Wolfe's largely autobiographical novel features Eugene Gant, who pines for a more expansive life after being born to a father whose bouts of maniacal raving are fueled by a prodigious appetite for drink.

Accepting an internship at A Novel Idea, a literary agency in Inspiration Valley, North Carolina, Lila, while dealing with her quirky new co-workers and a stack of query letters, stumbles upon a murder mystery involving a penniless aspiring author.

Jake, a budding juvenile delinquent, is sent for home schooling to the arty and eccentric Applewhite family's Creative Academy, where he discovers talents and interests he never knew he had.

With a crisp bite in the air, Miss Julia is enjoying a well-earned respite by her new fireplace. But autumn leaves aren't the only things falling: James, Hazel Marie's housekeeper, has had a nasty tumble down some stairs. How can Hazel Marie feed and take care of him--not to mention a husband and two babies--when she barely knows how to boil water? Miss Julia jumps in to help by convincing the ladies ofAbbotsville to put on their aprons and give cooking...

Washed ashore as a baby in tiny Tupelo Landing, North Carolina, Mo LoBeau, now eleven, and her best friend Dale turn detective when the amnesiac Colonel, owner of a café and co-parent of Mo with his cook, Miss Lana, seems implicated in a murder.