USA Fiction Challenge: Missouri

We are making our way across the USA Fiction Challenge. 

Today our stop is the Show Me State of Missouri.

The Shepherd Of the Hills

by Harold Bell Wright

The story depicts the lives of mountain people living in the Ozarks.

 The main story surrounds the relationship between Grant Matthews Senior and Dad Howitt Howitt is elderly, learned man who has escaped the buzzing restlessness of the city to live in the backwoods neighborhood of Mutton Hollow. Howitt spends his time alone, acting as a mediator and friend to the mountain people, and trying to recover from his tragic past, which includes the deaths of his wife and children, and the later presumed madness and subsequent suicide of his only surviving child, his artist son (Mad Howard). Howitt's reclusiveness has earned him the moniker "The Shepherd of The Hills" But he befriends the Matthews clan who come to love and trust him.

Printing History

Written by Harold Bell Wright (1872 –1944)

Book Supply Company

1907

The Film

1941

Starring

John Wayne

Betty Field

Harry Carey

 Directed by

 Henry Hathaway

The Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Loosely based on the real-life exploits of the Molly Maguires 

and Pinkerton agent James McParland.

Sherlock Holmes decodes a cipher warning from Moriarty's organization for Douglas in Birlstone, but a corpse is already in place. When Mr. Douglas blows the head off his American assassin, he dresses the body as himself and hides to throw off the chase for good. Holmes guesses the missing dumbbell weighted down the killer's clothes in the moat. The calling card left, VV341, is the Vermissa Valley Lodge 341. Decades ago a Pinkerton, he went months undercover, first with Freemen in Chicago, then west to desolate mountain coal mine area, to take down corrupt murderers who ran the Valley Freemen Lodge, but criminals had pursued. Holmes warns Douglas, when acquitted, to flee England. But Moriarty prevails. Two months later, Mrs. Douglas telegrams from South Africa. Her husband was lost en route overboard in a gale. Holmes had warned them to flee England, and blames Moriarty.

Printing History

Written by Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (1859-1930)

Strand Magazine 

September 1914 to May 1915

George H. Doran Company 

February 1915

The Films

1916

Starring H.A. Saintsbury and Booth Conway

1935

  as The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes

Starring Arthur Wontner as Holmes and Ian Fleming as Watson

Saucy Movie Tales (Sept 1936)

Saucy Movie Tales - September 1936

Written by Ernest Manning

Illustrated by Norman Saunders

Girls to the Guillotine

 

USA Fiction Challenge: State Of Montana

The State of Montana is the next stop in the 20114 USA Fiction Challenge

In Open Space

by Russell Rowland

The story of the Arbuckle brothers

Set in the vast and unforgiving prairie of eastern Montana from 1916 to 1946

George A rising baseball star who mysteriously drowns in the river   Jack A World War I veteran who abandons his family only to return to reclaim the family ranch   Bob The youngest brother, whose marriage to Helen creates a fault line between him and the rest of his family  

Blake

A shrewd, observant man burdened with growing suspicions of Jack's role in his brother's death

Printing History

 Written by Russell Rowland

Harper Perennial

June 2002

HarperCollins Ebook

June 2010

 

The Long Goodbye (1973)

Neo-noir film directed by Robert Altman and based on Raymond Chandler's 1953 novel

PI Philip Marlowe is visited by his close friend Terry Lennox one night and Terry asks for a lift from Los Angeles to Tijuana. Returning home, Marlowe is met by two police detectives, who accuse Lennox of murdered his rich wife, Sylvia. Marlowe refuses to give them any information and is arrested. After three days in jail, the police release him, because Lennox committed suicide in Mexico. Philip Marlowe is hired by Eileen Wade, the trophy wife of Roger Wade. Wade is an alcoholic novelist with writer's block She asks that Marlowe find her husband, who, despite regular alcoholic binges and days-long disappearances from their Malibu home is missing. In the course of investigating Mrs. Wade's missing-husband case, Marlowe visits the private detoxification clinics for rich alcoholics and drug addicts. He locates and recovers Roger Wade, and learns that the Wades knew the Lennoxes socially. He becomes increasingly convinced that there is more to Terry's suicide and the murder of Sylvia.

Cast

Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe
Nina van Pallandt as Eileen Wade
Sterling Hayden as Roger Wade
Mark Rydell as Marty Augustine
Henry Gibson as Dr. Verringer
David Arkin as Harry
Jim Bouton as Terry Lennox
Warren Berlinger as Morgan

  

Directed by Robert Altman

Screenplay by Leigh Brackett

Story by Raymond Chandler 

The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

A story of a young boy growing up along the Mississippi River. The story is set in the fictional town of St. Petersburg, which was inspired by Hannibal, Missouri, where Mark Twain lived.

 

An imaginative and mischievous boy named Tom Sawyer lives with his Aunt Polly and his half-brother, Sid, After playing hooky from school on Friday and dirtying his clothes in a fight, Tom is made to whitewash the fence as punishment on Saturday. Tom is disappointed by having to forfeit his day off. but he soon persuades his friends to trade him small treasures for the privilege of doing his work. He trades these treasures for tickets given out in Sunday school for memorizing Bible verses and uses the tickets to claim a Bible as a prize. Tom falls in love with Becky Thatcher, a new girl in town, and persuades her to get engaged. Their romance collapses when she learns that Tom has been engaged before to a girl named Amy Lawrence. Shortly after being shunned by Becky, Tom accompanies Huckleberry Finn to the graveyard at night to try out a cure for warts. At the graveyard, they witness the murder of young Dr. Robinson by the Native-American Injun Joe. Scared, Tom and Huck run away and swear a blood oath not to tell anyone what they have seen. Injun Joe blames his companion, Muff Potter for the crime. Potter is wrongfully arrested, and Tom’s anxiety and guilt begin to grow. Tom, Huck, and Tom’s friend Joe Harper run away to an island to become pirates. While having fun and enjoying their newfound freedom, the boys become aware that the community is sounding the river for their bodies. And the real adventure begins.

Printing History

Written by Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910)

American Publishing Company

1876

Hang Dead Hawaiian Style by Patrick Morgan

A free-form secret agent does his own thing

And the spy game makes a whole new scene

Operation Hang Ten

With a simple purchase of a microdot filled with Red Chinese weapon technology, the true identity of the troublemaker is not known. It could be the Chinese, the Soviets, or a simple robbery. Bill Cartwright is sent to Hawaii to get the microdot. When an innocent girl is killed, it turns very personal.

Printing History

Written by George Snyder

Macfadden-Bartell Corp

1969

Coming in October: Traveling The Globe

Coming in October. Traveling the Globe. 

I will highlight titles from exciting places around the world. 

The name of the place must be in the title and must be a real place. 

From Albania to Zanzibar. 

Come check them out in October

The Two-Timing Blonde (II) by Carter Brown

She can show you plenty

If you can keep her alive....

Johnny Storm is a private eye from NYC. He is sent to England to investigate the disappearance of one Miss Estelle Vaughan. Estelle has been missing for over a monthwhen she was to visit a Mr Corvo.  Her car was found a hundred yards from the house and Scotland Yard had ther first crack on the case a month earlier, but never found traces of her. It looks as if she vanished off the face of the earth. Mr Corvo shows Storm a crystal ball and sees a very beautiful blonde girl coming forward to take his hand. Corvo tells our hero a story of a murder that happened over 60 years ago of a Vicompte Guy de Falais. The prevouis night Guy de Falais had challenged Sir Jeremy Trent to a duel over accusations of Trent's wife getting around around so to speak. Estelle's father, Sir Howard Vaughan in 1893, he has a wife and three kids: Ruth, James, Polly, and Estelle. A few years passed by and a Frenchman, de Falais, appears and has an interest in Polly. Polly was engaged to Trent at the time. Fast forward to the present time,  1955 in this case. Mr Corvo uses magic to transport Storm back to 1894 as an American cousin by the name of Jonathan Storm. Mr Storm is to follow Estelle back in time to clear her name. Find the answer would not be easy. Did the original Estelle murder Vicompte or not. In the end, he can not get back. In 1907, Jonathan is referenced as a distance cousin residing in America.

Printing History

Written by Alan G Yates (1922-1985)

Horwitz Publications, Inc

Novel Series

July 1955

Second Collectors' Series

Volume 1 #4

w/Honey, Here's Your Hearse 

July 1957

as Two-Timing Blonde

Reprint By Demand Series

#26

August 1960

 Bonus Cover

 

Note
This title was originally posted on January 13, 2011
The Two-Timing Blonde

Arms Of Vengeance by Shelly Loewenkopf

Nick Carter Goes Head To Head With 

An Army Of Indian Terrorists!

Killmaster #255

They say their goal is India's cultural revival, but their methods bring destruction and death. These are the warriors of the Arms of Vengeance. An army of fiery-eyed zealots, naive young men and ruthless opportunists, who threaten to turn the dirt roads of Calcutta into raging rivers of blood. Nick Carter's seen revolution before. But this time, he's caught in the middle of it. in a deadly race to stop the Soviet-backed fanatics before India explodes. And all of Asia's in the stranglehold of the Arms of Vengeance.

Printing History

Written by Shelly Loewenkopf (1931- )

Berkley Publishing Group

Jove Books

Published by arrangement with The Conde Nast Publications, Inc.

ISBN 515 10171

November 1989

Frost The Fiddler by Janice Weber

While on tour in East Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Leslie Frost discovers a clandestine group in possession of a hidden, ultra-sophisticated computer and working on a new system of smart bombs. For the sake of stability, she is ordered to bring the group down.

Most concert violinists wouldn't pack explosives in the case along with their Stradivarius, but Leslie Frost is no ordinary musician. When she's not performing the Kreutzer sonata, she's spying on neo-fascists and ex-communists in the emerging new East Germany. Frost, aka Smith (code names for the all-female band of American super-spies come from the Ivy League's Seven Sisters schools) witnesses a murder outside an East German church and is drawn into a mission that centers on a powerful computer and a ring of communist spies. With an array of high-tech gadgets in her purse, and a Harley motorcycle in her garage, She is as savvy and cool as James Bond at his best. Between concerts and recording sessions, her time is filled with midnight meetings of both the romantic and the dangerous varieties, with high-speed chases and nick-of-time escapes. 

Printing History

Written by Janice Weber (1950- )

St Martins Press

May 1992

ISBN 312 07758

Grand Central Publishing 

December 1994

ISBN 446 36474

Warner Books Inc

1994

ISBN 751 50902

Audio Book

February 2009

The Big Lie by Hank Janson

Printing History

Written by Reginald Howard Carter

Alexander Moring Ltd 

July 1956

When Eight Bells Toll by Alister MacLean

Philip Calvert, a ruthless agent for Britain's secret service, outwits a gang of modern pirates operating on the Irish Sea.

Secret agent Phillip Calvert is sent to investigate the hijacking of five cargo ships in the Irish Sea Phillip manages to track the latest hijacked ship, the Nantesville, to the Scottish Highlands and the sleepy port town of Torbay. The cargo ship was carrying £8 million in gold bullion. He boards the ship under cover of night and finds that two agents planted aboard have been murdered. The chief suspect is shipping magnate Sir Anthony Skouros. His yacht is anchored in Torbay. Operating out of his own yacht Firecrest, Calvert is joined by Skouros's wife, Charlotte, and by his boss Sir Arthur Arnford-Jason, known as "Uncle Arthur". Calvert's frantic search for the hijackers and for the hostages they hold takes him over the remote isles and sea lochs and forces him to make allies of some unlikely locals.

Printing History

Written by Alistair Stuart MacLean (1922-1987)

HarperCollins (UK)1966

Doubleday (USA) 1966

Fontana (UK) 1967

The Film

1971

 Directed by Etienne Perier

Cast

Anthony Hopkins as Philip Calvert
Robert Morley as Uncle Arthur
Nathalie Delon as Charlotte
Jack Hawkins as Sir Anthony Skouras
Corin Redgrave as Hunslett
Derek Bond as Lord Charnley

Fat Tuesday by Earl Emerson

Thomas Black Mystery #4

When Fred Pugsley receives a dead rattlesnake in the mail, ex-Seattle cop Thomas Black and his friend, lawyer Kathy Birchfield, are called in to investigate. But when they get there, Fred is dead, and his stunned wife sits huddled in the kitchen, clutching a tool used on racing bicycles the murder weapon. But the wife says she's innocent, and suddenly there are plenty of other suspects. Just as Seattle stages its own Mardi Gras, Thomas is getting ready for a wild blow-out of his own.

Printing History

Written by Earl W Emerson (1948- )

William Morrow & Company

January 1987

ISBN 688 06770

Ballantine Books

June 1988

ISBN 345 35223

Kindle

January 2013

A Scandal In 1907

1907 Scandal

Early women's rights activist Annette Kellerman posed in this fitted, one-piece bathing suit to protest the restrictive clothing of the day. She arrested for indecency because of this picture. Australians can thank Annette Kellerman every time they take a swim. In 1905 she invented the streamlined one-piece swimming costume for women, a liberating garment, which became her trademark. But more than that, she re-awoke the pleasure of swimming for everyone including men, women and children. Known as the Diving Venus and the Australian Mermaid, Annette Kellerman (1887–1975) was an athlete as well as a vaudeville and movie star, one of the most famous women of her day.

Kellerman set out to challenge the legal restrictions on women's bathing clothes in the United States. In 1907, preparing for a promotional coast swim, she was arrested for indecency on Revere Beach, Boston. She was wearing one of her fitted one-piece costumes that had no skirt, clung to her body and revealed her thighs. The judge accepted her arguments in favor of swimming as healthy exercise and against cumbersome bathing suits, provided she wore a robe until she entered the water. Her arrest generated worldwide publicity. She continued to wear her one-piece swimsuit in her stage shows and public swimming events.

 Film Career
The Bride of Lammermoor: A Tragedy of Bonnie Scotland (1909)
Jephtah's Daughter: A Biblical Tragedy (1909)
The Gift of Youth (1909)
Entombed Alive (1909)
Siren of the Sea (1911)
The Mermaid (1911)
Neptune's Daughter (1914)
A Daughter of the Gods (1916)
National Red Cross Pageant (1917)
Queen of the Sea (1918)
What Women Love (1920)
Venus of the South Seas (1924)

4th Anniversary

4th Anniversary

Today is this blog's 4th anniversary

Thanks for all the support and comments

Looking forward to another year

The original post from this date in 2010

Original Post 

Bonus Cover

Transport Publishing Company

for and on behalf of Horwitz Publications, Inc

Novelette Series

"Lovely" Mystery

 1951

USA Fiction Challenge: Mississippi

The next stop on the USA Fiction Challenge is the state of Mississippi.

Alex Cross's Trial

by James Patterson & Richard DiLallo

 Alex Cross has been told the story of his great uncle Abraham and his struggle throughout the era of the Ku Klux Klan by his grandmother. Alex then recounts this tale to his children. A lawyer at the turn of the century, by the named of Ben Corbett, represents the toughest cases. Many of his cases are opposing racism and oppression, because of these cases he's fighting for, he risks the life of his wife and children. President Roosevelt asks Ben personally to go to his hometown to investigate upon rumors of the Ku Klux Klan's resurgence. Upon entering Eudora, Mississippi, Corbett meets Abraham Cross and his granddaughter Moody. He enlists their help and they introduce Corbett to the other side of the idyllic southern town. Lynchings have become commonplace in the town, and the black residents of the town live in constant fear. Ben aims to break the reign of terror, but finding out who is behind it all may break his heart.

Printing History

 Written by James Patterson & Richard DiLallo

Little Brown and Company

August 2009

ISBN 316 07062

Vision Paperback

December 2010

ISBN 446 55778

Delilah Was Deadly (II) by Carter Brown

An Al Wheeler Mystery

 Police Lieutenant Al Wheeler is assigned to a case involving a murder of a guy strangled by a nylon girdle in a safe. Maybe the murderer wanted him there for safekeeping? Commissioner Lavers needs an unorthodox cop to solve this loony case. The idea was to assign the case to Wheeler to solve it, but three murders later Al would like to call the cops but he would look silly doing that. The only thing that made sense were the dames all over the place, at Al's place, at their place. But who wants to talk to a beautiful blonde, brunette, or redhead?

 

Cover by Moria Bertram

Printing History

Written by Alan G Yates (1922-1985)

Horwitz Publications, Inc

Numbered Series #22
August 1956

Second Collector's Series

Volume 1 #25

May 1959

w/ Meet Miss Mayhem

Note
This title was originally posted on November 29, 2010
Delilah Was Deadly by Carter Brown 

Deadlock by Sara Paretsky

V. I. Warshawski #2

Vic goes to the Chicago port to find out about her cousin Boom Boom's death. She believes that Boom Boom was killed. The police believe that the ex-Black Hawks hockey player died in an accident. Vic starts digging for motive and evidence, but after two attempts on her life, she finally thinks she has the murder solved but needs strong evidence. To get it, she goes to the yacht of a shipping magnate. Vic is caught by the magnate while she is gathering evidence against him and he confronts her and tells her she is going to die.

Printing History

Written by Sara Paretsky (1947- )

Dial Press
January 1984
ISBN 385 27933

 Dell Books

December 1984
ISBN 345 31954

Deep Sea Death by Jack Garside

N3 Subverts A Lethal Underwater Empire!

Killmaster #254

A Canadian research vessel vanished, disappeared without a trace near a remote archipelago in the Pacific. AXE headquarters calls on Nick Carter "Killmaster" for a ruthless search and destroy that will squelch any attempts at brutal sabotage and avoid a major diplomatic crisis.  But what Nick discovers is a deadly underwater empire. A masterwork of bioengineering ruled by a power hungry fanatic who plans to transform his kingdom into a world threatening nuclear power. And Agent N3 plans a ruthless attack of blood and violence beneath the sea....

Printing History

Written by Jack Garside (1924- )

Berkley Publishing Group

Jove Books

Published by arrangement with The Conde Nast Publications, Inc.

ISBN 515 10153

October 1989

The Outcasts Of Poker Flat by Bret Harte

The Outcasts Of Poker Flat by Bret Harte

The story takes place in a California community known as Poker Flat. The town has lost thousands of dollars and morals seem to be going down as well. In an effort to save what is left of the town and reestablish it as a virtuous place, a secret society is created to decide who to exile and who to kill. The story begins on November 23, 1850 with four immoral people exiled from Poker Flat. First of these immoral people is a professional poker player named John Oakhurst. Oakhurst is among those sent away because of his great success in winning in Poker Flat. On his way out of town, he is joined by The Duchess, a saloon girl, Mother Shipton, a madam and Uncle Billy who is the town drunk and a suspected robber.  The four set out for a camp which is a day's journey away, but halfway to their goal the party decides to stop for a rest at noon.  While on the rest stop, the group is met by a pair of runaway lovers on their way to Poker Flat to get married. Piney Woods is a fifteen-year-old girl and  her lover is Tom Simson, who is known as The Innocent. A decision was made to stay the night together and Tom leads the group to a cabin he discovered where they spend the night. It is known that Uncle Billy is missing with their mules and horses. The group is forced to wait out a storm with provisions that would only last another ten days.  After a week in the cabin, Mother Shipton dies. She had secretly and altruistically starved herself to save her food for young Piney. Oakhurst advises Simson that he will have to go for help. The law arrives at the cabin only to find the dead Duchess and Piney, embraced in a peaceful repose. Then Oakhurst is found having committed suicide. He is found dead beneath a tree with his Derringer's bullet in his heart. 

Printing History

Written by Francis Bret Harte (1836-1902)

Overland Monthly

January 1869

The Films

1919 with Harry Carey

1937 with Preston Foster

 

1952 with Dale Robertson

Kill Now, Pay Later by Robert Kyle

She had a glass in one hand, a champagne bottle in the other, 

and trouble splashed all over her lovely body.

Ben Gates Mystery

When Ben Gates took the job guarding the presents at a ritzy upper-class wedding, he thought it would be a simple assignment Stand around, look tough, and make sure none of the bridesmaids walk off with the jewelry.  But that was before someone slipped sleeping pills into Ben’s coffee and a bizarre robbery attempt left two people dead. Now Ben’s reputation is on the line and if he doesn’t figure out which of three beautiful women is hiding a murderous secret, his life may be as well.

Printing History

Written by Robert Terrall (1914-2009)

Dell Books

1960

Hard Case Crime

March 2011

May 2014

USA Fiction Challenge: Montana

Next stop in the USA Fiction Challenge is Montana

Presenting

The Last Good Kiss

by James Crumley

Detective story starring C. W. Sughrue. He is a Montana investigator who kills time by working at a topless bar. C. W. is hired to track down a derelict author, he ends up on the trail of a girl missing in Haight-Ashbury for a decade. The tense hunt becomes obsessive as Sughrue takes a haunting journey through the underbelly of America's sleaziest nightmares.

 

Printing History

Written by James Crumley (1939-2008)

Random House

October 1978

ISBN  394 41946

Bonus Cover

 

The Racketeer's A Redhead by Kane

Kane is back and up to his neck in murder....but,

come to think of it.....Kane'll neck with anyone!!

She has looks, talent, money, class,  good mixer....specializing in cement.

So she is a big girl to be playing with blocks, even concrete blocks, but one could spoil her game. Now ones got to go! Get ready, Kane...get set!

Printing History

Written by C J McKenzie

Webster Publications

1958

Death To A Downbeat by Carter Brown

Enter The High-Strung Rock Scene

Where The Music Could Kill Ya!

How do you spell rock n roll?

Danny spelled it m-u-r-d-e-r!

Sexy rock superstar Cuddles wanted private eye Danny Boyd to find out who was sending her threatening letters, and why. Danny leaped into the wild backstage rock scene, and picked and pried around some of Cuddles' sexy groupies, until some very bad vibes started playing with his life. What had started out as a pretty routine case, soon turned into a very complicated murder.

Printing History

Written by Alan G Yates (1922-1985)

Horwitz Publications, Inc

ISBN 7255 0876
1980

Tower Publication inc
Tower Books
ISBN 505 51572
1980

as Smert v stile rock
Russia
n/d

The Sky Ghost by Mack Maloney

In a strange new world called America

The future is in danger......

And the past is just beginning.

Atomic Nightmare

Only Hawk Hunter had the courage to divert a deadly comet blazing toward Earth. By storming it headfirst! The kamikaze mission saved the planet, but for Hawk Hunter "The Wingman", a strange new war is just beginning. From the shattered wreckage of the Zon space shuttle, the dazed ace fighter pilot awakens in an alternate world To face history's most infamous battle ...again.

On this Earth, World War II has never ended, the London Blitz still rages but the British capital is a Nazi occupied site for allied bombers, and this time, it's the American shores that are targeted for invasion, by German forces. Their weapon is the A-bomb And only Hawk Hunter can stop them. He has no choice. It's the last prayer of getting back to his Earth alive. Now, trapped between two worlds, caught between wars on both coasts, there's only way to save the future of this America. By winning World War II again!

Wingman #14

Printing History

Written by Brian Kelleher

Kensington Publishing Corp

Pinnacle Books 

November 1997

ISBN 7860 0452