The Hidden Man: A Novel of Suspense (Mortalis) [Paperback]

Anthony Flacco (Author)

Book Description

Series: Mortalis | Publication Date: June 24, 2008

1915. A city emerges from the ashes . . . and so does a killer concealed in its shadows.

Nine years after San Francisco’s great earthquake and fires, the city is just beginning to be reborn and is full of possibility. The World’s Fair is opening to herald the completion of the Panama Canal and display exciting wonders and the promise of the new technological age.

Yet the primitive past haunts the city’s renaissance. Leaving a trail of brutality, a murderous fanatic secretly stalks one of the fair’s chief attractions: the brilliant mesmerist James “J. D.” Duncan. Homicide detective Randall Blackburn and his adopted son, Shane Nightingale, must combine their intuitive profiling skills deductive techniques to solve a murder that hasn’t happened yet . . . one that only its terrified intended victim can see coming.

Praise for Anthony Flacco’s The Last Nightingale

“Flacco imagines the chaos [of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake] in precise and vivid detail while contributing his own distinctive narrative touch.”
–The New York Times

“Gripping . . . [Flacco’s] screenwriting talent shines in this story of the earth’s destructive power and humanity’s moral depravity. . . . Dickens meets Hannibal Lecter. Brace yourself.”
–Booklist

“A frightening and haunting picture of a ruined city staggering back to reality.”
–The Washington Times

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Randall Blackburn and his adoptive son, Shane Nightingale (The Last Nightingale, 2007), return in another unconventional thriller, this time set at the1915 Pan Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. James Duncan, a famous mesmerist performing at the fair, requests the services of detective Blackburn to discover the killer in a very unusual homicide—his own. Blackburn and son ferret out the complex hidden motives and subconscious influences that drive criminal obsession and intricate deception while at the same time dealing with their own emotional issues. Duncan’s high-profile performance nearly crashes when he can’t recall the key phrase to bring his subjects out of their hypnotic trance, leaving the audience and the reader on tenterhooks. This is a story of secrets: secret shame, secret pain, and secret ugly desires that drive people to commit atrocious acts. Flacco’s screenwriting skills bring an already suspenseful story to a visceral level as the reader ever-so-slowly discovers the elusive connections among characters and the inexorable pull of fate. Suggest this to readers of Joanne Harris’ Gentlemen and Players (2006) and Wesley Stace’s By George (2007). --Jen Baker

About the Author

Anthony Flacco is the author of The Hidden Man, The Last Nightingale, and two non-fiction books: A Checklist for Murder and Tiny Dancer. He began his writing career as a staff writer at several prominent Chicago theatres. He was selected for the highly prestigious American Film Institute fellowship in Screenwriting and received his MFA in Screenwriting in 1992. He was the recipient of the AFI Paramount Fellowship Screenwriting Award for his script, The Frog's Legacy, and was selected as a winner of The Walt Disney Studios Screenwriting Fellowship, and spent a year writing for the Touchstone Pictures division.Anthony is a member of the Writers Guild of America (WGA), Mystery Writers of America, and the International Thriller Writers organization. He lives on Bainbridge Island off the coast of Seattle.

Product Details

• Paperback: 285 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (June 24, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812977580
• ISBN-13: 978-0812977585
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,741,619 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Anthony was born in Oklahoma and grew up in Colorado Springs, Colorado, one of four brothers. Their father was an Air Force pilot and mother was a talented artist and painter.

His background as a trained stage actor with over 2,000 performances under his Actors Equity membership provides the primary basis for his critically acclaimed ability to empathize with a wide cross-section of personalities. He moved into screenwriting when he was selected for the prestigious American Film Institute fellowship in Screenwriting, and received his MFA in screenwriting there in 1990 after winning AFI's Paramount Studios Fellowship Award for his film script, The Frog's Legacy. He was then selected out of 2,000 entrants for the Walt Disney Studios Screenwriting Fellowship, and spent a year writing for the Touchstone Pictures division.

His screenwriting experience drives narrative stories that are visually compelling, whether for a movie theater or the screen of a reader's imagination.

In 1994, his first nonfiction book, A Checklist for Murder, was acquired in auction by Dell Books as a mass market paperback and turned in solid sales.

Anthony then adapted his book into a screenplay for a two-hour television movie script and sold it to NBC Studios for a movie of the week. For the next several years, he worked as a freelance script doctor and story editor.

During that time, Anthony was hired by the Discovery Channel to write a two-hour documentary entitled Deadly Spree, and his true crime writing was also featured on a one-hour episode of The Prosecutors for Court TV.

In 2003, Anthony served as a national Judge for the Illinois Arts Council, writing individual evaluations for over 100 screenplays for their 2003 Writing Awards.

In 2005, with the publication of his nonfiction book Tiny Dancer (St. Martin's Press) the book was selected by Reader's Digest as their Editor's Choice for August, 2005 -- which was their 1,000th Commemorative Issue. The book has been internationally acclaimed, and the Kansas City Star named Tiny Dancer "one of the 100 Most Noteworthy Books of 2005." In 2007, the book received Best Seller status in Italy and continues to be popular there.

Back in the U.S., his first two novels of historical fiction are from Mortalis Books at Random House. The first book, The Last Nightingale, was released in June of 2007 and was one of five nominees for "Best Original Paperback" from the International Thriller Writers Association. The second book, The Hidden Man, published in June of 2008 and created widespread interest in his historical writing within the publishing community.

In November of 2009 his historical true crime book was released by Sterling Publishing -- The Road Out Of Hell: The True Story of Sanford Clark and the Wineville Murders. It won the USA NEWS 2009 Best True Crime Book of the Year.

Publish Your Nonfiction Book (Writer's Digest Books), which Anthony co-authored with literary manager, Sharlene Martin, was also published in 2009.

He is an experienced public speaker and frequently gives seminars on crime writing, and is a featured speaker on writing for writers conferences and clubs.

For more information, see www.AnthonyFlacco.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Content Rich Romp Through History, July 22, 2009

By 

Geri Spieler - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hidden Man: A Novel of Suspense (Mortalis) (Paperback)

The Hidden Man is the second book of historical fiction by Anthony Flacco. The first, The Last Nightingale, is where he introduced Detective Randall Blackburn and his adopted children Shane and Vignette Nightingale.

In the first book of this series, Flacco shows us the horrors that go on behind the scenes in San Francisco at the time of the great earthquake and fires. Nine years later in The Hidden Man, San Francisco is just beginning to recover from the devastation brought on by a cruel trick of nature.

It is against the backdrop of the preparations of the Worlds Fair that is adoptive children tangle with relationships and coming to terms with who they are in this new world. While trying to keep his family together and have a life of his own, Blackburn and Shane are summoned to the famous mesmerist James "J.D." Duncan to protect the great one from a threat only he can see.

Duncan is keenly aware that his threat could be anyone, an anonymous and innocuous passerby no one would notice. Duncan's special skills alert him the dangers of these non-descript people which lead him to hire the homicide detective to act as his personal bodyguard.

Flacco's ability to use historical fiction to take us on a ride with him is indeed exceptional. We get to see and feel what was new to those before us. His unique skill at infusing his characters with complicated personalities and unexpected response make them that more real. Flacco draws us in as we are surprised to learn that Duncan has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease by Dr. Alzheimer himself. This unexpected twist only adds to the drama and renews interest when we think we have the plot all figured out.

While The Hidden Man can stand on its own, it is that much more meaningful if one reads The Last Nightingale first. However, it is not necessary.

I highly recommend "The Hidden Man" for anyone who loves mystery, thriller, historical fiction or just a good read.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Highly disappointing - should be called "the Hidden Plot"!, January 30, 2009

By 

Ray J. Palen Jr. "Ray" (Long Island, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hidden Man: A Novel of Suspense (Mortalis) (Paperback)

Anthony Flacco's "The Last Nightingale" was one of 2007's best novels and was a finalist for several thriller awards. The follow-up, "The Hidden Man", takes place 9 years later in 1915 San Francisco during the reconstruction from the infamous earthquake.

Randall Blackburn, San Franciso Detective, is assigned watch over a famous mesmerist named J.D Duncan who is the master of The Hidden Man trick. He claims to be able to see the future and predicts his own death at the hands of a shadowy figure.

It is there where the suspense and story end. Taking place at the beginning of the World's Fair, this historical mystery has all of the great characters from "Nightingale" wasted in pointless sub-plots and J.D. Duncan proves to be terribly uninteresting as the novel's focus. I hope Flacco can bounce back with some better material for these characters if he continues this series.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Less than thrilling, August 10, 2008

By 

Allan H. Clark (Carlsbad, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Hidden Man: A Novel of Suspense (Mortalis) (Paperback)

Randall Blackburn, an outstanding San Francisco homicide detective, is unexpectedly assigned to guard a famous (and strangely fearful) mesmerist during his appearances at the Pan-Pacific International Exposition of 1915. Complications follow which bring Blackburn's adopted son Shane, adopted daughter Vignette, and his fiancée, the mystery author, Miss Freshel, into their wake.

This is not a murder mystery or a detective novel. Nor is it a police procedural. Instead it is a suspense novel whose plot emerges out of the complex personalities of its characters--almost all of them weakly drawn. (A novel feature is that one of the main characters is never named and referred to as "the nondescript man.")

It's impossible to show the contrived nature of the plot without giving it away, but nothing seems quite natural. The Pan-Pacific Exposition could make an effective background for the story, but it is hardly used. Readers will be frustrated--and perhaps even annoyed--by the author's habit of cutting away from the action at crucial points for lengthy and psychological analysis of his characters. This causes the novel to drag and undercuts the suspense rather than enhancing it. It does not make the characters more believable.

This is the second Randall Blackburn novel. The ending signals that the author plans a series around this character and his two adoptees, but it's hard to see a bright future for them in detection on the basis of this book.