Critiques en avant-premièreDan Simmons

"A first-rate espionage thriller [that] can do nothing but enhance Simmons's already considerable reputation as a storyteller."--Denver Rocky Mountain News It's the summer of 1942, and FBI agent Joe Lucas has come to Cuba at the behest of the Director to keep an eye on Ernest Hemingway in the Caribbean. Lucas thinks of it as a demotion-a babysitting job for a famous writer who has decided to play spy, assembling a team of misfits including an American millionaire, a twelve-year-old Cuban orphan, a Spanish jai alai champion and more in a would-be espionage ring Hemingway dubs the "Crook Factory." But when Hemingway uncovers a critical piece of intelligence that both threatens his life and endangers the political landscape, the fate of the free world and the life of one of its most preeminent writers lies in the hands of the FBI's most ruthless agent. PRAISE FOR THE CROOK FACTORY "Gutsy [and] vividly depicted ... the web of conspiracy Simmons spins, the zesty characters it entangles and its intricate cross-weave of fact and fiction distinguish this celebration of the Hemingway centenary." --- Publishers Weekly "Delightfully spry. The plot quickly evolves into a real page-turning espionage story, complete with corrupt police officials, double agents, secret codes, and multiple murders. Fun reading for both Hemingway aficionados and spy novel enthusiasts." --- Library Journal "Filled with crackerjack writing, a page-turning plot,and characters who will haunt the reader long after the book is finished...Terrific." --- San Antonio Express-News "A remarkable book...The stand-out thriller of the year." --- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- In his twenty years of publication, DAN SIMMONS has won more than 50 major American and international awards for his fiction. He lives in Colorado.

On June 9, 1865, while traveling by train to London with his secret mistress, 53-year-old Charles Dickens--at the height of his powers and popularity, the most famous and successful novelist in the world and perhaps in the history of the world--hurtled into a disaster that changed his life forever. Did Dickens begin living a dark double life after the accident? Were his nightly forays into the worst slums of London and his deepening obsession with corpses, crypts, murder, opium dens, the use of lime pits to dissolve bodies, and a hidden subterranean London mere research . . . or something more terrifying? Just as he did in The Terror, Dan Simmons draws impeccably from history to create a gloriously engaging and terrifying narrative. Based on the historical details of Charles Dickens's life and narrated by Wilkie Collins (Dickens's friend, frequent collaborator, and Salieri-style secret rival), DROOD explores the still-unsolved mysteries of the famous author's last years and may provide the key to Dickens's final, unfinished work: The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Chilling, haunting, and utterly original, DROOD is Dan Simmons at his powerful best.