Getting inside the works of the American master of horror and science fiction.
See if Les is coming to a bookstore near you.
The Anthony Award-nominated YA writer talks about Hero Complex, the second novel in the Keaton School series.
Margaux’s main character, Devon Mackintosh, is a fish out of water at her boarding school, which gives her a unique perspective. Pretty handy when you’re trying to get to the bottom of a mysterious death school authorities would prefer everyone accept as accidental. Some of the best writing in genre fiction is being done in the YA category, so why should young people have all the fun?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
What better way to celebrate the publication day of The Empire of Night than listening to the author read chapter one!
Signed first edition copies of The Empire of Night are available from MYSTERIOUS BOOKSHOP
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
In The Empire of Night, we pick up the story of Christopher Marlowe Cobb, who survived the sinking of the Lusitania, as he hunts down German sympathizers in the British aristocracy during the early months of World War One.
The idea of Christoper “Kit” Cobb, grew out of “The One in White,” a short story written in 2004 for The Atlantic. In our interview Robert tells us what sparked the idea for the story, as well as why a series that takes place in World War One is more timely than you might suspect.
The postcard that inspired “The One in White.”
Review of The Empire of Night in the Tampa Bay Times.
Photo of Robert Olen Butler © Kelly Lee Butler.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Having survived the sinking of the Lusitania, American Secret Agent Christopher Marlowe Cobb returns in The Empire of Night.
For this mission, Kit must find a German mole in the British aristocracy and for this he has help—from his mother, Isabel Cobb, one of the world’s most famous stage actresses.
Look for our interview with Pulitzer Prize winning author Robert Olen Butler here on the site and in iTunes, Monday, October 6.
Billy Boyle is back in The Rest Is Silence, the ninth installment in the series of Billy Boyle World War II Mysteries.
James. R. Benn first book, On Desperate Ground, took place during World War II, but was not a mystery. But one of the story’s secondary characters, police detective Billy Boyle, stayed with him. And James has returned the favor by staying with him: the ninth in the Billy Boyle World War II mysteries, The Rest Is Silence, was published a few weeks ago. And the next one, The White Ghost, due in 2015, has just been completed. In his interview James provides a tantalizing preview to Billy Boyle’s next adventure. Or rather, tells the story of an adventure Billy had back in 1943 in the Pacific investigating another Bostonian who had lost his ship. His PT boat to be exact.
Photo of James R. Benn © D. Mandel
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
The writer of the Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes series of mysteries talks to Leslie Klinger and Nancie Clare about projects past, present and future.
Laurie talks about her next Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes mystery, Dreaming Spies; the creative highs and lows of writing a series; Career Day, the stand alone thriller scheduled for publication in April 2016; and In the Company of Sherlock Holmes, the anthology of Sherlock Holmes-John Watson stories that she and Les edited, which is scheduled for publication this coming November.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Can it really be 20 years since Mary Russell met Sherlock Holmes in The Beekeeper’s Apprentice?
In SoM’s next podcast, Laurie R. King talks to Les Klinger and me about her next Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes novel, Dreaming Spies, when (or if) we can expect another addition to Stuyvesant and Grey series that began with Touchstone and In the Company of Sherlock Holmes, the anthology of Holmes and Watson stories written by contemporary authors that she and Les edited. Look for our podcast with Laurie here on the site and in iTunes, Monday, September 15 .
In Sabotage, Matt Cook’s first thriller, a luxury cruise ship in the North Atlantic is paralyzed by an electromagnetic pulse, an enigmatic Stanford professor and founder of a high tech defense company disappears and a group of Stanford students of a variety of disciplines are the only ones who can save both—and the world—from Viking pirates.
For his interdisciplinary team of Stanford students, Matt Cook drew on his experiences participating in “The Game,” Stanford’s annual combination treasure hunt-puzzle fest-road rally that sends groups of students from different majors careening throughout the San Francisco Bay Area looking for clues and solving puzzles not for a prize, but for the bragging rights that success brings. (Matt’s team won in his sophomore year.)
Matt cites two writers of different genres and writing styles as influences: Fantasy writer Terry Goodkind and Navy thriller novelist, Jeff Edwards.
But one of the coolest things about Sabotage, at least in my opinion, is former Air Force combat meteorologist, Jacob Rove. Maybe one of fiction’s most unique heroes.
And, in a first that I thought was both flattering and very cool, an interviewee asked to have his picture taken with me.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
A luxury cruise liner in the North Atlantic loses power, a noted Stanford aerospace engineering professor disappears and a group of Stanford students from varying disciplines makes Sabotage a mighty compelling read. Oh, and there are pirates, too.
Matt Cook, recent Stanford University graduate and current doctoral student in economics at the University of Pennsylvania, brings together a brilliant, albeit motley, crew to battle against thoroughly modern pirates in Sabotage, his first novel due out in September.
