Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.

You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed,

or you are the only animal,

who can think, who can reason, who can read.

From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Michael Silverblatt, and this is Bookworm.

Today, I am very happy to have us my guest, Craig Nova.

His newest book, his 12th, is The Informer, and it's published by Shea Earhart Books.

It's a dark and frightening thriller set in pre-Nazi Berlin. It centers on two women, one a detective

in search of a serial killer of prostitutes. The other one is a deformed woman, herself a prostitute, who is willing to sell

bits of information to anyone who asks. Craig Nova is someone who should not be a secret. He is known to

writers and readers and reviewers as one of the best writers working in America today.

It's not an exaggeration.

It is an astonishment.

The work develops, and yet he is not known.

I'm going to read from a review that appeared in Eurocrime

by a reviewer named Norman Price.

He says, I always feel a little nervous when I read a book

that claims to be a literary thriller,

but in the case of the informer, literary means beautifully written,

and thriller does mean tense and exciting, along with plenty of action.

Author Craig Nova has succeeded on a number of levels.

...