Monday, September 12, 2016

Colleen Thompson

RITA-nominated, bestselling author Colleen Thompson writes stories that explore how love can kill, and how it can also empower us to seek healing and justice.

Her new novel is The Off Season.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Thompson's reply:
I've been enjoying some fascinating reads this summer, from Joe Hill's mesmerizing—and all too plausible—dystopian novel, The Fireman, to Naomi Novik's richly imagined, fairytale-steeped, Nebula award-winning fantasy, Uprooted, and Lisa Gardner's riveting suspense, Touch & Go, the story of a kidnapped family's terrifying ordeal—and one harrowing fight for survival.

Most recently, I've had the opportunity to read a pair of wonderful new releases in the form of advanced readers' copies. The first, Barbara Taylor Sissel's Faultlines, is another tale of a family forever altered, in this case by a late-night car wreck that leaves the lives of three teenagers hanging in the balance. As the parents of the two cousins involved—each the only son of a pair of sisters—come together, blame is laid and terrible secrets unearthed. The plot twists in this beautifully written story had me reading long past bedtime and the redemptive power of its ending lingers in my mind.

The second, completely different novel, was Loreth Anne White's In the Barren Ground. Another incredibly well-written story, this one offers a harrowing blend of horror, suspense, police procedural, and a bit of romance as a half-Inuit, five-months' pregnant rookie Mountie is sent to the Canadian version of Siberia, an isolated, sparsely-populated area inside the Arctic Circle. Cut off with no assistance, she is left alone to investigate a pair—or is it a much larger series?—of horrific killings in an unforgiving landscape. Like Fargo on steroids, this story just begs to be made into a big-screen thriller.
Visit Colleen Thompson's website and follow her on Twiiter.

--Marshal Zeringue