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Gear Up for the Festival with Marc Cameron!

August 10, 2024

Can’t wait six more weeks to meet your favorite authors at the 2024 South Dakota Festival of Books? Our Preface Event with bestselling thriller writer Marc Cameron will tide you over!

Join your fellow readers at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, August 18, at the South Dakota Art Museum (SDAM) in Brookings for an author talk and book signing featuring Bad River, the latest in Cameron’s Arliss Cutter series.

This heart-stopping novel takes Cutter on an icy trail of murder and madness, ranging from a remote village perched on Arctic permafrost to a fortified ranch hideout on the plains of South Dakota. Cameron will discuss the inspiration for bringing his character out of the Alaska wilderness and into iconic South Dakota locations such as the Badlands and Wall Drug, said Jennifer Widman, director of the South Dakota Center for the Book.

“Marc has been a presenter at previous Festivals, so we know how engaging he is and how exciting his stories are,” Widman said. “The South Dakota Humanities Council is thrilled to partner with the South Dakota Art Museum to host him on the nationwide tour for his latest book, some of which takes place just a few hours from where he’ll be speaking.”

Copies of Bad River and other Cameron titles will be available for sale through the SDAM Store. For more information, visit the SDAM event page or contact Abigail Gebro, 605-688-5423 or Abigail.Gebro@sdstate.edu.

About Bad River

In the Inupiaq village of Wainwright on the Arctic Ocean, two teenagers discover a frozen body in the permafrost wall of their family’s cellar. They recognize the face through the ice. It is the face of a young woman who went missing—two years ago.

In South Dakota, Arliss Cutter searches for answers surrounding his brother’s mysterious death. But his visit only raises more questions without any leads, until he returns to Alaska—and learns that his brother had something in common with the frozen body in the ice cellar.

Inside the young woman’s pocket is a fossilized animal tooth—similar to the one Arliss’s brother picked up on a trip to South Dakota. A bizarre coincidence? Or are the two connected somehow? Before Arliss can figure it out, his brother’s widow and children become the targets of a brutal home invasion. Arliss arrives on the scene in time to save them—but his actions trigger a larger investigation that puts his own neck on the line.

From South Dakota to Anchorage to the Inupiaq villages of the Arctic, Arliss follows this bloodstained trail of clues to a remote lodge on the banks of the Kobuk River. Here, in this unforgiving wilderness, he will find the answers he seeks. Here, in this untamed, often violent land, he will come face to face with the terrible truth—and the man behind his brother’s murder.

About Marc Cameron

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Marc Cameron, a native of Texas, has spent over three decades in law enforcement. He is the award-winning author of the Arliss Cutter and the Jericho Quinn series, as well as the Tom Clancy Jack Ryan, Sr. books, starting with Power and Empire in 2017. Early in his career, he served as a uniformed police officer, mounted (horse patrol) officer, and detective before accepting a position with the United States Marshals Service and serving as a Deputy, Fugitive Task Force Commander, Supervisory Deputy, Senior Inspector, and Chief. Cameron’s assignments have taken him from rural Alaska to Manhattan, from Canada to Mexico, and points in between. A second-degree black belt in jujitsu, he often teaches defensive tactics to other law enforcement agencies and civilian groups. Cameron lives in Alaska with his wife and his BMW motorcycle.


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