UNITED STATES AUTHOR · FICTION · JOURNALISTS
Brendan DuBois
Also known as: Brendan Dubois, BRENDAN DUBOIS
Brendan Arthur DuBois (born 1959 or 1960) is an American writer in the genres of mystery fiction and alternate history. He is best known for his 1999 novel Resurrection Day. He was charged for possessing child pornography in July 2024 and sentenced to 3+1⁄2 to seven years in prison after he pleaded guilty in March 2025.
Though I didn't have a watch on, I'm sure it was just after ten p.m. when on a cold Friday night in January the Rocks Road Motel in Tyler Beach, New Hampshire gave up its soul and died.
— from Shattered Shell, 1999
Most acclaimed
Resurrection Day
Mystery novelist Brendan DuBois makes a foray into the alternate timeline realm and gives us a gripping and chilling dark tale featuring Boston Globe reporter Carl Landry, who is on the trail of a government conspiracy. Somewhere between the gritty work of Andrew Vachss, the hard-boiled detective novels of Dennis Lehane, and the alternate history arena usually ruled by the likes of Harry Turtledove, Brendan DuBois has wedged himself firmly into the highest ranks of fine suspense writers and mined a fantasy noir niche all his own. The time is 1972, ten years after the Cuban Missile Crisis escalated into World War III. Russia has been all but obliterated, and many U.S. cities are no more than crater-strewn radioactive ruins. The U.S. relies on Great Britain for medical aid and food, and now exists in a state of martial law, with the government censoring all media. Kennedy and Johnson are presumed dead, although there's an underground of "true believers" who conclude that Kennedy is recovering from injury in a secret spot of safety and will soon rise to take command of a floundering America. The spray-painted words "he lives" can be found all across sides of buildings wherever one walks, but controlling the fate of America is the somewhat fascist General Curtis, who still wields military might. Carl Landry, a former soldier who survived the worst of the war, is now a reporter with the Boston Globe. He's doing a story on murdered veteran Merl Sawson, a possibly unhinged man who swears he has an incredible story to tell Landry. Sawson gives only the vaguest suggestion that he's awareofthe true events that started the war back in '62. When Sawson is found with a couple of bullets in the back of his head, and Landry's editor at the Globe immediately spikes his story for "lack of space," Landry begins to suspect that perhaps Sawson actually did know something big. Soon he meets Sandra Price, a London Times reporter who is eager to do a story on America's present course, but who also oddly romanticizes the state of the country. Landry, who sees nothing romantic in the millions of dead and the U.S.'s weakened position in the world, freely speaks his belief that it's time that America stands or falls on its own, without European aid in any way. Together the two stumble deeper and deeper into various plots meant to keep their articles from print, and eventually they discover more bits and pieces of Sawson's conspiracy theories, which may not be so strange after all. DuBois's attention to the seamy side of a bleak Boston is an irresistible draw; its ugly, perverse, yet sultry aspects bring new life to this war-torn city. As a soldier and a reporter who has seen it all, Landry knows the streets but still manages to hold to a particular code of honesty and good intent. Landry refuses to judge those around him, as he knows how difficult an existence this harsh life can be, and his willingness to give others the benefit of the doubt makes him something of a benefactor no matter what his official capacity is. The other primary characters, even those whose identities we aren't sure of at first, are all well developed and infused with their own idiosyncrasies. DuBois knows how to build and nurture suspense, and the author refuses to allow any easy answers to come. The narrative passes and the mystery grows ever more convoluted and tangled, with secrets and conspiracies that reach to the upper echelons of world government.Resurrection Day keeps to a perfect blend of fact and fiction, giving us an alternate timeline that is readily believable and never falls into easy stock humor or retrospection. It would have been simple for DuBois to have made many 1970s fashion, music, or other social jokes to leaven the darkness inherent in the tale being told, but the author refuses to give in to such temptation. DuBois proves here that he is capable of turning out not only an excellent mystery novel but also a fantastic story that transcends the crime/spy/suspense/fantasy genres and works as a powerhouse novel that will leave the reader awestruck and panting for breath. Tom Piccirilli
Dead of night
For years UN peacekeepers have been deployed to war-torn regions of the world, now it's America's turn. A crippling terrorist attack has left the United States cities deserted, it's countryside set ablaze and the government shaken to its knees. Then in the aftermath of the attack civil war has broken out, that is until the UN arrives to restore peace. Sam Simpson is a young idealistic journalist from Canada who is looking for some adventure. So he volunteers to become a record-keeper for a UN war-crimes investigation team at work in upper New York State. While Sam and his team are travelling through the New York countryside, they are searching for evidence of war atrocities, they soon learn that death can strike from any farmhouse, road corner or rest area. But even more chilling than that is when he begins to suspect that there is a traitor in their group, who is trying not only to conceal evidence of this war crime but who is willing to kill them all to do it...
Buried dreams
Based on exclusive interviews, meticulous research, and previously unreported material, Tim Cahill's Buried Dreams brings to vivid life the most prolific serial killer in history, John Wayne Gacy, Jr. Here—often in the killer's own words—is a riveting, unsettling, and unforgettable journey to the very heart of human evil. As a child, he was abused as a loathsome failure by his merciless father. He attended four different high schools and destroyed his two marriages. But he rose to become a respected member of the community—a successful businessman, valued member of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, Jaycee "Man of the Year," jovial organizer of parties and parades, the lovable town goofball who put on greasepaint and silly costumes to cheer up sick kids in hospitals. Yet at night he would stalk the streets of Chicago in search of thrills from young boys—thrills that became sexual abuse, then sadistic torture, then murder. Time and time again. Until, in December 1978, Chicago police were tracking down a missing fifteen-year-old boy when they visited the suburban home of the last person to see the boy alive, John Wayne Gacy, Jr. Searching the neatly kept house, investigators found pornographic literature, bizarre sexual paraphernalia—and, buried in a crawl space beneath the house, the brutalized remains of twenty-nine boys. With the subsequent discovery of four more young victims, John Wayne Gacy made national headlines as a serial killer unparallelled in the annals of crime. He is currently awaiting execution on Death Row. What drove such a supposed model citizen to commit such atrocities? Why did the leading psychologists clash at Gacy's celebrated trial? What is the driving obsession behind his crimes and blatant lies—is he a madman, a con man, or a calculating sadist, killing for thrills behind the mask of good citizenship? Tim Cahill answers these questions and more: he creates a sharp portrait not only of a killer's life and crimes, but he digs deeper to reveal in shocking detail Gacy's complex personality, his compulsions, inadequacies, and torments. He exposes the mind of a murderer as never before. With this stunning debut, Tim Cahill joins Truman Capote (In Cold Blood) and Joe McGinnis (Fatal Vision) at the pinnacle of true-crime journalism.