Did you miss it? Watch a recording of the webinar on YouTube HERE. Order a copy of Grady’s new book, “Witchcraft for Wayward Girls” via Wellesley Books, HERE. Book sales help support future author webinars. For a complete list of authors in this series, CHECK HERE.

Bestselling author Grady Hendrix will discuss his new horror novel, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls.

About Grady: Grady Hendrix is a New York Times bestselling novelist and screenwriter living in New York City. He is the author of How to Sell a Haunted House, The Final Girl Support Group, The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, We Sold Our Souls, My Best Friend’s Exorcism, and Horrorstör. His books have sold over two million copies and have been translated into more than twenty languages. He also writes nonfiction and his history of the horror paperback boom of the seventies and eighties, Paperbacks from Hell, received the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Nonfiction.

About Witchcraft for Wayward Girls: There’s power in a book… They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, to give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened. Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who plans to marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who. Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid…and it’s usually paid in blood. In Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, the author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group delivers another searing, completely original novel and further cements his status as a “horror master.”

This series is offered in cooperation with the Tewksbury Public Library and other area libraries.

Did you miss it? Watch a recording of the webinar on YouTube HERE. Order a copy of Thomas’s new book, “We Lived On The Horizon,” via Wellesley Books, HERE. Book sales help support future author webinars.

For a complete list of authors in this series, CHECK HERE.

Bestselling author Erika Swyler will discuss her new dystopian novel, We Lived on the Horizon.

About Erika: Erika Swyler is the bestselling author of the critically acclaimed novels Light from Other Stars and The Book of Speculation. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in Catapult, LitHub, The New York Times, and elsewhere. A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, she lives on Long Island, New York, with her husband and a mischievous house rabbit.

About We Lived on the Horizon: The acclaimed author of the dazzling The Book of Speculation returns with an engrossing new novel about a bio-prosthetic surgeon and her personal AI as they are drawn into a revolution. The city of Bulwark is aptly named: a walled city built to protect and preserve the people who managed to survive a series of great cataclysms, Bulwark was founded on a system where sacrifice is rewarded by the AI that runs the city. Over generations, an elite class has evolved from the descendants of those who gave up the most to found mankind’s last stronghold, called the Sainted. Saint Enita Malovis, long accustomed to luxury, feels the end of her life and decades of work as a bio-prosthetist approaching. The lone practitioner of her art, Enita is determined to preserve her legacy and decides to create a physical being, called Nix, filled with her knowledge and experience. In the midst of her project, a fellow Sainted is brutally murdered and the city AI inexplicably erases the event from its data. Soon, Enita and Nix are drawn into the growing war that could change everything between Bulwark’s hidden underclass and the programs that impose and maintain order. A complex, imaginative, and unforgettable novel, We Lived on the Horizon grapples with concepts as varied as the human desire for utopia, body horror, and what the future holds for humanity and machine alike.

This series is offered in cooperation with the Tewksbury Public Library and other area libraries.

Did you miss it? Watch a recording of the webinar on YouTube HERE. Order a copy of Thomas’s new book, “Pro Bono,” via Wellesley Books, HERE. Book sales help support future author webinars.

For a complete list of authors in this series, CHECK HERE.

Bestselling author Thomas Perry will discuss his new thriller, Pro Bono.

About Thomas: Thomas Perry is the bestselling author of over twenty novels, including Murder Book; the critically acclaimed Jane Whitefield series; The Old Man, which was adapted into the FX television series starring Jeff Bridges, and The Butcher’s Boy, which won the Edgar Award. He lives in Southern California.

About Pro Bono: A tenacious attorney grapples with a dangerous group of thieves in this new thriller from the author of The Old Man. Charles Warren, Los Angeles attorney, has dedicated his career to aiding people in financial straits. He is particularly skilled at the art of recovering assets that have been embezzled or hidden. In his newest case, helping a beautiful young widow find the money missing from her late husband’s investment accounts, Charlie recognizes a familiar scheme―one that echoes the con job that targeted his own widowed mother many years before, and that led him, as a teenager, to commit a crime of retribution that still weighs on his conscience. Charlie can’t get the present case out of his mind, but within hours of starting his investigation, he is followed, shot at, and has his briefcase stolen. It’s clear that someone doesn’t want him following the trail of the missing money but, as Charlie continues to pursue answers, he quickly becomes too entangled in the web of fraud, betrayal, and career criminals surrounding the theft to escape its deadly snare.

This series is offered in cooperation with the Tewksbury Public Library and other area libraries.

Did you miss it? Watch a recording of the webinar on YouTube HERE. Order a copy of Samantha’s new book, “Water Moon,” via Wellesley Books, HERE. Book sales help support future author webinars.

For a complete list of authors in this series, CHECK HERE.

International author Samantha Sotto Yambao will discuss her new fantasy novel, Water Moon, in this installment of “Author Hour in Massachusetts.”

About Samantha: Samantha Sotto Yambao is a professional daydreamer, aspiring time traveler, and speculative fiction writer based in Manila, the Philippines. She is the author of Before Ever After, Love and Gravity, A Dream of Trees, and The Beginning of Always. Water Moon is her fifth novel.

About Water Moon: A woman inherits a pawnshop where you can sell your regrets, and then embarks on a magical quest when a charming young physicist wanders into the shop, in this dreamlike and enchanting fantasy novel. On a backstreet in Tokyo lies a pawnshop, but not everyone can find it. Most will see a cozy ramen restaurant. And only the chosen ones—those who are lost—will find a place to pawn their life choices and deepest regrets. Hana Ishikawa wakes on her first morning as the pawnshop’s new owner to find it ransacked, the shop’s most precious acquisition stolen, and her father missing. And then into the shop stumbles a charming stranger, quite unlike its other customers, for he offers help instead of seeking it. Together, they must journey through a mystical world to find Hana’s father and the stolen choice—by way of rain puddles, rides on paper cranes, the bridge between midnight and morning, and a night market in the clouds. But as they get closer to the truth, Hana must reveal a secret of her own—and risk making a choice that she will never be able to take back.

This series is offered in cooperation with the Tewksbury Public Library and other area libraries.

Did you miss it? Watch a recording of the webinar on YouTube HERE. Order a copy of Fiona’s new book, “The Stolen Queen,” via Wellesley Books, HERE. Book sales help support future author webinars.

For a complete list of authors in this series, CHECK HERE.

Author Fiona Davis will discuss her new historical fiction novel, The Stolen Queen.

About Fiona: Fiona Davis is the New York Times bestselling author of several novels, including The Spectacular, The Magnolia Palace, and The Lions of Fifth Avenue, which was a Good Morning America book club pick. She’s a graduate of the Columbia Journalism School and is based in New York City.

About The Stolen Queen: From New York Times bestselling author Fiona Davis, an utterly addictive new novel that will transport you from New York City’s most glamorous party to the labyrinth streets of Cairo and back. Egypt, 1936: When anthropology student Charlotte Cross is offered a coveted spot on an archaeological dig in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, she leaps at the opportunity. That is until an unbearable tragedy strikes. New York City, 1978: Nineteen-year-old Annie Jenkins is thrilled when she lands an opportunity to work for former Vogue fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who’s in the midst of organizing the famous Met Gala, hosted at the museum and known across the city as the “party of the year.” Meanwhile, Charlotte is now leading a quiet life as the associate curator of the Met’s celebrated Department of Egyptian Art. She’s consumed by her research on Hathorkare—a rare female pharaoh dismissed by most other Egyptologists as unimportant. The night of the gala: One of the Egyptian art collection’s most valuable artifacts goes missing, and there are signs Hathorkare’s legendary curse might be reawakening. Annie and Charlotte team up to search for the missing antiquity, and a desperate hunch leads the unlikely duo to one place Charlotte swore she’d never return: Egypt. But if they have any hope of finding the artifact, Charlotte will need to confront the demons of her past—which may mean leading them both directly into danger.

This series is offered in cooperation with the Tewksbury Public Library and other area libraries.

Did you miss it? Watch a recording of the webinar on YouTube HERE. Order a copy of Vicki’s book, “Add The Incident of the Book in the Nighttime,” via Wellesley Books, HERE. Book sales help support future author webinars.

For a complete list of authors in this series, CHECK HERE.

Bestselling author Vicki Delany will discuss her new cozy mystery novel, The Incident of the Book in the Nighttime: A Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery.

About Vicki: Bestselling author Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers. She has published more than forty books: clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy. Vicki is currently writing four cozy mystery series: the Tea by the Sea mysteries for Kensington, the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series for Crooked Lane Books, the Catskill Resort mysteries for Penguin Random House, and the Lighthouse Library series (as Eva Gates) for Crooked Lane Books. She is a past president of the Crime Writers of Canada and co-founder and organizer of the Women Killing It Crime Writing Festival. Vicki is the recipient of the 2019 Derrick Murdoch Award for contributions to Canadian crime writing. She lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario.

About The Incident of the Book in the Nighttime: Bookshop owner Gemma Doyle heads to London for a wedding, but when a body is found in connection with a rare book, Gemma sets out to sleuth the slaying in bestselling author Vicki Delany’s tenth Sherlock Holmes Bookshop mystery. Gemma Doyle and her friends have packed their bags and headed to London for her sister Pippa’s wedding. Waiting for her in the hotel lobby is none other than Gemma’s ex-husband, Paul Erikson. Paul has a rare book he wants her to see—calling it “the real deal”—so Gemma agrees to meet him at their old shop, Trafalgar Fine Books, the following day. But when Gemma arrives, accompanied by Grant, a rare book dealer, they find Paul dead in his office. Paul had been down on his luck, but Gemma never expected this. Had he borrowed money from people he shouldn’t have? And where is the valuable book he was so anxious for Gemma to see? It’s nowhere to be found in the shop. Because of their previous relationship, Gemma feels she owes something to Paul and vows to find his killer. As Gemma and her best friend Jayne Wilson follow Paul’s trail of friends, enemies, clients, and ex-lovers through London to Yorkshire, she realizes the puzzle of Paul’s last days is more twisted than she originally thought. This mystery is anything but elementary, and Gemma and Jayne have to use all their wit to get to the bottom of it before their time in London—or in life—is over.

This series is offered in cooperation with the Tewksbury Public Library and other area libraries.

Did you miss it? Watch a recording of the webinar on YouTube HERE. Order a copy of Scott’s new book, “Presumed Guilty,” and Alafair Burke’s new book, “The Note,” via Wellesley Books, HERE. Book sales help support future author webinars.

For a complete list of authors in this series, CHECK HERE.

Bestselling authors Scott Turow (Presumed Guilty) and Alafair Burke (The Note) will discuss their newest thrillers, in conversation with Dwyer Murphy, editor-in-chief of CrimeReads.

About Scott: Scott Turow, a writer and former practicing lawyer, is the author of thirteen bestselling works of fiction, including Presumed Innocent and most recently, Suspect. He has also published two nonfiction books, including One L, about his experience as a law student. His books have been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, and have been adapted into movies and television projects, including Apple TV+’s Presumed Innocent series. Scott has frequently contributed essays and op-ed pieces to publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, and the Atlantic.

About Presumed Guilty: Rusty is a retired judge attempting a third act in life with a loving soon-to-be wife, Bea, with whom he shares both a restful home on an idyllic lake in the rural Midwest and a plaintive hope that this marriage will be his best, and his last. But the peace that’s taken Rusty so long to find evaporates when Bea’s young adult son, Aaron, living under their supervision while on probation for drug possession, disappears. If Aaron doesn’t return soon, he will be sent back to jail. Aaron eventually turns up with a vague story about a camping trip with his troubled girlfriend, Mae, that ended in a fight and a long hitchhike home. Days later, when she still hasn’t returned, suspicion falls on Aaron, and when Mae is subsequently discovered dead, Aaron is arrested and set for trial on charges of first-degree murder. Faced with few choices and even fewer hopes, Bea begs Rusty to return to court one last time, to defend her son and to save their last best hope for happiness. For Rusty, the question is not whether to defend Aaron, or whether the boy is in fact innocent—it’s whether the system to which he has devoted his life can ever provide true justice for those who are presumed guilty.

About Alafair: Alafair Burke is the Edgar-nominated, New York Times best-selling author of fourteen novels of suspense, including The Ex, The Wife, The Better Sister, and Find Me, and coauthor of the best-selling Under Suspicion series. A former prosecutor, she is now a professor of criminal law. She recently served as president of the Mystery Writers of America and was the first woman of color to be elected to that position. She lives in New York.

About The Note: A vacation in the Hamptons goes terribly wrong for three friends with a complicated history. It was meant to be a harmless prank. Growing up, May Hanover was a good girl, always. Well-behaved, top of her class, a compulsive rule-follower. Raised by a first-generation Chinese single mother with high expectations, May didn’t have room to slip up, let alone fail. Her friends didn’t call her the Little Sheriff for nothing. But even good girls have secrets. And regrets. When it comes to her friendship with Lauren and Kelsey, she’s had her fair share of both. Their bond—forged when May was just twelve years old—has withstood a tragic accident, individual scandals, heartbreak and loss. Now the three friends have reunited for the first time in years for a few days of sun and fun in the Hamptons. But a chance encounter with a pair of strangers leads to a drunken prank that goes horribly awry.  When she finds herself at the center of an urgent police investigation, May begins to wonder whether Lauren and Kelsey are keeping secrets from her, testing the limits of her loyalty to lifelong friends. What had they gone and done? The Note is a page-turner of the highest order from one of our greatest contemporary suspense writers.

About Dwyer: Dwyer Murphy is the author of The Stolen Coast and An Honest Living, both New York Times Editors’ Choice selections. His new novel, The House on Buzzards Bay, will be released in June 2025 from Viking. He is the Editor-in-Chief of CrimeReads and was previously a New York-based litigator.

This series is offered in cooperation with the Tewksbury Public Library and other area libraries.

Did you miss it? Watch a recording of the webinar on YouTube HERE. Order a copy of Leah’s new book, “The Last Room on the Left,” via Wellesley Books, HERE. Book sales help support future author webinars. Learn more about Leah from her website: https://www.leahkonen.com/.

For a complete list of authors in this series, CHECK HERE.

Author Leah Konen will discuss her new thriller, The Last Room on the Left.

About Leah: Leah Konen is the author of Keep Your Friends Close, You Should Have Told Me, The Perfect Escape, All the Broken People, and several young adult novels, including Love and Other Train Wrecks and The Romantics. Her books have been featured in Vogue, Rolling Stone, Marie Claire, Reader’s Digest and The New York Post, among others. She lives in Brooklyn and Saugerties, New York, with her husband; their daughters, Eleanor and Mary Joyce; and their dog, Farley.

About The Last Room on the Left: The caretaker at an isolated mountain hotel finds herself fighting for her life—and sanity—in this twisty, addictive thriller. Kerry’s life is in shambles: Her husband has left her, her drinking habit has officially become a problem, and though the deadline for her big book deal—the one that was supposed to change everything—is looming, she can’t write a word. When she sees an ad for a caretaker position at a revitalized roadside motel in the Catskills, she jumps at the chance. It’s the perfect getaway to finish her book and start fresh. But as she hunkers down in a blizzard, she spots something through the window: a pale arm peeking out from a heap of snow. Trapped in the mountains and alone with a dead, frozen body, Kerry must keep her head and make it out before the killer comes for her too. But is the deadly game of cat-and-mouse all in her mind? The body count begs to differ . . . This superbly crafted novel of suspense — that will thrill and delight fans of Lucy Foley, Alice Feeney, and Sarah Pearse — received a starred review from Library Journal.

This series is offered in cooperation with the Tewksbury Public Library and other area libraries.

Did you miss it? Watch a recording of the webinar on YouTube HERE. Order a copy of James’s new book, “Grave Danger,” via Wellesley Books, HERE. Book sales help support future author webinars.

For a complete list of authors in this series, CHECK HERE.

Author James Grippando will discuss his new legal thriller, Grave Danger.

About James: James Grippando is a New York Times bestselling author with more than thirty books to his credit, including those in his acclaimed series featuring Miami criminal defense attorney Jack Swyteck, and is the winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. He is also a trial lawyer and teaches law and literature at the University of Miami School of Law. He lives and writes in South Florida.

About Grave Danger: Bestselling author James Grippando’s legendary criminal defense attorney Jack Swyteck is back to defend a single mother accused of kidnapping her own child in a perilous case involving politics and international diplomacy that will test his legal expertise and his marriage. Jack Swyteck’s new client fled Iran to Miami with her daughter, and has been accused of kidnapping by her husband. The seasoned attorney must not only plan a winning defense. To stop the father from taking the girl back to Tehran, Jack must build a case under international law and prove that returning the child would put her at risk. But everything in this case isn’t what it seems, and Jack quickly learns that his client is really the child’s aunt and that the biological mother may have been killed by Iran’s morality police. But what role did the father play in his wife’s death, and why is Jack’s wife, FBI Agent Andie Henning, being pressured by her bosses to persuade Jack to drop the case? Plunging into an investigation unlike any other, Jack must discover who is behind the legal maneuvering and what their interest is. As politics threatens to derail the case and compromise the best interests of the child, Jack and Andie find themselves on opposite sides—with their marriage hanging in the balance. For their relationship to survive, the couple must navigate a treacherous web of deceit that extends from a Miami courthouse to the highest echelons of Washington DC, and spells grave danger at every turn.

This series is offered in cooperation with the Tewksbury Public Library and other area libraries.

Did you miss it? Watch a recording of the webinar on YouTube HERE. Order a copy of Jessie’s new book, “The Business Trip” via Wellesley Books, HERE. Book sales help support future author webinars.

For a complete list of authors in this series, CHECK HERE.

Author Jessie Garcia will discuss her new thriller, The Business Trip.

About Jessie: Jessie Garcia is an award-winning sports journalist who has risen the ranks in television news, first as an anchor/reporter, then to newsroom management. She is the News Director at the CBS affiliate in Milwaukee. Her non-fiction books My Life with the Green and Gold: Tales from 20 Years of Sportscasting and Going for Wisconsin Gold: Stories of our State Olympians won Midwest Book Awards, and her documentary Leaps and Bounds: The Men Who Changed Track and Field was featured in over a dozen film festivals. Jessie also taught journalism at four universities. A native of Madison, she has two adult sons and resides in Milwaukee with her husband, dog and cat.

About The Business Trip: The Business Trip is the gripping, page-turning fiction debut from author Jessie Garcia. Stephanie and Jasmine have nothing and everything in common. The two women don’t know each other but are on the same plane. Stephanie is on a business trip and Jasmine is fleeing an abusive relationship. After a few days, they text their friends the same exact messages about the same man―the messages becoming stranger and more erratic. And then the two women vanish. The texts go silent, the red flags go up, and the panic sets in. When Stephanie and Jasmine are each declared missing and in danger, it begs the questions: Who is Trent McCarthy? What did he do to these women― or what did they do to him? Twist upon twist, layer upon layer, where nothing is as it seems, The Business Trip takes you on a descent into the depths of a mastermind manipulator. But who is playing who? This shockingly clever thrill ride with with nonstop twists and turns received a starred review from Publishers Weekly.

This series is offered in cooperation with the Tewksbury Public Library and other area libraries.