cover image Murder on Music Row: 
A Music Industry Thriller

Murder on Music Row: A Music Industry Thriller

Stuart Dill. John F. Blair, $24.95 (344p) ISBN 978-0-89587-566-2

Dill, who has served as the personal manager for Minnie Pearl, Billy Ray Cyrus, and other notables in the Nashville country music world, brings his insider’s expertise to his solid debut, a mystery thriller. Judd Nix, a 23-year-old unpaid intern at Elite Management, welcomes the chance to become the paid assistant of Simon Stills, one of country’s biggest managers, but he soon finds himself a witness to an assassination attempt. When a gunman takes aim at megastar Ripley Graham, Stills’s most important client and the last hope for the troubled recording industry, on stage at the Grand Ole Opry, the shooter misses and seriously wounds Stills instead. Nix and his co-worker, Megan Olsen, decide to investigate on their own, but with music executives plotting a major merger, they can’t be sure whom to trust. While the pace drags at points, the conclusion is stunning. Author tour. (Oct.)