Best Books 2011? We agree!

Congratulations to St. Louis County Library Suspense Night alums Reed Farrel Coleman and Megan Abbott on their inclusion in Publisher’s Weekly’s Best Books 2011 List! Abbott’s “The End of Everything” and Coleman’s “Hurt Machine” were two of only nine books selected for the mystery category. http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/best-books/2011/mystery#book/book-1

Reed Farrel Coleman will be a familiar face to anyone who has attended the Library’s popular annual Suspense Night. A great friend of the Library Foundation and programming staff, Reed emcees the program each year and helps bring in authors from across the country. The delightfully wicked Megan Abbott has twice appeared at Suspense Night and has become one of our favorite guests.

“The End of Everything” is a chilling story about an abducted pre-teen told from the perspective of her best friend who sets out to bring her back and learns more about her friend and growing up than she is prepared for. Coleman’s “Hurt Machine” is the seventh book in his hard-boiled series featuring Brooklyn detective Moe Prager and opens just after Moe learns he has cancer. For further reading, check out Reed’s “Tower” co-written with Irish noir master Ken Bruen and Megan’s Edgar Award-winning classic femme fatale story “Queenpin.”

Suspense Night is an annual event featuring 4 -5 suspense writers from across the country who each read from recent work and discuss the mystery craft. Always one of our most popular, entertaining, and surprisingly funny events of the year, Suspense Night continues to draw some of the best writers in the business and fans from all over. We are currently looking at authors for the next Suspense Night–coming April 2012.

Suspense Night 2011 - All-Star Edition. Featuring (front row) S.J. Rozan, Lisa Lutz, Katie Estill, Megan Abbott, (back row) Peter Spiegelman, Daniel Woodrell, Christa Faust, Reed Farrel Coleman, and Steve Hamilton