Bestselling Author Tom Casey Discusses Latest Hit Release Unsettled States
Rye native Tom Casey spoke at the Rye Free Reading Room on Thursday evening, July 25 about his Amazon-bestselling book Unsettled States (see our interview with Casey). The novel follows residents of “a small Connecticut coastal town” that is “rocked by a set of seemingly random tragedies,” resulting in “a gripping story of voyeurism, infidelity, murder, and spiritual corruption, shot through with flashes of social commentary and humor.”
Catherine Riedel, assistant director of the Rye Free Reading Room, interviewed Casey about his latest novel, which reached #1 on both Amazon’s ‘New Releases’ and ‘Best Sellers’ in the United States in early July. Speaking on his writing process, Casey explained, “I don’t plot anything. I just write the characters. If a character decides to do something, there must be a good reason why a person like that would do that.”
Several of the characters in Casey’s novel are actually named after Rye residents (he did not say who). He used names of other residents as names of various locations in the story, such as the library where one of the characters works. In fact, the library in the book is inspired by the Rye Free Reading Room itself – both were formerly manors before becoming libraries.
After his interview, Tom read aloud several excerpts from Unsettled States, and then answered questions from the audience.
