John Hart
Edgar-Award Winning, New York Times Bestselling Author


John Hart is one of the most celebrated novelists in the country.  His first book, The King of Lies, a gripping thriller set in the southern U.S., went through five printings and spent multiple weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. His next novel, Down River, won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel and spent weeks on both the New York Times and London Times bestseller list. John earned the Edgar Allen Poe Award yet again for his 2010 novel The Last Child. He has been published in twenty-six languages and over thirty countries.

 

Before he began his career as a full-time writer, he sailed twice across the Atlantic Ocean and worked on helicopters in Alaska. He drew pints in a pub in London, worked as a tutor in France, and on sailboats on the Carolina coast. He earned degrees in French, accounting, and law then pursued careers in banking, law, and investment management. Eventually, he managed to write two novels that never found a publisher. Convinced he could do better, John took a gamble and quit his law practice to take a stab at chasing the only dream he ever had. He gave himself a year and finished his third novel in eleven months and two weeks. 

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Hardcover
St. Martin's Press

Set in the South at the height of the Vietnam War, The Unwilling (2021 release) combines crime, suspense and searing glimpses into the human mind and soul in New York Times bestselling author John Hart's singular style. This is crime fiction at its most raw, an exploration of family and the past, of prison and war and the indelible marks they leave.


Trade Paperback
St. Martin's Griffin

Set in the world of his most beloved novel The Last Child (“A magnificent creation” —The Washington Post), John Hart delivers a stunning vision of a secret world, rarely seen. More than an exploration of friendship, persistence, and forgotten power, The Hush leaves all categories behind, and cements Hart's status as a writer of unique power.


Trade Paperback
St. Martin's Paperbacks

A boy with a gun waits for the man who killed his mother. A troubled detective confronts her past in the aftermath of a brutal shooting. After thirteen years in prison, a good cop walks free while, deep in the forest, on the altar of an abandoned church, a body cools in pale linen… This is a town on the brink. This is Redemption Road.


Trade Paperback
St. Martin's Griffin/Thomas Dunne Books

Two families. Two brothers. One explosive secret. .


Trade Paperback
St. Martin's Griffin/Thomas Dunne Books

Adam Chase has a violent streak, and for good reason. As a boy, he saw things no child should witness, suffered wounds that left him misunderstood—a fighter. Even grown, he remains dangerous and unpredictable, so that when he narrowly beats a murder charge, he's hounded out of town, exiled for a sin he did not commit. For five long years, he disappears. But now he's back, and no one knows why - not his family or the cops, not the enemies he left behind. But Adam has his reasons. Attacked within hours of his return, the tone of his homecoming is set. As bodies turn up and the town rises in anger, Adam again finds himself in the fight of his life, not just to prove his innocence, but to reclaim the only life he's ever wanted. Secrets build on secrets, emotions tear, and more than one person crosses the brink as Hart examines the lengths to which people will go for money, family, and revenge.


Trade Paperback
St. Martin's Griffin/Thomas Dunne Books

Jackson Workman Pickens—known to most as Work—mindlessly holds together his life: a failing law practice left to him when his father, Ezra, mysteriously disappeared, a distant wife, and a fragile sister, Jean, damaged by the shared past they've endured. And then Ezra's body is discovered. Set to inherit his father's fortune, Work becomes a prime suspect. But so does Jean. Fearing the worst, Work launches his own investigation, crossing paths with a power-hungry detective, a string of damning evidence, and the ugly rumors that swirl within his small, moneyed Southern town. Desperate for the redemption that has eluded him for so many years and stripped of everything he once valued, Work fights to save his sister, clear his name, and regain the love of the woman to whom he gave his heart so many years before.


Trade Paperback
Minotaur/Thomas Dunne Books

Thirteen year-old Johnny Merrimon had the perfect life: a warm home and loving parents; a twin sister, Alyssa, with whom he shared an irreplaceable bond. He knew nothing of loss, until the day Alyssa vanished from the side of a lonely street. Now, a year later, Johnny finds himself isolated and alone, failed by the people he'd been taught since birth to trust. No one else believes that Alyssa is still alive, but Johnny is certain that she is---confident in a way that he can never fully explain. Determined to find his sister, Johnny risks everything to explore the dark side of his hometown. It is a desperate, terrifying search, but Johnny is not as alone as he might think. Detective Clyde Hunt has never stopped looking for Alyssa either, and he has a soft spot for Johnny. He watches over the boy and tries to keep him safe, but when Johnny uncovers a dangerous lead and vows to follow it, Hunt has no choice but to intervene. Then a second child goes missing . . .


An Evening with John Hart: John discusses his long road to being a bestselling author, the things he has learned along the way, and how we can achieve our dreams if we dare to roll the dice.




Praise for The Unwilling “Unforgettable and propulsive ... extremely well-written suspense with emotional depth.”
- AARP

“First and foremost, The Unwilling is an action novel; just grab a cold one and enjoy the chase.”
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Another scorcher from Hart...[he] keeps us engaged...subtly folding quiet, character-driven moments into the story while still powering the narrative toward an all-stops-out ending—and a chilling coda. Remember to breathe after you turn the last page.”
- Booklist, starred review

“Hart offers another propulsive crime novel that features fully realized, multifaceted characters and a strong sense of place.”
- Library Journal

Praise for The Last Child “Hart spins an impressively layered tale of broken families and secrets that can kill.”
Publishers Weekly

“Hart once again produces a novel that is elegant, haunting, and memorable. His characters are given an emotional depth that genre characters seldom have, and the graceful, evocative prose lifts his stories right out of their genre and into the realm of capital-L literature. A must-read for every variety of fiction reader.”
Booklist (starred review)

Praise for Down River “This book should settle once and for all the question of whether thrillers and mysteries can also be literature.”
Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“There are few books published that can legitimately be called a ‘must-read,’ but this is one of them.”
Chicago Sun-Times