Small Towns, Dark Secrets at the Harbor Springs Festival of the Book

What are you doing tomorrow morning? Day Two of the Harbor Springs Festival of the Book begins with several panels you’ll want to visit at 9 a.m.  I want to hear Terry Gamble, author of The Eulogist, an excellent multi-generational saga of the mid-19th Century, moderate a panel with the esteemed Amitav Ghosh, author of one of my long-time favorite novels, The Glass Palace, and Téa Obreht, author of Inland, an insightful and breathtakingly beautiful  tale of the American West. Because I can hear them on other panels, I’ll venture to the Harbor Springs Methodist Church to listen to the panel titled “Small Towns, Dark Secrets” where Chanelle Benz, Lydia Fitzpatrick, and Meagan Lucas will share the ways small town settings influence the characters and action in their novels. These three authors’ debut thrillers kept me up at night so I’m dying to hear what they have to say.

I reviewed Fitzpatrick’s Lights All Night Long here in July and her characters still have me under their spell. Benz’s The Gone Dead is my kind of mystery filled with racial tension, evil characters, and a look at the literary history of America. Read the Publishers Weekly review of it here. 

Meagan Lucas’s debut, Songbirds and Stray Dogs is an evocative and suspense-filled portrayal of small town secrets and the difficulty of escaping expectations. Jolene arrives in a quiet western North Carolina town pregnant and in need of a job. Chuck is searching for his addict sister and caring for her teen son when he’s threatened by one of his sister’s unsavory acquaintances. The ending of this debut rings true and while sad, it offers hope. Jolene, Chuck and the book’s minor characters are engaging and realistic.  Meagan is the second Good Hart Artist Residency author to appear at the Festival. She’s spending her residency here working on her second novel, Mercy. 

Explore the Festival schedule and find the right panel for your literary tastes.