Perhaps the best written of all the slave narratives, Twelve Years a Slave is a harrowing memoir about one of the darkest periods in American history. It recounts how Solomon Northup, born a free man in New York, was lured to Washington, D.C., in 1841 with the promise of fast money, then drugged and beaten and sold into slavery. He spent the next twelve years of his life in captivity on a Louisiana cotton plantation. After his rescue, Northup published...

Edna Pontellier has everything that a woman and mother should want - two wonderful sons, a husband, and good financial fortune. But still, she feels like something may be missing. While vacationing with her family, she meets a young man who shows affection and opens her mind to adventure and freedom. Edna’s desire for freedom and independence begins to fester in her heart, and she finds that she is increasingly disenchanted with the responsibilities...

"Restless with the familiarity of her Alabama home, Ellie Fields accepts a teaching job in a tiny Louisiana town deep in bayou country. Though rightfully suspicious of outsiders, who have threatened both their language and their culture, most of the people in tiny Bernadette, Louisiana, come to appreciate the young and idealistic schoolteacher as a boon to the town. She's soon teaching just about everyone--and coming up against opposition from both...

"Melanie Hale is a devoted mother to her two children, a diligent caregiver to her ailing mother-in-law and a trusted neighbor in their wealthy Louisiana community. Above all, she’s a loving partner to her wonderful husband, Collin. Then there are the parts of herself that Mel keeps hidden. She’s exhausted, worried and unfulfilled. So much so that one night, after a writers’ group meeting, Mel begins an affair with a successful local author...

Louisiana cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse is stuck in the middle of a vampire gathering on the verge of disaster in the seventh novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series—the inspiration for the HBO® original series True Blood.
Sookie Stackhouse has her hands full with shapeshifter Quinn—a possible new man in her life—and the upcoming central U.S. Vampire Summit on the shores...

The Fontenot family has lived as sharecroppers on Bertrand land for as long as anyone can remember. So why are they now being forced from their homes? And what does the murder of Della Landry—the girlfriend of New Orleans fixer Sonny Boy Marsallus—have to do with it? Marsallus’s secrets seem tied to those of the Fontenots. But can Detective Dave Robicheaux make sense of it all before more bodies drop? In James Lee Burke’s intense and powerful...

Over one long, languid summer Edna Pontellier, fettered by marriage and motherhood gradually awakens to her individuality and sexuality and experiences love outside of her passionless marriage. But as she discovers emotional freedom so she comes to realise the true extent of her psychological and social confinement and its terrible consequences for her future.

Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress with a talent for reading minds, comes to the aid of Eric, a sexy vampire with amnesia, as she tries to save him from whoever took his memory and who now wants his life.

Cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse turns sleuth to investigate a mysterious sniper who has set his sights on the local changeling population, especially when her brother Jason becomes the prime suspect in the deadly attacks.

Valentine's Day, Pelican, Louisiana. The air at Crozat Plantation B&B turns decidedly frigid when celebrity chef Phillippe Chanson checks in. And when the arrogant Phillippe-- in town to open his newest Cajun-themed restaurant-- perishes in a fiery boat crash, Maggie Crozat's friend JJ lands in very cold water. Did JJ murder Phillippe because he feared the competition? When Maggie receives a series of anonymous gifts that begin as charming but grow...