Tag Archives: Award
Blonnie Bunn Wyche. The Anchor: P. Moore Proprietor. Wilmington, NC: Banks Channel Books, 2003.
I don’t consider my questions treason. I think it’s more about common sense. Pauline Moore is full of questions, and opinions. Everyone is: it is 1764 and the small town of Brunswick, North Carolina, along with the rest of the … Continue reading
Susan Kelly. By Accident. New York: Pegasus Books, 2010.
Laura Lucas has experienced what might be the worst thing a person can experience–the death of a child. In this introspective novel, the reader follows Laura in her grief–numbly walking through her daily routines, feeling awkward at social events, observing … Continue reading
Filed under 2010, 2010-2019, Guilford, Kelly, Susan S., Piedmont
Karen Salyer McElmurray. The Motel of the Stars. Louisville, KY: Sarabande, 2008.
It has been 10 years since Jason Sanderson’s son Sam was lost at sea. Over the years Jason has moved from North Carolina to Kentucky and remarried, but he never really dealt with his grief and his wife’s New Age … Continue reading
Filed under 2000-2009, 2008, Avery, McElmurray, Karen Salyer, Mountains
Margaret Maron. Bootlegger’s Daughter. New York: Mysterious Press, 1992.
Lawyer Deborah Knott is a modern southern woman, but as the only daughter of a notorious, retired bootlegger, she still has one foot in the traditions of the old south. After one of the local judges is particularly and unnecessarily … Continue reading
Ron Rash. Serena. New York: Ecco, 2008.
Set in 1929, Serena begins with timber-baron George Pemberton bringing his new wife from Boston to the North Carolina Mountains. The wife is the titular Serena, an ambitious and intelligent woman who is a good match for her husband and … Continue reading
Theodore Taylor. The Weirdo. New York: Harcourt Paperbacks, 2006.
A four-year ban on hunting in the Powhatan Swamp is about to expire and the situation creates tension between local environmentalists and hunters. One of the people spearheading the conservation efforts is teenager Chip Clewt, a boy generally more comfortable … Continue reading
Randall Kenan. Let the Dead Bury Their Dead. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992.
Randall Kenan introduced readers to the fictional town of Tims Creek in his 1989 novel A Visitation of Spirits and continued its story in his second book, Let the Dead Bury Their Dead. Its twelve short stories are connected by … Continue reading
Miriam Herin. Absolution. Charlotte, NC: Novello Festival Press, 2007.
Maggie Delany’s husband Richard is killed when he tries to protect a drugstore clerk during a robbery. It seems that the case will be open-and-shut until a past acquaintance of Maggie’s joins the defense team and speculates that the shooting … Continue reading
Filed under 2000-2009, 2007, Herin, Miriam, Mecklenburg, Piedmont
Allan Gurganus. The Practical Heart. New York: Knopf, 2001.
Three of the four novellas in this collection are set in North Carolina. “He’s One, Too” is set in fictional Falls, N.C., which is probably based on the author’s hometown of Rocky Mount. The Practical Heart won the 2002 Sir … Continue reading
Filed under 2000-2009, 2001, Gurganus, Allan, Nash, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Piedmont
Charles Price. Freedom’s Altar. Winston-Salem: John F. Blair, 1999.
Set in the violent, lawless days just after the Civil War, this novel explores the deeply complicated questions about how the South would recover and adjust to new ideas about race and class. Daniel McFee, a former slave who had … Continue reading
Filed under 1990-1999, 1999, Historical, Mountains, Price, Charles
