The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (1989) follows the building of a fictional cathedral in twelfth-century England. Follett was partly inspired by Salisbury and its close, and readers who arrive with this novel in their heads find the cathedral's construction logic suddenly visible in the stone itself.
Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (1891) is set across Hardy's Wessex, which maps loosely onto Wiltshire, Dorset, and Somerset. Tess's journey through the chalk landscape — including a memorable episode at Stonehenge — gives the countryside around Salisbury a weight it keeps long after the book is finished.
Sarum by Edward Rutherford (1987) traces the history of the Salisbury area from the Ice Age to the twentieth century through a handful of fictional families. It is vast, occasionally sprawling, and indispensable if you want to understand why Old Sarum matters and how the medieval city grew out of it.
The Ancient Paths by Graham Robb (2013) reconstructs what Robb argues was a coherent system of long-distance Celtic roads across Europe, several of which pass through or near Salisbury Plain. Thought-provoking before a visit to Stonehenge or the Ridgeway.