First Time in Print

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My New York Times bestselling mystery THE DEEP, DEEP SNOW finally arrives in a paperback edition on October 27. You can click here to learn more.

This book first appeared as an Audible Original last year, with narration by the amazing actress January LaVoy. I listened to the whole audio edition myself recently, and I have to tell you, I had tears running down my face. She does an absolutely magnificent job. Even if you’re not a fan of audiobooks, this one may well convert you.

Ever since, readers have been clamoring for a print edition. The book came out in e-book earlier this year, but never fear, the print edition is almost here, too. I hope you love it, because this book may well be my favorite novel of anything I’ve written.

“Enthralling,” said Publishers Weekly in their starred review. “Freeman brings all the characters to life, highlighting their strengths as well as the darkness that lies within each of them, thus adding a delicious sense of uncertainty as to their motives. Readers will have a tough time putting this one down.”

Let’s Review

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It’s been a few weeks now since the release of FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND…so this is the time when I like to remind people that authors love it when you post online reviews!
You can do so on Amazon, Goodreads, BN, wherever you go to share information about books. Reviews don’t have to be long — just a sentence works fine! But it really does help, both to trigger the automatic marketing that online retailers do, and to build enthusiasm among other readers.
So if you enjoyed FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND (or THE BOURNE EVOLUTION…or THIEF RIVER FALLS…or THE DEEP, DEEP SNOW), I’d be honored and grateful if you’d share the word online!
THANKS!

Dive In

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FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND marks the tenth Jonathan Stride novel, going all the way back to IMMORAL in 2005. Which naturally begs the question: Do you need to start at the beginning?

In fact, I deliberately write my series books as standalones, so that you can begin anywhere and get a full, rich experience of the characters. I tell readers: You wouldn’t expect to limit yourself to friends you met in your teens or twenties. You’ll meet people throughout your life, and if you enjoy them as people, you’ll want to find out more about the stories that made them who they are. That’s the way a good series should work, too. Once you meet Jonathan Stride in FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND, I hope you’ll want to go back and read some of his earlier stories, too.

Critics agree! Here’s what North Carolina’s Mountain Times says:  “Ten books into Brian Freeman’s Jonathan Stride series, “Funeral for a friend” traverses a literary tightrope that few authors can manage: the novel works equally well as a standalone for a first-time reader, or as part of the fuller Stride canon for his longtime fans….Freeman’s characters here are as developed as his plot, and even if this is your first foray into the Stride universe you’ll come to know Serena, Stride, Cat, Maggie and others as family.”

They also praise the book’s “masterful diversions, deceptions and angular plotting.”

So even if you’re new to Stride, dive in.

Top 10 of 2020

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Amazon published a list this weekend of their top 10 bestselling mysteries/thrillers of 2020 so far. There are books from some big household names: Grisham, King, Baldacci, Coben, Koontz.
 
And right there with them: THIEF RIVER FALLS, with what they call a “jaw-dropping reveal.”

Countdown to Stride

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There’s a great article by Chuck Frederick in today’s Duluth News-Tribune about all things Stride and Bourne. Click here to read the article.

We’re in September, so the countdown to the new book has started. The latest Jonathan Stride novel, FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND, releases on September 22. You can pre-order your copy at Amazon, BN, or other retailers.

Want a SIGNED copy? I’ve got two ticketed virtual events coming up later in the month, and buying a ticket gets you a signed copy shipped by the bookstore. Just click one of the links below to buy your ticket:

Bookstore at Fitger’s (September 22, 6:00 pm CT)

Mysterious Galaxy (September 29, 9:00 pm CT)

 

Cross-Over

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And so we come to the most recent Jonathan Stride novel, ALTER EGO…at least until September 22, when the new Stride book FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND is finally released.

I’ll tell you a secret. I originally envisioned ALTER EGO as a Cab Bolton novel. Given Cab’s Hollywood mother, it made sense to have him as the hero in a book that focused on the sleazy secrets of a famous actor. However, the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of giving this plot to Stride…so that Stride could deal with an “alter ego” who is filming a movie in Duluth based on one of his cases.

But I couldn’t give up Cab entirely, could I? So ALTER EGO became my first cross-over novel, where Stride and Cab BOTH appear as main characters.

People have asked me whether ALTER EGO was inspired by the exposure of Harvey Weinstein and the eruption of #metoo protests in Hollywood. Actually, I turned in the novel a couple of weeks BEFORE the Weinstein scandal broke in the press. That prompted my editor to ask, “Hey, did you know something??”

So be sure to catch up on all of the Stride books…from IMMORAL through ALTER EGO…because you’ll want to be ready for Stride’s big return in September.

Click to find ALTER EGO at Amazon.

For Your Book Club

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One of the most tragic elements of the bombing at the Boston Marathon was the way it violated an event that was so much a part of the heart of the city of Boston. In many ways, Duluth has a similar relationship with its own annual marathon. So when the tragedy happened, I knew that, one way or another, something like this would have to become a part of Stride’s world.

However, I don’t write straight terrorism or political thrillers. My books are more psychological, more rooted in intimate family drama. So I needed to find a way to write about a marathon tragedy — but do it in a way that was true to my storytelling.

MARATHON was the result. It’s rooted in a similar violent act (although I made sure that what happens deliberately occurs offstage). My focus in the book is less on the terrorism itself and more on the aftermath — particularly how suspicion and rumor in the age of social media can tear apart the lives of innocent people. Duluth in MARATHON is at a breaking point (does that sound familiar?), and the novel rips at many of the most difficult social threads before finding ways to bring people together.

This was a tough, emotional book to write. I think it’s that true for readers, too. I had readers who felt overwhelmed and wrote to me unsure of whether they could go on — but once they did, I think they felt a great sense of catharsis at the end of the book. So I hope you take the journey on this one — and that you share it with your friends and book clubs. I believe this is a book worth talking about.

Click here to find it on Amazon.

Past and Present

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Readers “met” Stride’s late wife, Cindy, in my fourth novel IN THE DARK — but that was through the unreliable eyes of my book-within-a-book narrator, Tish Verdure. So I wanted to write a book in which I would actually take readers back to Stride’s past, where Cindy is alive…so they can see what their relationship was really like.

After THE COLD NOWHERE, this was the perfect time to write GOODBYE TO THE DEAD, because Stride’s relationship with Serena was at a crossroads. In order to really move ahead, he needed to come to terms with the loss of Cindy — in essence, to say goodbye to the dead. Serena also had to have her own reckoning with Cindy, to realize that the rosy glow of Stride’s memory didn’t necessarily reflect the complexities of his marriage.

So GOODBYE TO THE DEAD has a unique structure among the Stride novels. The first half is set in the past, when Cindy is alive, and the second half is set in the present — and the mystery ripples through the years in between.

This book features the first trial sequence in one of my novels since my very first book, IMMORAL. One of Minnesota’s county attorneys was very gracious in sharing trial transcripts and reading my initial drafts to make sure the legal side of the book felt authentic. The more books I write, the more I find readers with special expertise who are very helpful when I do research.

GOODBYE TO THE DEAD also includes one of the more shocking scenes I’ve written…a violent, emotional shooting inside Duluth’s shopping mall. One of the details I included was abandoned cell phones beginning to ring on the floor of the mall — and it was very poignant to read not long after of that same thing happening in the wake of a real mass shooting.

Click to find the book on Amazon.

Jason Bourne is Back

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Jason Bourne is back today! Get your copy of THE BOURNE EVOLUTION now in hardcover, e-book, or audio.

Haven’t read the Bourne books? Or seen the movies? Don’t worry, this all-new take on Bourne stands on its own, so dive in.

The Cold Nowhere

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After a two-year hiatus, Jonathan Stride finally returned in THE COLD NOWHERE.

I sometimes call this novel the “Duluthiest” of my books, because there are scenes set in many of the city’s most iconic locales, including Canal Park, the DECC convention center, and the ore boat museum William A. Irvin (renamed here for my friend and Duluth News-Tribune writer Chuck Frederick). This book also forces Stride and Serena to confront the fractures in their relationship from THE BURYING PLACE.

People often ask me how I develop my plots — and there are a lot of answers to that question. Sometimes I’ll be inspired by true-life crimes. Sometimes I’ll work from a file of ideas and themes I keep adding to whenever a concept pops into my head. And sometimes I simply start with a “scene” and see where it takes me. That’s what happened with THE COLD NOWHERE.

All I knew about the book when I began plotting it was that Stride would arrive home late at night and find a teenage girl hiding in his bedroom closet. She’s soaking wet, and she says someone is trying to kill her. I didn’t know who she was, or why she was being targeted, or what her connection to Stride was — but as I answered all of those questions, the plot took shape.

That scene was also how I introduced the first new series character in the Stride books — the pretty but very troubled teenager Cat Mateo — who has played a key role in every novel since then.

Find it here:
https://amzn.to/3eUaMmh