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

 

 

 
Alexander Weinstein's fiction has appeared in Notre-Dame Review, Pleiades,Southern Indiana Review, and other journals. His stories have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, and appear in the anthologies 2013 New Stories from the Midwest, and the 2014 & 2015 Lascaux Prize Stories. Today we'll be talking about his debut collection, Children of the New World, which is published by Picador.
Direct download: ALEXANDER_WEINSTEIN_2016_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 9:49am EDT
Comments[0]



Beth Macy is a journalist having written for The Roanoke Times and has contributed essays to The New York Times.  She's written two best-selling books of non-fiction. The first was Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local -- and Helped Save an American Town, and today we'll be talking about Truevine: Two Brothers, a Kidnapping, and a Mother's Quest: A True Story of the Jim Crow South.

Direct download: BETH_MACY_2016_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 9:39am EDT
Comments[0]



Beverly Lowry is a respected novelist and writer of non-fiction. In addition to biographies of Harriet Tubman and Madame C.J. Walker, her book Crossed Over: A Monster, A Memoir dealt with the unsolved crime of her son's death by a hit and run driver and her getting to know Karla Faye Tucker, the convicted murderer who became the first woman executed in Texas in over 100 years. Today we'll be talking about her new book, Who Killed These Girls?, her investigation to the still unresolved murders of four teenage girls in a yogurt shop in Austin Texas in December of 1991.

Direct download: BEVERLY_LOWRY_2016_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT
Comments[0]



Robert Olen Butler back to the program today. Bob is one of America's most acclaimed writers of fiction, having not only won many literary honors, including the Pulitzer Prize, but he also had prize for short fiction named in his honor, which was award five times in the early 2000s. Early in his writing career, Butler wrote fiction about the Vietnam conflict from several different angles, and in his latest novel, Perfume River, he looks about how this war, and even wars before and since, have influenced the Quinlan family.

Direct download: ROBERT_OLEN_BUTLER_2016_WYPL_BOOKTALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT
Comments[0]

 

 
Candice Millard is a former writer and editor for National Geographic Magazine. Her first book The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey was published in 2005. Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of A President, which won an Edgar for best fact crime book, followed in 2011. Doubleday has recently published her third book, Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape and the Making of Winston Churchill, which has already spent several weeks in the top ten of the New York Times Best Sellers list.
Direct download: CANDICE_MILLARD_2016_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 10:25am EDT
Comments[0]

 
Thomas Mullen has published four novels, The Last Town on Earth, which won the James Fenimore Cooper prize, The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers, The Revisionists, and Atria has recently published his latest, Darktown, set in the dawning of the Civil Rights era in Atlanta. Eight African-American men are the first hired onto the police force, and two of them Lucius Boggs and Tommy Smith are tested as they investigate a black woman's murder, complicated by the fact she was seen last with a disgraced, white ex-cop who still has friends on the force.
 
 

 

Direct download: THOMAS_MULLEN_2016_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 3:21pm EDT
Comments[0]



Nathan Hill has worked as a journalist and is currently on leave from his job as an associate professor of creative writing. He's just published his debut novel The Nix to much critical acclaim, including starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Kirkus. And it was recently announced that Meryl Streep and J.J. Abrams plan on adapting The Nix for television.


Direct download: NATHAN_HILL_2016_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 2:47pm EDT
Comments[0]



Kerri Maniscalco is a debut novelist who has the honor of being the first author published by James Patterson's new young adult imprint called Jimmy Patterson Books and is distributed by Little, Brown. Stalking Jack the Ripper is the story of a 17-year-old girl named Audrey Rose Wadsworth who is fascinated by the Jack the Ripper case and is then terrified to learn that Jack might be closer to her than she suspects. Also, Stalking Jack the Ripper debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestsellers list for young adult hardcover! Congratulations Kerri!


Direct download: KERRI_MANISCALCO_2016_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 10:08am EDT
Comments[0]



Jason Miller is a noted Twitter funny person and contributor to the RiffTrax movie satire series. Jason first appeared on Book Talk in 2015 to talk about the first book in his Slim in Little Egypt mystery series, Down Don't Bother Me. 2016 brings book two in the series set in southern Illinois coal country, Red Dog.

Direct download: JASON_MILLER_2016_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 2:15pm EDT
Comments[0]



Donald Ray Pollock came to writing later in life after having worked 30+ years in a paper mill in central Ohio. His first published book was a collection of short stories called Knockemstiff, followed by the novel, The Devil All the Time. 2016 sees the release of his second novel, The Heavenly Table, which is published by Doubleday.

Direct download: DONALD_RAY_POLLOCK_2016_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 6:00pm EDT
Comments[0]



Brad Taylor retired as lieutenant colonel from the United States Army after over 20 years of service, including time in what is popularly known as Delta Force. He then began writing thrillers about a shadowy special forces unit called The Taskforce, starring operator Pike Logan. The first book in the series was One Rough Man, and now in the summer of 2016, we have the tenth book in the series, Ghosts of War, which is published by Dutton.


 
Direct download: BRAD_TAYLOR_2016_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT
Comments[0]



Ace Atkins used to be a crime reporter down in Tampa, Florida, but turned to the world of fiction with his New Orleans set Nick Travers series. He then wrote four critically acclaimed historical novels based on true crimes. His currently writing two series. One is continuing the Spenser series for the Robert B. Parker estate, and his own Quinn Colson series, set in northern Mississippi, about an Army Ranger who retires back to his hometown and takes over as sheriff. Today we'll talk about the most recent book in the series, The Innocents.

Direct download: ACE_ATKINS_2016_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 10:45am EDT
Comments[0]

 

 

Melissa Ginsburg teaches English and creative writing at the university of Mississippi, having received her MFA from the prestigious Iowa Writers' Workshop. As a writer, she is a poet and a novelist having published the collection of poems, Dear Weather Ghost, and Ecco/Harper Collins has recently published her debut novel, Sunset City.
 
 
Direct download: MELISSA_GINSBURG_2016_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT
Comments[0]



Megan Miranda has enjoyed a lot of success in writing novels for young adults like Hysteria, Fracture, and The Safest Lies. Today we'll be talking about her first novel for the adult market, All the Missing Girls, about a woman returning to her small North Carolina hometown to face a new mystery and some old lies.

Direct download: MEGAN_MIRANDA_2016_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT
Comments[0]



John Hart is a former criminal defense attorney who turned into one of America's most popular and respected writers of literary crime fiction. 2006 saw the publication of his debut novel, The King of Lies, his next two novels 2007's Down River and 2009's The Last Child each won the Edgar Award for Best novel, and Iron House followed in 2011. 2016 sees the publication of his fifth novel, Redemption Road, which is published by Thomas Dunne Books.

Direct download: JOHN_HART_2016_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 12:02pm EDT
Comments[0]


Stuart Gibbs is a veteran screenwriter who has moved to the world of fiction for younger readers. He started off with the Last Musketeer series, and is now juggling three different series, Fun Jungle, Spy School, and Moonbase Alpha. Today Stuart and I will talk about the second entry into the Moonbase Alpha mystery series, Spaced Out.

Direct download: STUART_GIBBS_2016_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 2:03pm EDT
Comments[0]




Jeff Crook is a veteran writer of fantasy novels, but in 2011 he broke into crime fiction scene with The Sleeping and the Dead, a novel starring a heroin addicted crime scene photographer who got her hands on a haunted camera. 2016 sees the publication of the second book in the series, The Covenant, published by Minotaur.

Download here.

</span

Direct download: JEFF_CROOK_2016_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 3:22pm EDT
Comments[0]




Katy Simpson Smith received rave reviews for her debut novel set in coastal Carolina during the Revolutionary War, The Story of Land and Sea, when it was published in 2014. 2016 welcomes the publication of her second novel, Free Men, set in the 1780s in what would become the state of Alabama.

 
Free Men is published by Harper. 
Direct download: KATY_SIMPSON_SMITH_2016_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 3:11pm EDT
Comments[0]



Mark Greaney has been at the top of best-seller lists for co-authoring several of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan novels, as well as writing several Ryan novels after Mr. Clancy's passing. However, Mark got his publishing start with his own original series about burned CIA operative, Court Gentry. Back Blast is the fifth installment in the series, which has Gentry returning to America to find out why the CIA wants him dead.

Direct download: MARK_GREANEY_2016.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 11:43am EDT
Comments[0]




Ed Tarkington is a teacher and writer from Nashville, TN whose work has appeared in the Nashville Scene, The Commercial Appeal, The Pittsburgh Quarterly, and The Southeast Review. Algonquin has recently published his debut novel, Only Love Can Break Your Heart.



Direct download: Ed_Tarkington_2016.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 4:00pm EDT
Comments[0]

 



Chris Bohjalian is prolific, best-selling author having enjoyed much success, commercial and critical, with novels like Midwives, The Double Bind, and The Sandcastle Girls. Doubleday has recently published his seventeenth novel, The Guest Room, about a horrific bachelor party and its effect on one family and also the young women forced into the sex trade far from home.

Download here.

Direct download: CHRIS_BOHJALIAN_2016_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 5:07pm EDT
Comments[0]



Stephen Usery talks to Heidi Pitlor about her second novel, The Daylight Marriage, which is new in paperback. It's the story of a woman who goes missing, and then we see timelines of how her disappearance affects her husband and children, as well as how they became a couple and the events of the day leading up to her going missing.

Direct download: HEIDI_PITLOR_2016_WYPL_BOOK_TALK.mp3
Category:Arts - Literature -- posted at: 10:53am EDT
Comments[0]

1