The Gulf

In this electrifying literary thriller, set on the gulf coast of Texas in the 1970s at the height of the women’s liberation movement, a closeted young woman attempts to solve her surrogate mother’s murder in a tight-knit, religious small town.

“Exquisite and gripping. . . . The Gulf is a page turner to be savored; Cochran is a master of both prose and plot.”—Ilana Masad, author of All My Mother’s Lovers

What really happened at Parson House?

In Parson, Texas, a small town ravaged by a devastating hurricane and the Vietnam War, twenty-nine-year-old Lou is diligently renovating a decaying old mansion for Miss Kate, the elderly neighbor who has always been like a mother to her. Still grieving over her brother’s death in Vietnam, Lou dreams of enjoying a more peaceful future in Parson. But those hopes are crushed when Miss Kate turns up dead, and no one but Lou seems to care about the truth of what happened to the old woman.

Tensions mount when Joanna, Miss Kate’s long-estranged daughter and Lou’s first love, suddenly reappears in Parson—not for her mother but for the house itself. Joanna’s arrival unearths sinister secrets involving the history of the town and its residents, revelations that may be the key to helping Lou discover the truth about Miss Kate’s death and her killer.

A gorgeously written, gripping tale of forbidden love and devastating secrets in a small Texas town, The Gulf is a fierce and riveting thrill ride, one that holds up a mirror to the values—and failures—of America itself.