Hank Phillippi Ryan tours with 'The Murder List'

WORCESTER—Author Hank Phillippi Ryan, on-air investigative reporter for Boston’s WHDH-TV and bestselling author of 11 thrillers, came to the city with her newest book, “The Murder List,” on Sept. 7.

Ryan spent years as a television reporter before writing fiction. Her career has provided a rich well of familiarity with crime and motivation, leading to ideas for her novels.

Hank Phillippi Ryan

The latest is a twisting exploration of the conflict between defending and prosecuting attorneys, each dedicated to seeking justice from an opposing point of view. She does so skillfully. To personalize the plot, Ryan created a young law student, Rachel, who is torn between her defense attorney husband’s side of the fence and that of her temporary employer, a powerful district attorney. There’s a fascinating pull between the two forces as Rachel observes them, but there’s also a sucker-punch conclusion that unites her with both sides of the legal question. 

The author has an impressive resume. She’s collected numerous top writing awards from mystery organizations, including five Agatha Awards and a Mary Higgins Clark Award. Her novels have been listed in Library Journal's Best of 2014, 2015, 2016 and her recent novel, “Trust Me,” made it to numerous “Best of 2018” lists. About her newest, “The Murder List,” the Library Journal says, “Masterly plotted—with a twisted ending—a riveting, character-driven story” and “a must-read for fans of legal thrillers.”

It is. The final chapter is a mind-blower.

Ryan says the book is a study, really, of “how defense and prosecuting attorneys compete, each with the goal of winning a murder trial.” Her thought process in creating the book is in itself a study in fiction writing:

“I was listening to my criminal defense husband discuss a murder case one day. One track of my mind was listening to his narrative, and the other track was thinking, ‘Wow, what a good guy he is.’ The authentic real thing—standing up for the little guy, protecting the rights of the individual against the vast power of the state and the prosecution, making sure the prosecution plays by the rules and that the trial is fair and just.”

Using her writer’s imagination, she twisted the notion a bit: “I thought, ‘what does the prosecutor’s wife think about her husband?’ Certainly, she thinks he’s a good guy—protecting the public, putting miscreants behind bars, keeping criminals off the streets, standing up for law and order.

 “So how, I thought, can everyone be a good guy? And I started thinking about ‘good,’ especially when it comes to the justice system, and realized that everyone involved chooses the side they think is the good side. And then they fight it out to see which ‘good’ wins.”

She had the basis for a book, then and there, but kept thinking:

“Added to that, the obsession with lawyers to win. You ask a lawyer, ‘What’s a good case?’ And they’ll say ‘winnable.’ So, given that they all think they’re good, and that they all want to win—and they’re always always in a battle with each other—doesn’t that set up perfect conflict? And the question of how far someone might go to win?”

It certainly could. But she needed characters to manifest the differences and interact. Hence, Rachel Stone.  “Add a newbie—a young lawyer wannabe who has to choose a side. So I created law student Rachel, trying to figure out her legal life.”

Alongside, she created two influences—Rachel’s brilliant defense attorney husband and her new employer, a powerful DA whom he despises. “Two sides, battling for the legal soul of this novice attorney, she said. “At least, that’s what they think they’re doing.” 

Insert a murder and a war ensues, with Rachel experiencing the warring viewpoints toward justice and more than a little trouble on the domestic front. In fact, no one is exactly as the reader expects in this book.

During her years with WHDH, Ryan saw enough criminal behavior and courtroom performance to draw conclusions about that niggling little flag of truth waving for all its worth under the weight of battling winds.

“I have been a television reporter for 43 years,” she said. “I have wired myself with hidden cameras, confronted corrupt politicians, chased down criminals and gone undercover and in disguise.” … I have covered court proceedings from the Claus Von Bulow murder to the Boston mobs, to the case that became ‘A Civil Action,’ and dozens of murder cases. So people ask, ‘Do you do research?’ and I say—I’ve been doing research for 40 years.”

The underlying competition is used to elevate suspense in this thriller. 

“To get ahead in a cut-throat business, people use whatever tactics they can devise and sometimes wind up doing things they might not have predicted they were capable of,” she said.

Despite the book’s contrivances, Ryan doesn’t use an outline as she crafts her story. “That’s what gets me to the computer every day,” she said. “I have to find out what happens next. So, when people say ‘Wow, I never saw that ending coming,’ I say, yeah, wasn’t that a surprise? I surprised myself! That’s part of the magic of writing. And that’s what makes it a joy every day.”

She’s not kidding. Ryan derives the energy she needs for a schedule pivoting from a reporting assignment for her editor to writing and, quite often, author appearances across the country. She has kept up with a very busy schedule, one that puts her on planes—writing.

“My goal is to make my books be realistic and authentic, so if I need to check facts of course I do—that’s part of the fun. But my stories, being fiction, rely on my experience in the real world, and are shaped by that. My thrillers are not my TV reporting turned into fiction, but all that deep experiences translates into making genuinely believable stories.”

She’s been pleased by reactions from those in the criminal justice field. “I’ve gotten so many emails from lawyers who have read ‘The Murder List,’ saying how pleased they were to read a book that not only nails the justice system, but also nails the relationships that attorneys have with each other, and their psychological drives and motivations.”

Ryan loves her life, despite her busy schedule. (She visited six or seven states during the first week of her current book tour.) Participants ask her all kinds of questions, including this uncommonly known fact: her name. “I get asked about my name, and where my story ideas come from, and whether I know the endings of my books before I start writing. The answers are: It’s a nickname for Harriet (which someone made up my first day of college); I have no idea, and No!”

“Having these successful novels is a dream come true, ever since I was a little girl reading Sherlock Holmes under the covers. I challenge myself to be better and better every time, to be a better writer, to make my books be more compelling and surprising—I want people to miss their stop on the T because they are so riveted by the book.”

Her goal must be in reach. CNN named “The Murder List” an ultimate beach read this year.

Consequently, she travels a lot, and her appearances are often before packed audiences. “It’s exciting and rewarding, and actually inspirational, to meet all the people who come to my signings or write me emails and want to chat about thrillers and the book world.,” she said. “There are very few vacations, and I have basically given up cooking. Don’t tell. Luckily, I have a very supportive husband.”

Would she change anything? “If we could possibly make the days have more hours, that would be very nice,” she said. “Other than that, I am the happiest and luckiest person ever.”

Preston's latest, "Crisis in the Red Zone" may stun you

Richard Preston has released a new book about Ebola, the disease that keeps on coming.
Preston first came to my attention with his riveting 1994 nonfiction best-seller about the outbreak of Ebola in Africa, “The Hot Zone.” Born in Cambridge, Preston graduated from Wellesley schools before departing these parts for the world of infectious disease, bioterror threats and, in 2011, co-author of Michael Crichton’s unfinished novel, “Micro,” after Crichton died.
He’s not a geek - or at least, he didn’t start out that way. His uninspired academic record blocked him from acceptance at Pomona College in California. It was only weekly collect calls to the dean that eventually earned him an acceptance. The dean took a risk, and it paid off: Preston graduated summa cum laude. He later earned a doctorate in English at Princeton University.
Since then, he’s been an investigative journalist. Preston has long been a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine. His attention to detail, horrific as it may be, has earned respect among scientists for precise writing and depth of research. The American Institute of Physics and the Centers for Disease Control both awarded his writing, among many others.
His latest, “Crisis in the Red Zone,” updates Ebola’s status and details the threat it presents in the future. The title refers to the quarantine area. “Patients die in the red zone,” he says. Preston writes of chaotic field hospitals struggling to contain the threat (in Zaire, 11,000 died, now, in Congo, more than 1,600 have so far died in the second outbreak). He profiles doctors and researchers committed to fighting a nearly uncontainable disease, at the risk of their own lives.
Don’t think the book will be a tome. His writing is fluid and exceptionally readable. Preston knows how to tell a story well, even when it’s the truth.

Recommendation
In related viral zone fiction, David Koepp, screenwriter for “Mission: Impossible” and “Spider-Man,” has a first novel, being released Sept. 3. “Cold Storage” is the story of a long-buried organism that emerges, threatening mass extinction. Fun topic for summer, right? It’s a thriller.

"The Guest Book"
Author Stephen King, highly recommends Sarah Blake’s novel, “The Guest Book,” to book clubs. “Lots to unpack there,” he says. Critics have also dubbed it “monumental” and “an American epic.” It revolves around a Crockett Island, Maine, family across three generations. I'm midway through it--it's multi-layered but fresh. Blake is available to Skype during club meetings. sarahblakebookclubs@gmail.com.

New England area writers

Knowing about local authors and buying their books will support the writing community near home and may also give you an advantage in finding someone to visit or Skype with your club.
A local independent bookstore is also likely to know who is writing excellent books within your community. Another way to find them is to look for readings at area writing collaboratives, libraries and organizations that spotlight writers in a literary series like the Jewish Community Center series in Worcester. Many regional authors have been profiled or mentioned in this column; a short listing may give your group its next read. (Not all are available for visits or Skype events.)
Ali Hosseini of Hudson, author of “The Lemon Grove” and “The Place of Stones,” beautifully depicts the Iranian culture of his youth and the conflicts in modern Iran that changed what was an idyllic life for its people to one of suffering amid war and loss of their livelihoods. It’s published by Northwestern University Press; his webpage is www.alihosseini.com.
Ursula Wong of Chelmsford, whose fictional series on the Lithuanian resistance to Soviet occupation after World War II began with “Amber Wolf” and continued with “Amber War” and “Amber Widow,” is also the author of short stories and the novel, “Purple Trees.” She is at work on “Black Amber,” about a Boston man who plots to stop Russian plans for a gas line under the Baltic Sea. She will sign books in Putnam, Connecticut, during the July 21 Lithuanian Summer Festival there. Contact urslwng@gmail.com.
Mary Bonina, who grew up in Worcester, became a sought-after teacher of memoir writing after writing her own, “My Father’s Eyes: A Memoir.” A Cambridge resident, Bonina gives readings at libraries and literary events. Contact her at http://www.marybonina.com.
Poet and songwriter Rich Marcello of Harvard has written several novels including “The Color of Home,” “The Big Wide Calm” and “The Beauty of the Fall.” He teaches creative writing through Seven Bridge Writers Collaborative in Lancaster and is writing “The Latecomers,” his fourth novel. Contact him at www.richmarcello.com/contact.
Joe W. Bebo of Hudson recently released “Alex - A Lesson in Courage,” the story of a special needs boy surrounded by many people who cared enough to make his life better. Other self-published books include historical fiction, sci-fi and horror. See more on Facebook. To contact, joewbebobooks@gmail.com.
Frances Brown of Webster writes paranormal romance, women’s fiction and contemporary romance under the pseudonym Claire Gem. If that’s your thing, her books include the newest, “Electricity,” from her Haunted Voices series. Learn more at https://clairegem.com. She’ll read from and sign copies of “Electricity” from 1 to 3 p.m. July 20 in Booklovers’ Gourmet, 55 East Main St., Webster. This is Gem’s seventh novel, set on the grounds of a former Massachusetts mental asylum.
Steven E. Huff of Worcester wrote two humorous (and helpful) books based on the “Better Call Saul” and “Breaking Bad” TV series. His books are “Don’t Go to Jail!: Saul Goodman’s Guide to Keeping the Cuffs Off” and a follow-up book, “Get Off the Grid! Saul Goodman’s Guide to Staying Off the Radar.” An expert on crime nitty-gritty, he’s appeared on NBC’s “Dateline,” CBS’s “48 Hours Mystery” and MSNBC. Deputy digital editor for Maxim magazine, he writes for various online outlets and founded the first true-crime blog, True Crime Report. He also sings opera! More info at facebook.com/stevehuff.
R.A. Salvatore is an internationally recognized writer of fantasy series. He lives most of the year in California now, working, but is a Leominster resident who began his writing career there. Books include the latest Drizzt novel, “Boundless;” the Forgotten Realms series of trilogies and books; the Demon Wars and Dark Elf series; and “Star Wars: The New Jedi Order.”
Worcester native Thomas Christopher Greene has written a half-dozen books, including “The Headmaster’s Wife” and “The Perfect Liar” (2019). They’re clever and inventive. He lives in Vermont, where he founded the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier. Thomaschristophergreene.com.

Field trips to author's homes near Boston

Field trip, book clubs! Summer offers an opportunity to visit literary locations. Concord is a big one, home to houses lived in by “Little Women” author Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Boston publisher Daniel Lothrop, whose wife, Harriet (Margaret Sidney), wrote the “Five Little Peppers” series.
It’s not as far away as Salem, where the actual House of Seven Gables is located, or Hartford, Conn., where Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) lived and wrote, and Concord has nearby shops and restaurants.
The Wayside — the first literary site added to the National Park Service — was first built around 1717 as home to Samuel Whitney, a Revolutionary war soldier. The Alcotts lived there after moving from communal living in Harvard. Louisa’s father, Bronson Alcott, was an eccentric who wanted no part of it (having not recovered from his failed living experiment at Harvard’s Fruitlands, another neat spot to visit).
They named the house Hillside. Neighbor and fellow author Ralph Waldo Emerson helped them find it, even loaning the family some money toward its purchase; Mrs. Alcott paid the rest. She would later tire of Concord and move the family toward Boston, selling to Nathaniel Hawthorne, for $1,500! It was Hawthorne who renamed it the Wayside.
Hawthorne lived there from 1852-1869, writing “The Scarlet Letter,” “House of the Seven Gables” and other fiction.
The public may visit; the house is part of Minute Man National Historical Park and located at 455 Lexington Road. These writers tackled issues familiar to Americans who know their history — the Alcotts sheltered at least two runaway slaves, becoming part of the Underground Railroad network. They lived in the house from 1845 to 1852, and this was where Louisa May Alcott envisioned much of the childhood portrayed in her book, “Little Women.”
Daniel and Harriet Lothrop and, subsequently, their daughter Margaret, owned the house between 1883 and 1965. While lesser known, Margaret’s “Little Peppers” series was a huge hit in the early 1900s. In 1965, it became part of the national park.
More summer club suggestions:
Katherine Howe, “The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs.”
The author of “The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane” returns with the story of a New England history professor engaged in a race against time to free her family from a curse. Look for it on shelves now.
Tom Phillips has released “Humans: A Brief History of How We F*cked It all Up.”
The fall book club discussion will be lively and unquestionably funny after the group reads this collection of “wish-you-were-there” moments from history, spanning culture, science, politics and war. It details how infamous screw-ups in human nature came at just the wrong moment, entertaining the rest of us for decades. Samples: The Taiwanese general who stored gunpowder in his palace before a lantern festival, and an army attacking itself after a little too much alcohol consumption. Students sweating out history courses might enjoy this book as well. Nonfiction.

Summertime reading choices

Summer offers time to squeeze in books you’ve wanted to read or something new and quirky. I stock the sunroom bookshelf with short stories, novels and nonfiction, as well as a stack of unread magazines and the summer Fiction Issue of The New Yorker.
Too many books, too little time — so this list is short and by no means exclusive. There are no baseball memoirs, heavy plots or historical tomes — just a few good reads.
I’d like to share your suggestion for a great summer read. Send it to the address below. For the moment, put up your hair, grab a cold drink and relax.
Jennifer Weiner, “Mrs. Everything”
For book clubs, this may be a perfect summer read: Jennifer Weiner’s “Mrs. Everything” penetrates the lives of two sisters from the 1950s to the present as the world changes around them. This story of women’s lives over the ’60s and ’70s and later decades, offers more than a light read. Publication date is June 11. Fiction.
Barbara Bourland, “Fake Like Me”
I didn’t expect to like this one but ended up devouring it. Bourland tells a well-informed story about a young artist who loses her work in a fire three months before a break-out show. Her attempt to recreate what’s been lost takes her to an artists’ colony where death, ego and dedication co-exist. The book reveals fascinating, insider details about the artist’s process, and the callous business of art collecting they must negotiate. There’s a mystery, too, and a bit of romance amid details of making art which only the initiated can provide. Fiction.
Jenna Blum, “The Lost Family”
Blum is out in paperback with the story of a family haunted by World War II experiences across several decades. There’s guilt and tragic loss, but also the beginnings of love and hope in a story that penetrates the shadows of war in succeeding generations. Blum wrote the wonderful “Those Who Save Us,” so I expect a lot from her in this one. Historical fiction.
Dani Shapiro, “Inheritance”
DNA testing seemed like fun in the early days. Now, it’s being used in criminal investigations and revealing family secrets. Novelist and memoirist Dani Shapiro took a DNA test casually, only to discover that her deceased father had not been, in fact, her biological father, and that her blonde, Scandinavian appearance signaled more than a fluke in her Orthodox Jewish family. Her search for her past leads her to memories and questions that unsettle her life. Nonfiction.
Kilgariff and Hardstark, “Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered”
Watch enough news shows and you’ll run into Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark, hosts of the “My Favorite Murder” podcast and now authors of “Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered.” This book’s packed with humor amid the in-your-face reality of women’s lives — depression, eating disorders, addiction and the like. Yet, somehow, it’s funny. For a sample, tune in to their podcast. Author Jenny Lawson calls it “the best advice your mother never told you.” Humor.
Elizabeth Gilbert, “City of Girls”
Gilbert’s “Eat Pray Love” became a best-seller. Now, she switches to the fleeting nature of life and pleasure in this story of a young woman in 1940s New York City, who discovers she doesn’t have to be a “good girl” to be a good person. “City of Girls” is flavored by the impending entry of the U.S. into World War II.
Enjoy. By the way, if you haven’t yet read them, try: Delia Owens’ “Where the Crawdads Sing;” Martha Hall Kelly’s “Lost Roses;” Louise Penny’s “Glass Houses” and Susan R. White’s “A Place at the Table.”

The World's Fastest Man - by Michael Kranish

WORCESTER — Even a century later, Marshall “Major” Taylor’s legend lingers in Worcester — his home and, in many ways, his touchstone over the turn of the 20th century. Taylor’s extraordinary and challenging life in a racially charged nation is the focus of Michael Kranish’s “The World’s Fastest Man: The Extraordinary Life of Cyclist Major Taylor, America’s First Black Sports Hero,” published by Scribner.
The book, recording Taylor’s courage in the face of fierce competitive racism, is being released during Kranish’s appearance at 7 p.m. May 7 in the Worcester JCC, 633 Salisbury St. A multistate book tour will follow his appearance in Worcester, where Major Taylor’s career took off and where he felt most comfortable living and working.
Major Taylor Boulevard and a statue of Taylor outside the Worcester Public Library honor his memory. A bicycling association named for him commemorates his contributions with racing events. Taylor was the world’s first black champion, an outstanding competitive bicycle racer during the sport’s hottest era, from about 1890 to 1910.
“How did this obscure black man, at the height of the Jim Crow era, become a world champion? He left Indianapolis in his midteens to come to Worcester because in Indianapolis, he couldn’t join the local YMCA, which he needed to become a stronger bicyclist,” Kranish said. “That was his first taste of racial prejudice - when he realized the monster he faced.”
Told by his mentor that things were better in Worcester, he moved. Louis “Birdie” Munger, a record-breaking white bicyclist who entered into bicycle manufacturing after retirement, recognized Taylor’s competitive potential and did much to further his career. In Worcester, Taylor was able to join the YMCA.
“Worcester had been a stop in the Underground Railroad, and a lot of blacks had settled there, so it had a thriving black community when he arrived,” Kranish said. “His life provides a wonderful lens to see history at the time, how the country grew and changed. It was a period of time (1890s) at which there were practically no automobiles and horses were on the way out; people bought millions of bicycles. The transportation industry grew up around them.”
Without weighing the book down in facts or repetitious data, Kranish has written a swiftly paced journalistic narrative, rich in historical detail. “My style of writing is more of a cinematic view,” he said. “It’s not a compilation of facts but a constantly moving story that lets you see and feel the times.”
He presents some previously unknown historical materials about Taylor, using dozens of scrapbooks, letters, news articles and family memories he collected to first write a feature for The Boston Globe magazine in 2001. He later served as the Globe’s White House correspondent until 2015. At the time, he covered Sen. John Kerry’s political presidential campaign extensively. With fellow Globe reporter Scott Helman, he wrote “The Real Romney,” published in 2012. Kranish’s writing for the Globe’s 2015 series on inequality, “Divided Nation,” earned him several national awards. Because he now covers Washington, D.C., politics, he more recently wrote “Trump Revealed” (with Marc Fisher).
Kranish spent years collecting letters, interviews and documents to assemble a book that brings Taylor’s life into the forefront, beginning with the Globe article. “I interviewed his then-96-year-old daughter in Indianapolis,” he said. There, he accessed Taylor’s collected personal papers, “a lot of firsthand material. I had a lot left over after the story was published. I was very interested in his life and I began to think, maybe there’s a book here about Major Taylor.
“There was no other athlete like him. He came before Jack Johnson, Jackie Robinson and other black athletes. He was lionized in the American press and in Europe. Racism was crushing, but in the end, it just made him more determined. He felt, if he could have a fair race, he could beat anybody.”
Working on the book, Kranish traveled to Paris, where Taylor was widely known and celebrated. “Bicycle racing was huge in France. They saw him as an African American challenging the French champions, so he became a sensation. A black man in Paris.” At times, discrimination occurred there, but for the most part he was a star, and treated as such.
He pored through records about Taylor in the Worcester Telegram and The Evening Gazette. “I had to look through scrapbooks, study microfilm at libraries by searching around key dates to find things. The Worcester Spy (an abolitionist newspaper of the 19th century) was digitized and had covered him very intently. They were very pro-Major Taylor, wise about how they viewed civil rights at an important time in his career. They followed him around.” Since Taylor was widely covered across the country, Kranish found many digital records about him.
Taylor’s path was difficult, even if he made it look easy. He was a tremendous, one-of-a-kind athlete capable of beating all the opposition, all of the time. Because of his color, however, he was banned from many races and poorly treated by white competitors in the races he entered, who grouped together to force him out of first place or off the track. He sustained many injuries through the course of his career.
Despite that, Taylor had broken speed records across the bicycling industry by his mid-20s. He became a sports idol in France and later in Australia, where he was considered a monumental athlete.
While it lasted, racing made him rich, took him around the world and gained him recognition for a physical talent surpassing many. Were it not for Jim Crow, in fact, his name likely would have earned greater recognition in this country. Even white competitors had to acknowledge the champion among them, whom they strove to keep out of competition.
“At the end of the day, his story in one of inspiration and hope,” Kranish said. “He wanted his career to be remembered by young people especially, so that they would know they could overcome adversity.”
His appearance in Worcester is free. RSVP to Nancy Greenberg at ngreenberg@worcesterjcc.org or (508) 756-7109, ext. 232.
After Worcester, Kranish appears on May 8 at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, May 9 at Boston Public Library and then travels to Chicago (where Taylor lived his last couple of years and where he is buried), his birthplace of Indianapolis, New York City and Washington, D.C.

Meet Rivers Solomon, author, mother and cyborg

 In this world of changing genders and shifting genres, Rivers Solomon stands out. The author shirks simple identification by using “they” as a pronoun, instead of “he” or “she,” and writing about life in the margins, “where ‘they’ are firmly at home.” (See tweets at @cyborgndroid)
Solomon’s debut novel may intrigue book groups seeking new forms of expression and ways of looking at age-old problems, but it’s not for the faint of spirit.
Technically science fiction, “An Unkindness of Ghosts” explores in literary fashion what happens when a rocket ship transporting the people of a dying planet to another, ostensibly, becomes the center of questions about identity, race and slavery, set within the parameter of a woman’s search into her mother’s disappearance aboard the ship many years before.
Aboard the ship, dark-skinned passengers are kept on lower decks, far from the better-lodged white-skinned passengers.
“Solomon’s evocation of this society is so sharply detailed and viscerally realized, the characters so closely observed, the individual scenes so tightly structured, that the novel achieves surprising power and occasional brilliance,” writes reviewer Gary K. Wolfe in Locus magazine.
Solomon grew up around the U.S. and is living in Cambridge, England, with degrees in race and ethnicity from Stanford University and a master’s degree in fiction writing from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas, Austin. Variously self-described as a mother, Afrofuturist, feminist and cyborg, Solomon cites literary influences that include Ursula K. Le Guin, Alice Walker, Octavia Butler, Ray Bradbury, Zora Neale Hurston and Doris Lessing.
‘Doctor Who,’ anyone?
While we’re on science fiction, there’s a Doctor Who monthly discussion night at Annie’s Book Stop, 65 James St., Worcester, with the next meeting at 7 p.m. March 15. Owner Patty Cryan is a longtime fan of the series, the world’s longest-running science fiction serial. This month’s topic: Classic and Modern Who Antagonists — The Cybermen! Written for BBC TV by various writers, the series was conceived as an educational project.
From 1 to 3 p.m. March 17, blogger, instructor, writer, and photographer Derek Strahan will be at Annie’s Book Stop to depict Worcester of a century ago through photographs and historical descriptions. He’ll have copies of his newest book, “New England Then and Now,” which includes Worcester County locations, to sign at the event. Strahan is the author of the blog “Lost New England” as well as the book “Lost Springfield.” He teaches English at the Master’s School in Simsbury, Connecticut, and lives in Springfield. In his book, vintage photos from 100 years ago are paired with the same viewpoint photographed today.

Tribute to Cather’s writing
The annual “One Book, One Boylston” community read commemorates the 100th anniversary of Willa Cather’s “My Antonia.” Boylston Public Library is giving away copies of the book and will hold a book discussion at 6:30 p.m. March 15, with a related panel discussion of the immigrant experience at 6:30 p.m. March 21 featuring Beth Singley from Ascentria Care Alliance and Jolene Jennings from Literacy Volunteers of Worcester. At 6:30 p.m. March 29, the pioneer experience will be further illustrated with a program on frontier cooking with Ryan Beckman, historic foods associate from Sturbridge Village.

Tess Gerritsen: 'I know a secret' has a secret

"I Know a Secret" may just be the last in the popular series of Rizzoli and Isles mysteries. That's a little secret revealed during an interview in the Worcester, Mass., Telegram & Gazette Oct. 15 with author Tess Gerritsen. The author has been writing about the duo—a Boston detective and a medical examiner—across twelve novels. Their stories have been dramatized in a popular television series as well, starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander.

Released in August by Ballantine /Random House, "I Know a Secret" is another suspenseful, beautifully structured addition to the series, in which the pair confront a serial killer while Medical Examiner Maura Isles' very own family serial killer—her mother—is dying of cancer, still mean to her end. Then, there's Isles' long-term love relationship with a priest, the lingering blows of a long-ago childcare abuse scandal, and Boston Detective Jane Rizzoli's desperate attempt to save her feuding parents' marriage.

Nothing is as it seems, and Gerritsen skillfully keeps the reader guessing until the end, a prerequisite to a good suspense novel.

Yet, Gerritsen said in a recent interview, she sits down with pen and paper to write first drafts, and doesn't plan them out ahead of time. Gerritsen is 64, lives in Camden, Maine, but knows the Boston life well. She keeps it in the background as Isles and Rizzoli struggle to figure out all the puzzling aspects of their lives.

"I never plot things out ahead of time. This is my 27th book (12 in the R&I series). I start writing and see where the story goes. Sometimes it takes an abrupt left-hand turn, and that gets fixed in the third or fourth rewrite. I don't show it to anyone until it's ready. I write the first draft by hand, let the story find itself. By the end, I finally know what the book is really about. About two-thirds or three-quarters of the way, I find out who the bad guy is. I have a simple premise when it starts. As I write, new things start to pop up, just as happens with a normal (criminal) investigation. By the time I'm finished, it's there."

After working about a year on "I Have a Secret," Garritsen, a resident of Maine, has been touring with its release. She recently wrapped up a tour in the United Kingdom and is flying from city to city across the U.S. But this may be her last such tour for the series.

"I feel like I've tied up a lot of loose emotional threads that have been going on for several stories," she said. "Right now, I'm working on something completely different. After awhile, a series comes to an end. I wanted to find out whether they become happy, how Jane and Maura's lives go. The series has always been about these two women, and once they're both happy, the series will be over." She thinks that time may have come, and she anticipates returning to her new book.

She began writing mysteries because she loved them as a child (any other Nancy Drew fans out there?) and has based Rizzoli and Isles on her own experiences ("because I'm a doctor, that's fairly easy for me to research"). At the beginning, she interviewed people at Boston's homicide unit. "But not since then; I pretty much focus on the pathologist end, and my husband is a part-time medical examiner in our county in Maine."

She began writing while on maternity leave, and her first novel, "Call After Midnight," came out in 1987. Eight more followed as she dug full-time into writing. She also wrote the screenplay, "Adrift," which became a 1993 TV movie with Kate Jackson.  Her first medical thriller, "Harvest," came out in 1996.

In "I Know a Secret," the duo are again played against a conscienceless personality. "Sociopaths are out there," she said; "there's nothing you can do about that. Sociopaths have no empathy, do not care about human begins, and think of how they can use them as tools. Some people are born sociopaths; that's the way their brain works. They're just some kind of creature—like predators in the animal kingdom." She considers Warren Hoyt, whom readers and viewers will remember, one of the most evil characters she's created, because Warren is smart, and a psychopath—the extreme entity of sociopathy. "He thrives on the pain of other people; he's formidable because he's so incredibly intelligent. Evil, stupid people are not such an antagonist to worry about, but he looked at everybody else as prey."

Holly, the antagonist in Gerritsen's latest book, knows herself well. "For now, I must walk the straight and narrow," she tells readers at one point. "I must pretend to be the good girl who neither steals nor cheats … (but) I am what I am, and no one can watch me forever." Gerritsen calls Holly "a sociopath who gets by. She doesn't go out of her way to be evil, it's just that the things she does, she just goes about them without thinking."

Growing up in San Diego, the author finished undergraduate work in anthropology at Stanford before completing medical degrees at the University of California, San Francisco. "I practiced medicine for about 10 years, a lot of it part-time, because I became a mom pretty quickly. I always wanted to be a writer, even when I was seven years old, but my father encouraged me to go into medicine instead. He kept telling me there's no way to make a living as a writer, but when you're a writer you're going to keep at it." He did not live to see her success, a disappointment to Gerritsen, who said, "I wish he'd been alive long enough."

He would have seen that all the preparation formed steps to an end: pieces in a literary puzzle.

"You never know which experience is going to fit into your future," she said. "I didn't know my interest in anthropology would come up again and again in my books, or that medicine would add all the details that it has. Being a writer, you must be curious about many topics, and always be reading."

Gerritsen has always been interested in the collision of truth and nonsense. "That crazy satanic movement that went around the country … A lot of people ended up in jail based on children's strange memories of adults flying on brooms, riding tigers, etc. It spread to the U.S. and other places in the world. There was this strange idea that devil worshippers were everywhere." Elements of the scandal form a subplot in the book. "I'm fascinated by how people turn away from science and look at superstition—and all these things become the foundation of their lives," she said. "It's surprising how easy it is to let go of facts and accept fantasy."

As a writer, she gets more satisfaction out of less formulaic books.

"I had a novel, 'Gravity,' about the international space station." The novel was published in 1999, and the concept allegedly became the framework of a later movie by the same name—leading to a complicated breach of contract lawsuit, which she urges writers to check out on her web page, as a warning to all writers who sign rights away to a company.

 "I also really loved writing 'The Bone Garden.' The books I love the most, put my heart and soul into, are the ones that did not find an audience. Somehow the popular audience doesn’t seem to like them." Does this discourage her? "All the time," she said. "Every time you write a book you want it to be the very best it can be, and very often the acceptance isn't there. We just keep plugging away because we tell the stories we want to tell."

When her tour ends, Gerritsen will return to writing. She dubs her latest book a "sexy" thriller with a ghost. It's nearly done.

She is also working on a film with her son, 35, a documentary film maker. "We're making a feature documentary about the age-old relationship between humans and pigs," she said. "We're interested in why some people refuse to eat them, why some people have such negative feelings while others love their pigs. We're going to explore the strong emotions, track archeological reasons Jews don't eat pork, for instance." The reason may not be Biblical at all, she said. "There was climate change at the time. The Holy Land became a desert fairly quickly, and pigs need water."

Their first project together was a horror film, "Island Zero." She loved working with her son. "We had such a good time making a movie together, we thought we'd follow it up."

Today's creative climate lends itself to all kinds of project ideas. "It's a funny time because you don't need a publisher to be published anymore," she said; "in some ways it's harder to get attention, but in other ways it's easier. With (self-publishing) it's a lot harder to get people to pay attention to what you've just written."

Her favorite authors, by the way, share the same first name: "I'm going to plug the three Lisas," she said: "Lisa Unger, Lisa Scott and Lisa Gardner." She loves the suspense of a good mystery, rather than the heavy-action sequences of modern thrillers (She's a fan of classic horror films like "The Birds," "The Mummy" and "Them." In a good mystery, she said, "You're left worrying about what's going to happen."

Apparently, the world agrees. Her novels are award winners, published around the world and continually on the best-seller lists.

Authors, book talks dominate Fall '17

Worcester's top annual literary event will be held Oct. 26, with five guest authors at a dinner benefiting the Worcester Public Library.

A Celebration of Authors 2017's moderator Joe Cox, president of the EcoTarium, will present speakers at the 5:30- 9 p.m. event in the White Room at Crompton Collective, 138 Green St.

Guests will be celebrated authors Andre Dubus III, John Dufresne, Margot Livesey, Elizabeth Searle and Annie Weatherwax.

Dubus, author of "House of Sand and Fog," "The Garden of Last Days," "Dirty Love" and the memoir, "Townie," teaches fiction at UMass Lowell. His New York Times best sellers have won numerous literary awards. "House of Sand and Fog" became an Academy Award-nominated film starring Ben Kingsley. Dubus grew up in mill towns along the Merrimack; his books are published in more than 25 languages.

Dufresne has written two short story collections, "The Way that Water Enters Stone" and "Johnny Too Bad," and the novels "Louisiana Power & Light" and "Love Warps the Mind a Little," both New York Times Notable Books, along with "Deep in the Shade of Paradise," "Requiem, Mass.," "No Regrets, Coyote" and "I Don't Like Where This is Going." He has written two books on writing fiction. His stories have twice been named Best American Mystery Stories.

Margot Livesey wrote a collection of stories and eight novels, including "Eva Moves the Furniture" and "The Flight of Gemma Hardy." A native of Scotland, she lives in Cambridge and is on the faculty of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. A novel, "Mercury," was published in September 2016. This past summer, Tin House published her "The Hidden Machinery: Essays on Writing."
Elizabeth Searle has written five novels, most recently, "We Got Him," involving the Boston Marathon bombing manhunt. Previous books include "Girl Held in Home," "A Four-Sided Bed" (being developed as a feature film), "Celebrities in Disgrace," which became a short film, and "My Body to You." A stage work, "Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera," has been produced in Boston and other major cities. Her writing has been published in over a dozen anthologies.

Annie Weatherwax, winner of the Robert Olen Butler Prize for Fiction, has published stories in The Sun Magazine, The Southern Review and elsewhere. A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, she previously sculpted superheroes and cartoon characters for Nickelodeon, DC Comics and Pixar. She has written about the link between visual art and language for publications such as Publishers Weekly, The New York Times and Ploughshares. Her debut novel, "All We Had" (later a motion picture), was published by Scribner and was a finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award.

Cost of the benefit event is $100. Register on the library website, www.mywpi.org.

***

Book festivals in Concord and Boston:

The Boston book Festival is Oct. 28 at sites surrounding Copley Square; most events are free. Dozens of authors and literary personalities appear in panels, talks and workshops (there's also a daylong event for teen readers featuring Lemony Snicket and Jennifer De Leon). Participants include Claire Messud, Celeste Ng, Ha Jin, Dennis Lehane, Brunonia Barry, Geraldine Brooks, Garnette Cadogan, Tom Ashbrook, Maureen Dowd, Chris Van Dusen, Regie Gibson, Daniel Jose Older and dozens more. Details are at https://bostonbookfest.org.

Concord's Festival of Authors takes place over 17 days, mid-October into November, with talks, readings and discussions featuring Ann Hood, Gish Jen and Margot Livesey, and topics including a "Lecture for Young Readers," "Master Class for Writers," "The Story of the NFL," Memoirists on Writing the Hard Stories," a Mystery Night, and "Breakfast with the Authors." For times and details, check online at www.concordfestivalofauthors.com.

Area book groups:

Worcester Public Library has launched a new book club—the Popular Reads Café—for readers fond of popular books. Anyone is welcome to drop by at 3 p.m., Oct. 10 and Nov. 14, in the Banx Room, for discussion of popular nonfiction and fiction. Local authors are being invited in, and discussion includes news of the latest books from favorite authors. It's free, and Friends of the Library provides refreshments.

Merriam-Gilbert Public Library in W. Brookfield will hold a book group discussion of Michael Ondaatje's "The Cat's Tale," at 7 p.m., Oct. 10.

The Intrepid Readers Book Group at Douglas Library will discuss Michael Tougias’ "The Blizzard of ‘78" on Tuesday, Oct. 10, at 6:30 p.m. New England was knocked to its knees by the February storm—often referred to regionally as the worst storm of the century. Tougias' history includes photographs and chronicles the storm's progression from Cape Cod to Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts. It explains how people survived the storm by spending more than 48 hours in their cars, and how coastal homes were torn from their foundations and smashed to smithereens by the vicious surf. Call the Library 508-476-2695 for a copy of the book. New members welcome.

Contemporary book Club will meet at Barnes & Noble, Lincoln Street, Worcester, at 6 p.m. Oct. 18, to discuss David McCullough's historical account of aviation pioneers, "The Wright Brothers."

O'Connor's Books, Brews & Banter will meet at 6:30 p.m., Oct 25, to discuss "Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End" by Atul Gawande. Meeting is at the restaurant, 1160 West Boylston St., Worcester.

Lancaster's Thayer Public Library Adult Book Group will meet at 6:30 p.m., Oct. 31, to discuss "His Bloody Project: Documents Relating to the case of Roderick Macrae," a novel.

In Grafton, the Daytimers Book Club will meet at 1:30, Oct. 17, to discuss "The Seventh Plague" by James Rollins. The Mystery Book Club meets at 7:30, Oct. 17, to discuss "Ghost Times Two" by Carolyn Hart.

Correction: The Silent Book Club chapter in Portland, Maine, mentioned in March, is not affiliated with Longfellow Books.

Send club selections and other comments to ann.frantz@gmail.com.