Monday, October 01, 2007

What is Barbara Fister reading?

The latest contributor to Writers Read: Barbara Fister, author of two mysteries, On Edge (2002) and In the Wind (coming out next spring).

Part of her entry:
My customary choice in reading is crime fiction. A novel that impressed me deeply is David Corbett's Blood of Paradise.... Set in El Salvador, this book follows a young and naive American as he provides "executive security" for a corporate hydrologist who is just realizing his science will be misused in the name of profits. The bodyguard, who has fallen in love with the battle-scarred country, has been haunted by shame after his father, a corrupt police officer, committed suicide. In a confused move of atonement he falls in with one of his father's crooked colleagues in what becomes an ethical train wreck. Through this richly realized character and his moral dilemma, we glimpse the web of lies and duplicity that tie the US and El Salvador together. Though Corbett's story is subtle and well-tempered, the informative afterword is scorching with anger -- and no wonder. [read on]
About Fister's On Edge:
A flip of a coin sends Konstantin Slovo, a Chicago cop who's had all he can take, eastbound on I-90 with no destination in mind. His impulsive flight ends in Brimsport, Maine, where gulls cry, waves wash against a rockbound coast -- and the town's worst nightmare is coming true.

Almost twenty years ago, an investigation into allegations of child abuse spiraled out of control, ending without convictions -- leaving the community scarred by suspicion, distrust, and anger. Slovo, all too experienced with crimes against children, arrives in Brimsport just as a search is on for a missing girl, the third child to be abducted and murdered in recent months. He's drawn into the race to stop it from happening again - and to end the horror before the town tears itself apart. Because whoever is behind these killings knows Brimsport's tortured past and is using its worst fears to push it over the edge.
In the Wind will be published in 2008 by St. Martins.

Learn more about Barbara Fister and her work at her website.

Writers Read: Barbara Fister.

--Marshal Zeringue