Die Famous

A mother and her son set out on a treacherous journey to find the boy’s father, one of the nation's most wanted criminals, in this vivid and emotional epic, perfect for fans of Kristin Hannah, Chris Whitaker, and Amor Towles. On the day she spots her first gray hair, Savannah Cody declares her intention to murder her husband. Edward “Nickel” Terhune isn’t just any deadbeat—he’s the getaway driver for the infamous Brady Gang, whose exploits have placed them at the top of the public enemy lists while capturing the nation’s imagination. Savannah is no gangster—at least not in her telling—just a single mother with a grudge and her own private grief. There are some, though, including J. Edgar Hoover, who have their doubts about that. Twelve-year-old Alford Terhune has never known his father, only the legends and the warnings, and he finds his mother to be a mysterious force, fiercely proud, always charming, but exceptionally unreliable. With her reputation and possibly her own freedom at risk, Savannah embarks on a quest to find the man she once loved, and the nation now fears. Together with Alford and his grandfather, a retired detective, she sets out across the heartland to track Nickel through an America marked by the Great Depression, from rural Indiana farms to posh Saratoga Springs resorts and north to Maine as summer edges toward fall. A multilayered tale of misadventure and self-discovery, populated by an unforgettable cast of characters—from gangsters and FBI agents to farmers and novelists—Die Famous is a sweeping testament to American dreams and heartbreaks, and a novel that showcases why William Kent Krueger has said “Michael Koryta is simply one of today’s finest authors, period.”