Riley Sager and Johanna Copeland set thrillers in suburbia

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Arts, Books

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 26 July 2024

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today's episode features two page-turners full of suspense. First, NPR's Don Gonyea speaks with Todd Ritter – who publishes as Riley Sager – about Middle of the Night, a coming-of-age meets ghost story in which protagonist Ethan Marsh returns to his childhood home and is faced with the decades-old disappearance of his best friend. Then, NPR's Mary Louise Kelly asks Johanna Copeland about Our Kind of Game, and how real-life neighborhood gossip about domestic violence sparked the dark novel about power imbalances in relationships.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. The dichotomy of a thriller is that they're usually about something heavy, violence, murder, maybe someone's gone missing. But the other side of it is they're super fun to read. Today, we've got two books for you that abide by that dichotomy in a bit. We'll hear about a thriller inspired by a wide range of issues women have to endure
0:25.0	from the relatively small stuff, like being interrupted or talked over at meetings,
0:29.9	to the physical threats of domestic abuse and sexual violence.
0:34.6	But first, middle of the night is a thriller set in suburbia. And novelist Todd
0:39.4	Ritter, who wrote the book as Riley Sager, spoke to NPR's Don Gagne about what it is that makes
0:45.0	suburbia so frightening. That's ahead. In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from
0:52.6	daily life. Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
0:58.1	On our new show, Sources and Methods.
1:00.2	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,
1:03.9	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
1:07.7	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:13.1	Summer, 1994, a leafy, New Jersey suburb. Two boys have a sleepover in a backyard tent.
1:21.7	Come morning, only one boy wakes in that tent. Author Riley Sager writes,
1:28.4	His name is Ethan Marsh.
1:30.7	He is 10.
1:32.2	And this is the last carefree moment he'll have for the next 30 years.
1:38.2	Riley Sager is actually former newspaper reporter Todd Ritter, Ritter as Sager,
1:43.7	has published a best-selling thriller a year since 2017.
1:49.0	His latest, middle of the night, is just out, and Todd Ritter, or should I say, Riley Sager, joins us.
1:56.3	Hello.
1:56.9	Hi, how are you?
1:58.1	I'm good, I'm good.
	...

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