What’s in it
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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorThe Two-Bear Mambo
Joe R. Lansdale · 273 pages
Florida Grange, Leonard's drop-dead gorgeous lawyer and Hap's former lover, has vanished while in pursuit of the real story behind the jailhouse death of a legendary bluesman's son. Fearing the worst, Hap and Leonard set out to do the investigating the good ol' boy cops can't--or won't--do themselves. Lansdale's new hardcover, Bad Chili, is due for release in August.
Zora and Me
Victoria Bond, T.R. Simon
A fictionalized account of Zora Neale Hurston's childhood with her best friend Carrie, in Eatonville, Florida, as they learn about life, death, and the differences between truth, lies, and pretending. Includes an annotated bibliography of the works of Zora Neale Hurston, a short biography of the author, and information about Eatonville, Florida.
Shakespeare's Champion
Charlaine Harris · 224 pages
When Lily stumbles upon the well-built corpse of a local body builder-his neck broken by a barbell-the town's underlying racial tension begins to boil over. The white victim was somehow connected to two unsolved murders of black residents of Shakespeare-and a dogged policeman is determined to stop the killing. But it is Lily herself who may have to decide whether to stay and fight for justice, or
Sunset Limited
James Lee Burke · 401 pages
In a land soaked with sin, Dave Robicheaux is dueling with killers, ghosts, and a woman's revenge.... The townspeople of New Iberia, Louisiana, didn't crucify Megan Flynn's father. They just didn't catch whoever pinned him to a barn wall with sixteen-penny nails. Decades later, Megan, now a world-famous photojournalist, has come back to the bayou, looking for cop Dave Robicheaux. It was Dave
Penumbra
Carolyn Haines · 280 pages
The daughter of a white mother and black father, beautician and undertaker's assistant Jade Dupree comes to the aid of her white half-sister, Marlena, when the woman is found badly beaten and her young daughter kidnapped.
The Quiet Game
Greg Iles · 564 pages
Widower Penn Cage returns to his hometown of Natchez, Mississippi, where, finding that his father is being blackmailed, he reopens a notorious murder case that involves powerfully dangerous town forces, the FBI, and his own past.
Go Set a Watchman
Harper Lee · 288 pages
Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch -- "Scout" -- returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise's homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest to her. Memori
Deep South
Nevada Barr · 346 pages
Nevada Barr's ever-popular Anna Pigeon series is consistently praised as "exceptional" (Denver Post), "stunning" (Seattle Times), and "superb" (New York Times Book Review). In Deep South, Park Ranger Anna Pigeon heads to Mississippi, only to encounter terrible secrets in the heart of the southAnna Pigeon finally gives in to her bureaucratic clock-and signs on for a promotion. Next thing she knows,
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Mildred D. Taylor · 276 pages
Set in Mississippi at the height of the Depression, it is the story of one family's struggle to maintain their integrity, pride, and independence. It is a story of physical survival, but more important, it is a story of the survival of the human spirit. And, too, it is Cassie's story -- Cassie Logan, an independent girl raised by a family for whom independence is primary, a family determined not t
A Thousand Never Evers
Shana Burg · 310 pages
IN KUCKACHOO, MISSISSIPPI, 1963, Addie Ann Pickett worships her brother Elias and follows in his footsteps by attending the black junior high school. But when her careless act leads to her brother's disappearance and possible murder, Addie Ann, Mama, and Uncle Bump struggle with not knowing if he's dead or alive. Then a good deed meant to unite Kuckachoo sets off a chain of explosive events. Addie
Necessary Lies
Diane Chamberlain · 370 pages
Caring for her family on their mid-20th-century tobacco farm after the loss of her parents, 15-year-old Ivy connects with Grace County social worker Jane, who strains her personal and professional relationships with her advocacy of Ivy's family, whose dark secrets test Jane's resolve against racial tensions and state-mandated sterilizations.
Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation
Octavia E. Butler · 240 pages
The book is the first-person account of a young African-American woman writer, Dana, who finds herself being shunted in time between her Los Angeles, California home in 1976 and a pre-Civil War Maryland plantation. (This is the comic adaptation of the original novel written by Olivia E. Bulter)
The Bondwoman's Narrative
Hannah Crafts · 351 pages
Possibly the first novel written by a black woman slave, this work is both a historically important literary event and a gripping autobiographical story in its own right.
The White Road
John Connolly · 405 pages
In South Carolina, a young black man faces the death penalty for the rape and murder of Marianne Larousse, daughter of one of the wealthiest men in the state. It's a case that nobody wants to touch, a case with its roots in old evil, and old evil is private detective Charlie Parker's speciality. But Parker is about to make a descent into the abyss, a confrontation with dark forces that threaten al
Fixin' To Die
Tonya Kappes · 221 pages
Kenni Lowry likes to think the zero crime rate in Cottonwood, Kentucky is due to her being sheriff, but she quickly discovers the ghost of her grandfather, the town’s previous sheriff, has been scaring off any would-be criminals since she was elected. When the town’s most beloved doctor is found murdered on the very same day as a jewelry store robbery, and a mysterious symbol ties the crime sce
Bluebird, Bluebird
Attica Locke · 320 pages
When it comes to law and order, East Texas plays by its own rules--a fact that Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger, knows all too well. Deeply ambivalent about growing up black in the lone star state, he was the first in his family to get as far away from Texas as he could. Until duty called him home. When his allegiance to his roots puts his job in jeopardy, he travels up Highway 59 to the small
The Help
Kathryn Stockett · 464 pages
Be prepared to meet three unforgettable women: Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
Tom Franklin · 305 pages
"In the late 1970s, Larry Ott and Silas '32' Jones were boyhood pals. Their worlds were as different as night and day: Larry, the child of lower-middle-class white parents, and Silas, the son of a poor, single black mother. Yet for a few months the boys stepped outside of their circumstances and shared a special bond. But then tragedy struck: Larry took a girl on a date to a drive-in movie, and sh
A Tisket, A Tasket, A Fancy Stolen Casket
Fran Rizer · 288 pages
Bubbles meets Six Feet Under in the new Calamine Parrish mystery series. Mortuary cosmetologist Calamine Parrish stares death in the face every day. But when she finds a hypodermic needle in the neck of an "accidental" drowning victim, and the victim's fancy casket is stolen, Callie finds herself in over her head-and in the way of a killer.
A Day to Pick Your Own Cotton
Michael R. Phillips · 310 pages
It's impossible to describe to anyone who's never been a slave what it's like to suddenly realize you're free. I would never forget what I felt like that day as long as I lived. Two very different girls, one the daughter of a slave, the other the daughter of a plantation owner, must fight to stay alive -- and together -- after being orphaned by the Civil War. Katie and Mayme are forced to grow up
The Scribe
Matthew Guinn · 304 pages
Investigating a series of murders targeting post-Civil War Atlanta's wealthiest black entrepreneurs, a disgraced former detective partners with the city's first African-American officer in a case marked by fierce racial, political, and personal tensions.