True Detective Season 1 Reading List

A decade after its release, I finally finished, True Detective, Season 1. It was one of the best shows I’ve ever watched. I wanted more, to be honest, and when I’m not ready to leave certain vibes, I turn to books. I curated a reading list for myself (and you) based on the vibes, tropes, themes, and aesthetics of True Detective, Season 1. Some of the books, the ones by women especially, were chosen to give a voice to the victims.

Here are the books I chose and why:

A God in the Shed by J. F. Debeau- “Rural small town”, “folk horror”, “murdered & missing people”, “police procedural”, “serial killer” “corruption”, “religion”

The King in Yellow (on my TBR) by Robert W. Chambers- “exploring themes of the supernatural, spirituality, and the potentially corrosive influence of belief in the afterlife.” This book plays an important role in the show

if the creek don’t rise (on my TBR) by Leah Weiss- “Southern Gothic” “rural small towns” “poverty”, “rich characters” “strong sense of place”

Moon Trees and Other Orphans (on my TBR) by Leigh Camacho Rourks- focuses on themes of desperation, loneliness, and love. Filled with hard-living characters who are deeply lonely, it tracks the ways they fight for survival, often making very bad decisions as they go. Populated by gun-toting women, ex-cons, desperate teens, and other outsiders, it is a collection about what life is like in hard places, both beautiful and dangerous.”

Child of God (on my TBR) by Cormac McCarthy- *free audible audiobook. “mental illness”, “violence”, “gruesome & grim”, “disturbing, visceral, and gross” I think the tone of Cormac McCarthy’s storytelling matches True Detective vibes

Salvage This World (on my TBR) Michael Farris Smith- “A fierce zealot has gained a foothold, capitalizing on the vulnerability of a dwindling population and a burning need for hope. As she preaches and promises salvation from the light of the pulpit, in the shadows she sows the seeds of violence. Elsewhere, Jessie and her toddler, Jace, are on the run across the Mississippi/Louisiana line, in a resentful return to her childhood home and her desolate father. Holt, Jace's father, is missing and hunted by a brutish crowd, and an old man witnesses the wrong thing in the depths of night. In only a matter of days, all of their lives will collide, and be altered, in the maelstrom of the changing world.”

Wise Blood (on my TBR) by Flannery O’Conner- I have been dying to read some Flannery! “Southern Gothic”, “Religion”, “haunting”, “false prophets”

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn- “murder”, “satanic sacrifice”, “rural small town”, “secret societies”, “crime/murder mysteries”

The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock- “Southern Gothic”, “rural small towns”, “serial killers”, “corruption”, “predatory religious figures”, “gritty & gruesome”

On the Savage Side by Tiffany McDaniel- “murdered & missing women”, “crime/murder mystery”, “rural small towns”, “bleak & gruesome”, “serial killer”, “corruption”

The House of Dust (on my TBR) by Noah Broyles- “Southern Gothic”, “rural Tennessee”, “crime”, “sex work”, “bizarre symbols”, “darkness”, “menacing”

The Boatman’s Daughter by Andy Davidson- “Southern Gothic”, “a mad preacher”, “human monsters”, “swamps & bayous”, “noir thriller”

The Devil Himself by Peter Farris- “Southern noir” “human trafficking” “young women victims” “revenge”

Provinces of Night by William Gay- “Southern Gothic”, “violence”, “murder”, “literary” “rural small town” this one sounds like True Crime vibes…

It's 1952, and E.F. Bloodworth is finally coming home to Ackerman's Field, Tennessee. Itinerant banjo picker and volatile vagrant, he's been gone ever since he gunned down a deputy thirty years before. Two of his sons won't be home to greet him: Warren lives a life of alcoholic philandering down in Alabama, and Boyd has gone to Detroit in vengeful pursuit of his wife and the peddler she ran off with. His third son, Brady, is still home, but he's an addled soothsayer given to voodoo and bent on doing whatever it takes to keep E.F. from seeing the wife he abandoned. Only Fleming, E.F.'s grandson, is pleased with the old man's homecoming, but Fleming's life is soon to careen down an unpredictable path hewn by the beautiful Raven Lee Halfacre.

In the great Southern tradition of Faulkner, Styron, and Cormac McCarthy, William Gay wields a prose as evocative and lush as the haunted and humid world it depicts. Provinces of Night is a tale redolent of violence and redemption-a whiskey-scented, knife-scarred novel whose indelible finale is not an ending nearly so much as it is an apotheosis.

If you enjoyed this list, just know that my second book (coming Fall 2025) is all about curated reading lists with dark fiction & horror by women storytellers.

Have a great weekend!

Sadie