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Editorial Content for The Man on the Train

Book

The Man on the Train

Contributors

Ray Palen

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

Debbie Babitt follows up SAVING GRACE and FIRST VICTIM with another engaging psychological thriller. At the start of THE MAN ON THE TRAIN, a body is being pulled from the ocean. This individual played an instrumental role in a horrendous crime that took place on eastern Long Island in 1984. Read More

Teaser

Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Linda Haley has no idea that her husband has been living a secret life. Now Guy is the prime suspect in a brutal murder that could derail Linda’s high-powered career and may be connected to a cold case. And Guy has disappeared. With a warrant out for her husband’s arrest, Linda sets out to prove his innocence accompanied by an ex-cop who harbors a secret affection for her. Together, they travel to the scene of a 40-year-old unsolved murder and a night of violence that shattered the serenity of a small fishing hamlet just past the Hamptons. But as the manhunt intensifies and she begins to uncover the shocking truth --- and the past Guy has buried deep --- Linda must decide if the stranger she married is innocent or guilty. And if he truly deserves to be saved.

Promo

Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Linda Haley has no idea that her husband has been living a secret life. Now Guy is the prime suspect in a brutal murder that could derail Linda’s high-powered career and may be connected to a cold case. And Guy has disappeared. With a warrant out for her husband’s arrest, Linda sets out to prove his innocence accompanied by an ex-cop who harbors a secret affection for her. Together, they travel to the scene of a 40-year-old unsolved murder and a night of violence that shattered the serenity of a small fishing hamlet just past the Hamptons. But as the manhunt intensifies and she begins to uncover the shocking truth --- and the past Guy has buried deep --- Linda must decide if the stranger she married is innocent or guilty. And if he truly deserves to be saved.

About the Book

One man is about to have a midlife crisis like no man has ever had before. But for his wife, the nightmare is just beginning.

Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Linda Haley is awakened early one morning by two police officers at the door. She has no idea that her husband has been living a secret life during his daily commute from Scarsdale into the city. Now Guy is the prime suspect in a brutal murder that could derail Linda’s high-powered career and may be connected to a cold case.

And Guy has disappeared.

With a warrant out for her husband’s arrest, Linda sets out to prove his innocence accompanied by an ex-cop who harbors a secret affection for her. Together, they travel to the scene of a 40-year-old unsolved murder and a night of violence that shattered the serenity of a small fishing hamlet just past the Hamptons.

But as the manhunt intensifies and she begins to uncover the shocking truth --- and the past Guy has buried deep --- Linda must decide if the stranger she married is innocent or guilty. And if he truly deserves to be saved.

Featuring tense, atmospheric suspense that moves at breakneck speed, this Hitchcockian thriller careens from a bedroom community just north of New York City to the picturesque beaches of eastern Long Island to a suburban train station, where a killer hiding in plain sight waits to exact a final revenge.

Author Talk: Stuart Turton, author of The Last Murder at the End of the World

May 31, 2024

Stuart Turton, the bestselling author of THE 7½ DEATHS OF EVELYN HARDCASTLE and THE DEVIL AND THE DARK WATER, is back with an inventive, high-concept murder mystery: an ingenious puzzle, an extraordinary backdrop and an audacious solution. In this interview, Turton talks about his inspiration for THE LAST MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORLD, why isolated settings appeal to him so much, his favorite character in the book, and what he has in mind for his fourth thriller.

May 31, 2024

Yes, it’s that time of year. We moved our book group discussion out to the deck this month, which is one step closer to what I know will be an eventual meeting in the pool as the summer goes on. Next month, my group will be discussing DID I EVER TELL YOU? by Genevieve (Gwen) Kingston. I was so moved by this memoir and my conversation with Gwen about it (you can see that later in this newsletter). There are books that are special and will stay with you. This is one of them!

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Long After We Are Gone by Terah Shelton Harris

May 2024

I was not familiar with heir property before I heard Terah Shelton Harris talk about it at a book preview event as she discussed her new novel, LONG AFTER WE ARE GONE. I found myself intrigued by this idea of land that was bought by Black people during the time of Reconstruction. These properties often were held by entire families and passed from generation to generation, but without much in the way of printed documents. Many times, the land was in areas that were swampy or near water, which was not considered desirable as people wanted property that could be farmed. As a result of the scant paperwork, there have been lots of ways for developers to try to lay claim to this land.

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May 31, 2024

As planned last weekend, I did a lot of garden work. On Sunday, I spent seven hours in the garden mostly doing container planting. But somehow, I also managed to get poison ivy on the inside of two fingers on my right hand when I touched something in one of the gardens. It is cross-eyed painful and has made typing pretty challenging. I will do a product shout-out here. Zanfel really works; I should have remembered this and bought it as soon as I was infected. Actually, I should just buy it at the start of every season since I am so allergic!

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Interview: Daniel Weizmann, author of Cinnamon Girl: A Pacific Coast Highway Mystery

May 30, 2024

Lyft driver-turned-sleuth Adam Zantz returns in CINNAMON GIRL, a neo-noir dive into the dark side of LA’s rock scene. In this interview conducted by Michael Barson, Senior Publicity Executive at Melville House, Daniel Weizmann explains how his approach to writing this book differed from that of his debut mystery, THE LAST SONGBIRD, which kicked off the Pacific Coast Highway series. He also talks about a couple of adjustments he made to his protagonist for this second installment, the musicians who have helped influence his writing, and what readers can expect for Adam’s third adventure.

William Kent Krueger Event Signup

Links to https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ZIXRGPh7THC_iTwQLEuMCw.

William Kent Krueger Event Signup

Links to https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ZIXRGPh7THC_iTwQLEuMCw.

Helen Simonson, author of The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club

It is the summer of 1919. Now that all the men have returned from the front, Constance Haverhill has been asked to give up her cottage and her job at the estate she helped run during the war. She is sent as a lady’s companion to an old family friend who is convalescing at a seaside hotel. Despite having only weeks to find a permanent home, Constance is swept up in the social whirl of Hazelbourne-on-Sea after rescuing the local baronet’s daughter, Poppy, from a social faux pas. Poppy runs a ladies’ motorcycle club, to which she plans to add flying lessons. She and her friends enthusiastically welcome Constance into their circle. As the country prepares to celebrate its hard-won peace, Constance and the women of the club are forced to confront the fact that the freedoms they gained during the war are being revoked.

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Ann Hood, author of The Stolen Child

For decades, Nick Burns has been haunted by a decision he made as a young soldier in World War I, when a French artist he’d befriended thrust both her paintings and her baby into his hands --- and disappeared. In 1974, with only months left to live, Nick enlists Jenny, a college dropout desperate for adventure, to help him unravel the mystery. The journey leads them from Paris galleries and provincial towns to a surprising place: the Museum of Tears, the life’s work of a lonely Italian craftsman. Determined to find the baby and the artist, hopeless romantic Jenny and curmudgeonly Nick must reckon with regret, betrayal and the lives they’ve left behind.

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