Haunted Heirloom, by Marjorie Eatock. New York: Popular Library, [1975.] 254p.

While working temporarily at the Penfield Public Library, Jennifer Nelson becomes involved in a mystery concerning a rare Lincoln letter. Bits of information about Abraham Lincoln indicate that the author has done her history homework, but history is overshadowed by suspense and intrigue in this modern gothic romance set in the Pittsfield, Illinois area.

The Ivory Tower, by Marjorie Eatock. New York, N[ew] Y[ork:] Curtis Books, [1972.] 320p.

When Jean Esterbrook inherits Esterbrook House, curiosity and a yearning for change spur her to investigate the gift. Only after she has arrived at the estate in central Illinois does she realize the horror that awaits her there. This modern gothic novel is set in the Pittsfield area

The Runaway Pigeon, by Leslie Edgley. Garden City, New York: Published for The Crime Club by Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1953. 188p.

A mysterious kidnapping from Chicago to California, a murder, and a wild chase back to Chicago result in an exciting story of a man so methodical, so proper, that he almost becomes the perfect stool pigeon.

Book Review Digest, 1953, p. 287.

Go Now in Darkness, [by] S. W. Edwards. Chicago: Published by Baker Press, [1964.] 353p.

Jake Hardmore, a product of the 1950s when a few bold blacks are just beginning to move to the suburbs, experiences an identity crisis when his desire for a college education draws him back into the city environment which he has suppressed in his mind, and which hasn't changed significantly since the family's move ten years earlier. When Jack meets Bonnie Field, he recognizes a similarly troubled spirit, and is drawn to her in a desperate attempt to compromise the conflicts within himself, and to work out solutions to their mutual feelings of loneliness and aimlessness. Although Jake and Bonnie's experiment is not totally successful, each grows emotionally as a result, gaining new insight into the meanings of life and love. The setting is Chicago in the 1960s, and the novel presents an excellent view of life in the Old Town area during the time when Old Town was a favorite gathering place for numerous sub-cultures, youth, and the ever present tourist.

Searches and Seizures, [by] Stanley Elkin. New York: Random House, [1973.] 304p.

The third of three novellas by a writer known for his black comedy, The Condominium is the story of a 37-year-old virgin who fails miserably when he tries to assume his father's life-style and social position in a Jewish housing complex in Chicago after the elder man's death.

CONTENTS: The Bailbondsman.--The Making of Ashenden.--The Condominium.

Book Review Digest, 1974, p. 332.

Hog Butcher, [by] Ronald L. Fair. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., [1966.] 182p.

When two ten-year-old Negro boys witness the shooting, by the police, of one of their local sports heroes, their version of the incident becomes of vital importance to both the authorities and to the people of the Chicago ghetto area in which they live. Although the shooting is accidental, the police attempt to gloss over the incident by intimidating the two boys. With Earl they are successful, but Wilford proves more of a challenge. Overpowering in its forcefulness, this scathing indictment of the existing power structure is marred only by occasional passages of stilted dialogue.

Book Review Digest, 1966, p. 356.

Childhood Is Not Forever, [by] James T. Farrell. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1969. 300p.

Of the sixteen short stories, most of them written in the 1950s, that comprise this volume, four are set in Illinois. "Childhood Is Not Forever," "Vivian Thanks God," and "Native's Return," give insight into life in Chicago at various times in the not-too-distant past. "Jump to Chicago," concerns a few hours in the lives of the members of a Chicago ball team as they return after a game in St. Louis. The characters in many of the sketches are autobiographical, giving the sketches a continuity of background and purpose, although the situations and settings are varied.

CONTENTS: Reunion Abroad.--Victim or Hero.--Childhood Is Not Forever.--Small Town Taxicab Driver.--A Lady and the Masters of History.--Jump to Chicago.--Let No Man Put Asunder.--An American Student in Paris.--Vivian Thanks God.--Sunday Evening.--Monologue of an Old Pitcher.--Forty-five Minutes Out of Life.--Dumbrovic.--Ray Taite.--Arlette.--Native's Return.

Booklist, 12/1/1969, p. 438. Catholic World, 6/1970, p. 141. Kirkus, 7/15/1969, p. 736. Library Journal, 9/1/1969, p. 2954. Publishers Weekly, 7/7/1969, p. 65. Saturday Review, 1/10/1970, p. 98.

French Girls Are Vicious, And other stories by James T. Farrell. New York: The Vanguard Press [1955.] 177p.

Typical of the writings of Farrell, the nine stories in French Girls Are Vicious feature the lives of the thoughtless, lonely people who inhabit the world. Three stories, "Kilroy Was Here," "Ruth and Bertram," and "Rendezvous," are set in Chicago.

CONTENTS: French Girls Are Vicious.--They Don't Know What Time It Is.--A Dream of Love.--Kilroy Was Here.--I Want to Meet a French Girl.--They Ain't the Men They Used to Be.--Ruth and Bertram.--A Baptism in Italy.--Rendezvous.

Book Review Digest, 1956, p. 305-6.

5 Against the House, by Jack Finney. Garden City, N[ew] Y[ork:] Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1954. 221p.

Four fraternity brothers and a waitress plot to rob Reno's famous Harold's Club in this bloodless, would-be crime story. Pooling their ideas, they delight in designing a perfect plan; then, exhilarated, agree to put it into action. The young man who marries the waitress narrates the story and keeps it moving suspensefully along, from its improbable beginning in a fraternity house on a college campus in Illinois to the unlikely ending in a park in Reno, Nevada.

Book Review Digest, 1954, p. 309-10.

I Love Galesburg in the Springtime, [by] Jack Finney. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1963. 224p.

See No. 954.

There Is a Tree More Ancient Than Eden, by Leon Forrest. New York: Random House, [1973.] 163p.

More image than plot, There Is a Tree More Ancient Than Eden focuses on Nathaniel Witherspoon, a young black man living on Chicago's south side. Nathaniel's mind is complex, his thoughts are vivid and expressive, his perception acute, and his imagery to the point as he formulates a kind of philosophy for his own life and redemption.

Booklist, 7/1/1973, p. 1007. Choice, 10/1973, p. 1191. Kirkus, 3/15/1973, p. 336. Library Journal, 5/1973, p. 1599. New Leader, 7/9/1973, p. 15. N. Y. Times Book Review, 10/21/1973, p. 48. Publishers Weekly, 3/26/1973, p. 68.

Lost Friday, by Ernest Jason Fredericks. London: Robert Hale Limited, 63 Old Brompton Road, [1959.] 189p.

Sam Cates, an investigator for the Home Protection Insurance Company is on his way to Chicago to investigate a suspected extortion when he is knocked unconscious. When he awakens the next day, he is in an abandoned warehouse in Elgin, with no brief-case, no wallet, and lots of trouble.

Tasker Martin, a novel by Diana Gaines. New York: Random House, [1950.] 342p.

See No. 966.

Upon a Land of Corn, [by] Joy King Gannett. Chicago: Belmont-Meade and Company, [1961.] 224p.

Intended to be a murder mystery, Upon a Land of Corn might better be described as a social commentary in which a murder occurs. Told in a chatty, homespun manner, the novel presents a true cross-section of life in rural southern Illinois around 1960. The plot builds up to the arrest and subsequent hearing for a wealthy young farmer accused of murder. Yet, the character and setting often overshadow the plot. The family doctor with his highfalutin' New York wife, the town gossip who enjoys a persistent case of hypochondria, the local religious fanatic who can't control her teen-age daughter, the male constituency known to gather daily at Flanner's drug store, and the caustic old gentleman who serves as conscience and critic (self-appointed of course) for the entire community, generate more interest than the obvious plot. History, geographic description, lore, social criticism, and gossip round out this beautiful tribute to Gallatin County, Illinois, and the people who make it what it is.

The King's Indian, Stories and Tales, [by] John Gardner. Illustrated by Herbert L. Fink. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1974. 323p.

See No. 967.

Wild Willie, Wide Receiver, [by] William Campbell Gault. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., [1974.] 147p.

Matt Tulley, coach of the Chicago Miners football team and son-in-law of the owner, wants a winning season in spite of his father-in-law's indifferent attitude toward success. When his father-in-law signs Willie Waggen, a big, flashy black whom Matt terms a "rah-rah butterfly," Matt begins steeling himself for Willie's failure under end-of-the-season pressures. Nor does his attitude change until the season is nearly over and Willie has brought the Miners within easy reach of the Super Bowl victory. Wild Willie, Wide Receiver is a run-of-the-mill sports novel, with fast action, snappy dialogue, and considerable information about modern football greats.

Booklist, 12/15/1974, p. 425. Christine Science Monitor, 2/5/1975, p. 8. Kirkus, 9/15/1974, p. 1013. Library Journal, 12/15/1974. p. 3280.

The Sunday Heroes, [by] Noel B. Gerson. New York: William Morrow & Company, Inc., 1972. 288p.

Robin Stephens is a young, competent, hard-working executive in the lower echelons of the general office of the New York Giants football team. When the Giants win the Super Bowl the owner of the Chicago Cougars recognizes Robin's potential and entices him to join the Cougars as assistant general manager, with every chance for advancement. Behind-the-scenes maneuvers assume all of the excitement and brutality of the playing field as Robin tackles his new job and the accompanying problems of rebuilding a losing team; replacing an aging but well-loved manager; contending with crooked officials and a dictatorial football commissioner; keeping the players honest, happy, and cooperative; and justifying his every action to owner, fans, team, and himself.

Best Sellers, 8/15/1972, p. 238. Kirkus, 6/1/1972, p. 643. Library Journal, 7/1972, p. 2431. Publishers Weekly, 6/5/1972, p. 130.

The Uncertain Sound, a novel by Herman Cromwell Gilbert. Chicago: Path Press, Inc.; 223 East 79th Street, [1969.] 349p.

Egypttown on the Ohio River in southern Illinois is the scene of racial violence when the black community makes its first attempt to integrate the schools in August of 1949. Ralph Coleman, one of the town's black leaders, hesitates to become involved until he hears a friend plan the murder of a white racist leader. When his efforts to prevent the murder are misinterpreted by the black community, he prepares to leave, but is eventually persuaded to stay and join the school integration movement. Coleman's quick affair with a white woman--his boss' sympathetic daughter--does not add to the credibility of the story. In spite of labored dialogue and wooden characters, the book does tell something of the frustration of blacks in southern Illinois during the period, and the problems they encountered in trying to reach agreement among themselves.

Warrant for a Wanton, by Michael Gillian. New York: The M. S. Mill Company and William Morrow & Company, 1952. 246p.

When sentenced to die in the electric chair for a murder he isn't certain he committed, Leith Hadley runs from the courtroom and disappears into the crowded Chicago streets. While in flight from the police, he discovers a woman who is dying of an overdose of barbiturates, saves her life, and together they work to prove his innocence.

Book Review Digest, 1952, p. 350.

The Odd Woman, [by] Gail Godwin. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1974. 419p.

The dilemma of the single woman is skillfully explored in this novel about Jane Clifford, an unmarried instructor of English at a large Midwestern university, who is in love with a married professor at another university. The events in the novel span less than two weeks and include her grandmother's death, a brief and unsatisfactory rendezvous with her lover in New York, and a late night visit and confrontation with a militantly feminist friend. Jane's own disarmingly candid approach to "solving" her life is enhanced by examples of many other women from past and present generations whose responses to life's problems are woven into the story. The identity of Jane's campus is revealed by references to the "enema bandit, " who was a very frightening reality in the Champaign-Urbana area in the early 1970s. On the whole, The Odd Woman is an enjoyable and insightful picture of a likable and very believable woman of our times.

Book Review Digest, 1975, p. 485.

Case File: FBI, by The Gordons, [pseud.] Garden City, New York: Published for The Crime Club by Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1953. 189p.

FBI agent Zack Stewart is gunned down while he and John (Rip) Ripley are doing a routine investigation. Later assigned to the case, Rip reviews Stewart's current cases and sets out to solve them, assuming that by so doing, he will also solve the murder. A car theft ring, a bank robbery and murder, and an extortion attempt seem the most likely cases to lead to the murderer, so that is where Rip concentrates. The Gordons tell a rousing story of scientific crime detection, complete with detailed descriptions of the FBI in action. The scene is Chicago and northern Illinois.

Book Review Digest, 1953, p. 372.

A Proper Price, [by] William Groninger. [New York:] The New American Library, [1966.] 273p.

A gutsy sheriff's lonely struggle to protect the area he loves against encroaching syndicate crime is vividly told in this novel by a long-time reporter for a Champaign-Urbana newspaper. Set in an Illinois county that bears landmarks of the Champaign-Urbana area, the story concerns the sheriff's relentless determination to fulfill his duty as he sees it, regardless of the certain dangers not only to himself and his position, but to those closest to him. The sheriff is colorfully portrayed as he fights the syndicate and an unbelieving city hall and contends with some deep personal disappointments as well. His cool appraisal of the situation in his own uncensored vernacular provides insight into the concerns of a contemporary lawman.

Best Sellers, 10/15/1966, p. 257. Kirkus, 8/1/1966, p. 782. Library Journal, 10/1/1966, p. 4696. N. Y. Times Book Review, 10/30/1966, p. 74.

The Leather Duke, [by] Frank Gruber. New York [and] Toronto: Rinehart & Company, Inc., [1949.] 247p. (A Murray Hill Mystery)

Their usual bad financial situation having gotten worse, book salesmen Johnny Fletcher and Sam Cragg take jobs in a Chicago leather factory. Sam discovers a corpse, Johnny meddles, and both find the residents of Chicago's Italian section tough and uncooperative.

Book Review Digest, 1949, p. 375.