Rarely has a student of country music imbedded himself as deeply and profitably in the subject as this author does. Fox first came to the little town of Lockhart, Texas—the site of this study—in February 1990. He says he was... Read More

Anyone suffering from even mild depression would be wise to set this book aside and not pick it up again until the sun shines brightly or the liquor kicks in. The setting, the characters, the plot are all awash in gloom. Still, the story... Read More

In 1973, Peter Jameson was nineteen years old and preparing to conquer the world with his band, the Master Planets, when echoes of his Holocaust ancestry swept in. The ordeals of having to deal with rapacious, dope-addled music... Read More

At bottom, country music is about the abiding joys of home—both real and imagined. Take away the songs that express in one way or another a longing to return to the comforting place of one’s childhood, and there would be precious... Read More

A lion as a murder weapon? That’s what zookeeper Iris Oakley gradually comes to believe as she tries to fathom why her husband, Rick—who promised her he’s quit drinking—would end up dead and apparently drunk in a lion’s cage.... Read More

Coping with grief and the sudden and unforeseen burden of having to earn a living are not conditions that tend to sharpen one’s investigative skills. That, however, is what Marge Christensen must deal with as she sets out to discover... Read More

Anthologies of music criticism seldom sing. The subject matter is too arcane or the writing too elliptical, saturated, or otherwise uneven, but "Listen Again" largely avoids these weaknesses by keeping academic and fan club excesses to a... Read More

They may see themselves as aging reincarnations of the Hardy Boys, but James (“never Jim or Jimmy”) Lessor and Skip Moore are much closer in spirit to Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Like Tom, James is a dreamer and risk taker. Skip, a... Read More