Danger in the Dark, [by] Mignon G. Eberhart. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1936. 307p.

Daphne Haviland is engaged to Ben Brewer, but loves Dennis Haviland. Ben's convenient death on the eve of the wedding releases Daphne from her obligation to him but entangles her in a web of murder and deception which she neither approves nor understands. The scene is a wealthy Chicago suburb.

Book Review Digest, 1936, p. 298.

Fair Warning, [by] Mignon G. Eberhart. Garden City, New York. Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc., 1936. 304p.

A timid young wife, a domineering husband, a stern mother-in-law, a young lover, and murder at a suburban Chicago estate are the basic ingredients for this excellent neo-Gothic novel.

Book Review Digest, 1936, p. 298.

Five of My Best: Deadly Is the Diamond; Bermuda Grapevine; Murder Goes to Market; Strangers in Flight; [and] Express to Danger, [by] Mignon G. Eberhart. London: Hammond, Hammond & Co., Ltd.; 87 Gower Street, W. C. 1, [1949.] 332p.

Five novelettes set in New York, Bermuda, Washington, Jamaica, and Chicago make up this volume. Express to Danger, in which a young woman starts to a party via the elevated train, but is detained by a rain storm and a murder, is the only one of the five set in Illinois.

The House on the Roof, [by] Mignon G. Eberhart. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., MCMXXXV. 302p.

An aura of mystery surrounds Mary Monroe, a once famous opera singer now living a semi-sequestered life in a Chicago penthouse apartment. But mystery evolves quickly into terror as Mary Monroe is murdered in full view of a startled, unbelieving witness.

Book Review Digest, 1935, p. 295.

The Dreaming Tree, a novel by Allan W. Eckert. Boston [and] Toronto: Little, Brown and Company, [l968.] 300p.

Will's querulous mother and the social worker with whom she has become romantically involved arrange for Will to be placed in a home for boys. Adjustment to life at Sherwood Green is painful for the twelve-year-old, but the nearby woods offer moments of special beauty, and a fine old oak tree there serves as the confidant Will so desperately needs. As the summer progresses, many experiences push Will toward a new level of maturity, not only in the rough arena of playground and classroom, but in the quiet woods, on the inviting, challenging lake, in the educational barnyard of the adjoining farm, and in the boys' living quarters, where his housemother's sudden resignation involves Will's resemblance to her own dead son. This story of a boy's developing self-assurance and sexual awakening in the World War II era is set in the beautiful and well-described chain-of-lakes region in northern Illinois.

Booklist, 9/15/1968, p. 102. Kirkus, 7/1/1968, p. 710. Publishers Weekly, 7/1/1968, p. 53.

The Dam, A novel by Jerome Ellison. New York: Random House, [1941.] 176p.

The effects of the financial crash of 1929 were felt at different times and in varying degrees by every inhabitant of the United States. John Storm is no exception. Having earned his way through college, worked as an engineer for several years, then started his own construction company, Storm is enjoying his newly found independence and prosperity when the crash occurs. Bankruptcy follows, and Storm takes the only job he can find--selling Marvelgear kitchen utensils door-to-door. Parallel to John Storm's story is the planning and construction of a W. P. A dam on the Chicago Drainage Canal. After months of soul-searching, since he considers W. P. A. work to be charity, John Storm finally applies for a job with the Administration, is hired as construction Superintendent for the new dam, and gradually begins to rebuild his meager fortune and his self-respect. The Dam is a hard-boiled but touching rendition of a story common to thousands during the 1930s, with a view into the functioning of the Works Progress Administration.

Book Review Digest, 1941, p. 274.

The Prisoner Ate a Hearty Breakfast, a novel by Jerome Ellison. New York: Random House, [1939.] 218p.

Shannon Light, a moral, idealistic young Chicago artist, works hard at being self-sufficient and putting himself through college during the 1920s and 1930s. With prospects of a good life before him, the death of his girlfriend following an abortion shatters his idealism and sets his life on a downward course. Disillusion and discontent drive him to seek love in speakeasies, on the streets, and in brothels, until his compulsion is his undoing. Set in Chicago and New York, this tough but sensitive novel in the style of John O'Hara gives a perceptive view of life during the post World War I years.

Book Review Digest, 1939, p. 287.

Wilma Rogers, by Sophia Belzer Engstrand. New York: The Dial Press, MCMXLI. 352p.

When Wilma Rogers comes to the little town of Milo, Illinois, to be the first professionally trained librarian, she finds a dingy little library in a storefront building. When she leaves a year later, Milo has a large and beautiful new library. In the intervening time Wilma falls in love with the president of the library board, a married man; but eventually, struggling with gossip and responding to her own conscience, she decides to marry a younger suitor.

Book Review Digest, 1941, p. 279.