The Lease is set in Brazoria County, Texas, on the upper Texas Gulf Coast south of Houston. The county's long oil history, coastal back roads and old abandoned wells are the backdrop for the novel's mystery.
Where is Brazoria County?
Brazoria County sits on the Gulf of Mexico between Houston and Matagorda Bay. The Brazos River runs through it to the Gulf. Its towns include Angleton, the county seat, as well as Alvin, Pearland, Lake Jackson, Clute, Freeport, West Columbia, Sweeny and Brazoria.
Why oil country?
Brazoria County has been oil country for more than a century. The West Columbia field came in during the early twentieth century, and wells, pipelines, refineries and petrochemical plants still shape the landscape near Freeport. That long history left behind exactly what a thriller needs: old leases, old survey maps, family land and mineral rights passed down through generations, and wells that were plugged or abandoned and nearly forgotten.
What the setting brings to the story
- Abandoned wells. The novel opens at 2:17 a.m. with a death beside one.
- Paper trails. A 1987 oil-and-gas lease and an old survey map are the first clues. Records in oil country outlive the people who signed them. See the glossary.
- Power and family. Old energy families, land and money. The same pressure behind Landman and Yellowstone, set on the Gulf Coast.
- Coastal atmosphere. Humidity, caliche lease roads, night shifts and flat coastal prairie that runs to the water.
The Lease is fiction. Its characters, companies and events are invented, but the place is real.
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