Pittsburgh has rarely played the Muse to the literary imagination.

During its 250 years, when invoked by fiction writers, the city has served only as a stock character in the role of industrial boomtown or early American frontier.

Interestingly, the Forks of the Ohio first appeared in fiction in 1769. That year Tobias Smollett, the British writer, satirized Gen. Edward Braddock and his ignominious defeat at the Battle of the Monongahela in his novel "The History and Adventures of an Atom."

The first American novel to fully use the setting of Western Pennsylvania, however, was "Modern Chivalry" in 1792 by Hugh Henry Brackenridge, Pittsburgh lawyer and politician.

In the 20th century, Marcia Davenport, Thomas Bell, John Edgar Wideman and Michael Chabon first secured the city's spot on the map of American fiction. Their effort is now bearing fruit. In this first decade of the new century, more than 200 Pittsburgh novels have been published.

Despite the economic recession, this year the publishing industry managed to deliver a bumper crop of new Pittsburgh fiction? -- 25 novels set wholly or partially within the borders of Western Pennsylvania. These titles popped up across the genres of literary fiction, mystery, fantasy, horror, romance, children's writing and Christian fiction.

John Grisham is the list's luminary. His 21st novel, "The Associate" (Doubleday, $27.95), features Kyle McAvoy, an associate at a huge New York law firm. Pittsburgh looms large in the plot when McAvoy is blackmailed because of his alleged role in a gang rape during his undergraduate days at Duquesne University.

The year's most acclaimed Pittsburgh novel, "American Rust" (Spiegel & Grau, $24.95), is a debut effort by Philipp Meyer. Its setting is the fictional Mon Valley mill town of Buell, Fayette County. The novel traces the lives of two young men involved in an accidental murder. After a book tour that included the U.S., Europe and Australia, Meyer recently sold film rights to Walter Salles. Watch for the 'Burgh on the silver screen in this Rust Belt noir.

The Mon Valley also serves as the locale for Keith Donohue's fantasy, "Angels of Destruction" (Shaye Areheart, $24), and for two new historical novels.

"Monongahela Dusk" (Autumn House Press, $19.95) by John Hoerr uses 1940s McKeesport, while Kristin Bair O'Keeffe uses a fictionalized Clairton in her feminist saga of Croatian immigrants, "Thirsty" (Swallow Press, $22.95).

CJ Lyons, who worked as an emergency pediatric physician at Pittsburgh Children's Hospital, added two more medical suspense novels ("Warning Signs" and "Urgent Care" Jove, $7.99) to her Angels of Mercy series that launched last year. Strong female doctors, whose cases and personal lives resemble those on TV's "ER" or "Grey's Anatomy," staff Lyons' Angels of Mercy Hospital Medical Center in the Steel City.

Another Pittsburgh physician, Maggie Leffler, published her second novel, "The Goodbye Cousins" (Bantam, $15). Diotima Linzer is a character from her first novel that returns to Pittsburgh from England in search of family. Mt. Lebanon native Teri Coyne also uses the device of a return, and her hometown, in her first novel, "The Last Bridge" (Ballantine Books, $22).

New mystery novels this year include "The Odds" (Minotaur Books, $24.95) by Kathleen George. It's the fourth Pittsburgh police procedural in her popular series.

In his second novel, "Traveling Clothes" (Velluminous Press, $16.95), local musician Bill Deasy offers up a shocking murder mystery set along the Allegheny River in Fairmont (a k a Oakmont).

Tamar Myers continues her Pennsylvania Dutch mystery series, all set in Somerset County, with her 17th -- "Batter Off Dead" (NAL, $22.95).

Budding romance in the life of an Erie elementary school teacher is the central plot of "Once Upon a Valentine's" (Harlequin, $4.95) by the prolific Holly Jacobs.

In a twist on the genre, Terri Kraus, a faith-based romance novelist, published the first two titles, "The Transformation" and "The Renewal" (David C. Cook, $14.95), in a series about a Christians who rehab old buildings in Western Pennsylvania.

Another Christian romancer is Janice A. Thompson. Her "Allegheny Hopes" (Barbour Publishing, $7.95) stars Brianna, a rare Pittsburgh woman who hates football because of her father, but who falls for a young quarterback who tries to reconcile her to her dad.

In the children's genre, Sue Corbett in "The Last Newspaper Boy in America" (Dutton, $16.99) has her young hero rally his Western Pennsylvania hamlet in a struggle against the corporation to restore the local paper.

"Elf Realm: The High Road" (Amulet Books, $18.95) by Daniel Kirk is the second installment of a fantasy trilogy. It takes place largely in the elfin world that lies below Pittsburgh and the Allegheny Valley, where forests are being cut to accommodate urban sprawl and the elves must fight back.

The sole African-American novel on this year's list is set in 1990s Cranberry. In "One Crazy Night" (Urban Books, $14.95) by The Urban Griot, when a young black woman hits a deer with her car, a group of white racist teens are not far behind to terrorize her and her companion.

David Michael Slater contributes a novel about a dysfunctional Pittsburgh Jewish clan in 1980s with "Selfless" (Absey & Co., $16.95).

Iain Levison sets his black comedy, "How tto Rob an Armored Car" (Soho Press, $15) in a depressed Western Pennsylvania town. After stealing a high-definition TV, three local losers attempt more heists, but with little success.

A rural town is also the locale of Sara Shepard's "The Visibles" (Free Press, $24). Protagonist Summer Davis returns to her father's hometown to care for an ailing aunt, who helps her to discover secrets about her family's past.

Finally, Janet Burroway takes on the tragedy of Flight 93 that crashed in Somerset County. "Bridge of Sand" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $25) tells the story of Dana Cleveland, who is attending the funeral on Sept. 11 of her state senator husband when she sees the smoke from the crashed jet.

No regional book roundup is complete without an appeal. Support your local writers. Buy a Pittsburgh novel. Borrow one at your public library. Read early and read often.

First Published: January 3, 2010, 10:00 a.m.