Online Event: Crime Fiction Writers Talk Favorite Films and Books

Free

Thursday, 7:30 pm EDT May 7, 2020

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Find out what movies and books inspired this group of bestselling crime fiction writers! Jonathan Santlofer, Alison Gaylin, Duane Swierczynski, Megan Abbott, and Lauren Wilkinson talk about memorable characters, scenes, and twists from their favorite crime fiction films and literature.

View each panelist’s book selection and purchase below!

Featuring

Megan Abbott

Megan Abbott

Megan Abbott is the Edgar-winning author of nine novels, including You Will Know Me and The Fever. Her most recent book is Give Me Your Hand. She just finished her first season as co-creator and co-showrunner of Dare Me, the TV show based on her novel.
Alison Gaylin

Alison Gaylin

USA Today and international bestselling author Alison Gaylin won the 2019 Edgar Award for her novel If I Die Tonight. Her work has been published in the US, UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Japan, Germany, Romania and Denmark, and she has won and been nominated for numerous awards, including the Shamus, ITW Thriller, Strand Book Award, Macavity and the Anthony Award. Her 11th book, Never Look Back, came out in July, 2019 from William Morrow. She is currently at work on her 12th book, out from William Morrow in 2021.
Jonathan Santlofer

Jonathan Santlofer

Jonathan Santlofer is the author of five novels, among them the international bestseller The Death Artist, and the Nero award winning Anatomy of Fear. His memoir The Widower’s Notebook received national acclaim, appeared on several “best books of 2018” lists, and was a featured segment on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Santlofer is editor/creator of six anthologies, including The Dark End of the Street, LA NOIRE: The Collected Stories, and the New York Times notable book It Occurs to Me that I Am America. His short stories have appeared in numerous collections, including The Rich and the Dead, edited by Nelson DeMille, New Jersey Noir, edited by Joyce Carol Oates, and In Sunlight or In Shadow, edited by Lawrence Block. He serves on the boards of the Mystery Writers of America and the International Crime Writers of North America. He is the founder of Crime Fiction Academy at the Center for Fiction, and has taught writing and art at Columbia University, The New School and Pratt Institute. Also a visual artist Santlofer is the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts grants, has been a Visiting Artist at the American Academy In Rome, the Vermont Studio Center and serves on the board of Yaddo. His most recent novel, The Last Mona Lisa, will be published in fall 2021.
Duane Swierczynski

Duane Swierczynski

Duane Swierczynski is the two-time Edgar-nominated author of ten novels including Revolver, Canary, and the Shamus Award-winning Charlie Hardie series, many of which are in development for film/TV. A native Philadelphian, he now lives in Los Angeles with his family.
Lauren Wilkinson

Lauren Wilkinson

Lauren Wilkinson’s debut novel, American Spy, is an NAACP Image Award nominee, and an Edgar Award nominee. It was short-listed for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, was a Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers” pick, and was included on Barack Obama’s 2019 Recommended Reading List. Lauren earned an MFA in fiction and literary translation from Columbia University, and has taught writing at Columbia and the Fashion Institute of Technology. She was a Center for Fiction Emerging Writer’s Fellow, and has received support from both the MacDowell Colony and the Djerassi Resident Artists Program. Her writing has appeared in Granta, the Believer, New York magazine and the New York Times, among other publications. Lauren splits her time between New York and Los Angeles where she works as a TV writer.

Panelists' Picks

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Quinn Colson Series

By Ace Atkins

Published by Putnam

PURCHASE

Selected by Megan Abbott

After years of war, Army Ranger Quinn Colson returns home to the rugged, rough hill country of northeast Mississippi to find his native Tibbehah County overrun with corruption, decay, meth runners, and violence. His uncle, the longtime county sheriff, is dead. A suicide, he’s told, but others—like tomboy deputy Lillie Virgil—whisper murder.

In the days that follow, it’s up to Colson to discover the truth, not only about his uncle, but about his family, his friends, his town, and himself. And once it’s discovered, there’s no going back for this real hero of the Deep South.
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Your House Will Pay

By Steph Cha

Published by HarperCollins

PURCHASE

Selected by Lauren Wilkinson

In the wake of the police shooting of a black teenager, Los Angeles is as tense as it’s been since the unrest of the early 1990s. But Grace Park and Shawn Matthews have their own problems. Grace is sheltered and largely oblivious, living in the Valley with her Korean-immigrant parents, working long hours at the family pharmacy. She’s distraught that her sister hasn’t spoken to their mother in two years, for reasons beyond Grace’s understanding. Shawn has already had enough of politics and protest after an act of violence shattered his family years ago. He just wants to be left alone to enjoy his quiet life in Palmdale.

But when another shocking crime hits LA, both the Park and Matthews families are forced to face down their history while navigating the tumult of a city on the brink of more violence.

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Strangers on a Train

By Patricia Highsmith

Published by WW Norton

PURCHASE

Selected by Alison Gaylin

The world of Patricia Highsmith has always been filled with ordinary people, all of whom are capable of very ordinary crimes. This theme was present from the beginning, when her debut, Strangers on a Train, galvanized the reading public. Here we encounter Guy Haines and Charles Anthony Bruno, passengers on the same train. But while Guy is a successful architect in the midst of a divorce, Bruno turns out to be a sadistic psychopath who manipulates Guy into swapping murders with him. “Some people are better off dead,” Bruno remarks, “like your wife and my father, for instance.” As Bruno carries out his twisted plan, Guy is trapped in Highsmith’s perilous world, where, under the right circumstances, anybody is capable of murder.

The inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1951 film, Strangers on a Train launched Highsmith on a prolific career of noir fiction, proving her a master at depicting the unsettling forces that tremble beneath the surface of everyday contemporary life.
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Rosemary's Baby

By Ira Levin

Published by WW Norton

PURCHASE

Selected by Jonathan Santlofer

Rosemary Woodhouse and her struggling actor husband Guy move into the Bramford, an old New York City apartment building with an ominous reputation and mostly elderly residents. Neighbors Roman and Minnie Castavet soon come nosing around to welcome the Woodhouses to the building, and despite Rosemary’s reservations about their eccentricity and the weird noises that she keeps hearing, her husband takes a shine to them.

Shortly after Guy lands a plum Broadway role, Rosemary becomes pregnant—and the Castavets start taking a special interest in her welfare. As the sickened Rosemary becomes increasingly isolated, she begins to suspect that the Castavets’ circle is not what it seems…

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That Left Turn at Albuquerque

By Scott Phillips

Published by SOHO PRESS

PURCHASE

Selected by Duane Swierczynski

Douglas Rigby, attorney-at-law, is bankrupt. He’s just sunk his last $200,000—a clandestine “loan” from his last remaining client, former bigshot TV exec Glenn Haskill—into a cocaine deal gone wrong. The lesson? Never trust anyone else with the dirty work. Desperate to get back on top, Rigby formulates an art forgery scheme involving one of Glenn’s priceless paintings, a victimless crime. But for Rigby to pull this one off, he’ll need to negotiate a whole cast of players with their own agendas, including his wife, his girlfriend, an embittered art forger, Glenn’s resentful nurse, and the man’s money-hungry nephew. One misstep, and it all falls apart—will he be able to save his skin?

Written with hard-knock sensibility and wicked humor, Scott Phillips’s newest novel will cement him as one of the great crime writers of the 21st century.