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Northwest by Northwest — Fiction

This list features selected fiction written after 1960 by authors who live, or have lived in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska (excluding the Arctic), and who write about those regions.

All titles shelved in Fiction collection, except as noted: M=mystery, SF=science fiction, SS=short story collection, Y=young adult, W=western.

—: Alaska Stories: Tales From the Last Frontier

(1995)

American literature set in Alaska.
Adams, Hazard: Home: A Novel

(2001)

A history professor at a Washington State University studies an anarchist commune of the early 1900s while campus disputes swirl about him.
Adams, Jane: Seattle Green

(1987)

Three generations of Seattle women are challenged by land and romance.
Alexie, Sherman: Reservation Blues

(1995)

This mythic novel is about Coyote Springs, a Native American rock band.
Alexie, Sherman: Indian Killer

(1998)

Dead bodies, scalped and decorated with owl feathers, turn up in Seattle, prompting anti-Indian rhetoric and street violence between Indians and whites.
Bailey, Roz: Mommies Behaving Badly

(2007)

Thirty-six-year-old Ruby Dixon is a romance writer with a recent successful book. Her husaband's big promotion causes her to relocate to Portland, Oregon, where she must adjust to West Coast culture and a suddenly rocky marriage.
Bass, Rick: Where the Sea Used To Be

(1998)

A struggle occurs between a father and daughter living in Swan Valley, Montana.
Blew, Mary Clearman: Sister Coyote: Montana Stories

(2000)

These stories tell of hard lives in contemporary Montana.
Blew, Mary Clearman: Jackalope Dreams

(2008)

Played out against the mythology of the Old West--a powerful amalgam of ranching history, Marlboro Men, and train robbery reenactments--the story of the newly orphaned, spinsterish Corey is a sometimes comical, sometimes poignant tale of coming-of-age a little late.
Bruner, Donald: The Legend of Wappato: Chief Cassino of the Multnomah

(2002)

The story of Chief Cassino of the Multnomah tribes, born in 1780 along the Columbia River.
Cady, Jack: The Hauntings of Hood Canal

(2001)

Hood Canal is a quiet place until Sugar Bear Smith dunks the corpse and car of a suspected child molester in the local waterway.
Cain, Chelsea: Heartsick

(2007)

When someone starts dumping bodies of teenage girls around Portland, Oregon, a police detective addicted to pain killers turns for help to an imprisoned serial killer who once tortured him.
Callan, Annie: Taf

(2001)

Y

Fleeing an abusive home in 1915, young Taf arrives in Pendleton, Oregon, where she meets a boy who hides her, an old woman with second sight and a beautiful half-Chinese, half–Nez Perce youth.
Callenbach, Ernest: Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston

(1975)

Northern California, Oregon and Washington secede from the Union to create a "stable-state" ecosystem.
Clausen, Lowen: Third & Forever

(2004)

M

Grace Stevens delves into the dark world of sexual compulsion and unmasks a dangerous stalker. And along the way she finds her own identity and purpose transformed by her encounter with her family's black roots in the South.
Cody, Robin: Ricochet River

(1992)

Three high school seniors have diverse views of life in a small Oregon logging town in the 1960s.
Cogdill, Ron: Slow Dust Rising

(2001)

A farming family in the Oregon Cascades struggles to maintain their outdated way of life in the face of modern civilization.
Cottrell, Jeanette: At Risk of Being a Fool

(2005)

M

Jeanie McCoy is a retired teacher who works with at-risk youth in Salem, Oregon. When one of her students is a suspect in a pipe bombing, she decides to investigate.
Coupland, Douglas: Shampoo Planet

(1992)

TV/computer/video-savvy, post-post baby boomers agonize and ecstasize in Lancaster, Washington.
Crew, Linda: Children of the River

(1989)

Y

A Cambodian girl must balance the traditional values of her home with the demands of her new life in a small Oregon town.
Crew, Linda: Brides of Eden

(2001)

Y

A young, charismatic preacher wins converts to his fiery brand of religion in Corvallis, Oregon, from 1903–1906.
Daheim, Mary: The Alpine Pursuit

(2004)

M

This is the 16th novel in the mystery series set in Alpine, Washington, starring newspaper publisher Emma Lord. It's up to Emma and Sheriff Milo Dodge to discover who murdered (literally) the villain on stage in a theater company's melodrama.
Daheim, Mary: The Alpine Traitor

(2008)

M

After Emma Lord's newspaper becomes the victim of a hostile takeover, the person behind the acquisition winds up dead--and Emma is the prime suspect.
Davis, Claire: Winter Range

(2000)

The intimate details of ranching and small-town life are woven into the award-winning story of three people struggling to survive, to belong and to love in the chillingly bleak landscape of Eastern Montana.
Davis, Claire: Season of the Snake

(2005)

Nance is a herpetologist studying rattlesnake migration along the Snake River in Idaho and Washington. Her second husband Ned is hiding a major psychological dysfunction, and when her reckless sister moves nearby, the tension escalates.
Davis, Terry: Vision Quest: A Novel

(1979)

Y

A high school wrestler endures rites of passage in Spokane, Washington, in the 1960s.
Deemer, Charles: Emmett's Gift: A Novel

(2003)

On the day after the bicentennial, an old man's body is discovered hanging from a tree in a small farming community in Central Oregon.
Dillard, Annie: The Living

(1992)

Three generations endure hardships while living on the shores of Bellingham Bay.
Doig, Ivan: Mountain Time: A Novel

(1999)

Mitch Rozier, a Seattle reporter, is summoned by his dying father back to the family land in Montana and to the unanswered questions at the heart of the long-standing rift between them.
Doig, Ivan: The Sea Runners

(1982)

Four men escape Russian Alaska and make their way down the Pacific Northwest coast.
Donahue, Peter: Madison House: A Novel

(2005)

This novel chronicles turn-of-the-century Seattle's transformation from frontier outpost to major metropolis.
Duncan, David James: The River Why

(1983)

A coming of age tale becomes a metaphysical fishing yarn.
Duncan, David James: The Brothers K

(1992)

A family epic exploring Pacific Northwest bush-league baseball, Seventh Day Adventism and the Vietnam War.
Earling, Debra Magpie: Perma Red

(2002)

On the Flathead Reservation of Montana, Louise White Elk dreams of both belonging and escape, and of discovering love and freedom on her own terms.
Egan, Timothy: The Winemaker's Daughter: A Novel

(2004)

This first novel takes readers from the wine country of the Pacific Northwest to the vineyards of Italy.
Egawa, Keith: Madchild Running: A Novel

(1999)

This intense novel tells the story of a young girl caught up in the world of urban violence in Seattle and of Levi, the young mixed-blood Native American social worker who tries to save her.
Ellison, John Eric: Wind Cave

(2007)

M

Beverly Winston is murdered in her home and the murderer buries her at the Oregon Wind Cave. Her restless spirit sets in motion a series of paranormal events that draw a young boy and his friends into the mystery surrounding her death.
Fowler, Karen Joy: Sarah Canary

(1991)

Read about enchantment, murder and escape from a Chinese railway camp in Washington Territory, 1873.
French, Wendy: Full of It

(2007)

Lauren Peterson's big mouth has always been a step ahead of her brain, and lately it's causing nothing but trouble. She unexpectedly inherits a house from her estranged aunt in Portland, Oregon. Maybe this will be a fresh beginning.
French, Wendy: Going Coastal

(2005)

Twentysomething Jody Rogers looks for happiness in the small town of Bent Harbor where men are scarce and so are the jobs.
Fromm, Pete: Blood Knot: Stories

(1992)

A collection of 10 Montana fishing tales focusing on the power of the outdoors and how friends, family and lovers influence a person's relationship with nature.
Fromm, Pete: The Tall Uncut: Lives Amid the Landscapes of the American West : Stories

(1992)

Stories telling of hunting, fishing and long car trips in the American West.
Gloss, Molly: The Hearts of Horses

(2007)

A wandering tomboy finds her place in eastern Oregon in 1917.
Gloss, Molly: The Jump-Off Creek

(1989)

A young woman takes up homesteading in the high mountain country of Oregon in the depression year of 1895.
Gloss, Molly: Wild Life

(2000)

A cigar-smoking, feminist, single mother of five and writer of dime-store romance/adventure novels for women meets Bigfoot in 1905.
Golden, Jeff: Forest Blood: A Novel

(1999)

The story of the conflict among loggers, environmentalists and big business in a small timber town in southwestern Oregon, told through the eyes of a third-generation logger.
Graves, Ashna: Death Pans Out

(2007)

M

Neva Leopold retreats to her Uncle Matthew Burt's abandoned mining cabin in Billie Creek, Oregon. Neva then hunts for clues to her uncle's disappearance from his claim fifteen years earlier.
Graves, Jack: Flagg of the Mimi: A Novel

(2000)

Based, in part, on the true life story of Captain Robert Farley of the U. S. Coast Guard Lifesaving Station at Barview, Oregon, this novel tells of Frederick Flagg's two year trip aboard his uncle's sailing bark, Mimi.
Griffith, Nicola: Always

(2007)

Tough-as-nails ex-cop Aud Torvingen's self-defense classes spin violently out of her grasp and, still reeling from the consequences, she embarks on a seemingly simple investigation of Seattle real estate fraud that pulls her into something far more complicated and dangerous than she had imagined.
Gulick, Bill: The Greatest Inventor in the West

(2000)

When a handsome young inventor falls in love with a beautiful mute, Mary Burke, he is forced to put all his talents to use.
Gustafson, Sid: Prisoners of Flight

(2003)

Two former Vietnam War prisoners, one a Native American from the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and the other a veterinarian, reunite and fly to Montana's Glacier National Park where engine trouble forces them to camp for the winter.
Guterson, David: East of the Mountains

(1999)

A solitary, 73-year-old Seattle widower, who is a retired heart surgeon diagnosed with terminal cancer, sets out across the Cascades planning to take his own life once he reaches the high desert.
Guterson, David: Our Lady of the Forest

(2003)

This book tells the story of a teenage girl in Washington State who claims to have seen the Virgin Mary.
Guterson, David: Snow Falling on Cedars

(1994)

A murder trial provides the framework for revelations about love and prejudice among Puget Sound islanders.
Hale, Janet Campbell: The Jailing of Cecelia Capture

(1985)

Cecelia Capture, a mixed-blood Native American law student, wakes up in a holding tank in the Berkeley jail where she begins to contemplate her life through a series of flashbacks.
Hale, Janet Campbell: Women on the Run

(1999)

Six short stories focus on Native and non-Native American women living and surviving outside of mainstream society.
Hall, Brian: I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company: A Novel of Lewis and Clark

(2003)

Based on the day-to-day life of the most famous journey in American history, this novel fills in the gaps and provides new perspective.
Hammond, Diane Coplin: Going to Bend: A Novel

(2004)

In Petie Coolbaugh and Rose Bundy's Souperior Cafe, an unforgettable friendship comes to life against the atmospheric background of a small Oregon fishing village.
Hammond, Diane Coplin: Homesick Creek

(2005)

Hammond returns to the fictional small town of Hubbard, Oregon, and tells the story of two married couples who turn to one another and find reserves of love and strength that help heal the wounds they inadvertently inflict on each other.
Harter, Karen: Where Mercy Flows

(2006)

A 24-year-old single mother returns to the Stillaguamish Valley in rural Washington State to the home of her estranged, domineering father to face family secrets of the past — and the present.
Heacox, Kim: Caribou Crossing: A Novel

(2001)

A young woman from Alaska discovers a militant plot to drill for oil in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge. She risks everything to save the refuge and the man that she loves.
Hendricks, Judith Ryan: The Baker's Apprentice

(2005)

This sequel to Hendricks' well-received debut novel Bread Alone continues the funny and poignant saga of Wynter Morrison, bread maker on the night shift at a Seattle bakery.
Hockenberry, John: A River Out of Eden: A Novel

(2001)

When government employees are found murdered along the Columbia River, suspicion falls on the Chinook Indians who oppose the dams that have threatened salmon and the Chinooks' traditional way of life.
Hoffman, Nina Kiriki: Past the Size of Dreaming

(2001)

An old haunted house in Oregon begins speaking to its occupants.
Jackson, Jon A.: Go By Go: A Novel

(1998)

A firebrand IWW organizer comes to Butte, Montana, after a catastrophic explosion in the Spectator mine in 1917.
Johnston, Terry C.: Ride the Moon Down

(1998)

Life changes for the Indian tribes and white trappers in the old West.
Kafka, Kimberly: True North

(2000)

Bailey Lockhart carries baggage from a traumatic New England past when she becomes a bush pilot in the wilds of Alaska.
Kesey, Ken: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

(1962)

Randle Patrick McMurphy, a new inmate of a mental ward, resolves to oppose tyrannical Big Nurse Ratched.
Kesey, Ken: Sometimes a Great Notion: A Novel

(1964)

The aggressive scion of an Oregon lumber empire struggles against the conformity of townspeople.
Kesey, Ken: Sailor Song

(1992)

Quiet life in a small Alaskan fishing village is disturbed by the arrival of a movie production crew just after the turn of the millennium.
Kesey, Ken: Last Go Round

(1994)

Cowboys engage in a three-way battle for the first World Championship Broncobusting title at the Pendleton Roundup in 1911.
King, Katy: City of Suspects

(2003)

M

Jane Lanier, a Portland, Oregon, private investigator, is having a hard time staying dry. A notorious client is shot in her office, her car is fried and the body count is rising as fast as her credit card balance.
Kirkpatrick, Jane: A Gathering of Finches: A Novel

(1997)

A turn-of-the-century Oregon coastal couple faces the consequences of their choices. Their story is told through the eyes of the wife, her sister and her Indian maid.
Kirkpatrick, Jane: A Sweetness to the Soul

(1995)

Set near Oregon's Deschutes River and based on a true story, this novel tells the story of young pioneer Jane Hebert who at the age of 12 faced a tragedy which began a lifelong search for forgiveness and love.
Kochert, Annie: Lineage: A Trail of Shaman

(2001)

This "early man" narrative, the first of a series, is linked to the Kennewick Man, the 9,300–9,700 year old skeleton found in the Columbia River in 1996.
Lamb, Cathy: Julia's Chocolates

(2007)

Julia Bennett left her abusive fiancé in Boston and drove cross country to Oregon. She finds a circle of compassionate women and a passion for making chocolate. Now her fiancé has tracked her down.
Lawson, Michael: The Second Perimeter

(2007)

Troubleshooter Joe DeMarco works for the speaker of the House and he is sent to investigate petty fraud at the naval shipyard in Bremerton. He finds himself matching wits with a deadly female spy.
Le Guin, Ursula K.: The Lathe of Heaven

(1971)

George Orr is a man who discovers he has the peculiar ability to dream things into being—for better or for worse.
Le Guin, Ursula K.: Searoad

(1991)

This medley of stories reveals the private lives of residents of a small seaside Oregon village.
Lee, Linda (Linda Hope): Tell Me No Lies

(2006)

Seattle artist Julie Foster has been offered her first job designing murals for buildings in Cooperville, Washington. Will an old family secret destroy her chance for romance in this town?
Lesley, Craig: River Song

Sequel to Winterkill.
Lesley, Craig: Sky Fisherman

(1995)

A young man comes to terms with his life and his heritage in Eastern Oregon.
Lesley, Craig: Storm Riders

(1999)

A poignant exploration of an idealistic Oregon college professor's agonizing relationship with his adopted son, a Tlingit Indian boy cursed with fetal alcohol syndrome and an abusive childhood.
Lesley, Craig: Winterkill

(1984)

A Native American rodeo rider and his son test the boundaries of love and trust.
Leon, Bonnie: Return to the Misty Shore

(1997)

The story of Lubya, a 16-year-old living in Juneau, Alaska, in 1889.
Lewis, Kenneth R.: Little Blue Whales

(2006)

M

A serial killer is stalking the summer beaches of the little southern Oregon coast town of Cutter Point. Newly hired police chief Kevin Kearnes must fight corruption and dangerous secrets from his own past.
Lindquist, Mark: The King of Methlehem

(2007)

Experience the tensions and joys of family life and the nature of marriage and desire in Montana, in the1950s–60s.
Long, David: The Falling Boy: A Novel

(1997)

Experience the tensions and joys of family life and the nature of marriage and desire in Montana, in the1950s–60s.
Lopez, Barry Holstun: Crow and Weasel

(1990)

This fable offers a portrait of male friendship.
Lopez, Barry Holstun: Field Notes: The Grace Note of the Canyon Wren

(1994) )

Concluding book in a trilogy which includes Desert Notes and River Notes.
Lord, Nancy: Survival: Stories

(1991)

Contemplative women come to terms with loneliness and distance in Alaska.
Lord, Nancy: The Man Who Swam with Beavers: Stories

(2001)

These stories portray contemporary life in Alaska against a backdrop of traditional wisdom.
Luckett, Mitch: To Kill a Common Loon: A Novel

(2001)

A down-and-out banjo picker encounters a shape-shifting dragon, an Indian Princess, a hat-loving cougar and more when he's thrust into the Olympic Mountain wilderness.
Lynch, Jim: The Highest Tide: A Novel

(2005)

Set in Olympia, on Puget Sound, a teenage boy develops a special interest in the mysterious creatures that have no business in Pacific Northwest estuaries. At the same time, he struggles to deal with the difficulties that come with the equally mysterious process of growing up.
Macomber, Debbie: The Shop on Blossom Street

(2004)

There is a little shop on Blossom Street in Seattle called A Good Yarn. There, four women brought together by the age-old craft of knitting, make unexpected discoveries about themselves and each other.
Macomber, Debbie: A Good Yarn

(2005)

Once again, a disparate group of women find friendship and comfort as they learn the age-old craft of knitting. Sequel to The Shop on Blossom Street
Main, Elizabeth C.: Murder of the Month

(2005)

M

Jane Serrano is a middle-aged mother and bookstore clerk in the central Oregon city of Jupiter. When she suspects that the local district attorney has killed his wife, she enlists the help of her local reading group, "Murder of the Month Book Club".
Maki, Alan: A Choice to Cherish: A Novel

(2000)

A dying man, George, and his grandson spend a cold Montana Christmas together.
Markoosie: Harpoon of the Hunter

(1970)

This is the first piece of Eskimo fiction to be published in English. The hero of the story, young Kamik, achieves manhood during the hunt for a wounded polar bear and the long journey home alone after his companions are killed.
Margolin, Philip: The Last Innocent Man

(1981)

A courtroom drama set in Portland, Oregon.
McGuane, Thomas: Nobody's Angel

(1981)

Patrick Fitzpatrick struggles to keep his family and Montana ranch in shape, while attempting to woo an older woman.
McNamer, Deidre: Rima in the Weeds: A Novel

(1991)

Complex relationships link individuals in a small northern Montana town.
McNamer, Deidre: One Sweet Quarrel: A Novel

(1994)

Three Montana siblings grow up in the wild 1920s.
Metcalf, John: Kayhut

(1988)

A novel depicting the life of the Native Americans along the Northwest Coast from Puget Sound to Alaska.
Mourning Dove: Cogewea, the Half Blood: a Depiction of the Great Montana Cattle Range

(2003 reprint of the 1927 edition)

A Native American woman tells the story of a half-blood girl caught between the worlds of Anglo ranchers and reservation Indians. The book combines the folklore of the Okanogan tribe and popular romance of the day.
Nance, John J.: Saving Cascadia

(2005)

Developers of a lavish resort on tiny Cascadia Island set off a tsunami aimed at the heart of Seattle.
Nelson, Blake: Girl

(1994)

A Portland, Oregon, teenager journeys from suburbia to the inner city rock scene.
Newman, Sharan: The Shanghai Tunnel

(2008)

A widow takes over her husband's business in the rough, bustling trading outpost of 1868 Portland, Oregon. She must deal with his hostile partners and investigate the murder of a man in her kitchen.
Notaro, Laurie: There's a (slight) chance I might be going to Hell : a novel of sewer pipes, pageant queens, and big trouble

(2007)

This first novel is a rollicking tale of small-town peculiarity, dark secrets, and the Sewer Pipe Queen Beauty pageant.
Okada, John: No-No Boy

(1977)

Ichiro, a Japanese-American, returns to Seattle, Washington, after spending two years in an internment camp and another two years in prison.
Olson, Gretchen: Joyride

(1998)

Y

After vandalizing a field, a teenage boy is required to work on an Oregon strawberry farm for the summer.
Parkinson, Heather: Across Open Ground: A Novel

(2002)

Set in Idaho on the brink of World War I, this is the story of 17-year-old Walter Pascoe who herds sheep and is falling in love with a beautiful trapper named Trina Ivy. When Walter is drafted, he is bound by duty to leave the land and his lover to serve his country.
Parry, Richard: The Winter Wolf: Wyatt Earp in Alaska

(1996)

The illegitimate son of an aging Wyatt Earp stalks Earp and his wife Josie as they attempt to begin a new life in Alaska.
Paul, Jasmine: A Girl, In Parts: A Novel

(2002)

In the early 1980s in Martinsburg, West Virginia, Dorothy lives with her bartending mother, her drinking stepfather and her sweetly precocious little brother. When her family moves to Eastern Washington State, Dottie battles her way through junior high, where she finds a measure of success and recognition in sports and academics.
Pennabaker, Bill: The Ninth Man

(2003)

In this novel, set in Portland, Casey Collins strives to become the first woman to make it to the major leagues.
Percy, Benjamin: Refresh, Refresh: Stories

(2007)

Percy's second collection of stories traces lives led in rural Oregon's fractured, mostly poor communities.
Platt, Randall Beth: The Cornerstone: A Novel

(1998)

A bright, 15-year-old street kid and other outcasts spend the summer of 1944 at a summer camp on Puget Sound under the tutelage of a young man fresh from the war in the Pacific.
Platt, Randall Beth: Four Arrows Fe-As-Ko: A Novel

(1991)

Four mentally challenged adults are charged with the task of running the largest cattle ranch in Eastern Oregon and the whole county has something to gain if they fail.
Platt, Randall Beth: The 1898 Base-Ball Fe-As-Ko

(2000)

Professional baseball isn't new in the East in 1898, but out West teams traveling around to challenge the small-town nines meet plenty of obstacles.
Powell, Randy: The Whistling Toilets

(1996)

Y

Sixteen-year-old Stan coaches tennis for a group of inner city "runts" in the Seattle area.
Raymond, Jonathan: The Half-Life: A Novel

(2004)

While filming an amateur movie in Oregon during the 1980s, two teenage girls stumble across a pair of 160-year-old skeletons and the four lives converge in unexpected, startling ways.
Redon, Joel: If Not on Earth, Then in Heaven

(1991) )

A young woman faces romance and death in Portland, Oregon, in 1905.
Redon, Joel: Road to Zena: A Novel

(1992)

Prequel to If Not on Earth, Then in Heaven.
Robbins, Tom: Jitterbug Perfume

(1984)

Priscilla Partido, a Seattle member of the Daughters of the Daily Special, searches for happiness and the perfect beet-based scent.
Rock, Peter: The Bewildered: A Novel

(2005)

In Portland, Oregon, three high school friends spend their time skateboarding, studying foreign languages and classical music, and plotting a shared future that will avoid the superficiality they witness in the adult world around them.
Rushford, Patricia H.: The McAllister Files Series

M

Oregon State Police Detective Antonio (Mac) McAllister is the lead investigator in this series based on true crime stories.
Rust, Elissa Minor: The Prisoner Pear: Stories From the Lake

(2005)

Twelve stories that take a close look at the affluent suburban life in Lake Oswego.
Savage, Thomas: The Corner of Rife and Pacific

(1988)

A family faces hardships in Grayling, Montana, in the early 1890s.
Schorr, Mark: Borderline

(2006)

Psychologist Brian Hanson, a Vietnam vet and recovering alcoholic, is crushed by the death of one of his clients. He is sure that it is not suicide. When he investigates, he discovers that a string of suspected criminals has been murdered without explanation. Is Portland, Oregon, America's safest small city because of a vigilant police force, or are there other forces at work?
Scott, Trevor: Boom Town

(2006)

M

Private investigator Tony Caruso lives out of his rolling office, an old Ford pickup truck, with his German-trained bomb-sniffing dog, Panzer. An old firend hires him to look into a murder/suicide in Bend, Oregon.
Seay, Jody: The Second Coming of Curly Red: A Novel

(1999)

Following the death of his wife, 70-year-old Texan Jimmy Heron takes to the road and is befriended by a lesbian couple living in Reliance, Oregon, who becomes the target of hateful harrassment.
Seely, Norma: The Secrets of Harbor House

(2000)

M

Cara North inherits a beach house on the Oregon coast from her grandfather, a horror novelist, who has left behind an unpublished manuscript. Harbor House hides more than a manuscript in its creaky old rooms, leading Cara and her friend, Annie, through a labyrinth of clues.
Sherman, Charlotte Watson: One Dark Body: A Novel

(1993)

A child is abandoned in Pearl, Washington.
Shetzline, David: Heckletooth 3: A Novel

(1969)

A crisis occurs in an Oregon logging camp in 1960.
Shortridge, Jennie: Eating Heaven

(2005)

Eleanor Samuels is a Portland food magazine writer. When her beloved uncle falls ill, she cooks and cares for him. Eleanor uncovers some long-buried secrets about her emotionally frayed family and gets the chance to become the woman she has always wanted to be.
Shortridge, Jennie: Love and Biology at the Center of the Universe

(2008)

Mira Serafino is a high school science teacher who juggles marriage, motherhood and massive Italian meals in the close-knit community of Pacifica, Oregon
Simmons, Diane: Dreams Like Thunder

(1992)

A coming of age story set in Eastern Oregon.
Simpson, Marcia: Rogue's Yarn

(2003)

A single mother ekes out a hardscrabble existence in a small Alaskan town.
Siporin, Alan: Fire's Edge: A Novel

(2002)

This is a novel provides a realistic and powerful peek into the minds of angry young skinheads and the people they prey on.
Skloot, Floyd: Patient 002

(2007)

Medical research subject, Sam Kiehl, fights back when the pharmaceutical company goes bankrupt and cancels his treatment.
Smith, April: Judas Horse: an FBI Special Agent Ana Grey Mystery

(2008)

M

Ana Grey infiltrates a violent ecoterrorist group lurking behind the facade of the animal-rights organization Free Animals Now, whose latest project is protecting the wild mustangs that roam the Oregon plains.
Spanbauer, Tom: The Man Who Fell in Love With the Moon: A Novel

(1991)

This tale of events in turn-of-the-century Idaho is told by an imaginative, bisexual youth.
Stevens, Marcus: Useful Girl: A Novel

(2004)

On the plains of Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas, two paths unexpectedly cross: that of a 17-year-old girl running away from home and the parallel life of an 1870s Cheyenne girl.
Stevenson, Janet: Departure

(1985)

A historical incident in Astoria, Oregon, in 1851 is the basis for this sea adventure.
Stokes, Naomi Miller: The Tree People

(1995)

Murder occurs on the Salish Reservation on Washington's Olympic peninsula.
Strelow, Michael: The Greening of Ben Brown: A Novel

(2005)

Ben Brown moves to East Leven, Oregon, after recovering from an electrocution that has not left him dead, but has turned him green. He befriends 18-year-old Andrew James, and together they unearth a chemical spill cover-up that forces the town to confront its demons and its citizens to choose sides. This novel looks at how place and natural environment are inextricably linked.
Waiwaiole, Lono: Wiley's Lament

(2003)

Wiley's Lament is the story of a Seattle man drifting through life playing poker to make ends meet until his daughter turns up dead in Portland, and he must deal the final hand.
Waldie, Scott: Return to Travers Corners: Stories

(2002)

Stories of love, fishing, fishermen and daily life are set in the fictional town of Travers Corner, Montana.
Walter, Jess: Over Tumbled Graves

(2001)

Detective Caroline Mabry attempts to solve the murders of several young prostitutes in Spokane, Washington.
Walter, Jess: Citizen Vince: A Novel

(2005)

Vince Camden is relocated to Spokane via the witness protection program. This story of petty thievery, local politics and murder is set against the turbulent backdrop of the 1980 presidential election.
Watson, Larry: Montana 1948: A Novel

(1993)

Narrator David Hayden recounts the traumatic events of the summer he was 12.
Watson, Larry: Justice

(1995)

This prequel to Montana 1948 begins in 1924 with the previous generation of the Hayden family.
Watson, Larry: White Crosses

(1997)

Watson returns to Bentrock, Montana, in 1957, this time focusing on Sheriff Jack Nevelson and a fatal car accident.
Weatherford, Joyce: Heart of the Beast

(2001)

A young woman has inherited the 150-year-old family ranch, but she's not certain she wants the debt-ridden legacy.
Welch, James: Winter in the Blood

(1974)

A troubled 32-year-old Blackfoot Indian returns home to Montana, even though he feels he doesn't belong there.
Wheeler, Richard S.: Dark Passage: A Barnaby Skye Novel

(1998)

W

Barnaby Skye, a deserter from the British Royal Navy, accompanies his Crow wife to her village on the Yellowstone in 1831.
Wheeler, Richard S.: The Fields of Eden

(2001)

This is the story of a handful of emigrants who arrived at Arcadia when the British Hudson's Bay Company controlled the Oregon country.
Wilhelm, Kate: The Good Children

(1998)

After tragedy strikes a family, four children face the prospect of being separated by the state of Oregon.
Wilhelm, Kate: The Price of Silence

(2005)

M

Todd Fielding, Portland newswoman, takes a job in the small town of Bindle, east of Bend, and soon becomes involved in the disappearance of a young girl.
Wolfe, Swain: The Lake Dreams the Sky

(1998)

Doomed lovers meet in Montana after many years of separation.
Wren, M. K.: A Gift Upon the Shore

(1990)

The golden age of the Pacific Northwest has ended in apocalypse, but a farm inhabited by two women has endured.
Wright, George B.: Baker City 1948: A Novel

(2005)

In the small eastern Oregon town of Baker City in 1948, a schoolteacher is found beaten to death. This is the story of that murder and the effort of the narrator's father to protect an accused man who may not be guilty.
Wright, George B.: Tillamook 1952

(2006)

On August 24, 1933, Verlin Lundigun catches a piece of pictch-fired flaming tree trunk as he is fighting the Tillamook Burn forest fire. Verlin lives that day, but nine months later he is dead from a gunshot. Eighteen years later, a nephew is driven to find out why and how Verlin died.