UNITED STATES AUTHOR · FICTION · PSYCHIATRISTS
Helen McCloy
Also known as: Helen Clarkson, H. C. McCloy
Born 6 June 1904, New York, New York; died December 1992 Daughter of William C. and Helen Clarkson McCloy; married David Dresser, 1946 (divorced 1961); children: one daughter Helen McCloy's father was managing editor of the New York Evening Sun; her mother wrote short stories under her maiden name. A Quaker, McCloy studied at the Brooklyn Friends School in New York. At fourteen, she published a literary essay in the Boston Transcript; at fifteen, she published verse in the New York Times. McCloy lived in France for eight years, studying at the Sorbonne in 1923 and 1924. McCloy was Paris correspondent for the Universal News Service (1927-31) and the monthly art magazine International Studio (1930-31). She also was London correspondent for the Sunday New York Times art section and wrote political sketches for the London Morning Post and the Daily Mail. McCloy returned to the U.S. in 1931 and spent several years writing magazine articles and short stories. In 1938 she published her first mystery novel, Dance of Death, featuring her detective, Dr. Basil Willing, a psychiatrist and an expert in forensic medicine; he appears in many of what are considered her strongest novels. McCloy was rather prolific, writing dozens of detection and suspense novels, short stories, and newspaper and magazine articles. She won Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine awards for the short stories "Through a Glass, Darkly" (reprinted in The Singing Diamonds, 1965) and "Chinoiserie" (reprinted in 20 Great Tales of Murder, 1951), and the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America (MWA) for the best mystery criticism. In addition, she was the first woman president of MWA and was given the organization's highest honor, being named the Grand Master in 1989, one of only eight women at the time so honored. In general, critics have preferred McCloy's novels of detection to the novels of suspense or terror. In her best works, McCloy's success in providing interesting characters and themes is matched with her ability in plotting. - excerpts from encyclopedia.com
Mrs. Barnes yawned as she set the plate of scrambled eggs down in front of Mayra.
— from The sleepwalker
Most acclaimed
A change of heart
How did a celebrated theological liberal of the mid-twentieth century have such a dramatic change of heart? After growing up in the heart of rural Methodism in Oklahoma, Thomas Oden found Marx, Nietzsche and Freud storming into his imagination. He joined the post-World War II pacifist movement and became enamored with every aspect of the liberal 1950s Student Christian Movement. Ten years before America's entry into the Vietnam war, he admired Ho Chi Minh as an agrarian patriot. For Oden, every turn was a left turn. At Yale he earned his PhD under H. Richard Niebuhr. Later during his academic year in Heidelberg he met with some of the most formidable minds of the era -- enjoying conversations with Gadamer, Bultmann and Pannenberg, as well as a lengthy discussion with Karl Barth at a makeshift office in Barth's hospital room. Being in Europe allowed Oden to attend Vatican II as an observer and to get his first taste of ancient Christianity. He traveled with his family in a VW microbus through Turkey, Syria and Israel. But slowly he stopped making left turns. His enthusiasm for pacifism, ecumenism, and the interface between theology and psychotherapy were all ambushed by varied shapes of reality. It was a challenge from a Jewish scholar, his friend and mentor Will Herberg, that precipitated his most dramatic turn -- back to the great minds of ancient Christianity. Later a meeting with then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Benedict XVI) planted the seeds for what became Oden's highly influential Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Thomas Oden's fascinating memoir walks us through not just his personal history but some of the most memorable chapters in twentieth-century theology. - Jacket flap.
Panic
Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a dead-end town of 12,000 people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do. Heather never thought she would compete in Panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She’d never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought. Dodge has never been afraid of Panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game, he’s sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he’s not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for. For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them—and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most.
Burn this
From Goodreads: "Boston landlady Harriet Sutton discovers a note about a conspiracy to murder someone--and the note must have come from one of her tenants. When one of her tenants is murdered, she becomes worried when the police investigate her son, a Vietnam veteran, considering him a victim of combat fatigue who would be capable of anything. She asks forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Basil Willing, to investigate."