A List of 11 Novels About Treasure Maps

  1. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

    This classic adventure is the gold standard for treasure maps in literature. When young Jim Hawkins discovers a mysterious map in a dead pirate’s sea chest, he is drawn into a perilous voyage for buried gold.

    The map itself becomes a catalyst for mutiny, betrayal, and shifting alliances, driving the unforgettable conflict with the scheming Long John Silver.

  2. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

    The promise of a legendary treasure provides the engine for one of literature's greatest tales of revenge. While wrongfully imprisoned, Edmond Dantès befriends an old abbé who bequeaths him a map revealing the location of a vast fortune hidden on the island of Monte Cristo.

    This map is not just a guide to riches but the very instrument of Dantès's transformation into the powerful and calculating Count.

  3. The Gold Bug by Edgar Allan Poe

    In this masterfully crafted short novel, a reclusive gentleman named William Legrand discovers a scrap of parchment containing a complex cryptogram. Through brilliant deduction, he reveals the coded instructions as a map, which leads him on a suspenseful hunt for Captain Kidd's buried treasure on Sullivan’s Island.

    Poe’s story is a foundational text for tales of coded maps and puzzle-solving.

  4. King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard

    Guided by a faded map drawn in blood and rumored to lead to a legendary diamond mine, adventurer Allan Quatermain leads an expedition into the uncharted heart of Africa.

    Haggard’s novel is a quintessential lost-world adventure, where the ancient map serves as the only guide through treacherous mountains, lost civilizations, and deadly trials in the search for unimaginable fortune.

  5. Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne

    The adventure begins when Professor Lidenbrock finds a cryptic runic message hidden within an ancient manuscript. This coded parchment is the map, providing instructions for a seemingly impossible descent into a volcano to reach a subterranean world.

    The novel follows the professor and his nephew Axel as they meticulously follow the map's strange guidance into the planet's core.

  6. Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton

    During a summer holiday, five children discover an old shipwreck and a long-lost treasure map washed up on Kirrin Island. Their discovery kicks off a thrilling hunt filled with secret passages, hidden dungeons, and a race against villains to claim the ingots of gold.

    Blyton captures the pure excitement of a childhood adventure centered on a tangible, mysterious map.

  7. The Secret of the Unicorn by Hergé

    In this beloved graphic novel from the Tintin series, the adventure is sparked by a model ship that holds a secret. When Tintin discovers a cryptic parchment hidden in the ship’s mast, he learns it is one of three maps that, when combined, reveal the location of the lost treasure of the pirate Red Rackham.

    The story is a fast-paced quest to find the other two parchments and assemble the complete map.

  8. Holes by Louis Sachar

    At a juvenile detention center, Stanley Yelnats is forced to dig holes in a sun-scorched desert. He soon realizes the digging is not random; the warden is using the boys to search for something.

    The "map" in this novel is brilliantly woven from intersecting family histories, local legends, and geographic clues from the past, all converging on the location of a buried treasure and the breaking of a family curse.

  9. The Goonies by James Kahn

    Based on the iconic film, this story follows a group of kids who discover a 17th-century treasure map in an attic. The map, belonging to the legendary pirate "One-Eyed Willy," guides them through a series of booby-trapped tunnels beneath their town in a desperate attempt to find the treasure and save their homes from foreclosure.

    It’s a quintessential adventure where the map is a key to both fortune and survival.

  10. The Codex by Douglas Preston

    After their eccentric father, a famed tomb raider, vanishes, his three sons are drawn into a deadly race to find his greatest discovery: a lost Mayan city and its legendary treasure. Their only guide is a priceless, ancient Mayan codex—a book that functions as a complex and dangerous map.

    Pursued by rivals, they must decipher its secrets while navigating the perilous Honduran jungle.

  11. Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton

    Set in the 17th-century Caribbean, this swashbuckling adventure centers on a daring plan to raid a Spanish treasure galleon. Captain Charles Hunter assembles a crew of privateers after acquiring secret charts and intelligence that map out the vessel’s location and the impregnable fortress that protects it.

    The success of the high-stakes heist depends entirely on the accuracy of his maps and the audacity of his plan.