Thus begins the new novel from John Grisham, a story inspired by his own childhood in rural Arkansas. The narrator is a farm boy name Luke Chandler, age seven, who lives in the cotton fields with his parents and grandparents in a little house that's never been painted. The Chandlers farm eighty acres that they rent, not own, and when the cotton is ready they hire a truck-load of Mexicans and a family from the Ozarks to help harvest it. For six weeks...

"Daughter of a cold, controlling mother and an anonymous donor, studious, obedient Elizabeth Fitch finally let loose one night, drinking too much at a nightclub and allowing a strange man's seductive Russian accent to lure her to a house on Lake Shore Drive. The events that followed changed her life forever. Twelve years later, the woman now known as Abigail Lowery lives alone on the outskirts of a small town in the Ozarks. A freelance programmer,...

In Shakespeare, Arkansas, a body builder is found dead in a gym, a barbell across his throat. Lily Bard, who pumps iron in the same gym, sets out to find the killer, her profession--cleaning lady-- giving her access to many homes.

The jailhouse lawyer: A young lawyer takes on the judge who is destroying her hometown--and ends up in jail herself. In picture-perfect Erva, Alabama, the most serious crimes are misdemeanors. Speeding tickets. Shoplifting. Contempt of court. Then why is the jail so crowded? And why are so few prisoners released? There's only one place to learn the truth behind these incriminating secrets. Sometimes the best education a lawyer can get is a short stretch...

For Nona Conrad each day is a struggle--to go on after her parents' sudden death, to win her rightful inheritance, and to raise her younger sister. When Nona is hired to manage a fishing camp deep in the Arkansas woods, it seems like an opportunity to settle down. Yet it isn't long before she clashes with two men. One is a stranger who grabs her arm and calls her by name before driving off in a abig sedan. The other is the camp's new owner, Simon...

Maggody's high school has a new computer lab. Folks are calling the internet the Devil's workshop, but the adult computer class is filling up. When some unusual images flsh across monitors and a pretty student is found dead in an abandoned shack, the town demands that Arly find the answers.

As the year 1928 begins, fourteen-year-old Lanie Belle Freeman of Fairhope, Arkansas, has bright hopes for the future. Her father has launched a new business, and her mother is expecting her fifth baby. Lanie has dreams of going to college and being a writer. Then tragedy strikes. First Lanie's mother dies giving birth to the baby, and Lanie must assume the role of surrogate mother to her younger siblings. Then her father is falsely accused of murder...

Autumn of 1986 in the Ozarks finds eleven-year-old April Grace adjusting to middle school, coping with her mother's difficult pregnancy, helping Isabel with the church play, and trying to figure out why the new boy at school will not leave her alone.

A new series set in Shakespeare, Arkansas, featuring a heroine who runs a cleaning business. One night in a garbage bag she discovers the body of her landlord, which makes her a suspect. Now she must clear her name. A study in smalltown inhabitants.

Spending a miserable week at camp with ten teenagers, the Mayor's stern wife, the high school shop teacher, and preacher Brother Verber, police chief Arly Hanks must attempt to catch a killer after one of the teens discovers the corpse of a woman.