Yearly Archives: 2009

Joan Medlicott. A Blue and Gray Christmas. New York: Pocket Books, 2009.

When Hannah’s husband Max discovers a battered tin box in the foundation of a house he is restoring, he brings it to Hannah and her dear friends Grace and Amelia. To their delight, it contains letters and diaries from two Civil War soldiers, one from South Carolina and the other from Connecticut. What historic treasures!  But it is the human story that attracts the ladies–two young men nursed back to health by a local woman to whom they then become bound by gratitude. Not content to leave the story of these men and the kindly woman in the past, the friends make plans to bring the men’s descendants to Covington. Amelia and a local school teacher head to Connecticut to track down the Union soldier’s family.  Meanwhile, life in Covington goes on.  Hannah tries to help her sort-of daughter-in-law, Sarina, find happiness after her husband has left her.  Sarina’s romance with a local pastor stirs up the church.  When Grace is injured in a car accident, Bob is denied access to her because they are not married, causing him great pain. Will the incident cause Grace to reconsider her decision not to marry?

This is the ninth novel in Medlicott’s  Covington Novels series.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2009, Medlicott, Joan, Mountains, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places

Karen Dodd. Shifting Sands. New Bern, NC: K. E. Dodd, 2009.

Anne Basnight, the self-described “CEO and caretaker of the family legacy,” is overwhelmed by her responsibilities as a Charlotte-based investment broker, disenchanted with her family, and disappointed by her inability to become pregnant. She takes off to her parents’ coastal retreat for the weekend to give herself a much needed break. However, while boating alone one morning, her plans go awry as she encounters a thunderstorm. Anne washes ashore on the fictional Harrold’s Island, the home of Eric Armstrong, a talented painter and recovering cancer patient who knew Anne as a girl. Anne is suffering from amnesia, but Eric does not believe her at first and pretends that he does not know anything about her either. As the days pass, Eric learns that Anne is being sought by the authorities for missing retirement funds; she is believed to have stolen the money and faked her death. As he tries to protect her and give her time to remember her life, the attraction between the two resurfaces. After Anne puts the pieces of her puzzle together, she must confront the accusations and the aspects of her life that have made her unhappy. In doing this, she finds the love and peace for which she has been searching.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2009, Coast, Dodd, Karen, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Romance/Relationship

Tim Downs. Ends of the Earth. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2009.

A call from the sheriff’s department in Sampson County gives North Carolina State University professor Nick Polchak a chance to escape the beginning-of-the-school- year receptions that he abhors.  Professor Polchack is known as “the Bug Man” and he assumes that Sampson County authorities know his reputation and requested his services.  But they didn’t.  It’s the dead man’s wife who asked for Nick.  Kathryn Guilford made her first series appearance in Shoofly Pie, but in the intervening years a lot has happened, including her marriage to a bi-polar man who is the murder victim.

The authorities think that the killing is drug-related but early on readers learn that the victim was connected to a new NCSU graduate student with ties to a sinister, wealthy Russian.  What takes Nick time to discover is that the grad student’s interest in Nick’s work may be his way to keep track of the investigation.  Nick can be forgiven for being a little slow on the uptake.  His feelings for Kathryn re-emerge as they eat meals together and he sees how she mothers her autistic daughter.  Alena Savard, the dog trainer from series novel Less than Dead, has also come to the farm to aid in the investigation. She’s clear on her feelings for Nick and she knows that Kathryn and her daughter are rivals for Nick’s heart.  Bioterrorism, entomology, and matters of the heart vie for center stage in this book.  Rest easy, the terrorism threat is resolved; romantic matters will be settled later.

This is the fifth  novel in the Bug Man series. Not all of the books in the series are set in North Carolina.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2009, Coastal Plain, Downs, Tim, Novels in Series, Sampson, Suspense/Thriller, Wake

Kevin Burton McGuire. Fire Gazer: Arson at the Wolfe House. Asheville, NC: Reminiscing Books, 2009.

It’s the summer of 1998 and newspaper reporter Ben Jennings is assigned to interview a man who claims to have seen ghosts on the grounds of the old Highland Hospital in Asheville.  DC is that man.  He’s intelligent and provocative and he has a ragtag following.  DC is also on the scene of an unexplained fire that breaks out in downtown. As Ben accompanies DC to his camp near Riverside Cemetery and then around town, he begins to fall under DC’s spell even as he witnesses DC’s eerie ability to make a fire on any spot. Although as reporter Ben sees clues that point to another fire, he doesn’t suspect that it will be at one of Asheville’s most famous landmarks.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2009, Buncombe, McGuire, Kevin Burton, Mountains

Lynette Hall Hampton. Echoes of Mercy. Kernersville, NC: Alabaster Book Publishing, 2007.

The leaders of the First United Methodist Church in Liverpool, North Carolina (a fictional town), are celebrating a successful fall festival when there is a sudden explosion in the cemetery. Reverend Willa Hinshaw, a transplant to the Piedmont town, seeks to solve the mystery of who put the bomb on the gravestone of Leo Kingfield and why. Willa and fellow Liverpool residents quickly suspect that members of Leo Kingfield’s family are behind the attack and are trying to scare his wife, Elva, out of the fortune Leo left her. Because Willa is interested in helping Elva, she is seen as a threat and begins receiving intimidating messages. Odd and terrifying events start to take place: Elva becomes ill and requires hospitalization, her friendly caretaker, Bernice, is stabbed and left for dead, and her confrontational niece is found strangled to death in Willa’s apartment complex parking lot. Finally Willa is kidnapped as the perpetrators’ desperation grows. Being thrown in the midst of strained familial relationships pushes Willa to outsmart the greedy Kingfield descendants in order to save her life and help Elva.

This is the second novel in the Reverend Willa Hinshaw Mysteries series.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2007, Hampton, Lynette Hall, Mystery, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Piedmont

Lynne Hinton. Hope Springs. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 2002.

The sequel to Friendship Cake finds the women of the Hope Springs Community Church Women’s Guild at it again. Although their cookbook has been published, the group has become accustomed to getting together on a regular basis to talk about their lives – the joys as well as the concerns. The core group – Beatrice, Charlotte, Jessie, Louise, and Margaret – decide to continue meeting. As each woman faces new trials, including breast cancer, depression, and the possibility of moving across the country, they provide care and encouragement to each other. For example, upon hearing that one member may have to have chemotherapy, the other four shave their heads in solidarity. Through being there for each other during every crisis, the women of Hope Springs offer a true picture of friendship.

Hope Springs is Lynn Hinton’s second book in her Hope Springs series.

Check this title’s availability and the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2002, Hinton, Lynne, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Religious/Inspirational

Elizabeth Spann Craig. Pretty Is As Pretty Dies. Woodbury, MN: Midnight Ink, 2009.

The fictional town of Bradley, North Carolina is in a tizzy.  Parke Stockard, the hated real estate agent and developer who is as beautiful as she is mean, has just been murdered at the altar of the Methodist Church.  Although the townspeople are jarred by the murder, they are not sad to see Parke go.  Myrtle Clover, the octogenarian mother of the police chief, has decided to use this unfortunate event to her benefit as a way to prove to her son, Red, that any discussion of her moving into the Greener Pastures Retirement Home is unnecessary.  Myrtle is a spry retired English teacher who begins to investigate the case and discovers that many of the townspeople and her fellow United Methodist Women members could be suspects.  As Myrtle identifies more clues, another death takes place.  However, this time the victim is someone who is well-liked but probably knew too much.  Myrtle must find the answer to the mystery before another death – including her own – takes place.

Pretty Is As Pretty Dies is Craig’s second “Myrtle Clover Mystery” novel.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2009, Craig, Elizabeth Spann, Mystery, Novels Set in Fictional Places

Lynne Hinton. Friendship Cake. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 2000.

Membership in the Hope Springs Community Church Women’s Guild is waning, and the few remaining devoted members would like to find a way to revitalize the group. Beatrice Newgarden suggests that the women compile a cookbook in an effort to raise money and to become more connected with each other. As the women get together to share recipes and discuss the trials of such a large task, they discover how much they depend on each other and how unique their community is. Together, they experience the pain of losing dear friends as well as the joys of rekindled love and new life.

Friendship Cake is Lynn Hinton’s first book in her Hope Springs series.

Check this title’s availability and the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000, 2000-2009, Hinton, Lynne, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Religious/Inspirational

Stephen March. Armadillo. Huntsville, TX: Texas Review Press, 2003.

Chuck is renting a rather depressing trailer from his older cousin Cross, who owns and operates the body shop where Chuck works.  Chuck gets into trouble working for his cousin at the body shop, which has a successful after-hours program of stripping and repainting stolen cars.  An unlikely partner named Wanda falls into Chuck’s life, bringing with her mischief, sensuality, whimsy, and a love of animals.

Cross is a violent man with a shady past, and when Chuck begins to stand up to him, Cross takes out his anger on Wanda and her pet armadillo and canary.  Chuck and Wanda retaliate by seeking revenge and a new life far from their Eastern North Carolina trailer park.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2003, Coastal Plain, March, Stephen, Novels Set in Fictional Places

Alex Haley. A Different Kind of Christmas New York: Doubleday, 1988.

Alex Haley was known worldwide for his blockbuster Roots.  Fewer people know this later, brief novel which tells the story of a slaveholding North Carolinian who has a change of heart.

Fletcher Randall is the son a powerful state senator in Ashe County.  Senator Randall’s 3,000 acre plantation is worked by over 100 slaves who bring in crops of cotton and tobacco.  Fletcher’s parents send him to the College of New Jersey (Princeton) where he endures insults and harassment because of his family’s slaveholding.  The harassment does not move Fletcher, but his relationship with three Quaker brothers does.  On a visit to their home in Philadelphia he is taken to a meeting of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee, an anti-slavery organization involved with the Underground Railroad.  His outrage at this affront turns to something else as he reads about the Quakers and the Underground Railroad.  After much soul-searching, Randall changes sides and returns to Ashe County to assist enslaved people in a mass escape set for Christmas Eve.

This book was evidently issued for the holiday season in 1988. It is beautifully produced book, with a lovely dust jacket and ornamental designs in the book itself.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 1980-1989, 1988, Ashe, Haley, Alex, Mountains