christbollen

Making this list means an extra lot to me because I’m such a fan of @crimereads And this editor’s note will be glued to the ceiling in my deathbed: (Ed. note – Havoc earns a special distinction: in our internal staff polls, Havoc is the first novel ever chosen as an end-of-year favorite by all three CrimeReads editors: Molly Odintz, Olivia Rutigliano, and Dwyer Murphy. We tend to have rather different taste.)

Maggie(81) has had it all & is now in search of peace as the final years of her life come to pass. Finding a new home at the Royal Karnak Hotel in Luxor (Egypt), she is finally settling in. Her stay would have been more peaceful. Had she been a little less nosy & less manipulative towards the situations & humans around her. But she finally finds a competitive match in an 8-year-old boy & the two seem to be spiralling down in an entangle of death and delusion, creating havoc at the hotel. The best thing about this book was its writing style. The descriptions and the narration made me immerse myself all in! Maggie's character is so strong that I felt everything she felt (the anger, the exasperation, the confusion & even the tiredness of climbing those stairs). Now I did feel the story dragged a bit in the middle, but the above 2 things kept me going. Towards the final moments of the story, the incidents escalate next level, grabbing the reader's attention to an end you won't picture coming. It was sudden, unpredictable & absolutely shocking! P.S. The covid lockdown angle addition worked so well with the plot. Thank you, @netgalley @harpercollinsuk @christbollen for the digital review copy. Genre: Murder, Mystery, Thriller Rating: 4/5 ⭐️ Q.o.t.d: Do you enjoy books with elderly protagonists?

Over the moon and heading toward the heliopause (the edge of the solar system) to be included in @nytbooks Best Thrillers of 2024 list by @sarahlyall33 . Hope to see you tonight at the NYC reading, friends.

NYC friends! Please join me tomorrow, Thursday at 6pm, at McNally Jackson Seaport to celebrate the publication of my novel HAVOC. @_katiekitamura and I will be talking about homicidal elderly women, evil children, the joys of hotel life, and everything in between. Would love to see you there.

Thank you thank you to @nytbooks @people @startribune @sunsentinel for these lovely reviews for HAVOC. Already on a best of 2024 list, 9 books to read for December in the Nytimes, and a People Magazine pick. You’ve made this lowly middle-aged writer weep with joy. My more opportunistic friends would be wise to ask for a favor or a small cash loan today. Seriously, thank you.

TODAY is pub day for HAVOC. Thanks to everyone for all the support and kind words. HAVOC is a very different novel for me (and not just because of its leaner welterweight length). The idea came right after the pandemic, and I started writing it at a residency in Paris when I was supposed to be working on a different project. It was pure pleasure, so much fun to be stuck in the head of my devious 81-year-old pro-/antagonist. I hope you’ll pick up a copy and let me know what you think. Age and youth, doing battle, in a grand old hotel on the Nile.

Host Jason Blitman talks to Christopher Bollen (Havoc) about everything from purging personal belongings to the layered concept of havoc and chaos, the fascinating world of hotels, and Chris’ love-hate relationship with musicals. Jason is then joined by Guest Gay Reader Simon Doonan (TV’s Making It, The Camp 100) about what he’s reading, as well as the difference between Camp and campy. Christopher Bollen is the author of the critically acclaimed novels The Lost Americans, A Beautiful Crime, The Destroyers, Orient, and Lightning People. He is a frequent contributor to a number of publications, including Vanity Fair, the New York Times, and Interview. He lives in New York City. @christbollen Simon Doonan is the author of many books, including the recently published Transformer: A Story of Glitter, Glam Rock and Loving Lou Reed, How To Be Yourself, DRAG: The Complete Story and Keith Haring. A long-standing member of the fashion community, Simon was awarded the prestigious CFDA award for his work as Creative Director for Barneys New York. He is currently a judge on the Emmy-nominated NBC series ‘Making It’. Simon lives in New York City with his partner, the ceramicist and designer Jonathan Adler, and their rescue-mutt Foxylady. @simondoonan . . . #gaysreading #podcast #bookstagram #lgbt #newbooks #havoc #hitchcock #thriller #simondoonan

LA friends: please come tonight 7pm to Book Soup on Sunset for a reading and conversation with @misss_read for the release of HAVOC. Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye: “Nothing ever looks emptier than an empty swimming pool.”

HAVOC. Out December 3rd by @harperbooks. Be afraid. (Also order a copy).

I’m starting a new weekly segment called Best First Lines (maybe I’ll include best last lines too). First & Last? Anyway this is the first best first line and maybe if I never do another First & Last (which already feels like so much pressure/commitment and I just really need to step back from this project) at least we’ll always have this first line by Chandler: “The first time I laid eyes on Terry Lennox he was drunk in a Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith outside the terrace of The Dancers.” Does a first line get any better?

The beat goes on

The diabolical man of letters, a true bare-knuckle writer in every sense. RIP Gary Indiana. 📷 David Armstrong (a photo I sent to Gary after the DA show in Zurich last summer and he seemed pleased to rediscover it) @davidarmstrongarchive