Rural Small Town Fiction

The Earl of St. Merryn needs a woman. His intentions are purely practical - he simply wants someone sensible and suitably lovely to pose as his betrothed for a few weeks among polite society. He has his own agenda to pursue, and a false fiancée will keep the husband-hunters at bay while he goes about his business. The simplest solution is to hire a paid companion. Finding the right candidate proves more of a challenge than he expected.

In "A Taste of Murder," the third Bunburry book, a local beef farmer is found dead and Betty Thorndike, vegetarian and Bunburry's only Green Party member, is in the frame. Despite what everyone thinks, Betty is absolutely not Alfie McAlister's girlfriend. But Alfie knows what it's like to be wrongly accused, and enlists the help of his fellow amateur detectives, Liz and Marge, to find out who's responsible. There's just one problem about a farm-based investigation - Alfie's scared of cows.

Locky Sorenson isn't a risk taker. He's stuck in an awful office job. He's terrified of turning his one true passion, baking, into something real. And worst of all, he hasn't gotten laid in almost a decade. Sure, he could confront the traumatic reason he's in this mess, but stress eating donuts under a cozy blanket sounds like a much better option. Benedict Owens doesn't screw his clients, no matter how beefy and adorkable they are. As a small business advisor, he knows that's a recipe for disaster. Better to keep his distance. That way, he won't get burned again.

Pickax loves a big occasion. The Great Food "Explo" is about to begin, introducing new restaurants, country inns, and food specialty shops. Lurking in the background, though, is a killer determined to make this an event Pickax City will never forget. The Expo begins with a literal bang: a bomb wrecks the hotel, killing a housekeeper and causing extensive damage. Luckily for Pickax, Jim Qwilleran is on the scene, with suspicions that the bomb was intended as something stronger than a warning to someone.

One of America’s most celebrated novelists, Cormac McCarthy announced his towering presence on the literary stage with his first novel, The Orchard Keeper. Within the pages of this classic work, John Wesley Rattner, his uncle Ather, and bootlegger Marion Sylder find their lives dangerously entwined in pre-World War II Tennessee. There, the men’s tragedies and struggles are mirrored by the looming specter of industrialization.

I laid a plan to trap her for I'm the predator and she's my prey. I'm Anson Larue, and this is my truth. Nova King was once my everything until she stole from me. Back then, I didn't get a chance to make her pay. Seven years later, I'm shocked to see Nova in Savannah, working at my buddy's sister's company. She's hoodwinked all her colleagues, and even her boss refuses to cut ties with her after I reveal her deceit. This time, I'm not letting her get away. I hatch a plan to show the world who she really is.

In the dark, wintry highlands of Lochdubh, Scotland, where the local Calvinist element resists the secular trimmings of Christmas, the spirit of old Saint Nick is about as welcome as a flat tire on a deserted road. Nor is crime taking a holiday, as Constable Hamish Macbeth soon finds himself protecting an unhappy girl, unlocking the secrets of a frightened old woman, and retrieving some stolen holiday goods. Now the lanky lawman must use all his Highland charm and detective skills to make things right.

Since I'm not going to fall for Dylan Stafford, it shouldn't matter that he shovels my driveway or looks at me like he could devour me. One kiss later—I, Marlow Taylor, am completely screwed.

After a series of corporate mergers, Charlotte's job is hanging by a thread. When her boss orders her to drag an overdue manuscript out of their bestselling author, she's determined to succeed—even if it means leaving the city for the small Southern town of Fairhaven Falls. She just didn't expect the elusive author to be so big. And handsome. And winged.

I'm the Gilroy your mother warned you about. I'm a simple creature. I drink. I f*ck. I fight. If you're looking to do any of those things, I'm down, but I never do the same woman twice. So if you're looking for something that'll last longer than the time it takes us both to get off, don't blame me when you get hurt—because you've been warned. I'm not a return to the scene of the crime kind of guy. I like my life. I like my freedom. At least I did. But that was before she came back into my life and ruined it all. Ruined me.

Stepping off the Greyhound bus, I look at the town glinting in the distance beyond a crystal-clear mountain lake. The lines I’ve memorized from the ad are on repeat in my mind: accommodation and employment provided to women willing to relocate to a historic town with a shortage of women. When Virginia first sees the ad, her breath catches. Female? Check. Small-town seclusion needed? Check. Currently without a home or a job? Check and check. She dabs an extra layer of concealer over the bruise on her cheek, bundles up her belongings, and her secrets, and escapes her life in Savannah.

A mysterious virus has infiltrated the good people of Lake Wobegon, transmitted via unpasteurized cheese made by a Norwegian bachelor farmer, the effect of which is episodic loss of social inhibition. Mayor Alice, Father Wilmer, Pastor Liz, the Bunsens and Krebsbachs, formerly taciturn elders, burst into political rants, inappropriate confessions, and rhapsodic proclamations, while their teenagers watch in amazement. Meanwhile, a wealthy outsider is buying up farmland for a Keep America Truckin' motorway and amusement park.

I waited eight years to marry the father of my children. I worked on our relationship. I was patient. I forgave—the thoughtless remarks, the disappointments, the test results when I was expecting our youngest that proved he hadn't been "working late." Then, when we finally made it to the altar, he looked deep into my eyes, smiled, and cracked a fat joke. That wasn't the worst of it. His vows weren't a promise to love. They were a final test of exactly what I'd do to get his ring on my finger—what I'd take—in front of our family, friends, and their cell phones.

After a series of life-changing losses, Nadia is shocked when life hands her a big win. But with that comes the realization that people will lie and cheat just to get a piece of her. Fighting to not let life keep her down, Nadia is surprised when sexy bad boy Locust edges his way into her life, her bed, and her heart. And then he breaks it.

I never expected to survive a helicopter crash. Now I'm snowed in with four ex-Navy SEALs—and they're as dangerous as they are irresistible. The Alaskan wilderness was supposed to be the backdrop for my biggest story, not the place I'd fight for my life. Rescued by four rugged men living off the grid, I'm safe for now. But their stormy eyes and forbidden touches ignite a fire in me I can't control.

Five years ago, Clara Hayes got the diagnosis no one wants: cancer. She fought it and won, but it altered everything. She moved back home, changed her career, and now she approaches life without fear or hesitation. Then her brother’s best friend moves to town. She’s loved Holden for as long as she’s known him. And though she’s been gently turned down by him once before, Clara decides she needs to take one more chance on him, even if ends in heartache. Because as she knows all too well, life’s too short for regrets.

Ever since a traumatic brain injury changed his life, Colter James has kept to himself. He doesn't do small talk. Doesn't do crowds. And certainly doesn't do women. When my sleazy ex starts causing trouble, Colter shows up like a storm—dark, dangerous, and hell-bent on protecting me even if it means breaking all of his rules. Now he's stepping into my world—one quiet gesture, one lingering glance at a time.

Pendragon Island is the perfect place for holidays, with a stretch of clean golden sand and a glorious funfair nearby. Yet for one local family, the happy holiday atmosphere risks becoming a cruel joke, as the unusually named Lewis Lewis's affair with close friend Nia Martin threatens to tear his marriage apart. The irritation of Lewis's wife Dora is channelled towards their daughter, Rhiannon, who works at Nia's sweet shop, Temptations.

After losing her father, Teresa returns to a small town on the Greek coast—the same place she visited when grieving her mother nine years ago. Soon, she encounters some of the people she met last time around: John, a man struggling to come to terms with the violent death of his nephew, Petros, an eccentric mechanic; Niko, a handsome diving instructor; and Xanthe, a waitress in one of the cafés on the leafy town square. They talk about their longings, regrets, the passing of time, and their sense of who they are.

In Claire-Louise Bennett's shimmering debut, an unnamed young woman - wry, somewhat misanthropic, keenly observant - chronicles her life on the outskirts of a small coastal village.The charms of bananas and oatcakes in the morning and Spanish oranges after sex; the small pleasures and anxieties of throwing a party, exchanging salacious emails with a new lover, sitting in the bath as it storms outside. Broken oven knobs prompt a meditation on survival that's both haunting and playful.