Kudzu River is a gripping tale of three women's lives entangled by a serial killer-a story of abuse, murder, and retribution. Unlike Fran Rizer's previous Callie Parrish mysteries, Kudzu River is not a cozy. When Teacher of the Year Katie Wray returns to her hometown, Tanner, SC, she expects to be met by her sister Maggie who borrowed Katie's apartment and car for the summer. Instead, she finds that both Maggie and the car have disappeared. Katie is furious that, once again, Maggie proved to be irresponsible. She suspects that Maggie has gone off with the man she'd told Katie she was dating-Frankie Barker. Katie's anger turns to fear when Sheriff Wade Jolley informs her that the Special .38 Colt Cobra revolver she borrowed from her ex has been found in an alley beside an unidentified corpse. Katie assures him the gun is at her apartment, but when they go there, the gun is missing along with Katie's televisions, computer, landline phones, and expensive coffee maker. The sheriff questions whether the John Doe is Frankie Barker and Maggie shot him or Frankie shot the unidentified man and Maggie is an unfound victim. More bodies are found. Someone is carving a trail of dead teachers along coastal Carolina, and Katie fears Maggie is dead. She tries to talk about it with her friend Samantha Branham (also a teacher), but Samantha is more concerned about fitting into a size two dress, blonder hair, and conquering smooth-talking womanizer Sam Campbell than the possibility of personal danger. Tennessee Linda Pearson, a life-long victim, is haunted by her past, her dead parents, and her love of Jack Daniel's whiskey. Horrible memories of her childhood and the husband she married to escape her parents fill her days and nightmares, leaving no room to be concerned about what goes on around her. Though his photo is being shown on media nation-wide as a person of interest in the serial killings, Linda fails to recognize the killer when she sees him. When the murders increase in frequency and violence, Katie receives macabre gifts and threatening messages targeting her as the next to die. Senior Agent John Gross, FBI profiler, suggests using her as bait to chum the waters for the murderer, but Sheriff Jolley refuses. Torn between his desire to end this death spree and growing feelings for Katie, he's already violated his usual strict adherence to protocol by allowing his attraction to her to dictate some questionable decisions. The killer is a threat to all women, especially teachers, but he targets Katie sending her macabre gifts and threatening messages. His confrontations are always deadly, and when he kidnaps Katie, the conclusion is explosive.

Kudzu abounds across the American South. Introduced in the United States in the 1800s as a solution for soil erosion, this invasive vine with Eastern Asian origins came to be known as a pernicious invader capable of smothering everything in its path. To many, the plant’s enduring legacy has been its villainous role as the “vine that ate the South.” But for a select few, it has begun to signify something else entirely. In its roots, a network of people scattered across the country see a chance at redemption—and an opportunity to rewrite a fragment of troubled history. Devoured: The Extraordinary Story of Kudzu, the Vine That Ate the South detangles the complicated story of the South’s fickle relationship with kudzu, chronicling the ways the boundless weed has evolved over centuries, and dissecting what climate change could mean for its future across the United States. From architecture teams experimenting with it as a sustainable building material, to clinical applications treating binge-drinking, to chefs harvesting it as a wild edible, environmental journalist Ayurella Horn-Muller spotlights how kudzu’s notorious reputation in America is gradually being cast aside in favor of its promise. Weaving careful research with personal stories, Horn-Muller investigates how kudzu morphed from a miraculous agricultural solution to the monstrous archetypal foe of the southern landscape. Devoured is a poignant narrative of belonging, racial ambiguity, outsiders and insiders, and the path from universal acceptance to undesirability. It is a deeply reported exploration of the landscapes that host the many species we fight to control. Above all, Devoured is an ode to the earth around us—a quest for meaning in today’s imperiled world.

In these essays, one of the most influential Southern journalists of his generation sorts out a whole warehouse of Southern idiosyncrasy and iconography, including the Southern belle, Faulkner, James Dickey, Stonewall Jackson, Cormac McCarthy, guns, dogs, fathers, trees, George Wallace, Elvis, Doc Watson, the decline of poetry, and the return of chain gangs.

kud • zu \kud-zü\ n: a ubiquitous vine/weed found in Southern climes that, left uncontrolled, will grow over any fixed object in its path, including trees, power lines, and the entire state of Georgia. deb•u•tante \de-byu-tänt\ n: a young woman making a debut into society, easily spotted in white dress and pearl necklace. Common names include Muffy, Bootsy, and Bunny. Eadie Boone is no shrinking violet. An artist and former beauty queen who married into one of the first families of Ithaca, Georgia, she tackles everything with gusto and flair. But tailing her wayward husband proves to be, well, an exasperating chore. If only Trevor would just see the light, dump his twenty-two-year-old hussy, and return home, Eadie’s creative energy could be put to better use. Now all she has to do is convince him. Nita Broadwell, a good Southern girl from a good Southern family, is jolted out of complacency when she discovers condoms in her husband’s shirt pocket (“Maybe he’d found them on the ground and picked them up”). Between clinging to denial and dodging her overbearing mother-in-law, Nita is also trying to break her addiction to steamy bodice-ripper novels. Only now it appears she’s authoring her own real-life romance tale with a hunky handyman thirteen years her junior. Lavonne Zibolsky–a transplanted Yankee, bless her heart–is saddled with planning the annual Broadwell & Boone law firm party. That and her lackluster marriage have her seeking solace in the contents of her refrigerator. If she could just put down the Rocky Road ice cream and peach pie, she might get around to finding a caterer, dropping sixty pounds, and figuring out how to fall in love with her husband again. Not necessarily in that order. Bonded by years of friendship, these three women discover what else they have in common: lying, cheating spouses. So they heed their collective betrayals as a wake-up call and band together to exact sweet revenge. The take-charge trio will see to it that the punishment is just, exquisitely humiliating, and downright hilarious. Cathy Holton’s debut novel is a delicious yarn of friendship and marriage, secrets and retribution, and how nothing stays hidden for long. Against a Southern backdrop of gentility and decorum, Revenge of the Kudzu Debutantes dares to abandon Junior League social graces in ways that would make even Scarlett O’Hara blush. "It’s great fun reading about these women as they trade their tea for tequila and get smart, get out, and get even, with amusing, and surprising results." --Nancy Thayer, author of The Hot Flash Club "Sly, smart, and full of great characters -- and then there’s that sweet, sweet revenge. Getting even has never been so creative. Or delicious." --Louise Shaffer, author of The Ladies of Garrison Gardens

Its capabilities unrivaled and its global reach unmatched, America's military is the envy of the world. Yet, to those in the know, like retired Marine Major General Arnold Punaro, a former Staff Director of the Senate Armed Services Committee, there is compelling need for improvement in its support elements. From the glacial pace of acquisitions to the spiraling growth of the defense agencies to the fully-burdened costs of the All-Volunteer Force, the Department of Defense's non-warfighting elements are not getting enough bang for the buck. Every recent Secretary of Defense has pushed business-minded reforms as a high priority, citing the need to convert overhead to warfighting capacity.Despite substantial increases in defense spending over the last decades, the number of warfighters is still declining. The Ever-Shrinking Fighting Force lays out, in clear and compelling detail, the major factors that contribute to this adverse trend that has outlasted efforts to reverse it by strong Defense Secretaries and even Presidents.Drawing on his half-century of experience in national security, Gen. Punaro offers a no-nonsense look at the inefficiencies that have plagued the Pentagon's creeping bureaucracy for decades. With calls for defense reform emanating from both the executive and legislative branches, this timely book provides a road map for thoughtful and balanced improvements.