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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Actor and novelist Lyndsay Faye's first novel was a continuation of the Sherlock Homes and John Watson universe called Dust and Shadow. She then moved her efforts to New York in the 1840s with The Gods of Gotham, Seven for a Secret, and the newest one featuring copper star policeman Timothy Wilde, The Fatal Flame.

Direct download: LYNDSAY_FAYE_2015_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT
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Richard Lange is a former magazine editor and currently a writer of literary crime fiction. His novels are This Wicked World and Angel Baby, which won the Hammett Prize, and he's published two collections of short stories Dead Boys, and the book we'll talk about today, Sweet Nothing, which is available from Mullholland Books.



Direct download: RICHARD_LANGE_2015_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 10:20am EDT
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Jason Miller has written for graphic novels, Rifftrax, the spin off of Mystery Science Theater 3000, and was recently named one of the funniest people on Twitter.This debut novel was recent published, and it's entitled Down Don't Bother Me. It's the story of a coal miner in southern Illinois who gets dragged into investigating a missing person case which threatens to bring the ceiling down on everyone.


Direct download: JASON_MILLER_2015_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 8:00am EDT
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David Joy is the author of the memoir, Growing Gills: A Fly Fisherman's Journey, and Putnam has recently published his debut novel, Were All Light Tends to Go, which paints a vivid picture of a meth-dealing family in the Appalachians in western North Carolina.

Direct download: DAVID_JOY_2015_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 8:45am EDT
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Jamie Kornegay owns Turnrow Books down in the Mississippi Delta town of Greenwood, but his debut novel is set in the hill country of Northern Mississippi. It's entitled Soil and is published by Simon and Schuster.

Direct download: JAMIE_KORNEGAY_2015_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 2:41pm EDT
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Michael Kardos was last on to talk about his debut novel,The Three Day Affair,which was named an Esquire Best Book of The Year. The Mysterious Press has just published his second novel,and it's called Before He Finds Her.


Direct download: MICHAEL_KARDOS_2015_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 2:35pm EDT
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Bill Loehfelm made a splash with two stand-alone crime novels, Blood Root and Fresh Kills. 2011 saw character Maureen Coughlin debut in The Devil She Knows, 2013 brought us The Devil in Her Way, and Sarah Chrichton books has just published the third installment of the series, Doing the Devil's Work.

Direct download: BILL_LOEHFELM_2015_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT
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Scott Blackwood teaches creative writing at Southern Illinois University and has written a two volume history of Paramount Records, a short story collection called In The Shadow of our House, and his first novel We Agreed to Meet Just Here. In this episode, we talk about his new novel, See How Small, which is published by Little, Brown. It's an impressionistic take on how a horrific crime in Austin, TX affects the lives of those left behind.

Direct download: CASE053-SCOTT_BLACKWOOD.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 11:24am EDT
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M.O. Walsh is the director of the creative writing program at the University of New Orleans, and his pieces have appeared in The New York Times, The Southern Review, and The Best New American Voices. Putnam has recently published his debut novel, My Sunshine Away, which has already appeared on the New York Times Bestseller list.

Direct download: M_O_WALSH_2015_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 1:10pm EDT
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Tim Johnston is a writer of fiction with a YA novel called Never So Green, a collection of short stories, and a new novel from Algonquin Books. It's called Descent, and it's one of the best reviewed literary thrillers in recent memory.

 
If you would like to meet Tim and hear him read from his work, he'll have an event at the University of Memphis on Thursday, February 19, 2015 beginning at 5:30 in the Bluff Room at The University Center. The event is open to the public. For more information, call (901)678-3732.
Direct download: TIM_JOHNSTON_2015_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 3:37pm EDT
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We're happy to welcome Mark Greaney back to the program. Mark has previously appeared to discuss his Gray Man series of international thrillers, but today we'll talk about his latest NY Times best-selling novel in Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan series, Full Force and Effect.


Direct download: MARK_GREANEY_2015_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 3:14pm EDT
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