John Searles is an American writer and book critic. He is the author of four novels: Her Last Affair, Help For The Haunted, Strange But True and Boy Still Missing . His essays have appeared in national magazines and newspapers, and he contributes frequently to morning television shows as a book critic. He is based in New York City.[1]
Born and raised in New England, Searles is the son of a truck driver and stay-at-home mother.[2] After high school, Searles worked at the DuPont factory close to his hometown[3] of Monroe, Connecticut.[4] 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,[5] where he won a number of fiction awards[3] and received a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing.[1] [6]
After completing his master's degree, Searles took a job at Redbook magazine reading fiction submissions.[3] 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[3] and Editor-at-Large.[6]
Upon the 2001 publication of Searles' first novel, Boy Still Missing, Time named him a "Person to Watch" and the New York Daily News named him a "New Yorker to Watch."[7] His second novel, Strange But True, was named the best novel of 2004 by Salon.com.[8] Searles' novel Help for the Haunted, published by William Morrow/HarperCollins[8] 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,[9] and was hailed by author Gillian Flynn as "dazzling… a novel both frightening and beautiful."[8]
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,[8] CBS's The Early Show,[8] Live! With Regis and Kelly,[8] and CNN[8] to discuss his favorite book selections.
In 2019, a film adaptation of Strange But True was released by Lionsgate and CBS Films.