Everyone in Athena, Mississippi, knows Charlie Harris, the librarian with a rescued Maine coon cat named Diesel. Hes returned to his hometown to immerse himself in books, but a celebrated authors visit draws an unruly swarm of fanatic mystery buffs, and one devious killer. Its National Library Week, and the Athena Public Library is planning an exhibit to honor the centenary of famous novelist Electra Barnes Cartwright, creator of the beloved Veronica...

"Mississippi librarian Charlie Harris and his Maine Coon cat, Diesel, are on their guard. Oscar Reilly, the new director at the Athena College library, is on a mission to cut costs and has set his sights on the archive and rare book collection. Reilly's also out to replace Charlie's fiery friend Melba with someone younger, but his biggest offense is declaring all four-legged creatures banned from the stacks. With enemies aplenty, the suspect list...

A high school history teacher looks into his own past and begins to discover secrets from his childhood in Mississippi during the 1960s, secrets that he didn't know existed and connect him to the violence of the Civil Rights movement.

Determined to get to Nashville to find her mother in 1963, nine-year-old spitfire Starla Claudelle runs away from her strict grandmother's Mississippi home, eventually accepting a ride from a Eula, a black woman traveling alone with a white baby.

"The bayou is burning, the battle is just beginning - and Luce Boudreau is smack in the middle of no-man's land ... Life as a cop in Canton Town, Mississippi, is never dull - particularly when hiding deep within you is a demon bent on the apocalypse. Luce is doing her best to pretend her two worlds aren't crashing into each other, but what should be a routine arson investigation takes a shocking turn when Luce discovers a link between the suspects...

"Lighthearted librarian Charlie Harris is known around his hometown of Athena, Mississippi, for walking his cat, a rescued Maine Coon named Diesel. But he may soon be taken for a walk himself-- in handcuffs... Charlie is stressed out. The Southern Academic Libraries Association is holding this year's annual meeting at Athena College. Since Charlie is the interim library director, he must deliver the welcome speech to all the visiting librarians....

The story revolves around a grim yet darkly humorous pilgrimage, as Addie Bundren's family sets out to fulfill her last wish: to be buried in her native Jefferson, Mississippi, far from the miserable backwater surroundings of her married life.

When a contentious professor makes claims about the identity of a woman found in a mysterious Mississippi grave and implicates wealthy Zinnia families of having ties to a related scandal, Sarah Booth Delaney is hired by a group of society ladies to clear their names only to discover another body in the professor's hotel room.

Several stories are woven together to show man's inner alienation from the society about him.