MANCHESTER, N.H., Sept. 14, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — On September 9, 2015, author and Southern New Hampshire University MFA in Fiction and Nonfiction faculty member Richard Adams Carey read from his newly released non-fiction book, In the Evil Day (ForeEdge 2015), at the Tillotson Arts Center in Colebrook, New Hampshire.
In the Evil Day chronicles the tragic shootings that occurred in Colebrook on the afternoon of August 19, 1997. The shooter, Carl Drega, was armed with a semiautomatic weapon and killed four of the small, rural New Hampshire town’s residents. The victims included two state trooper, a local lawyer, and a senior editor at Colebrook’s local newspaper, the News and Sentinel. Drega was killed later that evening in a shootout with the Vermont and New Hampshire state police.
Carey dedicated thirteen years to the writing of the book. In that time, he conducted interviews with many of the people directly involved in the events, several of whom were in attendance for the reading. Those who had agreed to interviews with him received complementary copies of In the Evil Day.
In a Facebook post prior to the reading, Carey noted that, of all the upcoming events for In the Evil Day, the one at the Tillotson Art Center “is at once the happiest and most dreadful.”
“There were about 60-70 people there in the Tillotson Arts Center, and maybe a dozen were people who now enjoy a double life as characters in my narrative,” Carey said. “The gathering itself was friendly and receptive, but also rather somber.”
“The line was long,” he continued, “and we sold — or gave away — boxes of books. Gave copies to the Historical Society and the town library. It was a beautiful, restorative event, one that I left with tears in my eyes. And I hope it was one more step on this long and still incomplete journey towards healing.”
In a starred review from Booklist, In the Evil Day received praise as a “tension-filled report of a small town’s terror” that was “portrayed with surprising love, bittersweetness, and hope, resulting in a beautifully written and enthralling true-crime tale.”
Other upcoming events for In the Evil Day include readings at Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord, NH on September 30 at 7PM, and at the Barnes & Noble in Salem, NH on October 3 from 1-3PM. All event listings can be found on Carey’s website.
In the Evil Day is the first of two September book releases for faculty members at Southern New Hampshire University’s MFA in Fiction and Nonfiction. Chinelo Okparanta’s critically anticipated Under the Udala Trees will be released on Tuesday, September 23.
A photo accompanying this release is available at: http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=36008
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