My debut novel, Valley of the Moms, is about struggles of wealth, power, and belonging. The book centers around the death of protagonist Anna Plummer, and, through dual points of view and timelines, telescopes the end of her life and what has happened to her.
But just as important to plot points and narrative threads has been a hovering character with no name. That character is the North Shore of Massachusetts, where I grew up and now live. My book is firmly rooted in place.
New Englanders, unite! These five titles, set in Massachusetts towns, bring together people, plot, and place.
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Peter Swanson, Kill Your Darlings
Set in a fictional town on my own North Shore, Swanson’s 2025 book chronicles a murder and its underpinnings in reverse; the book begins with a deed that readers must travel backwards in time to understand. Thom and Wendy Graves, spouses for over two decades, have a secret, and that secret has ultimately eroded their relationship in the present tense.
Working backwards, Swanson carefully unveils a series of acts, executed at the start of their marriage, that has set in motion the inevitable end of their union. Brooding and thoughtful, the book’s nuance hinges on its sense of place, a small Massachusetts town where just about anything can happen.
Hank Phillippi Ryan, All This Could Be Yours
The 2026 winner of the Edgar Award, All This Could Be Yours traces the fly-by-night success of debut New York Times-bestselling author Tessa Calloway. Calloway, who recently relocated from Boston to the North Shore’s Rockport with her family, must dodge nefarious forces at every stop of her tour: apparent stalkers, fans who want to dig deep into her hidden past, and even duplicitous livery drivers.
Rockport makes a pivotal appearance in this work, a place meant to provide respite but that haunts the protagonist as she spins farther and farther from the life she knows.
Elin Hilderbrand, The Perfect Couple
Before the Netflix series, this 2018 novel was a twisty thriller set on the tony Massachusetts island of Nantucket. At the book’s center is the Otis-Winbury wedding, a union funded by the groom’s wealthy parents.
But when a body is discovered in Nantucket Harbor right before the ceremony, the best laid celebratory plans become a crime scene, with a cast of dynamic suspects at the ready for the reader’s consideration.
Dennis Lehane, Mystic River
Some may be more familiar with the film adaptation of this Charlestown-based book than they are with the book itself, but that’s ok. Named for the seven-mile tidal river that flows from Arlington to Boston Harbor, the book recounts the shared stories of three men and their involvement in the murder of a teenage girl.
A police officer, victim’s father, and suspect must come together to find out answers in this reverberating mystery.
Richard Russo, Chances Are
Though he may be best known for his depictions of small-town life in upstate New York and rural Maine, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Russo is equally adept at describing life in the Bay State. In Chances Are, his 2019 Martha’s Vineyard-based book, old friends reunite, finding that their pasts are tangled, secretive, and full of surprises.
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