It is 1995 and South Carolina Senator Buck Ravenel smiles, knowing that his gift of special snakeskin cowboy boots to his friend Judge Dupree Jones was a good thank you for political favors. Ravenel, Jones, Ravenel's longtime friend Vince Stone and all their associates and...

"Man in the Blue Moon" by Michael Morris is a book for all seasons and for all types of readers. Written by a Southern author, it tells the tale of Ella Wallace, a Florida woman with three sons whose husband drank, gambled, did cocaine and...

"Coastal Empire", written by John “Rocky” Leonard, has its setting in the beautiful Savannah, Georgia. Our story begins with a murder and a big bang. When Sarah Reid walked into private investigator Robert Mercer office, he admired her beauty. She hired him to investigate her...

"A Secure Heart" by Charity Parkerson is a clever and entertaining series of four interwoven romantic stories. Not only do the Smith Security Services team of Shannon Smith, and twins Bob and Weave Sparks, feature in each of the four vignettes, but the other characters...

Katharine Russell’s “Deed So” is an amazing fictional story about young Haddie as she tells about her life growing up in Maryland in the 1960’s. Haddie is just at the coming of age stage, and like most people her age, she wants to leave her...

What a fun ride "Dancing Naked in Dixie" has been! I wondered about the name and almost didn’t pick it up. I am glad I did. If not I would have missed out on an excellent, clean tale. I really enjoy the witty and exhilarating...

It is 2002 and Randy Lafitte is the twice-elected governor of Louisiana. As nice as he would like his life portrayed, it is anything but under the surface, for he is a racist, hateful, and not above calling for help from those who live on...

McNeil begins his tale twenty years in the past. Jesse Pace was drowning while his father was passed out drunk. His brother Tommy tried to free his ankle but couldn’t, so he ran for help. Jesse was terrified he would slip under the water. “Keep...

Failed journalist Josh Devlin ended up in a homeless shelter in Kentucky after wandering around for a year doing nothing. One day Josh runs into Alice, a runaway living in an old abandoned boxcar. He could see she needed food, so he brought her food...

Natalie Goldberg makes this comment about southern writers: “Often when a southerner reads, the members of the class look at each other, and you can hear them thinking, gee, I can't write like that. The power and force of the land is heard in the...