75 books like The Turquoise Mask

I adored this book as a kid and decided to pick it up and re-read as an adult. I was not disappointed.

I loved it all over again and also gave myself a little pat on the back for having good book taste at a young age.

The witchcraft trial era of early colonial history in the US is so well crafted here with the accuracy of the historical details blended into the evocative setting.

Published in 1958 and a Newberry Medal winner in 1959, it is young adult but I think non-YA readers could easily enjoy it as a compelling variation of the genre.

Sad to admit that I had forgotten a lot of the plot and details. But happy to say, I have benefited from the reread now.

This novel put a pin on what became a life-long fascination with gothic fiction for me.

I first read it over forty years ago and it is hands-down the most memorable novel ever from my early reading diet.

Why is it so memorable? It hits all the high notes necessary for gripping suspense/mystery/romance in this genre and is laden with all the gothicky feels.

It includes a bit of the supernatural, mystery of an old gravestone, mood setting in the Virginia hills, and a heroine in a dangerous pickle.

Originally published in 1971, it is out of print now but find a copy if you can. You won’t regret it.

I spent so many summer afternoons as a teenager reading Barbara Michaels’ novels.

She is another writer who managed to set in stone my love and fascination for tales gothic and truly inspired and informed my own writing.

This one with a copyright of 1973 has it all. Isolated, rural setting with a historic stone cottage, creepy, almost folk horror-esque townspeople, a twisted villain, and a supernatural edge.

But it also has something that Michael’s specialized in: dialogue that captures relationships in a very approachable and identifiable way despite the vintage year.

Witch captures her mastery of the gothic and ticks all the boxes of a great read in the genre.

Mary Stewart was such a huge talent. She wrote in more than one genre but I am most drawn to her gothic novels like this one.

The original vintage cover from 1965 presents what it is: 60s style, castle parapets (pivotal scene in novel), and that Fawcett Crest price tag!

(And can we just take a moment here to recognize that the original covers were always the best ones in this genre of reads?)

Stewart was a genius at spinning out a mystery that keeps the reader guessing. This novel is no exception to that and adds in that gothic flavor with just the right touch.

The Pot Thief Who Studied the Woman at Otowi Crossing (A Pot Thief Murder Mystery) is a fun, quick read. Our pot dealer (not the kind you smoke) owns a shop in Albuquerque's Old Town. "Hubie" as he is called, digs for pottery on public lands to sell in his shop. I enjoyed his university meetings and the hierarchy at the University of New Mexico. When things got heated among the profs, he dove into a book until the collegiate clashing was over. Fond of margaritas, and who isn't, I got a kick out of how much mystery solving he could do at this favorite bar. My characters share that trait by stopping by The Shed in Santa Fe with regularity.

Jann Arrington Wolcott’s Brujo: Seduced by Evil features Lee Lindsay as the intrepid reporter. The action takes place in Santa Fe, New Mexico. After a co-worker is killed in a suspicious car crash, Lee is sent to complete his assignment. The man she meets in a remote village casts a spell over her. Flashbacks to a former life begin to haunt her as the brujo (male witch) stalks her and her family. As someone who knows Santa Fe well, I liked how Wolcott used Santa Fe locations and local color to enhance the narrative. Lee’s friendship with the artist who knew something about brujos was the best part for me; a true friend who risked it all.

Bill Gastner is the sort of detective you’d expect to find working the mean streets of an inner city: a rumpled overweight insomniac addicted to coffee and cigarettes. Instead his beat is the Chihuahan Desert of a fictitious county on the border between New and Old Mexico. In Heartshot, Undersheriff Gastner must solve multiple murders related to the illegal drug trade, including the loss of a fellow officer. The killer turns out to be somebody nearly as surprising and dangerous as the place where Gastner finds him. In his first book in the Posadas County series, author Havill skillfully brings to life both the rewards and challenges of life in a harsh yet beautiful place, where the people of two cultures are trying to figure out ways to live with one another.

The Sea of Grass is a short novel, standard in length for the time in which it was published (1936), close in time to other short classics such as The Grapes of Wrath and The Postman Always Rings Twice. It is written in first person, and in some respects, it suggests the influence of The Great Gatsby, another short masterpiece some ten years earlier, with an observer narrator, an elegiac tone, an evocative prose style, and interesting figurative language. This novel, like many, draws upon the range war (nesters versus the cattle empire) for its premise, but it becomes a very interesting exploration of human nature and the inevitable passing of time. 

Divorce lawyer Neil Hamel always seems to do more PI work than law. In Parrot Blues (A Neil Hamel Mystery) by Judith Van Gieson, she tries to locate a missing woman—and an indigo parrot. Oddly, the husband seems more concerned about the bird than his wife, who may be on her way out of the marriage anyway. But with the parrot as the only witness, it’s a tough case to crack. There’s plenty of New Mexico history and vistas to satisfy, but I found the information about birds and smuggling to be eye-opening. Her relationship with the “Kid” adds to Neil’s character. She’s her own woman, doing things her way. That alone gained my respect.

On the surface at least, Santa Fe is an artsy place full of elegant and sophisticated people. Private investigator Joshua Croft is none of these things, but he does know his way around town. His partner Rita Mondragon is older and wiser and better connected than Joshua. She’s also rather mysterious. Together they solve cases that either have baffled the local police or were of no particular interest to them. In Wall of Glass, the first in the series, a jewelry theft followed quickly by two seemingly unrelated murders draw the pair into the dark world of contraband art and artifacts. We particularly like this series for the complex and nuanced relationship between the two protagonists, and for the ways in which the author captures both the physical and cultural environment of one of America’s oldest cities.