"Books, Cooks, and Crooks" by Lucy Arlington / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

Down in Inspiration Valley, North Carolina – don’t you just love the name? – the kitchen blows up and the mystery hits the fan.  The problem is not finding the killer, but eliminating everyone who would like to see the deceased dead.  Ellery Adams and Sylvia May are the writing team behind “Lucy Arlington” and, boy, do they work well together.  Distance is no barrier for this creative team: Adams lives in Virginia and May lives in Bermuda.  (I’d love to have a collaborative partner somewhere in the Caribbean; would love to get a tax write-off on that get-together.)  “Books, Cooks, and Crooks” is the third book in their series.  In this episode, Inspiration Valley is having their annual Taste of the Town Festival.  Lila Wilkins is a literary agent in town (the Novel Idea Literary Agency) and sleuth, who happens to be helping to put this event together.  She’s probably not the first agent to think she has a killer client.  (I know my agent thinks that about me…yeah, right.)  Anyway, living in an idyllic little town myself, I can relate completely to these annual town gatherings.  If you like a book about crazy agents…well, I won’t go there.  Arlington writes clever mysteries with characters I can completely understand.  It’s always a pleasure spending an evening in Inspiration Valley.

This should give you something to read for the next few days.  Get in touch with these authors, learn about them, check out their other series, and buy their books.  And tell them you would like to see them at this year’s Killer Nashville.

Until next time, read like someone is burning the books!

Clay Stafford

– Clay Stafford is an author / filmmaker (www.ClayStafford.com) and founder of Killer Nashville (www.KillerNashville.com).  As a writer himself, he has over 1.5 million copies of his own books in print in over 14 languages.  Stafford’s latest projects are the feature documentary “One of the Miracles” (www.OneOfTheMiracles.com) and the music CD “XO” (www.JefferyDeaverXOMusic.com). A champion of writers, Publishers Weekly has identified Stafford as playing “an essential role in defining which books become bestsellers” throughout “the nation’s book culture.”  (PW 6/10/13)

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If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join our Facebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!

“A Land More Kind Than Home” by Wiley Cash / Wednesday, October 10, 2012 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

Today’s featured book is A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash.

Evil cannot be hidden behind newspaper-covered windows.

Why Clay Stafford chose this book:

Told from three points of view, “A Land More Kind Than Home” by debut author Wiley Cash chronicles a tragic incident in Marshall, North Carolina, a small bump in the road in Madison County adjacent to the Tennessee border. A death occurs, people look away, but atonement for that death will not be ignored.

You can’t have a Southern novel without a church because in many parts of the South, the church is the hub of town life. Used to be and, in many places, still is. As one of the characters states: “People out in these parts can take hold of religion like it’s a drug, and they don’t want to give it up once they’ve got hold of it.”

It is tempting for me to detail events in this story, but it would only ruin the story build should you decide to read the book. Instead, I want to chronicle my reaction.

This book will tear your heart out. I read it in one sitting. I think I passed through every emotion possible. At times my eyes watered. At times I wanted to jump into the book and backhand someone. I felt myself mentally screaming, “No! No! No!” to characters about to do something. Rare is the prose that can evoke that kind of visceral passion. It has been a long time since I’ve read anything this demonstratively intoxicating. It covers the gamut: The rush of power. The need to believe. The desire to protect. The yearning to forget. Forgiveness. And hope. Maybe that’s the strongest.

In a reference to all the bad things that happen to good people, one character explains, “You can’t make sense of everything. That ain’t the job of a man.” By the end, my shoulders were tense. I felt like I’d been beaten up, almost as though I was waiting for something else to jump out and grab me.

This is one of the most powerful stories I think I have ever read. It is Southern fiction – and literature – at its finest. You will not be able to put this book down. You have to read this book.

From Amazon:

“A stunning debut reminiscent of the beloved novels of John Hart and Tom Franklin, A Land More Kind Than Home is a mesmerizing literary thriller about the bond between two brothers and the evil they face in a small western North Carolina town

For a curious boy like Jess Hall, growing up in Marshall means trouble when your mother catches you spying on grown-ups. Adventurous and precocious, Jess is enormously protective of his older brother, Christopher, a mute whom everyone calls Stump. Though their mother has warned them not to snoop, Stump can’t help sneaking a look at something he’s not supposed to – an act that will have catastrophic repercussions, shattering both his world and Jess’s. It’s a wrenching event that thrusts Jess into an adulthood for which he’s not prepared. While there is much about the world that still confuses him, he now knows that a new understanding can bring not only a growing danger and evil – but also the possibility of freedom and deliverance as well.

Told by three resonant and evocative characters – Jess; Adelaide Lyle, the town midwife and moral conscience; and Clem Barefield, a sheriff with his own painful past – A Land More Kind Than Home is a haunting tale of courage in the face of cruelty and the power of love to overcome the darkness that lives in us all. These are masterful portrayals, written with assurance and truth, and they show us the extraordinary promise of this remarkable first novel.”

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join ourFacebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!

– Clay Stafford, Founder of Killer Nashville