Local Town

The town of Marshall, Texas, is the epicenter of intellectual property law in the US—renowned for its speedy trials and massive payouts. One of its best lawyers is James Euchre. His newest client, Amir Zawar, is a CEO forced to defend his life’s work against a patent infringement claim. But when a beloved hometown hero is murdered, all signs point to Zawar, an outsider with no alibi. With the help of a former federal prosecutor and a local PI, Euchre hopes to uncover the truth. In his first criminal case, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Oklahoma City was born from chaos. It was founded in a bizarre but momentous "Land Run" in 1889, when thousands of people lined up along the borders of Oklahoma Territory and rushed in at noon to stake their claims. Since then, it has been a city torn between the wild energy that drives its outsize ambitions and the forces of order that seek sustainable progress.

During World War II, American soldiers from every city and walk of life rolled through North Platte, Nebraska, on troop trains, en route to Europe and the Pacific. The tiny town transformed its modest railroad depot into the North Platte Canteen, a place where soldiers could enjoy coffee, music, home-cooked food, magazines, and friendly conversation during a stopover that lasted only a few minutes.

Once upon a time, a group of libertarians got together and hatched the Free Town Project, a plan to take over an American town and completely eliminate its government. In 2004, they set their sights on Grafton, NH, a barely populated settlement with one paved road. When they descended on Grafton, public funding for pretty much everything shrank: the fire department, the library, the schoolhouse. State and federal laws became meek suggestions, scarcely heard in the town's thick wilderness.

Elise King is a successful and ambitious detective—or she was before a medical leave left her unsure if she'd ever return to work. She now spends most days watching the growing tensions in her small seaside town of Ebbing—the weekenders renovating old bungalows into luxury homes, and the locals resentful of the changes.

Decades of cuts to local government amidst rising concentrations of poverty have wreaked havoc on communities left behind by the modern economy. Forty years after the anti-tax revolution began protecting wealthy taxpayers and their cities, our high-poverty cities and counties have run out of services to cut, properties to sell, bills to defer, and risky loans to take. In The Fight to Save the Town, urban law expert and author Michelle Wilde Anderson offers unsparing, humanistic portraits of the hardships left behind in four such places.

A hometown celebration, a deadly blast and fireworks with fatal consequences. The Labor Day Carnations Festival should’ve gone off with a bang, but not like this. When a fiery explosion at the fireworks finale leaves prominent town matriarch Maxine Whitaker dead, florist Iris Bennett finds herself tangled in a mystery as layered as her floral arrangements. The red carnations she dyed for the festival now feel like a warning especially as whispers of sabotage, secrets, and long-buried grudges ripple through the town. With Winston, her one-eyed Persian cat, keeping close watch, and ...

On a winding mountain road into the town of Denton, Pennsylvania, Detective Josie Quinn finds the body of a local teenage girl, Dina Hale. The sight of plum-colored bruises gathering around the girl’s neck pierces Josie’s heart, but the discovery of a second girl’s empty purse in the dirt nearby gives her a flicker of hope that one person, at least, made a lucky escape. Dina’s parents are grief-stricken as the town rallies together in a desperate search for the second girl, who waitressed with Dina. The two best friends were on their way to a shift when they were attacked.

Knit One, Kill Two A Cozy Small-Town Mystery with a Twist of Murder A skein of silk. A strangled shopkeeper. A cozy town unraveling at the seams. When Ivy Green stops by her favorite yarn shop for a quiet afternoon of knitting and gossip, she never expects to find the owner dead—strangled with her own luxurious silk thread. But Ivy isn’t just a tea shop owner with a knack for comfort—she’s got a sharp eye and an instinct for secrets. As the police unravel slowly, Ivy dives into a mystery filled with jealous rivals, tangled relationships, and a killer who’s stitching lies with ...

This is the story of a local government manager who got hired by a small mountain town in the Colorado Rocky Mountains in his first city manager job. The job got complicated from the first day and developed into more and more complexity.

With over $500 million a year in sales, the Bassett Furniture Company was once the world's biggest wood furniture manufacturer. But beginning in the 1980s, the Bassett company suffered from an influx of cheap Chinese furniture as the first waves of Asian competition hit, and ultimately was forced to send its production offshore to Asia. Only one man fought back. That man is John Bassett III, a descendant of the Bassetts who is now chairman of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Co, which employs more than 700 Virginians and has sales of over $90 million.

A rural working-class New England town elects as its mayor a New York hedge fund millionaire in this inspired novel for our times - fiction in the tradition of Jonathan Franzen and Jennifer Egan. Here are the dramas of 21st-century America - rising inequality, working class decline, a new authoritarianism - played out in the classic setting of some of our greatest novels: the small town. The Locals is that rare work of fiction capable of capturing a fraught American moment in real time.

A Charming Estate. A Deadly Secret and a Killer Hiding in Plain Sight. Journalist Lila Lawson, along with her loyal collie, Ella, planned to spend the weekend exploring her newly inherited coastal mansion, Wisteria Manor. But when Edgar Finch, the long-time caretaker, drops dead during her welcome dinner, Lila finds herself at the center of a murder investigation, with a whole house full of suspects and secrets. There's Agnes Willoughby, the manor's unshakably gruff housekeeper, whose chillingly calm demeanor and cryptic "last time" remarks hint at a sinister past. Then there's Douglas, ...

Over the past several years, Hardwick, Vermont, a typical hardscrabble farming community of three thousand residents, has jump-started its economy and redefined its self-image through a local, self-sustaining food system unlike anything else in America.

On January 7, 1994, residents of the Berkshire Hills woke up to a typical snowy winter day in the majestic woods of Western Massachusetts. The quaint New England towns, the idyllic scenery and the people who lived there could have stepped out of a Norman Rockwell painting.

Faking a romantic relationship with my best friend was supposed to be as easy as escaping into a good book, but I didn’t account for falling for him. Noah’s been my best friend for years. Unlike my boyfriends, he never complains about how much I work or how driven I am to succeed. He’s never suggested I love words more than people. He’s the first person I want to talk to about everything, good or bad, and I’m not going to ruin our friendship by admitting how gorgeous I find him or how often I think about him. But when the only way to save both our careers is to pretend to be ...

Have you ever wondered how certain businesses in your community became local institutions—those household names that carry with them a reputation for unmatched quality and service? Or how they launched to local celebrity status and get preferential treatment everywhere they go as a pillar of the community? And how nobody can compete, even though they charge the highest price in town?

People are often surprised when they learn of the worldwide adventures of Michael J. Hawron Not just because of the extent of his travels or the remarkable experiences he’s had, but because he’s made a life with his family in the small town of New Boston, Texas. Putting down roots in a town thousands of miles away from the people you know can be as harrowing as immigrating to an entirely new country, but the right house, in the right town, with the right people can make all the difference in the world. ˃˃˃ After settling in New Boston during an unplanned detour, Hawron has learned ...

In April 1938, Swift River Valley residents held a farewell ball to mark the demise of the quintessential New England town of Enfield and its three smaller neighbors, Greenwich, Dana, and Prescott. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts sacrificed these three towns to build the Quabbin, a massive reservoir of drinking water for residents of Boston. Three prominent residents attended the somber occasion.

In the quiet New England town of Havenwood, an old stone well demands a price for every wish it grants. For journalist Mara Kane, it’s a place she’s avoided for twenty years, ever since a childhood wish ended in tragedy. But when a series of bizarre murders reawakens the terrifying local legend of the "Well Wraith," Mara is pulled back into the town’s dark history. Each victim is found with a silver dollar—the same coin Mara threw into the well two decades ago. To stop the killings, Mara must confront the secrets she’s spent a lifetime burying. As she digs into a string of cold ...