CHRIS HOLM

The release date for  CHILD ZERO  is nearly upon us, and I've got a veritable boatload of events lined up to celebrate—including an HONEST-TO-GOD, NO-FOOLING, IN-PERSON RELEASE PARTY hosted by one of Maine's most venerated drinking establishments! CHILD ZERO Release Party Tuesday, May 10, 2022 7PM Eastern Hunt + Alpine 75 Market Street Portland, ME Mark your calendar and call your babysitter, because I've joined forces with the fine folks of Print: A Bookstore and Hunt + Alpine  (one of Thrillist's Best Cocktail Bars in America ) to launch CHILD ZERO in style! This event—which is free and open to the public—will feature door prizes, custom cocktails, and piles of brand spankin' hardcovers just waiting to be personalized! As an added bonus, if you buy a copy of CHILD ZERO at the event, you'll get a free drink courtesy of yours truly! Virtual Event: Murder by the Book (Houston, TX) in conversation w/ Matthew Quirk Friday, May 13, 2022 8PM Eastern (7PM Central)

On April 26, 1991, Stephen King spoke at the Landmark Theatre in Syracuse, New York. Thirteen-year-old-me was in attendance. Mr. King was kind enough to sign my tattered mass-market copy of THE DARK HALF . It'd come out not long before, so I hadn't yet read it to pieces, as I had with all his other books. Thirty-one years later, that copy of THE DARK HALF still has pride of place in my living room. In addition to producing an unparalleled body of work, King's commitment to championing his fellow authors turned me on to writers such as Elmore Leonard , Michael McDowell , Anne Rivers Siddons , and Donald Westlake , to name but a few. When I became an author, I thrilled to see King sing the praises of talented friends such as Lou Berney , Meg Gardiner , and Scott Von Doviak . And, as someone whose first three books were paperback originals, his work with Hard Case Crime meant the world to me, because it served to shine a light on writers like me who toiled in relative obscur

Recently, I sat down over Zoom to talk CHILD ZERO with Julia, Kelly, and Rachael of the What You Should Read podcast—and my episode is now live! If you wanna hear what a breakneck thriller would sound like as an AITA post—and, c'mon, of course you do—then click through to give it a listen . Thanks to Julia, Kelly, and Rachael for having me! Du Jour means friendship. (Also, seatbelts.)

As a longtime subscriber to—and daily reader of—the Portland Press Herald , I'm beyond thrilled they chose to run a feature on CHILD ZERO . If you'd like to give it a gander, click here ! Many thanks to features writer Ray Routhier and photographer Ben McCanna for their time and talent. Thanks as well to Julia Spencer-Fleming and Kathleen Pigeon for speaking to Ray on my behalf! Oh, and let the record state that my feature is on E1 (with a teaser on A1, below the masthead), while the piece on Dan Brown's  collaboration with The Portland Symphony Orchestra is relegated to E3—which means that in this instance, and only this instance, I'm bigger than Dan Brown.