Barbara Fister
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| I've read mysteries all my life, but only in the past few years have I started writing them. On Edge, my first work of crime fiction, was listed as one of the "Outstanding Mysteries and Thrillers" of the year by the San Jose Mercury News. St. Martin's recently published my second mystery, In the Wind. The Chicago Tribune calls it "an understated crime fiction gem . . . a wildly thought-provoking whodunnit." |
 "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." William Kent Kruger, Anthony award-winning author
of the Cork
O'Connor series
"Chicago comes to life in this bold, thought-provoking,
unabashedly political mystery."
Sean Chercover, author of Big City Bad Blood and Trigger City |
In
the Wind St. Martin's Minotaur, May 2008 (ISBN 978-0312374914) cover design by David Rotstein 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. |
|
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. Click on the cover to read an excerpt. "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 Edge
|
| About
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 in the role of anxiety in the formation of social issues - in life and in fiction. I explore 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.  The contents of this website, unless otherwise indicated, are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. It was last updated August 2008.. u |
