The Last Verse
A Novel
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- £11.99
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- £11.99
Publisher Description
"This novel is sexy, suspenseful, and boot-spur sharp." —Eli Cranor, Edgar-Award-winning author of Don't Know Tough
Set in the country music world of 1970s Nashville, a struggling musician writes a hit song that both promises her long-sought-after fame and implicates her in a heinous crime.
Nashville, 1977: A broken heart. A terrible crime. A song the world would sing.
When aspiring musician Twyla Finch arrives in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1977, the nineteen-year-old Texan is dazzled by the fringe-and-rhinestones country music scene. Live music flows from bars, open mic nights tempt with the chance of stardom, and record label execs seek the next hot new act.
As Twyla finds her way in this vibrant town, she soon falls for Chet Wilton, country music hopeful and son of blue-blooded Nashvillians. When a night out with Chet goes terribly wrong, Twyla finds herself involved in a shocking crime. Hoping to process what happened that fateful night, she composes a haunting ballad that she performs only once in an empty bar. But weeks later, when she turns on the radio, she hears another woman singing her song.
Twyla must decide: Should she claim her ballad and secure the fame she’s always wanted? Or stay quiet and avoid implicating herself in the terrible crime she’s desperate to put in the past?
Seductive and bold, tense and unflinching, The Last Verse is the story of a woman’s ambitions, obsessions, and determination to claim her voice.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Frost's intriguing second novel (after Shadows of Pecan Hollow) follows a talented 19-year-old aspiring country singer and her travails in 1977 Nashville. Twyla Higgins, tired of her sheltered life in Texas, defies her domineering mother, Faith, and makes her way to Graceland to attend Elvis's funeral. From there, she hitches a ride to Nashville, where she falls for rich pretty boy Chet Wilton, a middling guitarist who recognizes her songwriting talent. After sleeping with him, Twyla's crushed when she learns Chet is engaged to magnetic singer Lorelei Ray. Following a violent argument on a boat, Twyla stabs Chet in self-defense and tries in vain to save him from drowning. Not long after, she hears Lorelei on the radio, singing a song Twyla had written about her guilt over Chet's death. Lorelei later blackmails Twyla into writing the rest of her debut album in exchange for keeping quiet about Twyla's involvement in Chet's death. Frost turns many memorable phrases ("Like a circus, she would erect herself each morning and dismantle at night") and each of the imperfect yet sympathetic characters are well-drawn, including workaholic former cop T. Lynn Struthers, who's hired by the Wiltons to find Chet's killer, and ambitious Lorelei, whom Twyla grows fond of in spite of the blackmail and jealousy. Classic country fans will love this.
