A Night of Events: THE FRY CHRONICLES, A QUIET VENDETTA & A KILLER’S ESSENCE

Tomorrow night brings two out-of-town Overlook authors, as well as one northeastern native to bookstores across New York for an evening of readings, signings, and lively discussion. Award-winning English novelist R.J. Ellory, author of A Quiet Vendetta will be joined by A Killer’s Essence author Dave Zeltserman to promote their latest crime thrillers at Brooklyn’s BookCourt, while English comedian, actor, and autobiographer Stephen Fry will host a reading of his latest memoir, The Fry Chronicles at Barnes & Noble, Tribeca.

Heralded as one of the top practitioners of dark crime fiction writing today, Dave Zeltserman is the author of nine novels, including his most recent NYC-focused thriller, A Killer’s Essence. Shots ring out just a few feet from a Manhattan mystery bookstore. A woman is shot point blank, and her fingers severed. A prominent financier is found in a dumpster on the Upper West Side, again shot in the face. Underneath the BQE, a pack of dogs are fed poison and then shot execution-style. For NYPD detective Stan Green, these grisly murders can only be the act of one man—someone seriously deranged and seriously committed to a calculated, homicidal plan.

“Zeltserman’s lean but muscular style, so evident in ‘Killer’ and ‘The Caretaker of Lorne Field,’ is just as sharply honed here.” The Boston Globe

“A Killer’s Essence is a five-star psychological crime thriller liberally seasoned with Chef Zeltserman’s zesty secret sauce of subtle horror, jalapeno-hot sauce and intense intrigue, and has more twists that newfangled light bulbs. Stephen King fans will find the Hitchcock-like suspense and soft-core horror to be a spine-tingling thriller. It is one of my Top Ten Picks for 2011.” – The Big Thrill

Imagined by one of today’s premier thriller writers, R.J. Ellory’s A Quiet Vendetta begins with a seemingly straightforward crime: the New Orleans kidnapping of Catherine Ducane, the daughter of Louisiana’s governor. The cops react quickly, expecting the usual demand of a ransom for Catherine’s recovery, but the twisted, menacing nature of the case begins to grow clear when the mutilated remains of Catherine’s bodyguard are discovered.

“An engrossing tale about organized crime from the perspective of a kidnapper whose agenda will keep you guessing until the end.” – Entertainment Weekly

“An absorbing crime novel from Ellory (A Simple Act of Violence) covering more than 50 years of mob violence and American history . . .this is a brilliantly conceived tale of greed, politics, family loyalties, and vengeance.” – Publishers Weekly

Beloved actor, comedian, and writer Stephen Fry continues his life story in The Fry Chronicles, a brave, funny, and revealing coming of age memoir. Fry is best known for his comedic television roles, often played alongside his best friend and Cambridge classmate Hugh Laurie: the pair joined forces in the sketch comedy series A Bit of Fry and Laurie, and later played P.G. Wodehouse’s legendary duo in the 1990s series Jeeves and Wooster. In vibrant, starkly honest prose, this memoir tells the story of Fry’s inspiring transformation from troubled teenager to adored entertainer, tireless activist, and genuinely contented individual.

“Funny, poignant, exhausting.” – The Washington Post

"Honesty can be painful to read, but Fry is cheeky and thoughtful in equal measures, making this a must for his legion of fans.” —Publishers Weekly

We’ll be posting photos and videos from both events later in the week, so if you can’t make it to either reading, be sure to return here for a full recap. For thrill-seeking readers located outside of New York, R.J. Ellory will be taking A QUIET VENDETTA on the road this week to the following bookstores:

Wednesday, January 25^th

Park Road Books (Charlotte, NC)

7:00 PM

Thursday, January 26^th

Murder by the Book (Houston, TX)

6:30 PM

Friday, January 27^th

BookPeople (Austin, TX)

7:00 PM

Saturday, January 28^th

The Poisoned Pen (Scottsdale, AZ)

5:00 PM

Peter Quinn at NYU's Glucksman Ireland House TONIGHT!

A rainy fall Thursday in New York City--sounds like the perfect time to head over to NYU's beautiful Glucksman Ireland House to hear Peter Quinn read from and discuss his acclaimed new book, THE MAN WHO NEVER RETURNED.

This event is made possible by the New York Council for the humanities and is free for all with an NYU ID (all others are asked to make a $10 donation at the door).

Thanks for supporting Glucksman Ireland House along with Peter and we hope you enjoy hearing about The Man Who Never Returned as much as the rest of his standing-room-only audiences have this summer and fall!

Peter Quinn in the WSJ

The Wall Street Journal introduced its Greater New York section earlier this year, and we've enjoyed it greatly as a companion to our other classic New York papers--the Times, the Post, the Daily News. Our author Peter Quinn always seemed like a great fit for the section, and Steve Kurutz agreed, featuring Peter and his new book, The Man Who Never Returned, in his weekly Q&A with a New York personality.

Click here to go to the site and read the full article, but a few of our favorite questions and answers below!

The book does a wonderful job of evoking mid-1950s New York, with references to Wanamaker's department store and the Herald Tribune.

That's the city I grew up in. I'm old enough to have been on the Third Avenue El. That city is gone. Of course, that's part of the magic and pain of living in New York—it's always going away.

So are New Yorkers forced to be less sentimental?

New Yorkers are incredibly sentimental. They're never quite happy in the city that is. They want the city that was. When I was a kid, my parents talked about the city at the end of the war. Now people are saying it was such a great city in the '70s. It was so alive and creative. Yes, but the crime was also so bad that you couldn't ride the subways.

...

How did your years as a speechwriter for two governors and five Time Warner chairmen influence your fiction?

It helped me write for the ear. I went through two mergers at Time Warner. I got to observe human behavior in extremis. It's all in my books.

You retired as a speechwriter in 2007. Without a day job, have you become more productive as a novelist?

The day I retired I took my dog down to the train station to say goodbye to the people I rode the 6:18 train with. Since then I haven't got up at 5:30 once. I get done in 12 hours what I used to get done in two. It's hard to write all day, although James Patterson seems to be very productive. He sat behind me in English class at Manhattan College. I tell people, "Jim and I together have sold 150 million books, worldwide. James Patterson has sold 149,996,000. I sold the rest."

For more information on Peter Quinn, check out our archives here on the Winged Elephant or his website, which has gotten praise from reviewers and bloggers alike. And if you're looking for a smart, fun, and unpredictable thriller, check out The Man Who Never Returned and let us know what you think!

Behind the Scenes with Overlook: With Peter Quinn and New York 1

Here's a sneak peek at Peter Quinn's interview on NY1, where he retraced the steps of Judge Joseph Crater on the last day he was seen alive. The New York State Supreme Court Justice disappeared on August 6, 1930, and was never seen again. It remains one of New York's most famous unsolved mysteries.

But it's not unsolved in Quinn's new book The Man Who Never Returned, on sale next Thursday from Overlook. Using his real-life knowledge of New York and extensive research, Quinn has crafted a story whose conclusion is both "logical and surprising" (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

A few photos of his walk down W. 45th Street in New York City with NY1 reporter Rebecca Spitz are below. Enjoy! And get excited for The Man Who Never Returned!