SAFER From Dirt to The Cleanup, Sean Doolittle has dazzled critics and defied expectations, garnering bolder critical raves with each new novel. "Stylishly written" hailed the New York Times Book Review… "Superb" declared the Wall Street Journal…"Heart-stopping, gut-clenching, eye-opening" raved the Chicago Tribune. Now Doolittle fulfills all that promise—and more—in his latest novel, a powerhouse of suspense that will catch you off guard at every turn.…Because in SAFER, a young couple moves into an idyllic little cul-de- sac—and ignites a harrowing journey into darkness as a shocking accusation is made, a family is shattered, and the mystery of a long-ago crime begins to unravel. Click here to read an excerpt. * Featured in the March issue of Details magazine * * Featured selection as part of Borders' Mystery & Thriller Month * * Midwest Booksellers Association's Midwest Connections Pick for March 2009 * Rights Information Publisher: Delacorte Press, Hardcover (February 24, 2009) Brilliance Audio on CD, Unabridged (February 24, 2009) Dell, Mass market paperback (February 23, 2010) Territory: World Rights Available: Film/TV Reviews: "Unsettling…. Admirably complex." - Publishers Weekly "Doolittle cleverly articulates the vulnerability of a close-knit community where those friendly people who know your name also know your darkest secrets." – Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times "For those of you who like a story on the darker side, you won't want to miss Sean Doolittle's suburban thriller Safer. Creepy and all too realistic, this taut thriller may have you looking at some of your neighbors in a whole new way!" - Deanna P., Mystery & Thriller Buyer for Borders “A good thriller need not wallow in violence and murder. So this reader perked up when Sean Doolittle opened "Safer" -- his fine thriller about the toll exacted by life in a security-conscious suburb -- on a different note…an enthralling and unsettling story. Doolittle has written four previous novels, and "Safer" is good enough to make me want to catch up with them all.” – Dennis Drabelle, The Washington Post "Safer has everything it needs to achieve commercial success...The plot is slick and inventive. The author is skilled at ratcheting up readers’ foreboding, sympathy, and fear, creating the deep need to see how things turn out. The primary characters—Paul, Sara, Roger, Paul’s attorney, and an ambitious TV journalist—are vividly rendered, and lesser characters are well sketched with a sentence or two. And looming over everything is the specter of the Heartland’s dark side." - Booklist "Sean Doolittle's outstanding Safer is a harrowing tale of suburbia at its ugliest. Doolittle, a Nebraska native, recently moved from Omaha to Council Bluffs, Iowa, and his familiarity with the Heartland shows. I loved The Cleanup, Doolittle's previous mystery. His latest, his first in hardcover, proves that he's a writer to watch." – Leslie McGill, The Kansas City Star "this could be the Omahan's breakout novel. That wouldn't be much of a surprise. The only question is what's taken the rest of the reading public so long? It's time Doolittle's name starts popping up beside such contemporaries as Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos, both of whom have written past blurbs for Doolittle." - The Omaha World-Herald "We've all had the neighbor-from-hell at some point in our lives. But Sean Doolittle takes the experience to a new extreme in his superb suburban nightmare of a thriller Safer. The gut-wrenching Safer presents a terrifying portrait of suburban paranoia and the dangerous downside of pursuing security at all costs. A stunner." - Rhode Island Providence Journal-Bulletin "Barry Award-winning author Sean Doolittle expertly makes the relocation of college professors Paul and Sara Callaway a claustrophobic lesson in fear in Safer…an invigorating look at obsession, manipulation and personal boundaries….Doolittle's affinity for tightly coiled plots, affable characters and seething villains is showcased in Safer." – Oline H. Cogdill, Sun-Sentinel "a suspenseful and immediately engrossing story. Doolittle takes the fears that drive people to Suburbia, the secrets that hide behind closed doors and twists them all through a funhouse mirror and gives us THE nightmare scenario. The strengths of Sean Doolittle’s body of work have always been clearly on display. From Dirt on through to The Cleanup he’s sanded away the rough edges and pushed those strengths into greater relief so that they are now showcased front and center. Not only is Safer a continuation of this trend upward but it shows Doolittle’s growth as an artist and stylist and a willingness to push himself in to new areas with extraordinary results." - BookSpotCentral.com "Sean Doolittle's Safer is one agonizingly intense motherfucker of a crime novel...this is Sean Fucking Doolittle, a guy up there with Pelecanos when it comes to making "believable" crime novels...it plays like a brilliant horror novel of small relatable fears. There is no doubt that this is Sean Doolittle's most intense and suspenseful novel to date." - BSCReview "Doolittle has demonstrated in his previous novels that he's got serious writing chops and a keen eye for the darker side of life. Both are on display in Safer...a fast and thrilling story." - David J. Montgomery, Chicago Sun-Times "3.5 stars...a smart, funny, and powerfully suspenseful thriller. Sometimes SAFER reminds us home can be the most dangerous place on earth." - People magazine Blurbs: "Safer is a high-octane, rip-roaring page-turner. I read it in one sitting—and loved every minute." - Harlan Coben, author of Hold Tight "In Safer, Sean Doolittle has crafted a taut, claustrophobic thriller in which our safe world of home and neighborhood becomes instead something terrifying and deadly. Safer made me look twice at my neighbors and check the locks on my doors, and that earns Doolittle a solid A+ in skin-crawling suspense." - Kay Hooper, author of Blood Dreams "I loved SAFER. The best thing I've read in a long time." - Lee Child Purchase at Amazon.com

SAFER

From Dirt to The Cleanup, Sean Doolittle has dazzled critics and defied expectations, garnering bolder critical raves with each new novel. "Stylishly written" hailed the New York Times Book Review… "Superb" declared the Wall Street Journal…"Heart-stopping, gut-clenching, eye-opening" raved the Chicago Tribune.

Now Doolittle fulfills all that promise—and more—in his latest novel, a powerhouse of suspense that will catch you off guard at every turn.…Because in SAFER, a young couple moves into an idyllic little cul-de- sac—and ignites a harrowing journey into darkness as a shocking accusation is made, a family is shattered, and the mystery of a long-ago crime begins to unravel.

Click here to read an excerpt.

* Featured in the March issue of Details magazine *
* Featured selection as part of Borders' Mystery & Thriller Month *
* Midwest Booksellers Association's Midwest Connections Pick for March 2009 *

Rights Information

Publisher:
Delacorte Press, Hardcover (February 24, 2009)
Brilliance Audio on CD, Unabridged (February 24, 2009)
Dell, Mass market paperback (February 23, 2010)

Territory: World

Rights Available: Film/TV

Reviews:
"Unsettling…. Admirably complex." - Publishers Weekly

"Doolittle cleverly articulates the vulnerability of a close-knit community where those friendly people who know your name also know your darkest secrets." – Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times

"For those of you who like a story on the darker side, you won't want to miss Sean Doolittle's suburban thriller Safer. Creepy and all too realistic, this taut thriller may have you looking at some of your neighbors in a whole new way!" - Deanna P., Mystery & Thriller Buyer for Borders

“A good thriller need not wallow in violence and murder. So this reader perked up when Sean Doolittle opened "Safer" -- his fine thriller about the toll exacted by life in a security-conscious suburb -- on a different note…an enthralling and unsettling story. Doolittle has written four previous novels, and "Safer" is good enough to make me want to catch up with them all.” – Dennis Drabelle, The Washington Post

"Safer has everything it needs to achieve commercial success...The plot is slick and inventive. The author is skilled at ratcheting up readers’ foreboding, sympathy, and fear, creating the deep need to see how things turn out. The primary characters—Paul, Sara, Roger, Paul’s attorney, and an ambitious TV journalist—are vividly rendered, and lesser characters are well sketched with a sentence or two. And looming over everything is the specter of the Heartland’s dark side." - Booklist

"Sean Doolittle's outstanding Safer is a harrowing tale of suburbia at its ugliest. Doolittle, a Nebraska native, recently moved from Omaha to Council Bluffs, Iowa, and his familiarity with the Heartland shows. I loved The Cleanup, Doolittle's previous mystery. His latest, his first in hardcover, proves that he's a writer to watch." – Leslie McGill, The Kansas City Star

"this could be the Omahan's breakout novel. That wouldn't be much of a surprise. The only question is what's taken the rest of the reading public so long? It's time Doolittle's name starts popping up beside such contemporaries as Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos, both of whom have written past blurbs for Doolittle." - The Omaha World-Herald

"We've all had the neighbor-from-hell at some point in our lives. But Sean Doolittle takes the experience to a new extreme in his superb suburban nightmare of a thriller Safer. The gut-wrenching Safer presents a terrifying portrait of suburban paranoia and the dangerous downside of pursuing security at all costs. A stunner." - Rhode Island Providence Journal-Bulletin

"Barry Award-winning author Sean Doolittle expertly makes the relocation of college professors Paul and Sara Callaway a claustrophobic lesson in fear in Safer…an invigorating look at obsession, manipulation and personal boundaries….Doolittle's affinity for tightly coiled plots, affable characters and seething villains is showcased in Safer." – Oline H. Cogdill, Sun-Sentinel

"a suspenseful and immediately engrossing story. Doolittle takes the fears that drive people to Suburbia, the secrets that hide behind closed doors and twists them all through a funhouse mirror and gives us THE nightmare scenario. The strengths of Sean Doolittle’s body of work have always been clearly on display. From Dirt on through to The Cleanup he’s sanded away the rough edges and pushed those strengths into greater relief so that they are now showcased front and center. Not only is Safer a continuation of this trend upward but it shows Doolittle’s growth as an artist and stylist and a willingness to push himself in to new areas with extraordinary results." - BookSpotCentral.com

"Sean Doolittle's Safer is one agonizingly intense motherfucker of a crime novel...this is Sean Fucking Doolittle, a guy up there with Pelecanos when it comes to making "believable" crime novels...it plays like a brilliant horror novel of small relatable fears. There is no doubt that this is Sean Doolittle's most intense and suspenseful novel to date." - BSCReview

"Doolittle has demonstrated in his previous novels that he's got serious writing chops and a keen eye for the darker side of life. Both are on display in Safer...a fast and thrilling story." - David J. Montgomery, Chicago Sun-Times

"3.5 stars...a smart, funny, and powerfully suspenseful thriller. Sometimes SAFER reminds us home can be the most dangerous place on earth." - People magazine

Blurbs:
"Safer is a high-octane, rip-roaring page-turner. I read it in one sitting—and loved every minute." - Harlan Coben, author of Hold Tight

"In Safer, Sean Doolittle has crafted a taut, claustrophobic thriller in which our safe world of home and neighborhood becomes instead something terrifying and deadly. Safer made me look twice at my neighbors and check the locks on my doors, and that earns Doolittle a solid A+ in skin-crawling suspense." - Kay Hooper, author of Blood Dreams

"I loved SAFER. The best thing I've read in a long time." - Lee Child

Purchase at Amazon.com