Category Archives: Wake

Wake

by | June 17, 2010 · 12:25 pm

Kay Salter. Twelfth Summer. Beaufort, NC: SoundSide Publications, Inc., 2008.

Sarah Bowers’ father has just been called to serve in World War II. To give the rest of the family a diversion, her parents decide that Sarah, her mother, and her brother should live with her grandparents in Beaufort, North Carolina for the summer. Although at first Sarah is disappointed to leave the bustle of Raleigh, she learns to love the sight and the smell of the salt marshes as well as the kind coastal natives. Surrounded by her adoring grandparents and new acquaintances, Sarah finds many adventures in Beaufort that she could not experience in Raleigh. For example, she and her friend, Porter, find themselves stranded on Piver’s Island in the middle of a storm – and an air raid drill. As the Bowers cope with the temporary absence of her father and their sacrifices amid the ongoing war, Sarah discovers what is truly important in life: family.

This is the first novel in the Sarah Bowers Series.

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

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2008, Carteret, Children & Young Adults, Coast, Historical, Novels in Series, Salter, Kay, Wake

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by | January 2, 2010 · 11:29 am

Katy Munger. Bad Moon on the Rise. Jackson, WY: Thalia Press, 2009.

Casey Jones is at it again.  As an unlicensed private investigator (she cannot get her license because of a Florida prison stint), Casey is not half bad; she’s already solved a few murders in the Triangle.  When Corndog Sally, a Raleigh fixture, comes to Casey for help finding her daughter and grandson, Casey is more than happy to help.  As Casey sets off to find Tonya, Sally’s daughter (and a recovering addict), and Trey, Tonya’s fifteen year-old son, she finds out that the case will be more challenging than she’d expected: Casey finds Tonya, but she is dead, and Trey is nowhere to be found.

As Casey searches for Trey and for answers, she stumbles upon an illegal police operation in which guards at the Silver Top Detention Center (a fictional women’s prison in the mountains of western North Carolina where Tonya served time for drug-related charges) force paroled women to sell drugs.  Casey learns that Tonya refused to help the criminals in this enterprise and was murdered as a result.  With the help of a friend, Casey discovers the operation’s secluded location as well as Trey, a bright and athletic boy whom the renegade guards would like to groom for the business.  Casey must risk the safety of Trey, her friend, and herself in order to help Trey escape.  At last, Trey is returned to his family, and Casey is able to put an end to the manipulation of women such as Tonya.

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

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2009, Chatham, Durham, Mountains, Munger, Katy, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Piedmont, Suspense/Thriller, Wake

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by | December 30, 2009 · 10:37 am

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

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by | December 4, 2009 · 1:54 pm

Bryan Gilmer. Felonious Jazz. United States: Laurel Bluff Books, 2009.

Leonard Noblac’s career as a musician peaked in the early 1980s, but he hoped that his music would again be appreciated if he just kept at it.  Leaving New York City was not the best career move, but when his wife wanted to relocate to Raleigh he came with her.  Once the marriage broke up, Leonard became unhinged.  As this novel opens, Leonard is robbing a house in a tony Raleigh suburb, starting on a string of crimes that Leonard thinks of as “a perfect jazz albums of burglaries.”  To Leonard, the McMansions of Rocky Falls represent all that is wrong with America in the 21st century–sprawl, over-consumption, soulless materialism.  Jeff Davis Swaine isn’t crazy about the Rocky Falls lifestyle, but he knows who pays his bills–the clients of the Raleigh law firm that has him on staff as their chief investigator.  Once Swaine is called to the scene of that first robbery (called because the homeowners would prefer that the case be handled privately), he is on the trail.  Noblac knows that Swaine and the police have a line on him, but he’s a performer who has always craved the spotlight.  Soon bodies–of people and pets–start to pile up.

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

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2009, Gilmer, Bryan, Piedmont, Suspense/Thriller, Wake

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by | November 20, 2009 · 8:58 am

Price, Reynolds. Blue Calhoun. New York: Atheneum, 1992.

Blue Calhoun narrates the story of his adult years in Raleigh during the 1950s from the distance of old age.  He begins his story in his mid-thirties, when he is working at a store that sells sheet music and instruments.  One day at work, an old friend from school stops by the store with her daughter Luna, who is not much older than Blue’s daughter Madelyn.  At 16, Luna is a talented young musician, and her dark hair, good looks, and confidence catch Blue’s interest.  As the story unfolds, Blue has to grapple with his feelings for Luna and wanting to protect his wife and daughter.  Second and third chances can’t prevent how the reverberations of how Blue’s unfaithful actions will affect his family, including his granddaughter, for whom the story is narrated.

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

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Filed under 1990-1999, 1992, Piedmont, Price, Reynolds, Wake

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by | September 21, 2009 · 12:09 pm

Theresa Cocolin. The Last Rose of Summer. Morrisville, NC: Lulu.com, 2008.

In this introspective novel we follow the narrator, Mandy, from her early childhood through to middle age.  Initially, her family is poor, but stable, in Depression-era North Carolina.  When her brothers leave the farm and her mother dies, Mandy’s life takes a turn for the worse. One day she kills her drunken, abusive father and then is sent to Dorothea Dix Hospital.  During her years at Dix, she comes to understand herself and other people, and upon release finds her way to love and a more normal life.

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

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2008, Cocolin, Theresa, Piedmont, Wake

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by | August 18, 2009 · 9:22 am

Lionel Shriver. A Perfectly Good Family. New York: HarperCollins, 2007.

After the death of her parents, Corlis McCrea finds herself in the familiar (and inherent?) position of the middle child: having to choose a side. Her two siblings, self-serving older brother Mordecai and younger, diffident brother Truman, are at odds. The issue: what to do with their parents’ southern mansion, and everything in it, that is willed to all three.  The real problem: the brothers have different ideas on what to do with the house. Truman has spent all his life in the mansion and has no desire to let go of his memories. On the other hand, Mordecai sees the monetary potential in this inheritance and wants to sell. The only way either can win is to obtain Corlis’s allegiance so that two siblings can buy out the third.

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

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2007, Novels by Region, Piedmont, Shriver, Lionel, Wake

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by | August 8, 2009 · 10:58 am

Tom Wicker. The Kingpin. New York: William Sloane Associates, 1953.

This is generally considered a  roman à clef of the vicious 1950 Democratic primary campaign for the United States Senate seat held by Frank Porter Graham.  The action is centered in the state capital where Bill Tucker, a political operative, works maniacally to tip the election away from the moderate candidate.  Tucker’s candidate, Colonel Harvey Pollock, lost the initial primary to the incumbent despite possessing the advantages of a good family name, a wealthy, attractive wife, and a substantial campaign chest.  Now it’s the run-off primary and Tucker wants to pull out all the stops to win. When the book opens, Tucker is no Boy Scout, but as he masters dirty dealing and race baiting in his pursuit of victory, he goes past the point of no return. Tucker’s man wins the election, but Tucker has lost his moral compass, the woman he loves, and his future.

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

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Filed under 1950-1959, 1953, Historical, Piedmont, Wake, Wicker, Tom

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by | May 4, 2009 · 11:42 am

Sarah R. Shaber. The Fugitive King. New York: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2002.

In 1958 Roy Freeman, a Melungeon man from Kentucky, plead guilty to murdering his girlfriend to avoid being lynched or facing the death penalty. When the girlfriend’s remains are found more than 40 years later in a rusty pickup in the Blue Ridge Parkway, Freedman escapes prison and turns up in Professor Simon Shaw’s living room. After the convict asks the “forensic historian” to help prove his innocence and turns himself in, Shaw travels to his hometown of Boone to visit family and investigate Freeman’s claims. This is the third book in the Professor Simon Shaw series of mysteries.

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

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2002, Mountains, Mystery, Piedmont, Shaber, Sarah, Wake, Watauga

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by | February 5, 2009 · 9:34 am

Katy Munger. Out of Time. New York: Avon Books, 1998.

In the second book of the Casey Jones series, it is Casey’s client who is running out of time. Gail Honeycutt is on death row for killing her husband, her appeals are pretty much exhausted, and she only has a month before her execution, but she continues to declare her innocence. Unfortunately, Gail’s husband was a cop (maybe a dirty one) and Casey’s investigation into his death puts her on the wrong side of the local P.D., including her non-boyfriend Bill. Fingers are pointed at Casey when people connected to the case start dying and the donut-loving private detective has to find the killer before she is framed for his work.

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

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Filed under 1990-1999, 1998, Durham, Humor, Munger, Katy, Mystery, Novels in Series, Orange, Piedmont, Wake

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