Literary Crimes: A Discussion: Lynne Barrett, Joseph Olshan, Joy Castro and Emily St. John Mandel

Sunday, Nov. 18, 10:30 a.m., Room 8303 (Building 8, 3rd Floor)

Author(s) and Guest(s)

Lynne Barrett

In Lynne Barrett's short-story collection, Magpies (Carnegie-Mellon University Press, $17.95), winner of the 2012 Florida Book Award for general fiction, characters move through the past decade's glitter and darkness. From the Internet's fragmented pages to a gossip columnist’s sweet poison to the ABCs of a hurricane season, these stories explore storytelling as a means of connection, betrayal, and survival. Barrett, an Edgar Allen Poe prize winner, is also the author of The Secret Names of Women and The Land of Go.

Joseph Olshan

Joseph Olshan’s latest literary thriller is Cloudland (St. Martin’s Press, $ 24.99). Catharine is a former reporter for a major newspaper who has retreated to the Upper Valley of Vermont to write a household hints column. She discovers a body she suspects is the latest victim of a serial killer. She also uncovers some unexpected personal connections to the crime. “ . . .a truly involving thriller with the bones and brain of a serious work of literature . . .” Peter Straub. Olshan’s first novel Clara’s Heart was made into a feature film. His other novels include The Conversion, Nightswimmer, and The Sounds of Heaven.

Joy Castro

Hell or High Water (Thomas Dunne Books, $25.99) is Joy Castro’s psychological thriller, set in post-Katrina New Orleans. An ambitious young reporter at the Times-Picayune, catches a break: an assignment to write her first full-length investigative feature about sex offenders who have fallen off the grid since the city was evacuated. As her investigation leads her into darker corners of the city, she has to hide her work from her friends, and must ultimately re-visit her painful past. “This mystery falls into the very short category of ‘instant, and intelligent, page-turner.’. . .”—Suspense Magazine. Castro’s memoir, The Truth Book was elected an ABA Book Sense Notable Book.

Emily St. John Mandel

Emily St. John Mandel’s latest novel, The Lola Quartet (Unbridled Books, $24.95) pays homage to literary noir and jazz, Django Reinhardt, economic collapse, love and loss, Florida’s exotic wildlife problem, crushing tropical heat, compulsive gambling, and the unreliability of memory. Gavin is slowly unraveling because of a failed relationship. He is less than pleased to be sent to Florida for his next story. But when his sister shows him the photo of a little girl that looks just like him, some hope blooms in his life as he begins to question his past. Mandel is the author of the novels Last Night in Montreal and The Singer’s Gun.