Small Towns In Recent American Crime Fiction

Author : David Geherin
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 200 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2014-11-19
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781476619187

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Small Towns in Recent American Crime Fiction by David Geherin Pdf

Small towns have long been a commonplace setting in cozy mysteries, but in recent years writers of realistic crime fiction have discovered fresh possibilities in small town settings. There they can take advantage of distinct facets of small town life--a sense of community, slower pace of life, proximity to nature--and yet deal with social, economic and environmental issues. Because crimes in small communities hit closer to home, the human element can better be emphasized. This book focuses on the work of ten contemporary authors who have placed small towns like Rocksburg, Pennsylvania (K. C. Constantine), West Table, Missouri (Daniel Woodrell), Niniltna, Alaska (Dana Stabenow), Aurora, Minnesota (William Kent Krueger), Paradise, Michigan (Steve Hamilton), Millersburg, Ohio (P. L. Gaus), Heartsdale, Georgia (Karin Slaughter), Millers Kill, New York (Julia Spencer-Fleming), Durant, Wyoming (Craig Johnson), and a number of national parks (Nevada Barr) on the map of American crime fiction.

Author : David Geherin
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 200 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2014-12-04
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780786494286

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Small Towns in Recent American Crime Fiction by David Geherin Pdf

Small towns have long been a commonplace setting in cozy mysteries, but in recent years writers of realistic crime fiction have discovered fresh possibilities in small town settings. There they can take advantage of distinct facets of small town life--a sense of community, slower pace of life, proximity to nature--and yet deal with social, economic and environmental issues. Because crimes in small communities hit closer to home, the human element can better be emphasized. This book focuses on the work of ten contemporary authors who have placed small towns like Rocksburg, Pennsylvania (K. C. Constantine), West Table, Missouri (Daniel Woodrell), Niniltna, Alaska (Dana Stabenow), Aurora, Minnesota (William Kent Krueger), Paradise, Michigan (Steve Hamilton), Millersburg, Ohio (P. L. Gaus), Heartsdale, Georgia (Karin Slaughter), Millers Kill, New York (Julia Spencer-Fleming), Durant, Wyoming (Craig Johnson), and a number of national parks (Nevada Barr) on the map of American crime fiction.

Author : Nathanael T. Booth
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 218 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2019-01-10
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781476635729

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American Small-Town Fiction, 1940-1960 by Nathanael T. Booth Pdf

In literature and popular culture, small town America is often idealized as distilling the national spirit. Does the myth of the small town conceal deep-seated reactionary tendencies or does it contain the basis of a national re-imagining? During the period between 1940 and 1960, America underwent a great shift in self-mythologizing that can be charted through representations of small towns. Authors like Henry Bellamann and Grace Metalious continued the tradition of Sherwood Anderson in showing the small town--by extension, America itself--profoundly warping the souls of its citizens. Meanwhile, Ray Bradbury, Toshio Mori and Ross Lockridge, Jr., sought to identify the small town's potential for growth, away from the shadows cast by World War II toward a more inclusive, democratic future. Examined together, these works are key to understanding how mid-20th century America refashioned itself in light of a new postwar order, and how the literary small town both obscures and reveals contradictions at the heart of the American experience.

Author : Krysten Ritter
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 290 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2017
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781524759841

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Bonfire by Krysten Ritter Pdf

Successful environmental lawyer Abby Williams is forced to confront her small-town past while investigating a high-profile corruption case back home.

Author : Šárka Bubíková,Olga Roebuck
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 194 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2023-03-03
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781476649054

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The Place It Was Done by Šárka Bubíková,Olga Roebuck Pdf

Locations play an important role in every story, but in British and American contemporary crime fiction, they are often inextricable from the narrative. This work examines the city, the countryside and the wilderness as places ripe with literary significance and symbolism. Using works by authors like Robert Galbraith, Ian Rankin, Denise Mina, Chris Brookmyre, John Knox, Peter Robinson, Linda Barnes, Dana Stabenow, Nevada Barr, Les Roberts, Philip R. Craig, and others, this work offers a fresh assessment of how place and space are employed in contemporary crime fiction. Highlighted are similarities and differences among the authors' approaches to setting, and how they relate to the history of crime fiction and to the general literary representation of place. Going beyond mere literary geography, the book engages the sociocultural dimensions of the communities affected by crime. Chapters also analyze the reader's perception, recognition and appreciation of place and community.

Author : Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen
Publisher : Pushkin Press
Page : 290 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2013-11-21
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781782270775

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The Rabbit Back Literature Society by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen Pdf

A highly contagious book virus, a literary society and a Snow Queen-like disappearing author 'She came to realise that under one reality there's always another. And another one under that.' Only very special people are chosen by children's author Laura White to join 'The Society', an elite group of writers in the small town of Rabbit Back. Now a tenth member has been selected: Ella, literature teacher and possessor of beautifully curving lips. But soon Ella discovers that the Society is not what it seems. What is its mysterious ritual, 'The Game'? What explains the strange disappearance that occurs at Laura's winter party, in a whirlwind of snow? Why are the words inside books starting to rearrange themselves? Was there once another tenth member, before her? Slowly, disturbing secrets that had been buried come to light... In this chilling, darkly funny novel, the uncanny brushes up against the everyday in the most beguiling and unexpected of ways.

Author : L. Alison Heller
Publisher : Flatiron Books
Page : 335 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2021-10-05
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781250205827

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The Neighbor's Secret by L. Alison Heller Pdf

“Addictive, suspenseful and masterfully written...will delight fans of Big Little Lies.” —Michele Campbell “[A] witty, hyperlocal mystery...With a light, Liane Moriarty-esque touch...” —New York Times L. Alison Heller, whose work has been praised by Liane Moriarty as "warm, witty...refreshingly true to life,” explores the ultimate sacrifices of parenting in The Neighbor’s Secret, a propulsive and juicy novel filled with gripping twists and instantly recognizable characters. How well do you really know your neighbors? With its sprawling yards and excellent schools, Cottonwood Estates is the perfect place to raise children. The Cottonwood Book Club serves as the subdivision’s eyes and ears, meeting once a month for discussion, gossip, and cocktails. If their selections trend toward twisty thrillers and salacious murder mysteries, it’s only because the members feel secure that such evil has no place in their own cul-de-sacs. Or does it? What happened to Lena’s family fifteen years ago was a tragic accident, and she will never admit otherwise. Devoted wife and mother Annie refuses to acknowledge—even to herself—the weight of a past shame. And new resident Jen wants friends, but as always, worry about her troubled son gets in the way. When late-night acts of vandalism target the women of the book club in increasingly violent and personal ways, they will be forced to decide how far to go to keep their secrets. At least they all agree on what’s most important: protecting their children at any cost—even if it means someone has to die.

Author : Beverly Barton
Publisher : Kensington Publishing Corp.
Page : 432 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2009-08-25
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781420112801

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Silent Killer by Beverly Barton Pdf

A minister’s young widow is targeted by a small-town serial killer in the New York Times bestselling author’s Southern romantic thriller. To most people, respected clergymen like Mark Cantrell are pillars of the community, and completely beyond reproach. But their killer knows better. They are sinners of the worst kind, and they must burn on earth before they burn in hell . . . Eighteen months after her husband's unsolved murder, Cathy Cantrell has returned to her Alabama home, eager to build a new life for herself and her son. But reminders of her past, like Deputy Sheriff Jackson Perdue, are everywhere. And a spate of recent deaths—each victim burned in the same horrifying manner as her husband—leave Jack and Cathy in no doubt that a serial killer is at work . . . Now as a twisted killer moves in for a final, brutal act of vengeance, buried crimes are coming to light once more. And this time, justice will be swift, merciless, and as silent as the grave . . .

Author : Peter Swirski
Publisher : Springer
Page : 222 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2016-07-15
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9783319301082

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American Crime Fiction by Peter Swirski Pdf

Peter Swirski looks at American crime fiction as an artform that expresses and reflects the social and aesthetic values of its authors and readers. As such he documents the manifold ways in which such authorship and readership are a matter of informed literary choice and not of cultural brainwashing or declining literary standards. Asking, in effect, a series of questions about the nature of genre fiction as art, successive chapters look at American crime writers whose careers throw light on the hazards and rewards of nobrow traffic between popular forms and highbrow aesthetics: Dashiell Hammett, John Grisham, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Chandler, Ed McBain, Nelson DeMille, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Author : Lawrence Block
Publisher : Harper Collins
Page : 576 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2009-10-13
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780061826726

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Small Town by Lawrence Block Pdf

The author of dozens of acclaimed novels including those in the Scudder and Keller series, Lawrence Block has long been recognized as one of the premier crime writers of our time. Now, the breathtaking skill, power, and versatility of this Grand Master are brilliantly displayed once again in a mesmerizing new thriller set on the streets of the city he knows and loves so well. That was the thing about New York -- if you loved it, if it worked for you, it ruined you for anyplace else in the world. In this dazzlingly constructed novel, Lawrence Block reveals the secret at the heart of the Big Apple. His glorious metropolis is really a small town, filled with men and women from all walks of life whose aspirations, fears, disappointments, and triumphs are interconnected by bonds as unbreakable as they are unseen. Pulsating with the lives of its denizens -- bartenders and hookers, power brokers and politicos, cops and secretaries, editors and dreamers -- the city inspires a passion that is universal yet unique in each of its eight million inhabitants, including: John Blair Creighton, a writer on the verge of a breakthrough; Francis Buckram, a charismatic ex–police commissioner -- and the inside choice for the next mayor -- on the verge of a breakdown; Susan Pomerance, a beautiful, sophisticated folk-art dealer plumbing the depths of her own fierce sexuality; Maury Winters, a defense attorney who prefers murder trials because there's one less witness; Jerry Pankow, an ex-addict who has turned being clean into a living, mopping up after New York's nightlife; And, in the shadows of a city reeling from tragedy, an unlikely killing machine who wages a one-man war against them all. Infused with the raw cadence, stark beauty, and relentless pace of New York City, Small Town is a tour de force Block fans old and new will celebrate.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 330 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : American literature
ISBN : UOM:39015068970519

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The Pembroke Magazine by Anonim Pdf

Author : Greg Iles
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 497 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2002-07-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781101161876

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Dead Sleep by Greg Iles Pdf

A woman comes face-to-face with a serial killer who glorifies the art of death in this “ingenious”* thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Penn Cage series. They are called “The Sleeping Women.” A series of unsettling paintings in which the nude female subjects appear to be not asleep, but dead. Photojournalist Jordan Glass has another reason to find the paintings disturbing…The face on one of the nudes is her own—or perhaps the face of her twin sister, who disappeared and is still missing. At the urging of the FBI, Jordan becomes both hunter and hunted in a search for the anonymous artist—an obsessed killer who seems to know more about Jordan and her family than she is prepared to face...

Author : Kara Thomas
Publisher : Ember
Page : 353 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2017-05-09
Category : Young Adult Fiction
ISBN : 9780553521481

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The Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas Pdf

"Gripping from start to finish . . . with twists that left me shocked."—Victoria Aveyard, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Red Queen For fans of Gillian Flynn and Pretty Little Liars, The Darkest Corners is a psychological thriller about the lies little girls tell, and the deadly truths those lies become. There are secrets around every corner in Fayette, Pennsylvania. Tessa left when she was nine and has been trying ever since not to think about what happened there that last summer. She and her childhood best friend Callie never talked about what they saw. Not before the trial. And certainly not after. But ever since she left, Tessa has had questions. Things have never quite added up. And now she has to go back to Fayette—to Wyatt Stokes, sitting on death row; to Lori Cawley, Callie’s dead cousin; and to the one other person who may be hiding the truth. Only the closer Tessa gets to what really happened, the closer she gets to a killer—and this time, it won’t be so easy to run away. And don't miss Kara's next "eerie and masterly psychological thriller" Little Monsters—on sale now (SLJ)!

Author : David Geherin
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 225 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2014-12-03
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781476608150

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Scene of the Crime by David Geherin Pdf

Offering analysis of the fiction of 15 authors for whom the setting greatly contributes to their overall literary style, this book focuses on the many ways that "place" figures in modern crime and mystery novels. The authors (and their settings) are: Georges Simenon (Paris), Donna Leon (Venice), Tony Hillerman (American Southwest), Walter Mosley (South Central Los Angeles), George P. Pelecanos (Washington, D.C.), Sara Paretsky (Chicago), James Lee Burke (Southern Louisiana), Carl Hiaasen (South Florida), Ian Rankin (Edinburgh), Alexander McCall Smith (Botswana), James McClure (South Africa), Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo (Stockholm), Paco Ignacio Taibo II (Mexico City), Leonardo Sciascia (Sicily) and Lindsey Davis (Ancient Rome).

Author : Greg Iles
Publisher : HarperCollins
Page : 716 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2019-03-05
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780062824639

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Cemetery Road by Greg Iles Pdf

Sometimes the price of justice is a good man’s soul. The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Natchez Burning trilogy returns with an electrifying tale of friendship, betrayal, and shattering secrets that threaten to destroy a small Mississippi town. “An ambitious stand-alone thriller that is both an absorbing crime story and an in-depth exploration of grief, betrayal and corruption… Iles’s latest calls to mind the late, great Southern novelist Pat Conroy. Like Conroy, Iles writes with passion, intensity and absolute commitment.” — Washington Post When Marshall McEwan left his Mississippi hometown at eighteen, he vowed never to return. The trauma that drove him away spurred him to become one of the most successful journalists in Washington, DC. But as the ascendancy of a chaotic administration lifts him from print fame to television stardom, Marshall discovers that his father is terminally ill, and he must return home to face the unfinished business of his past. On arrival, he finds Bienville, Mississippi very much changed. His family’s 150-year-old newspaper is failing; and Jet Talal, the love of his youth, has married into the family of Max Matheson, one of a dozen powerful patriarchs who rule the town through the exclusive Bienville Poker Club. To Marshall’s surprise, the Poker Club has taken a town on the brink of extinction and offered it salvation, in the form of a billion-dollar Chinese paper mill. But on the verge of the deal being consummated, two murders rock Bienville to its core, threatening far more than the city’s economic future. An experienced journalist, Marshall has seen firsthand how the corrosive power of money and politics can sabotage investigations. Joining forces with his former lover—who through her husband has access to the secrets of the Poker Club—Marshall begins digging for the truth behind those murders. But he and Jet soon discover that the soil of Mississippi is a minefield where explosive secrets can destroy far more than injustice. The South is a land where everyone hides truths: of blood and children, of love and shame, of hate and murder—of damnation and redemption. The Poker Club’s secret reaches all the way to Washington, D.C., and could shake the foundations of the U.S. Senate. But by the time Marshall grasps the long-buried truth about his own history, he would give almost anything not to have to face it.