Fiction

May 1, 2014 It was not unusual for Ann Burkhalter to stay at the Bachelor Officers’ Quarters (B.O.Q.) when she returned to Camp Lejeune for a visit. But when Burkhalter is found floating in the New River, Fran Setliff, the only female NCIS officer at Camp Lejeune, must discover whether the drowning is a tragic accident, a suicide, or foul play. N P. Simpson, who spent part of her childhood in Memphis, sets her mystery novel debut, B.O.Q., in the insular world of a military base—and in the process offers a new take on the police procedural.

April 29, 2014 During two decades of touring, record-cutting, and inciting off-the-rails incidents, acclaimed singer-songwriter Todd Snider has become known for spinning wild true-life yarns at his live performances. Many of those stories are gathered into Snider’s funny and frank new memoir, I Never Met a Story I Didn’t Like, a sort of freewheeling Künstlerroman of the musical set.

April 24, 2014 In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the mayor of Natchez, Mississippi, gets a phone call that will change his life forever—and possibly reveal many secrets from the South’s deadly civil-rights struggle. New York Times bestselling author Greg Iles is back with a megathriller, Natchez Burning, the first in a trilogy whose themes of race relations, Southern tradition, and the corrupting nature of power are woven throughout a story so powerful that its 800 pages seem less like a challenge than a gift. Iles will discuss Natchez Burning at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on May 1, 2014, at 6 p.m.

April 22, 2014 In Andrew Gross’s Everything to Lose, Hilary Cantor makes one wrong decision that turns her financially desperate life into a fight for survival. A New York City cop whose life is equally upside down joins her in a battle through a landscape still struggling to recover from the twin disasters of the Great Recession and Superstorm Sandy. Andrew Gross will discuss Everything to Lose at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Cool Springs on April 28, 2014, at 7 p.m.

April 14, 2014 Just as Jim and Franny Post prepare to embark on a two-week jaunt to Mallorca—a final family trip before their youngest child leaves for college—their perfect life falls apart. Emma Straub will discuss The Vacationers on April 17, 2014, at 7 p.m. in Buttrick Hall, Room 102, on the Vanderbilt University campus in Nashville. The event is free and open to the public.