In person at Brookline Booksmith! Join us for a reading with authors Jeremy Bushnell (Relentless Melt) and Amy L Clark (Palais Royale).

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Relentless Melt

"A supernatural mystery—part Stranger Things, part Enola Holmes, but very much itself... This book is way, way over the top—and is sure to delight its intended audience." -- firstCLUE

Stranger Things meets the Golden Age of detective fiction in a rollicking supernatural detective thriller that introduces Artie Quick, a sales assistant at Filene’s in Boston, who moonlights as an amateur detective.

The year is 1909, and Artie Quick—an ambitious, unorthodox and inquisitive young Bostonian—wants to learn about crime. By day she holds down a job as a salesgirl in women’s accessories at Filene’s; by night she disguises herself as a man to pursue studies in Criminal Investigation at the YMCA's Evening Institute for Younger Men.

Eager to put theory into practice, Artie sets out in search of something to investigate. She's joined by her pal Theodore, an upper-crust young bachelor whose interest in Boston's occult counterculture has drawn him into the study of magic. Together, their journey into mystery begins on Boston Common—where the tramps and the groundskeepers swap rumors about unearthly screams and other unsettling anomalies—but soon Artie and Theodore uncover a series of violent abductions that take them on an adventure from the highest corridors of power to the depths of an abandoned mass transit tunnel, its excavation suspiciously never completed.

Will Theodore ever manage to pull off a successful spell? Is Artie really wearing that men's suit just for disguise or is there something more to it? And what chance do two mixed-up young people stand up against the greatest horror Boston has ever known, an ancient, deranged evil that feeds on society's most vulnerable?

Jeremy P. Bushnell is the author of three novels published by Melville House, The Weirdness (2014), The Insides (2016), and Relentless Melt. Each of them is about magical claptrap, diabolical villainy, and ordinary human confusion. He is also the author of a newsletter, the Wednesday Investigations.

He lives in Dedham, MA and teaches writing at Northeastern University in Boston.

In addition to his writing and teaching, Jeremy also makes collaborative visual art—abstract collage projects as one half of the duo Morphic Rooms, and abstract comic art as one half of the duo Churchdoor Lounger. He's also released abstract electronic music as one half of the duo Doubtful Forms and solo as Featherstone. He's designed a post-apocalyptic tabletop game, Inevitable, and is currently developing a role-playing game, The Meanings.

Jeremy is also the co-founder of Nonmachinable, a distributor of optically interesting zines and artists' publications.

Palais Royale

When her brother-in-law dies, Evey and her husband, Sebastian, must return to their hometown in Maine to attend the funeral. They end up at the Palais Royale-where Evey spent many drunken nights before leaving town, and an unstable first husband, five years ago-on the night before the bar closes its doors forever. Amid a vivid tapestry of memorable townspeople in this tightly-woven novel, Evey ventures through her troubled personal history and tries to navigate an uncertain future.

Amy L Clark's first novel, Palais Royale, is now available from Engine Books. Their collection of stories, Adulterous Generation, was published by Queen's Ferry Press, and their collection, Wanting, was published by Rose Metal Press as part of the book A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness. Their other work was recently anthologized in the Norton Anthology New Micro, and has also appeared in Litro, The Baltimore Review, (mac)ro(mic), Juked, Fifth Wednesday, Brilliant Flash Fiction, and many other journals and anthologies. Amy is trans and queer, and also publishes under the name Aiden Grace Smith. They teach creative writing and literature at Emerson College.

EVENT ACCESSIBILITY

This event will take place at street level. If possible, the event will be livestreamed to YouTube. ASL interpretation may be provided (based on the availability of interpreters) but must be requested at least 2 weeks in advance of the event. Seats are limited. Please email us at tickets@brooklinebooksmith.com as soon as possible if you require ASL interpretation, guaranteed seating, or other accommodations. We will do our best to serve your needs!