The Lease is a Texas oil and landman thriller by Alan Ray Winkley, set in Brazoria County on the Texas Gulf Coast. It is Book One of a planned series. Kindle, paperback and hardcover editions are available on Amazon.
The story
At 2:17 in the morning, Jack Mercer finds his friend dead beside an abandoned oil well in Brazoria County. The scene is supposed to look like an accident. It doesn't.
Hidden nearby are a 1987 oil-and-gas lease, an old survey map and a photograph tied to one of Texas's most powerful energy families. What begins as a suspicious death pulls Jack and his wife, Kate, into a buried history of mineral rights, secret drilling, vanished records, family bloodlines and a program powerful men have protected for decades. The deeper Jack digs, the more personal the conspiracy becomes. Beneath the Texas Gulf Coast lies a secret worth far more than oil.
Book details
- Title: The Lease: A Texas Oil Thriller
- Author: Alan Ray Winkley
- Genre: Thriller, mystery and suspense; Texas oil and landman fiction
- Setting: Brazoria County and the Texas Gulf Coast
- Series: Book One (Book 2 is planned)
- Kindle: ASIN B0HK2864TJ, 264 pages, $9.99, in Kindle Unlimited
- Paperback: ASIN B0HK2L51LQ, ISBN 979-8174257122, 262 pages, 6 × 9 in, $24.99
- Hardcover: ASIN B0HKCSWLL8, ISBN 979-8175218979
- Publisher: Independently published, September 2026
Who it's for
Readers who like The Pelican Brief, Bloodline, Yellowstone and Landman: land, money, family loyalty and power, in a Texas setting you can smell. You don't need oilfield experience. The lease and mineral-rights detail drives the motive and the atmosphere, but the book never turns into a manual.
Watch the trailer
Keep exploring