Stuff in the ‘Ben H. Winters’ Category

19 January, 2021

GOLDEN STATE, Ben H. Wintesr

Now in paperback from Mulholland Books!

From award-winning, New York Times bestselling novelist Ben H. Winters comes a mind-bending novel set in a world governed by absolute truth, where lies are as dangerous as murder.

In a strange alternate society that values law and truth above all else, Laszlo Ratesic is a nineteen-year veteran of the Speculative Service. He lives in the Golden State, a nation standing where California once did, a place where like-minded Americans retreated after the erosion of truth and the spread of lies made public life and governance impossible.

In the Golden State, knowingly contradicting the truth is the greatest crime — and stopping those crimes is Laz’s job. In its service, he is one of the few individuals permitted to harbor untruths, to “speculate”

on what might have happened.

But the Golden State is less of a paradise than its name might suggest. To monitor, verify, and enforce the truth requires a veritable panopticon of surveillance and recording. And when those in control of the facts twist them for nefarious means, the Speculators are the only ones with the power to fight back.

“At a time in the real world when everybody seems to own their version of the truth and phrases like “alternative facts” are used to cover falsehoods, Golden State is, no lie, a fascinating examination that takes fidelity and correctness down a freaky Orwellian path.”―USA Today

“Winters has a knack for creating appealing detective fictions that skew reality in thought-provoking ways, producing a hybrid of the familiar and the uncanny. . . . As you read, you feel your perception of the world slipping and warping. Winters brilliantly imagines the quotidian manifestations of a truth-obsessed culture.”

―Washington Post

“Once again, Ben H. Winters creates a world cleverly skewed a few crucial degrees from our own. . . . Winters is well aware of the tropes of dystopian noir, and it is fun to watch him mix and match them to good effect. . . . The detective plot works well, but it is in its questioning of the nature of truth and falsehood that the novel excels. . . . Smart, intricate and propulsive, Golden State is proof that Winters deserves our continued attention as one of crime fiction’s most inventive practitioners.”―San Francisco Chronicle

“Mr. Winters has won major awards in both the mystery and speculative-fiction genres. The brain-teasing Golden State exists in a space where those two forms coexist. As a consequence, a sympathetic reader’s imaginings may persist long after the book’s puzzles have been solved.”―Wall Street Journal

“Nothing speaks to the power of a weapon like it inspiring a work of speculative fiction, and Ben H. Winter’s Golden State is the dystopian take on the new tool of war du jour: lies.”―Paste Magazine, ‘One of the Best Books of January’

“In Golden State, Winters has fashioned a wry commentary on our current era of fake news.”

―The Guardian [UK]

“An entertaining new take on the venerable genre-blending of noir and science fiction.”

―The Los Angeles Review of Books

“Like any good dystopian yarn, Golden State shows . . . how any organization or government can warp good intentions into truly harmful ones.”―The Verge

“An entertaining, unpredictable read.”―Financial Times

“A perfectly poised ontological-thriller-comedy-dystopian-allegorical-page-turner, yet with tenderly real characters in its chewy center, this turned out to be just the thing I was looking for.”

―Jonathan Lethem

Ben H. Winters is the New York Times bestselling author of Underground Airlines and the Last Policeman trilogy. The second novel in the trilogy, Countdown City, was an NPR Best Book of 2013 and the winner of the Philip K. Dick award. The Last Policeman was the recipient of the 2012 Edgar Award and was also named one of the Best Books of 2012 by Amazon.com and Slate. Ben lives with his family in Los Angeles, CA.

Categories: New Books
Tags: assault on truth, Ben H. Winters, dystopia, Golden State

7 May, 2020

INSIDE JOBS: Tales from a Time of Quarantine, Ben H. Winters (Audible Original)

Three offbeat stories of crime and conundrum, set in the present moment, from The New York Times best-selling, Edgar Award-winning author of Underground Airlines and The Last Policeman. (May 2020)

Inside Jobs: Tales from a Time of Quarantine includes:

The Crimson Parrot
It’s not easy masterminding the crime of the century when your whole gang is working from home. A high-stakes tale of larceny, deception, and teleconferencing.

The Cape House
As the world shifts around them, two estranged brothers end up in their childhood home. But it’s the memories they unearth that will change them forever.

Stop Motion
With endless time on her hands, an apartment-bound young woman gets to all the hobbies she’s neglected—martial arts, playing the sax, photography…and solving a murder?

Categories: Agency News, Buzz, New Books
Tags: Audible Original, Ben H. Winters, crime fiction, Inside Jobs, Stop Motion, Tales from the Time of Quarantine, The Cape House, The Crimson Parrot, The Last Policeman, Underground Airlines

15 April, 2020

INSIDE JOBS!

Author of the award-winning THE LAST POLICEMAN novels and bestselling UNDERGROUND AIRLINES Ben Winters’s INSIDE JOBS, a trio of crime stories set during the age of quarantine. (Audible Originals, World rights, Summer 2020).

Categories: Agency News, Buzz, Recent Sales
Tags: Audible Originals, Ben H. Winters, crime stories

14 April, 2020

Winters

Ben H. Winters is the author, most recently, of the legal thriller, The Quiet Boy (Mulholland, Little Brown; May 2021), as well as Golden State (Mulholland/Little Brown, 2018), the New York Times bestselling Underground Airlines (Mulholland/Little Brown, 2016); The Last Policeman and its two sequels (Quirk); the horror novel Bedbugs (Quirk); and several works for young readers. Among other recognition, Ben’s books have received the Edgar Award for mystery writing, the Philip K. Dick award in science fiction, the Sidewise Award for alternate history, and France’s Grand Prix de L’Imaginaire. Ben’s writing has appeared in Slate and in the New York Times Book Review. He also writes for film and television, and was a producer on the FX show Legion. Ben lives in Los Angeles with his wife, three children, dog, and fish.

Categories: Authors
Tags: Bedbugs, Ben H. Winters, Edgar Awards, Mulholland Books, Philip K. Dick Award, Quirk Books, The Last Policeman, Underground Airlines

21 January, 2019

GOLDEN STATE, Ben H. Winters

From award-winning, New York Times bestselling novelist Ben H. Winters comes a mind-bending novel set in a world governed by absolute truth, where lies are as dangerous as murder. (Mulholland/Little Brown, January 2019; Random House UK)

spread of lies made public life and governance impossible.

In the Golden State, knowingly contradicting the truth is the greatest crime–and stopping those crimes is Laz’s job. In its service, he is one of the few individuals permitted to harbor untruths, to “speculate” on what might have happened.

But the Golden State is less a paradise than its name might suggest. To monitor, verify, and enforce the truth requires a veritable panopticon of surveillance and recording. And when those in control of the facts twist them for nefarious means, the Speculators are the only ones with the power to fight back.

Reviews:

“A perfectly poised ontological-thriller-comedy-dystopian-allegorical-page-turner, yet with tenderly real characters in its chewy center, this turned out to be just the thing I was looking for.”―Jonathan Lethem

“Not many writers would take on Orwell, Ray Bradbury, the nature of truth, and the current administration all at a blow. Big shoes to fill–and they fit Ben H. Winters just fine. Golden State grabs notions of disinformation and literalism and brilliantly turns them on their head to see what falls from their pockets.”―James Sallis, author of Drive

“Golden State is a prescient, devastating commentary on humanity’s disintegrating attachment to reality and truth, expertly told through the prism of a police-procedural, dystopian nightmare. Winters has written a 1984 for the 21st century. Not just a thrilling book, but an important one.”―Blake Crouch, author of Dark Matter

“A skillful and swift-moving concoction . . . For those who like their dystopias with a dash of humor. No lie.”―Kirkus Reviews

“Thought-provoking, genre-bending . . . Winters seems to have a real affection for unusually compelling premises. . . . He certainly knows how to bring those premises to life in a way that keeps readers flipping pages. . . . What’s especially intriguing about the book is the way Winters dispenses information, dropping a hint here, a key sentence there, and letting us figure out what happened in the past that led to a society in which the punishment for telling a lie could be exile. . . . . Another fine novel from a writer whose imagination knows no bounds.”―Booklist

Winters has a knack for creating appealing detective fictions that skew reality in thought-provoking ways, producing a hybrid of the familiar and the uncanny. His Last Policeman Trilogy (2012-2014) took place in New Hampshire in the months preceding Earth’s collision with an asteroid. “Underground Airlines,” published in 2016, posited a United States in which the Civil War never took place and where slavery is still legal in four states. At their best, these novels approach the mind-expanding counterfactuals and dystopias created by Philip K. Dick, George Orwell and Michael Chabon. As you read them, you feel your perception of the world slipping and warping.” —Washington Post

About the Author

Ben H. Winters is the New York Times bestselling author of Underground Airlines and the Last Policeman trilogy. The second novel in the trilogy, Countdown City, was an NPR Best Book of 2013 and the winner of the Philip K. Dick award. The Last Policeman was the recipient of the 2012 Edgar Award, and was also named one of the Best Books of 2012 by Amazon.com and Slate. Ben lives with his family in Los Angeles, CA.

Categories: Buzz, New Books
Tags: alternate history, Ben H. Winters, dystopian fiction, Golden State, Mulholland Books, The Last Policeman, Underground Airlines

12 December, 2018

Ben H. Winters’ THE LAST POLICEMAN trilogy–with all new covers!

Our dear friends at Quirk Publishers are repackaging Ben H. Winters’ award-winning THE LAST POLICEMAN trilogy in time for the release of his new novel, GOLDEN STATE (Mulholland/Little Brown), releasing January 22. Love, love, love these new, very commercial covers. Most of all, I appreciate the willingness of a publisher to keep re-inventing; alas, this is not always the case. Thanks especially to Brett Cohen and Jhanteigh Kupihea.

Categories: Buzz, News
Tags: Ben H. Winters, Countdown City, Golden State, Quirk Books, Quirk Publishing, The Last Policeman, World of Trouble

8 July, 2016

THE PRISONER, Ben H. Winters

From the author of UNDERGROUND AIRLINES and THE LAST POLICEMAN, a genre-bending thriller. (Mulholland Books/Little Brown, division of Hachette, World Rights, 2018) Also included in the deal is a second, untitled novel.

Categories: Agency News, Buzz, Recent Sales
Tags: Ben H. Winters, legal thriller, Mulholland Books, The Last Policeman, The Prisoner, Underground Airlines

21 January, 2015

Ben Winters’ nominated for another Edgar Award!

Ben H. Winters, who won an Edgar for the first in his now legendary Last Policeman series, THE LAST POLICEMAN, and a Philip K. Dick Award for the second volume, COUNTDOWN CITY, has just received a nomination for an Edgar for the conclusion, WORLD OF TROUBLE! I believe this is quite unprecedented. Congratulations, Ben, and also his fabulous publisher, Quirk!

Categories: Agency News, Buzz
Tags: Ben H. Winters, COUNDOWN CITY, Edgar Award Winner, Edgar Awards, Quirk Publishing, The Last Policeman, World of Trouble

14 September, 2014

UNDERGROUND AIRLINES, Ben H. Winters

Bought in a preempt, from the author of The Last Policeman trilogy (winner of both an Edgar and the Philip K. Dick Award) Ben Winters’s UNDERGROUND AIRLINES–an epic contemporary detective story about an undercover agent in search of a runaway slave, in an America where the Civil War never happened and slavery still exists in four Southern states. (Mullholland Books/Little Brown/Hachette, North American rights, 2016) Foreign Rights: jenny@meyerlit.com

Categories: Recent Sales
Tags: alternate history, Ben H. Winters, detective fiction, Little Brown, Mulholland Books, The Last Policeman, Underground Airlines

17 June, 2014

Preorder WORLD OF TROUBLE, Ben H. Winter!

The third volume of the two-time award-winning LAST POLICEMAN Series (Edgar Award AND Philip K. Dick Award) pubs July 13. But you can preorder it now. Here are the details!

http://quirkbooks.com/worldofpreorder

And Ben Winters will be on tour. See details to the right!

Categories: Agency News, Buzz
Tags: Ben H. Winters, Countdown City, Edgar Award Winner, Philip K. Dick Award WInner, Quirk Books, The Last Policeman, World of Trouble