Killer Nashville Noir: Cold-Blooded

This all-original anthology, which features 21 short stories by newbies as well as seasoned bestselling authors, is the offspring of Killer Nashville, an association that gives fledgling Tennessean writers a supportive environment in which to develop their talent. Settings include backwoods hollows, late-night recording studios, seedy dives, quiet suburbs, sleek yachts, and tropical islands. Readers will meet Civil War re-enactors, college professors, song writers, spies, and the requisite lawyers and cops, as well as a being that just might be the devil. Among the highlights are Anne Perry's "Shutter Speed," which takes the reader back in time to the fashionable haunts of 1930s British aristocracy, with Wallis Simpson and Edward, Prince of Wales, putting in an appearance. In "Regression," Jeffery Deaver offers a fresh and frightening look at the potential benefits and pitfalls of successful psychiatric treatment, and Mary Burton warms up a cold case in "The Keepsake." This is a book to keep by your bedside for those nighttime short story cravings. (Oct.)