Apocalypse Noir: HELEN KNODE in conversation with JAMES ELLROY about her novel WILDCAT PLAY
05/02/2012 7:30 pm
Wildcat Play (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Acclaimed novelist Helen Knode will discuss her new thriller Wildcat Play with her ex-husband and crime fiction writer extraordinaire James Ellroy.
Praise for Wildcat Play:
"I fell in love with the people, the place and most of all the words." —Michael Connelly
"Drawing on her family's history in oil exploration, Helen Knode has
created a riveting mystery that blends elements of Upton Sinclair and There Will Be Blood with a hard-edged heroine who isn't afraid to get
grease under her fingernails. Best of all, Wildcat Play explores the
literary terra incognita of East-Central California, a land of
transplanted Okie roughnecks, blue-collar millionaires, wildcat rigs and
the scheming, double-crossing and murder that seethes beneath the
placid surface." —Denise Hamilton, author of Damage Control and the
Eve Diamond mystery series
Helen Knode put her experiences as a staff writer and film critic for the
L.A. Weekly into her first novel, The Ticket Out. She was born in
Calgary, Alberta, heart of the Canadian oil business, and Knodes have
worked in oil since the nineteenth century, a history that inspired
Wildcat Play. She lives in Austin, Texas.
James Ellroy was born in Los Angeles in 1948. His L.A. Quartet novels—The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz—were international bestsellers. His novel American Tabloid was Time magazine's Best Book (fiction) of 1995; his memoir, My Dark Places, was a Time Best Book of the Year and a New York Times Notable Book for 1996. His novel The Cold Six Thousand was a New York Times Notable Book and a Los Angeles Times Best Book for 2001. Ellroy lives in Los Angeles.
