Crime and Punishment
with S.J. Maher and Ausma Zehanat Khan
Hosted by Peter Schneider
In Person Fiction
With great intelligence and sensitivity, Khan portrays the ease of online radicalization and the ways in which ideological divides cement into far more violent ones. It’s a piece of fiction that manages to tell a truth even non-fiction has had trouble communicating.
Two acclaimed authors whose new page-turners propel us on adrenaline-fuelled journeys that take us deeper than the headlines. Join us for a taste of their new books and a conversation on crime and punishment in the 21st century.
Author and journalist Stephen Maher returns to the Festival stage with Social Misconduct, a timely and shocking thriller about a young woman who is the target of a social-media smear campaign: Candace Walker is thrilled when she lands a new job at a hip Manhattan tech company and gets a brand-new iPhone. She’s more than ready to move on from creating clickbait ads for weight-loss pills and herbal erection boosters, and is determined to dazzle the startup team she joins. A week later, though, everything is at risk: Candace is the target of a mysterious harasser and an online smear campaign. She tosses her new phone into the Hudson River, begins hiding out in her sister’s storage locker in New Jersey, and can’t think of a single person she can trust. But Candace hasn’t come this far—and gone to such lengths—to submit to what is happening without a fight.
From critically acclaimed author Ausma Zehanat Khan, comes A Deadly Divide, the powerful new thriller featuring detectives Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty. In the aftermath of a mass shooting at a mosque in Quebec, the local police apprehend Amadou Duchon a young Muslim man at the scene helping the wounded but release Etienne Roy, the local priest who was found with a weapon in his hands. The shooting looks like a hate crime, but detectives Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty sense there is more to the story. Sent to liaise with a community in the grip of fear, they find themselves in unfamiliar territory bristling with danger, fueled by the panic and suspicion exploited by a right-wing radio host.
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