Maryland offers such a unique backdrop for stories – from the watermen on the Chesapeake Bay to the neighborhoods of Baltimore and the quiet small towns. Reading a book set in a place you know, or want to know better, is always special.
Here are some novels where Maryland itself feels like part of the story.
This book follows Dicey Tillerman, a determined young teenager. After their mother becomes unwell, Dicey must care for her three younger siblings. She finds a potential home with their grandmother, Gram, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
Dicey learns about responsibility, hard work like crabbing, and what it really means to build a family.
On Rass Island, a small fishing community in the Chesapeake Bay, Sara Louise Bradshaw feels overshadowed by her twin sister, Caroline. Caroline seems perfect, talented, and loved by all.
Sara Louise wrestles with intense jealousy and dreams of escaping the island, even as she works alongside the watermen.
Macon Leary writes travel guides for people who dislike travel. His life in Baltimore is meticulously ordered, a defense against the chaos after his son’s death. His marriage ends, and then he meets Muriel, an unusual dog trainer who represents everything spontaneous he avoids.
Their connection disrupts his carefully managed world.
This novel invites you into the Baltimore home of the Whitshank family. It moves through generations, revealing the small moments, hidden histories, and quiet misunderstandings that define them.
The house itself holds memories, especially as Abby and Red Whitshank grow older and their children grapple with family secrets and expectations.
In the suburban town of Harting Farms, Maryland, teenagers Angelo and his friends face a terrifying autumn. Children are disappearing, and whispers circulate about a figure called the Piper. The friends decide they must find the truth themselves.
Their investigation leads them into dark woods and darker secrets about their town.
This is where the Tillerman siblings’ journey begins. Their mother abandons them in a shopping mall parking lot. Led by thirteen-year-old Dicey, the four children start a long walk south through Maryland.
They search for a relative, any relative, who might take them in, facing hunger and uncertainty with only each other.
Brady lives near the Corsica River, a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay. His life revolves around crabbing and the water. A terrible accident involving a neighbor’s kayak and their young son puts Brady in a difficult position.
He knows something crucial about what happened but faces pressure to stay quiet.
Thirty years ago, the two Bethany sisters vanished from a Baltimore shopping mall. Suddenly, a woman appears after a car accident. She claims she is one of the missing sisters.
Detectives assigned to the cold case must sort through her inconsistent story and revisit the family’s complicated past to uncover what truly happened.
This story follows two pairs of brothers over several decades. One pair grows up in rural Maryland, the other in Alabama, during the mid-20th century. Their lives unfold against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement, family challenges, and societal changes.
Their paths eventually intersect in surprising ways.
Gilly Hopkins is a sharp-tongued 11-year-old foster kid. She has been moved around too many times. Her latest placement is with the eccentric Maime Trotter in Maryland.
Gilly hatches plans to escape and find her birth mother, but her relationships with Trotter, a quiet neighbor, and a fellow student begin to challenge her tough exterior.
Inspired by a real Maryland crime from the 1950s, this novel centers on Nora. She lives in a town stunned by the shocking murder of two young sisters. Fear spreads through the community.
Nora tries to make sense of the event and the rumors, which causes her to question her neighbors and the safety she once felt.
Meet Marsha Sprinkle, a woman who makes her living by stealing suitcases at the airport. She’s dishonest, crass, and perpetually on the run from her equally strange family.
This journey takes her through Baltimore and beyond, featuring the unique humor and bizarre characters typical of John Waters.
It’s the summer of 1889 in Baltimore. Amelia arrives to stay with her cousin. She soon discovers a strange ability: at sunset, she sometimes sees visions of the future. This power draws her into a romance with the intense artist Nathaniel.
Secrets swirl beneath the surface of polite society.
A novelist-turned-professor at Johns Hopkins University feels his creative spark dimming. He decides to tackle a modern retelling of an old Chesapeake Bay legend. Meanwhile, a younger, tech-savvy rival challenges his approach to storytelling.
The book playfully explores writing, ambition, and the nature of narrative itself.
Penn, a teenager in a small Maryland town, believes he can hear other people’s thoughts. These voices fill his head constantly. His family worries about his mental state, and Penn feels increasingly isolated.
He struggles to understand his reality and find connection in a world that doubts him.
This sprawling, humorous novel reimagines the life of Ebenezer Cooke. He is an innocent, somewhat foolish poet sent from England to manage his family’s tobacco plantation in colonial Maryland.
He encounters pirates, plots, and all sorts of absurdity as he attempts to write an epic poem about the New World.
Vivian is a teenage werewolf. Her pack moves to a suburban Maryland town after her father’s death. She tries to balance her pack identity with high school life. Things get complicated when she falls for Aiden, a human boy who knows nothing about her true nature.
Loyalty, love, and secrecy clash.
Writer Travis Glasgow and his wife Jody move to a house beside a lake in western Maryland, hoping for a fresh start. Travis becomes fascinated by the property’s dark history, specifically the disappearance of a young boy years ago.
He learns about a mysterious staircase that once led down into the water, and eerie occurrences plague their new home.
This touching story focuses on a young boy’s friendship with his best friend, Jamie, in their Maryland neighborhood. They share carefree days, including picking blackberries. An unexpected tragedy occurs related to a bee sting.
The narrator must then process the sudden loss and his own feelings of guilt.
Nancy Drew visits Maryland to investigate spooky events at an old riverside inn called the Misty Lake Inn. She finds half of a broken locket and hears tales of a phantom lady who sings near the water.
Her investigation involves hidden tunnels, a family secret about performers, and the search for a possible treasure.
Jack Ryan, now National Security Advisor, faces a complex international crisis. Economic tensions between the U.S. and Japan escalate dramatically.
A surprise attack using unconventional methods strikes at the heart of the American financial system, and Ryan must navigate the political and military fallout. Parts of the action unfold in and around Maryland.
Dana, a Black writer living in 1976 California, finds herself violently pulled back in time to a pre-Civil War Maryland plantation. She discovers she has a connection to Rufus, the white son of the plantation owner.
Dana must repeatedly travel between her time and the past, forced to survive slavery’s horrors to protect her own ancestral line.
Barbara is babysitting two young children at their isolated Maryland home while their parents are away. Joined by other neighborhood kids, the children turn on Barbara, tying her up.
What begins as a disturbing game descends into cruelty and psychological torment as Barbara becomes their prisoner.
Set during the Revolutionary War era, this historical novel follows the life of Richard Carvel, a young man from a prominent Maryland family. His adventures take him from his ancestral estate to the bustling streets of London and onto the high seas with John Paul Jones.
He navigates romance, betrayal, and the fight for American independence.
FBI trainee Clarice Starling is pulled from her studies at Quantico. She must interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, an imprisoned, brilliant psychiatrist and cannibal, held in a Baltimore facility. The FBI hopes Lecter can provide insight into another serial killer, Buffalo Bill.
Clarice enters a dangerous psychological game with Lecter to save Bill’s latest victim.
Vernon lives in a neighborhood near Baltimore. His mother has died, and he’s struggling with school and his grieving father. He begins to interact with Maxine, a neighborhood woman everyone calls “Crazy Lady,” and her son Ronald, who has developmental disabilities.
This unlikely connection teaches Vernon about empathy and looking past appearances.
This story reveals the origins of John Clark, a recurring character in Clancy’s novels. Set partially in Baltimore, Clark is a former Navy SEAL known then as John Kelly.
After suffering a personal tragedy, he embarks on a brutal quest for revenge against the drug dealers responsible. Simultaneously, he undertakes a secret military mission in Vietnam.