American fiction – Scuffed Granny

Frances Finkel and the Passenger Pigeon by D. M. Mahoney

A nice, heart-warming read about teenager Frances Finkel and her yearning to become a fighter plane pilot in the Second World War

The strength of this book lies in the power of Colin Dodds’ prose – a curious tale of resurrection, religion, and blighted friendship

A tale of a frontier town and the promise offered by gold prospecting – dark, threatening and thrilling, and excellently told

Short but definitely not sweet, this novella holds all the hallmarks of a good short story and is threaded with dark humour throughout

A tension-filled historical novel of the Deep South, with characters to love, family relationships, corruption, and the legacy of slavery

A contentious piece of American history taken and woven into a well-written and evocative historical novel with vivid characterisation

An exceptionally good book, set mainly in Alaska, of exploration and discovery, love and friendship, spirit magic and natives. Recommended!

A good thriller whose gutsy heroine, Lisa Jamison, helps a man hiding in her car and leads her to the dark underworld of people exploitation

An enjoyable historical murder mystery with likeable characters and a steady plot, set in the Gilded Age in New York

The story of four women in Philadelphia and the dynamics in their family relationships, exacerbated by the shadow of mental illness