u/Dangerous_Effort8322

I’m looking for a new book and hoping to find something that scratches the same itch as Season 1 of True Detective.

Not necessarily looking for a straight-up detective story or something that copies the plot. I’m more interested in the overall Southern Gothic atmosphere… rural/small-town setting, oppressive heat, decaying places, religious weirdness, old secrets, morally complicated characters, maybe some occult or cosmic horror undertones, and that constant feeling that something is deeply wrong beneath the surface.

I also really loved the philosophical/existential side of Season 1 and the way the mystery slowly opened up into something much darker and stranger.

Basically, if a book made you think, “This feels like True Detective Season 1,” I want to hear about it.

I’m open to both fiction and nonfiction. What would you recommend?

Apologies in advance because I know some version of “what neighborhood should I move to?” has been posted here a million times. I’ve searched through quite a few of the older threads, but I haven’t found many that line up exactly with what my wife and I are looking for.

We’re considering moving to Nashville next year from Chicago. I’ve lived in downtown Chicago for more than a decade and have spent time in most of the major neighborhoods, but for the last three years we’ve been in the Lincoln Park/Lakeview area.
What I’m trying to find in Nashville is something that gets as close as reasonably possible to that type of neighborhood. I completely understand I’m not going to find “Lincoln Park, but in Nashville,” but I’d love somewhere that has:
- Good walkability
- Plenty of bars, restaurants, coffee shops, etc. nearby
- Some actual neighborhood character and things happening around us
- A mix of residential streets and commercial areas rather than being completely suburban
-Houses/townhomes rather than primarily high-rise apartments

Ideally a house with at least a small yard
Price isn’t really the deciding factor for us, so I’m more interested in finding the right area than trying to optimize around a particular rent.

I’ve been doing quite a bit of research myself and neighborhoods like 12 South, East Nashville, Germantown, Sylvan Park, Hillsboro Village, Belmont and a few others keep coming up. The difficult part is getting a sense of things without actually having boots on the ground. Looking at maps and reading old Reddit threads, it seems like Nashville can sometimes change pretty quickly from one pocket to another, so it’s hard to tell where the boundaries are between areas we’d probably love and areas that may not be as good a fit.

Safety is also something I’m trying to understand without overreacting to statistics or internet commentary. Coming from Chicago, I’m very familiar with how exaggerated or misleading the narrative around “city crime” can be, so I definitely don’t want to be that person assuming an entire neighborhood or city is unsafe because of something I read online. At the same time, Nashville does appear to have a relatively high crime rate for a major city, and I’d like to understand the differences at the neighborhood/block level. Ultimately, I just don’t want to unknowingly sign a lease somewhere where my wife wouldn’t feel comfortable walking our dog alone at night.

For anyone familiar with both Nashville and Chicago, particularly Lincoln Park/Lakeview, where would you start looking? And are there any specific parts of the neighborhoods I mentioned that you’d recommend prioritizing or avoiding?

Really appreciate any local perspective.

Edited at bot request to include details on rent and commute - We both work from home so commuting is not a concern. I have a budget of about $6k/month.