John Searles

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John Searles is an American writer and book critic. He is the author of five novels: Single Girls inspired by his years as an editor at Cosmopolitan and his friendship with the controversial feminist editor and writer Helen Gurley Brown [1] as well as Her Last Affair ( ISBN   0-06-077965-9), Help For The Haunted ( ISBN   978-0-06-077963-4), Strange But True ( ISBN   0-06-072179-0) and Boy Still Missing ( ISBN   0-06-082243-0). His essays have appeared in national magazines and newspapers, such as The New York Times [2] and Washington Post and he contributes frequently to morning television shows as a book critic. He is based in New York City. [3]

Contents

Life

Born and raised in New England, Searles is the son of a truck driver and stay-at-home mother. [4] After high school, Searles worked at the DuPont factory close to his hometown [5] of Monroe, Connecticut. [6] He went on to pursue an undergraduate degree from Southern Connecticut State University, becoming the first member of his family to attend college, before entering a graduate program at New York University on a writing scholarship, [7] where he won a number of fiction awards [5] and received a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing. [3] [8] He is married to theatre director Thomas Caruso. [9]

Career

After completing his master's degree, Searles took a job at Redbook magazine reading fiction submissions. [5] He soon moved on to a part-time job in the books department at Cosmopolitan , where he went on to hold many positions including Books Editor, Executive Editor, Editorial Brand Director [5] and Editor-at-Large. [8]

Upon the 2001 publication of Searles' first novel, Boy Still Missing, Time named him a "Person to Watch" [10] and the New York Daily News named him a "New Yorker to Watch." [11] His second novel, Strange But True, was named the best novel of 2004 by Salon.com. [10] Searles' novel Help for the Haunted, published by William Morrow/HarperCollins [10] in September 2013, won the American Library Association Alex Award, was named as an Amazon Top 10 Mystery and Suspense Novel of 2013, a Boston Globe Top 10 Crime Novel of 2013, and an Entertainment Weekly Top Ten Must Read, [12] and was hailed by author Gillian Flynn as "dazzling… a novel both frightening and beautiful." [10]

His essays have appeared in The Washington Post , the New York Times , and other national magazines and newspapers. He has featured frequently as a book critic on morning television shows including NBC's Today Show , [10] CBS's The Early Show , [10] Live! With Regis and Kelly , [10] Charlie Rose ,[ citation needed ] and CNN [10] to discuss his favorite book selections.

In 2019, a film adaptation of Strange But True was released by Lionsgate and CBS Films.[ needs update ]

References

  1. ↑ "Single Girls". HarperCollins. Retrieved 2025-11-07.
  2. ↑ "John Searles - The New York Times". www.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2025-11-07.
  3. 1 2 "John Searles". HarperCollins.com. New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers . Retrieved 2019-04-15.
  4. ↑ Searles, John (September 16, 2013). "Gillian Flynn and John Searles on "Help for the Haunted"". Omnivoracious: The Amazon Book Review (Interview). Interviewed by Gillian Flynn. Amazon.com, Inc. Retrieved 2019-04-15.
  5. 1 2 3 4 softlightmedia. "John Searles". www.john-searles.com. Retrieved 2016-12-20.
  6. ↑ Valluzzo, Andrea (2022-03-04). "Monroe's bestselling author John Searles chats penning his first books on wallpaper and his new thriller". Connecticut Post. Retrieved 2023-12-09.
  7. ↑ Cutolo, Ruby. "Mystery Man: John Searles". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 2023-12-09.
  8. 1 2 "Algonquin Talks with John Searles, Today show Book Critic and Cosmo Editor-at-Large". Algonquin Books - Books For A Well-Read Life. Workman Publishing Company. 2011-07-25. Retrieved 2019-04-15.
  9. ↑ Bartell, Gerald (2022-03-31). "LI author talks about "Her Last Affair"". newsday.com. Retrieved 2025-06-09.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "A Conversation with Novelist John Searles". Stay Thirsty Magazine. Winter 2016. Retrieved 2016-12-20.
  11. ↑ "50 NEW YORKERS TO WATCH IN 2001". New York Daily News. 2001-01-01. Retrieved 2023-12-09.
  12. ↑ Hallie Ephron. "Best 2013 crime fiction". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2023-12-09.
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