The Hidden Man »

Anthony Flacco is an acclaimed author, ghost writer, screenwriter, and public speaker. He is a member of the Writers Guild of America/West, International Thriller Writers, and the Mystery Writers of America. Recent speaking engagements include MediaBistro seminars and the Jack London Writers Conference. He is also co-author of Publish Your Nonfiction Book, coming from Writer’s Digest in November. For more information, visit www.anthonyflacco.com.

1915. A city emerges from the ashes . . . and so does a killer concealed in its shadows.

Nine years after San Francisco’s great earthquake and fires, the city is just beginning to be reborn and is full of possibility. The World’s Fair is opening to herald the completion of the Panama Canal and display exciting wonders and the promise of the new technological age.

Yet the primitive past haunts the city’s renaissance. Leaving a trail of brutality, a murderous fanatic secretly stalks one of the fair’s chief attractions: the brilliant mesmerist James “J. D.” Duncan. Homicide detective Randall Blackburn and his adopted son, Shane Nightingale, must combine their intuitive profiling skills deductive techniques to solve a murder that hasn’t happened yet . . . one that only its terrified intended victim can see coming.

Praise for Anthony Flacco’s The Last Nightingale

“Flacco imagines the chaos [of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake] in precise and vivid detail while contributing his own distinctive narrative touch.”
–The New York Times

“Gripping . . . [Flacco’s] screenwriting talent shines in this story of the earth’s destructive power and humanity’s moral depravity. . . . Dickens meets Hannibal Lecter. Brace yourself.”
–Booklist

“A frightening and haunting picture of a ruined city staggering back to reality.”
–The Washington Times

Publishers Weekly

The trio of unusual characters forged into a family unit in Flacco's The Last Nightingale—Det. Randall Blackburn and his two adopted children, Shane Nightingale and Vignette Nightingale, who are now grown to young adulthood—face new challenges in this entertaining sequel, set in 1915 as San Francisco prepares to host the Pan-Pacific International Exposition on fairgrounds constructed on earthquake rubble. Blackburn is assigned to babysit famed mesmerist J.D. Duncan, one of the exposition's headliners, who introduces the recently invented drug methylenedioxymethamphetamine to America. A woman with her sights set on Blackburn, a killer with his sights set on Duncan and civic leaders bent on rebuilding San Francisco's reputation at any cost, all threaten the members of the Blackburn family, whose evolving relationships form this historical's most appealing aspect. (June)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.