This week we have a special treat - a double feature! I'm excited to welcome back HILARY DAVIDSON, whose book THE DAMAGE DONE won the 2011 Anthony Award!
Hilary visited with us once before:http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Mystery/HIL
She's back this week to celebrate the release of her new book, THE NEXT ONE TO FALL.
ABOUT HILARY
Hilary’s claim that she will do anything for a story is something that she’s had a few opportunities to regret. It sounds great until she finds herself diving for shipwrecks in the icy waters of the St. Lawrence River or losing her shirt — literally — in the name of “cardio” striptease. On the other hand, it has also let her explore the cemeteries of New Orleans, Pompeii’s brothels, and Bangkok’s seedy night markets.
She got her start in journalism in 1995, when she moved to New York for five months to intern at Harper’s Magazine. When Hilary returned to Toronto, she joined the staff of Canadian Living magazine as a copy editor. While there, she began to freelance for newspapers such as The Globe and Mail and The National Post. Her first freelance article, “Death Takes a Holiday,” about a New Orleans cemetery, was published on February 14, 1998, in the Globe. She finally got the nerve to quit her day job to write full-time in June 1998.
Fortunately, Hilary’s first steady magazine gig guaranteed that she wouldn’t starve: as a restaurant reviewer for Toronto Life, she never went hungry. She started writing about a variety of subjects, including health and wellness, business and entrepreneurship, and science and psychology. Still, her first love was travel.
Ironically, she has spent much of her time writing books and articles about her hometown, Toronto, and her adopted city, New York, where she’s lived since October 2001. She’s written 11 editions of Frommer’s Toronto and the first edition of Frommer’s New York City Day by Day, in addition to co-authoring five editions of Frommer’s Canada. (She also ghostwrote one book for a famous author who probably wouldn’t appreciate her revealing the title.) Hilary does venture further afield a few times each year, and her husband, Dan, somehow always manages to come along on those trips. Most recently, she has visited Peru, Chile, Easter Island, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Spain and Turkey.
In March 2008, she launched the Gluten-Free Guidebook, a website for people with celiac disease and gluten intolerance. (Hilary was diagnosed with celiac disease in 2004). The site — which has been covered by National Geographic Traveler, Reader’s Digest Best Health, and the Manhattan User’s Guide — helps others eat gluten-free all over the world.
Even though she’s always wanted to write fiction, Hilary didn’t start working on it seriously until 2006, after she returned from a trip to Prague. Her first short story was published by Thuglit in June 2007 (issue #17). It was called “Anniversary,” and it went on to be included in the anthology A Prisoner of Memory and 24 of the Year’s Finest Crime and Mystery Stories, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Ed Gorman. The story was also mentioned as a “Distinguished Story of 2007” in the Best American Mysteries 2008 anthology by Otto Penzler and George Pelecanos.
Since then, Hilary has published stories in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Beat to a Pulp, Crimespree, Crime Factory, Spinetingler, and Needle: A Magazine of Noir. In September 2009, she won first prize in the Watery Grave Invitational, a short-story contest for crime writers. She also won the 2010 Spinetingler Award for Best Short Story for “Insatiable,” which is in Beat to a Pulp: Round One. Her story “Son of So Many Tears” appears in Thuglit Presents: Blood Guts, & Whiskey (Kensington, 2010).
Hilary’s debut novel, The Damage Done, won the 2011 Anthony Award for Best First Novel, and the Crimespree Award for Best First Novel. (The book was also a finalist for the Macavity Award for Best First Mystery, and the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Crime Novel.) The novel’s main character, Lily Moore, is, like Hilary, a travel writer. While their personal lives have nothing in common, they do share a few things, such as a love of vintage clothing, classic Hollywood movies, and Art Deco design. The sequel to The Damage Done is called The Next One to Fall, which will be published by Forge on February 14, 2012.
Interviews with Hilary:
Bouchercon 2011: “Julia Spencer-Fleming Interviews Best First Novel Nominee Hilary Davidson,” June 28, 2011
Mulholland Books: “A Conversation With Hilary Davidson and Brad Parks,”February 11, 2011
Women of Mystery: “Interview With Hilary Davidson & Book Giveaway” by Kathleen Ryan, January 3, 2011
Sea Minor: “Dancing With Myself: Hilary Davidson Interviews Hilary Davidson,” November 21, 2010
Day Labor (CrimeFactory blog): “Video Interview — Hilary Davidson” by Keith Rawson, November 9, 2010
Gadling: “Q&A With Travel and Fiction Writer Hilary Davidson” by Alex Robertson Textor, October 28, 2010
Pulp Serenade: “Interview With Hilary Davidson” by Cullen Gallagher, October 1, 2010
The ASJA Monthly: “Writers on Writing: Crime Writer Hilary Davidson” by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett (PDF), October 2010 issue
Chin Wag at The Slaughterhouse: “Interview With Hilary Davidson” by Richard Godwin, July 18, 2010
HILARY'S TRAVEL WRITING
There are two types of freelance journalists: specialists and generalists. Hilary falls into the latter camp. It’s hard to get bored when you’re writing about the military-industrial complex of the 19th century, the world’s best walking cities, autoimmune disorders, and learning vacations (especially when you’re working on all four at one time).
If she does have a specialty, it’s travel writing. Hilary has written about haggling in the “night markets” of Bangkok, erotic art in Pompeii, and the stone statues of Easter Island. She has a bank of images she’s taken in Peru, Turkey, and other countries. Also, she authored 17 guidebooks for Frommer’s Travel Guides.
Another area of interest is celiac disease. Hilary’s Gluten-Free Guidebook site, launched in March 2008, features her reviews of restaurants, shops, hotels, and products targeted at travelers with celiac disease/gluten intolerance.
Below are a few of Hilary’s articles, with off-site links to the magazines that published them or PDF files (PDFs coming soon).
ESSAYS
“At the Intersection of Rivington and Memory” (Spinetingler)
TRAVEL
“On Location: Toronto — Canada’s Largest City Is Home to State-of-the-Art Museums, Fine Dining, Art G...” (Endless Vacation)
“Death Takes a Holiday: In History-Drenched New Orleans, It Is Not Always the Living Who Have the Most Interesting Tales to Tell” (Globe & Mail; PDF)
“How Low Can You Go? Haggling Is a Hallowed Tradition in Many Countries; Learn Its Secrets to Bid With the Best” (Canadian Airlines Inflight; PDF)
“Pompeii Pleasure-Seekers Still Caught in the Act” (Globe & Mail; PDF)
“St. John’s. Then and Now: Hilary Davidson Takes Us on a Tour of a Brand-New St. John’s, Newfoundland...” (American Express Executive Traveler)
“Toronto Transformed: Toronto Has Got the Style and Showiness of a Great Metropolis. But It Is Still ...” (American Express Executive Traveler)
“Destination: Toronto Chic — A Shopping Tour of Three Neighborhoods in Canada's Capital of Cool” (Endless Vacation)
PROFILES
“There Are No Small Potatoes: To New Yorker Scribe Malcolm Gladwell, Little Things Make a Huge Differ...” (University of Toronto Magazine)
“Rewriting Fate: Amy Tan Reveals How to Change the Past in a New Collection of Essays” (Pages Magazine; PDF)
“Where He Has Gone: Globetrotting Anthropologist Wade Davis Takes a Walk on the Wild Side” (Quill & Quire)
“Close-Up: He’s Snapped Victoria’s Secret Models and Hollywood Celebs. So Why Has New York Photograph...” (University of Toronto Magazine)
Contact Hilary at hilary@hilarydavidson.com, connect with her at GoodReads, or follow her on Twitter @hilarydavidson.
Text and photographs copyright 2007-2012 Hilary Davidson. All rights reserved.
Overview
Winner of the Anthony Award for Best First Novel
Lily Moore fled to Spain to get away from her troubled, drug-addicted younger sister, Claudia. When Claudia is found dead in a bathtub on the anniversary of their mother’s suicide, Lily must return to New York to deal with the aftermath.
The situation shifts from tragic to baffling when the body at the morgue turns out to be that of a stranger who had been using Claudia’s identity. The real Claudia had vanished months earlier, reappearing briefly on the day the impostor died. As Claudia transforms from victim to suspect in the eyes of the police, Lily becomes determined to find her before they do.
Is Claudia actually missing or is she playing an elaborate con game? And who’s responsible for the body in the tub? Determined to learn the truth at any cost, Lily is unprepared for the terrible toll it will take on her and those she loves.
Overview
Hilary Davidson’s The Next One to Fall takes place three months after the events of her debut novel, the Anthony Award–winning The Damage Done.
Travel writer Lily Moore has been persuaded by her closest friend, photographer Jesse Robb, to visit Peru with him. Jesse is convinced that the trip will lure Lily out of her dark mood, but Lily is haunted by betrayal and loss. At Machu Picchu, the famous Lost City of the Incas, they discover a woman clinging to life at the bottom of an ancient stone staircase. Just before the woman dies, she tells Lily the name of the man who pushed her.
When the local police investigate, the forensic evidence they find doesn’t match what Lily knows. Unable to accept the official ruling of accidental death, Lily hunts down the wealthy man who was the dead woman’s traveling companion and discovers a pattern of dead and missing women in his wake.
Obsessed with getting justice for these women, Lily sets in motion a violent chain of events that will have devastating consequences.
