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May 4 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
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In-Person: An Evening with Eli Cranor & Dwyer Murphy in Coconut Grove!
Books & Books presents…
AN EVENING WITH ELI CRANOR
in conversation with Dwyer Murphy
discussing
Ozark Dogs
Thursday, May 4th, 7:00 PM | Books & Books, Coconut Grove
RSVP HERE FOR FREE
Books & Books is thrilled to present an in-person evening with Eli Cranor & Dwyer Murphy to discuss Cranor’s praised book: Ozark Dogs (Soho Crime, $26.95).
April 2023 Indie Next List: “Wow, this Southern noir thriller is gripping! Blood is thicker than water in these Ozark towns, but family relationships are complicated and there are no easy answers, leading to hard — and surprising — choices. Absolutely unforgettable.” — Lia Lent, WordsWorth Books (AR), Little Rock, AR
This event is FREE and open to the public and books will be available for purchase the night of the event so make sure to stay after the talk for a book signing! Please RSVP only if you intend to join us.
About the Book:
In this Southern thriller, two families grapple with the aftermath of a murder in their small Arkansas town.
After his son is convicted of capital murder, Vietnam War veteran Jeremiah Fitzjurls takes over the care of his granddaughter, Joanna, raising her with as much warmth as can be found in an Ozark junkyard outfitted to be an armory. He teaches her how to shoot and fight, but there is not enough training in the world to protect her when the dreaded Ledfords, notorious meth dealers and fanatical white supremacists, come to collect on Joanna as payment for a long-overdue blood debt.
Headed by rancorous patriarch Bunn and smooth-talking, erudite Evail, the Ledfords have never forgotten what the Fitzjurls family did to them, and they will not be satisfied until they have taken an eye for an eye. As they seek revenge, and as Jeremiah desperately searches for his granddaughter, their narratives collide in this immersive story about family and how far some will go to honor, defend—or in some cases, destroy it.
Praise for Ozark Dogs
An ABA IndieNext Pick for April 2023
“Ozark Dogs is a gripping family drama that mixes murder with mistaken identity and hidden secrets. Each revelation shocked me more than the last. I simply could not put it down.”—Brendan Slocumb, New York Times bestselling author of The Violin Conspiracy
“Raw, gritty, and darkly beautiful noir at its finest. Cranor digs deep into the hard places, the hard choices that crush and grind. And he does so with great tenderness for his flawed and broken characters as they seek revenge, cling to honor, and sacrifice everything for family. This is a writer to watch.”—Lisa Unger, New York Times bestselling author of Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six
“Eli Cranor’s superb new novel Ozark Dogs tunnels into your brain with feverish power. A story of family burdens and dark legacies, it’s thrillingly told, deeply wrenching, not to be missed.”—Megan Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of The Turnout
About the Author:
Eli Cranor lives and writes from the banks of Lake Dardanelle, a reservoir of the Arkansas River nestled in the heart of True Grit country. His work has won The Greensboro Review’s Robert Watson Literary Prize and been featured in Missouri Review, Oxford American, Ellery Queen, The Strand and others. Eli also pens a weekly column, “Where I’m Writing From” for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and his craft column, “Shop Talk,” appears monthly at CrimeReads. His critically acclaimed debut novel, Don’t Know Tough, won the Peter Lovesey First Crime Novel Contest.
About the Moderator:
Dwyer Murphy is the author of An Honest Living, a New York Times Editors’ Choice and New Yorker Best Books of the Year selection for 2022. His new novel, The Stolen Coast, will be released by Viking in July, 2023. He is the editor-in-chief of CrimeReads, from Literary Hub.