A Love Letter to Nashville

Indie Darling, the new thriller by Nashville author Lauren Nossett, plumbs a dark side of Music City through a tale about the mysterious disappearance of popular singer-songwriter Sarah Faith-Owens. Protagonist Kelly Winter, the private detective investigating the case, makes for engaging company; she’s a keen observer with a commitment to helping women in danger. She also has colorful tastes, including a little red sports car and a penchant for Dolly Parton. As Kelly searches for the truth about the night Sarah vanished, she uncovers more questions, sinister leads, and a parallel mystery about her own past.

A former professor with a Ph.D. in German literature, Nossett is the author of two previous thrillers, The Professor (2023) and The Resemblance (2022). She answered questions from Chapter 16 via email.

Chapter 16: Dolly Parton appears throughout Indie Darling, almost like a patron saint hovering over the novel. What drew you to her as a touchstone for Kelly Williams, and how does Dolly’s mythology shape the way your protagonist moves through the world as a private investigator?

Lauren Nossett: I love the idea of Dolly as a patron saint for this novel! She certainly became a guiding light for crafting Kelly’s worldview, her Southern charm and wit, and her determination to help women.

As a protagonist, Kelly herself emerged during a rewrite of the story. Initially, this novel was meant to be a continuation of my Marlitt Kaplan series. Marlitt is a brooding, truth-seeking detective, known to bend the rules in pursuit of justice. Kelly carries some of the rule-breaking but is much more likely to butter up a suspect with love than intimidation (something she does in Act III — baking cookies while listening to Dolly’s “Berry Pie”).

I found Dolly during the pandemic, listening to Jad Abumrad’s podcast Dolly Parton’s America. Abumrad began with a simple but intriguing question: Why, in an intensely divided historical moment, can all people agree on their love for Dolly Parton? Through interviews with Dolly, trips to Dollywood, and a deep dive into the Dollyverse, he discovered an equally simple but intriguing answer: because she exudes love. When interviewers try to pin Dolly down on divisive topics, she responds with whip-smart answers that always come back to the same thing: love and acceptance of everyone. She is generous with her time, advice, and her resources, determined to help the less fortunate through charities like her Imagination Library, and, of course, the musician most people think of when they think of Tennessee. In Nashville, we find her likeness on murals throughout the city. There’s even a dumpster by the Musica roundabout with her smile beaming from the metal! I listened to her songs on repeat while writing scenes in Kelly’s point of view to infuse Dolly’s positivity into her voice and make sure all her actions came from a place of love.

Chapter 16: Before publishing thrillers, you were a professor with a Ph.D. in German literature. What first pulled you toward crime fiction? Did leaving academia for novel writing feel like a dramatic reinvention or a more natural progression than it might appear from the outside?

Nossett: As a graduate student and a professor, I was always writing novels in secret. Ultimately, I wrote six “drawer novels” (completed manuscripts I can’t bring myself to destroy but hope never see the light of day) before my seventh, The Resemblance was published. Prior to my debut, I had been writing more “literary” fiction. (It’s all literary, but that’s a debate for another day!) I read thrillers for fun, and, for me, having the formula of the genre — start with a crime, introduce red herrings, and ultimately solve the mystery — gave my writing a direction it had lacked in the other novels.

Crime novels at their core examine a breakdown in the social order, which allows for an investigation of larger human themes as victim, villain, and bystanders alike deal with the causes and the aftermath of the crime. So in many ways, I was still investigating topics we discussed in my own literature classes: questions of identity, belonging, power structures, and institutional failure. It helped that I set both The Resemblance and its follow-up, The Professor, on a university campus, which gave me the opportunity to explore a setting I knew well and one that was ripe with a long history of ambition-driven conflict, social hierarchies, and beautiful buildings.

Chapter 16: What is your own history with Nashville, and in what ways did you want the city to function as more than just a backdrop in Indie Darling? The novel captures a version of Nashville that feels both alluring and quietly unsettling.

Nossett: In many ways I think of this novel as a love letter to Nashville.

Sarah, the indie musician of the novel’s title, hides clues in her lyrics and throughout the city, taking readers from the Parthenon to Music Row, and ultimately to a performance at a fictional venue off the Cumberland River at the end of Broadway.

My relationship with the city is a bit more intimate, forged at coffeeshops with kind baristas and backyard hangs with friends, many of whom are also musicians.

I like to think that my late husband, Gray Griggs, brought me to Nashville. He passed away suddenly in 2021. We had just moved to Atlanta to be closer to family after a decade living other places, and I found the city too full of bittersweet memories and heartbreaking reminders of the future we’d dreamed of but wouldn’t come to fruition. He was a musician, and because of his music, I came to Nashville for a meeting. I rented a long-term Airbnb, was invited to a show, and extended my stay. A few months later, I did the same thing.

The city welcomed me with open arms. The people here are the kindest I’ve ever met, and in the early days after my husband’s death, that friendliness was a balm to my soul. So to answer your question, I would say the alluring parts of Nashville are true to the city I know. The unsettling bits are primarily due to me being a thriller writer who could find a sinister plot in a candy shop!

Chapter 16: Nashville has become an increasingly vibrant literary city in recent years. What has your community of writers and readers here meant to you as your career has evolved?

Nossett: I’m going to be gushing about my love for Nashville in this entire interview! The writing and reading community here is so supportive. We are fortunate to have a wealth of independent bookstores — 13 and counting according to a recent report by WKRN News. These bookstores host author events and book club programming. And every October the Southern Festival of Books brings authors and readers from all over the country to the city. I’ve also found that like the music scene, the writing community is incredibly collaborative. I’m currently working on an audio-first project with local Nashville authors Rea Frey, Jennifer Moorman, and Melissa Collings — something I’ve always dreamed of doing but didn’t think was possible until moving here!

Chapter 16: Kelly is compelling because she’s not simply solving a mystery; she’s also reckoning with power, vulnerability, and the ways women protect one another. How did her character first come to you?

Nossett: I always knew that Kelly would be a private investigator who only took on female clients. She is acutely aware of how the justice system often fails to protect women or seeks justice only in the aftermath of violence. Pairing Kelly with Sarah, the enigmatic lead singer of the Garden Snakes, meant thrusting her into the center of the music world, with all its vast demands on female artists, as well the opinions, praise, and obsessive behavior of critics and fans alike. Because Sarah is cryptic not only in leaving messages for fans but in her entire public-facing life, Kelly has quite the task in front of her, but she approaches it with cheerful determination, even as secrets from her own past threaten to catch up with her.

Chapter 16: The novel weaves together multiple timelines, clues, and hidden messages with impressive precision. What was the practical process of constructing the book, especially the coded communications Sarah leaves for her fans?

Nossett: Thank you! Indie Darling has been over five years in the making and has undergone many rounds of revisions, including one giant overhaul that had me banging my head against the wall and breaking my brain. But in hindsight, I think all that banging jostled something loose, so that the result is a much more creative and multifaceted story than the original novel would have been. This was my “option book” meaning I wasn’t under contract, so fortunately had the time to write, think, and revise. It also meant I had time to set the book aside and let the story “breathe” while I was dealing both with personal grief and rethinking the story.

The coded messages are some of my favorite parts. I had always planned to incorporate lyrics, but initially thought the music would be something my late husband and I worked on together. After he passed, I wasn’t sure if the lyrics, or even the book, would come together. But Gray taught me everything I know about songwriting, and the lyrics are the result. In the lead-up to the release, I’m going around Nashville asking singer-songwriter friends to put melodies to the lyrics and sing the songs. The process has been incredibly rewarding and reminiscent of the time I spent with Gray in our home studio. So in many ways, the book feels like a full-circle moment and a testament to artistic legacy, collaboration, and community.