Lit Inspiration

Houston-Set Novels: A Sampling

Looking for some books to put on your Need-To-Read list? Here's a place to get started.

By Nick Esquer January 5, 2016 Published in the January 2016 issue of Houstonia Magazine

Terms of Endearment (1975) and The Evening Star (1992), Larry McMurtry

The novelist’s Houston Series follows a strained mother-daughter relationship.

Mercy, David Lindsey, 1990

A series of grisly murders terrorizes Houston’s wealthy.

Rush, Kim Wozencraft, 1990

A young narcotics officer goes undercover in Pasadena and Beaumont in this crime novel, which opens in the parking lot of Almeda Mall.

Towelhead, Alicia Erian, 2005

A Lebanese-American teen girl living in suburban Houston undergoes a sexual awakening during the Gulf War.

The Debs Series, Susan McBride, 2008–16

Rich Houston teens experience first-world struggles as they’re recruited into an exclusive debutante group.

Black Water Rising Attica Locke, 2009

A struggling young lawyer moves to 1980s Houston for a fresh start after an ugly divorce.

Galveston Nic Pizzolatto, 2010

Set in the beach town’s “wastelands,” this novel inspired the HBO series True Detective.

The Drifters Nathan Nix, 2013

A Houston girl, feeling left behind after her friends go off to college, starts down a path of self-discovery.

Magnolia City Duncan W. Alderson, 2014

The oil-fueled opulence of Houston in the 1920s sets the scene for this romantic drama.

Romance, crime, sex, murder, mystery, college life. These novels cover genres all across the board. And the best part? They're all set in Houston.

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