Shoot Between the Lines: Mystery Writers Reveal All

Sun., June 30
3-4 p.m.
McCormick Place, N128

Don’t have a clue? Come to this program and hear from Jeff Abbott, John Dufresne, Sara Gran, Michael Harvey, Lars Kepler, and Ingrid Thoft, who’d like to share theirs with you. Library Journal’s Barbara Hoffert will moderate.

Jeff Abbott

Downfall, Grand Central Publishing/Hachette
July 2013; $26.99; 978-1-455-52843-1

Jeff Abbott is the New York Times-bestselling, award-winning author of 13 novels. His books include the Sam Capra thrillers Adrenaline and The Last Minute, as well as the standalone novels Panic, Fear, and Collision. The Last Minute won an International Thriller Writers award, and Jeff is also a three-time nominee for the Edgar award. He lives in Austin with his family.

John Dufresne

No Regrets, Coyote, W. W. Norton & Company
July 2013; $25.95; 978-0-393-07053-8

John Dufresne is the author of seven books, including the New York Times Notable Books Love Warps the Mind a Little and Louisiana Power & Light. He teaches in the creative writing department at Florida International University and lives in Dania Beach.

Sara Gran

Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
June 2013; $20; 978-0-547-42933-5

Sara Gran is the author of several critically acclaimed novels, including Come Closer, hailed as "hypnotic, disturbing . . . Genuinely scary" (Bret Easton Ellis), Dope, and Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead. A former bookseller and native of Brooklyn, she now lives in Northern California.

Michael Harvey

The Innocence Game, Knopf/Random House
May 2013; $24.95; 978-0-307-96125-9

Michael Harvey is the author of The Chicago Way, The Fifth Floor, The Third Rail, and We All Fall Down, and is also a journalist and documentary producer. His work has received numerous national and international awards, including multiple news Emmys, two Primetime Emmy nominations, and an Academy Award nomination. He holds a law degree with honors from Duke University, a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University, and a bachelor's degree, magna cum laude, in classical languages from Holy Cross College. He lives, of course, in Chicago.

Lars Kepler

The Fire Witness, Farrar, Straus & Giroux/Macmillan
July 2013; $27; 978-0-374-29866-1

Alexander and Alexandra Ahndoril, both established writers with several published books, teamed up professionally for the first time to write The Hypnotist. The pseudonym Lars Kepler allowed them to separate their earlier, independent work, from this new common authorship, and they even submitted the manuscript anonymously. Five days later, publisher Albert Bonniers knew they had a nail-biting best seller in the vein of Stieg Larsson's novels. Still, the Ahndorils did not want to reveal their true identity. With successful separate careers, and a well-functioning life together with their three children, they felt no need to come clean. As expected, the media launched a huge investigation, and it wasn’t long before one of Sweden's largest tabloids paid a visit to their summer home, urging them to confess that they had written one of the most widely read European books of 2010.

Ingrid Thoft

Loyalty, Putnam/Penguin
Jun3 2013; $25.95; 978-0-399-16212-1

Ingrid Thoft was born in Boston and is a graduate of Wellesley College. Her interest in the PI life and her desire to create a believable PI character led her to the certificate program in private investigation at the University of Washington.  She lives in Seattle with her husband. Loyalty is her first novel.