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




I'm honored to welcome Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr. to the program. In addition to his award-winning syndicated columns which originate with the Miami Herald, he also writes acclaimed novels like Freeman and Before I Forget. In this episode we discuss his latest novel, Grant Park, in which a newspaper columnist and his editor are already having a horrible day when they become entangled with two white-supremacist, wannabe terrorists.

Direct download: LEONARD_PITTS_JR_2015_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 1:26pm EDT
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Stephan Pastis is best known for his award-winning daily comic strip, Pearls Before Swine, which has a new treasury available, entitled, Pearls Gets Sacrificed. But today, we'll begin the conversation talking about Timmy Failure: Sanitized for Your Protectionthe fourth entry in his series about the less-than-great, grade-school detective.

 
Direct download: STEPHAN_PASTIS_2015_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 1:02pm EDT
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When last in our studio, Matthew Guinn and I talked about his debut novel, The Resurrectionist, which went on to be a finalist for the Edgar Award for best first novel. W.W. Norton has recently published his second novel, The Scribe, where a madman terrorizes the African-American citizens of Atlanta in the early 1880s.

Direct download: MATTHEW_GUINN_2015_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 10:21am EDT
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Credit: Tamara Beckwith

Adam Johnson back to the program today. Adam was last on Book Talk for his novel, The Orphan Master's Son which would go on to win the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and well as the Dayton Peace Prize. He's also previously published the novel Parasites Like Us, and the short story collection, Emporium. Today we discuss his success as well as his new collection of short stories, Fortune Smiles, which is published by Random House.

Direct download: ADAM_JOHNSON_2015_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 3:38pm EDT
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Amy Stewart might be best known as a writer of lively non-fiction about the natural world, with several books including Flower Confidential, Wicked Plants, and The Drunken Botanist, but today we talk about her fiction debut, Girl Waits with Gun, which is published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Direct download: AMY_STEWART_2015_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 2:31pm EDT
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Carrie Bebris is the author of the seven book series of mystery novels starring Elizabeth and Mister Darcy from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, the newest of which is The Suspicion at Sanditon, set in the world of Sanditon, the unfinished novel Austen had had worked on just prior to her death.

 
Direct download: CARRIE_BEBRIS_2015_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 2:00pm EDT
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The Honorable Martin Clark is a circuit court judge from the Commonwealth of Virginia, but we'll only be talking about the law as it is in the confines of his fourth novel, The Jezebel Remedy, which is published by Knopf.

Direct download: MARTIN_CLARK_2015_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT
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Ace Atkins is a former newspaper journalist and current writer of crime fiction. He started off with a series about the New Orleans private eye, Nick Travers. Then he moved on to a quartet of critically acclaimed novels based on historic true crimes. Currently he is continuing the Spenser series for the Robert B Parker estate, as well as writing his own series based in the northern Mississippi county of Tibbeha, the newest of which is called The Redeemers.


Direct download: ACE_ATKINS_2015_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 2:44pm EDT
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Jon Jefferson is one half of the Jefferson Bass writing team. Together with Dr. Bill Bass, who founded the famous Body Farm forensic research facility at the University of Tennessee, Jon has published two works of nonfiction, and nine novels featuring forensic genius Dr. Bill Brockton. The newest of which is The Breaking Point.


Direct download: JEFFERSON_BASS_2015_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT
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William Boyle is originally from New York but now calls Oxford, Mississippi home. His first novel, Gravesend, was published in 2013, and his collection of short stories, Death Don't Have No Mercy, was recently released by Broken River books.

Direct download: WILLIAM_BOYLE_2015_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT
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