Rachel Eve Moulton grew up in Yellow Springs. I remember when she was in high school. She always wanted to become a writer. Her dreams came true. Her latest horror novel is set in New Mexico. A young mother is convinced her newborn child is a monster. This child was born with all her teeth and she is constantly hungry.
“Mississippi Blue 42” by Eli Cranor (Soho Crime, 384 pages, $29.95) August 5
Eli Cranor made the transition from football coach to rising crime fiction star. In this one a special agent, the daughter of a football coach, is sent to Mississippi to investigate a corrupt college football program. Writing what he knows one might suppose? Football, that is.
“The Final Score” by Don Winslow (Morrow, 304 pages, $30). September 16
Last year Don Winslow published his final book. Or so he claimed. I did not believe he was retiring. Well, thank heaven he has changed his mind. This latest effort is a collection of six new crime novellas all in one volume.
“Gray Dawn” by Walter Mosley (Mulholland, 336 pages, $29). September 16
I am grateful Walter Mosley began writing more novels in his beloved Easy Rawlins series. Here’s another one. This one is set in 1970’s LA and Rawlins is searching for a mysterious woman who is dangerous and the keeper of some secrets that he might not want to know.
“Gotham at War: a History of New York City from 1933 to 1945” by Mike Wallace (Oxford, 976 pages, $45). October 1
In 1998 Mike Wallace published the immense first book in this series. “Gotham” was the history of New York City up to 1898. That book won the Pulitzer Prize. Next he published a second volume covering 1898-1919. Now he’s putting out the capstone which covers the years 1933-1945. Of course I am curious why he skipped over the years 1920-1932? The Roaring Twenties? The 1929 stock market crash? Puzzling.
“Paper Girl - a Memoir of Home and Family and a Fractured America” by Beth Macy (Penguin Press, 368 pages, $32). October 7
The author grew up in Urbana. Her family was poor. Her dad drank. Her mom worked hard to keep the family together. A Pell Grant got Macy a college education and she went on to a splendid career as a journalist. In this memoir Macy returns to her hometown and looks at what has changed, at how that opportunity to go to college has vanished for many and what the heck happened to Urbana?
I have interviewed every single one of these authors -I consider them to be the cream of the crop.
Vick Mickunas of Yellow Springs interviews authors every Saturday at 7 a.m. and on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, visit www.wyso.org/programs/book-nook. Contact him at vick@vickmickunas.com.
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