Faye Jones

April 2, 2012 In Reap What You Sew, her sixth Southern Sewing Circle mystery, Elizabeth Lynn Casey returns to Sweet Briar, South Carolina, where Tori Sinclair has her dream job as the director of the town’s library, is engaged to a handsome and kind schoolteacher, and—perhaps most important—is now firmly ensconced in the town’s sewing circle, which has become family to her. But then a murder occurs, and Tori’s new friends are implicated. The result is a classic Casey cozy. To celebrate the fourth anniversary of Mysteries & More in Nashville, Elizabeth Lynn Casey will discuss and sign copies of Reap What You Sew on April 7 at 2 p.m.

March 13, 2012 In her debut novel, Amy Franklin-Willis tells the story of a family that seems destined to repeat the same mistakes, generation after generation. With Ezekiel Cooper, there’s finally a real chance to make a new life, but can he break the family pattern? In answering this question, The Lost Saints of Tennessee—which has been praised by Pat Conroy, Dorothy Allison, and Mark Satterfield—seems destined to take its place among novels that truly capture the heartbreak and hope of the working poor. Amy Franklin-Willis will read from The Lost Saints of Tennessee on March 17 at 1 p.m. at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis, and on March 21 at 6:30 p.m. at Parnassus Books in Nashville.

October 28, 2011 Members of the Victorian upper crust, like rich people of all times, feared losing their money. They were afraid their children wouldn’t make good marriages. They worried about keeping reliable servants. But, as former Franklin novelist Tasha Alexander clearly understands, the greatest fear of Victorian society was the loss of respectability. The perp in Alexander’s latest Victorian mystery, A Crimson Warning, plays on this fear as Lady Emily Hargreaves and her husband Colin race to find the culprit before the bodies stack up.

October 25, 2011 In Yankee Doodle Dixie, Franklin resident Lisa Patton brings her popular character Leelee Satterfield home to Memphis after a tumultuous and cold year in Vermont. Leelee believes that all will be well once she returns to Tennessee. But will she be able to settle back into her old life? Does she want to? Patton will read from and discuss the book as part of the Evening with an Author series at the University Club of Nashville on October 27 at 6 p.m.

September 28, 2011 “The Ballad of Tom Dooley,” a megahit for the Kingston Trio back in 1958, tells a tale of love gone wrong. It is a sad story but a straightforward one: man meets woman; man kills woman; man hangs. In fact, the story is so straightforward that Sharyn McCrumb at first resisted using the song as the foundation for her next novel based on Appalachian ballads. Then she did some research. The resulting book, The Ballad of Tom Dooley, takes readers on a dark journey of love, betrayal, and irrational hatred that is worthy of Emily Bronte. Or the Coen brothers. Sharyn McCrumb is on an extensive book tour that includes seven appearances in Tennessee; click here for details.