Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Six intelligent, page-turning, genre-bending classics

Hailed as “one of the best thriller writers working today” by Lee Child and “a wonderful writer” by Michael Connelly, Chris Mooney is the international bestselling author of over one dozen novels. His fourth book, The Missing, the first in the Darby McCormick series, was a main selection of the International Book of the Month Club and an instant bestseller in over thirteen countries. The Mystery Writer’s Association nominated Mooney’s third book, Remembering Sarah, for an Edgar Award for Best Novel. Foreign rights to his novels have been sold to twenty-eight territories. He has sold nearly two million copies of his books.

Mooney teaches writing courses at Harvard and the Harvard Extension School, and lives in the Boston area with his wife and son. His new novel is Blood World.

At CrimeReads, Mooney tagged six "genre-bending classics that prove the merit of mixing things together for spectacular results," including:
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

In this alternate history novel, two slaves, Cora and Caesar, decide to escape their horrendous conditions on their plantation in Georgia and make use of an actual, working underground railroad operated by a secret network that runs all through the South. Along the way, Cora is forced to kill a white man, and soon the two are being hunted by slavecatcher named Ridgeway. This is the great American novel—gripping, uncomfortable, and important. The book’s themes and messages resonate even more powerfully now. This is mandatory reading.
Read about the other entries on the list.

The Underground Railroad is among Rachel Eve Moulton's top ten literary thrillers, Nathan Englander’s ten desert island books, Greg Mitchell's top ten escapes in literature, and President Obama's summer 2016 reading list.

--Marshal Zeringue