similar to dock, but specific to the land side where dock usually refers to the ships side.
I don't agree. Docks can be the water, or the enclosure of the water or a pier or a wharf. Wharves are subsets or parts of docks.
where are wharfs seen in stories? What makes a wharf different from a dock?
Wharves are seen in the more peurile detective novels like the [Hardy boys]? or [Nancy Drew]? books.
In fact it seems to be a iron law that any visit to a wharf will be in the fog and will result in being soaked over the head with a pipe. This is the famous Sappier Wharf hypothesis.