Books like Last Warriors on the Llano — picked by fans

Georgie Gail is one of the most colorful characters I’ve ever read. There is nothing conventional about her personality, profession, or her bird-watching hobby. The author made me feel like Georgie was an old, dear friend very early in the story. I felt her pain over failed relationships and loved her gumption as she tried to provide for herself. The way the author brought a mix of romance and action, while pairing up two opposite main characters with plenty of comedic dialogue, made the story come alive for me. It was one of the most entertaining novels I’ve read in a long time.

Large publishers have, by and large, turned their noses up at horror and left the indie presses to carry the genre's baton. Set in rural 1920s Texas, this novel brings a few new elements to its chosen trope, and author Timothy Hobbs creates memorable and entertaining characters.

His prose is easy to read—an admirable quality lacking in a lot of modern fiction, I think—yet he generates a sense of place, builds atmosphere, and paints wince-inducing images of gruesomeness. As I write this, I can still ‘see’ his town of Hamilton and remember the people that populate it.

Dead Man’s Walk is the third book in the Lonesome Dove series. It is difficult for me to write a review because the book and film are part of my family story. Dead Man’s Walk is a true story inspired by McMurtry’s research into the failed Santa Fe Expedition of 1841. His fictional characters Matilda Jane Roberts, Gus McCrae, and Woodrow Call make a brutal story of humanity, a fun read. Most of the characters' names are fictitious, however, the Comanche Indian Chief named Buffalo Hump was real. His tribe in 1841 killed my great-great-great grandfather Thomas W. Smith and his son James in separate attacks. The Comanche also captured my great-grandmother’s nine-year-old cousin Fayette Smith in the attack that killed his father Judge James Smith on the banks of Shoal Creek. I have written their story in my book and its soon-to-be-released sequel.   

The first in Locke’s Highway 59 series, featuring African American Texas ranger Darren Matthews involving two bodies one black, one white that wash up in a small East Texas town.

The story combines procedural, western, and Southern gothic to give an entertaining, human, yet unflinching look at race both past and present. This book enlightened me on how much African Americans contribute to what we call Texas culture.

I appreciate Dina's dedication. It makes her predictable in some ways, but this book does such a great job of showing the many facets of her dedication and endorses many of her actions while also forcing her to face the consequences and the need to rethink some things.

But I also come and stay and reread for the many wonderful, diverse secondary characters! I'd love to stay at Gertrude Hunt and listen (and shiver) over Caldenia's stories. I'd go for the chance to try Orro's cooking in an instant! There are too many other great characters for me to pick from, or I'd go on and on and on.

It's Dina's story, but I admire how multi-faceted her world is and how many secondary characters are fully realized. Not to mention Dina's skill at making guest rooms to suit guests, can she come and do my place?

This coverage of the crime wave of the Overton gang who burgled, pimped, and committed various crimes up and down I-35 is nonfiction, but hard to believe at times.

The story paints vivid time in Austin with a supporting cast of colorful lawyers, madams, and even UT Tower sniper Charles Whitman. Jesse Sublett, author, musician, painter, journalist, and photographer is basically as close as Austin has to royalty and portrays the events in a rock n’ roll style.

I’d also recommend Jesse’s fiction series staring bass player and skip tracer Martin Fender.

In contrast to his books about the Old West, McMurtry’s contemporary Westerns tell a more unvarnished truth. I read this book for the umpteenth time just prior to beginning my first novel, Where the Hurt Is. My book was a crime novel. McMurtry’s was a coming-of-age story. Nevertheless, his depiction of his book’s quasi-fictional Thalia, Texas rang so many bells and reminded me so much of the small Oklahoma towns where I grew up, I can’t deny being influenced by it.

At times, I would grow short of breath as I was reminded of parallel characters and events from my own childhood. Even today, the claustrophobia of Thalia and its characters’ fear of being unable to escape scares the crap out of me.

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.

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.

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.