The suburbs are safe. They’re clean and orderly and civil. At least, that’s what my parents used to tell me whenever I asked why we lived there, instead of somewhere exotic and exciting, like Greenwich Village or the Left Bank. Long maligned for their boredom, conformity, and status-consciousness, the subdivisions and planned communities that sprouted during the Baby Boom years continued to be a big draw for one main reason – their promise of providing a safe haven from the perilous cities they surround. It was better to endure the boredom of a pot-luck dinner party than suffer a mugging.
Or so I was told. For me, the suburbs soon became something quite different than the sanctuaries described by my parents. As I grew older, I came to see them as places of shadowy menace, where the flaws, temptations and transgressions of humanity are just as prevalent as anywhere else. The difference between them and the inner city isn’t that people behave better beyond the beltway. They’re just better at hiding the wrong they do. Given the evolution of my thinking about the suburbs, it was only natural that I set the crimes featured in novels such as Security, Human Capital and the forthcoming Locust Lane on their leafy, deceptively sedate cul-de-sacs and lanes. Read more in Crime Reads. For fans of Mystic River by Dennis Lehane and Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, Stephen Amidon’s Locust Lane is a taut and utterly propulsive story about the search for justice and the fault lines of power and influence in a seemingly idyllic town. Can anyone be trusted?
Read on to learn more as we chat with Stephen about his new release, along with writing, book recommendations, and more! Hi, Stephen! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself? I was born in suburban Chicago and raised in New Jersey and Maryland. After graduating from college, I moved to London, where I married a redhaired Cornish girl. Together, we had four children and threw lots of dinner parties. I wrote my first four novels while in the UK, as well as a number of film and TV scripts. I also worked as a film critic for the Financial Times and the Sunday Times (UK). I moved back to the US in 1999 and wrote my next seven books, two of which – Human Capital and Security – have been made into films. I am also the co-screenwriter of The Leisure Seeker, starring Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland. I am currently putting the finishing touches on my tenth novel. I divide my time between Massachusetts and Italy. When did you first discover your love of writing? I was twelve, maybe thirteen. My teacher had assigned us a short story. Mine concerned two men – haggard, exhausted, lonely, lost – wandering some blasted post-apocalyptic landscape. They have been walking for days. Unbeknownst to either, their paths take them right toward each other. On and on they walk, drawing closer and closer together. What will they say when they met? Will they be welcoming? Hostile? And then they finally come together… and simply pass each other by, without a word, without so much as a nod of acknowledgement. The story came quickly and naturally; the ending seemed to arrive out of nowhere. My teacher, family and classmates seemed impressed. I was hooked, addicted to storytelling. I’ve never given a thought to doing anything else since. Read more here. Stephen Amidon was born in Chicago and grew up on the East Coast. He lived in London for 12 years before returning to the United States in 1999. He now lives in Massachusetts and Torino, Italy. His books have been published in 16 countries and include two works of nonfiction, a collection of stories and seven novels, including Human Capital, adapted as a film directed by Marc Meyers in 2019, and Security, also adapted as a film and released by Netflix in summer 2021. His ninth novel is Locust Lane (Celadon, January 17, 2023), about the search for justice and the fault lines of power and influence in a seemingly idyllic town. Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less: A murder in suburbia sets three families on a collision course as they scramble to protect their treasured children from the consequences of the crime. On your nightstand now: Down and Out in Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain by Charles Leerhsen. I was always deeply impressed by the broadcasting and writing of Bourdain, who possessed such a humane, wise and unpretentious presence. I'm curious to see how such a seemingly ideal life could have gone so terribly wrong at the end. Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby. I read Blacktop Wasteland last year and was immediately sold on Cosby's brand of hard-bitten Southern noir. More, please. The Night Shift by Alex Finlay. I'm about halfway through this and think it's terrific. It's only Finlay's second novel, but he writes with immense authority and skill. Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez. I've heard nothing but good things about Olga and plan to see what all the fuss is about. Read more here. Stephen Amidon has spent considerable time in London, so perhaps that’s why he’s so good at conjuring the nasty wittiness of a mid-century British novel (which is exactly the tone I want to find in a book about wealthy people behaving very, very badly). The characters of Locust Lane bicker snidely, make harsh judgements about those they despise, and willfully ignore the faults of those they love. When a girl is found murdered, the parents of the three teenagers who were partying with her will do anything to protect their own, prepared for victory by a lifetime of privilege yet vulnerable to the consequences of a lifetime of secrets. –Molly Odintz, Crime Reads
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