Jeff Lindsay, Ben Mezrich & Megan Abbott: A Conversation

Ben Mezrich is the New York Times bestselling author of The Accidental Billionaires (adapted into the film The Social Network), Bringing Down the House (adapted into the #1 box office hit 21), The Antisocial Network, and other books. They have collectively sold more than 6 million copies worldwide. In The Midnight Ride: A Thriller (Grand Central Publishing), three strangers find themselves on the cusp of an incredible discovery. Hailey Gordon, a card shark looking for fast cash to pay her tuition, is caught counting cards at the Encore casino in Boston. She grabs her winnings and makes her escape. On the run, she dives into an unlocked room – and finds a dead body. Recently released from prison, Nick Patterson hasn’t felt hope in a long time, but he has a promising job. Then he enters hotel room 633 to find that the person he was supposed to meet has been murdered, and standing next to the corpse is Hailey. Meanwhile, American history professor Adrian Jensen learns of the death of his professional nemesis, Charles Walker, the night after he received Walker’s latest research. Jensen nearly deletes the file, but one small detail catches his eye – and it could lead to uncovering one of the biggest secrets of the Revolutionary War.

Jeff Lindsay is an American playwright, crime novelist, and the New York Times bestselling author of the eight-part series on the sociopathic vigilante Dexter Morgan. It debuted in 2004 with Darkly Dreaming Dexter, and it’s the basis of the hit Showtime and CBS series Dexter. In Three-Edged Sword: A Novel (Dutton), superthief Riley Wolfe can do it all. He is a master of disguise and can scale a wall and vanish into thin air. He uses these unique talents to rob the richest. But this time, the most powerful have him in their grip. A high-up rogue government agent has abducted the only two people Riley loves, and now he must do the man’s dirty work to set them free. Infiltrating a madman’s Soviet missile silo in one of the world’s most remote places to find a secret on a tiny flash drive is all in a day’s work. But Riley’s never had to race the clock like this. Weaving espionage, thievery, love, and betrayal, Three-Edged Sword twists, turns, and keeps everything on the line until the very end. It looks like this time, the only way out is through.

Megan Abbott is the author of 10 novels, including Give Me Your Hand, You Will Know Me, The Fever, Dare Me, and The End of Everything. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, The Guardian, and The Believer, among others. In The Turnout: A Novel (G.P. Putnam’s Sons), Dara and Marie Durant have been dancers since they can remember. Growing up, they were home-schooled and trained by their glamorous mother, the founder of the Durant School of Dance. After their parents died in a tragic accident nearly a dozen years ago, the sisters began running the school together, along with Charlie, Dara’s husband and once their mother’s prized student. Marie, warm and soft, teaches the younger students; Dara, a precise dancer, trains the older ones; and Charlie, sidelined from dancing after years of injuries, rules over the back office. Circling one another, the three have perfected a dance that keeps the studio thriving. But then a suspicious accident occurs, an interloper arrives, and the delicate balance is threatened.