia National Park (A National Park Series) by Jeff Alt (Acadia National Park)
5. A Maid of Bar Harbor by Henrietta G. Rowe (Bar Harbor)
6. One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey (Coastal Maine)
Middle Grade/Young Adult
7. Charlotte’s Web by EB White (Blue Hill Fair)
8. Small as an Elephant by Jennifer Richard Jacobson (Mount Desert Island)
9. Need series by Carrie Jones (Ellsworth)
10. Timestoppers series by Carrie Jones (Aurora AKA we think a fake name for Bar Harbor)
11. Lost on a Mountain In Maine by Don Fendler (Mt. Katahdin)
12. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin (fictional Riverboro, Maine which is like Hollis, Maine)
13. The Summer Experiment by Cathie Pelletier (Allagash)
14. Delirium Trilogy by Lauren Oliver (Portland)
Mystery/Thriller
15. Amos and Hannah: A Maine Mystery by Elizabeth McKey Hulbert (MDI)
16. Boar Island by Nevada Barr (Acadia National Park)
17. Murder on the Rocks by Karen Macinerney (Cranberry Island)
18. Murder Most Maine by Karen Macinerney (Cranberry Island)
19. The Body in the Kelp by Katherine Hall Page (Sanpere Island, Penobscot Bay)
20. Punish Me With Kisses by William Bayer (Bar Harbor, Maine)
21. Creature Discomforts by Susan Conant (Acadia National Park)
22. Stay Hidden by Paul Doiron (Maquoit Island, Roughly 20 miles off of the coast from Freeport)
23. Mapping Murder by William D. Andrews (small Maine town)
24. The Lovely Ambition by Mary Ellen Chase (Downeast Maine)
25. The Mystery of Bar Harbor: A Melo-Dramatic Romance of France and Mt. Desert (1887) by Alsop Leffingwell (Bar Harbor)
26. The SEDI Defense (2005) by Wayne P. Libhart (MDI)
27. Death and a Pot of Chowder: A Maine Murder Mystery by Cornelia Kidd (fictional Quarry Island)
28. Murder on Mount Desert by David Rawson (MDI)
29. The Bell in the Fog by John Stephen Strange (AKA Dorothy Stockbridge Tillett) (Downeast Maine)
30. The Wall by Mary Roberts Rinehart (a disguised version of Bar Harbor)
31. The Yellow Room by Mary Roberts Rinehart (set in a town modeled after Bar Harbor)
32. The Winston Crisp Mysteries (Series) by David A. Crossman (Take place on a fictional island in Penobscot Bay)
33. Jane Bunker Mystery Series by Linda Greenlaw (Bar Harbor)
34. A Little Maine Murder Series by Betty Jane Morison (Bar Harbor)
35. The DNA Connection by Wayne P. Libhart (MDI)
36. Downeast Justice by Wayne P. Libhart (MDI)
37. The Inheritance by Wayne P. Libhart (MDI)
38. The Jury is Excused by Wayne P. Libhart (MDI)
39. The Mystery of the Clone’s Grave by Wayne P. Libhart (MDI)
40. The Sedi Defense by Wayne P. Libhart (MDI)
41. The Deadly Hunt by Wayne P. Libhart (MDI)
42. Surreal Estate by David Marlow (Cranberry Island)
43. Official Secrets by Jim Moore (Belfast, Maine)
44. The Poacher’s Son by Paul Doiron (North Woods Of Maine)
45. Murder She Wrote Box Set (Rum and Razors, Brandy and Bullets, Martinis and Mayhem, Manhattans and Murder) by Donald Fletcher and Jessica Bain (Cabot Cove, Maine – fictional town modeled after Kennebunkport)
46. The Cutting: A McCabe and Savage Thriller (Book 1 of five part series including The Chill of Night, Darkness First, The Girl in the Glass, The Girl on the Bridge) by James Hayman (Portland, Maine)
47. Lifeline: A Jackmcmorrow Mystery by Gerry Boyle (Portland area)
Fiction
48. Wanting Something More by Kathy Love (Millbrook, Maine)
49. The Cider House Rules by John Irving (rural Maine)
50. Peyton Place by Grace Metalious (Camden, Maine)
51. The Police Know Everything by Sanford Phippen (Downeast Maine)
52. My Dear Sarah Anne: Letters From a Century Ago by Teisha A.W. Smedstad (Bar Harbor–takes place when Bar Harbor was still known as Eden)
53. Land Under Heaven by Pearl Ashby Tibbetts (Aroostook County)
54. The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Authors (And Their Muses) by Terri-Lynne DeFino (Bar Harbor)
55. Candles on Bay Street by K.C. McKinnon (Fort Kent/Allagash)
56. A Romance of Mount Desert by A.A. Hayes (MDI)
57. The Way Life Should Be by Christina Baker Kline (Small, rural Maine Coast Town)
58. Strong for Potatoes By Cynthia Thayer (Eastern Maine)
59. Blue Hurricane by F. Van Wyck Mason Blue Hurricane (Penobscot County)
60. Retsbol Rises: An Abenaki Lobster Tale by Jayne Rowe Jones (MDI)
61. Ghosts of Eden by T.M. Gray (MDI)
62. Empire Falls by Richard Russo (fictional town of Empire Falls, modeled after a ‘decaying Maine town’ movie was filmed in Skowheagan)
63. The Funeral Makers (Book 1 of several including A Wedding on the Banks, The Weight of Winter, and The One-Way Bridge) by Cathie Pelletier (fictional town Mattagash, Maine which is a lot like Allagash, Maine)
64. A Year After Henry by Cathie Pelletier (Bixley, Maine)
Memoirs
65. Away Happens by Phil Crossman (Vinalhaven, Maine)
66. The Turkish Lover by Esmeralda Santiago (Partially on Mount Desert Island)
67. On Writing: A Memoir of The Craft by Stephen King (Bangor and other Maine locations)
68. In a Rocket Made of Ice by Gail Gutradt (Bar Harbor & Cambodia)
69. Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches by John Hodgman (Coastal Maine)
70. A Year In The Maine Woods by Annette Jackson (Maine Woods, Allagash waterway area)
71. A Year In The Maine Woods by Bernd Heinrich (Maine Woods, ‘east of the Presidential Mountains’)
72. Nine Mile Bridge: Three Years In The Maine Woods by Helen Hamlin (headwaters of Allagash River)
73. The Stranger In The Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel (Millinocket area)
74. The Northern Farm: A Glorious Year on a Small Maine Farm by Henry Beston (Damariscotta Lake area)
75. The Maine Woods by Henry David Thoreau (Maine Woods)
Romance
76. Beyond Tomorrow by Fern Michaels (Bar Harbor)
77. Mail by Mameve Medwed (Old Town, Maine)
78. The Magic Ship: A Novel of Romance in Old Bar Harbor (1977; transl. from German by Sandra Paretti)
79. The Camden Summer by LaVyrle Spencer (Camden)
80. Embers by Antoinette Stockenberg (Bar Harbor)
81. Margaret from Maine by Joseph Monninger (Rural Maine)
82. The Mists of Adriana by Roger Woodbury (MDI & other Maine locations)
83. Bennett’s Island Series by Elisabeth Ogilvie (All set in a mythical island town on the edge of an outer island on the Penobscot Bay)
84. The Calhoun Women (a Silhouette series) by Nora Roberts (Bar Harbor)
Horror
85. Pet Sematary by Stephen King (Orono and Ludlow) The film was shot in Hancock…
86. Salem’s Lot by Stephen King (Fictional Maine town of Jerusalem’s Lot located in Cumberland County)
87. Carrie by Stephen King (Fictional Maine town of Chamberlain)
88. Cujo by Stephen King (Fictional Maine town of Castle Rock)
89. The Dead Zone by Stephen King (Fictional Maine town of Castle Rock)
90. Doctor Sleep by Stephen King (Fictional Maine town of Castle Rock)
91. Revival by Stephen King (Fictional Maine town of Castle Rock)
92. Needful Things by Stephen King (Fictional Maine town of Castle Rock)
93. It by Stephen King (Fictional Maine town of Derry)
94. Insomnia by Stephen King (Fictional Maine town of Derry)
95. Bag of Bones by Stephen King (TR-90, Derry, and other fictional and non-fictional Maine locations)
96. Dreamcatcher by Stephen King (Near the fictional Maine town of Derry)
97. Fair Extension (novella) by Stephen King (On the way to the fictional Maine town of Derry)
98. Different Seasons by Stephen King, a compilation of four novellas set primarily in Maine
99. Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King (Set in the fictional Maine island of Little Tall Island, which has been represented as MDI)
Anthologies & Compilations
100. Strange Maine: Anthology of science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories set in Maine, with works by Stephen King, Fritz Leiber, Pangborn, Ruth Sawyer, Harriet Prescott Spofford, Jane Yolen, Thomas A. Easton, Charlotte Armstrong, more. (Maine)
101. Murder & Mystery in Maine: Collection of mystery short stories in Maine, by Harry Kemelman, Patricia Highsmith, Holman F. Day, others. (Maine)
102. Pine Tree Pioneers: 20 Tales of Early Mainers: Twenty stories of Maine’s history, originally appearing in selected publications of long ago, set from 1640 to 1916, by authors including Seba Smith, C. A. Stephens, Lincoln Colcord, Arlo Bates, Sarah Orne Jewett, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Mary Ellen Chase, and Ben Ames Williams (Maine)
103. Love On The Rocks: Stories of Rusticators and Romance on Mount Desert Island, edited by John and Kathryn Muether (Maine)
104. The State We’re In: Maine Stories by Ann Beattie (Various Maine Locations)
105. Return to Moose River: In Search of the Spirit of the Great North Woods by Earl Brechlin (North Woods Maine)
106. The Country of Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett (fictional Maine coastal village)
Have more to add? Let us know in the comments and we’ll update the post!