Brooklynite pens murder thriller

Brooklyn BookBeat: ‘The Blondes’ Author to Speak in Cobble Hill

March 17, 2015 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Brooklyn author Emily Schultz’s new book “The Blondes” will be featured at BookCourt on April 22. Photo by Brian Joseph Davis

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You may want to think twice about making that dumb blonde joke after reading Brooklynite Emily Schultz’s new novel, “The Blondes” (Thomas Dunne Books), which will be available April 21.

Schultz takes a seemingly innocuous character trait — blonde hair — and turns it into the common thread in a spate of murders carried out by blonde women plaguing New York City.

Schultz, who has intimate knowledge of NYC, managed to craft a hilarious and whip-smart story in which rabid blondes pose a terrifying threat to such a fearless city.

Hazel Hayes is a grad student living in New York City. As the novel opens, she learns she is pregnant (from an affair with her married professor) at an apocalyptically bad time: Random but deadly attacks on passers-by, all by blonde women, are terrorizing New Yorkers.

Soon it becomes clear that the attacks are symptoms of a strange illness that is transforming blondes — whether CEOs, flight attendants, students or accountants — into rabid killers.

Schultz is the co-founder of the literary journal Joyland. Her novel, “Heaven Is Small” was named a finalist for the Trillium Book Award alongside books by Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro, as was “The Blondes.” She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Brian Joseph Davis.

Schultz has received acclaim from authors including Stephen King and Emily St. John Mandel, among others.

“‘The Blondes’ is intelligent, mesmerizing and fearless. An entirely original and beautifully twisted satire with a heart of darkness,” St. John Mandel said.

King also tweeted, “Emily Schultz is my new hero.”

“The Blondes” will be featured at BookCourt on April 22 at 7 p.m. in Cobble Hill.