PYRES Punky Lucia Moberg turns sixteen in a week. She steals CDs from stores, argues with Mom, pines for the rebel boy next door. But adolescence ends fast in a mall parking lot when Luc’s professor father is shot dead in an apparent botched stickup. The killer flees, and so ignites an inferno that will engulf all the women it touches: a mother whose domestic life is shrouded in darkness, a pregnant outlaw desperate for a secure life, a dogged cop atoning for her own family’s collapse, and Lucia herself, caught in the peril and violence that surrounds her. When their desperate lives collide, these women must each choose where to aim their last shots at redemption, even as they face a gang of barbaric thugs who torch homes and lives for a thrill. * Film rights optioned by Andrew Fierberg at Vox3 Films * * Nominated for an Edgar Award for Best First Novel By An American Author * Rights Information Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur, Hardcover (October 16, 2007) St. Martin's, Paperback (December 9, 2008) Territory: World Rights Available: Reviews: "Pyres' pops with intensity from its shocker start...deserves to be discovered by as many people as possible...Nikitas renders his story with just the right balance of style, detail, pace, depth and humor, building a suspenseful narrative that reaches a genuinely painful level of heartache." - Eddie Muller, The San Francisco Chronicle "...If one word could sum up the mood of Pyres, it would be a term used by the Stockholm-born folklore professor early in the novel: Svarmod -- the Swedish word for "that cozy gloom that hits you like semiconscious dreams on a winter night." A tapestry of intertwining plot threads and multilayered motifs -- specifically Scandinavian mythology -- Nikitas' stellar first novel isn't just one of the best genre debuts of the year, it's one of the best releases -- period." - Paul Goat Allen, The Chicago Tribune "A harrowing debut novel...The prose is admirable, the mood pure Ingmar Bergman. Proceed with caution." - Kirkus Review "This is a polished first novel. Nikitas skillfully illuminates the many aspects of a number of significant characters and propels the plot with apparent ease...A heartbreaking coming-of-age story and a gripping psychological thriller." - Booklist "Short story writer Nikitas fills his engaging, atmospheric first novel, set in upstate New York, with Swedish mythology and American carnage. . . . Fans of Joyce Carol Oates, who provides a blurb, will in particular enjoy this unrelentingly dark and brutal novel with its ironic twists." - Publishers Weekly "Part whodunnit, part horror story, with a pinch of the supernatural, Nikitas's debut novel is not your average mystery. This is a genre-stretching narrative where the bad guys are human, the good guys are flawed, and rescue arrives late if at all. It is also literary, gripping, and very real; Nikitas captures the voices of his three female protagonists with compelling accuracy...recommended for both public and academic libraries." - Library Journal "As a debut, "Pyres" is a triumph. Nikitas has the rare ability to create three-dimensional characters and put them into believable situations, and still make a page-turner out of it. Nikitas is after dark truths, and he has the skills to unearth them, leaving the reader breathless and hoping for more from this powerful new voice." - John Keenan, The Omaha World Herald "Nikitas weaves and twists the lives of three strong and very different characters into a shocking finale. The narrative burns as bright as the title against the darkness of the personalities. Those who like Stephen King's characters but seek something less supernatural will find this tragic and fast-paced first novel compelling." - School Library Journal "Already, Nikitas has a stylish, assured voice that depicts his characters in every harsh, flattering, beautiful light and shows how a single, seemingly random event has the effect of converging the lives of disparate and damaged people." - Sarah Weinman Blurbs: "I've long been an admirer of Derek Nikitas's unusually engaging, subtly rendered short fiction… Any subject Derek handles, channeled through the lens of his unique sensibility, is likely to be of unusual worth and interest." - Joyce Carol Oates, National Book Award-winner and Pulitzer Prize nominee; Author of The Gravedigger's Daughter "A fever dream and a waking nightmare – a hypnotic, sophisticated descent into hell. Nikitas is the heir apparent to Joyce Carol Oates." - Marcus Sakey, author of The Blade Itself "This novel is like a dream that haunts you in the daytime, masquerading as a memory of real events...It is not only the concentrated beauty and unrelenting lyricism of Nikitas's language that ensnares the reader, but his unflinching immersion into the unlit corners of the human heart and conscience, our most hidden hopes, humiliations, and rationalizations. Although this novel is a page-turner in the classic sense, rich with villains, victims, and vengeance, Nikitas's original perceptions come as quickly as the explosions of violence, and the unlikely flashes of beauty and meaning his seemingly doomed characters find in the most hopeless, harrowing moments will take your breath away. At every turn Nikitas elevates this tale far above the conventions of the crime genre, returning again and again to life's great unanswerables – as one character puts it, to "how little it would take to lose whatever (makes us) human." - Wendy Brenner, Flannary O’Connor Award-winner and author of Phone Calls from the Dead "Nikitas’s story is literary and smart. His effortless prose and genre-melding style is reminiscent of John Connolly, his ability to tap into the disturbed teenage psyche as masterful as Lisa Carey. Pyres is a must read. I couldn’t put it down." - J.T. Ellison, author of All the Pretty Girls "I loved Pyres—it's the best debut novel I've read this year (and may be the best of the past several.)" - Douglas Clegg, author of The Vampyricon trilogy "Derek owes me a night’s sleep... Loved it! My God how [Pyres], excuse the pun, burned me, in all the best ways…. just took my battered heart and crushed it to smithereens…. It revived me, hurt me, and most of all, invigorated me…. The writing is to roar for and loud and triumphant. Just a marvelous, wondrous book!" - Ken Bruen, Shamus Award winner and author of American Skin "Pyres is an utterly absorbing heartbreaker. It also takes a hard look at the dark side of the modern American family, from trailer park to university campus, and the unlikely roads that connect the two. If you think you had a tough time turning 16—trust me, it's nothing compared to what Pyres's heroine, Lucia Moberg, has to endure. Derek Nikitas has written a blazing debut, and I'm looking forward to whatever he writes next." - Duane Swierczynski, author of Severance Package Purchase at Amazon.com

PYRES

Punky Lucia Moberg turns sixteen in a week. She steals CDs from stores, argues with Mom, pines for the rebel boy next door. But adolescence ends fast in a mall parking lot when Luc’s professor father is shot dead in an apparent botched stickup.

The killer flees, and so ignites an inferno that will engulf all the women it touches: a mother whose domestic life is shrouded in darkness, a pregnant outlaw desperate for a secure life, a dogged cop atoning for her own family’s collapse, and Lucia herself, caught in the peril and violence that surrounds her.

When their desperate lives collide, these women must each choose where to aim their last shots at redemption, even as they face a gang of barbaric thugs who torch homes and lives for a thrill.

* Film rights optioned by Andrew Fierberg at Vox3 Films *

* Nominated for an Edgar Award for Best First Novel By An American Author *

Rights Information

Publisher:
St. Martin's Minotaur, Hardcover (October 16, 2007)
St. Martin's, Paperback (December 9, 2008)

Territory: World

Rights Available:

Reviews:
"Pyres' pops with intensity from its shocker start...deserves to be discovered by as many people as possible...Nikitas renders his story with just the right balance of style, detail, pace, depth and humor, building a suspenseful narrative that reaches a genuinely painful level of heartache." - Eddie Muller, The San Francisco Chronicle

"...If one word could sum up the mood of Pyres, it would be a term used by the Stockholm-born folklore professor early in the novel: Svarmod -- the Swedish word for "that cozy gloom that hits you like semiconscious dreams on a winter night." A tapestry of intertwining plot threads and multilayered motifs -- specifically Scandinavian mythology -- Nikitas' stellar first novel isn't just one of the best genre debuts of the year, it's one of the best releases -- period." - Paul Goat Allen, The Chicago Tribune

"A harrowing debut novel...The prose is admirable, the mood pure Ingmar Bergman. Proceed with caution." - Kirkus Review

"This is a polished first novel. Nikitas skillfully illuminates the many aspects of a number of significant characters and propels the plot with apparent ease...A heartbreaking coming-of-age story and a gripping psychological thriller." - Booklist

"Short story writer Nikitas fills his engaging, atmospheric first novel, set in upstate New York, with Swedish mythology and American carnage. . . . Fans of Joyce Carol Oates, who provides a blurb, will in particular enjoy this unrelentingly dark and brutal novel with its ironic twists." - Publishers Weekly

"Part whodunnit, part horror story, with a pinch of the supernatural, Nikitas's debut novel is not your average mystery. This is a genre-stretching narrative where the bad guys are human, the good guys are flawed, and rescue arrives late if at all. It is also literary, gripping, and very real; Nikitas captures the voices of his three female protagonists with compelling accuracy...recommended for both public and academic libraries." - Library Journal

"As a debut, "Pyres" is a triumph. Nikitas has the rare ability to create three-dimensional characters and put them into believable situations, and still make a page-turner out of it.
Nikitas is after dark truths, and he has the skills to unearth them, leaving the reader breathless and hoping for more from this powerful new voice." - John Keenan, The Omaha World Herald

"Nikitas weaves and twists the lives of three strong and very different characters into a shocking finale. The narrative burns as bright as the title against the darkness of the personalities. Those who like Stephen King's characters but seek something less supernatural will find this tragic and fast-paced first novel compelling." - School Library Journal

"Already, Nikitas has a stylish, assured voice that depicts his characters in every harsh, flattering, beautiful light and shows how a single, seemingly random event has the effect of converging the lives of disparate and damaged people." - Sarah Weinman

Blurbs:
"I've long been an admirer of Derek Nikitas's unusually engaging, subtly rendered short fiction… Any subject Derek handles, channeled through the lens of his unique sensibility, is likely to be of unusual worth and interest." - Joyce Carol Oates, National Book Award-winner and Pulitzer Prize nominee; Author of The Gravedigger's Daughter

"A fever dream and a waking nightmare – a hypnotic, sophisticated descent into hell. Nikitas is the heir apparent to Joyce Carol Oates." - Marcus Sakey, author of The Blade Itself

"This novel is like a dream that haunts you in the daytime, masquerading as a memory of real events...It is not only the concentrated beauty and unrelenting lyricism of Nikitas's language that ensnares the reader, but his unflinching immersion into the unlit corners of the human heart and conscience, our most hidden hopes, humiliations, and rationalizations. Although this novel is a page-turner in the classic sense, rich with villains, victims, and vengeance, Nikitas's original perceptions come as quickly as the explosions of violence, and the unlikely flashes of beauty and meaning his seemingly doomed characters find in the most hopeless, harrowing moments will take your breath away. At every turn Nikitas elevates this tale far above the conventions of the crime genre, returning again and again to life's great unanswerables – as one character puts it, to "how little it would take to lose whatever (makes us) human." - Wendy Brenner, Flannary O’Connor Award-winner and author of Phone Calls from the Dead

"Nikitas’s story is literary and smart. His effortless prose and genre-melding style is reminiscent of John Connolly, his ability to tap into the disturbed teenage psyche as masterful as Lisa Carey. Pyres is a must read. I couldn’t put it down." - J.T. Ellison, author of All the Pretty Girls

"I loved Pyres—it's the best debut novel I've read this year (and may be the best of the past several.)" - Douglas Clegg, author of The Vampyricon trilogy

"Derek owes me a night’s sleep... Loved it! My God how [Pyres], excuse the pun, burned me, in all the best ways…. just took my battered heart and crushed it to smithereens…. It revived me, hurt me, and most of all, invigorated me…. The writing is to roar for and loud and triumphant. Just a marvelous, wondrous book!" - Ken Bruen, Shamus Award winner and author of American Skin

"Pyres is an utterly absorbing heartbreaker. It also takes a hard look at the dark side of the modern American family, from trailer park to university campus, and the unlikely roads that connect the two. If you think you had a tough time turning 16—trust me, it's nothing compared to what Pyres's heroine, Lucia Moberg, has to endure. Derek Nikitas has written a blazing debut, and I'm looking forward to whatever he writes next." - Duane Swierczynski, author of Severance Package

Purchase at Amazon.com