History, Meet Mystery
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 
April 21, 2014 With Stray Decorum, his fourth short-story collection, George Singleton has cemented his reputation as one of the country’s finest—and funniest—masters of the short story. Singleton will give a free public reading at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville on April 21, 2014. The event will take place in the Dead Poets Society Room of 
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.
April 9, 2014 Two gay men near Asheville, North Carolina, are brutally murdered, possibly in connection with a backwater preacher’s shocking anti-gay bombast on YouTube, and North Carolina Governor Ann Chandler is worried. Clearly, this is a case for special prosecutor Mary Crow. Sallie Bissell will discuss Deadliest of Sins, her sixth Mary Crow mystery, on April 12, 2014, at Mysteries & More in Nashville at 2 p.m.
April 8, 2014 With MaddAddam, the final book in Margaret Atwood’s trilogy about a bioengineered apocalypse, the story takes a turn toward the comic, transforming a dystopian vision into a darkly funny fairy tale for grown-ups. Atwood will discuss MaddAddam at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville on April 11, 2014, at 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.