Five on Friday - Sara J. Henry

Happy Friday! We made it again. I hope you all have something fun planned and some great books to read this weekend.

A few items before we introduce today's guest.

I got some information about a live chat that BookTrib will be doing with Wiley Cash on April 24th at 7:30 Eastern. I'm going to watch this and thought it might be of interest to some of you as well. You can find more info on it here.

This isn't your traditional crime novel; I don't know that you could call it a crime novel at all, but you might be interested in entering to win a copy of The Kings and Queens of Roam.

Especially for the ebook readers, HarperCollins has launched an enhanced ebook site. That essentially means you get extra content with the book like videos, music, photos and bonus content. You still buy the ebooks from your retailer of choice...they don't appear to be more expensive, but I'm not especially versed in ebook prices, so feel free to correct me in the comments if I'm wrong.

And specifically for the Kindle crowd, if you have not read Craig McDonald's Toro's and Torsos, you are in luck! It is going to be a free download on Saturday! I highly recommend grabbing it if you have a Kindle. 

And the usual giveaway round-up (I'll be quick since I seem to have a lot to say today. yee gads):

• Friday Reads has two HOT titles--the third book in Duane Swierczynski's trilogy, Point and Shoot, and Denise Mina's graphic novel of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
• Lesa Holstine has an "If You Missed it the First Time Around" giveaway.

Now, on to the good stuff! Last year on my list of favorite debuts was Sara J. Henry's Learning to Swim. I wasn't the only one who enjoyed this one as it won the 2012 Anthony and Agatha Awards for Best First Novel as well as 2012 Mary Higgins Clark Award from the MWA. If that wasn't enough, it received nominations for the Barry and the Macavity! Still not impressed? Reed Farrel Coleman told me he uses the opening of Learning to Swim in his writing classes.

This year, Sara's following up that success with her sophomore novel A Cold and Lonely Place. I have my copy to read, but I also have an extra copy, so after Sara's Five on Friday, I'll have a chance for YOU to win my extra copy.

Besides being a very talented writer, Sara also has my respect for her love of dogs. You can read more about that at her website. You can also hang out with Sara on Twitter or Facebook. But for today, you can hang out with her here! And I have to say, this woman has been working hard on a book tour all over tarnation, so I'm thrilled she had time to fit us in.

My friends...Sara J. Henry!

Sara at 16 on the bike!

The best gift I ever received was the tool box, fully stocked, my dad gave me for my 13th birthday. This, in the south, in a era where just about everyone’s mom stayed home and, by gum, had dinner on the table at five. Mind you, he gave me a sewing box as well and taught me how to knit, but what resonates in my memory is him showing me how to snap a chalk line and lay shingles and handle a hammer.

Or, wait, no – it was the basketball pole and hoop he installed for me when I was 10. I was a klutz, the kid picked last for teams, the one who spent recess with her nose in a book. But in our weekly PE class we had to line up to shoot a basketball at a hoop, and of course mine never went in. But then one day it did. And the next thing you knew there was a basketball pole installed in our backyard, an old telephone pole set in concrete, with a shiny new backboard and hoop. And then every day after school I’d play out there by myself, shooting the basket, over and over, and marveling that I had magically become a person who could make the ball go in the hoop.

The most daring thing I ever tried (to date) was … oh, wait, I didn’t see the parentheses. Never mind.

If I could tell my 16-year-old self one piece of advice, knowing what I know now, it would be: Don’t ever stop riding your bicycle. Don’t ever stop running. Work hard at quietening that voice that says You can’t do that and the one that says You should try to be more like other people. Don’t fight the urge to write and think as you want. Keep on doing things like the night you decide, a few years from now, that if you can make yourself tread water you can learn to swim, then shove yourself into the middle of that empty Louisville motel pool late at night where, yes, you learn to tread water. And please don’t think you can wait until your mid-thirties to have the babies you dream of, because, for you, that will be too late. Instead you will adopt dogs and take in a stream of summer exchange students and work incessantly, but none of it will ease the ache in your heart for what you can never have.

(Yes, that was more than one piece of advice.)

One thing I have no tolerance for: badly painted walls. Seriously. I notice the paint drips, the smudges, the wavering lines. I see the unsanded bumps and the crevices crying out for spackling. Hey, if it’s worth painting, it’s worth doing right.

A close second is misspelling authors’ names. Because, you know, the name is right there, on the book.

A skill I’ve always wanted to have, but don’t: I so admire people who can look at a room and see, just see, that it needs the furniture moved and needs a picture on that wall and maybe a vase right there … and people who know how to accessorize, to wear the right scarf and jewelry and layers and whatever. Not that I really want to do those things. Sometimes I want someone else to do them, but not often.

What I would love to be able to do is rock climb. I would love to have the strength and fitness to make the requisite moves, to be in that kind of shape, and to have the courage to … just … do … it.

Once I went on a week-long cruise, which I ended up loving. Limitless, all-inclusive meals and snacks, what’s not to love?! I went to shows; I tried roller blading; I went ice skating. I did everything there was to do on that cruise ship, except the rock wall. I kept staring at it, thinking Tomorrow I will try that, and I never did. I chickened out.

The #1 item on my bucket list right now is: to get fit. I know this sounds boring, but bicycling, running, hiking, tennis clear my mind and make me feel alive in a way nothing else does. And (the truth comes out) I really haven’t done any of them for more than four years.

That was when I broke my fifth right metatarsal, had it surgically repaired, and three weeks later hopped on a plane to a house-swap in Australia, where I rewrote my decade-old manuscript, then found an agent, got a two-book deal, and entered a new career for which I was completely unprepared, right about when a forever-type of relationship fell apart. I’m abashed to say I never found time to get fit. Yes, I played basketball at Bouchercon-Cleveland, but that was sheer willpower and long-cobwebbed muscle memory. People who know how I love to bike and run and how driven I am (at my municipal tennis lessons they called me “Boris”) assume I’m still doing all these sports. But I’m not. Running up a flight of stairs or cycling the two miles to the post office leaves me winded. I’ve become the American cliché, a couch potato. An incognito one.

This is the year all that ends. It’s time to start moving again.

Geez, I need Sara to live by me so we could start moving together. I didn't get my stocked tool box until I was 30 and I assure you, my dad did NOT teach me to crochet. That is a very cool dad. I have to say this was an incredible peek into Sara as a person and I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. Now here's your chance to win a copy of A Cold and Lonely Place. Just fill out the form below to be entered. Winners need to be US residents and entries need to be in by midnight, April 26th (next Friday). As always, email me if you have any questions.

2011 Overall Favorite Reads

Wow! We've come to the end of yet another year. Next month I will celebrate four years of blogging. Doesn't seem possible at all. A lot of growing and changing have happened in those years. A lot of new friends and of course a lot of books! I love that we can share that common bond.

But, before I start getting too sentimental, let's concentrate on 2011. This year I read 98 books, which was four below last year's total of 102. I try to aim for 100 each year, but given all the wonderful busy-ness of this year, I'm not at all disappointed in that total.

Of the 98 books, 47 were audiobooks - so almost half.

There were 83 different authors in the 98 book mix, 51 were new-to-me authors and 14 were debut novels. 65 books were written by men, 3 were written by male/female duos and 30 were written by women.

Now for the hard part. Winnowing down my favorite 10, but here we go:

10. THE HANGING TREE (Bryan Gruley) - this book was released in Summer 2010, so I was a little late in reading it, but Gruley blows me away with each book and I'm very much looking forward to his next book in this series, SKELETON BOX, that comes out next summer. I won't be waiting long to read that one, rest assured. STARVATION LAKE was great and THE HANGING TREE was even better. Can't wait to see what awaits Gus next. (Touchstone)

9. EL GAVILAN (Craig McDonald) - Craig consistently writes great fiction and with EL GAVILAN he stretched his wings a bit. I love that this book shows both his versatility as a writer and his traditional strengths as well. I love that he drew me in with characters I couldn't decide if I loved or hated. (Tyrus Books)

8. LONG GONE (Alafair Burke) - with every book Alafair Burke grows as a story teller and in LONG GONE she veered off the path she's been so successful with to date. She blazed a new trail proving yet again that she's got writing chops, y'all! Spending time with her characters in the NYC she so expertly creates is a treat. LONG GONE is possible the sweetest treat yet. (Harper)

7. DOMINANCE (Will Lavender) - WATCH. THIS. MAN. He is flat-out amazing. And he's young and with luck we will be seeing a lot more from him. DOMINANCE is complex and puzzling and mysterious and brilliant. This book was so much fun to read. And Will Lavender is a new-to-me author this year. DOMINANCE is his second novel. (Simon & Schuster)

6. SATORI (Don Winslow) - the very first book I read in 2011 and back then I said, "this will be on my favorites list" and it is. I loved SATORI as a book by itself, having not read SHIBUMI beforehand. After I read SHIBUMI I realized further how astounding SATORI is. Winslow managed to stay true to Travanian's characters and still infuse his own style and technique. SATORI is a work of art. (Grand Central)

5. THE SURROGATE/CAGE OF BONES (Tania Carver) - I'm putting these together, not trying to cheat, but CAGE OF BONES is not yet released in the U.S. I read both books this year, THE SURROGATE being the debut novel from Tania Carver - which is the writing team of Martyn Waites and his wife, Linda. Martyn writes independently under his own name as well, so it's not really his debut, but semantics. Like Bryan Gruley, I see the Tania Carver books as starting out great and only getting better. For those of you who like dark suspense, this is an absolute DO NOT MISS series. I'm hooked. I have to jump back and read THE CREEPER (due out in the US in 2012) - the middle book in the series - but once I'm all caught up this is definitely a series I'll be waiting impatiently for each new installment. Martyn's just thankful that he's across the pond so I can't camp outside his house waiting for the next book! ;-) (Pegasus)

4. THE TWO DEATHS OF DANIEL HAYES (Marcus Sakey) - The fact that I get to be a high-powered, kick-ass lawyer in this book has nothing to do with it's appearance on this list. And you should not hold Marcus' questionable choice in character names against him. This is the most amazing of his books. It's smart, fast-paced, brilliant plot twists. It keeps you on your toes and while the momentum of the book drives you to turn pages faster and faster, you don't want it to end. It's just too much fun. And that's what reading should be. (Dutton)

3. HELL IS EMPTY (Craig Johnson) - Yes indeed, I am an evangelist for this series. I do indeed have a crush on Walt Longmire. And if I didn't adore Vic so much, I'd want to kick her butt! O.k., don't worry, I do realize these are fictional characters, but when you're caught up in the books, they're friends. Breaking open a new Walt Longmire is like taking a vacation to my favorite destination. Prior to HELL IS EMPTY, KINDNESS GOES UNPUNISHED stayed my favorite, stayed my favorite, stayed my favorite and then HELL IS EMPTY rocked my reading world. There are so many wonderful layers to this book and you can enjoy one, some or all. (Viking)

2. YOU'RE NEXT (Gregg Hurwitz) - This book is always the hardest one for me to articulate why I love. Not because it's for bad reasons but rather because it affected me so deeply. This is a book that still resonates with me months after finishing it. The relationships that Hurwitz created between his characters are pulchritudinous (yes, I did learn that word just for this book...nothing else seemed to embrace the magnitude of what I was trying to say). I don't know how Gregg can tops this one, and how the heck can I top pulchritudinous if he does? (St. Martins)

1. THE RIDGE (Michael Koryta) - I, of course, revealed this last week in the year end meme. Michael's approach to both his human and feline characters is stunning. The world he created is dark and haunting, but I so wanted to be there. THE RIDGE gets the top spot this year because Koryta did what few are ever able to with me - he enticed me to let go of the reality I cling to and willingly follow into his. With any luck, Koryta will never want to be a cult leader. I think I'm a goner if he does. (Little, Brown)

In year's past, I've had debut authors in my top favorite 10. This year I didn't, but not because there weren't excellent debut authors, those danged veterans were just showing their experience! Anyway, I wanted to recognize a few debut authors as my favorites for 2011:

Sara Henry released LEARNING TO SWIM this year. I look forward to watching her grow as a writer and experiencing her work.

James Barney released THE GENESIS KEY which I felt did a wonderful job blending science, religion and crime! (Harper)

And Daniel Palmer released DELIRIOUS and I was glued to it. I've actually had the chance to read his follow-up to DELIRIOUS which is still a thriller, but quite different in content, so I can already see his versatility as writer in this genre. Problem with getting to read those ahead is you have to wait longer for the next one to come. I'm sure I can keep busy in the interim, though! (Kensington)

I feel very blessed that I learned to love reading and can appreciate the wonder and magnificence. While it's a challenge to narrow down a list to 10 favorites, it's also a tremendous gift to have experienced all of these worlds and characters - friends. My heartfelt thanks go out to all the authors who have shared their talents.

And many, many thanks to everyone who has entrusted me with books this year. I wish I was able to read every last one. And there are so many that I still intend to read. As things continue to change in my world, I hope that it offers me more opportunity to read and share and enjoy books with you all.

Thanks for hanging out with me this year! Let's do it again in 2012, o.k?

Sara J. Henry - Crime Readers Caught Reading Crime...

...at an indie bookstore.

Ah ha! Today we've caught Sara J. Henry deep in a book at her indie bookstore of choice, Mysteries & More in Nashville, Tennessee. Sara's debut novel, LEARNING TO SWIM, came out earlier this year. In her shady spot at Mysteries & More, Sara's enjoying HAILEY'S WAR by Jodi Compton. This is what Sara has to say about book and bookstore:

I love this book partly for the crisp, seamless writing and partly for the kick-ass heroine with a deep internal struggle who also happens to ride a bicycle, and am greatly looking forward to the sequel, Thieves Get Rich, Saints Get Shot, coming out in July. And I love Mysteries & More because I adore the owners, Greg and Mary Bruss, who always have time to chat and have tea or coffee, and their delightful, comfortable, cozy bookstore.

Many thanks to Sara and her photographer, Christine McCann. This beautiful sunny day setting is making me very envious. I'm ready to be reading out on MY porch!

Check back for more in the Crime Readers Caught Reading Crime at an indie bookstore series. And as always...happy reading!

LEARNING TO SWIM - Sara J. Henry

First line: "If I'd blinked, I would have missed it."

Troy Chance is on a ferry when she spots something fall from another ferry moving in the opposite direction. It could be anything, but Troy's intuition tells her it's a child. She dives into the water to find a small boy tied up in a sweatshirt left to drown. Freeing him from his binds, she swims back to shore and takes the French-speaking boy back to her home after deciding against the police station.

Communicating as best she can with the boy and researching missing children, Troy begins her search to discover exactly how this little boy ended up being tossed off a ferry in Lake Champlain.

LEARNING TO SWIM is Sara Henry's debut novel. She's created a suspenseful plot making good use of her settings in Vermont and Canada. The premise of a kidnapped and discarded child is one that builds the suspense as well as an emotional connection for the reader.  Henry takes her protagonist and the reader on an impassioned journey full of potential suspects.

Henry's protagonist Troy Chance is a fun, original female protagonist. I found myself identifying with her in many ways, especially when she makes comments like

"To me this is the definitive gender difference - this and the Three Stooges. I hate wandering Home Depot searching for a particular screw or fixture, just as I have never found anything remotely funny about the Stooges."

Troy Chance doesn't have any amazing super powers and she isn't the "best" or "renowned" or "famous" anything. Instead, she could be your next door neighbor, your best friend, your sister. She has her doubts, her insecurities, her strengths and her abilities. For me as a reader, that makes her an interesting character I want to know. Her regular Jane development also makes some of the plot read a bit like a fairy tale over a suspense novel at times though. I doubt this will deter many readers, as it did not deter me.

There were places in the novel where I asked, "why would they do that?" or thought "this is a little more detail than is needed," but LEARNING TO SWIM is a debut novel that shows promise for great things to come from Sara Henry.

LEARNING TO SWIM is available now in hardcover (ISBN: 978-0-307-71838-9) from Crown Publishers.

Crime Writers Caught Recommending Crime - Day 17

We've had quite a few books recommended over the past month that are new to me. Today's book recommendation, however, is one I know well and highly endorse as well. Sara Henry is preparing to release her already highly acclaimed debut novel, LEARNING TO SWIM, in February. Today however she's here to recommend Reed Farrel Coleman's 2010 Moe Prager novel, INNOCENT MONSTER.

And here's what Sara has to say,

"This is me pretending to read Reed Farrel Coleman's INNOCENT MONSTER (who reads standing up in a bookstore? OK, many of us do, but not usually in the middle of the store). You don't have to be a crime writing fan to appreciate Coleman's finely tuned writing and what Booklist calls the main character's "bone-deep world weariness and mordant sense of humor." There's a lot within these pages: lost love, estranged family, ghosts of the past, dead dreams, a kidnapped 11-year-old art prodigy, a hard look at the art world and the parents who capitalized on the child's fame, a protagonist who's risking much to mend his relationship with his own adult daughter, and a smattering of hope. You won't forget these characters or this story when you close the book."

Very well said! Thank you, Sara.

My recommendation today will be bestowed on another debut thriller writer. Keith Thompson broke onto the fiction front this year with an incredible spy thriller called ONCE A SPY. You may recall this book from my earlier review. Since I'm not typically a big spy thriller fan, it takes a special kind of book to hook me. Thompson's premise was fresh and fun and unique. He blends humor, sincerity and drama into the thrill ride. ONCE A SPY was definitely one of my favorite reads from 2010 and I highly recommend it for any crime fiction fan. I'm looking forward to the follow-up, TWICE A SPY, due out next year.

Check back tomorrow. If you're still working on your holiday shopping, we have even more recommendations. If you're done shopping, stop by to pad your TBR list! Happy Reading!