Stephen Usery interviews authors of mysteries, thrillers, and crime fiction.

 



Emily St. John Mandel has published four novels Last Night in MontrealThe Singer's Gun, and The Lola Quartet, her newest one, Station Eleven, was a finalist for the 2014 National Book Award for fiction. It's the story of apocalypses, personal and global, and people who knew a famous actor before and after a superflu decimates humanity.

Direct download: EMILY_STJOHN_MANDEL_2014_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 8:45am EDT
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Brock Clarke has published two collections of short stories and four novels including the provocatively titled An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England. His newest one, The Happiest People in the World, is the story of real and would-be assassins, editorial cartoonists, witness protection, and faculty-versus-student sporting events.

 
Direct download: BROCK_CLARKE_2014_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 9:00am EDT
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Reed Farrel Coleman. Reed is best known for his Moe Prager private detective series which concluded earlier this year with the ninth book in the series,The Hollow Girl. Reed is well-respected having won Macavity, Anthony and three Shamus Awards. The Robert B. Parker estate recently asked him to pick up the Jesse Stone series, and today we'll talk about his first entry into it, Blind Spot, and it's published by Putnam.

Direct download: REED_FARREL_COLEMAN_2014_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 1:27pm EDT
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I've spoken to Tim about two of his Poke Rafferty thrillers before, Breathing Underwater and The Fear Artist. (The new one, For the Dead is scheduled to drop in November.) But in this episode, we're mainly talking about his Junior Bender series about an ethical burglar who is often strong-armed into being a private eye for the criminal set. What started of as a fairly comic series has deepened with the melancholy of realization that his criminal enterprise has cost him dearly in his personal life. Herbie's Game is the fourth book in the series, and it's published by SOHO Crime.

Direct download: CASE052-TIM_HALLINAN-HERBIES_GAME.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 10:43am EDT
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C.J. Box is and Edgar-winning novelist best known for his Joe Pickett series, which started in 2001 with Open Season, and the fourteenth one, Stone Cold, was published earlier this year. He's also started a series of stand alone novels, in which a different character carries over to the next book. We'll be talking about his first collection of short stories, Shots Fired: Stories from Joe Picket Country, and it's available from Putnam.




Direct download: CJ_BOX_2014_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 1:19pm EDT
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Earl Swift is a veteran journalist and author of non-fiction books. His latest book Auto Biography: A Classic Car, an Outlaw Motorhead, and 57 Years of the American Dream, had its genesis as a feature piece he wrote in 2004 about the many owners of a 1957 Chevrolet station wagon. The outlaw motorhead in question is one Tommy Armey, whose tumultuous upbringing contributed to his being the meanest brawler in the Virginia Beach metro area, as well as an entrepreneur whose regard for legal restrictions was minimal at best.

Direct download: EARL_SWIFT_2014_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 11:16am EDT
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Smith Henderson has won a 2011 PEN Emerging Writers Award for fiction and a Pushcart Prize. Ecco/Harper Collins recently published his debut novel, Fourth of July Creek, the story of a Montana social worker who faces a crumbling personal life while he's trying to help the young son of a religious survivalist living in the hills above his small town.

Direct download: SMITH_HENDERSON_2014_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT
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Here's a second chat I had with Charles Graeber a few months after we originally spoke about his true crime book, The Good Nurse: The True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder. This conversation hits a few different points from the first time around, and now the book is available in paperback.

Direct download: CHARLES_GRAEBER_2014_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 1:26pm EDT
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Lisa Turner's first novel A Little Death in Dixie featured police detective Billy Able searching for a missing socialite. Her new novel, The Gone Dead Train, has detective Able back on the track looking for the person responsible for the suspicious deaths of two musicians.

Direct download: LISA_TURNER_2014_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 7:00pm EDT
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Peter Heller's written several books of non-fiction in addition to many years of fine writing for magazines. When last on the program, we spoke about his debut novel, The Dog Stars, and in this episode, we'll talk about his new one, The Painter, about an artist with a violent temper who has to deal with the life or death consequences of his actions.

Direct download: PETER_HELLER_2014_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 10:37am EDT
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