Virginia’s landscape is as varied as its history, full of mountains, shores, small towns, and cities. It’s no wonder so many stories find their roots here. From the shadows of slavery to the bustle of modern life, authors have set incredible tales in the Old Dominion.
If you love books that transport you to a specific place and time, here are some novels set in Virginia that might capture your imagination. They cover different eras and genres, but each one uses its Virginia setting to tell a memorable story.
This book turns history on its head in antebellum Virginia. Henry Townsend, once enslaved himself, becomes a prosperous landowner with his own slaves. The story weaves together the lives of many people tied to his plantation – Black, white, free, and enslaved.
You see their intertwined fates and the moral complexities that arise in Manchester County. Jones gives voice to a whole community caught in the system of slavery.
Imagine a near-future Charlottesville where society is breaking down. A diverse group of neighbors flees violence and seeks shelter at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s famous estate. The narrator, Da’Naisha, is a young Black woman descended from Jefferson and Sally Hemings.
Her connection to the place adds layers as the group tries to survive inside the historic plantation, a symbol of freedom and oppression.
William Styron puts readers inside the mind of Nat Turner, the man who led a bloody slave revolt in Southampton County, Virginia, in 1831.
Written as Turner’s confession while he awaits execution, the book recounts his life, his religious visions, and the fury that drove him to rebel against the brutal system he endured. It’s a powerful look at a historical figure through his own imagined voice.
This classic brings Chincoteague Island and its wild ponies to life. You meet Paul and Maureen Beebe, siblings who dream of owning one of the island ponies rounded up during the annual Pony Penning Day.
Their hearts are set on the legendary Phantom, a wild mare who evades capture, and her newborn foal, Misty. It’s a wonderful story about childhood dreams and the unique culture surrounding the island’s ponies.
Alex Haley traces his family history back generations, starting with Kunta Kinte, captured in West Africa in the 1760s and enslaved in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. The book follows Kunta’s descendants through slavery, the Civil War, and into the 20th century.
You witness their enduring spirit, their fight for freedom, and their efforts to preserve their family history and identity across continents and centuries.
Set in the fictional town of Dinwiddie, Virginia, around the turn of the 20th century, this novel introduces Virginia Pendleton. Raised to be the ideal Southern lady – gentle, devoted, self-sacrificing – she marries a man whose ambitions clash with her traditional values.
The story portrays her quiet struggles as the world changes around her and questions the societal expectations placed upon women of her time.
This gritty novel plunges into Franklin County, Virginia, during Prohibition. It’s based on the true story of the author’s grandfather and granduncles, the Bondurant brothers, notorious moonshiners.
You follow their dangerous bootlegging business, their clashes with rivals, and their run-ins with a corrupt lawman. Expect loyalty, violence, and a raw depiction of mountain life when illegal liquor flowed freely.
Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta is back in Richmond, Virginia. This time, she investigates the suspicious death of a reporter found inside the chilling confines of the Inactive Naval Shipyard on the Elizabeth River.
The clues lead Scarpetta into a shadowy conspiracy linked to a dangerous militia group. The detailed forensic work happens against a backdrop of decaying military might and hidden threats.
This historical novel focuses on the early years of the Civil War, mainly through the eyes of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, and Union Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.
Shaara takes you into their camps and onto battlefields like Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville in Virginia. You get insights into their personal beliefs, strategic decisions, and the immense pressures of leadership during the conflict’s formative period.
Picking up where Gods and Generals left off, this book covers the final, brutal years of the Civil War, from Gettysburg to Appomattox Court House in Virginia. The perspectives shift between key figures such as Lee, Grant, and Chamberlain.
You experience the relentless grind of the war, the tactical maneuvering, and the human cost paid by soldiers and commanders on both sides as the conflict reaches its conclusion.
Set in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia near the Kentucky border, this early 20th-century novel tells a story of change and romance. Jack Hale, an engineer from the city, arrives as coal mining begins to transform the isolated mountain community.
He falls for June Tolliver, a spirited young woman from a feuding mountain family. Their relationship unfolds amidst cultural clashes between tradition and industrial progress.
Kate Vaiden, now middle-aged, looks back on her life, much of it spent moving between North Carolina and Virginia. Orphaned young after a family tragedy, she tells her own story with unflinching honesty.
Her journey involves stays with relatives in rural Virginia, searches for love, periods of running away, and confronting long-buried family secrets. It’s a deeply personal account of resilience and regret.
Hiram Walker is enslaved on a declining Virginia plantation called Lockless. He possesses a photographic memory but cannot recall his mother, who was sold away.
After a near-drowning unlocks a mysterious power related to water and memory called “conduction,” Hiram becomes involved with the Underground Railroad. His quest for freedom is intertwined with reconnecting to his past and mastering his strange ability.
Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff elected in Charon County, a rural corner of southeastern Virginia. A year into his tenure, a school shooting occurs, committed by a former student who is then killed by Titus’s deputies.
The investigation uncovers horrific secrets beneath the town’s surface, linking the shooter to a serial killer and forcing Titus to confront the community’s darkness and his own past demons.
Dr. Kay Scarpetta faces a baffling case in Richmond. A murderer is killed, but his fingerprints turn up at a new crime scene after his execution.
Scarpetta must dig into the forensic evidence, including strange fibers and post-mortem clues, while dealing with political pressure and the unsettling possibility that the executed man was innocent, or that something even stranger is happening within the prison system.
This novel unfolds over a single day in Port Warwick, Virginia, during the funeral of Peyton Loftis.
Through flashbacks and shifting perspectives, Styron reveals the story of the dysfunctional Loftis family – the alcoholic father Milton, the resentful mother Helen, and the beautiful, doomed Peyton.
It’s a powerful exploration of Southern family life, alienation, and despair in the mid-20th century.
Written as the diary of a young enslaved girl named Clotee on a Virginia plantation in 1859, this book offers a personal perspective on slavery. Clotee secretly teaches herself to read and write by fanning the master’s son during his lessons.
Her diary entries record the daily cruelties she witnesses, her cleverness in hiding her literacy, and her growing hope for freedom, especially as she learns about the Underground Railroad.
Ike Randolph, a Black man from Richmond, and Buddy Lee, a white man from rural Virginia, are two ex-cons who didn’t get along. But when their married sons are brutally murdered, Ike and Buddy unite in grief and a thirst for vengeance.
They embark on a violent quest through the Virginia landscape to find out who killed their boys, confronting dangerous biker gangs, their own prejudices, and deep-seated regrets along the way.
A sequel to Thackeray’s Henry Esmond, this novel follows the grandsons of the earlier book’s protagonist – twin brothers George and Henry Warrington. Their story spans both England and colonial Virginia in the mid-18th century.
You see their differing loyalties and experiences during events like the French and Indian War and leading up to the American Revolution, exploring themes of family, identity, and the Atlantic divide.
After a family tragedy in New York City, twelve-year-old Lou Cardinal and her younger brother Oz move to their great-grandmother Louisa’s farm in the Virginia mountains in 1940. Life is hard, but they learn about resilience, family bonds, and the beauty of the rural landscape.
The story centers on their adjustment to this new life and a conflict over the mountain land Louisa treasures.
This early 20th-century novel is set on a former plantation in Virginia after the Civil War. The Timberlake family lost their land and fortune to their former overseer, Bill Fletcher, who now lives in their ancestral home.
The story focuses on Christopher Timberlake’s plans for revenge and the complicated relationships between the fallen aristocracy and the newly empowered class, exploring themes of pride, work, and love in the changing South.
Based on a true story from 1912 Virginia, this novel follows Charles Mears, a white newspaper reporter who covers the trial of Virginia Christian. She is a sixteen-year-old Black maid accused of murdering her elderly white employer in Hampton.
As Charlie investigates, he uncovers inconsistencies and develops empathy for the young defendant, forcing him to confront the deep-seated racism and injustice of the Jim Crow South.