American Roulette - by Pat LaMarche & Sherry Knowlton & J M West (Paperback)

About the Book

American Roulette tells the story of eight people who happen to meet at the Liberty Mall food court on what they all believed would be a typical Friday in April. What follows is all too familiar, as the suspense builds.

Book Synopsis

One unremarkable Friday in April, a stream of ordinary people makes its way to Liberty Mall in Anywhere, USA, to shop, work, keep appointments, or catch a movie. A typical day in an average town. American Roulette tells the story of eight of those people.

Emma Franz is a store security guard with a secret. Earl Bricker, a retired factory worker, loves his country, his wife, and his good-old-boy network. Roger Elliot, mid-twenties and miserable, has more than a few axes to grind. High school senior Caitlin Browning, having triumphed over personal challenges, hopes for a quiet evening with her boyfriend. Reverend Chris Dietrich has a special surprise for his weekly Bible study group. Leah McCall, TV personality and teacher, drops by the food court to visit with her best friend. Will Humphreys' part-time job at the mall offers him little relief from the relentless bullying that plagues his existence.

At 5:17 PM, one of these characters' actions will change the lives of all the others. Later that night, professional crisis consultant Steven Bradley arrives to help the community deal with the aftermath. An eclectic group of authors spent six months collaborating on American Roulette, a blockbuster novel full of tension, dread, and anguish. Each author created one of the eight key characters-complete with a supporting cast-who find themselves sharing a common destiny. Readers have but a single day to get to know each of the protagonists before time and circumstances seal their fate.

Review Quotes

"American Roulette grabs you by both head and heart as it leads you through dark prickly places then points you toward the light." -Tim Tigner, bestselling author of The Price of Time

"I have spent the past 5 years of my life working to reduce gun violence. My daughter Jaime was murdered in the Parkland school shooting. Over the course of the past 5 years, I have been on a mission to help people truly understand the reality of gun violence. This book, American Roulette, does just that." - Fred Guttenberg

"American Roulette is filled with believable characters; I loved some of them and loathed others, but they all jumped off the page. The characters' tangible humanity is exactly what makes American Roulette as difficult to read as it is necessary. My hope is that, like art so often does, American Roulette will pierce through the rhetoric and preconceived notions surrounding guns and gun violence, to speak directly to your heart and inspire change." - Kris Brown, President, Brady United, Inc.

"Welding individual psychology and the politics of gun violence with a moving story, this searing novel confronts the reality of the United States' most tragic epidemic. . . . Each of the novel's authors writes a single character, creating continuity, nuance, and an impressive diversity of voices. Combining the eclecticism of a wide-ranging short story collection with an epic sense of inevitability and dread as the day wears on, these eight authors achieve a subtle poetic harmony." - Warren Maxwell, Independent Book Review