Pat Conroy’s Lowcountry (History Press 2026) by Lynn Seldon offers a literary travel guide to the Lowcountry of South Carolina and a glimpse into the Lowcountry heart of the incomparable author of The Prince of Tides. As a longtime friend and sometime neighbor of Pat Conroy and his wife, fellow novelist Cassandra King, Seldon is perfectly […]
October Read of the Month: “The Nurse at Baker Hospital” by Jocelyn Cullity
October 7, 2026 by Leave a Comment
Horrifying. Haunting. Gut-wrenching. All of these describe The Nurse at Baker Hospital (Regal, October 2026) by Jocelyn Cullity. Drawing on primary sources, the novel meets the highest standards of historical fiction while reading with the urgency of a thriller. Though the events are rooted in the past, the lessons they offer are not merely relevant—they […]
“The Witch of Sonora” by Johnnie Bernhard
September 14, 2026 by Leave a Comment
Johnnie Bernhard’s latest novel, The Witch of Sonora (Stoney Creek Publishing, 2026), returns readers to the gritty Central Texas landscape introduced in Hannah and Ariela. Hannah, now in her eighties, continues to grapple with the horrors of human trafficking, offering refuge on her isolated ranch to young women who have been victimized. Bernhard frames this […]
Donna Meredith interviews Bruce Ballister, author of “Next of Kin” and “Traffick”
September 14, 2026 by Leave a Comment
Summary: Human trafficking for the sex trade is the issue at the heart of the first two Jason Saylor action-packed mysteries. In the first book, which was recently reissued as Next of Kin, Jason returns to his hometown on the northern coast of Florida. He’s been involuntarily furloughed from a successful career in investigative journalism, a […]
“No Way Out But Through” by Susan Beckham Zurenda
September 9, 2026 by Leave a Comment
Susan Beckham Zurenda’s No Way Out But Through tells the harrowing story of Grace, a fifteen-year-old girl forced to marry the older man who raped her. The book is a fictional portrayal but inspired by true experience. Remarkably, child marriage remains legal for those under eighteen in thirty-three states (with parental or judicial permission), and four […]
“Perceptions of Justice: Law, Literature, and Film” by Terry Lewis
September 9, 2026 by Leave a Comment
Terry Lewis’s excellent first venture into a nonfiction book, Perceptions of Justice: Law, Literature, and Film (2026), demands reader involvement. The former judge employs a Socratic method, posing questions that encourage readers to examine their own perceptions of justice and to formulate a personal philosophy of belief. Drawing not only on his courtroom experience, but […]