Eli Cranor, writer in residence and instructor in the Arkansas Tech University Department of English and World Languages, will participate in a local launch party for his third novel, “Broiler,” on Sunday, June 30.
The event, sponsored by Dog Ear Books, will begin at 5 p.m. on the second floor of The Old Bank Sports Grill in Russellville Downtown. There will be a book reading and discussion, live music and appetizers. Books will be on sale and a signing will follow the event. Drinks will be available for purchase.
“Broiler” is a crime fiction novel published by Soho Crime. The Minneapolis Star Tribune and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel have named it to their lists of top summer books for 2024. CrimeReads has named “Broiler” most anticipated crime fiction of the year.
The book tells the story of Gabriela Menchaca and Edwin Saucedo and the chain of events that unfolds after Saucedo is fired from his job by plant manager Luke Jackson.
“Cranor paints a vivid, devastating portrait of the cruelty surrounding an imbalanced system, all while maintaining a wicked level of tension that drives this powerful story forward,” wrote Dwyer Murphy of CrimeReads. “He is a writer at the top of his game.”
Cranor played college football at Florida Atlantic University and Ouachita Baptist University. He also played professional football and was a high school football coach before launching his writing career. Cranor lives in his hometown of Russellville with his wife and children.
His first novel, “Don’t Know Tough,” won the Peter Lovesey First Crime Novel Contest. It was named to USA Today’s list of Best Books of the Year and one of the New York Times’ Best Crime Novels of 2022. Mystery Writers of America selected Cranor as the winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best first novel by an American author.
In 2023, Cranor released “Ozark Dogs.” It was shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and was nominated for the Barry Award for best mystery or crime novel. A national bestseller, “Ozark Dogs” was recognized by the New York Times, The Guardian, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and CrimeReads as one of the best novels in its category for 2023.
Learn more about “Broiler” at www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/743692/broiler-by-eli-cranor.
Learn more about the ATU Department of English and World Languages at www.atu.edu/worldlanguages.
