Tom & Lucky (and George & Cokey Flo) by C. Joseph Greaves / Reviewed by Tessa Bryant

Killer Nashville Book of the Day

Find Tom & Lucky (and George & Cokey Flo) at Killer Nashville's associate, Amazon.com*

C. Joseph Greaves

Tom & Lucky (and George & Cokey Flo) 
by C. Joseph Greaves
Reviewed by Tessa Bryant

Tom & Lucky (and George & Cokey Flo) has everything you want in a ‘30s crime novel: filthy New York alleyways, a mobster with a knack for staying alive, and a scarlet woman with secrets you’ll be dying to know.

C. Joseph Greaves (who prefers “Chuck” when he’s slinging noir) employs a sharp-tongued narrative voice to lead you through the 1936 trial of real-life mobster and prostitution kingpin Salvatore “Lucky” Luciano. The fact-based thriller is full of twists and will catch you off guard, whether or not you’ve heard the story before. There’s no use in trying to predict what will come next; just let Chuck and Tom and George and Cokey Flo lead the way.

One of the greatest strengths of this novel is Greaves’ woven narrative. He tells the story through POV-sections from each of the four eponymous characters, allowing readers to climb further into the world than would otherwise be possible. We see all sides of the conflict, and are able to understand the kind of complications that usually confuse and muddy legal thrillers. Greaves has obviously done his research, and it shows in his ability to keep the suspense taut, even when it would be simple to Google the end of the story.

Perhaps most exciting is the portrayal of Cokey Flo, a heroin-addicted prostitute-turned-star-witness. Flo, who speaks to us in first-person, has a simultaneous sharpness and grit that is probably what’s kept her alive, and endears her to us almost immediately. Greaves’ characters are all, in their own ways, completely unlikely: Lucky should have been dead long before the beginning of this book, Tom’s introduction into criminal law was more of a stumble, George loves a risk just as much as he loves a solid argument, and Cokey Flo is, well, Cokey Flo. The four together are the perfect recipe for a great noir novel.

Tom & Lucky (and George & Cokey Flo)(Bloomsbury Publishing) has all the elements of a classic courtroom drama, strengthened by the facts and given life and vitality by Greaves’ smartly-written characters and atmospheric, Jazz-Age backdrop. Give this book your attention and you’ll feel like you’re wearing pin-stripes from cover to cover.

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Tessa Bryant is a graduate of the Departments of Theatre and English at Lipscomb University. She is a writer, director, administrator, and researcher of the performing and fine arts, and works and guest lectures at Lipscomb University. She is currently pursuing an M.F.A. in Creative Writing.

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If you have a book you would like featured, send an ARC for consideration. The Killer Nashville Book of the Day Reviews are coordinated by Clay Stafford with the assistance of Emily Eytchison and credited guest reviewers.

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*Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale. Killer Nashville receives zero compensation (other than sometimes the book to review) from publishers who have been selected for the Book of the Day.

"Love Water Memory" by Jennie Shortridge / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

From the melting watercolors alone on the cover of “Love Water Memory” by Jennie Shortridge, I was pulled in.  The writing carried me on downstream.

“Love Water Memory” (all without commas) is a wonderful character study.  It was emotional, full of complex relationships, and powerful.  From the first page, we know the main character is standing in the San Francisco Bay with no clue as to who she is.  From that point forward, we walk with her as she rediscovers her old self and we share with her our opinions of who that self is.  Predictably, the old self is not that delightful.  The question then becomes: Will she go back to her old ways or will she swim against the current and make different choices.  As the book nears the end, the reader will be called upon to make that judgment call.  As we go along, though, it is a wonderfully engrossing read as we explore the psychological mystery of who this woman is as well as numerous questions such as: Are we our childhood, or can we rise above it?  What is it that attracts one person to the next?  Can a relationship and a career choice make you want to forget who you are?  How much can one suppress before the heart can finally forget?  Can you trust others?  More importantly, can you ever learn to trust yourself?

I particularly admired the development of the main character of Lucie.  I’ve read and viewed this similar set-up before, but Shortridge does a fabulous job elevating her story above other amnesia/discovery launchpads.  She’s definitely a storyteller to watch.

Clay Stafford

– Clay Stafford is an author / filmmaker (www.ClayStafford.com) and founder of Killer Nashville (www.killernashville.com). He reviews books daily for Killer Nashville’s Book of the Day. Publishers Weekly has named Stafford and Killer Nashville as one of the top 10 Nashville literary leaders playing “an essential role in defining which books become bestsellers” not only in middle-Tennessee, but also extending “beyond the city limits and into the nation’s book culture.”  (PW 6/10/13)  Having over 1.5 million copies of his own books in print, Stafford’s latest projects are the feature documentary “One of the Miracles” (www.oneofthemiracles.com) and the music CD “XO” (www.jefferdeaverxomusic.com).

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Buy the book from the Killer Nashville Bookstore and help support a new generation of writers and readers.

Visit our bookstore for other similar books.

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!

"Rapscallion" by James McGee / Tuesday, May 28, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

It’s the early 1800s and espionage is alive and well in jolly old England.

“Rapscallion” by James McGee is the third adventure for Bow Street Runner Matthew Hawkwood and in this installment, without giving too much away, he is to go undercover as a prisoner of war to discover how prisoners are escaping from a floating penitentiary. Posing as an American mercenary fighting for the French, Hawkwood soon learns his assignment is a fate worse than death as he finds himself on a former man-o-war converted into a prison ship. Set first in the hull of the nasty ship where prisoners seem to make their own laws and later in the English backcountry where order and laws do not seem to matter, Hawkwood tries to get to the bottom of a human smuggling operation while continuing the ruse and his life.

I love the dark English portrayal of the Napoleonic time period.  The novel reads true.  I don’t know that I’ve personally ever read anything quite like it, though the war profiteering scheme does ring familiar in our own time.  As Rhett Butler observed, there is more money to be made in the fall of a civilization than in the building of it.

This is definitely a page-turner, especially as we reach the climax; my only problem was I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. If you’re in the mood for a dark historical, this is definitely one to get. It will make you thankful for the simple things, such as a shower or bath.

– Clay Stafford is an author / filmmaker and founder of Killer Nashville. Stafford’s latest projects are the documentary “One of the Miracles” and the music CD “XO”.

Buy the book from the Killer Nashville Bookstore and help support a new generation of writers and readers.

Visit our bookstore for other similar books.

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!

"The House of Special Purpose" by John Boyne / Monday, May 13, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

If you are looking for a page-turning mixture of suspense and betrayal within a well-executed part love story, part historical epic, and part-tragedy, then “The House of Special Purpose” is a book you must not miss.

New York Times bestselling Irish author John Boyne’s new book “The House of Special Purpose” is one of those alternative history books where I already know the ending, I know where the author is going to go with it, but the storytelling is so good that I want to stay with him through each word to see how he gets there.  I could not stop reading and I was not disappointed.

“The House of Special Purpose” concerns itself with Georgy and Zoya and is told through the point-of-view of Georgy, an 82 year-old-man looking back on his life to the central point of the final days of czarist Russia and the reign of the Romanovs.  Georgy starts his life as a farmer, becomes a servant and bodyguard in the house of Tsarevich Alexei, son of Tsar Nicholas II, and – after the rise of Marx, Stalin, and Lenin – flees to Paris and then to post-war London.  Why he flees is the subject of the book.

“The House of Special Purpose” is immediately riveting, mysterious, and tense with suspense.  It is filled with heartlessness and insensitivity, but – at the same time – great love; it has pain, but incredible joy.  The humanity of it will leave you crying at the end of the very first chapter.

The main characters of Georgy and Zoya stay under constant threat of discovery for something that they did.  Throughout the story, the reader will keep asking, “Why?”  This is the spine.  Within the pages are secrets that refuse to die highlighted in the struggle for power and self-preservation, which takes form in multiple ways.  Particularly real and touching is the portrayal of Zoya and her desire to come to the end of her life.  Narrator Georgy is full of flaws and selfishness.  The reader will understand his humanity, but at times, his choices are hard to swallow.  We like him as we like family.  He has a good heart, but sometimes his decisions and actions are less than admirable.  People write about authors creating flawed characters; well, here you go:  John Boyne has the nerve to actually do it, flawed Georgy certainly is.

I loved the storytelling device of starting at both extremes of Georgy’s life (1981 and 1899, if my calculations are correct) and alternatively working forwards and backwards through the epic chapters until the two timelines meet.  Following this structure, we see the parallel stories of Georgy’s life as a young man compared against the wisdom and frailties of old age.

On a side note, I’ve found a new publisher in Other Press.  I was blown away by, not only “The House of Special Purpose,” but the titles and the quality of their other works.  I encourage you to check out their house at www.otherpress.com.

– Clay Stafford is an author / filmmaker and founder of Killer Nashville. Stafford’s latest projects are the documentary “One of the Miracles” and the music CD “XO”.

Buy the book from the Killer Nashville Bookstore and help support a new generation of writers and readers.

Visit our bookstore for other similar books.

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!

"The Mothers" by Jennifer Gilmore / Friday, May 10, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

It is amazing how, when one can’t have children, that one sees children and pregnant women everywhere, hears women getting pregnant who didn’t want to be, hears innocent remarks made by family members that makes the person not able to have a child feel nothing less than a failure for the most basic biological act.

“The Mothers” by author Jennifer Gilmore is an emotional, unfair, and aching look at pain of the most basic kind: a woman wants to have a baby and can’t.

After years of trying on their own, Jesse and Ramon decide to try adoption.  Haven’t we all heard of babies who are waiting for a good home?  What they find is not a happy, fast resolution.  Instead, it is a warped view of insensitivity and people involved for all the wrong reasons: scams, bureaucratic idiocy, cruel thoughtlessness even from those whom one would expect to be supportive.  And all because they simply wanted to have a child.

The characters in this book live through hell.  In adoption, you think of children wondering if someone will want them.  In this setting – same situation, but different perspective – you find parents-to-be wondering if birth parents will want them.  It makes you want to throw up your hands and yell, “What is everyone thinking?  Isn’t this supposed to be about the child?”  This book is at odds with those who say there are too many babies and not enough adoptive homes.  From people I know who have tried to go through the adoption process, I’d have to agree with the perspective and agony of Jennifer Gilmore (who has based this novel loosely on her own personal experience of fighting to become a parent).

At times, this book is painful to read, but even more painful – I am sure – to live.  For many, this is not fiction, but the new 21st Century way to start a family.  Needless to say, this story pulls out the emotion in the reader.

To give a child a home should not be this difficult.  But it is.  The only way to know it is to live through it, or read a book like this.  These people are your neighbors and – though you may not know it – even someone in your family.  For those who want emotion in their novels, you can’t get more basic than this.

Happy Mother’s Day to all who have successfully navigated the journey.  Have a great weekend!

– Clay Stafford is an author / filmmaker and founder of Killer Nashville. Stafford’s latest projects are the documentary “One of the Miracles” and the music CD “XO”.

Buy the book from the Killer Nashville Bookstore and help support a new generation of writers and readers.

Visit our bookstore for other similar books.

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!

"Submergence" by J.M. Ledgard / Monday, April 29, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

J. M. Ledgard’s “Submergence” has figuratively grabbed me by the…neck.  Every few months I read a book like this and it just blows me away.  This novel hit me in the gut.

The story is from the points-of-view of two characters: James More, a spy, and Danielle Flinders, a biomathematician.  These are two lovers – still in a long-distance relationship – who look back on their liaison while in the throws of their present lives with no knowledge of the turns the life of the other has taken.  She is diving into the depths of the ocean never seen by man.  He is in the depths of captivity as a hostage of al-Qaeda in Somalia.  Both are of different worlds: she entitled, him divided, both obsessed.

This is a beautiful and heart-rending story, full of images, feelings, facts, and history highlighting circumstances and religious politics at odds with the human spirit (and even common sense).  It is how nations with their masters of politics and religions easily flip away the lives and freedoms of their citizens for their own gain, these same citizens who give their love and service freely only to find their life to their country is worth nothing, not even sometimes acknowledgement.

At first you think this is written in a stream-of-consciousness reflection of the characters’ nonlinear thoughts, but what you find by the end is a beautifully assembled plot that has taken you down your own stream without your knowledge of how you ravishingly got there.  J. M. Ledgard’s choices are perfect for conflict – both subtle and grand.

Some are calling this a love story.  It is not.  It is a tragic, dramatic, on-the-edge of your seat story of two people who look back on their relationship in order to sustain their mentality in the incongruity of their present.  There are no stereotypes or formulas here, no pure evil, no pure good.  It is educational.  The intrinsic history of Somalia is interwoven dramatically into the story.  You leave the book learning much about Somalia, other worlds, terrorists, and what the future holds, how sometimes maybe we should look down instead of always looking up.

Muslim Islamic terrorists play a large role here as the captors, and why not?  This is a book about the underworld and things that feed on death.  I’ve read other reviewers and they dance around the al-Qaeda obvious.  Ledgard plays them fairly, striving to help us understand their mentality, but as for this American reader, I found myself not feeling sympathy for these violent individuals dreaming of taking over the world while sitting in their own dung under the Mangrove trees hiding from the U.S.  It made me want to get up from reading and go pee on Osama bin Laden’s watery and justified grave.  It is a British book that will make you proud to be an American, remember why you are an American, and make you wish for the same American vehemence worldwide as in Somalia in 2006.  You will bristle at the vile and ill-conceived mentality of the jihad Muslims (it is not stupidity, but desperation).  You’ll learn about Somalia – what was a beautiful country – now nasty with nasty desperate men, subjected women, and a warped nasty view of religion, an outdated and unchanged Middle East pre-Christ replica where the value of women, children, and – in this case – non-Muslims means nothing.  You are also left – shame on us – with insight into why jihad fighters are so successful when they should not by logic be.

But there is an upside.  For every negative J. M. Ledgard observes, for every diatribe he inspires, he also enchantingly balances it with a positive so you are left, not depressed, not seeing only the bad, but seeing the unsatisfactory as a stepping stone to the good.  It is a book not about what is wrong with this world, but what is right.  It is our thinking that is wrong.  This is a wonderful book for remembering how something as simple as water can unite people, how precious the peaceful moments of our lives are and how we don’t value them usually until they are gone, and how – sometimes – when things are at their worst, maybe it is because we are looking at the wrong things.

This is a wonderful thriller with a message.  It is not preachy.  It is acted out by the characters flawlessly.  You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into, but you will be changed after reading this book.  You will not be able to forget it after you read it, even if you want to.  It’s that haunting.

– Clay Stafford is an author / filmmaker and founder of Killer Nashville. Stafford’s latest projects are the documentary “One of the Miracles” and the music CD “XO”.

Buy the book from the Killer Nashville Bookstore and help support a new generation of writers and readers.

Visit our bookstore for other similar books.

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!

"Ordinary Grace" by William Kent Krueger / Friday, April 5, 2013 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

William Ken Krueger’s new deeply human grief-ridden novel “Ordinary Grace” is as much a literary novel as it is a mystery.

Told from the point-of-view of a 13-year-old boy, Frank, an about-to-be juvenile delinquent preacher’s son (according to the town), and featuring a brother who stutters, a sister with a harelip who sneaks out at night, a preacher father, a mother who hates his father’s calling as a minister, a drunk friend, less-than-stellar police, a renegade Indian, a town full of characters that would make any Southern writer happy (though this takes place in New Bremen, Minnesota), and numerous dead bodies.  The mystery, delightfully, is solved by Frank, the 13-year-old boy.

With his father being a preacher and his father’s friend being an undertaker, death is an occupational natural to Frank’s household, though in this story one unnatural death seems to follow another.

This is a coming of age story primarily with the backdrop of murders, which become increasingly more personal as the story progresses.  Nothing makes one grow up more than death.

“There’s something, it seems to me, that depends more on God and circumstances than our own efforts.”

Krueger does an enviable and plausible job of letting Frank be the one who solves the crimes without making law enforcement in the story appear incompetent.  Kids love to spy and they can fit into small places.  Krueger plays it well.

The novel reads like an autobiography, not a novel, which is a compliment to Krueger.  The voice is pure; the characters are real.

Thematically, it is a story of weakness, timidity, and how not taking a stand not only destroys sunny afternoons and Sunday mornings, but also – and eventually – lives.  It is about prejudice, judgment, dark secrets, and how history leaves us, not with facts, but with the biased interpretations and sneers of survivors.  History, like faith, both in time, become personal and jaded.  It is a sad lesson for children: The dead are only one breath away from us.  Though the children make a vow with each other that they will never die, as Frank realizes, when we breathe that last breath, we cross the near veil, which was always closer than we thought.

This is not a formulaic police procedural.  This is a story to remind us that we are human and that the important thing is not the big stuff.  The story will stick with you long after you put it down.
– Clay Stafford, author, filmmaker, and founder of Killer Nashville

Buy the book from the Killer Nashville Bookstore and help support a new generation of writers and readers.

Visit our bookstore for other similar books.

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!

“Death of a Neighborhood Witch: A Jaine Austen Mystery” by Laura Levine / Thursday, December 13, 2012 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

Today’s featured book isDeath of A Neighborhood Witch (Jaine Austen Mystery) by Laura Levine.

Who says you can’t mix murder with laughs? And some candy?

Why Clay Stafford chose this book:

This book was released by Kensington in time for Halloween. I picked it up, loved it, and decided great fiction needed no holiday.

This is the 11th installment of the cozy Jaine Austen mystery series. Fictional character Jaine is a freelance writer living in the less prestigious part of Beverly Hills. As usual, Jaine is after sugar and Halloween is the perfect excuse.

There are basically two concurrent plots running in this episode, though the murder takes precedence. Mean old Eleanor Jenkins, a crotchety ex-actress, is stabbed in the chest like a vampire on Halloween night with her own “Do Not Trespass” sign bringing the concept of trick-or-treat to a new height. Of course Jaine is suspected of the crime and thus must exonerate herself. The lesser plot is the shenanigans of Jaine and her male neighbor trying to impress a new neighbor whose sexual preferences leave room for doubt. And, of course, there are her elderly parents in Tampa, which are in a plotline all to themselves.

This is a humorous novel, nothing serious about it. It reads like a sitcom and there’s a reason. I’ve known of Levine a long time before she ever started writing this series from her work with 18 episodes of “Out of This World,” several others for “Private Benjamin,” “We’ve Got It Made,” “The Bob Newhart Show,” Three’s Company,” “Laverne & Shirley,” “The Love Boat,” and one of my all-time favorites, an episode of “The Jeffersons,” the last one featuring an appearance by Mother Jefferson (George’s mother). I grew up on her stuff. And not just the TV fare. I ate the cereal she created as an advertising guru: General Mills’ Count Chocula and Frankenberry. My first introduction to her mystery novel collection was “Death of a Trophy Wife,” one of my favorites, though I think “Death of a Neighborhood Witch” tops them all. Everything Levine writes is top-notch: the movement is fast, the dialogue quick and witty, the characters are off-the-wall, the set-ups are crazy, and the situations incongruous.

If you like cozies on the funny side, get “Death of a Neighborhood Witch,” even out of season. I guarantee you’ll laugh out loud.

From the publisher:

“Halloween is just around the corner, and between cauldrons of candy and a deliciously cute new neighbour, Jaine Austen is struggling to resist her sweet tooth. But this year, her once humdrum neighbourhood seems to be handing out more tricks than treats…When her faithful feline Prozac unwittingly scares to death a parakeet belonging to the neighbourhood’s resident curmudgeon, Jaine finds herself knee-deep in toil and trouble. The cantankerous Hollywood has-been once played the part of Cryptessa Muldoon, television’s fourth most famous monster mom. Now a bitter, paranoid old dame, Cryptessa spends her days making enemies with everyone on the street, and accidental bird killer Jaine is no exception. So when the ornery D-lister is murdered with her own Do Not Trespass sign on Halloween night, the neighbourhood fills with relief – and possible culprits. With a killer on the loose, Jaine hardly has time to fall under the spell of her yummy new neighbour Peter. As the prime suspect, she summons her sleuthing skills to clear her name and soon discovers that everyone has a few skeletons in their closets – and the motives for murder are endless. Could it have been Cryptessa’s next door neighbours, the barracuda husband and wife realtors whose landscaping Cryptessa had bulldozed? Or the seemingly sweet old lady whose beloved dog was the object of Cryptessa’s wrath? Or perhaps the crotchety actress was done in by her own nephew in a desperate attempt to get his hands on her money? As the masks come off, Jaine’s search for sweet justice turns up more questions than answers. And just when she thought nothing could be scarier than her run-in with a tortuous Tummy Tamer, she closes in on the killer and learns the true meaning of grave danger…”

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!

– Clay Stafford, Founder of Killer Nashville

“Death of a Schoolgirl” by Joanna Campbell Slan / Tuesday, November 27, 2012 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

Today’s featured book is Death of a Schoolgirl by Joanna Campbell Slan.

Who would have thought Jane Eyre was such an excellent detective?

Why Clay Stafford chose this book:

Joanna Campbell Slan’s new historical series stars Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre.

“Death of a Schoolgirl,” the first in this historical cozy series, picks up where the classic leaves off. I’m not big on coming-of-age stories (which the original was) and found this definitely more interesting. However, it does pick up where the original story stops, so fans of Jane Eyre will happily devour this, especially since Slan has captured the original voice of Bronte. From the first page, this story quickly pulls you in and Slan wastes no time getting into the meat. I never thought I would read about Jane Eyre getting beaten by thugs, but it does happen. (Beats her fainting on the doorstep of the River’s in the original.)

Jane’s former pupil Adele Varens sends a plea to Jane to come and help. What is at first believed to be a natural death becomes a murder investigation. Slan, best known for her Kiki Lowenstein books, plays fair, dropping clues throughout the novel as to the identity of the killer, but is successful in concealing them until the very end. She’s done an incredible job with the plotting within, what I would consider, to be a character driven novel. One book, the best of both worlds, led by a strong proactive heroine.

It’s always tough to take on an established literary figure. There is always going to be fall-out from devotees. However, I think Slan has done a great job in not only capturing Bronte’s voice, but “Death of a Schoolgirl” is also an excellent example of how to effectively and successfully take on a beloved literary figure.

Whether you’ve read the original or not (whether you like the original or not), if you like historical cozies and light murder, you will enjoy this book. This is a great new series in the making and an incredibly fresh story.

From Amazon:

“In her classic tale, Charlotte Bronte introduced readers to the strong-willed and intelligent Jane Eyre. Picking up where Bronte left off, Jane’s life has settled into a comfortable pattern: She and her beloved Edward Rochester are married and have an infant son. But Jane soon finds herself in the midst of new challenges and threats to those she loves…

Jane can’t help but fret when a letter arrives from Adele Varens – Rochester’s ward, currently at boarding school – warning that the girl’s life is in jeopardy. Although it means leaving her young son and invalid husband, and despite never having been to a city of any size, Jane feels strongly compelled to go to London to ensure Adele’s safety.

But almost from the beginning, Jane’s travels don’t go as planned – she is knocked about and robbed, and no one believes that the plain, unassuming Jane could indeed be the wife of a gentleman; even the school superintendent takes her for an errant new teacher. But most shocking to Jane is the discovery that Adele’s schoolmate has recently passed away under very suspicious circumstances, yet no one appears overly concerned. Taking advantage of the situation, Jane decides to pose as the missing instructor – and soon uncovers several unsavory secrets, which may very well make her the killer’s next target…”

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!

– Clay Stafford, Founder of Killer Nashville

“Man in the Blue Moon” by Michael Morris / Monday, November 26, 2012 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

Today’s featured book is Man in the Blue Moon by Michael Morris.

The rich get richer and the poor…keep fighting them off.

Why Clay Stafford chose this book:

You have to ask yourself, what has Michael Morris been doing all these years? Morris is one of our best Southern writers and I think it has been at least 10 years since he released his last book…until “Man in the Blue Moon.” I guess he was storing up the power shot. This is a wonderful book set in Florida during World War I.

A stranger comes to town in one of the most unusual entrances I think I’ve read. “He could never relieve himself of the sins of the father. The past shaded his mind until at times he was certain darkness had overtaken him.” As I read, I was not sure, at times, if it was the stranger’s story or the woman whom he befriends, but by the end, it becomes clear that it is the story of all of them, the entire community. There is a nice mix of quirky characters. Highly emotional. The stranger, the protagonist, the three diverse sons, the caretaker, the balanced ministers, the odd little girl, even the absentee husband, and all the other more minor characters are all well-defined. The plot and characters are in constant forward motion: they are changing characters within a changing world with fundamentals solidly set in the past. “Mark my word, we’re living in the end times.” As a Southerner, I’ve heard that before…actually last Sunday.

It is Southern literature, but it is also a work that breaks out of the box of locality. You’ll find themes of love, community, and forgiveness, which are some of the strongest catalysts in a writer’s toolbox. It takes place outside Apalachicola, Florida in a dying town called Dead Lakes, but it could have just as easily been set anywhere. These are real people. You see it in the way they react to the same singular situations: “Beyond belief.” “Lifesaver.” “Voodoo.” It’s one of those books that will have you wondering about the characters long after you’ve put the novel away.

“Innocence and justice sometimes don’t go hand in hand,” Michael Morris writes, but they certainly are emotional powerhouses to write about. Will she keep her farm? Will she not? Much healing water flows through the Dead Lakes before we finally have that answer.

From Amazon:

“He’s a gambler at best. A con artist at worst, her aunt had said of the handlebar-mustached man who snatched Ella Wallace away from her dreams of studying art in France. Eighteen years later, that man has disappeared, leaving Ella alone and struggling to support her three sons. While the world is embroiled in World War I, Ella fights her own personal battle to keep the mystical Florida land that has been in her family for generations from the hands of an unscrupulous banker. When a mysterious man arrives at Ella’s door in an unconventional way, he convinces her he can help her avoid foreclosure, and a tenuous trust begins. But as the fight for Ella’s land intensifies, it becomes evident that things are not as they appear. Hypocrisy and murder soon shake the coastal town of Apalachicola and jeopardize Ella’s family.”

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!

– Clay Stafford, Founder of Killer Nashville

“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