The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers

Literature & Fiction

Mullen, Thomas

Contemporary

Fourth Estate

A fast-paced literary thriller that recalls dystopian classics such as 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, from the award-winning author of The Last Town on Earth. Zed is an agent from the future. A time when the world's problems have been solved. No hunger. No war. No despair. His mission is to keep it that way. Even if it means ensuring every cataclysm throughout history runs its course-especially The Great Conflagration, an imminent disaster in our own time that Zed has been ordered to protect at all costs. Zed's mission will disrupt the lives of a disgraced former CIA agent; a young Washington lawyer grieving over the loss of her brother, a soldier in Iraq; the oppressed employee of a foreign diplomat; and countless others. But will he finish his final mission before the present takes precedence over a perfect future? One that may have more cracks than he realizes? The Revisionists puts a fresh spin on today's global crises, playing with the nature of history and our own role in shaping it. It firmly establishes Mullen as one of the most exciting and imaginative writers of his generation.

The Revisionists

United States

Mulholland Books

Literary

Darktown

Little,Brown

This crime drama is set in 1950s Atlanta as racial tensions are inflamed by black families moving into all-white neighbourhoods. Two of the city's first black policemen face Klan activity, drug trafficking and discrimination as they try to keep the peace. Slightly off-mint.

Lightning Men

Little, Brown Book Group

Midnight Atlanta (Darktown)

Review\nThomas Mullen writes the opposite of escapist fiction: his thrillers force the reader to confront the realities of "skewed" Southern justice, police brutality, civic corruption and mind-boggling racial prejudice . . . Mullen is "an expert button-pusher". His heartfelt, heavy-hitting, feel-bad fiction makes your blood boil―The Times\nAn exemplary and compelling series . . . Enlightening and admirable―Crime Time\nAll the ingredients drive the story through a terrific shoot-out and surprises to an explosive climax. Genius!―Peterborough Evening Telegraph\nModern American literature at its most eye-opening and important and crime fiction at its compelling, excellent best―Morning Star\nMidnight Atlanta is the stunning new novel in the award-nominated, critically acclaimed Darktown series, and sees a newspaper editor murdered against the backdrop of Rosa Parks' protest and Martin Luther King Jnr's emergence.\nAtlanta, 1956.\nWhen Arthur Bishop, editor of Atlanta's leading black newspaper, is killed in his office, cop-turned-journalist Tommy Smith finds himself in the crosshairs of the racist cops he's been trying to avoid. To clear his name, he needs to learn more about the dangerous story Bishop had been working on.\nMeanwhile, Smith's ex-partner Lucius Boggs and white sergeant Joe McInnis - the only white cop in the black precinct - find themselves caught between meddling federal agents, racist detectives, and Communist activists as they try to solve the murder.\nWith a young Rev. Martin Luther King Jnr making headlines of his own, and tensions in the city growing, Boggs and Smith find themselves back on the same side in a hunt for the truth that will put them both at risk.\nPRAISE FOR THE DARKTOWN SERIES\n'A brilliant blending of crime, mystery, and American history. Terrific entertainment' 
Stephen King\n'Superb' 
Ken Follett\n'Magnificent and shocking' 
Sunday Times\n'Written with a ferocious passion that'll knock the wind out of you' 
New York Times

ABACUS +

America finds itself in a time of crisis. For anyone remotely in touch with the state of our republic, there is a growing sense of dread that whatever is wrong is getting much worse much faster. Voters clamor for "change," and politicians promise to deliver, but does anyone really know what changes are necessary, or even what changes they want? Is America still the land of opportunity? Is it still the land of the free? Do we still know what freedom is? This book attempts to answer those questions. To do so, it goes back to the beginning to rediscover the meaning behind our most sacred words, and the truth about our natural rights. The answers that this book provides will surprise even the most informed reader, and will reveal the long-forgotten secret behind America's former prosperity and greatness.

A Return to Common Sense

History

World

Thomas Mullen

Set against the backdrop of one of the most virulent epidemics that America ever experienced–the 1918 flu epidemic–Thomas Mullen’s powerful, sweeping first novel is a tale of morality in a time of upheaval. Deep in the mist-shrouded forests of the Pacific Northwest is a small mill town called Commonwealth, conceived as a haven for workers weary of exploitation. For Philip Worthy, the adopted son of the town’s founder, it is a haven in another sense–as the first place in his life he’s had a loving family to call his own. And yet, the ideals that define this outpost are being threatened from all sides. A world war is raging, and with the fear of spies rampant, the loyalty of all Americans is coming under scrutiny. Meanwhile, another shadow has fallen across the region in the form of a deadly illness striking down vast swaths of surrounding communities. When Commonwealth votes to quarantine itself against contagion, guards are posted at the single road leading in and out of town, and Philip Worthy is among them. He will be unlucky enough to be on duty when a cold, hungry, tired–and apparently ill–soldier presents himself at the town’s doorstep begging for sanctuary. The encounter that ensues, and the shots that are fired, will have deafening reverberations throughout Commonwealth, escalating until every human value–love, patriotism, community, family, friendship–not to mention the town’s very survival, is imperiled. Inspired by a little-known historical footnote regarding towns that quarantined themselves during the 1918 epidemic, The Last Town on Earth is a remarkably moving and accomplished debut.

The Last Town on Earth: A Novel

Random House Trade Paperbacks

In award-winning author Thomas Mullen’s evocative and spirited novel, we follow the Depression-era adventures of Jason and Whit Fireson—bank robbers known as the Firefly Brothers by an adoring public that worships their acts as heroic counterpunches thrown at a broken system. Late one night in August 1934, following a yearlong crime spree across the Midwest, the Firefly Brothers are forced into a police shootout and die in a hail of bullets. Or do they? Jason and Whit’s girlfriends—Darcy, a wealthy socialite, and Veronica, a hardened survivor—struggle between grief and an unyielding belief that the Firesons are alive. Wild rumors spread that the bandits are still at large. Through it all, the Firefly Brothers remain as charismatic, unflappable, and as mythical as the American dream itself, racing to find the women they love and to make sense of a world in which all has come unmoored.

The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers: A Novel

Random House Publishing Group

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