Houston native and writer Duncan Alderson's new book, Magnolia City, explores the "Hidden Houston" of the 1920s. In Alderson's epic novel, the roar of the era is heard for the first time in a female voice, sounding from the Lone Star State. Magnolia City is a stirring saga set along the wide boulevards of pre-Depression era Houston, a city of established cotton kings and newly rich oil barons, in which a strong and willful woman will do whatever it takes to make her dreams come true.

Inspired by photos he found of his mother dressed as a flapper during this era, Alderson weaves the tale of young Hetty Allen caught between her affluent family's conservative roots and the passionate flame of the roaring '20s. Descended from the founders of Houston, Hetty is torn between her family's expectations for her to marry the oil baron's son and her own instincts about a poor yet mysterious man she's just met.

Alderson spent 10 years researching real people and events from history to evoke the turmoil and drama that ripple through the history of the Lone Star State.