Book Fair to showcase novelists and mystery writers Tuesday, Nov. 13


Mystery buffs and novel readers will find plenty of new releases at the NPC’s 35th annual Book Fair and Authors’ Night Tuesday Nov. 13, from 5:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

NPC member Tom Young, author of “The Renegades,” will join former AP writing coach Bruce DeSilva, with his second novel, “Cliff Walk,” which features an investigative reporter at a dying Rhode Island paper.

“A Killing in the Hills,” a debut novel from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Julia Keller, is included in the mystery section. Vaddey Ratner, author of the highly successful “In the Shadow of the Banyan,” will be among the authors in the literature category.

The event is a fundraiser for The National Press Club's Journalism Institute, a 501 (c) (3) that provides training, research and resources for news professionals and scholarships for the next generation of journalists.

For a tax deductible contribution of $25, you can become a "Friend of the Book Fair." You will receive a complimentary raffle ticket ($10 value) for a chance to win one of a group of exciting prizes. Your ticket may be THE ticket that wins one of these exciting prizes: Gift certificates range from Georgetown Cupcake, Chef Geoff's, Clyde's, Hillwood Estate, and Landmark Theater to curators' private tours of National Portrait Gallery and Dodona Manor.


Click here to become a Friend of the Book Fair.

Admission to the 35th annual fair is free for NPC members, $10 for non-members.

No outside books permitted. Authors are listed on the Club's website.

Authors in the literature category include:

Ric Klass “Excuse Me for Living” $14.95

In his debut novel, Klass weaves together multiple storylines, highlighting the humorous and slightly odd details in life, all the while keeping his eye on the emotional core of the story. This book has been made into a major motion featuring a who’s who cast including Christopher Lloyd, Jerry Stiller, Robert Vaughn and Dick Cavett, among many others.


Lisa Pell* “Who’s Your Daddy, Baby?” $19.95

Lori McGuire Pomay, a happily married career woman living in suburban Washington, D.C., undergoes genetic testing for in vitro fertilization and her world is rocked when she is told the dad she always knew could not possibly have been her biological father. This mid-life shocker sends her into an alternately hilarious, heartwarming, and heartbreaking search for truth about her heritage - from Appalachian Cherokees to Purple Kings on a church stage, with high-rolling gamblers, car dealers, dentists, and various confused amnesiacs in their seventies along for the ride. It's a journey maybe only a mother could create.

Vaddey Ratner “In the Shadow of the Banyan” $25

For seven-year-old Raami, the end of her childhood begins with her father returning home in the early dawn hours, bringing details of the civil war that has overwhelmed the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. Soon the family is forced to flee. Over the next four years, as the Khmer Rouge attempts to strip the population of every shred of individual identity, in this tale of human resilience, Raami clings to the last vestige of her childhood— the mythical legends and poems her father told her.

Peter Troy “May the Road Rise Up to Meet You” $26.95

Set against the dramatic backdrop of the Civil War, this is a story of four unforgettable characters that illuminate the quintessential American experience.

Ethan McOwen survived the worst of the Irish Famine and made the treacherous crossing to America, but his endurance is tested by the rough neighborhoods of New York until he discovers a passion for photography; Marcella Arroyo arrives from Spain a high-spirited society girl but defies her father to become a devoted abolitionist; and slaves Mary and Micah plot a clandestine escape on a cold Christmas Eve in the hopes of finding a better future. When war brings them all together, it will dramatically change the course of their individual lives.

Tom Young* “The Renegades” $26.95

A catastrophic earthquake ravages Afghanistan, and U.S. troops rush to deliver aid, among them Afghan Air Force adviser Lt. Col. Michael Parson, and his interpreter, Sgt. Major Sophia Gold. A Taliban splinter group, Black Crescent, has its own campaign —to shoot medical workers, down helicopters and slaughter anyone who dares to accept aid. With the U.S. drawing down and coalition forces spread thin, it is up to Parson, Gold, and Parson’s Afghan aircrews to try and strike back.

Mystery and thriller authors include:

Chase Brandon “The Cryptos Conundrum” $25.99

A fifteen-foot-tall steel sculpture stands in the courtyard of the Central Intelligence Agency, emblazoned with a message that no one can decipher. The three-inch-high letters on the sculpture form a coded message that is central to the survival of mankind—a message hidden in plain sight, displayed in a public space, with the full text available to anyone who has an internet connection. One man knows exactly what the statue's message says—because he created it. Dr. Jonathan S. Chalmers heads a CIA unit tasked with containing the greatest secret our government has ever kept—and planning for its consequences.

Bruce DeSilva “Cliff Walk” $24.99

Prostitution has been legal in Rhode Island for more than a decade; Liam Mulligan, an old-school investigative reporter at dying Providence newspaper, suspects the governor has been taking payoffs to keep it that way. But this isn’t the only story making headlines…a child’s severed arm is discovered in a pile of garbage at a pig farm. Then the body of an internet pornographer is found sprawled on the rocks at the base of Newport’s famous Cliff Walk. At first, the killings seem random, but as Mulligan keeps digging into the state’s thriving sex business, strange connections emerge.

Dan Fesperman “The Double Game” $26.95

A few years before the Berlin Wall fell, spook-turned-novelist Edwin Lemaster revealed to journalist Bill Cage that he’d once considered spying for the enemy. Decades later, Cage, now a lonely, disillusioned PR man, gets an anonymous note hinting that he should have dug deeper into Lemaster’s pronouncement. A story about spies and their secrets, fathers and sons, lovers and fate, duplicity and loyalty, this novel taps the espionage classics of the Cold War to build a maze of intrigue.

Mark Henshaw “Red Cell” $24.99

In this debut thriller, two CIA outcasts must race to stop a secret Chinese weapon that threatens to provoke a world war. From CIA headquarters to the White House to a Navy carrier in the South China Sea and the dark alleyways of Beijing, “Red Cell” takes readers on a whirlwind race against time as rookie case officer Kyra Stryker and analyst Jonathan Burke work to save a top CIA asset and discover the hidden threat to America’s power: China’s top-secret weapon.

Julia Keller “A Killing in the Hills” $24.99

In this debut novel from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Julia Keller, a mother and a daughter try to do right by a town and each other before it's too late. In Acker's Gap, West Virginia, three elderly men are gunned down at a local diner. One of the witnesses was Carla Elkins, teenaged daughter of Bell Elkins, the prosecuting attorney for Raythune County, WV. After all, what better way to repair their fragile, damaged relationship? But could Carla also end up doing more harm than good—in fact, putting her own life in danger?

Allison Leotta “Discretion” $25.00

When a beautiful young woman plummets to her death from the balcony of the U.S. Capitol, Assistant U.S. Attorney Anna Curtis is summoned to the scene. The evidence points to a sexual assault and murder. The victim is one of the city’s highest-paid escorts. And the balcony belongs to Washington, D.C.’s sole representative to Congress, the most powerful figure in city politics. Leotta, a former federal sex-crimes prosecutor, explores the intersection of sex and power in Washington, D.C.’s most secretive worlds. Leotta, a former federal sex-crimes prosecutor, explores the intersection of sex and power in Washington, D.C.’s most secretive worlds.

Charles Robbins “The Accomplice” $24.99

When Henry Hatten wangles a job as communications director for Nebraska Senator Tom Peele’s presidential campaign, he breathes a huge sigh of relief. Smarting over a recent gubernatorial campaign in which his pulling a political punch may have cost his boss the race, he’s thrilled to be back in action. This time around, Henry is determined to shuck his ethical qualms. But he soon finds he’s facing more than he imagined. The new gig turns out to be rife with scandal and corruption— just the kind of politics Henry so fervently sought to banish. Events go from bad to worse as the depths of greed emerge, tracking the acceleration and excitement in the campaign itself.