Favorite Authors

Although I don't get as much time for pleasure reading as I once did, this semester, I'm trying to mix a little pleasure reading in the mix of chapter after chapter of psychology texts.

This time around, eBay has helped out and Facebook was party to the acquisitions. See, I became a fan of a favorite author, Nelson DeMille. He's a Long Island native and weaves the island into many of his stories. My Dad handed me his Charm School soon after it had been released, which was a grippling tale of a Russian spy school that only had a passing mention of my home.

Then the following Christmas, Dad gave me The Gold Coast, a story of wealth, power and privilege on Long Island's north shore. As a result, I sought out many of DeMille's books and all but one grabbed my attention.

For a while, I didn't really have time for reading or picking up new books, so by the time I'd gotten back to pleasure reading, there were a half dozen books to read. Plum Island introduced readers to the North Fork of Long Island, and once again, DeMille weaved the familiar into a murder mystery. (Mom had taken us to vacation several times in Southold and Greenport, setting for much of the story). He also introduced NYPD detective John Corey.

A few more years pass, and I find a few DeMille books in the clearance section of Barnes and Noble. A couple more John Corey books and I was happy. One of them, Night Fall, reminded me of being on hold with a friend who worked for a LI television news station and the hold had the audio of the news broadcast. It was July, 1996, and I was hearing witness accounts of seeing Flight 800 explode off the southern shore of LI. (Those witnesses mentioned seeing a flash of light go UP towards the aircraft, the basis of the story)

Once again, I'm in the thick of the DeMille characters. There was a sequel written to The Gold Coast and I just finished that. It motivated me to search eBay and I found a few 99 cent copies of the two remaining books I hadn't read, The Lion and The Lion's Gate. I also found a hardback of Plum Island cheap.

So now the bookshelf has all but two DeMille books on it and I'm about 1000 pages from reading everything but By the Rivers of Babylon. And then I'll be like all the other DeMille fans, exhorting him to write faster (the man writes in longhand, people)!

And you? Care to share authors that you enjoy to the point that you seek out everything they write?

Comments

Meghan said…
My favorites are:
Orson Scott Card (sci-fi)
Kathy Reichs (forensic anthro/mystery/hint of romance)
Janet Evanovich (funny mystery/a little romance)
Robin Cook (medical thriller/mystery)
John Grisham (legal drama)
Agatha Christie (mystery)
Well, you and I have discussed DesMille before. I've read everything he wrote under his real name.

My mom's reading Steig Larsson right now, she thinks I would like the Lisbeth Salander series.

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