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Editorial Content for Bad Intentions

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

If you already are familiar with Karin Fossum's Inspector Konrad Sejer series, you really have no need to read further. In fact, you probably have already obtained the original native language version of BAD INTENTIONS and hired your best friend's Norwegian aunt to read it to you. For the uninitiated, Fossum's talent is nothing less than stunning; and reading just the first few pages of this book --- lovingly translated by Charlotte Barslund --- will no doubt make you a fan for life. Read More

Teaser

In the newest installment of the Inspector Sejer series, Sejer must determine why the corpses of troubled young men keep surfacing in local lakes.

Promo

In the newest installment of the Inspector Sejer series, Sejer must determine why the corpses of troubled young men keep surfacing in local lakes.

About the Book

In the wake of Stieg Larsson’s bestselling novels, readers are discovering the rich trove of modern Scandinavian crime fiction. If you’ve devoured the Millennium trilogy and are looking for your next read, Karin Fossum and her bone-chillingly bleak psychological thrillers have won the admiration of the likes of Ruth Rendell and Colin Dexter (of Inspector Morse fame). 

In BAD INTENTIONS, the newest installment in the Inspector Sejer series since THE WATER'S EDGE in 2009, Konrad Sejer must face down his memories and fears as he struggles to determine why the corpses of troubled young men keep surfacing in local lakes. 

The first victim, Jon Moreno, was getting better. His psychiatrist said so, and so did his new friend at the hospital, Molly Gram, with her little-girl-lost looks. He was racked by a mysterious guilt that had driven him to a nervous breakdown one year earlier. But when he drowns in Dead Water Lake, Sejer hesitates to call it a suicide. 

Then another corpse is found in a lake, a Vietnamese immigrant. And Sejer begins to feel his age weigh on him. Does he still have the strength to pursue the elusive explanations for human evil?

Interview: Hillary Jordan, author of When She Woke

Oct 6, 2011

After the enormous success of her first novel, MUDBOUND, Hillary Jordan’s second book, WHEN SHE WOKE, takes us years into a startling future. Now a ruthless theocracy, America is governed by a repressive system in which criminals of all varieties are forced to have their skin permanently dyed according to the severity of their crime. After an adulterous affair followed by an abortion, protagonist Hannah Payne must face the lifelong shame of becoming a Chrome. In this interview, conducted by Bookreporter.com’s Donna Volkenannt, Jordan discusses her various sources of inspiration for the imaginative plot, as well as why she loves setting her stories in the South. She also recommends some of her favorite upcoming books and shares a charming anecdote about her first reaction to the cover design for WHEN SHE WOKE.

The Descendants

Jesmyn Ward, author of SALVAGE THE BONES

October is National Reading Group Month! How old were you when you *first* joined a reading group?

October 1, 2011, 619 voters

October 2011

Writing this on a beautiful fall afternoon as we head into a long weekend. Lovely!

I got a note from a reader about her book club this week with a problem that she would like some feedback on. It seems they are bursting at the seams in membership, which is why they now meet at a library instead of people’s homes. They had 26 members as of June, and now members are asking friends to tag along. At this month's meeting, some hadn't even read the book and some never verbally participated. It appeared they enjoyed some refreshments and listened to others discuss a book. The group was so large that little side discussions were going on here and there, and the leader had to use her “schoolteacher voice” to ask them to wait their turn and share what they had to say with everyone. They almost needed a microphone for some of the participants. Do any of you have any suggestions on how the group leader can handle this? All ideas are welcome. Please send them to Katherine Tandler at [email protected].

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Author Talk: Alma Katsu, author of The Taker

Sep 29, 2011

THE TAKER, Alma Katsu’s debut novel, begins with Lanny, an immortal woman who arrives at a hospital in Maine in the middle of a cold night and confesses to a murder. Inspired in part by Katsu’s upbringing in “ancient houses that creaked with every passing breeze,” Lanny’s complex saga gradually unfolds, telling of a world where magic, reality and timeless love converge. In this interview, Katsu discusses her childhood fascination with “the spooky and supernatural,” and ties the atmospheric components of the story to her unique ideas about the coexistence of science, religion and human experience. She also describes the process of simultaneously writing in multiple voices, tenses and time periods, and gives several tantalizing glimpses into the two upcoming sequels.

Editorial Content for Serial

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

I have to hand it to John Lutz. When you pick up one of his novels, you better plan on giving it your undivided attention. He begins with a horrific crime visited upon an innocent, the specifics of which are revealed as the police investigation gradually unfolds.

"If Lutz’s novels were simply gore fests and nothing else, there would be little to recommend repeated returns to his work. But Lutz uses the graphic descriptions of the murders as an initial draw, something to get the clock ticking very loudly and quickly."

Teaser

In SERIAL, the latest Frank Quinn thriller, Quinn and his quirky, prickly team are brought in as consultants almost immediately when a fiend who quickly becomes known as the Skinner begins preying on seemingly random people in Manhattan.

Promo

In SERIAL, the latest Frank Quinn thriller, Quinn and his quirky, prickly team are brought in as consultants almost immediately when a fiend who quickly becomes known as the Skinner begins preying on seemingly random people in Manhattan.

About the Book

Frank Quinn is sure he is hunting for a madman: someone who is shooting young women in the heart, defiling their bodies, leaving only the torsos to be found. Quinn, a former NYPD detective, is called into the case by an ambitious chief of police and mobilizes his team of brilliant law-enforcement misfits. But in the concrete canyons of New York, this shocking serial murder case is turning into something very different...

Jill Clark came to the city with too many hopes and too little cash. Now a seemingly deranged woman is telling her an extraordinary story. New to an exclusive dating service, Jill is warned that other women have died on their dates-and that she could be next. Struggling against a death trap closing in around her, Jill has a powerful ally in Frank Quinn. But no one knows the true motives behind a rampage of cold-blooded murder --- or how much more terrifying this is going to get...

Editorial Content for The Stranger You Seek

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

One of the many great things about genre fiction is that there is no lack of something new from someone you’ve never read before. Amanda Kyle Williams is the someone, and her debut novel, THE STRANGER YOU SEEK, is the something. I predict that you will quickly enjoy becoming familiar with both.

"THE STRANGER YOU SEEK is an impressive novel, debut or otherwise, that will leave you wanting more from both character and author."

Promo

Ex-FBI profiler Keye Street is given her last shot to help catch a serial killer who has eluded police for years --- one who has now taken a terrifyingly personal interest in Keye.

About the Book

The papers have called me a monster. You’ve either concluded that I am a braggart as well as a sadist or that I have a deep and driving need to be caught and punished.    
 
In the sweltering heat of an Atlanta summer, a killer is pushing the city to its breaking point, preying on the unsuspecting, writing taunting letters to the media, promising more death. Desperate to stop the Wishbone Killer before another victim meets a shattering end, A.P.D. lieutenant Aaron Rauser turns to the one person he knows can penetrate a deranged mind: ex–FBI profiler Keye Street.
 
And you must certainly be wondering if I am, in fact, the stranger you seek.
 
Keye was a rising young star at the Bureau until addiction derailed her career and her life. Now sober and fighting to stay so, Keye picks up jobs where she can get them: catching adulterers, serving subpoenas, chasing down bailjumpers, and dodging the occasional bullet. With multiple victims, little to go on, and an entire police force looking for direction, the last thing Keye wants is to be pulled into the firestorm of Atlanta’s worst nightmare.
 
Shall I convince you?
 
And then it suddenly becomes clear that the hunter has become the hunted --- and the stranger she seeks is far closer than she ever dared imagine.

An electrifying thriller debut, THE STRANGER YOU SEEK introduces a brash, flawed, and unforgettable heroine in a complex, twisting novel that takes readers deep into a sultry Southern summer, a city in the grips of chaos, and a harrowing cat-and-mouse game no reader will ever forget.