Maine Books: Adult Fiction Set in Maine
The books listed here are set completely or partially in real or imaginary places in
the state of Maine. They're in alphabetical order by author, with links to author entries
on our Maine Writers Index, if applicable (not all
books set in Maine are written by Maine authors, and, we still have entries
to write on many more Maine writers.) To suggest a book for the
list, please contact us.
Please note that the Waterboro Public Library does not have most of these books!
QUEST, Adrian
- A Certain Distance to Cross (2001): A search for healing leads to romance for
a professor-widower and a photographer-divorcee in Seaview, a town along the coast of Maine.
QUINLAN, Patrick
- Smoked (2006): A crime thriller about an ex-Mafia bomb maker on the run, living in Portland, Maine.
"Gruesome and hilarious."
RAWSON, David
- Murder on Mount Desert (1995): Jimmy Hoitt is a young patrolman on Mount Desert Island.
He grew up in the fishing village of Eagle Harbor, on the quiet side of the island.
But when he's called to the scene of a mysterious hit-and-run
murder one night, Hoitt is faced with the realization that his
hometown might not be as quiet as it appears.
REID, Van / [Reid Author Information]
- Cordelia Underwood, or, the Marvelous Beginnings of the Moosepath League (1998):
Set in summertime, coastal Maine in 1896, Reid's romp of a book follows
red-headed Cordelia, her gallant and new-found friend Tobias Walton, a trio of well-meaning clods,
an escaped trained bear, and others on amiable adventures that include driverless
wagon chases, a kidnaping, and the search for buried treasure. WPL
- Mollie Peer, or, The Underground Adventures of the Moosepath League (1999/2000):
In the second hilarious adventure of
the Moosepath League, Mollie Peer, the feisty society columnist for the
Eastern Argus, follows up on a lead she hopes will win
her that elusive promotion to reporter. But when her pursuit of a
little street urchin named Bird and his dangerous captors lands Mollie in
danger, she is thrown together with the hapless, if lovable, members of the Moosepath
League in a mission of mercy that takes them from the underground of the Portland
waterfront to a perilous night pursuit on the October coast. WPL
- Daniel Plainway, or, the Holiday Haunting of the Moosepath League (2000): Takes
place at Christmas time. It's Portland, 1896, and the members of the Moosepath
League find their lives taking an adventurous turn when they accidentally meet
up with lawyer Daniel Plainway. He seeks help from the club in solving the
disappearance of an orphaned boy known as Bird. In the process,
the Moosepathians become entangled in solving a mysterious rune attributed to Vikings,
experience ghostly visitations, enjoy thrilling tales of Maine folklore, and provide entertaining
episodes along the way. WPL
- Peter Loon: A Novel (2002) : Historical fiction, set
in Maine (then Massachusetts). Seventeen-year-old Peter Loon is sent on a journey to find his
long-lost 'uncle,' Obed Winslow. Just after the death of
Peter's father, his mother insists that he find the man whom
she loved long ago. With very little information to go on, Peter is quickly immersed in
the post-Revolutionary politics and danger of New England. WPL
- Mrs. Roberto, or the Widowy Worries of the Moosepath League (2003) :
4th book in the series. Begins as Tobias continues to court
Phileda, and the members of the Moosepath League cross paths
with Portland's toughest gangster.
- Fiddler's Green (2004): Fifth and final) installment in the series, involving an
epic wedding, a society ball and a bizarre backwoods feud.
REILLY, Helen
- The Thirty-First Bullfinch (1930): Tale of murder, horror, and
suspense, on the bleak Maine coast.
REISS, Bob
- The Casco Deception (1983): A Nazi commando team invades the U.S. to capture
an army base off the coast of Maine. 326 pp.
REYNOLDS, Clifford
- Of Love and the Kennebec (1952): A love novel set in the
upper Kennebec region of Maine in the early 1900s in which a woman makes
a compact with God to dispossess her husband of his marriage rights
for a year.
- Polly Hill (1969/1982): The sequel to Of Love and the
Kennebec.
RHODES, J.H.
- The Watcher of Windcliff (1980): As long as she can remember, Marcia Carpenter has secretly adored darkly
handsome Gregg Spaniard, son of the wealthy owner of the
mist-covered mansion known as Windcliff. And Windcliff itself, located
on Teal Island off the coast of Maine, has long filled her dreams.
RICE, Luanne
- Cloud Nine (2000): Romance. Thirty-seven-year-old Sarah Talbot's
lengthy battle with cancer forced her to put life on hold,
but with a second chance, she reopens her bedding shop and plans a trip
to Elk Island, a tiny island off the coast of Maine, where her unfeeling
father and runaway son wait. On the short plane ride to the island,
she finds an unexpected confidant in pilot Will Burke.
RICH, Virginia
- The Baked Bean Supper Murders (1983):
Culinary mystery, second in the Eugenia Potter series, after
The Cooking School Murders (WPL).
Includes recipes for creamy mussel soup, Amanda's baked beans, more.
Smell the luscious Maine air while you try to figure out who
is killing Mrs. Potter's dear friends. Set Northeast Harbor.
RICKARDS, John
- Winter's End ( ): Atmospheric thriller set in fictitious Winters End, Maine. First
in series featuring Boston-based PI Alex Rourke, a former FBI agent. "The placid rural
image of Winter's End is a facade, and that past sins have come back to haunt its
leading citizens."
RINEHART, Mary Roberts
- The Yellow Room (1945): Upon reopening her summer home in Maine, twenty-four-year-old Carol Spencer finds
a charred corpse in a linen closet, and when Carol becomes the police's prime suspect, she attempts to
clear her name by uncovering the real murderer.
ROBERTS, Kenneth / [Kenneth Roberts Author Information]
- Arundel: A Chronicle of the Province of Maine and of the
Secret Expedition Against Quebec (1930): Recreates the epic march northward through
the Maine wilderness toward the walls of Quebec. WPL
- Lively Lady (1931): A chronicle of certain men of Arundel in Maine,
of privateering during the War of Impressments (also know as
the War of 1812), and of the Circular Prison on Dartmoor. WPL
- Boon Island (1955): A novel based on the facts of an actual shipwreck
(of the Nottingham Galley) on this Maine island in 1710 and the fight for survival by the
ship's crew. WPL
ROBERTS, Nora
The Calhoun Women (a Silhouette series) takes place near Bar Harbor, Maine:
- Courting Catherine (1991): All hard-driving executive
Trenton St. James III had on his mind was business -- making the
final arrangements to buy a run-down old mansion on the coast of Maine.
He wasn't expecting any complications.
- A Man for Amanda (1991): Amanda Calhoun had always been the sensible
one, forever struggling to keep her eccentric family out of
trouble. And the instant she laid eyes on architect Sloan O'Riley, she knew he was trouble.
- For the Love of Lilah (1991): Mystery and danger swirled around Lilah Calhoun's
ancestral home. The lost emeralds continue to attract treasure hunters, and at least
one dangerous criminal. And they had brought a man unlike any Lilah had
ever known. Maxwell Quartermain was a reserved college professor, but from the
moment Lilah dragged him from the Atlantic, she found he could make her melt
with the merest glance.
- Suzanna's Surrender (1991): Looking for her grandmother's emerald necklace, Suzanna visits the manly Holt Bradford,
because his grandfather had an affair with her grandmother. Uptown girl/downtown guy romance.
- Megan's Mate (1996): Companion to The Calhoun Women series. Focuses on Megan O'Riley,
sister of Sloan O'Riley, who is now married to Amanda Calhoun. Megan is a
single mother, the result of an ill-fated affair with Baxter Dumont, who was
the first husband of Suzanna Calhoun. After many years of living in
Oklahoma, Megan moves to Bar Harbor, Maine, to work for the Calhouns. The love
story centers on Megan and Nathaniel Fury, who is now married to Suzanna.
- The Calhoun Women: Catherine and Amanda (1998): Reprint, 2-in-1 book containing Courting Catherine and A Man
for Amanda.
- The Calhoun Women Vol. II: Lilah and Suzanna (1998): Reprint, 2-in-1 book containing
For the Love of Lilah and Suzanna's Surrender.
Non-series novel:
- One Man's Art (1992, Language of Love series, Silhouette): She came to
the isolated village in Maine to heal herself after her sister's
death not expecting to find understanding, joy, and comfort in
a tight-lipped stranger nursing his own hurts and pains in while they are both
trapped an isolated lighthouse during a raging storm.
- Homeport (1998): Romantic mystery. Reserved Miranda Jones specializes
in the analyzing and dating of Renaissance bronze sculpture. She hopes
to secure a world-class reputation for herself by authenticating a 15th-century statue.
Miranda's mother, Dr. Elizabeth Standford-Jones, the emotionally remote
director of an art lab in Florence, Italy, has summoned her daughter from
the family's Victorian cliffside home in Jones Point, Maine, to test
the statue. When the statue is discovered to be a fake, Miranda sets
out to prove that someone stole the original. In this she's helped
by gorgeous art thief Ryan Boldari who's come to Jones Point to steal
yet another bronze.
ROBERTS, Willo Davis
- Invitation to Evil (1970): Romantic suspense novel set in Maine.
ROBICHAUD, Gerard
- Papa Martel (1961/2003): Classic novel of Franco-American
family life in Maine between the World Wars.
ROBINSON, Lewis
- Officer Friendly and Other Stories (2002): Debut collection of stories all set in Maine. WPL.
ROBINSON, Roxana
- Summer Light (1988): The life of 29-year-old photographer Laura is painfully out of focus. A month's vacation
on the Maine coast with her son, her lover, Ward, and her sister's family is supposed to be an
idyllic period of sustenance and calm, but for Laura, it turns into
the ultimate test of her ability to trust herself and others.
ROGERS, John A.S.
- The Elephant on the Tracks and Other Stories (1992):
Author is winner of 1992 Fiction Chapbook Competition, Maine Arts Commission. 66 pp.
RONNS, Edward
See also Edward S. Aarons
- Murder Money (1938; also as $1,000,000 in Corpses): Pulp suspense. Set in Maine?
- Million Dollar Murder (1950): Pulp suspense. Sam was in love
with his brother's wife. For this someone had to die. Set in Maine?
ROSS, JoAnn
- Star-Crossed Lovers (1993, Harlequin): Romance. When Maine
Police Chief Charity Prescott found the nearly naked, unconscious
man during a blizzard, she nursed him back to health, later to
realize the sexy stranger was the man she'd been fantasizing about.
ROSS, Marilyn (AKA W.E.D. Ross, Dan Ross)
Dan Ross wrote 32 Dark Shadows novels under the pen name of Marilyn Ross.
The Dark Shadows series were written in the style of Gothic suspense novels,
set in a small fishing village called Collinsport, Maine.
- Barnabas Collins (1968)
- Strangers at Collins House (1967)
- The Mystery of Collinwood (1968)
- The Curse of Collinwood (1969)
- The Demon of Barnabas Collins (1969)
- The Foe of Barnabas Collins (1969)
- The Peril of Barnabas Collins (1969)
- The Phantom and Barnabas Collins (1969)
- The Secret of Barnabas Collins (1969)
- Barnabas Collins Versus the Warlock (1969)
- Barnabas Collins and Quentin's Demon (1970)
- Barnabas Collins and the Gypsy Witch (1970)
- Barnabas Collins and the Mysterious Ghost (1970)
- Barnabas, Quentin and the Mummy's Curse (1970)
- Barnabas, Quentin and the Avenging Ghost (1970)
- Barnabas, Quentin and the Frightened Bride (1970)
- Barnabas, Quentin and the Haunted Cave (1970)
- Barnabas, Quentin and the Nightmare Assassin (1970)
- Barnabas, Quentin and the Crystal Coffin (1970)
- Barnabas, Quentin and the Scorpio Curse (1970)
- Barnabas, Quentin and the Serpent (1970)
- Barnabas, Quentin and the Witch's Curse (1970)
- House of Dark Shadows (1970)
- Barnabas, Quentin and Dr. Jekyll's Son (1971)
- Barnabas, Quentin and the Body Snatchers (1971)
- Barnabas, Quentin and the Grave Robbers (1971)
- Barnabas, Quentin and the Hidden Tomb (1971)
- Barnabas, Quentin and the Mad Magician (1971)
- Barnabas, Quentin and the Magic Potion (1971)
- Barnabas, Quentin and the Sea Ghost (1971)
- Barnabas, Quentin and the Vampire Beauty (1972)
ROSS, W.E.D. (AKA Dan Ross)
- The Twilight Web (1968) : When Rose Hilary inherits a vast estate
in Maine she is suddenly hurled into a sinister web of darkness, with
someone or something threatening her life.
- The Yesteryear Phantom (1971): Joyce Wales comes to the musty summer theater in Maine,
little knowing the brutal terror she will soon feel. But in the
dark, secret places of the theater builind, Joyce senses an ominous
presence -- a sinister portent of terror to come.
- Flight to Romance (1983): Not only is she caught
up in a conflict between the local fishermen and the
treasure hunters, but there's a bigger conflict in her heart. Set in Maine?
Young adult?
ROWE, Anne
- Curiosity Killed a Cat (1941): Mystery. 1st Inspector Josiah Pettengill mystery set in Maine.
- The Little Dog Barked (1943): 2nd Inspector Pettengill mystery, set in Maine.
- Fatal Purchase (1945): Mystery set in Maine.
ROWE, Henrietta Gould
- Re-told Tales of the Hills and Shores of Maine (1892):
Stories. Includes Pretty Patty Parton; A College Girl; The Eagle in the Sea-Bird's
Nest; Church Mice; Marjorie's Knight; Stuffing the Thanksgiving Turkey; Tempest in
a Teapot; Betsey; Puck in the Pulpit; Sugaring Off.
ROZHON, James / [Rozhon Author Information]
His mystery series featuring PI Jack Collins is partially set in southern Maine.
- A Matter Of Faith (April 2002): Introduces Collins and his blended family.
Plot concerns Collins' relationship with a troubled boy and his discovery of
a series of unsolved deaths.
- A Slight Difference of Opinion (July 2002): In the previous book,
Collins' partner was killed. In this one, Collins learns who killed him
and why, but the answers threaten the lives of not only his wife, but
his two daughters as well.
- A Small Fire in the Forest (Aug. 2002): Jack Collins is asked by
an insurance company to find a man who has disappeared after going
to the local race track. His son, Brian, is asked to find a boy who has
been kidnapped by his father. His partner, Danny, is asked to find out who
is threatening a young woman with death. Three different cases that converge into
one monstrous case that will threaten everyone living in Southern Maine.
- The End of Time (Dec. 2002): First of a two-part story (continued in Melodie's Song).
A friend, Charlie LaChance, is killed because of what he knows, his death
made to look like a drug overdose.
- Melodie's Song (May 2003): Sequel to The End of TimeJack's daughter Melodie
is a widow after her husband, Brian Sixkiller, is killed. Trying to come
to terms with his death, she travels to Ireland where she meets two
people who help her heal, while Jack, Melodie's father, becomes
the target of someone with an old agenda.
- Sibling Rivalry (2003)
- Tong War (2006): When a Chinese gang war threatens Portland, private investigator Melodie
Chang is dragged into the middle of it.
RUSSO, Richard / [Russo Author Information]
- Empire Falls (2001): Miles Roby, a gentle, funny loser, runs
the Empire Grill and hopes one day to own
it. Meantime, though, his wife has run off with his worst customer,
he's anxious about his adored teenage daughter and his one-handed brother, and
his incorrigible father sponges off everyone. Empire Falls is a
tarnished Maine town whose glory has faded with the loss of its textile
and logging industries. WPL
SANBORN, Ruth Burr
- Murder on the Aphrodite (1935): Maine houseboat setting with Ageline Tredennick.
SANDERS, Lawrence
- Love Songs (1972): Suspense. When popular singer Bobbie Vander returns to her small hometown in Maine
in search of peace after spending years on the road, she finds distorted
passions, betrayal, and corruption instead.
SAUL, John
- Second Child (1990): Horror. An isolated enclave on the coast of Maine
forms the eerie background for a terrifying tale of physchological
suspense. 100 years ago in Secret Cove a shy servant girl
commited a single, unspeakable act of violence, and now 13-year-old
Melissa learns the blood-drenched secret waiting behind a
locked attic door.
SAUM, Karen / [Saum Author Information]
- Murder is Relative (1990): As lesbian ex-nun/writer/sleuth Brigid Donovan probes
a shameful blueblood family legacy, including rape, incest and alcoholism,
she moves inexorably closer to long-buried truths. Setting is Quebec City,
rural Maine, and Manhattan.
- Murder is Germaine (1991): Brigid Donovan mystery that takes place in Maine and in the country of Panama.
- Murder is Material (1994): Brigid Donovan mystery that involves the death of
a so-called Buddhist guru and the kidnapping of his female companion. Takes place in Maine.
- I Never Read Thoreau: A Mystery Novel (1996): After discovering the
body of an immigration officer on small Monte Cassino island off the
coast of Maine, Alexandra Adler tells how the island and its spiritual retreat
came into existence, how she became emotionally involved with its co-founder,
Sister Santa Clara, and how its members smuggled illegal aliens into Canada.
More introspection than mystery. WPL
SAUNDERS, Marshall
- Deficient Saints, a Tale of Maine (1899)
SAVAGE, Christina (actually, Kerry Newcomb and Frank Schaefer)
- Dawn Wind (1980): Civil War historical romance set
in Maine. Intrigues, romance, jealousy, and revenge in a wealthy family.
SCOTT, Antonia
- Falcon's Island (1973): Mystery. Set in Maine?
SCOTT, Peter
- Something in the Water (2000): Maine lobster fisherman Amos Coombs
knows that German U-boats are hiding out along the coast by
day and sinking American merchant vessels at night. Until one terrifying day,
however, he is unaware that the enemy is quite literally in his backyard or that the presence
of a Nazi submarine is about to change his life and those of his
fellow islanders forever. More than just a war novel, this novel presents
a vivid portrayal of a community and a way of life. 304 pp.
- The Boy Who Came Walking Home (2003): A prequel to Something in the Water. A panoramic
portrait of an extended Maine island family at the onset of World War I. Follows
Henry Coombs, who stuns his family by leaving his hardscrabble fishing community to join the army.
The 1918 flu epidemic, the war's effect on Maine's homefront, and life in a military
encampment are all part of the story. 304 pp.
SHAIN, Charles and Samuella (editors)
- The Maine Reader: The Down East Experience, 1614 to
the Present (1991): Captures the sweep of Maine culture, from the dazzled vision
of the first European explorers to the modern wit of Carolyn
Chute. All of the great figures who have sprung from Maine, or
written about it, are represented: Longfellow, Thoreau, Sarah Orne
Jewett, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sinclair Lewis, Rockwell Kent, Edna St.
Vincent Millay, E.B. White, John McPhee, and others. 524 pp.
SHANNON, Doris
- The Punishment: A Novel of Terror (1980): Story of a troubled young woman
taken to a lighthouse -- owned by her mother's family -- on a small island off the coast of Maine.
As the girl spends time with her family members, she finds that each is hiding a
secret, and eventually she begins to see things that
aren't visible to anyone else.
SHAPIRO, Dani
- Black & White (2007): Clara Brodeur travels to New York City from Maine to visit
her dying mother, a renowned photographer. The Clara series, nude portraits, brought
fame to Ruth Dunne but destroyed her relationship with her daughter.
SHAW, Brenda
- The Dark Well: Coming of Age on a Maine Farm (1996): A memoir that
reads as an historical novel; a vivid depiction of growing
up on a Maine farm during the Great Depression and World War II.
- Eliza and Mentora: The Story of a Pioneer Family in Northern Maine (2003): Historical,
biographical novel, prequel to The Dark Well. Takes the
history of the Shaw family back three generations to Civil War times.
SHEA, Christina
- Moira's Crossing (2000): Set in 1921, when their mother dies in childbirth,
Moira and Julie O'Leary are left to rear their infant sister Ann, while
their father, a sheep farmer, drowns his sorrow in drink. After Ann dies, Moira and Julie
depart Cork, Ireland, for Boston. Moira soon marries and moves to
Maine with her fisherman husband, Michael, with whom Julia is secretly
in love. When Michael dies, Julia moves to Maine to live with her
sister, becoming a columnist for the local newspaper. But Ann's death
continues to haunt their new lives and presages confusion that will come to trouble the next generation.
SHEPHERD, Edith Woodell
- A Maid of Moods: A Tale of the Maine Woods (1910)
SHREVE, Anita
- Strange Fits of Passion (1999): Fleeing her abusive
husband, Mary resettles with her infant child in downeast St. Hilaire, Maine, but
her new home brings her only fear, and soon a murder, a rape charge, and a suicide shatter the peaceful town.
SIDDONS, Anne Rivers
- Colony (1992): A 90-year old woman, doyenne of a summer colony called Retreat in Maine, looks
back over her life. WPL
SIMPSON, Anne
- Canterbury Beach (2001): A family embarks on their
annual pilgrimage to the cottage in Maine. In the course of their journey, a
tale will be told, spun from the long absence of the family's black sheep,
and from the prospect of his return. The lives and stories of each character are revealed
in turn, interweaving an intricate web of myth and memory, and of love lost and reclaimed.
Canadian author. 312 pp.
SIPHERD, Ray
- The Courtship Of Peggy McCoy: A Novel (1990): Romance set in
Maine. Peggy McCoy is sixtyish, single, independent, and an
accomplished sailor. A pleasant afternoon sail is disrupted by a near
collision with a U. S. Navy ship, skippered by retired Admiral Charles
Deering. There is mutual attraction when the two meet on shore, but their romance
is far from smooth sailing.
SLOANE, William
- The Edge of Running Water (1945): Weird mystery novel about a scientist
who constructs a machine to contact his wife's ghost. Set in Maine.
SMEDSTAD, Teisha A.W.
- My Dear Sarah Anne: Letters From a Century Ago (1990):
Novella set in the Victorian summer resort of Eden (now known as Bar Harbor), circa 1888.
SMITH, Mrs. Chetwood
- The God of the Bees (1913): Romance set in Maine and taking its title
from Maurice Maeterlinck ("The God of the Bees is the
Future"). She also wrote Cranberry Cove Stories (1915).
SMITH, Edmund Ware
- Tall Tales and Short (1936): Stories are set in the towns of Mopang and Privilege in
Maine, a short distance from the New Brunswick, Canada border. The
characters are lumbermen, guides, poachers, game wardens and
Native Americans of the region. Hunting and fishing tales
from the golden age of outdoor life in North America.
- The Tomato Can Chronicle and Other Stories of Fishing and Shooting (1937)
- The One-eyed Poacher of Privilege (1941/1991): Story set in fictional Privilege, Maine.
- A Treasury of the Maine Woods (1958): Collection of thirty, essays, narratives and woodsmoke tales
of wilderness Maine woods.
- Upriver & Down: Stories from the Maine Woods (1965): Eighteen stories by one of the best
Maine storytellers.
SMITH-BROWN, Fern
- Unforgettable (2000): After Camilla suffers amnesia after being hit by
a falling tree branch during a storm on the coast of Maine, she
is aided by an undercover agent working on an arms-smuggling case. Both
are unaware that she is the key witness in a murder. 215 pp.
SNYDER, Don J.
- Fallen Angel (2001): Terry McQuinn is a wealthy Hollywood agent who returns to his
childhood town in Maine when he finds out that his estranged father, a caretaker
of an oceanfront retreat of summer cottages for the rich, is deathly
ill. After his father dies, Terry revisits his father's shop, where he discovers a final work order
that brings back decades-old memories and changes his future.
SPENCER, LaVyrle
- That Camden Summer (1996): A free-thinking
divorcee returns with her three daughters to Camden, Maine.
STAFFORD, Jean
- The Catherine Wheel (1952): Summering at her country home in Maine, Katherine
Congreve is afraid John Shipley's son will blame her for his father's
approaching divorce. Stafford's third and final published novel, set in Maine and written
while Stafford was living part-time at Damariscotta Mills, Maine.
STEIN, Aaron Marc
- Coffin Country (1976): 11th in Matt Erridge mystery series. Engineer Matt Erridge, incognito,
has arrived in Maine to scout out possible sites for electric power plants.
Soon he is wanted for murder of a prominent local citizen.
- A Nose for It (1980): Matt Erridge mystery in Maine.
STERN, Philip Van Doren
- Love is the One With Wings (1951): Hardboiled mystery
novel about a fatal love triangle set in at a Maine fish camp.
STEVENS, C. J. / Stevens Author Information]
- The Folks from Greeley's Mill: and other Maine stories (1992):
A flirtatious veterinarian with shoulders too slippery for burdens;
a young woman able to outwork any man on the harvest fields; a
toilet cleaner proud of his earthy occupation; a small boy's
bewildered first steps toward understanding sexual matters.
These are some of the folks from Greeley's Mill, time-lifted
from the 1930s. WPL
STEVENSON, Robert Louis III
- Bright Star (1999): Sequel to Torchlight (1997).
Defense satellite Bright Star can wipe out the enemy in one megablow while also
creating a defensive nuclear shield. But before it's launched into orbit, the nuclear
stealth submarine Trident is hijacked by terrorists. While the shuttle Atlantis bears
Bright Star 200 miles aloft, a massive computer failure shuts down the Johnson
and Kennedy Space Centers and Atlantis sinks into the ocean 50 miles off
Bristol, Maine, not far from the missing Trident. Underwater heros, ex-Navy SEALs Philip Drake and Jack Henderson,
have the task of recovering Bright Star from the ocean.
STOCKENBERG, Antoinette
- Embers (1994): Romance and intrique. Meg Hazard is trying to keep her family's bed-and-breakfast in
Bar Harbor, Maine, afloat but finds herself caught up in the
mystery surrounding the Great Fire of 1947 and her grandmother's death.
STOWE, Harriet Beecher / [Stowe Author Information]
- The Pearl of Orr's Island: A Story of the Coast of Maine (1862):
The rural tranquillity of the lonely, pine-girthed shores of the Maine
coast is the setting for this novel of conflicting aspirations. A young girl struggles
to belong and fit in, in the face of adversity, and of her upbringing
among strong women, grumpy fishermen, annoying gossips, sea captains, and
the dreamlike, temptestuous landscape of Orr's Island.
STRANGE, John Stephen (1896-?; aka Dorothy Stockbridge Tillett)
- The Bell in the Fog (1935): Mystery featuring New York photojournalist
Barney Gantt. He's recovering from a coma at a fictional downeast Maine island (Sowback Island)
when a single letter is stolen from a mailbag, precipitating a slew of bodies piling up in a case
that involves rum-runners and a lighthouse.
STRATTON [Porter], Gene
- Killing Cousins (1999): Genealogy, genetics and keen
detective work mesh in this novel set on isolated Fogge Island
off the Maine coast.
STROUT, Elizabeth
- Abide With Me (2006): In a small Maine town in the late 1950s, a minister struggles
to regain his family and his happiness after his wife's death. Author born in Portland.
STUART, Anne
- Rocky Road (1985, Harlequin, Men Made in America series): Romance.
After years of living dangerously, Matthew Connelly returned to Muscatoon
Island. The tiny patch of land off the rocky coast of Maine was the
perfect spot for his enforced solitary confinement. He wanted privacy, peace and
quiet; what he got was Jeannie MacPherson, the do-good girl next door.
SWANN, Francis
- The Brass Key (1963): Mystery.
Young woman goes to Maine searching for her birthright.
Screenwriter's first novel.
TAPPLY, William G.
- Dead Meat (1987): A Brady Coyne Mystery. Boston lawyer detective
Brady Coyne makes a fishing trip to Maine only to uncover murder
at a resort located on an old Indian burial ground.
- Cutter's Run: A Brady Coyne Novel (1998): Mystery.
While visiting friend and lover Alexandria Shaw, who is living in
the bucolic southwestern Maine town of Garrison while she writes a book,
Boston lawyer Brady Coyne meets Charlotte Gillespie, a middle-aged
African-American woman. Charlotte's dog is poisoned, swastikas are
painted on her property, and Charlotte herself disappears without a trace after
leaving a letter for Coyne asking for his help.
- Bitch Creek (2004): An amnesiac settles in Maine and takes up
life as a fishing guide. But when someone close to him is murdered,
he suspects that he himself was the intended target.
- Nervous Water (2005: A Boston attorney is contacted by the uncle he
hasn't seen in decades, a Maine fisherman who is dying of cancer and wants
to mend fences with his estranged daughter, who has disappeared.
- Gray Ghost (2007): Seven years ago, Stoney Calhoun woke up in a VA
hospital with no memories. He has a few unexplained skills including a gift for
angling, an ability to read French, and he thinks he may have been a cop. Working as
a guide on Casco Bay in Portland, Maine, Stoney is out with a client on a
morning fly fishing expedition when they find the charred remains of a body on
a small, uninhabited island....
TARKINGTON, Booth / [Tarkington Author Information]
- Mirthful Haven: A Novel of the Maine Coast (1930): Novel of Kennebunkport, Maine, and its summer visitors.
- Mary's Neck (1932): Story of a summer visitor at a Maine resort.
THAYER, Cynthia / [Thayer Author Information]
- Strong for Potatoes (1998): Coming of age of girl in eastern Maine, guided by her Passamoquoddy Indian
grandfather. WPL
- A Certain Slant of Light (2000): Peter MacQueen is
living a hermit's life near the coastal Maine village of Black
Harbor when he awakens one icy morning to discover a young, fair-skinned
woman, eight months pregnant, leaning precariously against a white birch.
Elaine has fled her husband and is seeking a haven from him, because he --
with the support of his Jehovah's Witness congregation -- has branded
her a sinner and threatened to disfellowship her. 259 pp. WPL
- A Brief Lunacy (2005): Starts in rustic Maine, where a retired surgeon
and his wife enjoy a comfy seacoast retirement, painting and cooking and drinking wine, etc.
When a lost camper arrives, the scene darkens and pyschological truths are explored.
THAYER, Lee (AKA Emma Redington Thayer)
- Accident, Manslaughter or Murder? (1945):
Mystery set in Maine featuring Peter Clancy, one of 59 novels featuring
this NYC-based P.I.
THOMPSON, Daniel Pierce
- Gaut Gurley; or, The Trappers of Umbagog: A Tale of Border Life (1857;
later published as The Demon Trapper of Umbagog):
A novel about trappers on the NH/Maine border (near Errol, NH). 360 pp.
THOMPSON, James M.
- Night Blood (2001) : Horror, partly set in Maine. In Maine, 1820, a young woodcutter is
lost in a blizzard and seeks refuge in a recluse's isolated cabin. There,
a strange-tasting brew turns him into a vampire. Now, in modern-day Houston,
his immortality is threatened by a deadly blood disease. Reinventing himself as a hematologist, he
races against time to find the cure that will save him.
THORNDIKE, John
- The Potato Baron (1989): When Austen Pooler's wife walks out on him (taking
one of their two children with her), he is forced to choose between
them and the ancestral farmhouse (and potato farm) in upstate Maine
where he was raised. He can have his family or his potato farm, but
he can't have both. Explores the pulls of marriage on
equal partners.
THURM, Marian
- Henry in Love (1990): 68-year-old Henry is married to 28-year-old Kate, and they
have a new baby Darlan. They have never been happier, but neither expects his
age to interfere so quickly. With Henry's illness, comes the hired companion,
the neurotic ex-wife, and his estranged daughter, who is older than Henry's wife.
Set in Maine.
TIBBETTS, Pearl Ashby
- Land Under Heaven (1937): Fictionalized account
of early Aroostook County, beginning with the Aroostook War.
TIBBOTT, F.M.
- Simon Hastings (1942): Period novel set in northern Maine during the
Civil War and the following 25 years. Historical fiction and social
history with the reproduction of the life of a small community.
TOUCHETTE, Scott D.
- Bees (2002): Set in the woods of Maine, this novel is
about bees -- larger than anyone has ever seen before. They swarm and
instill fear in everyone entering the woods. Can they be understood and
eradicated?
TURNBULL, Margaret
- The Return of Jenny Weaver (1932): Mystery featuring female sleuth
Juliet Jackson in her third case, this time in Lost Harbor, Maine.
TURNER, Frances Wright
- Follow the River (1957): Story of colonial Maine during the Revolution based
on a family history and using family letters verbatim.
VAN DE WATER, Frederic F.
- Alibi (1930): Crime novel with Maine setting.
VAN DE WETERING, Janwillem / [Van De Wetering Author Information]
- The Maine Massacre(1979):
The accidental death of his brother-in-law sends Grijpstra--with his companion de Gier in tow --
to Jamestown, Maine, where they find a town full of suspects and a series
of shady real-estate deals. WPL
- Just a Corpse at Twilight (1994): Retired Amsterdam cop Henk Grijpstra gets a
frantic call from his old partner, de Geir -- now living on an
island near Jameson, Maine -- who thinks he may have killed his girlfriend.
Could de Gier possibly be a murderer? Grijpstra travels to Maine
to rescue his partner and to confront his own demons as well. WPL
VERRILL, A. Hyatt
- Barton's Mills: A Saga of the Maine Pioneers (1932/1976):
Story of the white settlement of the interior of Maine. Fiction based on
historical fact, including the author's own ancestors.
VICE, Lisa
- Preacher's Lake (1998): It's a mixed bag in the Maine backwater coastal village of
Preacher's Lake: A mismatched lesbian couple; a single mother and her biracial
daughter; a 40-year-old man in love for the first time; and a fading beauty.
Readers may think they've stumbled across a latter-day Eudora Welty. Wyoming author.
VICTOR, Metta Victoria Fuller
- The Senator's Son: A Plea for the Maine Law (1853): One of the Beadle's Dime Novels series, set in Maine. 291 pp.
WAIT, Lee / / [Wait Author Information]
- Shadows on the Coast of Maine: An Antique Print Mystery (2003):
Maggie visits her old college roommate and close friend
at her new home, built in 1774, in Madoc, Maine.
WALLACE, John
- Robin's Ocean (1999): Robin and Ann Garrity are proud owners of the Viroqua,
a fictional bed and breakfast inn on the coast of Maine. While Ann
struggles to maintain the establishment, Robin acts more like a guest than
an owner, a fact that drives Ann first into the arms of neighbor, carpenter and highly
competent handyman Charlie Thibodeau, then clear across the country
to San Diego, in an effort to escape both Rob and Charlie while starting
the process of finding herself again.
WALLACE, Willard Mosher
- East to Bagaduce (1963): Based on a true event. U.S. Navy lays siege
to Maine town during the Revolutionary War (legally, part of
Massachusetts then), but effort ends in humiliating disaster.
WATKINS, Paul
- Archangel (1995): Set in the north woods of
Maine, this is a story of greed, devotion, and the struggle over
land that belongs to everyone and no one.
WAUGH, Charles G. (editor, with Martin H. Greenberg and Frank D. McSherry, Jr.)
- Strange Maine (1986): Anthology of science fiction,
fantasy, and horror stories set in Maine, with works by Stephen King,
Fritz Leiber, Pangborn, Ruth Sawyer, Harriet Prescott Spofford,
Jane Yolen, Thomas A. Easton, Charlotte Armstrong, more.
- Murder & Mystery in Maine (1989): Collection of
mystery short stories in Maine, by Harry Kemelman, Patricia
Highsmith, Holman F. Day, others.
WEATHERS, Brenda
- The House at Pelham Falls (1986): Lesbian ghost story.
Karen, a college anthropology professor in Maine, lives in a house that
is haunted by the ghost of Blessing Carmichael, who mourns her
beloved Aimee (to whom Karen bears a striking resemblence). Maggi, who
has discovered in Karen the one woman she can truly love,
discovers she must fight more than Karen's fear of their love. With Etta
as her only ally she must do battle with the fury of the New
England winter and the menacing power of the supernatural. 226 pp.
WEBB, Jean Francis
- Carnavaron's Castle (1969): When reporter Jennifer Stratton spends a
weekend at Tintagel Castle as the guest of the widow of the
actor Charles Carnavaron, she meets ghosts, murder and suspicious guests.
Set in Maine?
WEBSTER, George Oliver
- Pentagoet (1955): Historical fiction about Maine's Fort Pentagoet.
WEESNER, Theodore
- Harbor Lights: A Novel (2000): Set in southern Maine, the novel follows the
last weeks of lobster fisherman Warren Hudson's life. 234 pp.
WEILL, Gus
- Flesh (1990): Horror. Marion Anderson, a young man of middle-class tastes,
arrives on the rich Caesar family's private island in order
to collaborate musically with Justin Caesar, but discovers that
the family has different plans. Set in Maine. 215 pp. Author served as Executive
Secretary to the Governor of Louisiana.
WELLS, Carolyn, and Harry P. Taber
- The Gordon Elopement: The Story of a Short Vacation (1904): Story set in
Maine with cast of characters that includes the Gordons, attempting to
get away; Capt. Haskins, a retired whaler; Aunt Zip, a Maine philosopher; the
proprietor of Umbagog House; Joseph Rodman Payne, a dog of intellect; etc.
WESTBROOK, Perry D.
- The Red Herring Murder (1949): A Dr. Samuel Cutting mystery.
- Infra Blood (1950): A Dr. Samuel Cutting mystery. Someone is killing people in
the Banks College Library in Maine during Christmas holidays.
WESTON, Christine
- The Dark Wood (1946): A dark romance about a young World
War II war widow on the sea coast of Maine.
WETTERAU, John Moncure
- O+F (2000): Settings include Portland, Maine, Hawaii, and the
northwest U.S. Oliver is 35 and living in Maine. When he realizes that he must try
to find his father, a Japanese-American whom he's never met, the search leads
him to Hawaii and then to the coast of Oregon, where they confront each other. Oliver's
life takes sudden turns when he marries, has a child, abruptly divorces,
moves to Seattle, comes close to killing himself, and takes up with an old flame.
WHITE, Michael C.
- A Brother's Blood: A Novel (1996): Engrossing literary mystery
that starts during WWII when 400,000 German prisoners of war were
held in the United States. Some escaped, some died, but one, the
brother of Wolfgang Kallick, seems to have been murdered. Wolfgang arrives
in Maine to discover the details of his brother's death. But the investigation
may be neither simple, nor safe.
WICK, Lori
- Wings of the Morning (1994): Historical Christian romance. Kensington Chronicles #2.
Raised on the sea, Smokey is a natural at captaining her own
trade vessel. But when it comes to socializing, she lacks the confidence that comes
so easily onboard. She is even more uncertain when it comes to men. When
she meets Dallas Knight, a competitor eager to learn about her speedy ship,
she finds herself at a loss. In his world, nervousness overtakes her.
But aboard her ship, Smokey's confidence slowly draws Dallas's heart. Set off Maine coast?
273 pp. WPL
WIGGIN, Eric E.
- The Hills of God (1993) : Forced to leave the home they love, the
Andrews family journeys to a small coastal community in Maine where a
new beginning means facing difficult choices. Reminiscent of a bygone era, a tribute
to enduring Mennonite convictions and the traditional values of yesteryear. Set during
the World War II time period.
WILLIAMS, Ben Ames / [Williams Author Information]
Williams set many of his novels in the fictional town of Fraternity (based on Searsmont).
- The Silver Forest (1926): Also published as A Killer Among Us, 1957,
this is a murder mystery set at a wilderness lodge in Maine.
- The Dreadful Night (1928): Mystery.
- Mischief (1933)
- Pascal's Mill (1933)
- Come Spring (1940): Fictionalized account of Phillip Robbins
and his family whom he brought up the Georges River to what became Union, Maine,
cleared land, built cabins, and weathered the hardships of cold,
hunger, and backbreaking work. This story takes place the same
year the Declaration of Independence was signed.
- The Strange Woman (1942): Life in Bangor and the Penobscot valley of Maine during the civil war.
- Fraternity Village (1949): Short stories set in the Searsmont area of Maine.
WILSON, Rachel (AKA Alice Duncan, Emma Craig)
- Heaven's Promise (1998): Historical romance. Haunting Hearts series.
Set Palmyra, Maine, 1895. It's been almost forty years since Susanna's great-aunt
disappeared, leaving only a diary and an old family mystery as her legacy.
And much to Susanna's annoyance, a dashing and arrogant newspaperman is digging
up old stories about her aunt to create a new scandal. But, when the
ghost of her great-aunt's beloved fiancé appears and memories of her
dearly departed ancestor begin invading Susanna's dreams, the young girl
reluctantly teams up with the reporter to free a spirit trapped on
earth. 340 pp.
WILSON, Robley / [Robley Wilson Author Information]
- The Victim's Daughter: A Novel (1991): Mystery. Melissa Allen's father is murdered
in his house on the very night that Melissa comes home for her 15th high-school
reunion in the small town of Scoggin, Maine. 222 pp.
WILSON, Sloan
- A Summer Place (1958): Adultery and teenage love at resort house off the Maine coast.
WILSON, Susan
- Summer Harbor (2003): Romance set in Hawke's Cove, Maine involving
questionable paternity.
WOLZIEN, Valerie
- A Star Spangled Murder (1993): Susan Henshaw mystery set on Deer Isle, Maine (though the town is not named in the book).
Susan Henshaw and her family have been coming to their summerhouse in Maine
for years, but when neighbor Humphrey Taylor is found bludgeoned
to death in her living room, Susan's relaxing holiday goes out
with the tide. Fourth of July mystery.
WOOD, Monica / [Wood Author Information]
- My Only Story (2000): Partly set in Portland, Maine (on Munjoy Hill). Also
in the small town of Ashton, Massachusetts. Rita Rosario cuts hair,
tells fortunes, and reads the classics. Rita's beauty shop is
the one holdout in a once-thriving Main Street that is being sold
brick by brick to an outlet-mall conglomerate. Her quiet life depends
on her stubborn resistance to change. One night she has a dream
that she interprets as a summons, and before long she has flung
herself into the life of John Reed, a lonely stranger who needs
her help. 320 pp.
- Any Bitter Thing (2005): Lizzy Mitchell was raised for seven years by
her uncle, a Catholic priest, until he is falsely accused of improprieties with
her, dismissed from his church, and separated from Lizzy. Now thirty years old
and in a failing marriage, Lizzy, near death in an emergency room, is visited by her uncle,
who has been dead for 20 years.
WOODS, Stuart
- Dark Harbor (2006): When CIA agent Dick Stone apparently kills his family and then
himself, his cousin Stone Barrington travels to Maine to uncover the truth.
WORRELL, Judith
- Sting of the Bee (1982): Someone locks Helen Scovill in a shed
with a hive of irate bees; when she dies from the stings, arrogant
detective Guy LaChance seems eager to pin the murder on a defenseless state
mental patient, but Helen's neighbor, Maura Cleary, doesn't buy
LaChance's theory. When she begins her own snooping, she uncovers
more than she bargains for: the unexpected presence of the FBI,
a radical alliance of Quebececois and Maine Indians, drug smuggling, a
fugitive member of the Weather Underground, and a past she had nearly forgotten.
WUORI, G.K.
- Nude in the Tub: Stories of Quillifarkeag, Maine (1999): Short
story collection, set in a small town that's filled with real northern Maine eccentrics.
- An American Outrage: A Novel of Quillifarkeag, Maine (2000):
Novel set in rural Maine in which law officers kill an eccentric woman
Strange, haunting, and provocative; takes the reader straight into
the gut of a small town's tragedy.
YEAGER, Dorian
- Ovation by Death (1996): Vic Bowering mystery. Following the death of the
leading lady, actress Vic Bowering is hired as a replacement by
a Maine theater company staging a musical version of Macbeth. But
Bowering is also a sleuth and she spots clues that suggest the leading lady
was murdered. By the author of Eviction by Death. 182 pp.
YGLESIAS, Helen / [Ygelsias Author Information]
- Sweetsir (1981): Powerful novel of Sally Sweetsir, a woman pushed to the
edge by the private brutalities of her husband. Set in Maine.
