Now chair of the English department at Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School in Atlanta, where he’s taught for 21 years, Christopher Swann spent his own high school days in Asheville. The author returns to that time of life in his new novel, Shadow of the Lions, which unspools at the prestigious Blackburne prep school. The thriller follows an alumnus who is hired as an English professor nearly a decade after graduating and attempts to solve the disappearance of a classmate whose fate he’s long felt was somehow his fault and is at the root of his arrested development. A new student death, a powerful Washington, D.C., family, and the prep school’s politics also come into play. Swann will discuss his most recent book at Malaprop’s on Thursday, Aug. 10, at 7 p.m. Free. malaprops.com. Author photo by Kathy Ferrell Swann
Smart Bets: Christopher Swann

Thank you so much–really looking forward to Malaprop’s!