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Nancy Pickard Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Nancy Pickard
Photo: Walt Whitaker

Nancy Pickard

Nancy Pickard Biography

Nancy Pickard is a four-time Edgar Award nominee, most recently for her Ballantine debut, The Virgin of Small Plains. She is the winner of the Anthony Award, the Macavity Award, and three Agatha Awards. Her short stories have also won numerous accolades. Pickard has been a national board member of the Mystery Writers of America and president of Sisters in Crime, and she is a member of PEN. She lives in Merriam, Kansas.

Nancy Pickard's website

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Interview

In two separate interviews, one video, one text, Nancy Pickard talks about her novel, The Scent of Rain and Lightning, set in Gove County, Kansas.



Random House Readers Circle: How did the idea for this story come about?

Nancy Pickard: It started with the landscape. I saw a photograph of Monument Rocks in Gove County, Kansas, and it blew me away. Since then, I've been out there to see them. They are so unexpected, so enormous, so beautiful, and they're such a dramatic contrast to the ultraflat ground from which they rise. Even from seeing only a photo, I sensed I had to set a story there. (In the novel, I renamed them Testament Rocks.)

RHRC:
Many reviewers have raved about your ability to make Kansas come alive in this book and your previous book. The setting for The Scent of Rain and Lightning is very different from the one you used in The Virgin of Small Plains. How do you choose the settings and landscapes for your stories?

NP: I think they choose me. Something about a landscape will grab me and haunt me. It won't let go until it has its very own book! Currently I'm working on a book set in the farthest corner of southeastern Kansas, and for a long time I couldn't figure out why I felt such a compulsion to write about it. It doesn't have the gorgeous expansive landscape of Virgin or the surprising, spectacular ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Nancy Pickard at BookBrowse
The Scent of Rain and Lightning jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Nancy Pickard but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Alex George

    Alex George

    Alex George is a writer and a lawyer. He was born in London, England, but presently lives in the American Midwest.

    Alex was named as one of Britain's top ten "thirtysomething" novelists by the Times of London, and was also... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Scent of Rain and Lightning

    Try:
    A Good American
    by Alex George

  • Tami Hoag

    Tami Hoag

    Tami Hoag is the #1 international bestselling author of more than thirty books. There are more than forty million copies of her books in print in more than thirty languages. Renowned for combining thrilling plots with ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Scent of Rain and Lightning

    Try:
    Dust To Dust
    by Tami Hoag

We recommend 4 similar authors

View all 4 Read-Alikes

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