Our Michigan in the Novel collection contains books from nearly every genre of fiction. Some of our favorites are the mysteries. These tales are all set in Michigan locales, from the back woods to the big cities. Here we’ve listed just a few, but our collection contains hundreds of thrillers, chillers, and whodunits.
The Spiritualists and Detectives (1877)
Allan Pinkerton was a Scottish-American immigrant who gained recognition and notoriety as a detective and spy. During the Civil War, he organized the Union’s Secret Service to protect President Lincoln. Pinkerton published a series of detective books, ostensibly based on his real-life cases. The Spiritualists and Detectives contains a number of different crime stories, some of them set in Michigan locales like Kalamazoo and Detroit.
The Case of Doctor Horace (1907)
John Harcourt Prentis published this mystery drama, set in Detroit and Ann Arbor, about two men who fake a murder to test a theory that a criminal can be caught through the operation of his own guilty conscience.
The Phantom Violin (1934)
Roy J. Snell wrote over 80 novels, including mystery series for boys and girls. The Phantom Violin, set on Isle Royale in Lake Superior, involves three girls who spend a summer living on a shipwreck and hunting for treasure.
Exit Screaming (1942)
Christopher Hale was the pseudonym of Frances Moyer Ross Stevens (1895-1948), who worked as an advertising copywriter in Cincinnati and Detroit. Her mystery series featured the recurring character Lieutenant Bill French of the Michigan State Police. In Exit Screaming, Lt. French is called in to investigate the murder of an eccentric woman in the small town of “Avondale.”
Anatomy of a Murder (1958)
John D. Voelker, an attorney and eventual Michigan Supreme Court Justice, drew on his vast experience with and love of the law to achieve success as an author, writing under the pen name Robert Traver. His best-selling courtroom drama and mystery Anatomy of a Murder was based on a real-life murder case in Big Bay, Michigan. The book was adapted into a movie in 1959 produced by Columbia Pictures, and starred Jimmy Stewart, Lee Remick, and George C. Scott.
The Make-Believe Man (1963)
Elizabeth Fenwick wrote over a dozen novels from the 1940s to the 1970s. In The Make-Believe Man, a thriller set in Detroit and Dearborn, a woman and her eleven year old son are terrorized while staying at her mother’s house.
The Glass Highway (1983)
Loren Estleman crafted a popular mystery series featuring the character Amos Walker, a Detroit private investigator. In The Glass Highway, Walker is hired to find the missing son of a local television anchor and finds himself embroiled in a case involving drug dealers, corrupt cops, and hit men.
The Dead of Winter (1995)
Like Christopher Hale (Frances M. R. Stevens), Paula Gosling also worked as an advertising copywriter before finding success as a crime novelist. The Dead of Winter is set in Blackwater Bay, Michigan during a local ice festival, and unravels the mystery linking a dead high school student, a missing chemistry teacher, and a drug dealer.
Sources
Beasecker, Robert, “Michigan in the Novel 1816 – 2006: An Annotated Bibliography, Second Edition, Revised and Corrected” (2013). Books and Contributions to Books. 6. http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/library_books/6
“Biographical Notes.” Accessed April 4, 2017. http://www.philsp.com/homeville/fmi/z/z133.htm.
“Gadetection / Hale, Christopher.” Accessed April 4, 2017. http://gadetection.pbworks.com/w/page/7930713/Hale,%20Christopher.
“John D(onaldson) Voelker.” In Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Literature Resource Center (accessed April 4, 2017). http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&u=lom_gvalleysu&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CH1000102096&asid=da91859b407fbef86e17dff622f74a4e.
“Loren D. Estleman.” In Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2016. Literature Resource Center (accessed April 4, 2017). http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&u=lom_gvalleysu&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CH1000029853&asid=34115c8ddb3e3e17e1d79fab337ec6e5.
“Paula Gosling.” In Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center (accessed April 4, 2017). http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&u=lom_gvalleysu&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CH1000038331&asid=510a694c73518dfaa789d42bf8e8558d.
Perkins, George B., Barbara Perkins, and Phillip Leininger. “Pinkerton, Allan (1819-1884).” In Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia of American Literature, 848. Vol. 1. New York: HarperCollins, 1991. Literature Resource Center (accessed April 4, 2017). http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&u=lom_gvalleysu&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA16854291&asid=1d0edd848286fbd0b9edec1c9429aa17.
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