Year after year, mystery remains the number one circulating genre in libraries, as LJ’s annual materials buying survey (see Barbara Hoffert’s “Materials Shift,” LJ 2/15/14) reveals (95 percent of respondents name it as their top circulator in print, 88 percent in ebook format). While mystery fans have their favorite cozy, police procedural, or historical thriller, the increasing number of releases that allow readers to cross the boundaries from one genre to another in the same book proves that today there is no one true way of presenting this beloved genre. Crossovers enable readers to enjoy what they love best about mysteries—the puzzle and its solution—while giving writers a broad landscape across which to write.
These days publishers are seeing far fewer novels that fit cleanly into one category or another. “More common now are novels that cross those genre lines or blend elements of various categories,” explains Mark Tavani, vice president and editorial director at Ballantine Bantam Dell. “Gone Girl is [a] novel that I don’t think fits easily into a category. Obviously it generates fantastic suspense and is a true page-turner, but it benefited from being aimed at a mainstream audience.”
Searching for the next crossover hit
With Gillian Flynn’s literary thriller about a husband suspected of killing his missing wife still sitting on the New York Times best sellers list and the film adaptation scheduled for an October 2014 release, the search continues for the next Gone Girl. Possible candidates include Holly Brown’s first novel, Don’t Try To Find Me (Morrow, Jul.), in which social media turns a family’s world inside out as its members search for their missing 14-year-old daughter.
Also in the same vein is The Good Girl by Mary Kubica (Mira: Harlequin, Aug.), which best-selling author Lisa Gardner has praised as “a twisty, roller-coaster ride of a debut.” Tara Parsons, editorial director of Harlequin’s Mira imprint, believes Kubica’s riveting tale about a kidnapped young woman, her shattered family, and the lies that are uncovered is poised to be the next blockbuster sensation. “We’ve all seen the recent upsurge in breakout female-driven, psychological suspense, as highlighted by the massive success of books like Gone Girl and The Silent Wife.”
Arriving in July from Viking is Elizabeth Little’s Dear Daughter, a suspenseful debut thriller about a young woman who may have murdered her own mother. Viking senior editor Allison Lorentzen was hooked by ”the narrator’s fresh voice, so sly and hilarious and clever, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop reading until I found out the truth about her mother’s murder.” She noted that the novel would appeal to fans of Gillian Flynn and Tana French. “It is as smart and illuminating about celebrity culture and Los Angeles as it is about the long-held secrets that small towns keep.”
Supernatural crime
Nowhere has the blending between genres been more prevalent than in the paranormal mystery category. Returning this spring are two leading pioneers of this subgenre. In her 19th cozy series installment, Aunt Dimity and the Wishing Well (Viking, Apr.), Nancy Atherton, who introduced her ghostly detective in 1992’s Aunt Dimity’s Death, has her sleuth investigating a mysterious wishing well that throws the sleepy English village of Finch into chaos.
Although last year’s Dead Ever After brought Charlotte Harris’s popular and long-running Sookie Stackhouse series about a telepathic waitress to a close, this May Harris’s Midnight Crossroad (Ace: Berkley; see review), the first volume in a new paranormal trilogy about a small-town psychic, will hit bookstore and library shelves.
With this book Harris is coming “full circle in genre bending,” explains Ginjer Buchanan, who retired as Ace editor in chief at the end of March. “[Previously] no mystery line would publish Sookie, because of the paranormal elements.” Now, readers will discover a crossover of all of Harris’s titles. Midnight Crossroad is set in Sookie’s world, but those familiar with Harris’s Harper Connelly series will recognize psychic Manfred Bernardo. From there, characters from all of her books (Sookie Stackhouse, Lily Bard, and Aurora Teagarden) will make their way through the small town of Midnight, TX. Buchanan acknowledges that the new novel with its third-person narrative from the perspective of three characters is a departure from Harris’s previous mysteries. “Will all of Sookie’s many fans like it? It’s hard to know.”
Fans of W. Bruce Cameron, the New York Times best-selling author of A Dog’s Purpose and other canine-centric fiction, are in for a surprise this fall when he makes his paranormal mystery debut with The Midnight Plan of the Repo Man (Forge: Tor, Oct.), in which the ordinary life of a repo man is turned upside down by the voice in his head—the voice of a dead man. Happily for Cameron’s readers, his hero owns a dog.
Also switching genres is Southern author Maggie Toussaint (Cleopatra Jones and Mossy Bog mysteries), who makes her paranormal debut with Gone and Done It (Five Star, Apr.), which stars landscaper and pet-sitter Baxley Powell, who uses her dream-walking abilities to help the police close cases. And Laurie Moore moves from the Fort Worth, TX, setting of her romantic suspense series (Women Strangled News at Ten) to a hotter climate in Getting Mama Out of Hell (Five Star, Aug.) as Elle Winthrop and her daughter, Elizabeth, race to save Elle’s mother from eternal damnation, a problem they discover after their own deaths.
Cowboy sleuths & tough PIs
Pioneered by the late Tony Hillerman, whose Navajo cops Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee investigated crimes steeped in Native American culture against a dramatic New Mexico landscape, contemporary Western mysteries are growing in popularity, attracting a fanbase of readers who have made C.J. Box’s Joe Pickett and Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire series (also a successful A&E television show) New York Times best sellers. Both authors have new books coming out this summer: Box’s Shots Fired: Stories from Joe Pickett Country (Putnam, Aug.) and Johnson’s Any Other Name: A Longmire Mystery (Viking, Jun.)
Likewise, the appeal of blending two distinct genres has attracted new writers. Winner of the 2013 Tony Hillerman Prize, CB McKenzie Jr.’s Western noir debut, Bad Country (Minotaur: St. Martin’s, Nov.), is set in Arizona Indian country and introduces a Native American rodeo cowboy–turned– private investigator. Also in November comes Wink of an Eye by Lynn Chandler Willis, which won the Minotaur Books/PWA Best First Private Eye Novel Competition. PI Gypsy Moran travels home to Texas to probe a deputy sheriff’s disputed death, and clues lead to the ranch where Moran had spent his childhood summers.
The urban mean streets remain a draw for crime fiction writers working under the hard-boiled influence of Boston writers Dennis Lehane and Robert Parker. Rory Flynn’s Third Rail (Houghton Harcourt, Jun.) introduces a disgraced Boston narcotics detective who uncovers a network of corruption as he searches for his lost gun. With an advance blurb from Sean Chercover praising Flynn’s hero as a worthy successor to Parker’s Jesse Stone, this debut crime novel may be the start to a successful crime writing career. Flynn, by the way, is the pen name of Stona Fitch, the founder of indie publisher Concord Free Press.
Passport to nefarious deeds
Murder and mayhem cross borders as well. This June four indie publishers—Akashic Books, Europa Editions, Melville House, and Grove Atlantic/Mysterious Press—are teaming up for a second time to celebrate International Crime Month, an initiative that celebrates the rich diversity of literary crime fiction in translation, with a series of readings, panels, and discussions. Among the titles that will be highlighted are Singapore Noir, edited by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan (Akashic, Jun.); Marco Malvaldi’s Three-Card Monte (Europa, Aug.); Giorgio Scerbanenco’s Traitors to All: A Duca Lamberti Noir (Melville House, Jun.); and Mark Billingham’s The Bones Beneath (Grove Atlantic, Jun.).
Meanwhile, the Nordic crime wave continues to roll along; July’s Spring Tide (Hesperus Nova, dist. by Trafalgar Square) by Cilla and Rolf Börjlind, the scriptwriters behind the Swedish Wallender television series, introduces police officer–in–training Olivia Ronning, who is challenged by her professor to solve a cold case. However, not everyone is looking to Scandinavia for the next breakout mystery from beyond the United States. Daniela Rapp, an editor for St. Martin’s Press and its Minotaur Books imprint, looked at other hot spots for mysteries because she felt that much of Nordic crime began to feel repetitive and schematic, and there are plenty of other European countries with a solid tradition of crime fiction. Her two “new discoveries” are Germany and France.
“[Germany’s] Nele Neuhaus, with Snow White Must Die, has been a solid success for us, convincing me that readers will not shy away from first or last names they may not be able to pronounce.” Rapp is excited to be publishing this August Bernard Minier’s Frozen Dead (Minotaur: St. Martin’s). Set in the French Pyrénées in deep winter, this moody psychological thriller has been translated into a dozen languages and won several French literary prizes. Ursula Archer’s Five (Minotaur: St. Martin’s, Dec.) takes readers through the Austrian countryside and into the popular world of geocaching. “I think the reason these books are working is that, while they are set in very specific, somewhat exotic locales, they deal with universal subjects that American readers can identify with.”
A new look for Maigret
A master of European crime fiction, Georges Simenon (1903–89) is getting a makeover and a rebranding. In a joint effort, Penguin Books and Penguin UK are reissuing the Belgian author’s popular Inspector Maigret books in an effort to break him out of the mystery category where some feel the late author had been unfortunately pigeonholed. Acquired by Penguin UK from the Simenon estate, these 75 titles will feature new expert translations and covers. The first four titles just released this past February and March are Pietr the Latvian, The Late Monsieur Gallet, The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien, and The Carter of La Providence.
Has there been any recent increase in British mysteries? With a plethora of popular television series from Great Britain making their way here, it would seem logical that published mysteries would follow suit. Erin Kelly brings her novelization Broadchurch (Minotaur: St. Martin’s, Sept.) to readers fast on the heels of the hit BBC crime show (which is currently being adapted for the American small screen as Gracepoint). And Afgan vet and PI Cormoran Strike returns in The Silkworm (Mulholland: Little, Brown, Jun.) for Robert Galbraith’s (aka J.K. Rowling) follow-up novel. For Tana French fans, the latest entry in her Dublin Squad procedural series, The Secret Place (Viking), lands on our shores September 2.
A suitable job for a woman
Crime solving is no longer just a man’s world. “Women sleuths are as popular as ever, especially as crime writers focus more and more on character, on family, on social issues. But it’s not just about these so-called feminine issues; female characters are tougher than ever as well.” says Kelley Ragland, editorial director for Minotaur. This summer Ragland is especially excited about Julia Dahl’s Invisible City (May) and its protagonist, journalist Rebekah Roberts, who displays plenty of “gutsy smarts” as she investigates the murder of a Hasidic Jew in Brooklyn.
In Cop Town (Delacorte, Jun.), Karin Slaughter evokes more than just murder and suspense; she touches on the struggle for women’s equality in the 1970s Atlanta PD [see Q&A]. And a new breed of female police officer is introduced in Arthur Nersesian’s unorthodox Gladyss of the Hunt (Dark Passage: Verse Chorus, May) when ambitious rookie (and mystical yoga enthusiast) Gladyss Chronou is paired up with NYPD homicide detective Bernie “Burnout” Farrell.
“I’m drawn to crime fiction with female leads,” comments Tor editor Kristin Sevick, “because I feel that women’s stories have a complexity to them that, even for example within the strict confines of police procedurals, make for a layered, genre-crossing reading experience.” She cites as an example homicide detective Elouise “Lou” Norton, the protagonist of Rachel Howzell Hall’s Land of Shadows (Forge: Tor, Jun.), who tries to connect a teen’s death with her own sister’s disappearance.
A young woman impaled on an ice shear along the Mohawk River in upstate New York brings a female FBI agent–turned–local cop into the middle of murder, drugs, and politics in M.P. Cooley’s debut Ice Shear (Morrow, Jul.). Readers will find the juxtaposition of June Lyon’s family and work life comparable to J.A. Jance’s Joanna Brady series.
Sniffing out clues
Is the world of crime going to the dogs—or cats? The role of animals in a supporting, or sometimes starring, role in mysteries is not new by any means. “Animal partners can help to bring out a level of connection, and oddly enough a human side, to an otherwise tough, reserved, edgy character,” explains William Morrow executive editor Lyssa Keusch. “The bonds we have with animals can illuminate empathy, ethos, devotion, and companionship in a character who constantly faces dark situations and, through that, can add depth of emotion and three dimensionality.”
Coming in May from Morrow is The Kill Switch by James Rollins and Grant Blackwood, featuring former army ranger Tucker Wayne and his companion Kane, a military working dog. Writing this book, says Rollins, “offered me the opportunity to display all of this in an action setting, while taking advantage of my background as a veterinarian to write scenes from the dog’s point of view, to put the reader in that four-legged soldier’s paws, and experience that bond from the other side, from the dog’s perspective.” Another veterinarian publishing in May is 2013 Discover Mystery Award Winner Eileen Brady, whose series debut, Muzzled (Poisoned Pen), stars Dr. Kate Turner. When her veterinary house call turns into a double homicide, Kate discovers that fraud, missing spaniels, and murder definitely can mix.
From Yum Yum and Koko to Mrs. Murphy, cats have also scratched their marks in the sleuthing genre. Rita Mae Brown, along with her coauthor (and cat), Sneakie Pie, have made Harry Harristeen and her feline companion, Mrs. Murphy, household names. Their latest adventure is Nine Lives To Die, coming in June from Bantam. L.A. Kornetsky brings back Ginny Mallard and her bartender friend Teddy Tonica, along with Ginny’s pet shar-pei puppy and Teddy’s tabby cat, for their third outing in Doghouse (Gallery, Jul.).
Cozy up
Cozies remain a dependable and steady part of the mystery business, according to St. Martin’s publisher Andrew Martin. “What’s old is what’s new.” Many of the Minotaur imprint’s long-standing authors continue to grow their series, including Carolyn Haines, whose 14th Sarah Booth Delaney mystery, Booty Bones, publishes this May. “I can’t get enough of the cozy business, frankly; in fact, Donna Andrews and Rhys Bowen are now producing two books per year in their series—each now with a Christmas mystery!” While there always be an England and small-town America for traditional cozies, new authors like Ovidia Yu are also transporting the genre to new locales. She debuted last year with Aunty Lee’s Delights, set in Singapore, and this October will follow up with Aunty Lee’s Deadly Specials (Morrow).
The past remains with us
Historical mysteries continue to be popular and full of vitality; the combination of a gripping plot and evocative authentic period detail are appealing elements for the genre’s many fans. Tessa Harris’s third Dr. Thomas Silkstone adventure, The Lazarus Curse (Kensington, Aug.), finds the American anatomist confronting black magic, slavery, and murder in 1780s London. Andrea Camilleri, best known for his contemporary Inspector Montalbano series (Angelica’s Smile, Penguin, Jun.), takes readers back to 1880s Sicily, where pharmacist Fofo returns to his childhood home to make his fortune in the darkly comedic murder mystery Hunting Season (Penguin, Apr.).
Interestingly, Minotaur Books is publishing a trio of historical mysteries with a unique connection: the authors all have day jobs as librarians. “Apparently, working among books is a great way to research the past,” says Hector DeJean, Minotaur’s associate director of publicity. Will Thomas is an Oklahoma librarian whose Barker & Llewellyn series, set in Victoria’s England, have won him a devoted following. In May, his latest, Fatal Enquiry, hits the shelves. In June, Upstate New York librarian Eleanor Kuhns (2011 winner of the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel) comes out with Cradle to Grave, the third book in her series featuring Revolutionary War veteran–turned–itinerant weaver Will Rees. And in October, Louisiana librarian Ashley Weaver makes her literary debut with Murder at the Brightwell, a Golden Age–style whodunit set in 1930s England that is generating buzz with the Minotaur staff.
Welcome back, Campion and Poirot
Fans of classic Golden Age mysteries will cheer the resurrection of Margery Allingham’s gentleman sleuth Albert Campion. In an homage and conclusion to the beloved series that halted with Allingham’s death in 1966 (although her widower, Pip Youngman Carter, completed three more Campion books before his death in 1969), Severn House is releasing this July Margery Allingham’s Mr. Campion’s Farewell: The Return of Albert Campion, completed by author Mike Ripley after he learned of an unfinished manuscript by Youngman Carter. Yet, this will not quite be the end, as Severn House has already commissioned Ripley to write Mr. Campion’s Fox for publication in 2015.
But the even bigger news is the return of Hercule Poirot this September. Thirty-nine years after Agatha Christie bid farewell to her famous Belgian sleuth in Curtain, HarperCollins’s William Morrow division with the authorization of the Christie estate will publish a new Poirot mystery penned by best-selling British author Sophie Hannah (Kind of Cruel: The Orphan Choir). Daniel Malloy, Morrow VP and executive director, who acquired the manuscript, calls the deal pure serendipity. “Agatha Christie Limited had indicated that it would be interested in exploring a continuation novel, and around the same time, Hannah’s agent Peter Straus approached Christie’s longtime publishers HarperCollins UK with the same idea. Not only had Sophie evolved a splendid idea for a story, but she’s also a major Christie fan,” says Malloy.
The title of the new book is being kept under wraps until its formal announcement on May 7. Will this lead to more beloved characters from the Christie novels returning to a new generation of mystery readers? Malloy is not sure of that yet but remains hopeful.
“It’s easy, particularly for those who haven’t read Christie (or haven’t read her recently) to dismiss her work as dated or quaint. This new novel reminds us that Christie’s work has endured for a reason: it’s dark, it’s sophisticated, it’s ingenious. It stands apart from anything being written today, yet at the same time it inspired so many books currently crowding the best sellers charts. [Agatha Christie’s] cultural impact is staggering and unquantifiable.”
The digital frontier
As the traditional print publishers resurrect, reinvent, or repackage the great mystery writers of the past, other innovative presses are turning to the digital frontier to rescue other worthy works from obscurity or to give talented newcomers their first break. Paul Oliver, the director of marketing and publicity at Soho Press, is launching Syndicate Books, which will release out-of-print, never-before-published, and otherwise neglected classics from the world of crime fiction. Its list will be available predominantly as ebooks, and select print titles will be distributed via a cobranded imprint, Soho Syndicate, via Soho Press. This imprint, according to Oliver, has been in the works for over two years and supported by Soho publisher Bronwen Hruska since the beginning. Oliver noted this digital direction was pursued for quite a few reasons. “For Soho there is an added revenue stream and a chance to publish books that otherwise might not have normally fit the Soho Crime brand.”
The lead project for Syndicate is a writer somewhat unfamiliar to American readers. Considered the godfather of British hard-boiled/noir fiction, Ted Lewis created the tough hood Jack Carter, made famous by Michael Caine in the 1970 film Get Carter, which is also the name of the first book that Syndicate is releasing in September. Mike Hodges, the director of the film, has written an introduction for this edition. The second book, Jack Carter’s Law, comes out in October, and, finally, in November, Jack Carter and the Mafia Pigeon will be released. The first two books have been out of print for 40 years in the United States, while the third has never been published here before.
Leaping into ebooks
In late 2013, Jason Pinter, a veteran editor and author of the best-selling Henry Parker thriller series, left his job as senior marketing manager at Grove Atlantic to start up Polis Books; now six months old, the digital publisher has over 30 books under contract. [See the Publisher Profile sidebar.]
Lead titles on Polis’s spring/summer 2014 list include Shamus Award nominee Dave White’s Not Even Past (May), whose protagonist discovers that the fiancée he thought had been killed in a car accident is still very much alive. Casey Doran’s Jericho’s Razor (Apr.), which Pinter describes as a riveting and original series debut, introduces horror writer Jericho Sands, who is being framed for a series of gruesome murders. And Bryon Quertermous, the commissioning editor for Angry Robot’s crime fiction imprint Exhibit A Books, has written his first novel, Murder Boy (Jun.), a dark satire that is a mix of Donald Westlake, Elmore Leonard, and Carl Hiaasen.
Several years ago Canadian children’s book publisher Orca Books launched Rapid Reads, a series of adult novels for struggling readers. It now offers digital subscriptions to the series, which consists of over 30 titles, with more than half of them mysteries. “Rapid Reads are rewarding alternatives for those pressed for time, or short reads that are accessible for reluctant readers,” says associate publisher Ruth Linka. “Either way, it involves a first-rate mystery storyteller, set the task of writing a very short novel or a very long short story.” Contributors have included Reed Farrel Coleman and Vicki Delany.
Emily Crump, editor for HarperCollins’s Witness Impulse, is happy with how the digital-first imprint is faring since it launched in late 2013 with 12 titles. “So far we’ve seen the most pickup in procedurals and thrillers, which is consistent with general market trends. What’s been really encouraging, though, is how we’re able to push authors to the top of the best sellers charts through strategic pricing and promotion, irrespective of their sales history or market profile. It’s been incredibly rewarding to be able to bring more attention to these talented authors.”
Mystery Lineup
Below are the forthcoming titles mentioned in this article.
AUTHOR
TITLE
PUBLISHER
RELEASE
Archer, Ursula
Five
Minotaur: St. Martin’s
Dec.
Atherton, Nancy
Aunt Dimity and the Wishing Well
Viking
Apr.
Billingham, Mark
The Bones Beneath
Grove Atlantic
Jun.
Börjlind, Cilla & Rolf Börjlind
Spring Tide
Hesperus Nova
Jul.
Box, C.J.
Shots Fired
Putnam
Aug.
Brady, Eileen
Muzzled
Poisoned Pen
May
Brown, Holly
Don’t Try To Find Me
Morrow
Jul.
Brown, Rita Mae & Sneakie Pie Brown
Nine Lives To Die
Bantam
Jun.
Cameron, W. Bruce
The Midnight Plan of the Repo Man
Forge: Tor
Oct.
Camilleri, Andrea
Angelica’s Smile
Penguin
Jun.
Camilleri, Andrea
Hunting Season
Penguin
Apr.
Cooley, M.P.
Ice Shear
Morrow
Jul.
Dahl, Julia
Invisible City
Minotaur: St. Martin’s
May
Doran, Casey
Jericho’s Razor
Polis (ebook)
Apr.
Flynn, Rory
Third Rail
Houghton Harcourt
Jun.
French, Tana
The Secret Place
Viking
Sept.
Galbraith, Robert
The Silkworm
Mulholland: Little, Brown
Jun.
Haines, Carolyn
Booty Bones
Minotaur: St. Martin’s
May
Hall, Rachel Howzell
Land of Shadows
Forge: Tor
Jun.
Hannah, Sophie
Untitled Poirot Novel
Morrow
Sept.
Harris, Charlaine
Midnight Crossroad
Ace: Berkley
May
Harris, Tessa
The Lazarus Curse
Kensington
Aug.
Johnson, Craig
Any Other Name
Viking
Jun.
Kelly, Erin
Broadchurch
Minotaur: St. Martin’s
Sept.
Kornetsky, L.A.
Doghouse
Gallery
Jul.
Kubica, Mary
The Good Girl
Mira: Harlequin
Aug.
Kuhns, Eleanor
Cradle to Grave
Minotaur: St. Martin’s
Jun.
Lewis, Ted
Get Carter
Soho Syndicate
Sept.
Lewis, Ted
Jack Carter and the Mafia Pigeon
Soho Syndicate
Nov.
Lewis, Ted
Jack Carter’s Law
Soho Syndicate
Oct.
Little, Elizabeth
Dear Daughter
Viking
Jul.
McKenzie, CB, Jr.
Bad Country
Minotaur: St. Martin’s
Nov.
Malvadi, Marco
Three-Card Monte
Europa
Aug.
Minier, Bernard
Frozen Dead
Minotaur: St. Martin’s
Aug.
Moore, Laurie
Getting Mama Out of Hell
Five Star: Gale Cengate
Aug.
Nersesian, Arthur
Gladyss of the Hunt
Dark Passage: Verse Chorus
May
Quertermous, Bryon
Murder Boy
Polis (ebook)
Jun.
Ripley, Mike
Margery Allingham’s Mr. Campion’s Farewell
Severn House
Jul.
Rollins, James & Grant Blackwood
The Kill Switch
Morrow
May
Scerbanenco, Giorgio
Traitors to All
Melville House
Jun.
Simenon, Georges
The Carter of La Providence
Penguin
Mar.
Simenon, Georges
The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien
Penguin
Mar.
Simenon, Georges
The Late Monsieur Gallet
Penguin
Feb.
Simenon, Georges
Pietr the Latvian
Penguin
Feb.
Slaughter, Karin
Cop Town
Delacorte
Jun.
Tan, Cheryl Lu-Lien, ed.
Singapore Noir
Akashic
Jun.
Thomas, Will
Fatal Enquiry
Minotaur: St. Martin’s
May
Toussaint, Maggie
Gone and Done It
Five Star: Gale Cengage
Apr.
Weaver, Ashley
Murder at the Brightwell
Minotaur: St. Martin’s
Oct.
White, Dave
Not Even Past
Polis (ebook)
May
Willis, Lynn Chandler
Wink of an Eye
Minotaur: St. Martin’s
Nov.
Yu, Ovidia
Aunty Lee’s Deadly Specials
Morrow
Oct.
Kristi Chadwick is now Advisor–Small Libraries for the Massachusetts Library System, effective April 2014. Previously, she was Director, Emily Williston Memorial Library, Easthampton, MA. A longtime LJ reviewer who was a 2013 Reviewer of the Year, Chadwick is also a 2014 LJ Mover & Shaker. She can be found on Twitter @booksNyarn