1996

The summer months are upon us and many within our ranks are destined for semi-tropical locales in search of sun-soaked solace, while still others make the most of a well-deserved “stay-cation” within the more-familiar confines of home. The possibilities are endless, but each begs the question, “What does one do with copious amounts of down time?”

Beyond the obvious answer of “help plan our 2015 class reunion!” one could always opt for the age-old “curling up with a good book” to escape

from the doldrums of the everyday. If you have not outlined a reading list for yourself since the days when a professor-imposed syllabus defined your course of erudition, then one particular ’96 author has not one but five novels available for your literary consumption!

Our own Brad Parks, who for a dozen years after graduating defined himself as a “newspaper guy through and through,” took a leap that will make all our summer reading adventures all the more interesting. After dutifully serving his time as an award-winning columnist for both The Washington Post and The (Newark, New Jersey) Star-Ledger, Brad had crazy thoughts about ven- turing into the realm of writing mystery novels. A decline in the print newspaper industry expe- dited the transition and forced him to pursue a dream that he would have “otherwise been too chicken to chase.”

It was while on assignment for The Star- Ledger in 2004 that Brad found the inspiration for his first foray into the world of fiction. He covered a quadruple homicide in Newark that provided the launching point for Carter Ross, a fictional character who “bears no resemblance to Brad beyond shared height, weight, eye color, hair color, skin color, charmed upbringing, sarto- rial blandness and general worldview.” Within a year of leaving the newspaper industry for good, he had published Faces of the Gone, his first novel featuring his sometimes-dashing protagonist. That novel sold through its first print run in nine days and went on to win the Nero Award for best American mystery and the Shamus Award for best first mystery—the first author in the awards’ 60-year history to win both for the same work.

Brad has since penned four additional books in the Carter ross series: 2011’s Eyes of the In- nocent, 2012’s The Girl Next Door, 2013’s The Good Cop and The Player, published earlier this year. He has won two Lefty Awards (given for best humorous mystery) for his third and fourth novels in the series and remains the only writer to win the Nero, Shamus and Lefty. His sixth book in the series is under contract and scheduled for publication in 2015.

on the family side of things, Brad and his wife, Melissa Taylor—who met sophomore sum- mer—“finally got around to” getting married in 2004. They have two lovely kids and live far from the rat race in a little cottage on the Rappah- annock River in rural Virginia, where Melissa works at a boarding school. Brad said, “it sounds idyllic and is. Sometimes. Other times, we re- ally miss ready access to good indian takeout.” He stays in regular contact with Leslie Jennings Rowley, who works in alumni development at Princeton and married a Princeton professor; leslie has two kids whom Brad’s kids call their “cousins.” he also sometimes hangs out with Jorge Motoshige, who is consulting in New York City and continues to live that crazy bachelor lifestyle that Brad would be envious of except it mostly just wears him out. he’s looking forward to our 20th reunion in 2015 and seeing all the folks with whom he has been woefully out of touch.

—Garrett Gil de Rubio, 1062 Middlebrooke Drive, Canton, GA 30115; ggdr@alum.dartmouth.org