Massachusetts Fiction: Newer Novels

A Little Love Story, by Roland Merullo (2005)

Left adrift after the death of the woman he loved, Jake finds himself falling for the beautiful woman who backs into his 1949 Dodge truck, despite the fact that she is involved in an affair with the governor of Massachusetts and suffers from cystic fibrosis.

Blackbird House, by Alice Hoffman (2004)

With "incantatory prose" that "sweeps over the reader like a dream" (Philadelphia Inquirer), Hoffman follows her celebrated bestseller, The Probable Future, with an evocative work that traces the lives of the various occupants of an old Massachusetts house over a span of two hundred years.

Black Creek Crossing, by John Saul (2004)

Thirteen-year-old Angie Sullivan adores their new home at Black Creek Crossing in the small town of Roundtree, Massachusetts, until she discovers that the house had been the scene of a horrific, double murder and the focus of a series of increasingly bizarre events -- ranging from mysterious storms to inexplicable "accidents" and rumors of dark witchcraft.

The Body in the Gallery, by Katherine Hall Page (2008)

Secretly assisting her museum president friend in a case involving a stolen piece of fine art, Faith Fairchild stumbles upon a murder scene near a controversial exhibit and becomes increasingly exasperated by the police's inability to recognize important clues. By the author of The Body in the Ivy.

Cheating at Solitaire, by Jane Haddam (2008)

Fleeing his own wedding preparations, former FBI agent Gregor Demarkian is asked to investigate the murder of the latest boy toy of aging teen idol Arrow Normand and finds himself dealing with a morass of motives, a cult of celebrity, an out-of-control media frenzy, and little real evidence.

The Disappearance, by Efrem Sigel (2009)

When Joshua and Nathalie Sandler's only child, 14-year-old Daniel, disappears one flawless summer day in a tiny hamlet in western Massachusetts, their world changes in an instant. Over the next year, Joshua neglects everything else to search ceaselessly for their son while Nathalie, a beautiful and gifted cellist, withdraws into herself, unable to play even a note of music.

The Front, by Patricia Cornwell (2008)

Dispatched by the district attorney to a declining Massachusetts neighborhood to address a case related to a new public relations campaign, state investigator Win Garano becomes involved with a loosely organized association of vigilante police officers.

The Last Noel, by Heather Graham (2007)

When two escaped killers take refuge in their home during a storm on Christmas Eve, Skyler O'Boyle plays a daring psychological game to throw the criminals off guard, while her daughter, Kat, escapes and meets a third felon, who is hiding a secret that could save them all.

Of Men and Their Mothers, by Mameve Medwed (2008)

Struggling with an awful former mother-in-law, a cold-fish boyfriend, and a teenage son intent on emulating his father, Maisie struggles to keep her personal company afloat and strikes up an unlikely alliance with a young mother at odds with the child welfare system.

Prep, by Curtis Sittenfeld (2005)

During the late 1980s, fourteen-year-old Lee Fiora leaves behind her close-knit, middle-class Indiana family to enroll in the prestigious Ault School, a co-ed boarding school in Massachusetts, becoming a shrewd observer of, and eventually a participant in, their rituals and mores.

The Price, by Alexandra Sokoloff (2008)

An ambitious politician, Will Sullivan abandons his dream of becoming the next governor of Massachusetts when his young daughter, Sydney, is diagnosed with a malignant tumor, but as he and his wife seek out the help of the Briarwood Medical Center to save their daughter's life, Will soon discovers that a cure could come at a terrifying cost.

Requiem, Mass., by John Dufresne (2008)

Struggling with his mother's latest delusions, his father's fantasy-born absence, and his sister's social withdrawal, young Johnny becomes increasingly obsessed with saving his family. By the author of Love Warps the Mind a Little.

Steeplechase, by Jane Langton (2005)

In a mystery in which chapters alternate between past and present, the search for a lost church by Homer and Mary Kelly is juxtaposed against events in 1868 Nashoba, Massachusetts, as a disabled Civil War veteran struggles to put his life back together. Sequel to The Deserter: Murder at Gettysburg.

Still As Death, by Sara Stewart Taylor (2006)

While tracking down a missing artifact, a piece of Egyptian funerary jewelry that has vanished from the collection of a Harvard art museum, art history professor Sweeney St. George discovers that a student intern had died suspiciously while doing research on the gem shortly after it had been given to the museum.

Wicked Appetite, by Janet Evonovich (2010)

Life in Marblehead has had a pleasant predictability, until Diesel arrives. Rumor has it that a collection of priceless ancient relics representing the Seven Deadly Sins have made their way to Boston's North Shore. Partnered with pastry chef Lizzie, Diesel bullies and charms his way through historic Salem to track them down—and his criminal mastermind cousin Gerewulf Grimorie. The black-haired, black-hearted Wulf is on the hunt for the relic representing gluttony. Caught in a race against time, Diesel and Lizzie soon find out that more isn't always better, as they battle Wulf and the first of the deadly sins.

9/10

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