Showing posts with label USA Fiction Challenge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label USA Fiction Challenge. Show all posts

Monday, February 23, 2015

USA Fiction Challenge: Pennsylvania

After a short hiatus the USA Fiction Challenge is back. 
This time around we will be visiting the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania


The Philadelphia Murder Story
by Leslie Ford 


Murder in a wealthy Philadelphia family with secrets to hide.


 Printing History
Written by Zenith Jones Brown (1898-1983)

Popular Library
1945
 
Dell Books
#354
1949 

Monday, January 12, 2015

USA Fiction Challenge: Oregon

We are rolling along in the USA Fiction Challenge. As we near the end of this one of a kind event, we will be visiting some exciting locales. The next stop is state of Oregon with J.A. Jance's Failure To Appear

Failure To Appear
by J. A. Jance


J.P. Beaumont’s teenage daughter Kelly has run off and her tracks have led the sober but struggling cop to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. But in addition to one very headstrong offspring, there is something else waiting for Beau. A case of coldblooded murder. The victim is an acquaintance, a sleazy rival private investigator brutally butchered, supposedly by the Festival’s current young Juliet, though Beau has his doubts. But the Second Act is about to open with a second corpse and a touch of kiddie porn, leaving Beau center stage in a heart-stopping tragedy of revenge, deception, and death.


Printing History
Written by Judith Ann Jance (1944- )

William Morrow and Company, Inc
copyright 1993
April 1997
March 2009

The Hearst Corporation
Avon Books, Inc
ISBN 380 75839
September 1994

Saturday, January 3, 2015

USA Fiction Challenge: State of Ohio

A new year brings about a renewed interest in the USA Fiction Challenge. 
The next stop is the state of Ohio.

Presenting 
Cast A Blue Shadow 
An Ohio Amish Mystery
by P.L. Gaus


What is the relationship between history and fiction in a place with a contentious past? And of what concern is gender in the telling of stories about that past? 


After the first blizzard of an early winter, a Mennonite college girl with a troubled past appears curled up and bloodied outside the office of her childhood psychiatrist. Mute for many years as a child, Martha Lehman is again not talking. That same morning, the wealthy mother of Martha's boyfriend is found murdered in her mansion in the country west of Millersburg, Ohio. Professor Michael Branden and Sheriff Bruce Robertson begin an investigation that, in the space of a single weekend, implicates Martha, threatens to tear apart the fabric of Millersburg College, pits one professor against another, and brings Caroline Branden near to a breaking point over the girl she once tried so fervently to help and who now seems determined to let no one help her at all. As Martha struggles to understand her enigmatic past and as Professor Branden wrestles with the murder of the college's leading benefactor, the real story of Martha Lehman emerges, born Amish, converted to Mennonite, and drawn to the English world for the worst of reasons.

Printing History
 Written by Paul L Gaus (1949- )

Ohio University Press
November 2003
ISBN 0821415301

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

2014 Fiction Challenge Update

My update with the USA Fiction Challenge.
So far, 32 states and 34 titles.
I should be able to complete this in 2015


  • ALABAMA: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  • ALASKA: Birds of Prey by J.A. Jance
  • ARIZONA: Partner In Crime by J.A. Jance
  • ARKANSAS Dear Miss Demeanor by Joan Hess
  • CALIFORNIA: Kinsey Milhone Series by Sue Grafton
  • COLORADO: Buried By the Roan by Mark Stevens
  • CONNECTICUT: Deadly Advice by Roberta Islieb
  • DISTRICT of COLUMBIA: Murder And The First Lady by Elliott Roosevelt
  • DELAWARE: She'll Never Know by Hunter Morgan
  • FLORIDA: Danger Key by Lew Louderback
  • GEORGIA: Miss Dimple Disappears by Mignon F. Ballard
  • HAWAII: The Betrayers by Donald Hamilton
  • IDAHO: Deep Cover By Steve Roos
  • ILLINOIS: Bitter Medicine by Sara Paretsky
  • INDIANA: Deliver Us To Evil by Joe Hensley
  • IOWA: The Silken Nightmare by Carter Brown
  • KANSAS: Hot Summer, Cold Murder by Gaylord Dold
  • KENTUCKY: Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
  • LOUISIANA: New Orleans Mourning by Julie Smith
  • MAINE: Murder Most Maine by Karen MacInerney
  • MARYLAND: Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippman
  • MASSACHUSETTS: Promised Land by Robert B Parker
  • MICHIGAN: Angel Eyes by Loren D. Estleman
  • MINNESOTA:  In The Lake Of The Woods by Tim O'Brien
  • MISSISSIPPI: Alex Cross's Trial by James Patterson & Richard DiLallo
  • MISSOURI: Sheppard Of the Hills by Harold Bell Wright
  • MONTANA: The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley  In Open Space by Russell Rowland
  • NEBRASKA: 
  • NEVADA: Walk A Crooked Mile by Catherine Dain
  • NEW HAMPSHIRE 
  • NEW JERSEY: Dead Man's Float by Beth Sherman  Unbalance Accounts by Kate Gallison
  • NEW MEXICO: The Blessing Way by Tony Hillerman
  • NEW YORK: A Body To Die For by Valerie Frankle
  • NORTH CAROLINA 
  • NORTH DAKOTA 
  • OHIO
  • OKLAHOMA: 
  • OREGON 
  • PENNSYLVANIA 
  • RHODE ISLAND: The Witches Of Eastwick by John Updike
  • SOUTH CAROLINA 
  • SOUTH DAKOTA 
  • TENNESSEE 
  • TEXAS: 
  • UTAH 
  • VERMONT 
  • VIRGINIA 
  • WASHINGTON: 
  • WEST VIRGINIA 
  • WISCONSIN 
  • WYOMING 
  • Saturday, December 13, 2014

    USA Fiction Challenge: Rhode Island

    Today is anther stop in the 2014 USA Fiction Challenge. The goal is to stop on every state and showcase a title from that state. It looks like I will not be wrapping this up this year, but hope to come close. The next stop is our smallest state of Rhode Island. And also called State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

    Presenting
    The Witches of Eastwick
    by John Updike


    The story, set in the fictional Rhode Island town of Eastwick in the late 1960s It follows the witches Alexandra Spofford, Jane Smart, and Sukie Rougemont, who have acquired their powers after leaving or being left by their husbands. Their coven is upset by the arrival of a devil-like character, Daryl Van Horne. This mysterious Daryl seduces each of the women, encouraging them to play with their powers and creating a scandal in the town.

    Printing History
    Written by John Updike (1932-2009)

    Knoft 
    ISBN 394 53760
    April 1984

    In 1987 the novel was adapted into a film starring Jack Nicholson as Darryl, Cher as Alexandra, Susan Sarandon as Jane, and Michelle Pfeiffer as Sukie

    Saturday, December 6, 2014

    USA Fiction Challenge: New Jersey

    The next stop on our journey to visit each and every state is the Garden State or New Jersey.

    Unbalanced Accounts
    by Kate Gallison


    The year was 1977, when everybody smoked in the office, nobody earned a living wage, bosses called their clerks "my girls", and any idiot could get a job with the State of New Jersey. Onto this scene came down at heel Trenton divorce detective Nick Magaracz. Nick is looking for nine thousand dollars in stolen welfare checks and solving this case looked like a lead-pipe cinch, until the bodies began to fall.

    Printing History
    Written by Kathleen Gallison Dunn (1939- )

    Little Brown and Company 
    ISBN 316 30288
    April 1986

    Saturday, November 22, 2014

    USA Fiction Challenge: New York

    The 2014 USA Fiction Challenge is heading to the home stretch. This time we visit the state of New York as well as the city of New York. The highlight will be Valerie Frankel's A Body To Die For.

     

    Investigating the suspected infidelities of a former tennis pro's wife, private detective Wanda Mallory becomes an unlikely member of an elite health club, where she uncovers a series of other crimes, including murder.



    Printing History
    Written by Valerie Frankel

    Simon & Shuster, Inc
    Pocket Books
    ISBN 671 79520
    July 1995

    E Book
    August 2010

    Kindle Edition
    February 2011

    Wednesday, November 12, 2014

    USA Fiction Challenge: New Mexico

    The game is on in the 2014 USA Fiction Challenge. This time around we visit the Southwest, New Mexico to be exact. The highlight this time will be Tony Hillerman's The Blessing Way

    The Blessing Way
    by Tony Hllerman

    Introducing Joe Leaphorn


    When Lt. Joe Leaphorn of The Navajo Tribal Police discovers a corpse with a mouth full of sand at a crime scene seemingly without tracks or clues, he is ready to suspect a supernatural killer. Blood on the rocks...A body on the high mesa...Leaphorn must stalk the Wolf-Witch along a chilling trail between mysticism and murder.

    Printing History
    Written by Tony Hillerman (1925-2008)

    copyright
    1990

    Friday, November 7, 2014

    USA Fiction Challenge: New Jersey

    We are rolling along in the 2014 USA Fiction Challenge. 
    This time we are in New Jersey with the Beth Sherman mystery Dead Man's Float

    Dead Man's Float
    by Beth Sherman

    HER OLD HIGH SCHOOL CRUSH HAS CLEANED UP HIS ACT


    Annie Hardaway is a reluctant expert on house-cleaning, horticulture, and pet care, who specializes in making some of the country's most famous how-to writers look good in print. But when her long-ago high school crush is found dead in their New Jersey shore hometown, Anne has no idea "how-to" find out the truth.

    Printing History
    Written by Beth Sherman

    Avon Books
    ISBN 380 73107
    July 1998
     

    Monday, November 3, 2014

    USA Fiction Challenge: Nevada

    Today is the day to pick up our pace in the 2014 USA Fiction Challenge. 
    We will highlight a mystery from the state of Nevada.

    Introducing
    Walk A Crooked Mile
    by Catherine Dain

    Hired by her own mother to track down her errant father, Freddie O'Neal tails her dad's biker bodies and unearths murder, deceit, and deadly secrets along the way. 


    The story begins when Freddie's mother hires her to find the father who left them 16 years ago. Her search leads her to new friends and old murders. while evoking a wonderful sense of place throughout, from the comfortable, hometown ambiance of Reno to the glitzy cheapness of Las Vegas to the seemingly endless, barren beauty of the desert. The relationship between untidy, irreverent Freddie and her precise, style-conscious mother is well drawn with the conflicts and the love.

    Printing History
    Written by Catherine Dain

    Jove Books
    ISBN 515 11310
    1994

    Tuesday, September 30, 2014

    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

    Friday, September 26, 2014

    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
     

    Saturday, September 13, 2014

    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

    Saturday, September 6, 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

     

    Monday, September 1, 2014

    USA Fiction Challenge: Minnesota

    The next stop in the 2014 USA Fiction Challenge is in the land of 10,000 lakes.
    Minnesota

    Presenting
    In The Lake Of The Woods
    by Tim O'Brien


    Follows the struggle of John Wade as he deals with a recently failed campaign for the United States Senate. He discovers one morning that his wife Kathy is missing.


       The use of flashbacks of John's childhood, his college years, and his Vietnam experiences, as well as testimony and evidence from other characters, this provides several hypotheses for the disappearance of Kathy Wade. Numerous alternatives were presented over the course of the novel. Maybe Kathy had sped over the lake too quickly and was tossed into the lake and drowned. Perhaps she had become lost in the wilderness and ran out of supplies. Or possibly John had killed her in the bedroom one night.


    Printing History
    Written by William Timothy O'Brien (1946- )

    Penguin Books
    January 1995
    ISBN 14 025094

    The Film
    1996
     
    John Waylan is a candidate for U.S. senator. Near the end of the campaign he is accused of ordering and participating in a massacre in a Vietnamese village. The accusation kills his career, and severely endangers his marriage. When he and Kathy flee to an isolated cabin, he awakes one morning to find her gone. Questions are asked, answers are given or hinted at, as the tension and suspense build. 

    Cast
     Kathleen Quinlan as Kathy Waylan
     Peter Strauss as John Waylan
     Peter Boyle as Tony Carbo
     Nancy Sorel as Pat Hood
     Richard Anderson as Claude Rasmussen
    Hrothgar Mathews as Nat Leming
    Ken Pogue as Sheriff Art Lux

    Trivia
    This author was born in my father's home town of Austin Minnesota

    Monday, August 25, 2014

    USA Fiction Challenge: Michigan

    We are rolling along on the 2014 USA Fiction Challenge

     The Next Stop
    The State of Michigan

     Angel Eyes 
    by Loren D. Estleman

    Ann Maringer is a go-go dancer with a problem. Her life is in danger and she is certain that her end is coming very soon.


    An exotic dancer by the name of Ann Maringer is in danger, she is scared and sure someone is out to get her. She turns to Amos Walker a private-eye from Detroit but then she disappears and Walker is out to find out what happened and where she is at.


    Printing History
    Written by Loren D. Estleman (195- )

    Houghton Mifflin
    September 1981
    ISBN 395 31558

    Sunday, August 17, 2014

    USA Fiction Challenge: Massachusetts

    We are rolling along on the Eastern Seaboard in the USA Fiction Challenge

     The Next Stop
    The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

    Featuring
    Promised Land
    by Robert B Parker


    Spenser is hired by Harvey Shepard to find his runaway wife, Pam. He soon locates her, but promises not to force her to return to her husband against her will. He begins to suspect that Harvey Shepard has been threatened by a big-time loan shark by the name of King Powers. Spenser leaves when he sees Hawk at Shepard's house. Harvey fires Spenser because Spenser refuses to disclose Pam's location. Pam soon becomes entangled in a bank robbery that resulted in the shooting death of a bank guard and calls Spenser for help. Spenser's dilemma is that he wants to reunite Harvey and Pam while also making sure that culprits go down for the bank guard's murder while simultaneously setting up King Powers to go to prison. He has to do all this while somehow managing to keep the Shepards and himself out of jail and still alive.


    Printing History
    Written by Robert B Parker (1932-2010)

    Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
    ISBN 395-24771
    1976

    Trivia
    This title was adapted into the pilot episode of Spenser: For Hire

    TV Series
    Spenser For Hire (1985-1988)


    Cast
    Robert Urich (1946-2002)
    Avery Brooks
    Barbara Stock
    Ron McLarty
    Carolyn McCormick
    Richard Jaeckel (1926-1997)


    Thursday, August 14, 2014

    USA Fiction Challenge: Maryland

    USA Fiction Challenge: State of Maryland

    Baltimore Blues
    by Laura Lippman

     


    Until her paper, the BALTIMORE STAR, crashed and burned, Tess Monaghan was a damn good reporter who knew her hometown intimately, from historic Fort McHenry to the crumbling projects of Cherry Hill. Now gainfully unemployed at twenty-nine, she is willing to take any freelance job to pay the rent, including a bit of unorthodox snooping for her rowing buddy, Darryl "Rock" Paxton.
    In a city where someone is murdered almost everyday, attorney Michael Abramowitz's death should be just another statistic. But the slain lawyer's notoriety, and his noontime trysts with Rock's fiancee, make the case front page news. And points to Rock as the likely murderer. But trying to prove her friend's innocence couls prove costly to Tess and add her name to that infamous ever-growing list.


    Printing History
     Written by Laura Lippman (1959- )

    HarperCollins
    July 2006
    ISBN 061 19362

    William Morrow
    December 2006
    ISBN 061 21002

    Avon Books
    February 1997
    ISBN 380 78875
      

    Saturday, August 9, 2014

    USA Fiction Challenge: Maine

    The next stop on the 2014 USA Fiction Challenge is the beautiful state of Maine.

    Presenting
    Murder Most Maine 
    by Karen MacInerney

    It's springtime on Cranberry Island, and love is in the air. It seems like every woman has the hots for buff trainer Dirk De Leon. He and his equally gorgeous business partner, Vanessa Black, are leading a weight-loss retreat at the Gray Whale Inn. Forcing innkeeper Natalie Barnes to lighten up her butter laden breakfast menu. The mood on the island darkens when two grisly discoveries are made. The first is a skeleton walled up at the island's lighthouse. The second is a corpse of the fresh variety. The handsome Dirk! Could the spirit that once embodied the skeletal remains, perhaps the lighthouse keeper who disappeared a century ago, be responsible for Dirk's death?

    Printing History
     Written by Karen MacInerney

    Midnight Ink Books
    November 2008
    ISBN 978-0738713007

    Monday, July 28, 2014

    2014 USA Fiction Challenge: Louisiana

    The next stop on the 2014 USA Fiction Challenge is the state of Louisiana.

     Presenting
    New Orleans Mourning
    by Julie Smith


    When the smiling King of Carnival is killed at Mardi Gras, policewoman Skip Langdon is on the case. She knows the upper-crust family of the victim and that it hides more than its share of glittering skeletons. .......
     


    It's Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and civic leader and socialite Chauncy St. Amant has been crowned Rex, King of Carnival. But his day of glory comes to an abrupt and bloody end when a parade-goer dressed as Dolly Parton guns him down. Is the killer his aimless, promiscuous daughter Marcelle? Homosexual, mistreated son Henry? Helpless, alcoholic wife Bitty? Or some unknown player? Turns out the king had enemies...

    Enter resourceful heroine Skip Langdon, a rookie police officer and former debutante turned cynic of the Uptown crowd. Scouring the streets for clues, interviewing revelers and street people with names like Jo Jo, Hinky, and Cookie, and using her white glove contacts, the post-deb rebel cop encounters a tangled web of brooding clues and ancient secrets that could mean danger for her, and doom for the St. Amants.

     Printing History 
    Written by Julie Smith (1944- )

    St. Martin's Press
    February 1990
    ISBN 312 03892