Monthly Archives: January 2011

by | January 31, 2011 · 9:59 am

Eileen Wilks. Mortal Sins. New York: Berkley Sensation, 2009.

Murder is a heinous crime that is often described as being thoughtless and illogical. When death magic – the extraction of power through killing – is involved, there are even more unknowns.

FBI agent Lily Yu is in Halo, North Carolina, for personal reasons when Rule Turner, her werewolf boyfriend, discovers three bodies in a shallow grave. When Lily arrives at the crime scene, she realizes that her expertise as a member of the FBI’s Magical Crimes Division will be necessary. Lily is “touch sensitive,” and detects death magic on all three bodies. Lily can exonerate the local sheriff’s prime suspect, but time is running out for her to find the criminal using his or her magical powers to make innocent people commit terrible crimes.

As Lily investigates the case, she must also help Rule deal with a custody battle with his son’s mother and his internal debate on whether to bring the boy into the world of the Lupi.

This is the fifth novel in Wilks’ The World of the Lupi series; the earlier books are not 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, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Suspense/Thriller, Wilks, Eileen

by | January 28, 2011 · 4:35 pm

Peggy Poe Stern. Heaven-high and Hell-deep. Boone, NC: Moody Valley, 2003.

Mountain women are often noted for being strong-willed and independent. This is true of Elaine “Laine” Elder. The Appalachian teenager had already lived a difficult life before Rafford “Rafe” Johnson came into the picture. Treated like a modern-day Cinderella by her sister and hysterical mother, Laine efficiently runs the family farm while her father works at the local sawmill. When Rafe comes to the Elder homestead to ask for Laine’s hand in marriage, her downtrodden father accepts his offer to appease his wife. Although Laine barely knows Rafe, she is eager to be a good wife and to be in charge of his fine plantation house in Kentucky.

Laine’s contentment quickly evaporates as her new husband shows his true stripes as a menacing, abandoning, and cheating drunk. While Rafe is away on a trading excursion, Jonas Jones, the local doctor, pays a visit to Laine. Dr. Jones is a former acquaintance, and their friendship blossoms as Laine solicits from him information about her elusive spouse. She discovers that Rafe is lying to her; not only has he been married before but they are mere miles from Banner Elk, North Carolina – not in Kentucky. Laine realizes that she is pregnant, and she is determined to give her child a proper rearing and to improve her own situation. When Rafe, her sister, her now-widowed mother, and a panther threaten her safe haven, Laine demonstrates her grit in standing up to them and protecting her new life.

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

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2003, Avery, Historical, Mountains, Stern, Peggy Poe

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by | January 21, 2011 · 5:07 pm

Sherry J. McFarland. Second Chance at Happiness. Raleigh, NC: B-About-It-Productions, 2010.

Nina, Tracy, and Amanda have been friends since college.  When this novel opens, the women are married and living in Raleigh.  Luckily, their husbands are compatible and the three couples often socialize and travel together.  A trip to Atlanta–for a fun day at Six Flags and an evening at a Beyoncé concert–reveals that Amanda’s marriage is shaky. Her long-suffering husband, Darnell, has had enough of Amanda’s indiscriminate flirtatiousness.  At Darnell’s insistence, the group cuts the weekend short and leave Atlanta late at night.  The crisis in Amanda and Darnell’s marriage pales in comparison to what happens next.  With Amanda at the wheel, the van overturns, killing Amanda and Darnell, and two of the other passengers.

Nina and Bryan survive, although each has lost a spouse.  How they accept the tragedy and move forward with their lives is the heart of this book.  The network of family and friends, especially Nina’s mother, comfort and support the two survivors, and work also helps them move past their pain.  By using chapters featuring different characters points of view, the reader understands the struggles and strengths of each one.  Bryan is the first to find strength in his faith, but as the book concludes that strength has spread to Nina and her mother, and even Nina’s shallow friend, Nicki.

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

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Filed under 2010, 2010-2019, McFarland, Sherry J., Religious/Inspirational, Romance/Relationship

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by | · 5:03 pm

Richard L. Brown and Mikal H. El-Amin. 187 Iz an Art. Long Beach, CA: Double-Up Publishing, 2009.

When this novel opens, Kamikaze (Kaze) and his cousin Killa are in their teens, but already hustling.  Kaze is close to his mother, but she is in prison. Killa’s mother, Pam, is nominally responsible for both boys, but she is an alcoholic who can’t be counted on.  The cousins have just each other.  As they become better and bolder at hustling, they attract the attention of others, and they put together a drug organization, 187 CRU.  The book follows their exploits as they add members, take over territory, make connections with higher ups in the drug trade, and battle rival dealers for control of Durham’s streets.  The action, well described, comes fast and furious, and the body count is high.

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

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Filed under 2000, 2009, Brown, Richard L., Durham, El-Amin, Mikal H, Piedmont, Urban Fiction

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by | January 18, 2011 · 10:08 am

Michael Morris. Slow Way Home. New York: HarperOne, 2004.

Brandon’s life has always been full of uncertainty. Whether he is trying to navigate his mother’s erratic, alcohol-fueled moods or to protect himself from her abusive boyfriends, Brandon is always on the edge. That all changes when, at the insistence of his mother’s latest mate, Brandon is sent to live with his grandparents near Raleigh. Although he feels abandoned at first, Brandon deeply appreciates his new stable home life and his grandparents’ undying love.

Uncertainty follows him to the Triangle, however, when his mother returns demanding Brandon. His grandparents are unwilling to place him back in her unpredictable care, and they initiate a custody battle. Although Brandon’s mother arrives late and disheveled to visitations and legal meetings, the judge rules that Brandon should be returned to her. Brandon’s grandparents cannot bear the thought of parting with him, and seeing no other options, they decide to abscond with Brandon to Florida. They change their names, their appearances, and their stories and start life anew.

Brandon has a chance to start over in Florida, but he brings one aspect of his previous life with him: fear. He and his grandparents bristle at the sight of police officers, and Brandon panics on a field trip when he mistakes a stranger for his mother. Although they find a happy life in Florida, Brandon’s fears are realized when their secret is uncovered. He is sent back to Raleigh to live with his mother, and his grandparents are sent to prison.

Although Brandon can anticipate that his mother will prove to be an unfit mother, he has no intuition about who will save him. One individual’s benevolence allows Brandon to let go of his fears and to be reunited with his grandparents. Feeling free at last, Brandon maps out his destiny.

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

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2004, Morris, Michael, Piedmont, Wake

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by | January 12, 2011 · 11:27 am

Warren Rochelle. The Called. Urbana, IL: Golden Gryphon Press, 2010.

At the end of Harvest of Changelings, the tetrad of Hazel, Malachi, Jeff, and Russell crossed over into Faerie after defeating the Fomorii.  As this new novel opens, Malachi and Hazel go back to earth, along with two other magicals, Ben and Larissa.  Malachi and Hazel settle in the Triangle, a center of the magical rights movement. Malachi becomes a champion of the magicals, defending them in the media and in his community against the prejudice that is developing against them.  That prejudice is stoked on by undercover members of the Fomorii who are using unsuspecting human allies.

The Fomorii have plans to capture the magicals, and when they kidnap Malachi, Jeff and Russell return to earth to help Hazel find her husband.  But the Fomoriis’ diabolical scheme extends to humans as well, as they foment the overthrow of state governments and the federal government (headed by President Gore).  The action in the novel moves across the state, from Cherokee to Manteo, but some of the most gripping scenes take place on or near the UNC campus, where Malachi is held prisoner beneath Gimghoul Castle.

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

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Filed under 2010, 2010-2019, Coast, Orange, Piedmont, Rochelle, Warren, Science Fiction/Fantasy

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by | January 6, 2011 · 5:48 pm

Jessica Beck. Fatally Frosted. New York: St. Martin’s Paperbacks, 2010.

Things have settled down for Suzanne Hart.  State police investigator Jake Bishop, who readers met in the first book in this series, is now Suzanne’s boyfriend, and business at the donut shop has picked up.  Business is so good that Suzanne has received some hostile comments from the chief wedding cake creator in town; it seems some couples prefer trays of small baked goods to a traditional wedding cake.  But Suzanne has made friends too, and one of those friends, Marge Rankin, asks Suzanne to cook in her kitchen as part of the town’s Kitchen Extraordinaire Home Tour. Suzanne will make beignets–a new offering at her shop–and Marge will get to show off her newly renovated kitchen.

Suzanne is worried about using baking powder rather than yeast in the beignets and how the portable fryer will perform, but these turn out to be the least of her problems.  As the first group of visitors arrive, Peg Materson, tour organizer and town busybody, is found dead in Marge’s backyard–holding a lemon-filled donut from Suzanne’s shop. Just like that, the tour is canceled and Suzanne’s business is shutdown while police search the premises for the poison that killed Peg Masterson.  George Morris, an ex-cop who is one of Suzanne’s best customers, volunteers to do his own investigating.  Peg was a force to be reckoned with, but she was not well liked, except by a niece who she raised.  Friends, especially the other shop owners in downtown April Springs, rally to Suzanne’s side, and one of the pleasures of this novel is the way the author brings the town to life with a cast of interesting, likable characters.

Like the first book in this series, Glazed Murder, Fatally Frosted includes recipes and a charming map of the April Springs.

This is the second Donut Shop Mystery.

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

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Filed under 2010, 2010-2019, Beck, Jessica, Mountains, Mystery, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places

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by | · 5:35 pm

Karen Hawkins. Talk of the Town. New York: Pocket Books, 2008.

Divorce is not what Roxie Treymayne expected. After discovering her husband’s affair with his law partner, she is determined to go a little bit wild. She spent years playing the perfect Raleigh country club wife, and now Roxie wants to be who she really is. Roxie transforms her prudish look with a tattoo, a navel ring, revealing clothes, and a bleach blond ‘do. She is ready to start over in some far-away city when she gets the news–her mother has suffered a mild heart attack and Roxie is needed back home in Glory, North Carolina.

Roxie does not plan to stay in Glory for long, but bumping into Nick Sheppard, the new sheriff, makes her consider staying even after her mother recovers. Although Nick spurned Roxie in high school after a brief romance, the two still share a mutual attraction, and the tension is thick whenever they are together. In the meantime, Roxie has taken over her mother’s volunteer activities, which includes spending time with the three-member Murder Mystery/CSI-Watching Club at the local assisted living center. The club’s trio thinks that they are on to a real-life murder mystery, and Roxie helps with the investigation. Fortunately, this means that she and Nick begin seeing more of each other and building their trust in one another.

Although Roxie never imagined moving home, she finds happiness, love – and a little bit of suspense – in Glory, North Carolina.

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

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2008, Buncombe, Hawkins, Karen, Mystery, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Romance/Relationship

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by | January 4, 2011 · 9:21 am

Jessica Beck. Glazed Murder. New York: St. Martin’s Paperbacks, 2010.

Suzanne Hart is trying to rebuild her life after a divorce.  She’s back in her hometown, the fictional April Springs, North Carolina, living with her mom, and trying to make a go of it as the owner of the local donut shop, Donut Hearts.  Suzanne has made some changes to the shop since she took it over.  She’s added a range of donut flavors and redecorated with couches and comfy chairs to encourage people to linger rather than just get takeout. Keeping the regulars while attracting new customers is her goal.

And she wants all her customers to be alive, but just as she’s heating up the fryer one morning someone dumps a body outside Donut Hearts.  The police are quickly on the scene, but Suzanne gets a bad feeling about the investigation.  The police chief is still carrying a torch for Suzanne’s mom, who spurned him forty years ago.  Is that unsuccessful courtship the reason he is so hostile to Suzanne?  Or is there something fishy going on with the police department?  That might explain the presence of Jake Bishop, a state police investigator who warns Suzanne to let the proper authorities handle the case.  But Suzanne believes that she’s in danger and so she starts to look into the affairs (personal and professional) of the dead man.  Soon Suzanne is in danger, but she unexpectedly finds a new love.

This is the first book in the Donut Shop Mystery series.  As an extra gift to readers, it includes recipes for for some of the treats mentioned in the novel.

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

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Filed under 2010, 2010-2019, Beck, Jessica, Mountains, Mystery, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places

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by | · 9:13 am

Elizabeth McDavid Jones. The Night Flyers. New York: Windmill Books, 2010.

It is 1918, and the United States is involved in the Great War. Pam Lowder’s father is fighting in Europe and has left her in charge of his carrier pigeons. These birds are unique because Pam and her father have trained them to fly at night.

One day, a stranger with a foreign accent arrives in town. Some people suspect that he is a German spy. Pam is surprised when he approaches her with the offer to buy her pigeons for $200. Although the money would help her family in many ways, Pam cannot part with her beloved pigeons and declines the offer.

When her prized birds begin disappearing, Pam wonders if her neighbors in Currituck, North Carolina, are right about this man. Is he stealing the birds to help with the enemy’s war effort? Pam courageously investigates to get to the bottom of the mystery – and to find her pigeons.

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

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Filed under 2010, 2010-2019, Children & Young Adults, Coast, Currituck, Jones, Elizabeth McDavid, Mystery