Fiction Panel Luncheon 2017

RONALD BALSON The Trust
In The Trust, the acclaimed author of Once We Were Brothers, Saving Sophie and Karolina’s Twins turns the spotlight on his fictional private eye, Liam Taggart, who returns to Northern Ireland for his uncle’s funeral. There, he learns that his uncle was shot to death and had apparently anticipated his own murder. Further, Uncle Fergus has placed his estate in a secret trust, directing that no distributions be made until the killer is found. Like Balson,
a trial attorney, Liam is soon on the case.

JULIA DAHL Conviction
A year after the Brooklyn riots between black and Jewish residents, a black family is brutally murdered at home. A teenager is quickly convicted, and the justice system moves on. Twenty-two years later, tabloid journalist Rebekah Roberts, the heroine of Dahl’s first two books, gets a letter: “I didn’t do it.” She starts to dig, but witnesses are missing, memories have faded, and almost no one wants to talk. Conviction examines the power and cost of community, loyalty and denial.  Dahl’s debut novel Invisible
City was named one of the Best Books of 2014 by The Boston Globe and has been optioned by actress Toni Collette.

DANYA KUKAFKA Girl in Snow
When Lucinda Hayes, a beloved high school student, is found murdered, no one in her sleepy Colorado suburb is untouched—not the boy who loved her too much, the girl who wanted her perfect life, or the officer assigned to investigate. These three indelible characters, Cameron, Jade and Russ, must confront their darkest secrets. Debut novelist Kukafka employs crystalline prose as she explores identity and the razor-sharp line between love and obsession, watching and seeing, memory and truth.