The Man Who Never Returned is in stores now.
Detective Fintan Dunne is back on the case in Peter Quinn's latest novel
from Overlook Press.
Peter Quinn - Co-Grand Marshall at this year's St. Patrick's Day Parade sponsored
by the Irish Lesbian & Gay Organization.
Feb. 29th, 2012
One Bronx Boy Pays Tribute to Another.
Jun. 1st, 2011 - On May 9, at the Capitale (the former Bowery Savings Bank), the New Group honored essayist, comedian, lawyer, all-round mensch, Fred Wistow. As part of the tribute, Peter Quinn presented him with the Michael Mendelson Award. The award is given to those whose involvement and support continue to enable the New Group to play a significant role in energizing the Off-Broadway theater scene.
Peter Quinn to read at Garrison Keilor's Common Good bookstore in St. Paul, MN
Friday Apr. 8, 2011 - 165 Western Avenue North, Saint Paul, MN.
Considered by many to be one of the finest bookstores in the country, Peter will be reading from The Man Who Never Returned at 7:30PM. More info
America magazine article and podcast
Mar. 1, 2011 - A piece entitled Chracter-Driven: Peter's faith—and lack thereof—helps guide my writing and my life appears in the March 14, 2011 edition of America magazine. Full story here
Accompanying the piece is a wonderful interview featuring Peter Quinn in which he discusses his storied career in speech writing, the arduous process of writing the historical novel, and other great anecdotes. Listen here
Angela Lansbury Visits Cast of Irish Rep's Banished Children of Eve
Nov. 12, 2010 - Five-time Tony Award winner Angela Lansbury attended the Thursday, November 11 performance of Irish Repertory Theatre's production of Kelly Younger's Banished Children of Eve. Ciarán O'Reilly has directed the production, which continues through December 5. (Photo: © Kevin B. Winebold ) Full story here
The Man Who Never Returned on New York's Pix11 Morning News.
Nov. 1st, 2010 - Peter Quinn discusses the actual history and his theories on the disappearance
of Judge Joseph Force Crater on New York's Pix11 Morning News show.
Malcolm Gets, David Lansbury, Amanda Quaid, et al.
Set for Irish Rep's Banished Children of Eve
Malcolm Gets
© Joseph Marzullo / WENN
From Theatermania.com
Story by Andy Propst
Sept. 16th, 2010 - The Irish Repertory Theatre has announced complete casting for Kelly Younger's Banished Children of Eve, to run October 13 - December 5. Ciarán O'Reilly will direct the production, which will have choreography by Barry McNabb.
The play, adapted from Peter Quinn's bestselling novel, centers on a diverse array of New Yorkers, including minstrel performers and Tammany Hall bosses, through a few days in the summer of 1863 when the Civil War had just entered its third bloody year.
The company will feature Malcolm Gets, David Lansbury, Christopher Borger, Rory Duffy, Amber Gray, Patrice Johnson, Graeme Malcolm, Kern McFadden, Jonny Orsini, and Amanda Quaid.
The creative team will include Charlie Corcoran (scenic design), Martha Hally (costume design), Brian Nason (lighting design), Ryan Rummery and Christian Fredrickson (sound design), and Bob Flanagan (puppet design).
For more information, click here. For details on the Irish Repertory Theater's production of Banished Children of Eve click here.
Reviews for Banished Children of Eve at The Irish Rep
Review from The Playfixer by Lawrence Harbison
Irish Rep has another winner in Ciarán O’Reilly’s brilliant production of Kelly Younger’s Banished Children of Eve, a dramatization of the novel by Peter Quinn about the Civil War draft riots in New York. The central characters are impoverished actors, but the songwriter Stephen Foster, equally impoverished and drinking himself to death, is also part of the mix, my one quibble with the play, as he’s not integrated very well into the plot.
I don’t usually write about the set design, but I have to say that Charlie Corcoran’s whirling modular set is the best use of Irish Rep’s rather awkward space I have ever seen.
The whole thing has a very Gangs of New York feel to it. I don’t mean that as a criticism though. This is a wonderful evening in the theatre and should go straight to the top of your must-see list. (from 11/4/10 ) Full review here
Review from Theatermania.com by Andy Propst (from 10/25/10 ) Full review here
Review from Huffington Post by Jennifer Farrar (from 10/26/10 ) Full review here
Review from Travalanche (from 10/29/10 ) Full review here
Review from Talk Entertainment (from 11/2/10 ) Full review here
Review from The Village Voice by Ruth McCann (from 11/3/10 ) Full review here
Review from Theaterscene.net by Victor Gluck (from 11/3/10 ) Full review here
Peter Quinn in The News
Review from Historical Novels Review by John R. Vallely (from 11/12/10 )
"Fintan Dunne’s retirement life in sunny Florida has not proven very satisfying to the veteran of the NYPD and wartime service in the OSS. Bored with his leisure time, and with his wife, Dunne is enticed back into his profession by an old colleague and an enigmatic media mogul. His assignment is to solve the riddle of the disappearance of the New York State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Crater. The time is 1955, and the 1930 case is seemingly so cold as to make any investigation hopeless. Yet Dunne willingly plunges into New York City’s winter, corrupt city and state politics, and untrustworthy colleagues to get to the bottom of the famous judge’s life and the mystery surrounding his sudden disappearance. Peter Quinn has an encyclopedic knowledge of the New York of the time, and his treatment of Dunne and his challenges in finding truth in the murky waters of media and city politics are as intriguing as the Crater saga itself."
Synopsis of a review from America magazine by George W. Hunt (from 10/4/10 )
"Peter Quinn has masterfully revived the mystery of Judge Crater and the atmospherics of the Depression-era 1930s and interwoven them with clever revivals of film noir-like characters and suspense, layering mystery upon mystery in enthralling fashion... the dialogue is witty and pointed. Quinn is an unobtrusive but sure-handed guide. The chronological narrative is artfully balanced and buttressed by clever insertions of seemingly verbatim excerpts that consist of “reprints” from various magazines, newspaper articles, interviews and books. These inserts are, like the story itself, history re-imagined and contribute another layer to this novel’s pleasures."
The New York Post dubs Peter Quinn's The Man Who Never Returned "required reading". click here (from 9/19/10 )
Tom Deignan's Sidewalks column from irishcentral.com featuring Peter Quinn click here (from 8/26/10 )
Q&A with Peter Quinn in the Newark Star Ledger click here (originally from 8/22/10 )
Interview with Peter Quinn in The Wall Street Journal entitled "Judge Crater and the Ever-Vanishing City" click here (originally from 8/19/10 )
Download Peter Quinn's Op Ed piece from the New York Daily News click here (from 8/6/10 )
Read Matthew Battle's review of The Man Who Never Returned from Barnes & Noble click here
(from 8/5/10 )
Peter Quinn profile from The New York Times click here (from 8/4/10 )
Peter Quinn interview on NY1 about The Man Who Never Returned and the unconfirmed fate
of Judge Joseph Crater please click here (originally aired 7/30/10)
Upcoming Events for Peter Quinn
Friday, April 8th, 2011 at 7:30pm
Reading and Discussion at:
Common Good Bookstore
165 Western Avenue North
St. Paul, MN
Ph. 651-225-8989
www.commongoodbooks.com
Publisher: The Overlook Press
ISBN-10: 1590203880
ISBN-13: 978-1-59020-388-0
First publication date: August 6, 2010
Language(s): English
Cover: Hardback and Paperback
Purchase Online: Overlook Press,
Amazon
Early praise for The Man Who Never Returned...
"In The Man Who Never Returned, Peter Quinn shapes a tantalizing tale around the enduring mystery of Judge Joseph Force Crater, whose disappearance remains a major mystery. Quinn knows New York and its politics better than anyone. The talk and the story are as sharp and hard-edged as they city they embody. This is noir fiction at its finest."
- William Kennedy
"Peter Quinn just might make it into the history books himself. He is perfecting, if not actually creating, a genre you could call the history-mystery. The Man Who Never Returned is a dazzling story by a fine writer. Fintan Dunne is a memorably hero who you want to meet again & again."
- James Patterson
"This is the rarest of books, one that hooks you on the first page and doesn't unhook you on the last page you wind up going over the whole story in your head for days, trying to figure out where history stops and fiction begins. Absolutely beguiling."
- Robert Littell
"A masterful and evocative tale, set in a beautifully rendered 1950's New York, that combines true crime with vivid imagining. This is that rare book: A first-rate thriller that seamlessly weaves together page-turning narrative with richly detailed characters whose motivations-- complex, suspect, hidden-- always ring true."
- Thomas Kelly
"Peter Quinn writes about the old New York the way that Allen Furst writes about Paris. The Man Who Never Returned is not only a gripping take on one of the city’s most enduring mysteries, but also a world in and of itself. You may never want to leave."
- Kevin Baker
"The Man Who Never Returned is an utterly compelling story with a charismatic flawed protagonist in Fintan Dunne. Gripping from the first page to the last, Peter Quinn creates a unique and utterly believable world, part history, part fiction. He is an enviably wonderful writer."
- Gabriel Byrne
"Peter Quinn brings wit, panache and a deep knowledge of the Big Apple to his latest Fintan Dunne novel. The Man Who Never Returned is a taut thriller but also a meditation on life in the big city, where a well-connected municipal judge can disappear overnight and leave behind a mystery that transforms lives, confounds investigators, and – fortunately for lovers of detective fiction – provides Quinn with a fascinating plotline that fully utilizes his skills as a storyteller."
- T.J. English
"Freely mixing history, mystery, and novelistic license, Quinn offers a noir-ish tale of Tammany Hall politics, sex, crime, Broadway moguls, and cops, populated by more than a dozen interesting characters. Quinn’s rich, insightful, evocative descriptions of New York, both in Crater’s time and in 1955, will certainly please fans of historical crime novels."
- Booklist
"A novel that suggests a fictional resolution to a historical mystery. The disappearance of New York's Judge Joe Crater in 1930 sparked speculation for decades that has never completely dissipated. Quinn plainly knows the lay of the land through experience and research. This hybrid of mystery and history builds a compelling case."
- Kirkus Reviews
About This Book
On the sultry evening of August 6, 1930, in the first summer of the Great Depression, Joseph Force Crater, recently appointed a justice of the New York State Supreme Court by Governor Franklin Roosevelt, bid two dinner companions good night and hailed a cab. Off he went into history, myth, and urban legend. Judge Crater’s disappearance remains the most enduring, fascinating, unsolved mystery in the chronicles of Gotham.
In The Man Who Never Returned, Peter Quinn brings back Fintan Dunne, the relentless, skeptical ex-cop/detective from Hour of the Cat, and puts him on the Crater case. The year is 1955, the silver anniversary of the Judge’s vanishing and a last golden moment for solving the puzzle before the people and clues follow Crater into the fast-receding past. In a search full of unexpected twists, Dunne uncovers the shocking and menacing truth.