In Broad Daylight (Jess Harding Novels) - Softcover

Harwood, Seth

3.73

791 ratings by Goodreads

9781611099720: In Broad Daylight (Jess Harding Novels)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1611099722 ISBN 13: 9781611099720

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer, 2013

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

From the author of the acclaimed thriller novels Jack Wakes Up and Young Junius comes In Broad Daylight, a taut psychological whodunnit with Stieg Larsson's intrigue and Karin Slaughter's raw insights on strange communities.

FBI agent Jess Harding treks back to Anchorage to hunt down a sadistic killer who's reemerged from a five-year hiatus--a killer who has already slipped her grasp once before. The endless days of an Alaskan summer can't thwart the fiend's plans as he slashes his way through the rural community, where everyone knows your name and always distrusts the outside. With the help of Oscar Linstrom, an old colleague who wants to be more than friends, Jess attempts to immerse herself in the area's culture, leading her to a strange rural village inhabited by Russian Old Believers hell-bent on protecting their way of life. Even the locals are outsiders to the Old Believers, and Jess needs a safehaven in the glare of daylight because a blood-stained message left at the scene of the most recent murder says Jess is no longer the hunter--but the hunted.

Seth Harwood, named a Best of 2010 author by George Pelecanos, returns with this terrifying daydream of an expansive Great North that offers no place to hide.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

Author One-on-One: Alan Russell and Seth Harwood

Alan Russell's most recent books include the mysteries Burning Man and Multiple Wounds. A proud father of three children, Russell is an avid gardener and cook, and fortunately is blessed with a spouse who doesn't mind weeding or washing dishes.

Alan Russell: We haven’t yet met in person, but I hear we have something in common—a love for playing basketball.

Seth Harwood: It's true, though I keep trying to give up the hoops. Seems like I keep getting hurt. It's a hazard of getting old, I guess.

AR: Tell me about it. I’ve had four basketball surgeries including my ACL and Achilles.

SH: With writing we only have to worry about writer's block.

AR: And nasty reviewers. I notice another thing we have in common is that both of us have lived in the Bay Area, and set books in San Francisco. Tony Bennett might be right about leaving my heart in San Francisco.

SH: I love it here. My heart is on the east coast in many ways—family, childhood memories—but I love it here. If I ever leave, it'll be tough.

AR: Most of In Broad Daylight is set in Alaska. Was it hard as an outsider to get a handle on that amazing place?

SH: Having only visited Alaska once, I felt like my eyes were so wide open that the setting began to inhabit my imagination. Alaska is so vast and beautiful: the extremes it offers and the sheer size of everything.

Everyone talks about plot driven or character driven books, but in a lot of ways my books are place driven. I wanted to write about Alaska just as I wanted to write about San Francisco when I first came here (and did with my novel Jack Wakes Up). Looking back at that book now, I missed some things but at the same time saw things longtime residents wouldn’t. With In Broad Daylight, since Jess Harding isn’t a lifer, it made sense for her (and for me) to still be getting the lay of the land.

AR: Is In Broad Daylight your first book where you’ve had a female lead? And did you find it hard writing in the voice of the opposite sex?

SH: Jess is my first female lead, though I have had strong women characters in other novels. Writing from the point of view of a woman wasn’t easy, but being really close to my sister gave me a leg up. Her name is Jessica, actually, and Jess Harding is a bit of a tribute to her.

AR: One interesting location in the book was Nikolaevsk. It’s a very insular group, with Russian being the first language. Does such a place exist? And if so, did they let you into their community?

SH: My understanding of Nikolaevsk is largely research- and imagination-based. There is such a place, and the people there do consider themselves to be "Old Believers"—an offshoot of the Russian Orthodox Church—but I never visited in person. I’m afraid they’d never let me leave. I’m kidding, of course.

AR: What’s next on the docket for Seth Harwood?

SH: Next up, I’m working on a pair of sequels: the follow-up to In Broad Daylight, which features Jess Harding working another case, and the second book in the Junius Ponds saga after the events of Young Junius. But the biggest work on my plate now will be helping to raise my daughter Willa! She was born in late January and will be four months old when In Broad Daylight comes out. Being a father is such a new, amazing journey.

AR: Congratulations! If you need any parenting advice, I am the father of three great kids. Enjoy the roller coaster. And pray that Willa doesn’t want to be a writer!

SH: Amen to that!

About the Author:

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Seth Harwood has been a commodities floor trading clerk, bartender, high school teacher, creative writing instructor, English teacher, and rare book cataloguer. He grew up playing basketball, then went on to DJ for his college radio station at Washington University, before attending the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he earned an MFA in fiction writing. The author of Jack Wakes Up, This Is Life–A Jack Palms Novel, A Long Way from Disney, and Young Junius—and named a Best of 2010 author by George Pelecanos—Harwood makes his home in San Francisco, where he teaches creative writing and English at City College of San Francisco and Stanford.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.