John Pesta
AUTHOR

John Pesta

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
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John Pesta is a former short-order cook, professor of English literature and publisher of a small-town newspaper — and he's the award-winning author of the mysteries SAFELY BURIED and THE MORE YOU STIR IT, which follow the investigative adventures of a reporter at a tiny newspaper in the Midwest who uncovers murderous secrets in a close community where people are willing to go to great lengths to keep the past hidden. His short stories, collected in the anthology KING OF THE YELLOW JACKETS, have been published in acclaimed literary magazines including “Sou’wester,” “Prairie Schooner,” “The Bridge” and “The Florida Review,” among others. Gathered in one place, they make for a collection of deeply human stories told through characters whose experiences are equal parts haunting, funny, poignant and troubling, whether the setting is a midnight flirtation with a convenience-store clerk, a deathbed regret, a middle-school basketball court or an imagined, and slightly twisted, near future. His novel CRATES, set in the tradition-bound 1950s in Allentown, Pennsylvania, follows a young woman, Lorene, who married too early is now trying to become her own person. Lorene wants freedom. Her husband wants her back. And their moody and inventive 11-year-old, coming of age in a fractured home, is searching for himself. It’s the story of three souls navigating a world of midnight diners, long-haul trucking and drifting expectations in an America on the edge of a profound shift. The inspiration for much of Pesta’s writing draws upon his Italian-Hungarian family upbringing in Pennsylvania, his academic background, and his years publishing and editing a historic newspaper in the heart of small-town America observing intriguing people and their enigmatic lives. Pesta’s writing has won numerous awards, including a Silver Medal in 2012 Independent Publisher Book Awards in the Mystery category, a First Place in the Best Books of Indiana competition sponsored by the Indiana State Library, and an Honorable Mention at the London Book Festival.
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