Megan Abbott

St. Louis County Library

Join us for an evening with five outstanding mystery and suspense writers who will each read from recent work and discuss their craft. This event brings together top writers from across the country, including Michael Koryta (The Prophet), Ace Atkins (Wonderland), Reed Farrel Coleman (Onion Street), Megan Abbott (Dare me), and Hank Phillippi Ryan (The Other Woman).

Location: Street: St. Louis County Library Additional: 1640 S. Lindbergh City: Saint Louis, Province: Missouri Postal Code: 63124 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Addy Hanlon has always been Beth Cassidy's best friend and trusted lieutenant. Beth calls the shots and Addy carries them out, a long-established order of things that has brought them to the pinnacle of their high-school careers. Now they're seniors who rule the intensely competitive cheer squad, feared and followed by the other girls -- until the young new coach arrives.

Cool and commanding, an emissary from the adult world just beyond their reach, Coach Colette French draws Addy and the other cheerleaders into her life. Only Beth, unsettled by the new regime, remains outside Coach's golden circle, waging a subtle but vicious campaign to regain her position as "top girl" -- both with the team and with Addy herself.

Then a suicide focuses a police investigation on Coach and her squad. After the first wave of shock and grief, Addy tries to uncover the truth behind the death -- and learns that the boundary between loyalty and love can be dangerous terrain.

The raw passions of girlhood are brought to life in this taut, unflinching exploration of friendship, ambition, and power. Award-winning novelist Megan Abbott, writing with what Tom Perrotta has hailed as "total authority and an almost desperate intensity," provides a harrowing glimpse into the dark heart of the all-American girl. About the Author

Megan Abbott is the Edgar Award-winning author of five previous novels. She received her Ph.D. in literature from New York University and has taught literature, writing, and film at NYU, the New School, and SUNY-Oswego. She lives in New York City.

Location: Street: 160 Courthouse Sq City: Oxford, Province: Mississippi Postal Code: 38655-3914 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Megan Abbott signs Dare Me.

Addy and Beth are the top-dog cheerleaders in their world. A new coach arrives to oversea the team and upsets the balances that everyone has accepted. Just as everyone is getting used to the new ways, a horrible event and a police investigation tears it all apart. Megan will be on hand to speak with fans and sign her book. All we ask is you purchase a copy of her book at our signing. (SeaMystery)… (more)

While the setting of Megan Abbott’s Dare me may surprise some readers who know her for her pulp-inspired works like Die a Little, the tough female protagonists and high-stake drama remain familiar. In her interview in Publishers Weekly, Megan discusses how the ideas of Richard III, “who is in my way and how can I get what I want?” inspired her tale of contemporary cutthroat cheerleaders. LA folks can catch Megan at her Noir at the Bar event on August 5.

Location: Street: 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd Additional: Ste 302 City: San Diego, Province: California Postal Code: 92111-1040 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Today's cheerleaders are a far cry from the pom-pom shakers and Prom Queens of yore. Addy Hanlon and Beth Cassidy are the tough, inseparable, and invincible leaders of the varsity squad. Their unchallenged rule comes to an abrupt end with the arrival of a new Coach, charismatic and seductive, who wins the girls over with her seeming perfection. When even Addy starts to fall under Coach French's spell, Beth starts getting reckless. A shocking turn of events and a police investigation of the Coach and her squad send the tension sky high. As the last game of the season approaches, and as the girls' physical feats get increasingly dangerous, Addy and Beth are forced to ask where their true loyalties lie.

This discussion is free and open to the public. Those wishing to get books signed will be asked to purchase at least one copy of Dare me from Vroman's, and one additional copy for every 3 books they bring from home. Save your Vroman's receipt; it will be checked when you enter the signing line.

Location: Street: 695 E. Colorado Blvd City: Pasadena, Province: California Postal Code: 91101 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Had enough of the rat race? Has your boss been tightening the screw? Well then, it’s time to let your hair down, put your feet up, and knock back a gin or two. Hightail it down to the Mandrake Bar for an evening of noir with some of the best ink-slinging dames the genre has to offer. Join Megan Abbott, Christa Faust, Denise Hamilton and Jeri Westerson as these skirts show the mugs how it’s done. Oh, and there’s booze, so keep the babes in their cribs, this event is 21 and over.

Location: Street: 2692 S La Cienega Blvd City: Los Angeles, Province: California Postal Code: 90034 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Megan Abbott will sign and discuss Dare me (Reagan Arthur Books; $24.99).

Megan Abbott is the Edgar®-winning author of the novels Queenpin, The Song Is You, Die a Little, and Bury Me Deep. Her latest novel, The End of Everything, is a crime novel set in suburban Michigan, which made the Best Books of the Year Lists for publications including Publisher's Weekly, the Boston Globe, Baltimore City Paper and the Washington Examiner.

Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Salon, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, The Believer, Los Angeles Review of Books, Detroit Noir, Best Crime and Mystery Stories of the Year, Storyglossia, Queens Noir and The Speed Chronicles.

Born in the Detroit area, she graduated from the University of Michigan and received her Ph.D. in English and American literature from New York University. She has taught at NYU, the State University of New York and the New School University. This year, she is teaching at the Crime Fiction Academy at New York City's Center for Fiction.

She is also the author of a nonfiction book, The Street Was Mine: White Masculinity in Hardboiled Fiction and Film Noir, and the editor of A Hell of a Woman, an anthology of female crime fiction. She has been nominated for many awards, including three Edgar® Awards, Hammett Prize, the Macavity, Anthony and Barry Awards, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Pushcart Prize.

Her new novel, Dare me, will be published in July 2012.

Sean Doolittle will sign and discuss Lake country (Bantam; $15).

Sean Doolittle is the award-winning author of Dirt, Burn, Rain Dogs, The Cleanup, and Safer. His latest book is Lake country. He lives in western Iowa with his family.

Location: Street: 2342 Bissonnet St Additional: City: Houston, Province: Texas Postal Code: 77005 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Thursday, August 2 at 7PM MysteryPeople presents Megan Abbott & Sean Doolittle Austin's own legendary musician Jesse Sublett will provide the tunes at this event. We'll have complimentary beverages on hand to celebrate these two fabulous authors, MysteryPeople-style.

Megan Abbott will speak about and sign Dare me

Since both girls were small, Addy Hanlon has always been Beth Cassidy's best friend and right-hand lieutenant. Beth calls the shots and Addy carries them out, a long-established order of things that has brought them to the pinnacle of their high-school careers. Now they're seniors who rule the intensely competitive cheer squad, feared and followed by the other girls - until the young new coach arrives.

Cool and commanding, an emissary from the adult world just beyond their reach, Coach Colette French draws Addy and the other cheerleaders into her life. Only Beth, unsettled by the new regime, remains outside Coach's golden circle, waging a subtle but vicious campaign to regain her position as "top girl" - both with the team and with Addy herself.

And then a suspicious suicide hits close to home, and the police investigation focuses on Coach and her squad. As Addy begins to suspect what really happened, the line between right and wrong grows blurrier, and she must decide where her loyalties truly lie-and how far is too far to go for someone you love.

Megan Abbott is the Edgar Award-winning author of five previous novels. She received her Ph.D. in literature from New York University and has taught literature, writing, and film at NYU, the New School, and SUNY-Oswego. She lives in New York City.

Sean Doolittle will be speak about and sign Lake country.

Five years ago, successful architect Wade Benson killed a young woman when he fell asleep at the wheel. His punishment: two days in jail for every year of his probation. But for one friend of the victim’s family—an ex-marine named Darryl Potter—this punishment isn’t enough. Potter sets out to even the score by kidnapping Benson’s twenty-year-old daughter. It’s a bad, bad plan, and only Mike Barlowe, Potter’s former combat buddy, knows how to stop it. With a beautiful news reporter, the cops, and a bounty hunter on Potter’s tail, Barlowe races to head off his troubled friend before innocent people get hurt. The hunters and the hunted plunge north into Minnesota’s Lake country, each with their own ambitions and demons, each headed for a violent collision—and for one horrifying moment of life or death.

Sean Doolittle is the author of five previous novels: the Barry Award–winning The Cleanup, Rain Dogs, Burn, Dirt, and Safer. He lives with his wife and children in western Iowa.

In order to have anything signed at this event, a copy of the event book must be purchased from BookPeople. If you purchase your book from BookPeople in advance of the event, please save your receipt and present it at the event.

Thank you for supporting Megan Abbott, Sean Doolittle, and your local independent bookstore!

Location: Street: 603 N Lamar Blvd City: Austin, Province: Texas Postal Code: 78703-5413 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Megan Abbott reads from The End of Everything.

The End of Everything In a placid 1980s suburb in the Midwest, thirteen-year old Lizzie Hood and her next door neighbor Evie Verver are inseparable, best friends who swap bathing suits and field-hockey sticks and between whom, presumably, there are no secrets. Together they live in the shadow of Evie's glamorous older sister Dusty, who provides them a window on the exotic, intoxicating possibilities on their own teenage horizons. To Lizzie, the Verver household, presided over by Evie's big-hearted father, is the world’s most perfect place. And then, one afternoon, Evie disappears. The only clue: a maroon sedan Lizzie spotted driving past the two girls earlier in the day. As a rabid, giddy panic spreads through the balmy suburban community, everyone turns to Lizzie for answers. Was Evie unhappy, troubled, upset? Had she mentioned being followed? Would she have gotten into the car of a stranger? Would Evie have gotten into a car with a man? Compelled by curiosity and a desire to rescue the enchanted Verver household from ruin, Lizzie takes up her own furtive pursuit of the truth. Her days spent with a shell-shocked Mr. Verver, she devotes her nights to prowling through backyards, peering through windows, pushing herself to the dark center of Evie’s world. Haunted by dreams of her lost friend and titillated by her own new power as the center of the disappearance, Lizzie uncovers secret after secret and begins to wonders if she knew anything about her best friend at all. (aripoisonedpen)… (more)