Historical Fiction United States

The gravy train hasn’t stopped in the hollers of western Virginia for more than 30 years when Stony Shelor starts his junior year at Jubal Early High. Class divides and racism are still the hardened norms as the Eisenhower years draw to a close. Violence lies coiled under the calm surface, ready to strike at any time.

It's the 1790s, and the circus has arrived in Durham, Maine. Before weaver Will Rees is able to take in its spectacle, he spots Magistrate Hanson - the man he blames for his family's having to flee Dugard two years earlier. On his journey home he encounters Shaker brothers searching for a girl from their Zion community. Despite women not being allowed inside the circus, Leah had snuck out to visit it. They quickly come across her lifeless body beaten and thrown into a farmer's field on the road leading to the circus.

Eve Mann arrives in Ideal, Georgia, in 1972 looking for answers about the mother who died giving her life. A mother named Mercy. A mother who for all of Eve’s 22 years has been a mystery and a quest. Eve’s search for her mother, and the father she never knew, is a mission to discover her identity, her name, her people, and her home. Eve’s questions and longing launch a multigenerational story that sprawls back to the turn of the 20th century.

In 1950s Louisiana, a priest, a rabbi, and a Choctaw Indian share a miracle that affects several tween-age, Jitterbug enthusiasts. Even the Vatican sends a proxy to investigate the rumors of angels having visited Troubled Waters Bayou. Henri Thibadeaux, our 19-year-old protagonist, accompanies his two childhood friends to a Catholic, Cajun, outdoor fish-fry dance. Henri, maimed by the albino alligator, Rougerou, as a child, struggles with his first time on the dance floor with Ms. Rebekah Molieneire. To date her, he must attend her church....

In Parson, Texas, a small town ravaged by a devastating hurricane and the Vietnam War, twenty-nine-year-old Lou is diligently renovating a decaying old mansion for Miss Kate, the elderly neighbor who has always been like a mother to her. Mourning her brother’s death in Vietnam, Lou dreams of enjoying a more peaceful future in Parson. But those hopes are crushed when Miss Kate is murdered, and no one but Lou seems to care about finding the killer.

High Skies recounts the collision of devastating weather, Cold War suspicion, tense race relations, and the unintended consequences of good intentions in a small West Texas town in the 1950s, changing the futures of the families there and altering their perceptions of America. At the center of this perfect storm is Raymond “Flyboy” Seaker, a respected military veteran, now the vice principal of a school in which Troy, who tells the story, and his disabled friend Stevie will have their lives upended forever.

This is a fictional story of a group of Native Americans struggling to survive through the burning flames of the French and Indian War and the forceful colonization of their lands at the beginning of the American Revolution.

In about 1450 AD, an exceedingly prosperous generation of Native Americans, known then as the Anasazi, vanished from their strongholds in the American Southwest--disappeared without so much as a trace. However, the Native Americans of the present day Navajo Nation dispute the theoretical findings of modern day archeologists and anthropologists.

South Korea, 1970s: Sergeant First Class Cecil B. Harvey, a senior NCO in charge of Eighth Army’s classified documents, has long been a friend (willing or unwilling) to Sergeants George Sueño and Ernie Bascom. So when he goes missing with a top-secret document that even a glance at could get an officer court-martialed, Sueño and Bascom take it upon themselves to find him. Meanwhile, Overseas Observer reporter Katie Byrd Worthington is back to make life difficult for top army brass. When she lands in a Korean jail cell, Sueño and Bascom are sent to get her out.

Ceferino Carrión is desperate for a new life - one of opportunity, fortune, and fame. But he knows he’ll never find this life in war-torn Spain. With his home country under the heel of the devastating Franco dictatorship and call-up papers on his doorstep, Cefe knows there’s only one thing he can do: run. A new life awaits in America, as does a new name - Jean Leon. From the concrete valleys of the Bronx to the sun-soaked hills of California, Jean crosses paths with legendary superstars, political powerhouses, and dangerous mobsters as he flees his past and pursues his dreams.

Death in the desert under a relentless sun. This is an eyewitness account of wagon train pioneer families in 1849, who faced the horrifying heat of what is now known as Death Valley, California and survived the ordeal through an act of incredible heroism. It is also a first person account, never before recorded as an audio book, of working the California gold fields, crossing through the Panama jungle and witnessing the horror of slavery in America. It is a unique document of history and adventure. William Lewis Manly lived through these events and wrote a personal account.

Set in 1944 Chicago, Edgar Award-winner Naomi Hirahara’s eye-opening and poignant new mystery, the story of a young woman searching for the truth about her revered older sister's death, brings to focus the struggles of one Japanese-American family released from mass incarceration at Manzanar during World War II.

They say you can't go back home, but Marin Sinclair, end-of-life doula, never felt she had the right to call the Navajo reservation home, and she certainly never expected that answering a plea for help from a long ago friend would put her life in jeopardy. Dinetah, the Navajo Nation, holds some dark memories for her, but what about her life then would make anyone want to kill her?

In 1831 Virginia, Nat Turner led a band of Southampton County slaves in a rebellion that killed 55 whites, mostly women and children. After more than two months in hiding, Turner was captured, and quickly convicted and executed. In the Matter of Nat Turner penetrates the historical caricature of Turner as befuddled mystic and self-styled Baptist preacher to recover the haunting persona of this legendary American slave rebel.

Baja California, 1979. Viridiana spends her days watching the dead sharks piled beside the seashore, as the fishermen pull their nets. There is nothing else to do. Yet her head is filled with dreams of Hollywood films, of romance, of a future beyond the drab town where her only option is to marry and have children. Three wealthy American tourists arrive for the summer, and Viridiana is magnetized. They offer excitement, and perhaps an escape. When one of them dies, Viridiana lies to protect her friends. Soon enough, someone’s asking questions....

After defecting from Cuba's Special Forces and making a harrowing escape from his homeland, Frank faces new challenges in America. With five dollars in his pocket and a boatload of determination, he rejects an offer to join the CIA and takes his chances on achieving the American dream. Frank and his sweetheart Magda want nothing more than marriage, children, and a nice life for themselves. Frank dreams of celebrating milestone anniversaries with Magda, but his dreams are dashed.

In a search that takes him from Georgetown to Chinatown and elsewhere in Washington, Socrates finds himself threatened, physically assaulted, suspected of having committed murder, jailed for a time, and constantly confronted by conflicts arising out of his three disparate cultures. Yet, he is neither daunted nor deterred by these obstacles. Instead, Socrates draws upon his deep knowledge of vintage fountain pens, Chinese history, and the Mandarin language to puzzle out the complex motives behind a burglary and murders....

The Korean Demilitarized Zone, 1970s: A battered corpse is found a few feet north of the line dividing North and South Korea. When Eighth Army CID Agents George Sueno and Ernie Bascom are ordered by superiors to pull the body to the South Korean side, they have no idea of the international conflict the action will spark.

This is part of The Spanish Bit Saga.

When they mastered the ways of the "Elk Dog," the horse, the band prospered. Yet they knew the old traditional ways must not die. Owl's father had changed the lives of The People bringing the horse from his native Spain. Now the younger son of the legendary chief must make his own reputation by learning the way of the buffalo from an ancient medicine man.

Before the outsider, now Chief Heads Off, brought the Elk Dogs (horses) to the People, their strategy had always been to flee or hide from their mortal enemies, the Head Splitters. Now the People live in peace, but the young warriors long for war.