Oklahoma Fiction

On November 16th, 1907 Oklahoma became the 46th state in the United States of America.  Here are ten novels set in Oklahoma.

Blood Stains by Sharon Sala - At the reading of her father's will, Maria Slade receives shocking news--as a four-year-old, she'd witnessed her prostitute mother's murder and been taken into hiding by the well-meaning preacher who'd raised her as his own. Maria remembers none of that. But now she's determined to flush her mother's killer out of hiding and discover the identity of her birth father. She heads to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she meets Detective Bodie Scott. Empathizing with this beautiful woman looking to find out who she really is, he opens the decades-old case file. Their investigation leads them down a dangerous path, where no one is what they seem. Where a father does not want to be found. And a murderer has 'like mother, like daughter' in mind for Maria.  Book 1 of 3 in the Searchers series 

Caroline's Secret by Amy Lillard - Caroline Hostetler arrived in Oklahoma determined to forge a new life for herself and her daughter, Emma. As a single mother, she values the warmth and safety she's found in close-knit Wells Landing. She's even caught the eye of a handsome newcomer--a man who just may be the partner she longs for and the father Emma deserves. But the arrival of an Englisher threatens to lay bare the secrets she's worked so hard to leave behind. After losing his life-long sweetheart, Andrew Fitch moved to Wells Landing to work in his uncle's furniture business and nurse his broken heart. Finding love again seems all but impossible--until he meets Caroline and Emma. But his plans to join their lives together may be shattered when the truth of Caroline's past comes to light--unless, together, they can learn the true meaning of sacrifice and forgiveness.  Book 1 of 8 in the Wells Landing series 

A Hero to Come Home To by Marilyn Pappano - Two years after losing her husband in Afghanistan, Carly Lowry has rebuilt her life in Tallgrass, Oklahoma. She has a job she loves, teaching third grade, and the best friends in the world: fellow military wives who understand what it means to love a man in uniform. She is comfortable and content until she meets a ruggedly handsome stranger who rekindles desires Carly is not quite sure she is ready to feel. Book 1 of 6 in the Tallgrass series 

The Old Buzzard Had it Coming by Donis Casey - One winter evening in 1912, in the woods outside of Boynton, Oklahoma, abusive and drunken Harley Day surprises his son John Lee and the neighbor girl Phoebe Tucker in a lovers' tryst. An hour later, when John Lee walks his beloved home, Phoebe's mother, Alafair Tucker, suspects that something is amiss. How could she know her daughter has been involved in a violent confrontation that will make Phoebe and her beau murder suspects?
At supper that evening, over bowls of soupy beans and buttery cornbread, Alafair, her husband Shaw, and their nine lively children, much amused that Phoebe has a boyfriend, discuss the unfortunate Day family. The Days are tormented by their evil father, who beats his wife, mistreats his children, and wastes their money. The mother is helpless, and the eldest daughter, Maggie Ellen, has run away, leaving only 19-year-old John Lee and his 13-year-old sister Naomi to care for the younger children and keep the family from destitution.
Then... well, the old buzzard had it coming! Book 1 of 10 in the Alafair Tucker Mysteries 

One Night With a Cowboy by Cat Johnson - Oh yeah. A single look at the leggy blonde in the stands and Tucker Jenkins is ready to buck all night long. It's time to forget all about his cheating ex and his usual hands off policy. Becca Hart is an East Coast professor. Not a buckle bunny. But no degree can prepare her for the moves of the sexy bull rider she hooks up with at her first rodeo ... Or the shock of finding him at her first Oklahoma State University staff meeting. Tuck knows it's all about holding on, no matter how wild the ride. Now he just has to convince Becca that a rough start out of the chute doesn't mean they aren't a smokin' combination.  Book 1 of 3 in the Oklahoma Nights series 

Scalp Dance by Lu Clifton - This mystery mingles Choctaw culture, science, and murder and features Lieutenant Sam Chitto of the Oklahoma Choctaw Nation Tribal Police, who considers himself a man of principal. He's a man of the Law--the letter of the Law--and he's a man of his word. But he's at a breaking point, ready to quit the force. His father's murder is ten-years cold, his young wife's premature death haunts him, and tribal police in Oklahoma are being prevented from ensuring the People receive justice. A mix of tribal and non-tribal lands has created a checkerboard law enforcement community--federal, state, municipal and Indian--a land that lawbreakers jokingly refer to as lawless. Indian women are the ones paying the highest price. One in three can expect to be raped in her lifetime, and tribal police cannot arrest the assailant if he is not Indian. And then, Chitto is assigned to work undercover on a mystifying case. In pre-dawn light, a sacred Choctaw ceremonial ground is transformed into an execution site. The naked, beheaded corpse is the husband of a Chickasaw woman and stepfather to her young daughter. Except for the victim's driver's license, no evidence is left behind--with one exception: his freshly laundered clothes retain the odor of fabric softener. A series of seemingly unrelated incidents come together to help Chitto solve the case, but he is forced to make a decision that could not only challenge his personal code of ethics but also cost a man his life.  Book 1 of 3 in the Sam Chitto Mysteries 

To Trust by Carolyn Brown - Dee Hooper and Jack Brewer grew up next door to each other in sleepy Buckhorn Corner, Oklahoma. From the time they were less than a year old they'd been best friends, but then Dee eloped with a man from Pennsylvania. Seven years later, she's brought a broken heart back home to her dysfunctional family: Roxie, the grandmother, who runs the family with an attitude of steel; Mimosa, the mother, who's been married so many times she's forgotten half of them; Tally, the sister who's in the county jail for writing hot checks; Bodine, Tally's daughter, who's been raised by Rosie just like Dee and Tally were; and Jack, the boy next door who's always loved Dee. Jack was the computer geek in high school, and he's turned that knowledge into a lucrative business - one that allows him to continue to run the convenience store in town, which he loves. He's content, selling picnic supplies and bait to the fishermen and campers. But there's a hole in his heart, and the only person who can fill it is Dee Hooper. Then one hot summer day she appears, and he's determined not to let her hurt him or get away again. With Dee and Jack battling past hurts and fears, they try to reclaim their lifelong friendship and trust again, each secretly hoping they'll be more than just friends this time around.  Book 1 of 5 in the Broken Roads series 

An Undisturbed Peace by Mary Glickman - Abrahan Bento Sassaporta Naggar has traveled to America from the filthy streets of East London in search of a better life. But Abe's visions of a privileged apprenticeship in the Sassaporta Brothers' empire are soon replaced with the grim reality of indentured servitude in Greensborough, North Carolina. Some fifty miles west, Dark Water of the Mountains leads a life of irreverent solitude. The daughter of a powerful Cherokee chief, it has been nearly twenty years since she renounced her family's plans for her to marry a wealthy white man. Far away in Georgia, a black slave named Jacob has resigned himself to a life of loss and injustice in a Cherokee city of refuge for criminals. A trio of outsiders linked by love and friendship, Abe, Dark Water, and Jacob face the horrors of President Jackson's Indian Removal Act as the tribes of the South make the grueling journey across the Mississippi River and into Oklahoma.

What Blooms From Dust by James Markert - Just as Jeremiah Goodbye is set to meet his fate in the electric chair, a tornado tears down the prison walls, and he is given a second chance at life. With the flip of a coin, he decides to return to his home town of Nowhere, Oklahoma, to settle the score with his twin brother Josiah. But upon his escape, he enters a world he doesn't recognize--one that has been overtaken by the Dust Bowl. And the gift he once relied on to guide him is as unrecognizable as the path back to Nowhere. After one jolt in Old Sparky, Jeremiah sees things more clearly and begins to question the mysterious circumstances surrounding the murders he was accused of. On his journey home, he accidentally rescues a young boy who follows him the rest of the way, and the pair arrive at their destination where they are greeted by fearful townspeople. When the Black Sunday storm hits the very next day, the residents of Nowhere finally begin to let the past few years of hardship bury them under the weight of all that dust. Unlikely heroes, Jeremiah and his new companion, Peter Cotton, try to protect the townspeople from themselves, but Jeremiah must face his nightmares and free himself from the guilt of flipping the coin on those men who died. Filled with mystery and magic, What Blooms from Dust is the story of finding hope in the midst of darkness and discovering the beauty of unexpected kindness.

The Wildlands by Abby Geni - When a Category 5 tornado ravaged Mercy, Oklahoma, no family in the small town lost more than the McClouds. Their home and farm were instantly demolished, and orphaned siblings Darlene, Jane, and Cora made media headlines. This relentless national attention and the tornado's aftermath caused great tension with their brother, Tucker, who soon abandoned his sisters and disappeared. On the three-year anniversary of the tornado, a cosmetics factory outside of Mercy is bombed, and the lab animals trapped within are released. Tucker reappears, injured from the blast, and seeks the help of nine-year-old Cora. Caught up in the thrall of her charismatic brother, whom she has desperately missed, Cora agrees to accompany Tucker on a cross-country mission to make war on human civilization. Cora becomes her brother's unwitting accomplice, taking on a new identity while engaging in acts of escalating violence. Darlene works with Mercy police to find her siblings, leading to an unexpected showdown at a zoo in Southern California.