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On 2 July 1881 President James Garfield was shot at a railway station in Washington. He lived for another 79 days while his doctors probed the wound with unsterilised fingers, and Alexander Graham Bell built a metal detector to find the bullet. That is Destiny of the Republic (2011), the second book by Candice Millard, a former writer and editor at National Geographic. Her first, The River of Doubt (2005), follows Theodore Roosevelt down an uncharted Brazilian river from December 1913; three of the expedition’s nineteen men did not come back, and Roosevelt nearly died of an infected leg. She has since written about Winston Churchill’s escape in the Boer War and the search for the source of the Nile. The ten writers below share her method and her subject: archives turned into scenes, and famous lives caught at their most dangerous moment.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 authors · Narrative history · Explorers and presidents · Updated October 2026
Quick answer
If you love Candice Millard, start with David Grann, whose The Lost City of Z (2009) follows a British explorer who vanished in the Amazon in 1925, eleven years after Roosevelt came out of it. For an American murder set beside a great public event, read Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City (2003), and for the Nile, Alan Moorehead’s The White Nile (1960). Further down is a comic road trip through the sites of three presidential assassinations, Garfield’s among them.
10 authors like Candice Millard
Where to start if you loved Candice Millard
If you loved The River of Doubt, read David Grann.
The Lost City of Z: a British explorer who vanished in the Amazon in 1925.
If you loved River of the Gods, read Alan Moorehead.
The White Nile (1960): the nineteenth-century search for the river’s source.
If you loved Destiny of the Republic, read Sarah Vowell.
Assassination Vacation: Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley, visited by road.
If you loved Hero of the Empire, read Thomas Pakenham.
The Boer War (1979): the whole war that Churchill escaped from.
If you want more Millard, read all four of her books.
The River of Doubt (2005), Destiny of the Republic (2011), Hero of the Empire (2016) and River of the Gods (2022). A fifth, The Life Savers, is listed for April 2027.
Frequently asked questions about authors like Candice Millard
Who writes like Candice Millard?
David Grann, Erik Larson and Alan Moorehead are the closest. Grann follows an explorer lost in the Amazon, Larson sets a murder beside a great public event, and Moorehead told the story of the Nile’s exploration in 1960.
What should I read after The River of Doubt?
David Grann’s The Lost City of Z (2009), set in the same rainforest, and Nathaniel Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea (2000), another expedition pushed to the edge of survival.
Is Erik Larson like Candice Millard?
Yes. Both turn archives and letters into scene-by-scene narrative history, and both like two lives moving towards each other: Millard’s president and assassin, Larson’s World’s Fair and serial killer.
Does Candice Millard have a new book?
Yes. The Life Savers: Three Fearless Women and a Secret Network in the Great War is listed for April 2027 by Knopf Doubleday. It follows a British nurse, a French teacher and a Belgian princess who sheltered Allied soldiers trapped behind German lines after 1914.
Is Death by Lightning based on a book?
Yes. The 2025 Netflix series Death by Lightning is adapted from Destiny of the Republic (2011), with Michael Shannon as Garfield and Matthew Macfadyen as his assassin, Charles Guiteau.
Which Candice Millard book should I read first?
The four books are unconnected, so start with the subject that interests you most. The River of Doubt (2005) was her first; Destiny of the Republic (2011) won the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime.
Sources
- Candice Millard — Wikipedia
- Author behind Death by Lightning on the soap opera of human history — Lawrence Journal-World
- River of the Gods — Kirkus Reviews
- Roosevelt–Rondon Scientific Expedition — Wikipedia
List last reviewed 31 October 2026.
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