Revised, Wednesday 8:30 a.m.
About a month ago, before the Southern Festival of Books, I sat down with Stuart Dill to talk about his new book, Murder on Music Row. Though I’d read all of the press material and carted a review copy of the book back and forth on three different road trips, I hadn’t actually read the ‘Murder’ so couldn’t review it.

Stuart, a longtime music manager, wouldn’t budge at the time when I pressed him for details about the Williamson County – and more specifically Brentwood – locations he used in the book. He wouldn’t divulge “who dun it” no matter how many times I asked.

But about two weeks ago, I finally read it. And I’m here to say that fans of early Patricia Cornwell and John Grisham will want to do the same.

As a Richmond, Va. native, I loved Cornwell’s early Kaye Scarpetta thrillers because even though I’d never moved back to the Old Dominion after college, I still recognized all of the places she wrote about – even some of the murder sites. That’s one of the reasons it’s fun to read Stuart’s book, well, as much as murder and fires and car wrecks and such can be fun. It's also full of surprises and twists and turns. I couldn't wait to pick it up again to keep reading, despite having no time to read.

Ripley Graham, the country superstar who is one of the book’s central characters, lives in Governors Club. Stuart drops the names of real people and real places throughout his first book. Sure, there are some slow spots and a few times he gets a bit bogged down in the minutia of the industry but for those of us who have lived here a while but have no real idea about how the real Music Row works, Murder on Music Row is a great primer.

If you’d like to read it for yourself, and meet Stuart, a longtime Brentwood resident, he’ll be at Brentwood’s Barnes and Noble on Mallory Lane at 7 p.m. Thursday to sign books.

Christmas is just around the corner…

Susan Leathers is editor of Brentwood Home Page. Click here to read previous columns. Email her at susan@brentwoodhomepage.com