Publication Date: March 5, 2024
Set in the country music world of 1970s Nashville, a struggling musician writes a hit song that both promises her long-sought-after fame and implicates her in a heinous crime.
Nashville, 1977: A broken heart. A terrible crime. A song the world would sing.
When aspiring musician Twyla Finch arrives in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1977, 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 Wilton, 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: Should she claim her ballad and secure the fame she’s always wanted? Or stay quiet and avoid implicating herself 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 determination to claim her voice.
Nineteen-year-old Twyla Higgins chafes at the religious restrictions enforced by her mother, particularly when it comes to music. Elvis Presley’s death sparks a rebellion that ultimately sets Twyla on a new path.
Set in the 1970s, The Last Verse serves up a coming of age novel as innocent Twyla travels to Memphis and later to Nashville. Author Caroline Frost delivers a powerful story that showcases the reality of consequences.
Twyla’s simple dreams of performing her own songs are complicated by one rash decision with lasting implications. She is genuinely a good person, which is evident through her actions in taking responsibility.
What’s compelling about the storyline is the fact that the main character essentially trades one prison for another. Add in the fact her song was stolen and recorded by a rival. Despite the initial downward trajectory, Twyla finally gets the Opry performance.
The Last Verse illustrates the complexity of emotions translated into music as a young woman’s coming-of-age experience is shattered.
Caroline Frost has a Master of Professional Writing degree from the University of Southern California. She is the author of Shadows of Pecan Hollow, which won the Crook’s Corner Prize, was a finalist for the Golden Poppy Award, and was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. She currently resides in Pasadena, California, with her husband and three small children, but her roots in Texas run deep.
