Fiction | Chapter 16

In Mysterious Ways

Lin Stepp’s new novel offers a story of Christian faith and romance in the Smoky Mountains

By Faye Jones | June 25, 2014

June 25, 2014 Middle-aged Grace Conley shakes up her life and her family when she suddenly decides to buy a bed-and-breakfast in East Tennessee. In Lin Stepp’s sixth Smoky Mountain novel, Down By the River, Grace learns to follow her own dreams while discovering a reinvigorated religious faith and perhaps even romance. Lin Stepp will appear at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Brentwood on June 28, 2014, at 1 p.m.

Straight, No Chaser

Jon Sealy’s debut novel, The Whiskey Baron, satisfies with both flash and impact

By Randy Fox | June 19, 2014

June 19, 2014 Jon Sealy’s debut novel is an impressive tale of country noir set against the backdrop of Prohibition. Sealy will discuss The Whiskey Baron at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on June 23, 2014, at 6 p.m.

Rewired for Love

Now out in paperback, Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Project is an exuberant romantic comedy

By Sarah Norris | June 17, 2014

June 17, 2014 In The Rosie Project by Australian novelist Graeme Simsion, Don Tillman launches a campaign to find a wife. A genetics professor who’s never been in love, Don prepares an exhaustive questionnaire designed to exclude all women who offend his sense of logic. Then he meets the chaotic Rosie Jarman. Simsion will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on June 22, 2014, at 2 p.m.

Little Things

Lisa Howorth’s Flying Shoes blends dark humor and grief in a character-driven story about the consequences of murder

By Emily Choate | June 16, 2014

June 16, 2014 In Lisa Howorth’s debut novel, Flying Shoes, Mary Byrd Thornton’s eccentric small-town world is disrupted by a call that unearths memories her family would rather forget. Howorth will discuss Flying Shoes at Parnassus Books in Nashville on June 19, 2014, at 6:30 p.m., and at Burke’s Book Store in Memphis on July 10, 2014.

Southern Culture Ad Absurdum

Between Wrecks, George Singleton’s new collection, pushes Southern stereotypes into comic territory

By Sean Kinch | June 12, 2014

June 12, 2014 George Singleton’s new story collection, Between Wrecks, features outcast characters who perpetuate the myth of Southern freakishness while also giving that lore new preoccupations: these uproarious stories are entrenched in the South while preserving an ironic distance from it. Singleton will appear at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on June 15, 2014, at 2 p.m.

Misogyny and Murder

Nashville mystery writer Steven Womack teams up with a screenwriter in his new thriller, Resurrection Bay

By Liz Garrigan | June 11, 2014

June 11, 2014 Based on the story of notorious Alaskan serial killer Robert Hansen, who murdered as many as twenty-one women near Anchorage between 1971 and 1983, the bad guy of Resurrection Bay, jointly written by Steven Womack and Wayne McDaniel, is Decatur Kaiser, baker by day and butcher by night. Edgar Award-winning novelist Steven Womack will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on June 17, 2014, at 6:30 p.m.