In a New West Texas Novel, Women Kick Ass and Take Names
Set in the 1970s Odessa oil boom, Elizabeth Wetmore’s debut novel, Valentine, is a revelation not for what it explores but for how.
Mary Helen Specht
Articles by Mary Helen Specht
Attica Locke’s New Mystery Novel Unearths East Texas Secrets
Heaven, My Home explores how black and white people can live almost entirely different experiences inside the same time and place.
‘Presidio’ is a Beautiful, Atmospheric Texas Novel that Doesn’t Cohere
Randy Kennedy’s debut is packed — sometimes bloated — with rich characters and lovely detail that conjures small-town Texas.
‘Driven’ is an Edgy Memoir of Cars, Crises and Coming of Age
Melissa Stephenson’s new book exploits the bread and butter of memoir — parsing childhood experiences and complicated family dynamics — but also explores more experimental terrain.
The Disappearance of Gertrude Beasley
In the 1920s, a young woman from Abilene shocked the world with her tell-all memoir—and then mysteriously vanished.