Stephen Amidon Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Collections

Stephen Amidon is an American novelist who is best known for his mystery novels.

While he was born in Chicago and was brought up on the East Coast, he currently spends much of his time in Torino, Italy, and Massachusetts in the United States.
Before he moved back to the United States, he spent at least a dozen years living and working in London.

Amidon’s works have been published in more than 16 countries and include eight novels, a collection of short stories, two nonfiction works, and the critically acclaimed “Security and Human Capital.”
His works have been adapted into film and have been on various book of the year lists.

“Human Capital” was made into an Italian film by Paolo Virzi and the work went on to win several awards and was nominated for best foreign language film at the Oscars in 2015.
Amidon penned the script for “The Leisure Seeker” by Virzi, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2017.

In 2015, “6Bianca” his serial play premiered at “Torino Teatro Stabile.” “Security’s” film adaptation was released in Italy and on Netflix all over the globe in 2021.

Amidon was born in the suburbs of Chicago and spent most of his childhood and young adulthood in Maryland and New Jersey.

His interest in storytelling became evident when he was about twelve and his English teacher assigned the class a short story assignment.

His classmates, his teacher, and his family were so impressed by what he wrote that he was hooked and has never thought of doing anything else since.

After graduating from college, he moved to North Carolina where he had a short stint as a journalist and did a ton of book reviews. In 1987, he moved to London and made use of the many book reviews he had done in the US to try to find a job.
While he sent so many applications, the only response he got was from Auberon Waugh, a conservative and eccentric Englishman who ran “The Literary Review” magazine.

After having drinks with the man, he found that he had a lot in common with Waugh who gave him his first real writing job.

In addition to writing for the magazine, he also wrote for “The Sunday Times,” and “The Financial Times” and published four of his first novels while based in the United Kingdom.

It was while he was in the UK that he met Caryl his wife with whom he threw a ton of dinner parties and had four children.

In 1999, he moved back to the United States and made his home in Massachusetts, where he published his next seven works and also became a screenwriter.

He got into screenwriting somewhat unexpectedly as a decade following the publishing of “Human Capital,” he got a letter from Paolo Virzi the Italian director, who wanted to adapt it into a film.
The film became a massive hit and resulted in several screenwriting opportunities and further adaptations of his novels.

He has often said that the best thing about screenwriting is seeing other artists such as designers, actors, writers, and designers reimagine worlds he came up with in his office.

“Locust Lane” by Stephen Amidon is a work that has been compared to the likes of Celeste Ng’s “Little Fires Everywhere” and Dennis “Lehane’s Mystic River.”

This is an utterly propulsive and taut work about the fault lines of influence and power, and the search for justice in a seemingly idyllic town.

On the surface, Emerson Massachusetts looks like most other affluent suburbs of New England. But then things change when a young woman is found dead in the high-end part of the suburb and powerful neighbors unite to keep their families safe.
The death of Eden Perry results in an investigation into two suspects all in their teens who had been last seen with her.

Hannah has developed a reputation as an unstable but sweet girl when she meets Chris, an outsider desperate to fit in. On his part, Jack is a mean-spirited kid who is very popular.
To further complicate things, their parents have their own motivations and are determined to protect their children, even if it is at the expense of the truth.

With an intricately crafted and brilliantly woven plot, it is a terse work that is deeply affecting and intensely gripping.

Stephen Amidon’s novel “Human Capital” is a fascinating work set in 2001 that introduces Drew Hagel. He is a man who has spent the last ten years losing just about everything.

It began with his marriage, then his real estate brokerage, and then the estrangement of Shannon his beloved daughter who has now become a mysterious and distant high school senior.
Things are about to get worse as he may just lose his place in the tiny but rich town where his father was once a high-ranking and well-respected citizen.

But then he makes an unexpected friend in the manager of a secretive trust fund named Quint Manning, who exposes him to the opportunity for frictionless, vast wealth.

But what he does not know is that Manning also has many problems as he no longer has the perfect Midas touch.

Meanwhile, Carrie his restless wife is increasingly disillusioned with his new money while Jamie his hard-drinking son is losing control with each passing day.

As the two families become perilously interwoven, Jamie and Shannon get into a terrible accident and this provides Drew with the leverage he needed to remain relevant.
However, his decision to gamble with human lives rather than money results in some tragic consequences, resulting in a devastating climax to the novel.

“Security: A Novel’ by Stephen Amidon is a work set in a small college town named Stoneleigh in Massachusetts.

The college town is a mountain getaway for millionaires next door and hence, it boasts the reputation of having very little crime, with most burglar alarms set off by deer and foxes.
As such, when the owner of Stoneleigh Sentinel Security, Edward Inman gets a late night alarm from one of his richest clients named Doyle Cutler, he believes it must be the wildlife.
But then a local student comes forward with sexual assault claims, which she says happened at his client’s house.

It is a riveting, wry, and timely story of children and adults, sexual hysteria, and suspicion that confirms the author as one of the best chroniclers of American life today.