Concord, Massachusetts
Two weeks of talks, readings, and discussions celebrating the written and the spoken word.
Thomas Frank
Eric Foner
Lois Lowry
Junot Diaz
How You Can Participate
- Attend: Most events are free. All events are open to the public. Events that require a ticket are so indicated and include information about how and where to obtain tickets.
- Donate: The festival is produced by a non-profit foundation and depends greatly on individual support. Tax deductible donations in any amount are encouraged and can be made online.
- Sponsor: Corporate sponsorship is welcomed and is available. For information please .
Concord Festival of Authors is funded in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council,
a stage agency
Major Sponsors:
William Landay
Events: Mystery Night 2012
Book: Defending Jacob
William Landay is the author of The Strangler, a Los Angeles Times Favorite Crime Book of the Year, and Mission Flats, winner of the John Creasey Dagger Award for Best First Crime Novel. A graduate of Yale University and Boston College Law School, he was an assistant district attorney before turning to writing.
In Landay’s latest novel, Defending Jacob, Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than twenty years. He is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his wife Laurie and their son Jacob. But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next — his fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student.
Joseph Finder says of Defending Jacob — “A novel like this comes along maybe once a decade...a tour de force, a full-blooded legal thriller about a murder trial and the way it shatters a family. With its relentless suspense, its mesmerizing prose, and a shocking twist at the end, it’s every bit as good as Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent. But it’s also something more: an indelible domestic drama that calls to mind Ordinary People and We Need to Talk About Kevin. A spellbinding and unforgettable literary crime novel.”