Illinois Authors

Trope Publishing Co. [S.l.] : 2025

Let Keir Graff take you inside Chicago's Fine Arts Building - a building that hides worlds behind its doors. Exploring the Fine Arts Building’s warren of hallways is like stepping into a time machine. It’s not a museum—it’s a place of work. The walls reverberate with timeless music. Sopranos soar up to the high notes as violin bows draw tunes from strings. Someone plays a piano so busily they must have twelve fingers. Dancers’ feet thud against wooden floors. A tuba burps out “Ride of the Valkyries” as the doors of the manually operated elevators provide percussive slams. And more quietly, behind closed doors, painters paint, writers write, and luthiers shave soft ribbons from billets of spruce. In Chicago's Fine Arts Building, celebrated writer and Fine Arts Building tenant Keir Graff takes readers behind the scenes of this cultural hub. Initially conceived as a space for artists' studios, a home for the city's working artists, the building was an immediate success, but the Great Depression brought a long, slow decline to the building. Graff explores the building's history, its revitalization, and its cultural place in the city of Chicago. Featuring interviews with current tenants and access to the building's archives, including historical photos and artifacts, Chicago's Fine Arts Building sheds a new light on this storied building and its long history. Other Chicago landmarks have more stunning architecture or are more perfectly restored, but none of them has aged so well—because in the Fine Arts Building, it’s the work that has been preserved. Two centuries have turned and its purpose remains the same: to provide artists and artisans space to pursue their callings, and community with other creatives, too, offering a living demonstration that something good happens when so many work so closely to each other. Which is not to say it’s always been easy. Whatever comes easily in the arts?

Thomson Gale, Detroit : 2007.

Gil Strickland is a high school teacher in Garden City, Montana. When one of his students crashes her car into a billboard and the dead girl's friend sneezes blood all over her cheerleading uniform, Gil begins to investigate. He uncovers evidence of a cocaine ring that preys on his students, but he's in over his head. Up against gun-toting bad guys, the only weapon he's ever wielded is a red pen. Can he save his students--and himself?

Lake Union Publishing 2019

They have the perfect marriage. Did one of them kill to get it? Prep school sweethearts Ian and Andi Copeland are envied by everyone they know. They have successful businesses, a beautiful house in St. Louis, and their eldest daughter, Cassidy, is following in their footsteps by attending prestigious Glenlake Academy. Then, a submerged car is dredged from the bottom of a swimming hole near the campus. So are the remains of a former writer-in-residence who vanished twenty years ago―during Ian and Andi’s senior year. When Cassidy’s journalism class begins investigating the death, Ian and Andi’s high school secrets rise to the surface. Each has a troubled link to the man whose arrival and sudden disappearance once set the school on edge. And each had a reason to want him gone. As Cassidy unwittingly edges closer to the truth, unspoken words, locked away for decades, will force Ian and Andi to question what they really know―about themselves, about the past, and about a marriage built on a murderous lie.

jimmy patterson 2023

James Patterson has just created the most spine-tingling, creepy-crawling, giggle-producing kid’s detective club ever. That’s ever. Living in the luxurious Arcanum building—with its interior balconies perfect for playing tag, an elevator like an iron birdcage, and quirky neighbors behind every apartment door—has always been fun and games for twelve-year-old Minerva Keen … until her neighbors start getting poisoned. Anyone could be next, and everyone is a suspect, including Minerva herself. To clear her name and help the police crack the case, Minerva starts her own detective club. So what if it has only two other members, one being Minerva’s accident-prone daredevil brother and the other being the biggest and quietest kid in school, who happens to be afraid of his own shadow? Minerva knows that with her brainpower, the club’s sleuthing skills, and case files full of suspects, they can unmask the poisoner … hopefully before it’s too late. This page-turning new mystery series is packed with thrills, chills, laughs, and unforgettable characters and will leave kids eager to join the best club around.

jimmy patterson 2025

Discover Nancy Drew for a new generation, packed with thrills, chills, and even laughs—from #1 bestselling mystery maven James Patterson. Minerva Keen is the absolute best kid detective Chicago has ever seen, and she’s hungry for a new mystery to solve with her friends. But a know-it-all new girl, Zoe, tries to take control of MK’s detective club. Worse still, Ms. Claire Voyant, who has always had a soft spot for Minerva, takes Zoe's side. It’s clear to Minerva that someone…or something has taken over her favorite teacher. Add in terrifying nightmares, the return of Minerva’s parents (who come home with more dangerous baggage than just their luggage), and some shocking developments—MK’s Detective Club just might have more mysteries than they can solve. With nowhere to turn, the club walks right into danger…and the stakes just might be deadly.

Severn House, Sutton : 2007.

The United States in crisis - In the face of increasing terrorist attacks on his own soil, the president of the United States declares martial law and sits for a third term. His country simmers in suspicion and fear. In Chicago, Jason Walker, half Lebanese but thoroughly American, is detained, interrogated and tortured. In exchange for his freedom, he must turn spy for Homeland Security, but it soon becomes impossible to tell who are the good guys.

Severn House, Sutton, Surrey : 2008.

After performing with a satanic band, recovering drug addict Seth Stevens has found a more spiritual outlet for his music with the Christian band, Salvation. When a lone Mormon missionary goes missing after crossing Terry Kinsman, a member of Salvation and a youth pastor in the Free Church of God's Slaves, Stevens begins to question his new life. He's gradually drawn into the church's covert political wing by Kinsman, who's determined to defeat a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate by any means necessary.

Roaring Brook Press, New York : 2011.

Worrying about his father losing his job and the bully at school, fourth-grader Felix has terrifying dreams of the same monster-filled place every night until he meets someone there who looks and sounds strangely familiar.

Severn House Paperbacks, Sutton : ©2010.

Jack McEnroe is a construction worker with an unusual job: building a prison for terrorists. Like his neighbors in Red Rock, Wyoming, Jack isn't particularly concerned about politics. In a depressed rural economy, he's just grateful to have a job. Jack's boss, Dave Fetters, is grateful, too: he has a no-bid, cost-plus contract issued by the previous administration. It's his last chance to get rich, and he's making the most of it. But Dave is cooking the books, passing inflated costs along to defense contractor Halcyon Corporation - and Jack's ex-wife, Kyla, plans to blow the whistle. Suddenly, everyone Jack cares about, including his two young children, is in danger. As the first winter snows fall in the rugged mountains, Jack must navigate a razor-wire labyrinth to rescue those he loves. And the true price of liberty, he discovers, is paid not in dollars, but human life.

Lake Union Publishing 2018

Told from the dual perspective of a husband and a wife, The Swing of Things is a sexy, provocative, page-turning novel about a suburban couple who wants out of their routine—but will they take things too far? Attorney Jayne Larsen loves her stay-at-home husband. Eric is attentive and a great father to their daughter. He’s also unfailingly committed to their Wednesday date nights—but things have gotten too predictable. Enter Theo and Mia Winters, the effortlessly cool, attractive couple who are the center of everyone’s attention. They are blissfully happy and ready to share their secret for keeping things spicy. But there are rules. And breaking them has consequences. As Jayne and Eric explore a more modern definition of marriage, they are forced to confront whether they’ve given up too much in the pursuit of trying to have it all.

Lake Union Publishing 2020

Mr. Wright has everything. All that’s left to give him is what he deserves. Lark has good things coming: a career as a board-game designer and a whirlwind romance with a handsome investor. Trip is so compassionate and supportive, he’s almost too good to be true. Jessica has always been cautious, but she can’t resist Jonathan. The brilliant TED-talking visionary has big plans for his inspiring medical start-up. Now Jessica is invited to be part of the team―and to partner with the founder outside the office. Holly has settled into a comfortable life with Jack, her husband of nearly twenty years. They’ve raised three children, they own a beautiful home, and they’ve founded a worthy charity. She’s proud of building a marriage that has endured―she just doesn’t want to look too closely at the cracks. Lark, Jessica, and Holly are three strangers with so much in common it hurts. Their one and only is one and the same. The charming Mr. Wright’s serial lies are about to catch up with him…

Twelve-year-old Dagmar and her family spend a summer living off-the-grid in a tiny home parked in the Northern California redwood forest, next door to an eccentric tech billionaire and his very unusual family.