See Dennis’ cake we had to celebrate his call-in below. Thank you Dennis – and thank you Chris Ming – for spending time with us! It was truly heartening to explore this well-crafted novel and find that its author is one inspiring, funny, and generous guy. We didn’t get a chance to answer that he was far too hard on himself - & that he definitely held his own compared to Michael Connelly and James Patterson (who has appeared in a different poker game episode). Everyone burst out laughing when he went on to say that as a TV actor he was a decent writer - & that it was fairly embarrassing when you can’t be believable playing yourself. He easily came up with Laura Lippman, Tami Hoag, and Elizabeth George (to class things up a bit).

We also asked him which female suspense writers he’d suggest that Castle invite to a future poker game. We couldn’t let him leave without a couple of questions concerning his guest appearance on the TV show Castle where he, and Michael Connelly got to join Castle’s infamous poker game.

(Dennis was literally in the middle of a move when he took the time out to call us.) His sense of humor, along with an inadvertent guest “appearance” by his young daughter totally charmed the group. Dennis answered all questions – both concerning the novel and about various aspects of writing and his career in a pungent, honest, and thoughtful way. Members of Murder Among Friends and Lisle patrons had a rare opportunity to connect (by phone!) with one of the greatest writers of crime fiction, when Dennis Lehane called in to our discussion on Mystic River on Thursday, May 15th.

Mystic river by dennis lehane