Louisiana Books: Novels Set in the Bayou State

Book Summary

Mirielle West lives a glamorous life in LA as the wife of a silent film star. When a doctor sees a small spot on her hand, she’s whisked across the country to what feels like a different world. She hopes to have only a brief visit to the Louisiana Leper Home, but when she arrives, there is barbed wire, a curfew, and little chance of ever returning to her everyday life.

As Mirielle is assigned work inside the home, she must come to terms with both the illness and its perception in the outside world.

Book Summary

It sounds like Evie Porter has the perfect Southern life – a doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence and a garden, and fancy friends. But Evie Porter doesn’t exist.

The identity is created by her mysterious boss, Mr. Smith. She learns everything there is to know about the town and the people who live there. The mark is Ryan Sumner.

Evie doesn’t know Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she does know this job will be different, and she can’t make any mistakes after what happened last time.

But Ryan is getting under her skin, and she’s starting to envision a different kind of life. She’s worked her whole life to keep her real identity clean, and now she must stay one step ahead of her past if she wants to ensure her future.

Book Summary

In 1979, Huong and her young sons arrived in New Orleans from Vietnam. The transition was tough, especially with her husband, Cong, remaining in Vietnam. While her boys began to settle into their new life, Huong slowly realized they’d never see Cong again.

Her sons take different paths – Tuan tries to remain connected to his heritage by joining a Vietnamese gang. Binh now goes by Ben and embraces being American while also exploring his sexuality. While each family member searches for their own identity in their adopted country, they are pulled away from each other. But in 2005, a disaster strikes New Orleans, drawing them back together.

Book Summary

When Savannah was four years old, her twin sister disappeared from their small Louisiana town. The family was never the same. Now 32, Savannah has convinced her estranged older sisters, Sue Ellen and Rayanne, to return to their Meemaw’s backyard and retrieve the time capsule they buried as kids.

As they revisit the contents of the time capsule, they find a photograph taken on the day Georgia disappeared. In the background of the photo, they spot a familiar woman they hadn’t noticed before. Savannah becomes determined to find the woman.

The sisters must confront and reconsider what they believed about that day and about each other. As they dig up the past, they’ll each rediscover what their Meemaw has always known: Family is everything.

Book Summary

During the Civil War, freed slaves placed “Lost Friends” ads in Southern newspapers in hopes of being united with loved ones who had been sold. This historical fiction novel tells the story of three women looking for family in 1875 post-Civil War Louisiana.

Lavinia was set to inherit a wealthy plantation, but now it is destitute. Juneau Jane is her illegitimate Creole half-sister, and Hannie is Lavinia’s former slave. The unlikely trio sets out on a perilous journey, encountering those still fighting a war that ended ten years earlier. 

Their story intersects with that of a first-year teacher in 1987 Louisiana. Benedetta (Benny) has taken a job in a poor, rural district to help eliminate her college debt. It seems like the perfect opportunity, but when she arrives, she’s shocked by the level of poverty her students endure. But a hidden book that tells the lives of three women a century ago could change everything.

Book Summary

In the New Orleans nightlife world, everyone knows Miz Poppy, the colorful reviewer. However, no one knows Hollyn, the real person behind the Miz Poppy online persona. When Hollyn’s boss tells her that she has to add a video component to her reviews or she’ll lose her job, the fear of exposing her struggles with anxiety is overwhelming. And her Tourette’s Syndrome adds another layer.

Jasper is an aspiring actor and shocked to her that the shy woman who orders coffee each day is really Miz Poppy. It’s the perfect opportunity to bolster his career. If he can help Hollyn find her voice, everyone wins.

Book Summary

Fortune is a CIA assassin, and her next assignment in Sinful, Louisiana, is her toughest mission yet. She has to pose as a former beauty queen turned librarian in the small bayou town. While this isn’t her idea of a good time, she has to fly under the radar until one of the world’s largest arms dealers is neutralized.

Before she can even unpack, her new dog digs up a human bone in the backyard. But some seemingly sweet old ladies are her perfect co-detectives—they know everything that happens in this small town.

Book Summary

During the Civil War, a young Black woman named Stella embroidered maps onto cloth in her small Creole cottage in New Orleans. The maps helped enslaved men flee to the North and join the Union Army. Her activities were risky because she was bound to a man who would kill her if he discovered her maps. To complicate matters further, her true love is William, a Black soldier and a brilliant musician.

In New York City, a Jewish woman named Lily attends abolitionist meetings, rolls bandages, and crafts quilts. She’s working on a quilt for her husband, who is stationed in Louisiana with the Union Army. When months go by without hearing from him, she decides to make the perilous journey South to find him.

Book Summary

Cold Mountain Penitentiary is home to the Depression-worn men of E Block. All of them are convicted killers awaiting their time to walk the Green Mile – the path that leads to the electric chair known as “Old Sparky.”

Death row guard Paul Edgecombe has walked the mile with a lot of convicts, but he’s never met anyone else like John Coffey – a giant man with the mind of a child who has been condemned for a terrifyingly violent crime.

Book Summary

Barnett’s mother knows he is gay, but he has another secret. He’s engaged and is planning a wedding at his mother’s farm in his small Louisiana hometown. But she shouldn’t worry, he’s only inviting two hundred or so guests from what she called the “heathen coasts”.

As Barnett finalizes plans for the big day, forces within the family and within the town do not want to see this marriage happen. Through it all, his mom, Chrissy, draws on her experiences teaching manners to reconcile her original visions for her son’s life to his vision for his own life.

Book Summary

Fans of mysteries and southern romance will love this ghost story set in New Orleans. Nola purchased her first fixer-upper, but she had an unexpected problem when the former owners didn’t seem ready to leave. Nola didn’t understand her stepmother’s ability to communicate with ghosts, but she knew someone else in town who could.

Unfortunately, she hoped never to see Beau Ryan again. He has a dark past, including the disappearance of his parents and sister during Hurricane Katrina. Nola believes he is the only one who can help her solve the mystery of the restless spirits in her house.

Book Summary

Scientist Maryse had a rude and manipulative mother-in-law who used her wealth to rule the small town of Mudbug. Maryse thought that when Helena passed away, her life would get easier, and she could finally divorce her estranged husband. Unfortunately, death didn’t slow down Helena, and she’s still haunting Maryse, just in a new way.

DEA agent Luc has been sent to investigate why someone would want to kill a sexy scientist named Maryse. As he tries to protect her from harm, keeping his own secrets gets harder as he gets to know the brainy beauty.

Book Summary

In the summer of 1964, Ibby’s father died unexpectedly, and her mother dropped Ibby off with her eccentric grandmother, Fannie. While Fannie tends to get committed to the local asylum, Fannie’s Black cook, Queenie, and her smart-mouthed daughter, Dollbaby, keep an eye on Ibby and educate her on the ways of the South.

Fannie’s family history is filled with tragedy and hidden in the closed rooms of her ornate mansion. When Ibby arrives, it may be time to unlock the mysteries. Along the way, Queenie and Dollbaby’s caring and wisdom show Ibby that family can be found in unexpected places.

Book Summary

Twenty years ago, when Chloe was just twelve years old, six teenage girls went missing in her small hometown in Louisiana over the course of one summer. Chloe’s father was arrested, accused of being a serial killer, and imprisoned for the murders.

After years of dealing with the aftermath, Chloe has finally built a happy life in Baton Rouge. She’s preparing for her wedding and has a fulfilling career as a psychologist.

In her psychology practice, she works with troubled teens. When the first local teen girl and then another go missing, the memories from that terrifying summer in her childhood come crashing back. She sees parallels – but are they really there, or is she just being paranoid? Is she about to unmask a killer for the second time in her life?

Book Summary

Set in a small Cajun community, a young black man, Jefferson, is in the wrong place at the wrong time when a liquor store shooting leaves three men dead. As the only survivor, he is convicted of murder and sentenced to death.

Grant Wiggins left his hometown to attend university but returned to teach at the plantation school. His aunt persuaded him to visit Jefferson in jail and share some of his learning so that Jefferson could “die a man.”

Book Summary

When Alice’s husband disappears, she leaves chilly Chicago behind to make a new home for herself in New Orleans. She offers sewing lessons at an orphanage to support herself and the child she’s carrying.

Constance is a young widow whose future is still threatened by Benton, her late husband, who had secret gambling debts. When she meets Alice, she offers her lodging in exchange for Alice’s help creating a gown for the Leap Year ball of Les Mysterieuses, the first all-female krewe of Mardi Gras.

While each woman gets stronger and more independent, darkness lingers. The Black Hand are the gangsters who control Storyville. They aren’t satisfied with Benton’s death and still want his debt paid.

Book Summary

The Savoie sisters are witches living in New Orleans. Evie Savoie spends her days working at The Cauldron, the bar owned by her oldest sister, Jules, and at Mystic Maybelle’s, the shop her sister, Clara, owns.

One day, a moody and volatile werewolf walks into the bar. Unable to shift for three months, Mateo is fighting against the violent and carnal thoughts of the wolf in his head. The house rules of the Savoie sisters’ coven dictate “no werewolves,” so Evie’s first inclination is to bounce him out of the bar. But she sees the desperation in Mateo’s eyes and agrees to help him break the hex.

Book Summary

Caught between two of the major events of the early 21st century – the war on terror and Hurricane Katrina, this is the true story of one family trying to survive.

Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun operate a house painting business in New Orleans. As the storm approaches, Kathy evacuates with their young children, but Zeitoun – a Syrian-born American citizen – stays to watch over the business. In the aftermath of the storm, he uses his canoe to rescue many neighbors and animals, until he is arrested by the police and National Guardsmen, who mistake him for a terrorism suspect.