Q: What's better than a great book?

A: Finding out the author is a nice guy!

Our final Summer Reading Program genre discussion group was Monday and we discussed mysteries. Thanks to Terry, our librarian/bookstore owner, we had a guest speaker. Jason Pinter, author of The Mark, The Guilty and the newly released The Stolen (all with protagonist Henry Parker) who came bearing homemade cookies and brownies. He gave our (large!) group a short biography and then took questions. We learned about what books he reads, how he constructs his mysteries and how he went about getting his books published.

Terry and I also had the pleasure of having dinner with Jason after the discussion. We got some great dirt on a big writer (he he) along with our Italian food. And Jason even let me follow him on the scary, dark back roads of the Hamptons to the highway.

The best part is that this nice, young guy is getting crazy buzz! From Publishers Weekly, "Parker's first-person voice dominates: it lists between Parker as gritty, desensitized journalist and young romantic who wants little more than to spend the rest of his life with one woman. The emotional dichotomy makes Parker a captivating and complex protagonist, one whose pithy observations about New York are dead on." Jason has also been nominated for a string of various awards.

I have a long flight in 17 days and I am a nervous flier. I need some good distractions so I purchased Jason's three books (from my local independent bookstore :) ). After meeting him and hearing so many good things about the character he has created I am anxious to start ... but I will hide the books from myself until the day I leave for London. And I'll finally get to meet Henry Parker high above the Atlantic Ocean.