Connect even deeper with Northern Michigan through the voices and stories of regional authors. Thrillers, mysteries, memoir and more! Beach books review courtesy of Jill Beauchamp, the operations manager at Horizon Books in Traverse City.


Dark Matters, by Michael Dow
First in a trilogy by this Traverse City author, Dark Matters takes an epic journey to a not-so-distant future of extreme income inequality controlled by a handful of the über-elite. It’s a world where wealth, science, and the power of the human spirit get one last chance to determine humanity’s ultimate fate.

The Drummond Girls, by Mardi Jo Link
A Traverse City resident, Mardi Jo Link is known for both her memoirs and her true crime books. The Drummond Girls brings the reader along on Link’s annual trip to the island where eight women have gathered for decades. They inspire each other with their friendships, support in rough times, and rowdy fun.

The Girl Who Stayed, by Tanya Anne Crosby
Suttons Bay resident Tanya Anne has several books to her name, and this one will make you want to read all her others! Zoe Rutherford returns to her childhood home on Sullivan Island to prepare it for sale, and embarks on a transformational discovery.

How Thin the Veil, by Jack Kerkhoff
This memoir, originally published in 1952, takes a hard- boiled look at mental health treatment before the collapse of the state-sponsored system by detailing the author’s stay at the Traverse City State Hospital. Bawdy, inappropriate, deeply romantic and rich in captivating characters, the narrative takes a love story to where it’s never been before.

A Most Curious Murder, by Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli
This Mancelona resident has created a “Little Library” mystery series that captures Northern Michigan. Jenny Weston visits her mom in Bear Falls and immediately things start going wrong. The “Little Library” in front of her mom’s home is vandalized and a corpse shows up in the neighbor’s back yard!

The Sleuth Sisters, by Maggie Pill (aka Peg Herring)
The first in a mystery series that includes five to date, this delightful novel by Onaway resident Maggie Pill contains three sisters that each present the events from her own perspective. Living in Allport, a fictional Northeastern Michigan town on Lake Huron, these detective siblings get themselves into some dangerous and deliciously readable situations.

Sparrow Migrations, by Cari Noga
An airplane plunges into an icy river and the world witnesses the dramatic rescue. Then, life after the Miracle on the Hudson landing puts three families on another crash course with their own fragile humanity. Cari Noga is a Traverse City resident, writing about this nationally known event from a captivating perspective.

Becoming Amish, by Jeff Smith
A resident of Cedar and editor of Traverse, Northern Michigan’s Magazine, Jeff Smith follows Bill and Tricia Moser, who decided to give up life in a wealthy community to embrace the Amish faith and culture. This, of course, means giving up much that we consider valuable, but gaining so much in the simplicity and richness of faith and values.

Summer People, by Aaron Stander
The first in a mystery series of nine, so far, this is Interlochen-resident Stander’s realization of the Grand Traverse area. Sheriff Ray Elkins searches for the possible links between four murder victims. As he probes into their tangled lives and dark histories, he finds both the motive and the possible murderer.

Winter’s Bloom, by John Wemlinger
By part-time Onekama resident John Wemlinger, this novel presents a Vietnam veteran, Rock Graham, wrestling with his anguish and guilt. When he tries to find solitude at a cottage on Lake Michigan in the dead of winter, a chance encounter on the desolate, frozen shoreline changes his life forever.


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