Recommendations based on Galvestonby Nic Pizzolatto

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. The Call of Cthulhu

    by H.P. Lovecraft
    A tale of horror and mystery, as a man investigates an ancient cult's dark secrets.

    The story's narrator, Francis Wayland Thurston, recounts his discovery of various notes left behind by his great uncle, George Gammell Angell, a prominent professor of Semitic languages at Brown ... (Wikipedia)

  2. Double Indemnity

    by James M. Cain
    Insurance salesman and femme fatale plot to murder her husband for the insurance money. Things go awry.

    Walter Huff, an insurance agent, falls for the married Phyllis Nirdlinger, who consults him about accident insurance for her unsuspecting husband. In spite of his instinctual decency, and intrigued ... (Wikipedia)

  3. The Postman Always Rings Twice

    by James M. Cain
    A crime drama of forbidden passion, deception and murder.

    The story is narrated in the first person by Frank Chambers, a young drifter who stops at a rural California diner for a meal and ends up working there. The diner is operated by a beautiful young ... (Wikipedia)

  4. Mystic River

    by Dennis Lehane
    Three childhood friends are reunited by a tragedy that exposes their dark past and tests their loyalty.

    The novel revolves around three boys who grow up as friends in Boston — Dave Boyle, Sean Devine, and Jimmy Marcus. When the story opens, Dave is abducted by child molesters while he, Sean, and Jimmy ... (Wikipedia)

  5. The Black Dahlia

    by James Ellroy
    A 1940s Los Angeles detective story, exploring the depths of a gruesome unsolved murder.

    On January 15, 1947, the torture-ravished body of a beautiful young woman is found in a vacant lot. The victim makes headlines as the Black Dahlia—and so begins the greatest manhunt in California ... (Goodreads)

  6. No Country for Old Men

    by Cormac McCarthy
    A gripping tale of violence and pursuit in Texas' desolate landscape.

    The plot follows the interweaving paths of the three central characters (Llewelyn Moss, Anton Chigurh , and Ed Tom Bell) set in motion by events related to a drug deal gone bad near the ... (Wikipedia)

  7. A Drink Before the War

    by Dennis Lehane
    Private detectives investigate a kidnapping case, uncovering dark secrets of the city.

    Boston private detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro receive a job from three state politicians, Sterling Mulkern, Jim Vurnan and Brian Paulson, to recover documents from a former cleaning ... (Wikipedia)

  8. Child of God

    by Cormac McCarthy
    A violent and disturbing story of a man's descent into depravity.

    Set in mountainous Sevier County, Tennessee , in the 1960s, Child of God tells the story of Lester Ballard, a dispossessed, violent man whom the narrator describes as "a child of God much like ... (Wikipedia)

  9. Revolutionary Road

    by Richard Yates
    An American couple's struggle to stay afloat in suburban conventions and expectations.

    Set in 1955, the novel focuses on the hopes and aspirations of Frank and April Wheeler, self-assured Connecticut suburbanites who see themselves as very different from their neighbors in the ... (Wikipedia)

  10. Savages

    by Don Winslow
    Two best friends and a girl get caught up in the drug trade in Southern California, leading to a violent and dangerous lifestyle.

    Ben and Chon are two Americans running a lucrative marijuana operation out of Laguna Beach , California . Their business thrives until members of the Mexican Baja Cartel decide they want to enter the ... (Wikipedia)

  11. The Bone Clocks

    by David Mitchell
    A time-spanning saga of a war between two powerful supernatural forces.

    Following a scalding row with her mother, fifteen-year-old Holly Sykes slams the door on her old life. But Holly is no typical teenage runaway: a sensitive child once contacted by voices she knew ... (Goodreads)

  12. Doubt, a Parable

    by John Patrick Shanley
    A priest's moral dilemma as he faces accusations of inappropriate behavior.

    The play is set in the fictional St. Nicholas Church School, in the Bronx , during the fall of 1964. It opens with a sermon by Father Flynn, a beloved and progressive parish priest, addressing the ... (Wikipedia)

  13. The Big Sleep

    by Raymond Chandler
    Private eye investigates a complex case involving a wealthy family and blackmail.

    Private investigator Philip Marlowe is called to the home of the wealthy and elderly General Sternwood, in the month of October. He wants Marlowe to deal with an attempt by a bookseller named Arthur ... (Wikipedia)

  14. The Yiddish Policemen's Union

    by Michael Chabon
    A murder mystery set in an alternate reality, with characters that explore the boundaries of identity and tradition.

    The book opens with Meyer Landsman, an alcoholic homicide detective with the Sitka police department, examining the murder of a man in the hotel where Landsman lives. Beside the corpse lies an open ... (Wikipedia)

  15. Sister Carrie

    by Theodore Dreiser
    A young woman's journey of ambition, navigating the opportunities and pitfalls of urban life.

    Late 1889. Dissatisfied with life in her rural Wisconsin home, 18-year-old Caroline "Sister Carrie" Meeber takes the train to Chicago , where her older sister Minnie, and Minnie's husband, Sven ... (Wikipedia)

  16. Oblivion: Stories

    by David Foster Wallace
    A collection of short stories exploring the human condition, often through the lens of modern society's obsession with entertainment and technology.

    In the stories that make up Oblivion, David Foster Wallace joins the rawest, most naked humanity with the infinite involutions of self-consciousness—a combination that is dazzlingly, uniquely his. ... (Goodreads)

  17. Salvage the Bones

    by Jesmyn Ward
    A family struggles to survive in the aftermath of a devastating hurricane.

    The novel follows a working-class African-American family living in southern Mississippi in 2005. The family consists of Daddy, his daughter Esch (the narrator), and his sons Randall, Skeetah, and ... (Wikipedia)

  18. Outer Dark

    by Cormac McCarthy
    A tale of desperation and violence, as a brother and sister confront the consequences of their forbidden relationship.

    A woman bears her brother's child, a boy, the brother leaves the baby in the woods and tells her he died of natural causes. Discovering her brother's lie, she sets forth alone to find her son. Both ... (Goodreads)

  19. Locke & Key, Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft

    by Joe Hill
    A family's mysterious journey of unlocking supernatural secrets, discovering their destiny.

    This plot is presented in chronological order. During the American Revolution , a group of Rebels, hiding beneath the future Keyhouse, discover a portal to another dimension, the plains of Leng , ... (Wikipedia)

  20. Rabbit, Run

    by John Updike
    A man's attempt to escape the pressures of adult life and find freedom.

    Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, formerly a high school basketball star, is now 26, and has a job selling a kitchen gadget named MagiPeeler. He is married to Janice, who was a salesgirl at the store where he ... (Wikipedia)

  21. The Hellbound Heart

    by Clive Barker
    A man's obsession with a mysterious puzzle box leads him to a world of sadomasochistic demons and eternal suffering.

    In a quiet house on a quiet street Frank and Julia are having an affair. Not your ordinary affair. For Frank it began with his own insatiable sexual appetite, a mysterious lacquered box- and then an ... (Goodreads)

  22. The Underground Railroad

    by Colson Whitehead
    An escaped slave's daring escape to freedom, fighting against the brutality of slavery.

    The story is told in the third person, focusing mainly on Cora. Scattered single chapters also focus on Cora's mother Mabel, the slavecatcher Ridgeway, a reluctant slave sympathizer named Ethel, and ... (Wikipedia)

  23. Wise Blood

    by Flannery O'Connor
    A darkly comic Southern Gothic tale of faith and sin, and a man's struggle to find redemption.

    Recently discharged from service in World War II and surviving on a government pension for unspecified battle wounds, Hazel Motes returns to his family home in Tennessee to find it abandoned. Leaving ... (Wikipedia)

  24. Ragtime

    by E.L. Doctorow
    Interweaving stories of disparate individuals as they navigate the changing social and cultural landscape of early 20th century America.

    The novel centers on a wealthy family living in New Rochelle, New York , referred to as Father, Mother, Mother's Younger Brother, Grandfather, and 'the little boy', Father and Mother's young son. The ... (Wikipedia)

  25. Farewell, My Lovely

    by Raymond Chandler
    A hard-boiled detective's adventures as he investigates a complex case of murder and corruption.

    Private detective Philip Marlowe is investigating a dead-end missing person case when he sees a felon, Moose Malloy, barging into a nightclub called Florian's, looking for his ex-girlfriend Velma ... (Wikipedia)

  26. Housekeeping

    by Marilynne Robinson
    A story of two sisters navigating their lives in a small town, and the matriarchal figure that unites them.

    Ruthie narrates the story of how she and her younger sister Lucille are raised by a succession of relatives in the fictional town of Fingerbone, Idaho (some details are similar to Robinson's ... (Wikipedia)

  27. The Sportswriter

    by Richard Ford
    A sportswriter navigates through life after the death of his son, reflecting on his past relationships and current struggles.

    As a sportswriter, Frank Bascombe makes his living studying people–men, mostly--who live entirely within themselves. This is a condition that Frank himself aspires to. But at thirty-eight, he suffers ... (Goodreads)

  28. Big Nate: From the Top

    by Lincoln Peirce
    A collection of comic strips featuring the misadventures of Nate Wright, a sixth-grader with big dreams and an even bigger ego.

    Hot off the best-seller list, Big Nate is in a class by himself. This spunky 11-year-old holds the school record in detentions, but that doesn't stop him from dreaming big!Big Nate is taking it from ... (Goodreads)

  29. Ask the Dust

    by John Fante
    A young writer's journey of self-discovery in 1930s Los Angeles.

    Ask the Dust is the story of Arturo Bandini, a young Italian-American writer in 1930s Los Angeles who falls hard for the elusive, mocking, unstable Camilla Lopez, a Mexican waitress. Struggling to ... (Goodreads)

  30. Revival

    by Stephen King
    A dark, supernatural tale of a small town's fight against an evil force.

    When Charles Jacobs, a new minister, comes to town, young Jamie Morton is excited. Almost everyone in the tiny Maine hamlet comes to love Jacobs, his beautiful wife, and his young son. Things change ... (Wikipedia)