Melissa Ginsburg Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Melissa Ginsburg is a popular author from Houston, United States, who likes to write mystery, detective fiction, crime fiction, thriller, and suspense novels, and poetry. She is famous for writing a poetry collection called Dear Weather Ghost. This collection was published by the Four Way Books. Besides this, she has also written a chapbook called Arbor, published from the New Michigan Press. With respect to the novels, the writing career of author Melissa is comprised of 3 standalone books. The poems written by her have made appearances in Pleiades, Denver Quarterly, Field, Jubilat, and several other literary magazines. As far as the academic studies of author Melissa is concerned, she holds a bachelor of arts degree in the subject of English, which she had earned from the Houston University. Also, she has an MFA obtained from the Writers’ Workshop of Iowa. Author Melissa originally hails from Houston, Texas, but now resides in Oxford, Mississippi. In addition to writing novels and poetry, she spends her time teaching literature and creative writing at the Mississippi University.

An initial book penned by Melissa Ginsburg is entitled ‘Sunset City’. It was released by the Ecco publication in the year 2016. Author Melissa has set the plot in Houston. She has mentioned the chief characters as Danielle Reeves and Charlotte Ford. This novel is regarded as an erotically charged and taut literary noir and revolves around the life of a woman who is stuck in the shocking murder of her friend. The woman’s life goes for a shocking turn when she uncovers some dark truths while working on the investigation of her friend’s murder case. At the start of the story, it is depicted Danielle Reeves develops an addiction to drugs. Before developing the addiction, she was the most vibrant and loyal friend of Charlotte Ford. Danielle Reeves has helped Charlotte a lot when her mother was ill and also supported her when she died. During that time, Danielle had opened up with Charlotte Ford about the troubled family of her own. The way they had bonded with each other, it looked as if they were totally inseparable. They had reveled in the shadowy corners of Houston quite well. But, the drug addiction of Danielle Reeves played a spoil sport in her life and caught her pretty tightly. When she got caught by the drug enforcement agencies, Danielle tested positive for consumption of a prohibited substance and thus she had to face 4 prison time. After her release from prison, Charlotte and Danielle began connecting with each other once again. Things between the two appeared to be just like the olden days. Charlotte Ford hopes that from here on they can give a new beginning to their friendship. However, just as things were going well in their lives, a detective arrives at the apartment of Charlotte and informs her that Danielle has been brutally murdered. She was bludgeoned to her death. As soon as Charlotte Ford hears this news, she gets gripped an overwhelming grief. She could not understand how could Danielle die suddenly when she looked completely fine and was hoping to live a worthy life for a better future.

Charlotte gets filled with the determination of finding out how the most alive lady known to her ended up dead. However, the more she descends into the dark world of Danielle Reeves, the less she thinks that she knew her. Charlotte starts to doubt whether Danielle was a master manipulator or a hapless victim. She also doubts whether Danielle showed the intention of starting over or she was just acting in front of her. If Charlotte wishes to get anywhere close to the truth, she must be keep herself well guarded and her head clean and clear. It is well known about Houston that it has its own ways of feeding on the bad habits. So, Charlotte Ford does not wish to get fully swallowed and turn up a victim of the anguished desires of her own. The readers liked the book’s story very much. One thing that kept most of them intrigued with the plot was the imagination that Aiden Quinn form Practical Magic was in the role of the detective. A number of critics believed that it is a great book and the publishers did the right thing by not providing unnecessary marketing to it. The book appears to fall in the perfect spot because of a self destructive female lead, who gets completely shaken after learning about the murder of her closest friend. Several critics said that author Melissa did the best thing by choosing Houston as the book’s setting because the swampy, muggy, and money saturated city seems to be a perfect setting for this type of story. The unique writing style of author Melissa proved too good for the book. It appears that the novel receives life from the undercurrent of movement and suspense. Melissa’s character descriptions seem very real and the coping techniques of Charlotte also look very natural. Once again, author Melissa has done a fine job by placing the erotically charged and sex scenes at definite places in the plot. This gave a nice look to the erotic noir/psychological thriller genre. Melissa’s writing is regarded as hypnotic and intriguing, which also helped in the book’s immense success.

Another mind blowing story penned by author Melissa in the form of a poetry collection is called ‘Dear Weather Ghost’. The publication of 4 Way Books released it in 2013. Author Melissa has built the collection around the epistolary sequence. It presents the images of animals, landscapes, elements, etc. They appear like vehicles required to explore exile. Author Melissa has mentioned that a road crosses throughout the country and the speakers of the poems also seem drifting with it, both physically and spiritually. The readers experience the unmoored journey with the help of lyrical, tight pieces that often make use of simple and coy language. This poetry collection went on to become highly successful. It was praised by many prominent critics. It received excellent reviews from one and all. And this allowed the collection to reach a wide range of audiences all across the globe. The tremendous success enabled the interesting collection of poetry to get nominated for the Idaho Prize for Best Poetry in the year 2008. The nomination for such a prestigious award increased the popularity of the collection and of author Melissa even more.