John Hart to Sign Books in Norcross Tonight

Best-selling author, John Hart, will be making an appearance at the Norcross Cultural Arts and Community Center tonight, July 25, from 7 to 9 p.m. He’ll be discussing his latest novel, “Iron House,” and signing books. The event is free and books will be available on-site for purchase.

“Iron House,” is Hart’s fourth novel, it was recently chosen as the Indie Next List's number one pick for August. All his previous titles made the New York Times Best-Sellers List and he’s the only author to ever win the prestigious Edgar Award for two consecutive books.

“Iron House” tells the tale of two young orphans raised in abject brutality at the Iron Mountain Home for Boys. Michael is fiercely protective over his younger brother Julian. And one night when tensions boil over and a boy is brutally murdered; Michael takes the blame upon himself and flees into the dead of the winter night.  

Michael grows up to become an enforcer in New York’s world of organized crime, "a prince of the streets so widely feared he rarely has to kill anymore." But his whole world unravels when he falls in love with Elena. All he wants is to make a fresh start with her and begin the family he never had.    

But the mob boss who gave Michael his blessing is dying and his son is intent on making Michael pay for his betrayal. Elena knows nothing of Michael’s past or the danger he’s in when she moves to North Carolina with him, back to the place where he left his brother so long ago. There he will encounter a whole new level of danger, violence and deceit which will lead him back to the place he’s been running from his entire life, Iron House. You can read the first chapter here.

Hart's inspiration for "Iron House" was the main character from his book, “The Last Child,” a 13-year-old boy who was put into some very dire circumstances. 

“In spite of all the trouble and danger that he went through, to finish that book he had something of a soft landing,” Hart explained. “ And so I became intrigued with this question of what would happen if you had a similar child, sharp, clear-eyed, self-less, courageous kid who was never given that soft landing. What sort of man would that child grow up to be?”

Hart had to really dig deep to find what these boys would have become. He put a lot of thought into how he would have responded and how young children react to extremely traumatic circumstances.

He generally prefers to keep his research to the bare minimum, but for “Iron House” he did explore the streets of New York and brush up on his gun expertise.

“I was never a Tom Clancy technical guy. I would say the gun was small and rusty or it was rusty with shine on the hammer,” he said. “And I was not very concerned with the particulars, but I felt that this was dealing with someone that was very knowledgeable about weapons and I had to be, you know, a little bit more specific.”

Hart said that at some point in the future he would be interested in writing other genres besides thrillers. He wants to try his hand at something in the general fiction category. He said it would be interesting to see if he could create the same sort of emotional connection without the dire circumstances.

He'd also like to write young adult fiction. He has two daughters who are veracious readers and he'd love to write something for them.

For now though, he's sticking to thrillers, "I really enjoy teasing the reader, and by that, I guess what I mean is I love giving hints to them without revealing enough for anybody to truly know what's going on until the end of it."

At his book signings, Hart prefers to talk rather than read. He feels that everyone has a slightly different experience when reading a book and putting his voice into a readers head would affect that experience.

So, what can you expect? "I love to talk about the process and take questions from people," Hart said. "So, really, I think it's a chance to look behind the curtains of writing and publishing and really see how the business works."