In Dream Girl: A Novel, Laura Lippman shares the story of writer Gerry Andersen, injured in a freak fall and confined to a hospital bed in his high-rise apartment. Then late one night, the phone rings – and the caller claims to be the “real” Aubrey, the title character from Andersen’s most successful novel, Dream Girl. But there is no “real” Aubrey, and her corporeal claimant is threatening to visit and suggesting he owes her something. In Michael Connelly’s The Dark Hours – the fourth installment in the Ballard and Bosch series – a killer strikes on New Year’s Eve and LAPD detective Renée Ballard and detective Harry Bosch join forces to find justice for the victim, in a city scarred by fear and dealing with a police department affected by the pandemic and social unrest. Moderated by author Alex Segura.
In Conversation: On Dream Girl: A Novel & The Dark Hours
In Conversation: On Dream Girl: A Novel & The Dark Hours
Segura, Alex
Alex Segura writes novels, comic books, and short stories, and he is also the co-creator/co-writer of the Lethal Lit crime/YA podcast from iHeart Radio. By day he is senior vice president of sales and marketing at Oni Press, with previous stints at Archie Comics and DC Comics. Segura’s work includes Star Wars Poe Dameron: Free Fall; the Pete Fernandez Mystery series, including Dangerous Ends, Blackout, and Miami Midnight; and the upcoming Secret Identity (Flatiron Books; 2022). He has also written a number of comic books and graphic novels, most notably the superhero noir The Black Ghost, the YA music series The Archies, and the Archie Meets collection of crossovers, featuring real-life cameos from the Ramones and The B-52s; the upcoming all-ages superhero adventure The Dusk; and more.
Laura Lippman
New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman is hailed as a distinctive voice in mystery fiction. Best known for writing a series of novels set in Baltimore and featuring reporter-turned-private investigator Tess Monaghan, Lippman’s books have won most of the significant honors in her field, including the Agatha, Anthony, and Edgar Allan Poe Award. In Dream Girl: A Novel (William Morrow), writer Gerry Andersen, injured in a freak fall, is confined to a hospital bed in his high-rise apartment and dependent on two women he barely knows: his incurious young assistant and a dull, slow-witted night nurse. Then late one night the phone rings – and the caller claims to be the “real” Aubrey, the title character from Andersen’s most successful novel, Dream Girl. But there is no “real” Aubrey; she’s a figment of his imagination. Isolated from the world, drowsy from medication, Andersen slips between reality and a dreamlike state in which his past haunts him – and now, here is Aubrey, threatening to visit him and suggesting that he owes her something. The Washington Post noted that “Socially conscious (the #MeToo movement makes a decisive entrance into the plot) and packed with humor, ghosts and narrative turn of the screw, Lippman’s Dream Girl is indeed a dream of a novel for suspense lovers and fans of literary satire alike.”
Connelly, Michael
Michael Connelly is the bestselling author of thirty-five novels and one work of non-fiction. His very first novel, The Black Echo, won the prestigious Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1992. Clint Eastwood directed and starred in the 2002 movie adaptation of Connelly’s 1998 novel, Blood Work. His bestselling novel, The Lincoln Lawyer, was also adapted for a movie starring Matthew McConaughey. His most recent bestsellers include Dark Sacred Night, Two Kinds Of Truth, The Late Show, The Wrong Side Of Goodbye, and The Crossing. He is also the executive producer of Bosch, an Amazon Studios original drama series based on his bestselling character Harry Bosch. He is the creator and host of the podcast Murder Book. Connelly’s story “The Guardian” is part of the collection Tampa Bay Noir (Akashic Books) edited by Colette Bancroft
