Pardon my enthusiasm, but he's one of my favorite authors, and he actually met and exceeded my expectations in person - so I just had to post about it.  I responded to a Brian Freeman post on CMT, so this is a bit of a repeat of that post.

He did a book signing and gave a talk at  my favorite little Minneapolis independent mystery bookstore.  I was so PO'd at myself because I was unavoidably detained and missed the first 25 minutes of his talk.   But I still heard some of it and talked to him later when he signed my book.  He is a really, really nice man who obviously loves to talk about his writing and his books.  His wife attended also.  They work as a team in the respect that she reads his book drafts and gives him comments.  He talked about how he scopes out the locations for his books.  He and his wife lived for a month - during JANUARY - on Park Point in Duluth while writing and researching Stalked.  Brrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!  That's dedication for you.

I told Brian that what I love most about his books are the twists.    He said to watch out for another one at the end of In The Dark.  Unfortunately, I need to read a bookclub book first, so it will be a few days before I get to In The Dark.  I can't wait!

He has also written (or co-written?) a much lighter mystery called The Agency.  I didn't pick that one up, but would be eager to hear opinions if anyone reads it.   It sounds like the polar opposite of the Lt. Stride books in style and character.

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Jealous!

Very cool, Lynne!  Yes, he does seem really nice, I am a member of a mystery book club and he called in to participate when we read Immoral.  He does an exceptional job of being accessible to his fans, which is refreshing... actually, I try to buy his books new because of it.

Edited to say:  I have The Agency but have not read it yet.... I've been too busy reading for swaps and The Reading Challenge.  Because The Agency is written under a pseudonym, does that mean I can count it as a book by a new author?  :-)

Sweet! Coincidentally, I'm reading his second book, Stripped, right now. (well..not RIGHT now...but you know what I mean. LOL) I have put off reading this one because I knew the story moved away from Duluth and that's one of the things I really loved about his first book. I've got Stalked here too and am first on the WL for In the Dark, but will buy it if need be!

Cheryl