Last Verse

From the award-winning author of Shadows of Pecan Hollow comes The Last Verse, a gripping novel set in the country music world of 1970s Nashville about a struggling musician who writes a hit song that both promises her long-sought-after fame and implicates her in a heinous crime. When aspiring musician Twyla Finch arrives in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1979, 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 Rogers, 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 whether to claim her ballad, securing the fame she’s always wanted—but implicating her 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 the harrowing road to claiming her voice.

"With Shadows of Pecan Hollow, Caroline Frost delivers a stunner of a debut novel that reads more like the work of an accomplished master. Everything you could want in a novel is here: rich, evocative settings, conflicted loyalties and hearts, and a slow fuse of a plot that throws off plenty of sparks on its way to final ignition. This immersive, full-bodied novel will keep its hooks in you long after the last page is read, and marks the arrival of a tremendously wise and talented writer. I think we can look forward to many more fine books from Caroline Frost." — Ben Fountain, New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Country Burn Again “Paper Moon meets Badlands in this mesmerizing Texas backroads thriller, a twisty story of a runaway girl who finds a home and a desperate love on the road with an opportunistic criminal, and the long comet’s tail of their story. A notable debut, drenched in regional detail and told in a gritty, sensual prose.” — Janet Fitch, #1 New York Times bestselling author of White Oleander, on Shadows of Pecan Hollow “How do we let go of a dark, menacing past, especially when a dangerous love still binds us to it? Frost’s extraordinary debut is about Kit, a young mother struggling to raise her daughter, and to erase her abduction at 13 by a thief, who coerced her into crime and into his heart. Dazzling, unexpected, and profound, this is a shattering page-turner about how love can twist our lives into something we no longer recognize, and how we might find our way back to our best selves and to the communities that just might save us. In a word: brilliant.”  — Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of With or Without You, on Shadows of Pecan Hollow “Demonstrating a polished sense of setting and characterization, Frost crafts a deftly complex, psychologically astute, and deeply unsettling debut novel.” — Booklist on Shadows of Pecan Hollow “Heart-rending… Frost puts her background as a marriage and family therapist to good use in crafting [main character] Kit. Less perceptive writers may have written Kit as a cli­ché, but Frost guides the reader to understand Kit’s story and the reasons behind her susceptibility to a charismatic egotist.” — BookPage on Shadows of Pecan Hollow “What immense talent flows through this spellbinding story! Everything is here: magnetic characters, fierce momentum, and great authenticity of voice, place, and thought. I was stunned in the best possible way throughout. How does Caroline Frost do it, I marveled; how does she know this? What an amazing, rewarding feat of craftsmanship and love!”  — Elinor Lipman, author of Ms. Demeanor, on Shadows of Pecan Hollow “Shadows of Pecan Hollow is a hugely satisfying slow burn of a novel that builds to a wrenching, unforgettable blaze. Frost explores the lives of her complex, arresting characters with nuance, compassio

Caroline Frost has a Master of Professional Writing degree from the University of Southern California and is a licensed marriage and family therapist. Although she currently resides in Pasadena, California, with her husband and three small children, her roots in Texas run deep. Shadows of Pecan Hollow is her first novel.