Patriotic Fiction

The Jefferson Key by Steve Berry

Cotton Malone battles a group of families whose influence dates back to the American Revolution and who seek to crack a code devised by Thomas Jefferson himself in their quest for power.

Independence Day by Richard Ford

Like most people Frank Bascombe of New Jersey, a divorced realtor, has plans for the Fourth of July weekend: find a new home for a client, see his semi-girlfriend and take his son to a sports hall of fame. Instead, one disappointment follows another, but he takes them in his stride--philosophically.

Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson

After trying to help Benjamin Pearl, an undernourished, nearly feral eleven-year-old boy living in the Montana wilderness, social worker Pete Snow comes face-to-face with the boy's profoundly disturbed father, Jeremiah. With courage and caution, Pete slowly earns a measure of trust from this paranoid survivalist itching for a final conflict that will signal the coming End Times. But as Pete's own family spins out of control, Pearl's activities spark the full-blown interest of the FBI, putting Pete at the center of a massive manhunt from which no one will emerge unscathed. In this shattering and iconic American novel, Smith Henderson explores the complexities of freedom, community, grace, suspicion, and anarchy, brilliantly depicting our nation's disquieting and violent contradictions.

The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy

They call themselves the May Mothers--a group of new moms whose babies were born in the same month. Twice a week, they get together in Brooklyn's Prospect Park for some much-needed adult time. When the women go out for drinks at the hip neighborhood bar, they are looking for a fun break from their daily routine. But on this hot Fourth of July night, something goes terrifyingly wrong: one of the babies is taken from his crib. Winnie, a single mom, was reluctant to leave six-week-old Midas with a babysitter, but her fellow May Mothers insisted everything would be fine. Now he is missing. What follows is a heart-pounding race to find Midas, during which secrets are exposed, marriages are tested, and friendships are destroyed.

Swimming with Bridgeport Girls by Anthony Tambakis

Ray Parisi is in trouble. Fired from his anchor job at ESPN after one too many public humiliations, he is holed up in a motel and in desperate need of a break. His ex-wife is shacking up with another guy in his old house, a Cambodian bookie wants to kill him, and he's wanted by the New York State Police. A few days before the Fourth of July, he unexpectedly receives an inheritance from his long-lost father, and it seems like all of his problems might be solved. Determined to get his life back together, Ray hatches an imaginative but highly suspect plan to win back his wife, dashing from Connecticut to Las Vegas to Memphis in an attempt to secure his future before the past runs him down. The cast of characters he meets along the way is as loveable as it is absolutely insane. Sure to please fans of sophisticated romantic comedies like Seating Arrangements and Silver Linings Playbook, Swimming with Bridgeport Girls is a hilarious, heart-wrenching, and unexpectedly powerful tale about one man's mission to--against all odds--finally get it right.

Dead, White, and Blue by Carolyn Hart

Summer is a hectic time of the year for Annie Darling. Sun and scorching temperatures never fail to bring swarms of tourists to her mystery bookstore, Death on Demand, for the latest beach reads. But Annie still finds time to enjoy herself. The Broward's Rock Fourth of July dance is just around the corner, and the island is buzzing with excitement--Shell Hurst included... Shell is the kind of woman wives hate--for good reason--and most of them wish she would just disappear. But when she does, and a teenage girl is the only one who seems to notice, Annie can't help but feel like someone should be looking for her. Last seen walking into the pine trees at the Fourth of July fireworks display, Shell has seemingly vanished without a trace. The residents of Broward's Rock grow uneasy when a second islander mysteriously disappears. Annie and her husband, Max, know something dangerous is brewing. They soon find themselves following a twisted trail marked by blackmail, betrayal, and adultery, winding from the corridors of the island's lovely inn to a pier lashed by pelting rain, to a gathering on the terrace of a country club where a trap is set for a calculating killer.

After I'm Gone by Laura Lippman

When Felix Brewer meets Bernadette "Bambi" Gottschalk at a Valentine's Dance in 1959, he charms her with wild promises, some of which he actually keeps. Thanks to his lucrative--if not all legal--businesses, she and their three little girls live in luxury. But on the Fourth of July, 1976, Bambi's comfortable world implodes when Felix, newly convicted and facing prison, mysteriously vanishes. Though Bambi has no idea where her husband--or his money--might be, she suspects one woman does: his mistress, Julie. When Julie disappears ten years to the day that Felix went on the lam, everyone assumes she's left to join her old lover--until her remains are eventually found. Now, twenty-six years after Julie went missing, Roberto "Sandy" Sanchez, a retired Baltimore detective working cold cases for some extra cash, is investigating her murder. What he discovers is a tangled web stretching over three decades that connects five intriguing women. And at the center is the missing man Felix Brewer. Somewhere between the secrets and lies connecting past and present, Sandy will find the truth. And when he does, no one will ever be the same.

Knee High by the 4th of July by Jess Lourey

What's so wrong with admiring from a distance? Mira's quirky puppy love for Chief Wenonga, a well-muscled fiberglass statue in her Minnesota small town, might be a safer love pursuit than online dating. But when the 23-foot Chief goes missing from his cement base, Mira's not the only citizen to be crushed. The town of Battle Lake is celebrating their statue's 25th anniversary and no amount of blue, sugar-soaked popcorn balls at Wenonga Days can uplift their gloomy mood.

Death on Nantucket by Francine Mathews

Spencer Murphy is a national treasure: a famous war correspondent who escaped captivity in Southeast Asia, his books and television appearances have made him a fortune for half a century. But Spencer, a venerable member of the Wharf Rats--Nantucket's exclusive club for fishermen, storytellers, and characters--is growing forgetful with age. When Spence starts to wander and his half-Asian daughter disappears without a word, Nantucket police detective Meredith Folger is called in to investigate. The timing couldn't be worse: It's the Fourth of July, Merry's planning her wedding to cranberry farmer Peter Mason, and her new police chief is gunning for her job. When a body is discovered at Step Above, the sprawling Murphy house near Steps Beach, Merry is inclined to call it a tragic accident ... until another member of the Murphy clan comes to a brutal end. As Merry grapples with a family of unreliable storytellers--some incapable of recalling the past, and others determined that it never be known--she suspects that the truth may be forever out of reach, trapped in the failing brain of a man whose whole life turns out to be a lie.

Star Spangled Murder by Leslie Meier

Lucy Stone is in the doghouse--with her next-door neighbor, Mrs. Prudence Pratt. It seems that Kudo, the Stones' misbehaving mutt, has developed a taste for Mrs. Pratt's blue-ribbon winning chickens, as well an escape artist's talent for sneaking out. With the Fourth of July coming up, Lucy doesn't want to set off any more fireworks with the crabby Prudence.

The Body in the Birches by Katherine Hall Page

At home on Sanpere Island, Maine, caterer and amateur sleuth Faith Fairchild discovers that real estate can be murder. After the Fourth of July celebrations are over, Faith discovers a body in the woods near The Birches, an early twentieth-century "cottage."

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

When their owner dies at the start of the Revolution, Isabel and her younger sister are sold to Loyalists in New York, where Isabel is offered the chance to spy for the Patriots.