Mark Nykanen book launch double-header at Nelson Library
By Nelson Daily Staff
If readers get a little shiver when they hear the name Mark Nykanen, they could be forgiven: Nykanen’s name has become synonymous with literary thrillers of the seriously edgy variety.
Nykanen will launch two new novels on Tuesday, Aug. 2 at 7:30 pm at the Nelson Public Library.
Striking Back, published by Bell Bridge Books, offers page-turner excitement as the men in L.A. counselor Gwyn Sanders’ spousal abuse group are targeted by a mysterious killer who is murdering them one by one.
Burn Down the Sky, published under the pen name James Jaros, is a post apocalyptic climate collapse tale published by HarperCollins Voyager. It’s set in a near-future world devastated by environmental catastrophe and a runaway virus that has killed most of the world’s population.
Nykanen comes by his talent for depicting the dark side honestly. He won four Emmy awards for investigative journalism while reporting at NBC News—often covering heinous crimes—along with a host of other awards.
Reviewers have been unanimous in their praise for Nykanen’s novels. The Vancouver Sun, reviewing his third novel, Search Angel, warned that “readers will come face-to-face with one of the most disturbing villains since Hannibal Lector.” Kirkus Review called The Bone Parade an “…irresistible suspense thriller” with “pages bronzed with horror.”
Primitive was Nykanen’s first suspense novel, in which climate change and terrorism formed the core of his story, themes he continued to explore in Burn Down the Sky. CBC NXNW host Sheryl McKay described Primitive as “a real page turner…but with a serious intent…to add to the ever growing body of work calling us to wake up to modern threats to our world environment.”
Nykanen lives in Nelson, as far from the gritty reality of his novels as anyone could get. The Nelson Library is the place to be when these worlds collide, launching two new novels and celebrating one of our own.
