Barbara Fister about me / what I'm reading and thinking about / selected articles and websites / drop me a lineI've read mysteries all my life, but only in the past few years have I started writing them. St. Martin's will be publishing my second mystery, In the Wind, in April, 2008. On Edge, my first work of crime fiction, was named one of the "Outstanding Mysteries and Thrillers of 2002" by the San Jose Mercury News. In the Wind St. Martin's Minotaur, April 2008 (ISBN 978-0312374914) Anni
Koskinen is out of a
job. After ten years in the Chicago Police Department, her moral
compass led her
across the thin blue line to testify
against a fellow cop – and, in the aftermath, she lost the
only career she ever
wanted. Caught
in the vortex of a
no-holds-barred federal investigation, angry cops who believe she's
once again
working for the wrong side, and a dangerous group of white
supremacists
bent on establishing their own version of history, Anni’s
investigation into
crimes of the past throws her in the path of a clear and present
danger. And
this time, she stands to lose much more than her job. Praise for In the Wind "Barbara Fister is the heir apparent to Sara Paretsky. In the Wind is an intriguing mystery, filled with great characters, an interesting and needed perspective on the city of Chicago, and a strong grounding in the politics and history of the past thirty years. Read it. You'll love it." Kris Nelscott,
Edgar and Shamus award nominated author of the Smokey Dalton series
“An engaging character, a fast-paced plot, and a story that draws thought-provoking parallels between the turbulent 1970s and the world we live in today. An excellent second novel!” Marcia Muller, creator of the Sharon McCone series "A tour de force of masterful storytelling . . . Barbara Fister has created a vivid, intricately plotted and emotionally resonant novel that will stay with you a long, long time." Louise Ure, author of The Fault Tree "To the fine list of tough female PIs like V. I. Warshawski, Kinsey Millhone, and Sharon McCone, eager readers can now add another terrific name: Anni Koskinen. In the Wind is smart and tough, and Barbara Fister, delivers her story with the wallop of a good right cross." read an excerpt (.pfd) more about In the Wind further background at Moments in Crime get a copy of In the Wind On
Edge A flip of a coin sends Konstantin Slovo, a Chicago cop who's had all he can take, eastbound on I-90 with no destination in mind. His impulsive flight ends in Brimsport, Maine, where gulls cry, waves wash against a rockbound coast - and the town's worst nightmare is coming true. Almost twenty years ago, an investigation into allegations of child abuse spiraled out of control, ending without convictions - leaving the community scarred by suspicion, distrust, and anger. Slovo, all too experienced with crimes against children, arrives in Brimsport just as a search is on for a missing girl, the third child to be abducted and murdered in recent months. He's drawn into the race to stop it from happening again - and to end the horror before the town tears itself apart. Because whoever is behind these killings knows Brimsport's tortured past and is using its worst fears to push it over the edge. "On Edge is a knockout thriller." John Orr, San Jose Mercury News"On Edge kept me on the edge of my seat." Judith Flavell, The Mystery Reader "Just the paperback to browse when your plane enters a zone of turbulence and the pilot turns on the fasten-seat-belts sign." Eugen Weber, Los Angeles Times what booksellers said about On EdgeAbout Me A native of Madison, Wisconsin, I've lived in Kentucky, Texas, the Middle East, North Africa, and on the coast of Maine. Now I live in rural Minnesota, where I work as an academic librarian at a liberal arts college. My research interests are wide, not to say idiosyncratic, but they all have to do, one way or another, with how various media shape our understanding of the world. I'm particularly interested the role of anxiety in the formation of social issues. Even my fiction gets into that act, exploring the way communities sometimes embrace oversimplified expanations for evil in On Edge and how anxiety becomes a device for the suppression of dissent in In the Wind. Good crime fiction is immensely satisfying. It's entertaining, has well-paced, involving stories and intriguing characters. It provides that little rush of adrenaline - which, as Val McDermid has said, is "a fabulous drug. It produces a great high, it's legal and it's free." For many readers, crime fiction is reassuring because in the end order is restored. But the best crime fiction does more than reassure. It helps form our understanding of social issues, and by drawing us into an exploration of that which disturbs us, it can give our deepest fears narrative form and meaning. At least, as Chandler said, such is my faith.
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