Jemma Chase’s parents own a dude ranch near Boone where she works as a trail leader.   The ranch’s dining hall serves as a gathering place for locals as well as guests, with good food and better gossip.  When a rash of strange crimes begin to happen in town, Detective Tucker and his partner investigate all possible suspects, including Jemma.  The crimes become more serious, and then Jemma’s horse finds a dead body near a trail.  Tucker realizes that Jemma isn’t a suspect, she’s a target.  Jemma’s natural curiousity leads her to play CSI and investigate the crimes on her own in order to help Detective Tucker and the police department find out who is behind the crimes.   Detective Tucker is impressed with Jemma’s moxie, leaving readers to wonder if his desire to serve and protect is purely professional.

This is the third novel in Bishop’s Appalachian Adventure series.

Posted: September 12th, 2009 under 2000-, 2006, Bishop, Maggie, Mountains, Mystery, Novels in Series, Romance/Relationship, Watauga.
Comments: none

Emerald Graham, a petite math professor at Appalachian State University, has always had the best of everything – the right clothes, the best schools, the promise of a large inheritance, and plenty of the gemstones she’s named after.  Em decides to take up skiing and after an embarrassing fall, meets Lucky Tucker, a handsome and rugged member of the ski patrol.  Lucky has been working since he was a young boy to help his large, close-knit family make ends meet.  Despite their drastically different lifestyles, Em and Lucky quickly find that they get along well.  After Em finds an old treasure map that used to belong to her grandfather, the two decide to embark on what appears to be an innocent adventure.  When they uncover an old murder and a case of emeralds, the pair opens up a mystery that shakes up both their families.  Will this tension drive them apart or closer together?

This is the second novel in Maggie Bishop’s Appalachian Adventure series, and includes cameo appearances by Wes and Suzanne from Bishop’s first novel, Appalachian Paradise.

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

Posted: September 6th, 2009 under 2000-, 2004, Bishop, Maggie, Mountains, Mystery, Novels in Series, Romance/Relationship, Watauga.
Comments: 1

Suzanne decides to take a break from her workaholic tendencies as a computer programmer for a large Baltimore company and go hiking alone in the Pisgah National Forest.  She’s fiercely independent, driven, and always has a plan.  In fact, her 5-day solo hike is practically planned down to the minute, but all that goes out the window when her concerned uncle sends along an uninvited mountain man named Wes to keep an eye on Suzanne.  Despite Suzanne’s reluctance to let go of her itinerary and the initial tension of hiking with a handsome stranger, Wes manages to teach Suzanne how to slow down and see the forest through the trees.  As their romance grows, Suzanne becomes more aware of past disappointments, especially her relationship with her father who she hasn’t spoken to in over ten years.  When he shows up at one of Wes’ family gatherings, she is forced reconsider her emotional distance and embrace the present.

This is the first novel in Bishop’s Appalachian Adventure Series.

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

Posted: August 29th, 2009 under 2000-, 2002, Bishop, Maggie, Mountains, Novels in Series, Romance/Relationship, Watauga.
Comments: none

• Appalachian Paradise.  Boone, NC: High County Publishers, 2002.
• Emeralds in the Snow.  Boone, NC: High County Publishers, 2004.
• Murder at Blue Falls: The Horse Found the Body.  Boone, NC: High County Publishers, 2006.
• Perfect for Framing.  Boone, NC: High County Publishers, 2008.

Maggie Bishop’s action-packed novels are all set in the North Carolina mountains and feature an unforgettable cast of characters.  In her contemporary novels, you’ll find mystery, nature, camping, hiking, skiing, and always a little romance.  The novels are centered around four cousins – Wes, Lucky, Tucker, and Grady.  Bishop’s first two novels feature Wes and Lucky and take place in and around Boone and Appalachian State University while her later two novels take place in Banner Elk and Lees-McRae College.

Posted: August 28th, 2009 under Bishop, Maggie, Mountains, Mystery, Novels in Series, Romance/Relationship, Series, Watauga.
Comments: none

Jemma Chase normally works as a trail leader at her aunt’s ranch just outside Boone. Once winter arrives in the mountains, Jemma tries to get her dream job with the local police and starts making money as an amateur photographer and cabinet-maker.  When one of her clients–the much-disliked president of the local property owners association–has a break-in, Jemma’s CSI-wannabe tendencies start to emerge. Blackmail, arson, and murder soon enter the picture, and Jemma and her boyfriend Detective Tucker are on the case. This is the second book in the Appalachian Adventure Murder series, which feature Jemma and Tucker’s crime-solving talents.

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

Posted: June 23rd, 2009 under 2000-, 2008, Bishop, Maggie, Mountains, Mystery, Novels in Series, Watauga.
Comments: none

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.

Posted: May 4th, 2009 under 2000-, 2002, Mountains, Mystery, Piedmont, Shaber, Sarah, Wake, Watauga.
Comments: none

A travel novel that follows an assortment of vacationers climbing Grandfather Mountain. The climbers enjoy the scenery, adventure, and romance. A wedding performed against the backdrop of Linville Falls is one of the high points of the novel, but modern readers may be most interested in the illustrations and tourist information scattered throughout the volume.

Check this title’s availability and access an online copy through the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

Posted: July 15th, 2008 under 1890-1899, 1892, Avery, Burke, Caldwell, Dugger, Shepherd M., Mountains, Novels to Read Online, Watauga.
Comments: none

When it looks like ghosts are haunting a cemetery in Boone Creek, N.C., science writer Jeremy Marsh comes to town to investigate. Marsh expected to find a plausible explanation for the ghostly visions, but did not plan on falling for a local librarian, who also happens to the granddaughter of the town psychic. Marsh finds himself questioning his own beliefs and must figure out how much he will let the budding romance affect his life and career.

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

Posted: March 13th, 2008 under 2000-, 2005, Novels in Series, Sparks, Nicholas, Watauga.
Comments: none

• At Home in Mitford. New York: Penguin, 1994.
• A Light in the Window. New York: Penguin, 1995.
• In These High, Green Hills. New York: Viking, 1996.
• Out to Canaan. New York: Viking 1997.
• A New Song. New York: Viking, 1999.
• A Common Life. New York: Penguin, 2002.
• In This Mountain. New York: Viking, 2002.
• Shepherd’s Abiding. New York: Viking, 2003.
• Light from Heaven. New York: Viking, 2005.

The small village of Mitford, N.C., a fictional town based on Blowing Rock, is the setting for these popular novels. Father Tim Kavanagh, the village rector and aging protagonist of the books, encounters in each novel the quirky residents of the town in all of their glory. Although Father Tim is off on a different adventure in each book, the underlying theme of all is a heartfelt appreciation for the simple pleasures of small town life.

Posted: March 13th, 2008 under Karon, Jan, Mountains, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Novels in Series, Series, Watauga.
Comments: none