CITY · UNITED STATESBooks set in Boston
42.360, -71.059
28 books · 23 authors · 1850–2025
28 books here
Most-set authors
Dennis Lehane (5) · Francisco Goldman (2) · Laura Spence-Ash (1) · V.E. Schwab (1) · David Baldacci (1) · Chris Bohjalian (1)
Genres
literary fiction (9) · mystery & crime (5) · thriller & suspense (3) · fantasy (2)
Books set here
Set in Boston (20)
Beyond That, the Sea
Laura Spence-Ash
Wartime refuge — Bea lives with the Gregory family
Dark Harbor
David Baldacci
Legal thriller, Boston Harbor crime
Hour of the Witch
Chris Bohjalian
Puritan Boston 1662 — domestic abuse trial and witchcraft accusations
Interpreter of Maladies
Jhumpa Lahiri
diaspora stories Boston suburb
Monkey Boy
Francisco Goldman
Destination where narrator visits his ailing Guatemalan-born mother
Run
Ann Patchett
Irish Catholic political family over 24 hours in the city
The Bostonians
Henry James
Beacon Street feminist circles
The Dante Club
Matthew Pearl
primary 1865 setting
The Friends of Eddie Coyle
George V. Higgins
Irish-American criminal underworld
The Given Day
Dennis Lehane
1918-1919 police strike setting
The Last Hurrah
Edwin O Connor
fictional city modeled on Boston and Mayor Curley
The Late George Apley
John P. Marquand
Brahmin life on Beacon Hill
The Running Man
Stephen King
main chase city
The Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Puritan colony setting
The Boston Girl
Anita Diamant
immigrant neighborhood where Addie grows up
The First Witch of Boston
Andrea Catalano
primary colonial setting
Gone, Baby, Gone
Dennis Lehane
working-class Boston neighborhood
Darkness, Take My Hand
Dennis Lehane
Kenzie & Gennaro's home turf
Mystic River
Dennis Lehane
fictional Boston working-class neighborhood
Small Mercies
Dennis Lehane
primary setting (Southie)
Also featuring Boston (8)
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
V.E. Schwab
Alice's 2019 timeline
Man Gone Down
Michael Thomas
narrator's inner-city childhood in flashbacks
The Bell Jar
Sylvia Plath
Boston and suburban Massachusetts setting - hometown
The Long Night of White Chickens
Francisco Goldman
Boston — Roger's American upbringing
The Old Patagonian Express
Paul Theroux
Starting point — Theroux catches the rush-hour subway from his home to South Station
The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau
Kristin Harmel
2018 present-day frame
The White Boy Shuffle
Paul Beatty
Boston University, later chapters
Boston Adventure
Jean Stafford
Boston social world backdrop
Notable locations in Boston
Charlestown, Boston2Back Bay, Boston1Beacon Hill, Boston1Boston North End1Dorchester1Dorchester, Boston1East Buckingham1South Boston1
Nearby books
Caucasia
Danzy Senna
0 km · Boston, Massachusetts
Darkness, Take My Hand
Dennis Lehane
0 km · Boston, Massachusetts
The Old Patagonian Express
Paul Theroux
0 km · Boston
The Rise of Silas Lapham
William Dean Howells
0 km · Boston, Massachusetts
The Boston Girl
Anita Diamant
1 km · Boston North End
Boston Adventure
Jean Stafford
1 km · Beacon Hill, Boston
Dark Harbor
David Baldacci
2 km · Charlestown, Boston
The First Witch of Boston
Andrea Catalano
2 km · Charlestown, Boston