Category Archives: 1990-1999

1990-1999

Kathy Reichs. Death du Jour. New York: Scribner, 1999.

The second in Reich’s series of Temperence Brennan mysteries, Death du Jour opens with Tempe in Quebec looking for the remains of a long-dead nun…but the body is not where records say it should be. Then she discovers that a deadly house-fire was used to cover up multiple murders. A third addition to her caseload is the disappearance of a university teaching assistant. Tempe’s three investigations eventually begin to connect to one another and she travels to the North Carolina coast to try to find more answers.

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

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Filed under 1990-1999, 1999, Coast, Mystery, Novels in Series, Reichs, Kathy

Gloria Houston. Littlejim. Fairview, NC: Bright Mountain Books, 2008.

Littlejim wants nothing more than to earn the respect of his father, Bigjim. He is an excellent student, but his father does not see the value in school work and other such “tom-foolery.” Littlejim tries to prove himself in other ways, but he has no luck in demonstrating his worth to his father by working on his family’s farm or in his uncle’s sawmill. When an essay contest is announced, Littlejim decides to try to win both the contest and his father’s approval by writing about what it means to be an American. The people of his World War I-era Appalachian community provide the inspiration for his writing. Littlejim is based on the childhood of the author’s father and is the 2008 children’s focus novel for Western North Carolina’s Big Read Project, Together We Read. It has two sequels: Littlejim’s Dreams and Littlejim’s Gift: An Appalachian Christmas Story.

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

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Filed under 1990, 1990-1999, Children & Young Adults, Coast, Historical, Houston, Gloria, Mountains

Sarah Shaber. Simon Said. New York: St. Martin’s, 1997.

Professor Simon Shaw knows everything there is to know about Kenan College’s Bloodworth House–in fact, he literally wrote the book on the historic home. So, when a 50-year old corpse with a bullet-hole in its skull is uncovered during an archaeological dig on the house’s grounds, Shaw is asked to help identify the body. He believes that the body is that of an heiress who disappeared in 1926 and tries solve the murder with the help of an archaeologist and a police attorney. This novel is full of Raleigh history, but Shaw’s life also includes a number of modern-day details that may be familiar to locals, including going to a Durham Bulls game, eating at Raleigh’s Hillsborough Street IHOP, and researching in UNC’s own Southern Historical Collection.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 1990-1999, 1997, Mystery, Novels in Series, Piedmont, Shaber, Sarah, Wake

Katy Munger. Legwork. New York: Avon Books, 1997.

Casey Jones wants to be a private detective, but due to a felony conviction in the distant past she cannot get a license. Instead, she does the next best thing and works for a legitimate P.I., answering his phone, bodyguarding, and doing the legwork on some of his cases. In Legwork, the first novel in the Casey Jones series, Casey’s bodyguarding client is arrested for murdering a powerful and lecherous real estate developer. The arrestee is political candidate Mary Lee Masters–a “New Southern Woman” who could be the first female U.S. Senator from N.C–and she offers Casey twice her normal pay to find out who’s trying to frame her.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 1990-1999, 1997, Durham, Munger, Katy, Mystery, Novels in Series, Wake

Donald Secreast. White Trash, Red Velvet. New York: HarperCollins, 1993.

Although it technically consists of short stories, White Trash, Red Velvet can be read as a novel. When taken as a whole, the book tells the story of Curtis and Adele Holsclaw, their three children, and their friends and relatives in the fictional town of Hibriten (likely based on Lenoir, NC). The first story takes place in 1952 and the other eleven follow the family and town through several decades of blue-collar southern life.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 1990-1999, 1993, Caldwell, Mountains, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Seacrest, Donald

Simmons Jones. Show Me the Way to Go Home. Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1991.

The small town of Milford is home to a number of eccentrics, including a would-be actress; her drunken, estranged husband; their special-needs son; a woman who mentally gives herself titles like “The Foolish Virgin;” her ambitious, cheating husband; and observer and host Ned Trivett. This (often boozy) cast of characters is joined by an enigmatic hustler, a former resident who has returned as an Italian princess, and other visitors, all of whom bring significant changes to the residents lives and relationships.

Although there was a North Carolina community called “Millford” in Vance County in the 1800s, it has since disappeared and the coastal community in this novel is fictional.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

Comments Off on Simmons Jones. Show Me the Way to Go Home. Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1991.

Filed under 1990-1999, 1991, Coast, Jones, Simmons, Novels Set in Fictional Places

Randall Kenan. Let the Dead Bury Their Dead. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992.

Randall Kenan introduced readers to the fictional town of Tims Creek in his 1989 novel A Visitation of Spirits and continued its story in his second book, Let the Dead Bury Their Dead. Its twelve short stories are connected by the town, a cast of recurring characters, and the themes of death, sex, and poverty. The title story is a parody of a scholarly article, complete with a deceased fictional author and extensive footnotes. Let the Dead Bury Their Dead was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and won the Lambda Award.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 1990-1999, 1992, Coastal Plain, Kenan, Randall, Novels Set in Fictional Places

Margaret Maron. Killer Market. New York: Mysterious Press, 1997.

In Killer Market, the fifth installment in the Judge Deborah Knott series, Deborah takes a break from her home in fictional Colleton County and travels to High Point to serve as a substitute judge for a vacationing colleague. Unfortunately, the Judge’s arrival coincides with the start of a giant, week-long furniture event and she is without a hotel reservation. Inconvenience quickly turns into something much worse, however, when she is told that her missing purse has turned up at the scene of a murder and that the victim was killed with her medication. As she begins investigating the crime, Deborah is faced with a variety of quirky characters and two main questions: Who killed the furniture executive? And why did they try to frame the Deborah?

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 1990-1999, 1997, Guilford, Maron, Margaret, Mystery, Novels in Series, Piedmont

Phyllis A. Whitney. Amethyst Dreams. New York: Crown Publishers, 1997.

When Hallie Knight receives an invitation to visit Topsail Island, she accepts, viewing it as a welcome opportunity to take a break from her California life and her unfaithful husband. The visit is not a simple one, however. The invitation was extended by Captain Trench, the wealthy and ill grandfather of Hallie’s old friend Susan. Susan disappeared from her home two years ago and the Captain wants Hallie to find out what happened to her. As Hallie becomes more involved with the family and its secrets, she discovers that some relatives stand to inherit a fortune if Susan stays missing and decides that people know more than they are telling about the disappearance.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

Comments Off on Phyllis A. Whitney. Amethyst Dreams. New York: Crown Publishers, 1997.

Filed under 1990-1999, 1997, Coast, Mystery, Onslow, Pender, Whitney, Phyllis A.

Flora Ann Scearce. Singer of an Empty Day. Mount Olive, NC: Mount Olive College Press, 1997.

Born at the turn of the twentieth century, Selena “Sippy” Wright lives in North Carolina’s Great Smokies, with her parents. After a fire destroys the family’s cabin, they go to live with Sippy’s Grandmother and her youngest three children, and, while life on Utah Mountain is hard, the family struggles and survives together. Sippy’s story is filled with the work, school, and play of mountain children, but also includes details about her father’s work, her mother’s housekeeping, her grandmother’s medicinal herbs, and the events, songs, and games that were important to mountain culture. Based on the journals and recollections of the author’s mother, this novel tells the story of Sippy’s childhood from ages seven to twelve; her story is continued in Scearce’s second novel Cotton Mill Girl, published in 2006.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 1990-1999, 1997, Docufiction, Haywood, Historical, Mountains, Novels in Series, Scearce, Flora Ann