Fall’s coming, the mornings and evenings are getting cooler, but there’s plenty of good reading to come.

“Deeper Than the Dead” by Debra Webb (2024). The first book in the Vera Boyett mystery series. Vera, a top crime analyst in Memphis in the opener, is in disgrace because she didn’t see a problem in her team that resulted in two deaths. Then, before she can deal with the fall-out she gets a call from her sister Eve summoning Vera to their small hometown in Tennessee because their stepmother’s body has been found in a cave on their land.

Sheree had disappeared over 20 years ago, presumably having run off with another man leaving her husband and a baby daughter, Luna, behind. Vera doesn’t go home that much, dividing her life into the before (when her family life was happy) and the after (after her mother died of cancer and her father married Sheree, who made their lives miserable).

On top of that, Vera arrives home to find an old love, Benton, is now the sheriff in town. And, then, the news just gets worse and worse with each new piece of information on the case. Her father is now in a home and has dementia, but makes enigmatic statements about the past. The press is everywhere — interested in the hometown case and Vera’s problems in Memphis. Vera must keep old secrets to herself while trying to help Bent solve the case. But, who can she trust? Is her father involved?

“The Anti-Heroes” by Jen Lancaster (2024) is a story about fear and how it derails society wrapped in a really fun plot and characters. Emily Nichols and Liv Bennett have been best friends since they were college roommates 10 years earlier. Emily was a kick-ass eco-warrior, now a college professor unhappily teaching students who could care less about environmental issues and in a relationship with a man who bores her. Liv is a real estate agent, who’s really good at her job, but is pushed around by her bosses, the immature “bros” she is in charge of, and her mother and sister.

Then, at the coffee shop Emily and Liv frequent, there is an armed robbery and Emily freezes. The old Action Emily as Liv called her would have acted. “How did I get here?” Emily keeps asking.

In response to the event, the five regulars at the coffee shop who sat transfixed while a Mom took out the robber sign up for Fearless Inc., which the Mom says taught her how to improve her life. As the group trains with Zeus, the owner, and become friends, they learn to make connections and become stronger physically and mentally.

The chapters are told alternately from Emily and Liv’s point of view. I loved this book. Very funny and clever.

“The Caretaker” by Ron Rash (2023). I love discovering new authors. This was a book chosen by a friend for my book club and I’m looking forward to sampling more of this award-winning author’s work. In an economy of style, he paints such vivid pictures of the Korean War, a small town in North Carolina and the lives of the people there, particularly Blackburn, the caretaker of the local cemetery and church. It’s 1951 and some of the narrow-minded people of the town shun him due to his crippled appearance after recovering from polio. When his only friend, Jacob, son of the town’s richest couple, is disinherited for his choice of wife and then is conscripted and sent to Korea, Blackburn promises to keep an eye on Naomi, who is pregnant. Blackburn and Naomi become closer. Then Jacob’s father creates a scene downtown one day, so it’s decided that she should go and stay with her father in Tennessee until the summer is over.

But, Jacob’s controlling parents will deceitfully do their best to guarantee Jacob leads the life they want for him. This is a wonderful depiction of friendship, war time, its fallout and the power of love. I highly recommend it.