* _A Compass Error_ (1992)
* _Where the World Ends_ (Willa Cather Award for Fiction, 2000)
* _Queen of Diamonds: The Rise and Fall of Lillian Russell_ (2004)
* _Petticoat Government: Tennessee Women and the Power of Politics, 1880–1920_ (2007)
* _Empress of the Nile: The Daredevil Adventures of Florence Baker_ (2011)
* _The Last Summer of the Camperdowns_ (Willa Cather Award for Fiction, 2012)
* _Saving Grace_ (2015)
* _The Only Woman in the Photo: A Novel of Dorothea Lange and the Farm Security Administration_ (2017)
* _Beautiful as Broken Glass_ (2019)
Non-fiction
* _How to Survive a Murder: Seven True Tales of Women Who Fought Back_ (2008)
* _Code Name Verity: A Young Woman's Body, A Life of Deception, A Mission to Die for_ (2010)