Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Sean Kinch

The Past Matters

A small-town murder in Greg Iles’s Cemetery Road exhumes long-buried secrets

In Greg Iles’s Cemetery Road, the suspicious death of an archaeologist throws a Mississippi town into chaos, jeopardizing the region’s economic future. Iles will appear at Christian Brothers University in Memphis on March 8 and at the Nashville Public Library on March 11.

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Armed and Dangerous

An American assassin hunts terrorists in Mark Greaney’s Mission Critical

Court Gentry, the hero of Mark Greaney’s Mission Critical, pursues bad guys all over the world in a bare-knuckled, uniquely American style. Greaney will discuss Mission Critical at Novel in Memphis on February 23, and at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 28.

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Pushed to the Brink

Bereft fathers seek icy justice in Tim Johnston’s new thriller, The Current

Tim Johnston’s new thriller, The Current, starts with a fatal car accident, when two college students are pushed into an icy river. The murder investigation dredges up painful memories of a similar tragedy ten years earlier. Johnston will appear at Novel in Memphis on February 12 and at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 21.

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The Black Scale

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s Friday Black explores racial identity through satire

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s debut story collection depicts black characters who fear their race marks them as undesirable, or worse. Adjei-Brenyah will discuss Friday Black at Parnassus Books in Nashville on November 6, and at Novel in Memphis on November 7.

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The Descent of Man

Barbara Kingsolver’s Unsheltered tells parallel stories of desperate families

The protagonists of Barbara Kingsolver’s Unsheltered are two families, separated by 140 years, who occupy a dilapidated house during parallel periods of cultural crisis. Kingsolver will discuss Unsheltered at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville on November 2. The event is part of the Salon@615 series.

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Mastering the Arts

B.A. Shapiro’s The Collector’s Apprentice pays homage to both modern painting and the ancient craft of the hustle

The young heroine of B.A. Shapiro’s latest novel, The Collector’s Apprentice , loves Post-Impressionism, but to achieve the life of her dreams she has to learn the lower arts of deception and subterfuge. Shapiro will appear at the 2018 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 12-14.

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