Apples Falling.....

"Real luxury is time and an opportunity to

read for pleasure."
Jane Brody

Does the apple fall far from the tree? If a parent is a well-known popular author, does that gene carry down to the offspring? Sometimes it does, which the following three young authors show. I asked several patrons to try these authors-without telling them why.

James Lee Burke is one of my all time favorite authors. I love his style of writing, the characters and the setting…New Iberia, Louisiana which just happens to be outside New Orleans. Daughter Alafair Burke has two series; we are introduced us to her main character, Samantha (Sam) Kincaid, an ambitious, tough Deputy District Attorney in Portland, Oregon, in her debut, Judgment Calls. Hoping to make a name for herself, Sam takes on a case that is not as open and shut as it first appeared. The questions that start to nag at her include-Who do you trust?

The three in the Sam Kincaid series are; Judgment Calls, Missing Justice and Close Case.

Burke’s other series features Ellie Hatch, a rookie police detective in New York City. Hatch has been called in to help in a murder investigation that is similar to a murder committed a year ago….and Hatch just happens to fit the profile of the victims. There are three books in this series, Dead Connection, Angel’s Tip and her recently published, 212 .

Consensus seems to be that Ms. Burke can more then hold her own.

Jesse Kellerman has the double whammy of writers Jonathan Kellerman and Faye Kellerman as his mom and dad. That can be a hard act to follow. In his debut, Sunstroke, Kellerman does okay, but did not impress many patrons. Then he followed with Trouble. Feedback has been more positive on this one. Psychological thrillers can be tricky if not done right, but Kellerman seems to have nailed it with this one. What can drive someone to the verge of madness? You will be on the edge of your chair from the beginning and find you won’t put it down until you have finished it. Like one that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up? Here you go. Kellerman followed with The Genius, another edge of your seat thriller; and his latest, The Executor, proves he is a writer worth checking into.


Joe Hill has written one witty, dark, engaging, morbid horror story. Heart Shaped Box is about a middle-aged heavy metal rock star, Judas Coyne, who is a collector of the macabre, most of them gifts from his fans-cookbook for cannibals, used hangman’s noose. When he hears that there is a ghost in a suit for sale on the internet-why not? The haunted suit comes in a black heart shaped box with a little extra that Judas isn’t aware of until…… (Word has that the movie rights to this book have been sold.)

Hill latest is Horns. After a night of drinking- and other things he can’t remember, or chooses not to. Remember, Ignatius (Ig) Perrish wakes up with a raging hangover headache…and horns growing out of his temples.

Dad is Stephan King who must have told this kid some bedtime stories. Rumor has it that Hill might have outdone Dad with his horror novels. Hills' books have been hot ones with many patrons.


Give one of these authors a try. I think you'll be pleasently surprised.

Happy Reading!