File Updated: 29/09/2007

New Crime & Mystery Fiction Titles From University of Iowa Press JULY-SEPT 07
Bryan P L & Wolf T Midnight Assassin: A Murder in America's Heartland Pbk published September 2007 by University of Iowa Press at £12.99 ISBN: 1587296055


On the night of December 1, 1900, Iowa farmer John Hossack was attacked and killed while he slept at home beside his wife, Margaret. On April 11, 1901, after five days of testimony before an all-male jury, Margaret Hossack was found guilty of his murder and sentenced to life in prison. One year later, she was released on bail to await a retrial; jurors at this second trial could not reach a decision, and she was freed. She died August 25, 1916, leaving the mystery of her husband's death unsolved. The Hossack tragedy is a compelling one and the issues surrounding their domestic problems are still relevant today. Margaret Hossack's composure and stoicism, developed during years of spousal abuse, were seen as evidence of unfeminine behavior, while John Hossack - known to be a cruel and dangerous man - was hailed as a respectable husband and father. "Midnight Assassin" also introduces us to Susan Glaspell, a journalist who reported on the Hossack murder for the Des Moines Daily. Later these same events were used as the basis for her classic short story, "A Jury of Her Peers," and the famous play Trifles. Based on almost a decade of research, "Midnight Assassin" is a riveting story of loneliness, fear, and suffering in the rural Midwest.

Thousands of New and used Books at your Fingertips...
Support Tangled Web - Buy Your Books Online

---

Don Waters Desert Gothic Pbk published September 2007 by University of Iowa Press at £10.50 ISBN: 1587296241


This powerful debut collection, set in the light-filled deserts of Nevada and Arizona, introduces a darkly inventive new voice. Like an early Richard Ford, Don Waters writes with skill, empathy, and an edgy wit of worlds not often celebrated in contemporary literature. In "Desert Gothic", Waters unleashes a wild and gritty cast and points them down paths of reckoning, where the characters earn the grace of their hard-won wisdom. Set in bars, mortuaries, nursing homes, truck stops, and the "poverty motels that encircled downtown's casino corridor," Waters' ten stories are full of misfit transients like Julian, a crematorium worker who decorates abandoned urns to create a "lush underground island," and the instant Mormon missionary Eli, a hapless divorce who "always likes people better when they're a little broken." Limo drivers, ultra-marathoners, vagabonds, and a distraught novelist-to-be populate the pages of these gritty stories. 2007 Iowa short fiction award

Thousands of New and used Books at your Fingertips...
Support Tangled Web - Buy Your Books Online

---