5. The Drifters, Nathan Nix Call it the young man's version of Bing. Nathan Nix pens a pretty good coming of age story that is still relevant as all us lost generation folk stumble out of the semi-adulthood of college and try to make something of the world. Where Nix really hits it out of the park is in his ability to find something meaningful in every character. Even terrible people are still people when he writes them.

4. Magnolia City, by Duncan W. Alderson There is a crying shortage of Houston historical fiction outside of the Wild West or dealing with the war against Santa Anna. Alderson takes us to 1920s Houston and the rise of the oil barons, with all the opulence and luxury that entails. It's a grand love story that brings to life an oft-ignored period in Texas history, and makes for a great beach read.

3. Blind Waves, by Stephen Gould OK, this may be cheating just a bit. Technically most of Blind Waves actually takes place in New Galveston, which is a floating city on the Texas Gulf Coast after the shorelines rise in the aftermath of climate change. Now thousands of homeless refugees are caught within different government factions, some of whom are not exactly sympathetic to their plight. As someone displaced by Hurricane Ike and who often marvels at the head-in-the-sand crowd of global warming deniers this really hit home.

2. Justice, by Jon-Michael Foshee Dirk Bishop has the perfect life, having married his college sweetheart and secured a DA position in Houston. Every day is better than the last, until his brother runs afoul of drug deals and Bishop is forced to venture into the city's underbelly on a mission of justice.

Sorry about that. Couldn't resist. All joking aside, it's a great crime drama that treats Houston the way Raymond Chandler used to treat Los Angeles, and a damn fine first effort of a novel.

1. Rush, by Kim Wozencraft Rush opens in the parking lot of the Almeda Mall, which makes me feel old, nostalgic, and holy crap did I used to hang around with the wrong people when I was in high school. Later made into an amazing movie, Rush taps into Wozencraft's experience as a narcotics officer to really put the hammer down about the effects of drug crime. Dark, intense, and utterly brutal.