Scott Pratt’s third thriller puts the legal process on trial
May 11, 2010 Scott Pratt’s third novel, Injustice for All, continues the adventures of Joe Dillard, assistant district attorney in Washington County, Tennessee. Dillard has his hands more than full in this outing as he battles an imperious judge, a drug kingpin, a sleazy DA, and a collection of other colorful members of the criminal and criminal-justice communities.
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Sparks fly in Jeffrey Stepakoff’s Fireworks over Toccoa
May 7, 2010 In Jeffrey Stepakoff’s Fireworks over Toccoa, it’s 1945, and Lily Davis Woodward is waiting for her husband to come back from World War II. In fact, the entire town of Toccoa, Georgia, is preparing to celebrate the return of its soldiers. The welcoming ceremonies will include a fireworks display, and the town has imported a technician named Jake Russo, a handsome young immigrant from Italy. Elaborate pyrotechnics are, of course, Jake’s stock in trade (and elaborate metaphors are this genre’s). Jeffrey Stepakoff will be in Nashville on May 10 at 7 p.m. to sign copies of his debut novel at Davis-Kidd Booksellers.
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Nobody gets off scot-free in Tim Johnston’s haunting story collection, Irish Girl
May 6, 2010 Tim Johnston’s Irish Girl, winner of the 2009 Katherine Anne Porter Prize, juxtaposes random incidents of violence and loss with moving portraits of repressed longing and regret. Written in elegiac, lyrical prose, these stories suggest that the past always weighs heavily on the present, and that, sooner or later, we will all be made to pay for our sins—or our innocence. Tim Johnston will appear at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville on May 6 at 7 p.m., and at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on May 7 at 1 p.m.
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A yearning to be known drives the characters in Holly LeCraw’s The Swimming Pool
May 3, 2010 The ideal beach read is often no more than the literary equivalent of an umbrella drink: light, frothy, and sweet. Although Holly LeCraw’s ambitious debut novel, The Swimming Pool, is none of those things, it’s worth packing with the beach towels and sunscreen anyway. LeCraw has a keen eye for details, her writing is compelling enough to keep readers engrossed, even on vacation. LeCraw will appear at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville on May 4.
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By Donald Bain
NAL
288 pages
$22.95
“Jessica Fletcher knows that creativity must be nurtured. So when a young lady from Cabot Cove shows promise as a singer and songwriter, Jessica and a local citizens committee send Cyndi on a scholarship trip to Nashville, Tennessee, where she can benefit from professional instruction. Only weeks later, Cabot Cove is shocked to hear of the cold-blooded murder of a brash country music publisher—by the young talent Cyndi! And as Cyndi’s mother begs Jessica to help her daughter, Jess heads to the country music capital of the world to help the wayward starlet.”
—from the publisher
By Francine Thomas Howard
AmazonEncore
288 pages
$19.95
“In Francine Howard’s stunning debut, Page from a Tennessee Journal, rural Tennessee of 1913 remains an unforgiving place for two couples—one black, the other white—who stumble against the rigid boundaries separating their worlds. When white farmer Alexander McNaughton falters into forbidden love with Annalaura Welles he discovers that he has much more to fear than the wrath of her returning gun-toting husband. Alexander’s wife—flinty and pragmatic Eula Mae—wages her own battle against the stoicism demanded of white women of her time and social standing. Former sharecropper John Welles, flush with cash from his year’s sojourn working the poker tables in ‘the second best colored whorehouse in all of Nashville,’ wrestles with his devils as he struggles to assign blame for his wife’s relationship with a white man. The convergence of the lives and choices of these fascinating characters—made from fear, pride, determination, spite, nobility and revenge—leads to a heart-pounding and heartbreaking climax that feels at once original, audacious and inevitable.”
—from the publisher
