What would you do if you woke up one morning to find a
mysterious fog lingering at your doorstep? What if you quickly realized there
was something in the fog? These
questions are the premise of bestselling author Andrew Klavan’s new novel Nightmare City (Thomas Nelson).
With a career spanning movies, novels and essays, award-winning
author Andrew Klavan admits he had “never written a really scary novel before.”
After building his career writing crime and suspense thrillers, Andrew decided
he would tap into his love of ghost stories and write something truly terrifying.
“I have three shelves of ghost story anthologies in my house and I’ve read
every one cover to cover. When I lived in England, my daughter and I used
to even go ghost hunting – without success!” Andrew adds, “I wanted to write a
scary story where — yes, there are monsters and yes, there are ghosts — but the
scariest thing of all is the thing the hero finds out about himself.”
The main character in Nightmare City is a high school newspaper
reporter, Tom, who begins searching for answers when he realizes there is
something moving inside the fog, also known as the marine layer, which appeared suddenly overnight. Andrew explains
of Tom, “The story puts him in a position where he has to hunt for the one
truth he really doesn’t want to find.” When asked if Andrew could clue us in on
what sends Tom searching for answers, he responds, “I don’t want to give it
away, but I will say this: there sure is something in that marine layer,
all right, and it’s the sort of thing you’d probably prefer to avoid!”
Suspense is Andrew’s forte. In 1995, his novel True Crime
released to rave reviews. Publisher’s Weekly called it a “gripping tale,” and
20th Century Fox purchased the film rights. The movie was directed by Clint
Eastwood four years later. Andrew has won two Mystery Writers of America’s
Edgar Awards from his five nominations. His essays have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington
Post.
Since 2009 Andrew has written eight young adult novels. When
asked about this particular professional venture, he called it
“providential.”After finishing a dark
and painful novel for adults, Andrew felt drained. The day he sent the book to
the publisher, he got a call from Thomas Nelson asking if he would be
interested in writing young adult suspense novels. “I said yes on the spot.
I’ve always tried to write bullet-fast stories that have some real human
feeling and depth, and I thought that would translate perfectly to YA.”
Andrew’s hopes seem to have come true. According to Thomas Nelson, his young
adult novels have done extremely well with fans and plans are already in place
for a young adult science fiction adventure trilogy.
This article originally appeared in the November issue of FamilyFiction Edge. To subscribe for free to our magazine and newsletter click here!