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Missouri Books: The Best Books Set in the Show-Me State
By: Angela & Melissa
Updated:
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, we may earn a referral fee from qualifying purchases.Whether you’re participating in our Read Around the USA Challenge or simply found your way to our website researching books set in Missouri, we’ve curated a diverse list of highly-rated titles about the Show-Me State! If you’re looking for another state, check our comprehensive list of books set in every state.
A Few Things Missouri is Known For
Missouri’s central location made it a key player in American history, serving as a gateway to the West. Positioned at the crossroads of major rivers and trails, it was vital for trade, migration, and expansion, including expeditions like Lewis and Clark’s journey in 1804. In the early 1860s, Kansas City also served as an essential hub for the Pony Express, the short-lived mail delivery service that connected the East to California during a crucial period of westward expansion.
Missouri’s two largest cities are located 250 miles apart on opposite sides of the state. Kansas City, the larger of the two cities, overlaps the western border of Kansas and Missouri, while St. Louis is located on the eastern border, near Illinois. Today, the cities each have a unique character. St. Louis was founded nearly 90 years before Kansas City, so the city features a mix of classic and modern buildings, as well as the iconic Gateway Arch. Kansas City is known for its laid-back midwestern vibe and vibrant jazz music scene.
The Ozarks Mountains—actually a heavily forested series of plateaus—cover much of the southern half of Missouri. While the Ozarks have been the subject of negative stereotypes over the years, this area boasts outstanding natural beauty and a rich cultural heritage, including bluegrass music, gospel music, quilting, basket weaving, and pottery.
The Best Books Set in Missouri
All the Colors of the Dark
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
92% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
All the Colors of the Dark crosses genres from literary fiction to mystery and even to romance as it follows the characters from their teen years in 1975 into adulthood.
In the small Ozarks town of Monta Clare, Missouri, girls are disappearing. When the daughter of a wealthy family, Misty, is targeted, the most unlikely hero emerges—Patch, a local boy with one eye. Patch saves the girl, but this leaves heartache in his wake.
While Mont Clare was once a close-knit community, after this event, the town will never be the same. The trauma experienced by Patch, his friend Saint, and Misty will haunt them as they grow into adulthood. The trauma causes each character to make choices you may not agree with, creating many twists and a suspenseful vibe throughout the compelling story.
The Book Girls Say…
This novel is character-driven and is longer than your average mystery at 608 pages. However, most readers say that the short paragraphs and chapters make the book feel faster-paced than you may expect.
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James
Book Summary
This thought-provoking novel transports you back to 1840s Missouri, the land of Huckleberry Finn. However, in James, you’ll find the story reimaged from the point of view of the enslaved man, Jim, who prefers to be called James.
James overhears that he’s about to be sold to a man in New Orleans. If this happens, he’ll never see his wife and daughter again. That thought is too much for him to bear, so he decides to hide on Jackson Island until he comes up with a long-term plan. The island is also the temporary home of Huck Finn, who is running from his abusive father.
Together, the unlikely duo is determined to make it down the Mississippi River to the elusive Free States. Along the way, they encounter the same trials Mark Twain included, but they feel different through the eyes of James.
The Book Girls Say…
Angela debated on whether to re-read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn before picking up James, but she decided to just dive right in, and she had no regrets. This brilliant retelling is so well done that you’ll enjoy it whether your Huck Finn recollections date back to your school days or are more recent. It’s a short novel that grabs your interest immediately and flies by.
As you would expect, this book includes details of life in slavery, including rape, and be aware that it also includes the use of the N-word, which the author deems historically accurate.
Dialect plays an important role in this story, which made Angela especially enjoy the audio version of the book narrated by Dominic Hoffman.
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Earth’s the Right Place for Love
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
93% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Sixteen-year-old Arthur is thrilled when he becomes friends with Nola, the most alluring girl in school. Unfortunately, Nola is more romantically interested in Arthur’s older brother, Frank. However, Frank has his eye on someone else.
Outside of dreaming of the perfect girl, the boys stay busy avoiding their father, who drinks too much after returning from war. And the drinking always leads to their father fighting with Frank. When a tragedy strikes, Arthur struggles with his grief and turns to nature to help him understand how the world will go on.
Once he’s begun to understand grief, will he be able to get Nola to realize that they should be more than friends?
The Book Girls Say…
Readers say that while this book does have sad moments and grief as a theme, it’s also an incredibly sweet story and will make your eyes tear up with joy from the kindness and compassion shown by the characters.
If you’ve read and enjoyed The Story of Arthur Truluv, you’ll want to pick up this prequel, which takes us back to Arthur’s teen years in Mason to show us how he became who he was as an older man. While both novels take place in Missouri, this prequel delves deeper into the setting.
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Famous in a Small Town
Book Summary
Mary Jackson is from a long line of women who have spent their lives running the Very Cherry General Store in Good Heart, Michigan. Like her lakeside hometown, the store is constantly inundated by tourists and facing threats from developers. She’s in her eighties and ready to retire, but when she was young, a mysterious prediction told her to await the arrival of a stranger – a young woman – to take over the store and carry on her legacy.
Newly 40, Becky Thatcher takes a vacation to Good Heart with her best friend in order to forget about her real-life troubles for a while. After meeting Mary at Very Cherry and listening to the octogenarian talk about destiny, Becky begins to reflect on childhood memories and future goals.
The Book Girls Say…
Viola Shipman, the pen name for Wade Rouse, is one of our favorite authors of feel-good books. Wade was raised in Missouri and now calls Michigan home for much of the year. His beautiful descriptions of both states are so vivid that you’ll feel like you are spending your summer alongside his quirky and lovable characters.
This is the first Viola Shipman book we’ve read that has a thread of magical realism, and we loved how seamlessly it was woven throughout the story. We also loved that the magical elements did not overpower the very real-life lessons about family and friendship.
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Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
92% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
From the outside, Nick and Amy seemed to have a picture-perfect marriage. But on their fifth anniversary, Amy goes missing from their rented McMansion in the fictional town of North Carthage, along Missouri’s Mississippi River. Nick quickly becomes the prime suspect. Under the microscope of the resulting police investigation and media frenzy, it becomes apparent that their happy marriage might not have been so happy after all and that Nick – the town’s golden boy – might not be so squeaky clean.
Even as Amy’s fiercely doting parents put more pressure on him, Nick stands by his innocence. But if he didn’t do it, then where is his wife? And what’s in that gift box hidden in the back of Amy’s bedroom closet? Gone Girl combines sharp-edged wit and chilling prose to make reading this book feel like an addiction.
The Book Girls Say…
Although Angela isn’t usually drawn to domestic thrillers, she couldn’t put this book down! One of her friends described it as “dark and morally ambiguous,” and that’s the perfect summary for this psychological suspense novel. Be aware, however, that this book includes some coarse language, violence, and sexual content.
Angela usually loves audiobooks, but she wasn’t a fan of the female narrator of Gone Girl at the beginning – or maybe it was just influenced by her feelings about the female protagonist. But once she got further into the story, she enjoyed listening to it. If you’re considering the audiobook, we’d recommend listening to the sample on Amazon before committing to this format.
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Jack
Book Summary
While it is listed as the fourth book in the Gilead series, this novel actually serves as a prequel to the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. It focuses on the life of Jack Boughton, the wayward son of a Presbyterian minister.
Set primarily in St. Louis, Missouri, in the aftermath of World War II, the novel revolves around Jack’s forbidden love affair with an African American schoolteacher. Their interracial relationship, set against the backdrop of segregated St. Louis, highlights themes of race, redemption, and societal constraints.
The Book Girls Say…
While Jack can be read as a stand-alone novel, when read together with the other books in the Gilead series, it adds greater depth of understanding to the Boughton family story.
Country Club Murders Series
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
91% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Summer means pool time, but during her most recent early morning swim at the country club, she swam right into her husband’s dead mistress.
It’s 1974, and Ellison is a WASP-y mom living an elite life in Kansas City. She’s not an average stay-at-home mom, though. She makes more as an artist than her husband does as a banker. He’s a stereotypical 1970s man, and not thrilled with being in financial 2nd place, so he begins an affair to soothe his ego.
Ellison finds out and plans a divorce…but not until their daughter is out of school. Of course, when the mistress turns up dead and Ellison is the only other person in the pool, she quickly becomes the prime suspect. She knows she needs to find the real killer herself.
The Book Girls Say…
The books in the cozy Country Club Murders series are set throughout different seasons.
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Romantic Comedy
Book Summary
Sally is a late 30-something sketch writer for a late-night live comedy show called “The Night Owls.” Time after time, she’s seen talented but dorky men from the writer’s room end up dating glamorous celebrities that they met via the show. She documents the phenomenon in a recurring sketch called “The Danny Horst Rule,” which pokes fun at how unlikely it is that the reverse would ever happen for a smart but average-looking woman.
When rock star Noah Brewster is tapped to serve as both the host and musical guest for an episode of Night Owls, Sally pitches a Danny Horst sketch for him to star in. But Noah has sketch ideas of his own, and Sally takes on the role of mentor for the week. Are there sparks between them, or is it just the same charm Noah uses on everyone he meets?
Sally hides behind a shield of sharp humor and sarcasm, while Noah is fighting against the two-dimensional caricature portrayed in the tabloids. When the world shuts down because of COVID, Sally returns home to Kansas City, Missouri, to live with her elderly stepfather and it’s then that she begins to get to know Noah on a whole new level.
The Book Girls Say…
This book has received mixed ratings, and we think that’s due in part to the fact that the title might make you expect a typical rom-com. And while this book is comedic with just enough romance, it doesn’t fit neatly into the standard rom-com box. Author Curtis Sittenfeld typically writes literary fiction (a genre defined by the character-driven, introspective tone). This book is a smartly-written mash-up of these two genres. And, in our opinion, that’s exactly what makes it so wonderful!
Fans of Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock will love the late-night sketch comedy show setting of the first part of the novel, but you definitely don’t have to be an avid SNL watcher to enjoy this storyline.
A few other things you should know before deciding if this book is a good fit for you: (1) this book is told in three long parts, rather than shorter chapters; (2) Sally is endearing, but she also has her faults, which may frustrate some readers; and (3) the middle section of the book is epistolary in format.
Angela felt that the audiobook narration was particularly well done and hit all the right notes with the humor and the pacing of the banter.
Also Featured on These Book Lists:
The Weight of Blood
Book Summary
Lucy Dane has always felt like an outsider in her small Ozark town of Henbane, Missouri, a place filled with whispers about her mother, Lila, who disappeared when Lucy was just a baby. Raised by her father and uncle, Lucy has spent her life wondering about the mother she never knew.
When her friend Cheri, a mentally challenged young woman, is brutally murdered, Lucy begins searching for answers. As she digs deeper, she uncovers dark secrets about her family and the town itself, revealing a hidden world of violence, betrayal, and human trafficking. The deeper she goes, the more she realizes that Henbane’s residents will do anything to protect their secrets—and that she might be the next target.
The Book Girls Say…
This novel is told through alternating perspectives between Lucy in the present and Lila in the past. Both suspenseful and atmospheric, this is a haunting novel about family, identity, and survival.
Butterfly Weeds
Book Summary
After a decade away from her hometown, Julia Lang hears the lyrics to a song she never expected to hear again, especially not while in the arms of another man.
This unexpected encounter compels Julia to reflect on her journey from her small-town beginnings in New Milford, Missouri. She’ll have to decide whether the song – or more specifically the man behind it – is enough for her to leave her new life and return to her hometown for a second chance at love.
The Book Girls Say…
Author Laura Miller drew inspiration for the fictional town of New Milford from her own small-town upbringing in Missouri.
If you enjoy this novel, you can also read the sequel, My Butterfly, which retells the same events from the point of view of Will Stephens.
Breaking Out of Bedlam
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
90% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Cora Sledge is 82 years old and has been sent to The Palisades, an assisted living facility in San Diego, California, against her wishes. She’d rather stay in her home and live on junk food, pills, and cigarettes. Her first instinct at The Palisades is to take to her bed and die as soon as possible.
But instead, she decides to get back at her family by writing a tell-all journal revealing all her secrets from the past 80 years, including her formative years in Missouri. The entries vary from profane to profound, and the telling of her life story is intertwined with both hilarious and mysterious present-day events from life at The Palisades.
The Book Girls Say…
You’ll enjoy reading Cora’s journal entries if you love irreverent and outrageous main characters and don’t mind some course language.
Through her journal entries, she reflects on her childhood in rural Missouri, her shotgun wedding, and a life-altering event that significantly impacted her life. This history provides a backdrop to her experiences in the current timeline.
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Torn Away
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
Book Summary
We found this highly-rated YA book for spring that tells the full story of fear and devastation along with hope, love, and survival. The main character is 17-year-old Jersey, who has a pretty normal life and family in Missouri, including her mom, step-dad, and a baby sister. She’s not worried when she learns of a tornado warning. They happen a few times a year, but nothing ever happens.
But this time is different. The town is leveled, and lives are lost, including her mother. Daily life is rough when she has to move in with her grandparents and father, who abandoned her. The book shows not only the original tragedy of the tornado but the ripple effects that often happen with natural disasters. Reviewers commonly call this short book both amazing and heartbreaking, so grab some tissues.
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There You Are
Book Summary
This story follows Octavian and Mina, teenage friends from a culturally diverse neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri, who are reunited as adults in the aftermath of Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri.
As they navigate the complexities of race, identity, and love, the novel weaves their journey through the city’s vibrant streets. Much of the story revolves around the record store where they fell in love as teenagers. Unfortunately, the store is closing for good, motivating them to find closure with their own past.
The Book Girls Say…
This book sounded like a compelling look at St. Louis, but it hasn’t had many readers/reviews since its publication in 2019.
Where the Lost Wander
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
92% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Naomi May never expected to be widowed at the young age of twenty. When she sets off with her family on the Overland Trail, she hopes it will be a chance to leave her grief behind. Along the trail, she forms a connection with a half-Pawnee man named John Lowry. John straddles two worlds, but feels like a stranger in both. Even as John and Naomi are drawn together, their pasts, and the trials of life on the wagon train, work to keep them apart.
John’s heritage allows them to gain passage through hostile territory, but it also comes between their desire to build a life together. When a terrible tragedy strikes, both will have to make incredible sacrifices to save each other.
The Book Girls Say…
This novel begins in 1853 with the May family departing from St. Joseph, Missouri, embarking on their journey along the Oregon Trail toward California. While not much of the novel takes place in St. Joseph, this “jumping-off point” was a pivotal location for many westward-bound emigrants during that era.
We’ve included this book on the Missouri list because this starting point establishes the historical context and sets the stage for the challenges and experiences the characters face as they traverse the expansive American frontier. Also consider Oregon Trail: A New American Journey, which also sets out from Missouri.
Be warned that readers say this book will make you ugly cry.
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Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Book Summary
This classic novel follows the Mischievous Tom Sawyer, a clever and adventurous boy, growing up in St. Petersburg, Missouri, along the Missouri River.
Tom is constantly scheming, whether it’s tricking his friends into whitewashing a fence, running away to play pirates, or seeking hidden treasure. His adventures take a darker turn when he witnesses a murder in a graveyard, leading to a tense courtroom trial.
The Book Girls Say…
While this novel remains a classic of American literature, celebrated for its humor, adventure, and insight into childhood, keep in mind that its depictions of race and societal norms reflect its 19th-century setting.
Mark Twain is also the author of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the story of a boy who escapes an abusive father and journeys down the Mississippi River with Jim, a runaway enslaved man. While Tom Sawyer is a more lighthearted look at childhood adventures, Huck Finn is darker and deals with issues of face and freedom.
Huck appears in Tom Sawyer as Tom’s best friend and fellow troublemaker. And Tom appears in the later chapters of Huckleberry Finn.
The Glass Menagerie
Book Summary
Narrated by Tom Wingfield, a young man torn between family duty and personal ambition, this play follows his life with his overbearing mother, Amanda, a former Southern belle longing for the past, and his shy, fragile sister, Laura, who finds solace in her glass figurines. Amanda believes that securing a suitor for Laura is their only hope for stability.
This classic play is set against the background of St. Louis. The city’s industrial landscape, marked by economic hardship and fading dreams, contributes to the Wingfield family’s struggles in a cramped apartment.
Memoirs & Non-Fiction Books About Missouri
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
92% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
In this moving memoir, author Wade Rouse, who writes fiction under the pen name Viola Shipman, shares the story of his complicated relationship with his father. Growing up as a queer kid in a conservative Ozarks community, Wade and his father, Ted, had little in common. Wade was never the athlete his father hoped for, but his desire to connect with his father and gain his approval led Wade to learn the vocabulary of baseball and to watch the game with his dad season after season.
As an adult, he and his father rarely saw eye-to-eye, but it was always baseball that brought them back together. When his father’s health declines, Wade returns home to southwest Missouri to spend one final season with his father. Inning by inning, they move closer toward forgiveness, reconciliation, and closure.
The Book Girls Say…
This memoir is a poignant look at a son who refused to give up on his father, no matter how many times and how many ways his dad pushed him away. It’s filled with the same heart and soul that comes through so clearly in his fiction writing.
Over the past few years, Wade Rouse (aka Viola Shipman) has become one of Angela and Melissa’s favorite authors. This insight into his upbringing adds a new layer to our appreciation for his fiction work.
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The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This non-fiction book provides an in-depth look at the history of racial dynamics in the city of St. Louis, spanning from 1764 all the way up through the 2014 uprising in Ferguson. From Indian removal and slavery, through segregation and the Civil Rights Movement, to the ongoing struggles, this book addresses events that even many people born and raised in St. Louis may not know.
While this book uses the author’s hometown of St. Louis as his case study, it also paints a portrait of two-and-half-centuries of race relations in the United States.
The Book Girls Say…
This book is on the long side, at 528 pages, and reviewers say it’s not an easy read. But if you’re interested in really diving into the topic, and you’re willing to endure the heartbreaking realities, it’s said to be an extraordinarily well-researched and well-written book that does also have hopeful moments.
Book Summary
Widely regarded as the inventor of rock and roll, Chuck Berry is best known for classic songs like Jonny B. Goode, Roll Over Beethoven, and Maybellene. Chuck wrote songs that transformed American culture, but his reckless personal behavior put his career in danger time and again. During his lifetime, much about his missteps and motivations remained shrouded in mystery.
Based on interviews, archival research, and legal documents, this biography delves into Berry’s deep connection to his hometown, exploring how St. Louis shaped his music and identity.
The Book Girls Say…
Berry was born and raised in St. Louis, and maintained a home there throughout his life. The stories of his experiences in segregated St. Louis mirror the city’s complex history.
A Guide to Midwestern Conversation
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
93% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This short, illustrated guide will make you laugh out loud as you learn about the colloquialisms and sentiments of the Heartland. For example, if a Midwesterner says, “I didn’t really care for it,” that actually means they hated it beyond belief.
The author was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, right in the heart of the Midwest, giving an authentic feel to this non-fiction guide that strikes the humourous balance of being both heartwarming and self-deprecating.
The Book Girls Say…
This book covers a total of 12 midwestern states with a chapter for each of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
Taylor Kay Phillips is a writer, actor, and comedian who worked for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. To quote John Oliver: “Taylor is as funny as she is Midwestern. And she is thunderously midwestern. You will enjoy this book!”
Harry Truman’s Excellent Adventure
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Just a few months after leaving office, Harry Truman and his wife, Bess, did something unprecedented for a former President. They hopped in their new ’53 Chrysler New Yorker and started a three-week, 2500-mile road trip from their home in Independence, Missouri to Washington, DC, with a stop in New York City for their anniversary. They wanted to fly under the radar – no press, no Secret Service, just a newly retired couple.
Of course, America didn’t cooperate, and their cover was blown time and again by bellhops, cabbies, teenagers, and even a Pennsylvania state trooper. While he left office with a 22% approval rating, he was still greeted with respect and adoration all along the way.
The Book Girls Say…
While this book involves a 2500-mile road trip, we’ve included it on the Missouri list because Independence, MO, is the hometown of President Truman and his wife, Bess, and because Missouri serves as the starting point and final destination of their adventure.
The book shows Truman’s experiences in the context of the 1940s-1950s, but the author is also retracing the journey, staying in the same hotels and eating at the same restaurants, so you get both the historical journey and a contemporary road trip as you read.
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Read Around the USA – Books Set in Other States
We hope you enjoyed this book list of books about Missouri and found some great titles to add to your TBR. If you’re participating in our Read Around the USA Challenge, be sure to check out our alphabetical index of books set in each state.
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Printable Version of This Book List
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