Location – Florida
C.I. (Casey) Dennis
C.I. Dennis lives in Vermont with his family and dogs. He is the author of five novels featuring Vince Tanzi, a 50-something private investigator with a knack for finding trouble, both personal and professional. Tanzi’s quips, fast-paced action, witty dialogue and vivid characters propel his adventures across Vince’s native state (Vermont) and his adopted one (Florida).
Dennis has also published two novels under the name Zig Davidson: The Stick Season (2017) and Unglued (2014).
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David Mitchell
David Mitchell
Location – London (Soho) and around the world.
Check out the 2012 film version of Cloud Atlas on Netflix.
Extended Interview – w/ Neil Gaiman @ virtual Politics & Prose Bookstore
David Mitchell was born in Southport, Merseyside, in England, raised in Malvern, Worcestershire, and educated at the University of Kent, studying for a degree in English and American Literature followed by an M.A. in Comparative Literature. He lived for a year in Sicily, then moved to Hiroshima, Japan, where he taught English to technical students for eight years, before returning to England. After another stint in Japan, he currently lives in Ireland with his wife Keiko and their two children. In an essay for Random House, Mitchell wrote: “I knew I wanted to be a writer since I was a kid, but until I came to Japan to live in 1994 I was too easily distracted to do much about it. I would probably have become a writer wherever I lived, but would I have become the same writer if I’d spent the last 6 years in London, or Cape Town, or Moose Jaw, on an oil rig or in the circus? This is my answer to myself.” Mitchell’s first novel, Ghostwritten (1999), moves around the globe, from Okinawa to Mongolia to pre-Millennial New York City, as nine narrators tell stories that interlock and intersect. The novel won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize (for best work of British literature written by an author under 35) and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. His two subsequent novels, number9dream (2001) and Cloud Atlas (2004), were both shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In 2003, he was selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists. In 2007, Mitchell was listed among Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in The World. Mitchell’s American editor at Random House is novelist David Ebershoff. (Goodreads)
His latest novel (July 2020) Utopia Avenue tells the fictional story of a British band of the same name, who emerged from London’s psychedelic scene in 1967, against the backdrop of real world characters and events.
Check it out on Goodreads (Click cover below)
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On the Bookshelf – Recent Reads
On the Bookshelf – Recent Reads
Authors, some without websites or first-time published, some newly discovered by RTA, or on the list for their own page post, and a few from or about locations around the world.
These two “recent reads” work well together. Tom Perrotta has a new book called “Ghost Town.” Jess Walter‘s most recent “So Far Gone” was a beautifully crafted character study (video).
Each book was set against the backdrop of where they each grew up. For Perrotta, it is suburban New Jersey, early 1970’s, and for Walter, eastern Washington around Spokane. The main characters and supporting cast are all perfectly drawn; some you will like, and some will annoy, but you may root for them nonetheless. Whatever you think, it was a great week’s worth of reading.
Known for “Six Days of the Condor,” his coming-of-age trilogy began with “Smoke in Our Eyes,” and concluded with two published together. – American Sky – James Grady
The story follows a teenager named Luc Ross as he navigates the typical dramas of high school life in a small Montana town during the 1960s. The story captures a pivotal era of national change, weaving personal growth together with major historical events. Grady admits that much of the story is based on his growing up in a small Montana town. For more, check out this Washington D.C. bookstore event (introduction by George Pelecanos) @PoliticsandProse
Waldo, a high school senior in Alaska, funds her shopping addiction by working at Victoria’s Secret while navigating a neglectful home life. – Jennette McCurdy – Half His Age
The plot centers on her obsessive, inappropriate relationship with her 40-year-old teacher, Mr. Korgy. The narrative explores dark themes of power imbalances, female rage, and childhood trauma. Critics have praised the book’s “mordantly funny” and “unapologetically raw” prose, noting that McCurdy captures the messiness of adolescence without romanticizing its toxicity.
The novel is considered a compelling character study, with narration offering an adult’s look back on his youth with newfound understanding – Adam Ross – Playworld
The novel centers on the protagonist, Griffin Hurt, a 14-year-old child actor who plays the lead in a hit TV show called The Nuclear Family. Set against the backdrop of Manhattan in the early 1980s, Griffin navigates a world of blurred boundaries and adult excesses.
Praised as a “bold new writer” and with ten books to his credit, he goes on this page after reading just one – Charlie Donlea – Long Time Gone
As we expect to read many others, and will build him his own post once we add a few more to our book list, this thriller grabbed us from page one. The story and main character explore the emerging field of forensic genealogy and the link that her own DNA reveals.
You’ve probably heard about “Walking the Camino.” You may know people who have done it. Read this – Suzanne Redfearn – Call of the Camino
We don’t often place an author with their own Roaming the Arts post on this list, but we are making an exception. This is an inspiring story about so many things, one of which is the level of effort that most people don’t imagine they are capable of. The author was able to walk the walk and has written a terrific character-driven novel.
Story of a great film director making a late career movie – Jonathan Coe – Mr. Wilder and Me
Billy Wilder made some of the most iconic movies of his time, Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Irma la Douce, Front Page, The Fortune Cookie, to name just a few. This historical fiction piece is told through the eyes of a young Greek woman who meets Wilder and his team and winds up working on the 1977 production of the film Fedora.
Irish family saga over decades up to 2008 recession – Paul Murray – The Bee Sting
Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting is an irresistibly funny, wise, and thought-provoking tour de force about family, fortune, and the struggle to be a good person when the world is falling apart. Told by four family members, father, mother, daughter, son, each a voice in conflict with the moment. Over 500 pages. Stay the course.
Another first book makes lasting impression – Amanda Peters – The Berry Pickers
An amazingly perfect use of the device where the reader is shown where the story will go, but is often brought near tears on the way. The story of two families, two cultures, and both love and heartbreak throughout a lifetime. An especially good read.
What happened when Dorothy returned to Kansas? – Gordon McAlpine – After Oz
With the release of “Wicked” on film, Dorothy is once again topical and Oz again a fantasy destination. This novel, the author’s last before his untimely passing, suggests what may have happened in the days and months after the tornado that whisked the young girl away and back again.
Fantasy author delivers a terrific crime thriller – Dave Dobson – What Grows From the Dead
North Carolina college professor, improv comic, and writer provides an ensemble cast supporting an unlikely hero who has hit bottom in life and career, only to find he had inherited little from his mom except trouble.
New book about an old city – Ruth Reichl – The Paris Novel
Novelist and food writer takes us to Paris in the 1980’s with a young woman needing to find herself (not a cliche, but a charming rendition and tour guide). Book Club book, gourmet treat, and travel instigator, and already looking at flights.
American Literary Icon who passed away in 2023 – Russell Banks – American Spirits
An American treasure whose stories focus on the locales and people in the Adirondacks of upstate New York. Check out this recent PBS video tribute and a 1995 feature on CBS Sunday Morning which gives an interesting perspective on what young people cared about…30 years ago.
From the 1990’s – Henning Mankell – Faceless Killers
Terrific series taking place in Southern Sweden and featuring Wallender, a main character played deftly on the PBS series by Kenneth Branagh.
New book from old favorite – Tim O’Brien — America Fantastica
An American Master returns: the author of The Things They Carried and In the Lake of the Woods delivers his first new novel in two decades.
First-time author – Nilima Roa — A Disappearance in Fiji
What is told as a mystery is really an amazing history lesson of British colonialism, and Indian and native culture in the Fiji Islands off the coast of Australia in 1914.
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Don Winslow
Don Winslow
An author with an impact and a message – see Don Winslow Films
January 2026 – He’s back with – The Final Score
April 2024 – City in Ruins
April 2023 – City of Dreams
April 2022 – The start of a new trilogy – City on Fire
“Epic, ambitious, majestic, City on Fire is The Godfather for our generation.” – Adrian McKinty, New York Times bestselling author of The Chain
Two criminal empires together control all of New England.
Until a beautiful woman comes between the Irish and the Italians, launching a war that will see them kill each other, destroy an alliance, and set a city on fire.
Danny Ryan yearns for a more “legit” life and a place in the sun. But as the bloody conflict stacks body on body and brother turns against brother, Danny has to rise above himself. To save the friends he loves like family and the family he has sworn to protect, he becomes a leader, a ruthless strategist, and a master of a treacherous game in which the winners live and the losers die.
From the gritty streets of Providence to the glittering screens of Hollywood to the golden casinos of Las Vegas, two rival crime families ignite a war that will leave only one standing. The winner will forge a dynasty.
Exploring the classic themes of loyalty, betrayal, and honor, City on Fire is a contemporary masterpiece in the tradition of The Godfather, Casino, and Goodfellas—a thrilling saga from Don Winslow, “America’s greatest living crime writer” (Jon Land, Providence Journal).
A most unusual review – #BooksWithWallace
2020 release, “Broken.”
In six intense short novels connected by the themes of crime, corruption, vengeance, justice, loss, betrayal, guilt and redemption, Broken is #1 international bestseller Don Winslow at his nerve-shattering, heart-stopping, heartbreaking best. In Broken, he creates a world of high-level thieves and low-life crooks, obsessed cops struggling with life on and off the job, private detectives, dope dealers, bounty hunters and fugitives, the lost souls driving without headlights through the dark night on the American criminal highway.
With his trademark blend of insight, humanity, humor, action and the highest level of literary craftsmanship, Winslow delivers a collection of tales that will become classics of crime fiction.
The Trilogy
Of all the blows delivered by Don Winslow’s Cartel trilogy, none may be as devastating as the timing of “The Border,” its stunner of a conclusion. Though Winslow cannot have engineered all of this 14 years ago when he started this series, his sweeping new novel concerns subjects that put it right on the culture’s front burner: the Mexican-American border, the handling of migrant children, the opioid crisis and some barely fictionalized claims about how foreign money has bought influence at the highest level of the U.S. government.
The book’s title, “The Border,” refers to both physical and moral barriers. Winslow is well aware that both that and its cover image, which depicts a razor-wire-topped wall spreading across a desert landscape, are politically loaded. “Loaded phrases, like loaded guns, are more interesting, aren’t they?” Winslow said to Entertainment Weekly in September. As for the book’s depiction of fiercely partisan American politics, including its treatment of characters who are unmistakable versions of the current president and his son-in-law: “I know this book is going to make some people angry. I can live with that.”
Even though the first installment of this trilogy was named “The Power of the Dog,” after a biblical intimation of evil (“Deliver my soul from the sword; my love from the power of the dog,” Psalms 22:20), it only hinted at the magnitude and ferocity of what was to come. That opening novel now looks like the series’ relatively innocent prologue — and it is as blade-sharp, violent, pulse-quickening and reportorially shocking as the pinnacle of some lesser series might be.
“The Power of the Dog” is, in brief, about the first decades that bind the destinies of Art Keller, a Vietnam veteran and later D.E.A. agent, and Adán Barrera, a young Mexican who will go on to achieve the most dizzying heights of power. The book begins in a burning Mexican poppy field in 1975 (“Only in hell, Art Keller thinks, do flowers bloom fire”) and leaves Keller among more poppies in 2004. Many unspeakable acts happen in between, melding the personal with the political (Iran-contra). It is all rendered unputdownable by Winslow’s unrivaled skill at his game.
