In Conversation: S. A. Cosby and T. J. Martinson

Prepare yourselves, Leesburg! Birch Tree Books & Plants is beyond honored to host a conversation between the New York Times bestselling and multi-award-winning sensation S.A. Cosby and the prolific rural crime writer T.J. Martinson.

Martinson will lead a deep dive into the world of "rural noir", and the art of writing a perfect thriller.

Tickets are extremely limited. Secure your spot today to witness a conversation between two of the most exciting voices in fiction. And make sure to stick around for the signing portion of the event!

Special thanks to the Loudoun Douglass Alumni Association for partnering with us to secure the historic Douglass School for this event. We are also proud to support their scholarship program by collecting donations for LDAA.

LDAA members are free to attend! Use code LDAA if you are a member of the Loudoun Douglass Alumni Association.

About the Author

S. A. Cosby is a New York Times bestselling writer from southeastern Virginia. He is the author of King of Ashes, which TIME listed among their Top 10 Books of the Year, All the Sinners Bleed, one of Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2023, as well as Edgar Award finalist Razorblade Tears and Los Angeles Times Book Prize winner Blacktop Wasteland. He has also won the Anthony Award, ITW Thriller Award, Barry Award, Macavity Award, BCALA Award, and Audie Award, and has been longlisted for the ALA Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence. When not writing, Cosby is an avid hiker and chess player.

T.J. Martinson is the author of The Reign of the Kingfisher (Flatiron, 2019), an extremely well-reviewed debut that merged the genres of superheroes and noir, and Her New Eyes. He is an assistant professor of English at Murray State University, teaching courses in creative writing and literature. He holds a PhD in English from Indiana University and a MA in Literary Studies from Eastern Illinois University.

About the Featured Books

Blood River Witch by T.J. Martinson

On Kentucky’s Blood River, a Sheriff’s Deputy investigates the death of her ex-fiance, whose brutal occultist murder strongly resembles a similar murder decades ago, for readers of Tana French, Gillian Flynn, Megan Abbott, and fans of True Detective

Deputy Sheriff Alicia Moore is thrust into the center of a chilling murder investigation when she discovers a victim identifiable only by his hauntingly familiar tattoo—her name inked onto the knuckles of her ex-fiancé, Jake.

Years earlier, Alicia’s father, the then-Sheriff, had arrested a teenage occultist for a nearly identical murder, believed to be driven by the suspect’s worship of demonic entities. Now, with Jake’s murder mirroring that past crime, doubts arise about whether the true culprit was ever caught. The mystery deepens with the arrival of Lucas Masterson, a Criminology PhD student studying the confluence between religious trauma and occult crime, who is eager to lend his expertise to the investigation. As Lucas delves into the case, his profound knowledge of the town’s grim history and his outsider perspective strain the local social fabric, while Alicia grapples with her suspicion towards his unsettling familiarity with the crimes. Caught between her strained relationship with her father, the community’s watchful eyes on a female deputy, and her own harrowing ties to the case, Alicia must navigate a maze of potential occultists, convicts, corrupt officials, and clergy to prevent a gruesome history from repeating itself once again.

For what lies at the heart of Blood River—is it an ancient malicious force seeking to harm the townfolk, or is there a deeper prejudice in a town that continues to punish women in a way that it does not punish the men?

King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“Propulsive and powerful. . . A gripping roller coaster ride of escalating danger.” —New York Times Book Review
“Pick up the novel everyone will be talking about.” —The Atlantic
“Dark, riveting, and accomplished.” —Washington Post

Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author S. A. Cosby returns with King of Ashes, a Godfather-inspired Southern crime epic and dazzling family drama.

When eldest son Roman Carruthers is summoned home after his father’s car accident, he finds his younger brother, Dante, in debt to dangerous criminals and his sister, Neveah, exhausted from holding the family—and the family business—together. Neveah and their father, who run the Carruthers Crematorium in the run-down central Virginia town of Jefferson Run, see death up close every day. But mortality draws even closer when it becomes clear that the crash that landed their father in a coma was no accident and Dante’s recklessness has placed them all in real danger.

Roman, a financial whiz with a head for numbers and a talent for making his clients rich, has some money to help buy his brother out of trouble. But in his work with wannabe tough guys, he’s forgotten that there are real gangsters out there. As his bargaining chips go up in smoke, Roman realizes that he has only one thing left to offer to save his brother: himself, and his own particular set of skills.

Roman begins his work for the criminals while Neveah tries to uncover the long-ago mystery of what happened to their mother, who disappeared when they were teenagers. But Roman is far less of a pushover than the gangsters realize. He is willing to do anything to save his family. Anything.

Because everything burns.

"[A] sizzling summer read that concludes with a few unexpected twists.”
—Atlanta Journal Constitution