Lori Rader-Day's Blog, page 4

Under a Dark Sky is an Anthony nominee!

I was updating some events on this site, getting organized all back-to-school style when I realized I had never posted about Under a Dark Sky being an Anthony Award nominee. WHAT? A chance to brag, missed?

Well, it is. Under a Dark Sky is a nominee for the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original, along with some great books by friends James Ziskin, Kellye Garrett, Alison Gaylin, and Naomi Hirahara. Full list of nominations are here—a great list of reads.

I can’t believe I missed this post, because the Anthony means a lot to me. Oh! Here’s a chance to show you how happy I was to win the Anthony in 2015 for The Black Hour! Photo by Kristopher Zgorski of BOLOBooks!

Photo by Kristopher Zgorski

I don’t even look like a girl who has her sprained ankle wrapped and stuffed into a Chuck Taylor Converse, do I?

Anyway, I look forward to Bouchercon in Dallas, Texas, in October for so many reasons—wait. October is now technically “next month”?

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The Lucky One gets a pretty face!

An important moment in any book’s publication is the COVER. I’m excited to share the cover of my next book…

How gorgeous is it? Tell me my book is pretty. The Lucky One will be out in February. I know it’s a long time for you, but it’s not for me—because I have to write another book!

So what’s The Lucky One about, you ask?

Most people who go missing are never found. But Alice was the lucky one…

As a child, Alice was stolen from her yard in a tiny Indiana community, but against the odds, her policeman father tracked her down within twenty-four hours and rescued her from harm. In the aftermath of the crime, her family decided to move to Chicago and close the door on that horrible day.

Yet Alice hasn’t forgotten. She devotes her spare time volunteering for a website called The Doe Pages, scrolling through pages upon pages of unidentified people, searching for clues that could help reunite families with their missing loved ones. When a face appears on Alice’s screen that she recognizes, she’s stunned to realize it’s the same man who kidnapped her decades ago. The post is deleted as quickly as it appeared, leaving Alice with more questions than answers.

Embarking on a search for the truth, she enlists the help of friends from The Doe Pages to connect the dots and find her kidnapper before he hurts someone else. Then Alice crosses paths with Merrily Cruz, another woman who’s been hunting for answers of her own. Together, they begin to unravel a dark, painful web of lies that will change what they thought they knew—and could cost them everything.

Twisting and compulsively readable, Lori Rader-Day explores how we cope with unexpected tragedy, and the lies we tell ourselves to feel safe.

The Lucky One is up for pre-order on Amazon already, but do consider saving your sale for your local independent bookstore. Who knows? Maybe I’ll be visiting your local independent… Available trade paperback, large-print/library hardcover, ebook, and maybe audio (haven’t heard yet).

Thanks for reading!

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Under a Dark Sky is…an Edgar Award nominee!

It’s been such a busy day that I forgot to post this news here: Under a Dark Sky is an Edgar Award nominee!

I just said that. Like it was no big deal! But it is a very big deal, to me. I ugly-cried when I found out. SOBBED. I might be a little punchy; it’s revision time and I haven’t left my house in several days. Several.

The Edgars are kind of the Oscars of mystery writing, and yes, I’ve been to the event before, but I’ve never gone as an Edgar nominee. (The Mary Higgins Clark Award, while a tremendous honor that I am very proud of, is not technically an Edgar Award. Only given out at the same time through the same process. It’s confusing, I know. I had to explain this to my best friend who was like, Uhhh, do you have a brain injury? I thought you got this already.)

If you win, they give you a little ceramic Edgar Allan Poe head, like a china doll that is not at all creepy.

How cute is he? SO CUTE!

But even if you don’t win, you get to say, forEVER, that you were an Edgar Award nominee, and you bet your ASS that I am going to.

I’m especially excited by the great books alongside mine in the Best Paperback Original category: Alison Gaylin, Naomi Hirahara, Leila Slimani, and Lisa Unger! Wow, right?

There are so many wonderful books on the full list of this year’s finalists. Check them out and find something to read for yourself and all the readers (all ages!) in your life.

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Under a Dark Sky is a Lefty Award Finalist!

I was surprised and delighted to learn today that Under a Dark Sky is a finalist for the Lefty Award for Best Mystery! Yes, Best Mystery, like out of thousands or something. They have an award for the funny one, for the historical one, and for the debut one, and then everyone else is funneled through this one category. Hence, the surprised and delighted.

The full list of fantastic finalists are listed here. I’ve read many of these and they are great. Time to get to the bookstore for the rest, right?

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Big news from my trip to Bouchercon!

The Day I Died took home the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original! Now, to put some big flowers into that vase. Thank you, Bouchercon board and volunteers, attendees, authors, readers, friends. This book was ten years in the making. Who knew when I put that manuscript in the drawer so long ago, even when I was so impatient to be published, that it would someday be my date to the Anthonys? Very grateful for everyone who had a hand in making this book possible.

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Anthony Award nomination!

I swear I forgot. It’s not like it’s not great news. I’m just too busy batting away Facebook notifications to remember to do my part in telling you that The Day I Died is a nominee for the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original!

Yay! 

This is the award that is given by Bouchercon, the world mystery conference, this year held in September in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Here are all the nominees this year, a great list of books and friends! If you scroll down to 2015, you’ll see where The Black Hour won the Anthony for Best First Novel. Remember that? One of the best moments of this crazy career so far, for sure.

See you in St. Petes!

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Thrilling news!

Some great news this week… The Day I Died is a nominee for the ITW Thriller Award for Best Paperback Original!

This is truly thrilling news, my first Thriller Award nomination! I’ve definitely had more than my fair share of award nominations, but it’s exciting to be noticed by the judges in this specific awards program. It’s exciting to know that I wrote a thriller.

The full list of nominees is astounding, just chock full of fantastic reads—you can find it here. Congrats to all the nominees!

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Under a Dark Sky advance reader copies arrive!

And then one day all those ideas are delivered to your front porch in pretty, paper form.

These are the advance readers of Under a Dark Sky for reviewers, so NO ONE PANIC. If you are a librarian or reviewer, you can use Edelweiss to request it. Go do that. I’ll wait.

If you’re not a librarian or reviewer but a reader and super excited about the book, you can pre-order from your local independent bookstore or from the major retailers. Or you can wait until August 7 and maybe come to one of my launch events? I should start planning some of those, huh?

Yay! It’s never a bad day when a book you wrote finally shows up looking like a BOOK.

Thanks for your enthusiasm about this book. My experience is that each book is its own challenge and its own reward. This one is special to me, and I hope you love it.

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THE DAY I DIED is going to the Edgars!

Had a lovely surprise today: The Day I Died is a finalist for the Simon and Schuster/Mary Higgins Clark Award! The award is given out alongside the Edgar Awards, announced today, on Edgar Poe’s birthday.

Yes, that’s a thing that mystery writers know. It’s Edgar’s birthday. *confetti* Edgar! Here’s your cake.

(It’s also, as it turns out, Patricia Highsmith’s birthday today. I’m actually reading one of hers right now. Big fan.)

Astute readers may recognize that award. The Black Hour was a finalist in 2015, and Little Pretty Things took it home in 2016. It’s…humbling. As I said in 2015, reading Mary Higgins Clark’s books at a very (ahem) formative age made me the writer I am. This is a terrific honor for me, and I’m excited to get to the Edgars in New York again, always a fun room.

Check here for all the finalists and winners of the Grand Master, Raven, and Ellery Queen Awards, too. There’s a lot of good reading on that list.

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UNDER A DARK SKY gets a cover!

I love cover reveal day…one of the best days in the course of publication because, well, LOOK:

What’s it about? I’m glad you asked!

From the critically-acclaimed author of The Day I Died comes a terrifying twist on a locked-room mystery that will keep readers guessing until the last page

Only in the dark can she find the truth . . .

Since her husband died, Eden Wallace’s life has diminished down to a tiny pinprick, like a far-off star in the night sky. She doesn’t work, has given up on her love of photography, and is so plagued by night terrors that she can’t sleep without the lights on. Everyone, including her family, has grown weary of her grief. So when she finds paperwork in her husband’s effects indicating that he reserved a week at a dark sky park, she goes. She’s ready to shed her fear and return to the living, even if it means facing her paralyzing phobia of the dark.

But when she arrives at the park, the guest suite she thought was a private retreat is teeming with a group of twenty-somethings, all stuck in the orbit of their old college friendships. Horrified that her get-away has been taken over, Eden decides to head home the next day. But then a scream wakes the house in the middle of the night. One of the friends has been murdered. Now everyone—including Eden—is a suspect.

Everyone is keeping secrets, but only one is a murderer. As mishaps continue to befall the group, Eden must make sense of the chaos and lies to evade a ruthless killer—and she’ll have to do it before dark falls…

 

UNDER A DARK SKY is out August 7, but you can pre-order from all the places you get your books. Details and links here.

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