Faye Jones

One thing all nursing homes have in common is that no one really wants to be there—not the residents, not the employees, and not the visitors. It’s hard to imagine anything especially cheering or life-affirming happening in a nursing home, no matter how well it’s marketed. Novelist Todd Johnson doesn’t shy away from this desolation in The Sweet By and By, but he also shows how those at life’s end can still find meaning in their days. Johnson appears at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on April 13 at 6 p.m.

In Miss Julia Renews Her Vows, the eleventh book of the series, Ann B. Ross gives her heroine about all she can handle. And readers will love every page of the adventure. Ross will appear at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on April 9 at 7 p.m.

At the beginning Faster Pastor, a NASCAR mystery jointly written by novelist Sharyn McCrumb and driver Adam Edwards, it’s particularly appropriate that race-car driver Camber Berkley should crash into the funeral of an avid racing fan in the small Tennessee town of Judas Grove. Even more appropriate, this deceased fan has willed the proceeds of his estate to a yet-to-be-identified local church. To determine the recipient, all the churches’ pastors must race each other; the winner will inherit the legacy. Arrested for reckless driving, Camber is put in jail and sentenced to community service: teaching the preachers to race. McCrumb and Edwards will discuss their book at the East Tennessee History Center in Knoxville on March 19 at noon.

Linda Fairstein worked in the Sex Crimes Unit in Manhattan for twenty-five years. In Hell Gate, she showcases her experience of both investigation and the back-room politics that probably characterize any large city but seem particularly evident in New York. As her protagonist, Alexandra Cooper, investigates a case of human smuggling, she is not so much stymied by criminals as by her own boss, the district attorney, and the mayor, who are more concerned with their own political futures than with catching the bad guys. Fairstein will sign Hell Gate at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on March 19 at 6 p.m.

Michael Wiley, nominated for a Shamus award for the first novel, The Last Striptease, has a style reminiscent of earlier hard-boiled detective novels. His characters are world-weary and cynical, unsurprised by any bad thing that happens—and a lot of bad things happen in his new novel, The Bad Kitty Lounge. Wiley will read from the book at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville on March 12 at 2 p.m.

To review a book with Jane Austen at its heart is, for a passionate Austen fan, a risky endeavor. The subject is powerfully attractive, but the risk of disappointment is huge: few writers have the requisite respect and skill to follow in Austen’s footsteps. In Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart, Nashville resident Beth Pattillo passes the test with a romance that will appeal to non-Austenites, as well. Pattillo appears at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville on February 11 at 7 p.m.