BOOKS
Murder in the Courthouse A Hailey Dean Mystery By Nancy Grace (BenBella Books) Okay, full disclo-
sure. I have not yet read the first two books in Nancy’s Hailey Dean se- ries, although I can honestly say, I will be
reading them both after the adventure I just experienced. After being a fan of Nancy’s straight
forward reporting on Court TV and meeting her for the first time two years ago during the Mercer University Press author luncheon weekend, I read her nonfiction book Objec- tion! and loved it. Then when our paths crossed again at this year’s Mercer event, I got my hands on Murder in the Courthouse. Talk about a page-turner, Nancy’s
characters are fully developed and very be- lievable, especially Hailey Dean, the attorney that was obviously modeled after Nancy her- self. After being summoned to Savannah, Georgia as a state witness in the huge Julie Love-Adams murder trial, Dean seemingly steps off of the plane and into the middle of a murder investigation and an unexpected love affair.
There are aspects of the story that
bring to mind the true story of Scott Peterson and the murder of his pregnant wife, which many of us followed almost nightly a few years ago on Nancy’s TV show. The novel has it all: Murder trials; hot
and sexy love between two consenting adults; a poisoning in the cafeteria; someone
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chopped in half by a garage door; alligators; and lots of “who done it” intrigue. With Lieutenant Billings falling deeper in love with Hailey, she must dig deeper to find a killer before she herself becomes the next vic- tim. Read it. Good stuff.
-Michael Buffalo Smith
Never Heard of ‘Em: Austin’s Music Explosion 1994- 2000 By Sue Donahoe (Self-Published) Sue Donahoe’s ex-
cellent book is truly an incredible primer for those of us who love the music of Austin, Texas, but have very little actual knowledge of the Austin scene’s history. Of all the great players written about in the book, I only knew of one prior to reading the book. That person being Billy Eli. Honestly, Billy and I had met online a few years ago, then he came from Austin to my home in Spartanburg, SC to play a benefit, and we hit it off. I did learn things about him reading this book that I had not known previously, which is a good thing. Donahoe explores the Austin music
scene from the inside, drawing from the years that she and her late husband Mike ran a music shop in Austin called Local Flavor, which catered to Austin’s plethora of musi- cians, especially those who might be consid- ered underground artists, or those who tended to fly under the radar. She tends to celebrate the working musician, the musician who plays at the local dive and gives his or her all, whether performing for 3 people or
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