Authors Discussion & Signing with D.M. Pirrone and Adam J. Shafer
Titles (respectively): Promises to the Dead: A Hanley & Rivka Mystery
Never Walk Back
Date: October 11, 2020
Day: Sunday
Time: 2 PM
About the Author
D. M. Pirrone is the nom de plume of Diane Piron-Gelman, who works as an editor and narrates audiobooks when she isn’t writing. Shall We Not Revenge (Book 1 of the Hanley & Rivka Mysteries, Allium Press of Chicago, 2014), was a Kirkus Prize nominee and a Notable Page-Turner in the Shelf Unbound Indie Novel competition, and earned Honorable Mention for traditional fiction in the Chicago Writers’ Association 2015 Book Awards. Book 2, For You Were Strangers, won Honorable Mention for Mystery as a Foreword Reviews’ IndieFab 2015 Book of the Year. Ms. Pirrone's debut mystery, No Less In Blood (Five Star/Cengage, 2011), received rave reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist. She is currently hard at work on Book 3 of the Hanley & Rivka mystery series.
A Chicago native and history buff, Ms. Pirrone is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, the SocieD. M. Pirrone is the nom de plume of Diane Piron-Gelman, who works as an editor and narrates audiobooks when she isn’t writing. Shall We Not Revenge (Book 1 of the Hanley & Rivka Mysteries, Allium Press of Chicago, 2014), was a Kirkus Prize nominee and a Notable Page-Turner in the Shelf Unbound Indie Novel competition, and earned Honorable Mention for traditional fiction in the Chicago Writers’ Association 2015 Book Awards. Book 2, For You Were Strangers, won Honorable Mention for Mystery as a Foreword Reviews’ IndieFab 2015 Book of the Year. Ms. Pirrone's debut mystery, No Less In Blood (Five Star/Cengage, 2011), received rave reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist. She is currently hard at work on Book 3 of the Hanley & Rivka mystery series.
D.M. Pirrone is the nom de plume of Diane Piron-Gelman, a freelance writer, editor and audiobook narrator. In addition to Shall We Not Revenge (Allium Press of Chicago, August 2014) and No Less in Blood (Five Star/Cengage, 2011), she was also a contributor to the award-winning Desplaines River Anthology (2013, Allium Press). She is currently at work on a sequel to Shall We Not Revenge, and on a stand-alone novel, The Thief Mother, about a stolen child who grows up and seeks the truth of her origins.
A Chicago native, history buff and avid mystery reader, Ms. Piron-Gelman is a longtime member of Mystery Writers of America and current president of Sisters in Crime, Chicagoland chapter. She is also an adoptee, with personal experience of the desire to find ones roots, and one half of an Irish Catholic-Jewish interfaith marriage. She lives on the Northwest Side with her husband, Stephen Gelman, and two sons, David and Isaac.
A Chicago native and history buff, Ms. Pirrone is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, the Society of Midland Authors, and the Chicago Writers Association. She enjoys hearing from readers; go to the Contact page to drop her a line.ty of Midland Authors, and the Chicago Writers Association. She enjoys hearing from readers; go to the Contact page to drop her a line.
About the Book
As Chicago recovers from the Great Fire of 1871, the Civil War continues to haunt its residents. What begins for Detective Frank Hanley as the simple case of a missing railroad clerk quickly escalates into something much more complex. Ezra Hayes, who has made a daring escape from forced servitude on a Louisiana sugar plantation, brings to Chicago proof of nefarious doings in the South. His information implicates the missing clerk’s employer, a major shipper of sugar. As Hanley struggles to untangle the web of circumstances surrounding the railroad’s role in the clerk’s disappearance, Rivka Kelmansky faces her own personal struggle. Her brother is pressuring her to marry a young man from her tight-knit Jewish community, but she still dreams of forging a new life with Hanley. When her mulatto sister-in-law is wrongfully accused of murder, Rivka turns to Hanley for help. Facing opposition on multiple fronts, they must race against time to save Ada’s life and uncover the shocking truth.
About the Author
Adam J. Shafer’s short stories have appeared in a number of literary magazines. His story “Brushed Nickel” received Honorable Mention in the Carve Magazine Raymond Carver Contest in 2013, and he received The Jabberwock Review Nancy D. Hargrove Prize for Fiction in 2014 for his story “Fugue.” Never Walk Back is his debut novel. He lives in Chicago with his family.
About the Book
All Ruth Casper wants is to make her mark on the world, but in the post-Civil War South she’s considered a person of no consequence. After witnessing a speeding locomotive massacre a herd of wild elk, she conjures up the design for an improved railroad brake. It’s based on an invention that her husband, Henry, a tinkerer and a dreamer, has been unable to bring to reality. Ruth encourages him to construct the brake, and the two of them undergo a perilous trip north to Washington to have it patented. There they encounter Augustus Windom, the man-child heir to his father’s railroad empire, who’s obsessed with establishing his own legacy. When he decides that he’d rather steal Henry’s creation than pay for it honestly, the three of them set upon a collision course with each other that has far-reaching consequences. Rich in historical details, this novel will appeal equally to railroad enthusiasts and readers who enjoy stories about women who chase their dreams with boldness and grit.
