While Tyler Vance is in the drive-through for his local bank one day, a fleeing bank robber points a gun at him and demands he hand over his truck.  In that instant, Vance’s unique, deadly, and very secret military training takes over.  He shoots and kills the robber, not knowing that the dead man has some “family” ties to international drug dealers, gun runners, and racketeers.  Tyler’s life as a freelance writer, recent widower, and single father quickly turns dangerous as the mobster’s connections try to exact vengeance upon him.  He turns to friends, family, and old army connections for help surviving the attacks and keeping his son safe.  Author Clay Harvey, like main character Vance, lives in North Carolina and writes articles and books about guns.  A Flash of Red is the first book in Harvey’s series about Vance.

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

Posted: May 28th, 2009 under 1990-1999, 1996, Harvey, Clay, Mecklenburg, Piedmont, Romance/Relationship, Suspense/Thriller.
Comments: none

Smyth Parker arrived at his Outer Banks beach house hoping for a quiet escape from the stresses of his regular life. What he found was a woman he didn’t know renting his cottage. That woman, Meg Thomas, has run away from her life in Chicago and is hiding from her cruel and abusive husband Bradford. Bradford wants to find her, not because he wants her back, but because she is a witness to his murder of a Chicago district attorney and threatens his new political aspirations. Meg and Smyth make a romantic connection, and when the mobsters catch up up with her, Smyth becomes her protector. The two hide out and dodge a sniper on the isolated Newport Island. Although there is a Newport, NC on the coast, there is not a Newport Island. The author based this fictional location on North Carolina’s uninhabited Portsmouth Island.

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

Posted: April 7th, 2009 under 2000-, 2008, Coast, Dare, Hyde, James, Maddie, Mystery, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Romance/Relationship, Suspense/Thriller.
Comments: none

Black Mountain is a refuge for Kendra Salvatori. There she feels safe and loved, but she is haunted by the fear that her abusive husband will find her. Garth Fisher has been with Kendra from her first day in Black Mountain, giving her love and helping her rebuild physically and emotionally. Knowing that Tony Salvatori and his gang will come for Kendra, Garth and Kendra prepare for the worst. Tony comes, and they battle in the woods to the death.

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

Posted: September 23rd, 2008 under 2000-, 2003, Buncombe, French, Christy Tillery, Mountains, Romance/Relationship, Suspense/Thriller.
Comments: 1

Christy Petrino sought a simple vacation at Ocracoke Island after breaking up with her mobster boyfriend. But when somebody makes an attempt on her life, she must figure out whether the New Jersey mob or an Outer Banks serial killer (nicknamed “The Beachcomber”) is out to get her. This romantic suspense novel teams Christy with FBI agent Luke Rand. Those familiar with Ocracoke may raise an eyebrow at Robards’s description of “cliffs on the island, tall rocky cliffs leaning out over the ocean . . . .”

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Posted: March 13th, 2008 under 2000-, 2003, Coast, Hyde, Novels in Series, Robards, Karen, Romance/Relationship.
Comments: none

When Judge Martin Wheeler agrees to help the no-good brother of a friend who’s up on a drug charge, he is quickly sucked into the lives of a group of oddball characters on a mission to recover a bounty of stolen cash. Set in the fictional Piedmont town of Norton, N.C., near Winston-Salem, the novel follows Wheeler and his strange new friends through the seedy underside of contemporary southern life.

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Posted: March 13th, 2008 under 2000, 2000-, Clark, Martin, Forsyth, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Piedmont.
Comments: none

Carroll Davenport, a local developer who has an unlucky habit of getting drawn into murder investigations, is back on the case when she finds North Carolina State Senator William Burriss III murdered alongside his mistress. The killers may or may not have ties to Carroll’s mafioso late husband. With the help of Ben Satterwhite, an FBI agent and possible love interest, Carroll chases criminals all over Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach in this sequel to Canada’s 2001 novel Island Murders.

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Posted: March 13th, 2008 under 2000-, 2003, Canada, Wanda, Coast, Mystery, New Hanover, Novels in Series.
Comments: none

Maggie Reid, a country music singer based in Greensboro, is questioned by the police when her former husband, the “Satellite Dish and Mobile Home King,” disappears. In order to clear herself, Maggie pursues the mystery on her own, becoming involved in the seedy underside of life in Greensboro, where she finds, among other strange personalities, a mysterious group called “The Redneck Mafia.”

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Posted: March 13th, 2008 under 2000-, 2001, Bartholomew, Nancy, Guilford, Mystery, Piedmont.
Comments: none