Event Details
A frantic mother tells cops her kids have vanished in broad daylight from outside a suburban Long Island market on Halloween. Inspired by one of the oldest unsolved missing child cases in U.S. history [the 1955 disappearance of Steven Damman] and other worldwide missing child cases like it, For Nothing Is Hidden is a cautionary tale spanning more than 50 years -- from the initial disappearance of little Bobby Goodson to its impact on the already tenuous marriage of his small-town, middle America-raised parents en route to the unlikeliest of resolutions decades later. You'll think you'll know it all from the start. Truth is, you won't.
John A. Valenti 3rd is a veteran national award-winning journalist for the Long Island, New York-based Newsday, and a critically acclaimed author [Swee'pea, The Story of Lloyd Daniels and Other Playground Legends; Atria Books, Simon & Schuster] and poet [13 Poets from Long Island; Bushwickborn Productions, Inc. / Pope Brothers Ink] who has appeared on hundreds of TV and radio shows, including NPR and Good Morning America. He also is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 episode Big Shot, which delves into his national award-winning reporting on John Spano and his fraudulent attempt to buy the NHL New York Islanders.
Valenti’s decades of insightful, in-depth reporting shine through as this novel explores the often-untold strains of a criminal investigation, peeling back layers on the marriage of Driscoll and Colleen Goodson as police and the media pore through the smallest details of their lives in an attempt to find their missing son. Valenti ties in real crimes of the day -- the so-called "Shooting of the Century" killing of millionaire William Woodward Jr. by his socialite wife Ann; the famed "Boy in the Box" mystery -- in a seamless weave of events that blur the line between fact and fiction in this literary, historic crime novel. For Nothing Is Hidden is John's debut novel.
This author event will take place at the Great Neck Library (159 Bayview Avenue, Great Neck) on Thursday, October 29, at 7:00 p.m. Registration is not required; seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Books will be available for purchase and signing at the event. For more information, please call Great Neck Library at (516) 466-8055 or email adultprogramming@greatnecklibrary.org.