Books like Interview with a Dead Editor — picked by fans

Tori Winters learns she has inherited a house in Granbury, Texas, and the timing is perfect. As a hospice nurse, she is the primary witness in a homicide. To escape the threats, she packs up and heads to Texas, where she finds a house and a family history that she never expected.

Ms. Dickason is a retired Dallas police officer who wove a little-known part of Dallas’ prohibition history into this novel. The characters and plot are believable and well-written. I am looking forward to the second book.

Pastor Matt Hayden is trying to make a new life in the small town of Wilks, Texas, but he has a secret. Once a Miami detective, he is now in hiding from the people who destroyed his family. He can no longer be an officer, but he can assist the local sheriff in uncovering the town’s best-kept secrets.

I’ve truly enjoyed the Pastor Matt series as it’s easy for me to visualize the small Texas town and its people. Rooting for Matt and Angie, as well as the other characters, to find a little faith and happiness in the darkest parts of life keeps the pages turning. This is a series with four books, and the fifth is forthcoming.

Maddy Reynolds returned to her hometown to straighten out her life. She started a business doing odd jobs, including that of a chicken farmer. Discovering the body of her boss in a chicken house wasn’t something she wanted to be added to her list of accomplishments. When a neighboring farmer is arrested, the accused’s mother hires Maddy to investigate.

The stories and people that make up the charm of Small Town, Texas, are well-represented in this book. Maddy’s story and motivations are relatable, as well as her mistakes and missteps. Her need to take care of her family is shown in her willingness to do any work and in her need to survive.

Based in Galveston, Texas, Claire Abelard works as a ghost tour guide as a cover for her real job for The Bureau of Historical Preservation. As a high-level sensitive, her responsibilities are to protect the projections (ghosts) under her care, although she frequently answers the call of rogue projections. While assigned to give a private tour to a ghost-hunting group, she receives reports that rogue projections are disappearing.

Ghost Agents and the subsequent two books were page-turners. I don’t normally subscribe to newsletters for additional materials, but I especially wanted to discover more once the series ended. The projections (ghosts) are entertaining, the historical elements are well-researched and support the plot. I particularly enjoyed the family dynamics and the romance that develops for the main character.

Kleypas is better known for her historical fiction, but her contemporary series knocks it out of the park. There’s never been a better enemies to lovers pair than Gabe and Liberty. This book also has wrong side of the tracks vibes as well as rags-to-riches gold. Their reasons for hating each other are sound—not the kind of ridiculous drivel we sometimes get served. Secrets abound, and when these two finally feel like they’re finding their footing, Liberty’s first love comes back… and then it really heats up! Sugar Daddy isn’t what you expect when you open the book, it’s so much better!

I tend to be a language-driven reader, as delighted by an unexpected and beautiful sentence as I am by a thrilling turn of a plot. On the second page of Flores’s novel about genetic manipulation and organized crime near the Texas/Mexico border, we get this stunner: “It was a roosterless dawn, in the part of South Texas where no beast yawned.” I knew from that moment that I was in excellent hands and would follow the book wherever the author wanted to take me. Flores takes multiple genres—sci-fi, surrealism, crime, and others—and gives us an utterly original tale that defies easy summary. And it’s very funny!

I dare you to read this book and not belly laugh at least a half dozen times.

I love that Jenny Lawson can poke fun at herself and her relationships and do so in a way that you can’t help but cheer for her. This book may have the highest laughs per page ratio I’ve ever read.

This book's opening scene is one of the most visceral and shocking I have ever read. Incredibly tragic, it hits you in the gut with the force of a hammer blow before sweeping you along on an adventure of epic proportions. Once I started reading, I was unable to stop.

I just had to know what happened next and what lay in store for the main protagonists, Kati and Jenni. Somewhere along the way, I fell in love with them, and I will never forget the hours I spent by their side. My only regret is that the story ended, though I’ve heard rumors of a possible continuation. If that’s true, it will be a dream come true!

After reading a lot of true crime, I need a break from reality. That’s when I escape into murderous thrillers by May Cobb, an author many people call the Jackie Collins of Texas.

Whereas Jackie wrote about the glamorous and cosmopolitan, May writes about the small-town scions of East Texas, who think they’re glamorous and cosmopolitan.

A Likeable Woman, which comes out July 11, 2023, revolves around Kira, who has believed since she was 12 years old that her mother was murdered. Everyone else in Longview, Texas, including her grandmother and sister, knows that Sadie Foster committed suicide.

Decades later, Kira learns that her grandmother holds an unpublished memoir written by Sadie that indicates Kira might have been right all along.

A Likeable Woman contains everything that drives my writing passions—murder, memoir, and East Texas—and reads at breakneck speed. 

The China Bayles series by Susan Wittig-Albert introduced me to characters who are brave without being superpowered.

China Bayles is a female protagonist who is strong-willed and intelligent. The stories about her never emphasize her looks other than describing things that would be overlooked on television.

She’s left her job as a Texas attorney and runs an herb shop (it expands in later books). She’s more likely to have dirt under her nails and sneakers on her feet rather than a fresh mani-pedi with stilettos for superhero-style espionage.

China is surrounded by a tight group of loved ones. These are characters that go through troubles. They support each other. The series gives middle-aged people something to embrace when typical pop culture never lets anyone age.

After reading some China Bayles stories, I noticed myself doing new things like planting small porch pots of pansies and herbs. With small steps come… show more.