"Speck is not a good boy. He is a terrible boy, a defiant, self-destructive, often malodorous boy, a grave robber and screen door moocher who spends his days playing chicken with the FedEx man, picking fights with thousand-pound livestock and rolling in donkey manure and his nights howling at the moon. He has been that way since the moment he appeared on the ridgeline behind Rick Bragg's house. Speck arrived in Rick's life at a moment of looing uncertainty,...

Bragg presents a food memoir, cookbook, and tribute to his mother. Margaret Bragg does not own a single cookbook, measures ingredients by "dabs" and judges "done" by look and smell. Her son shares classic family recipes-- many of them pre-dating the Civil War-- as well as preparation secrets for traditional Southern fare.

"On the morning of her wedding to Calder Hart, amateur sleuth Francesca Cahill is lured away to a private viewing of a portrait that could destroy her entire family: the nude Hart commissioned of her. Her desperate quest to recover the scandalous portrait leads her into a dangerous trap with no way to escape--until it's too late. And when Francesca finally arrives at the church, it's vacant. She has unintentionally jilted Hart at the altar. When Hart...