Left Bank Books, in downtown Belfast, invites the public to an evening of conversation with New York Times best-selling authors Thomas E. Ricks and Tess Gerritsen on Tuesday, June 24, at 6:30 p.m.

The free event, which celebrates the recent release of We Can’t Save You: A Tale of Politics, Murder, and Maine, Ricks’s latest installment in his mystery series featuring FBI agent Ryan Tapia, will take place at The First Church in Belfast, located across the street from the bookshop. Doors open at 6 p.m.

Ricks, author of five New York Times bestsellers, combines his deep knowledge of Maine with his years of experience covering U.S. military operations to craft a powerful tale of politics and mayhem in We Can’t Save You.

When a group of young Native Americans launches a series of protests against climate change and its effects on the waters and woods of Maine, Tapia is assigned to monitor the movement. When the marchers begin making camps on the lawns of luxurious summer mansions on the Maine coast, they win national media attention—and the wrath of a reactionary president.

Enraged by the protestors’ actions, the White House sends a U.S. Army unit to track them down while Tapia’s bosses at the FBI, vexed and embarrassed, fire him and threaten him with arrest.

We Can’t Save You showcases Ricks’s knowledge of a land he knows deeply from working in the Maine woods and trapping lobsters year-round in his youth. 

As a reporter at The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, Ricks was a member of two teams that won the Pulitzer Prize (2000, 2002). He has reported on U.S. military activities in Somalia, Haiti, Korea, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Kuwait, Turkey, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

Joining Ricks in conversation will be Tess Gerritsen, who was a trailblazer in the mystery/thriller genre, according to Left Bank, in a news release. She has written more than thirty books published in more than forty countries. Her series of police procedurals featuring Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles inspired the TNT hit television series “Rizzoli & Isles.”

She is currently writing an espionage series that takes place in midcoast Maine and features a group of retired CIA agents. The first book, The Spy Coast, is currently in development for a television series; the second, The Summer Guests, was released this spring. Both have received international praise and were immediate bestsellers.

Reservations for the event can be made by calling the bookshop (207.338.9009) or emailing: info@leftbankbookshop.com. Ample free parking is available around the church and at a city lot adjacent to Left Bank Books on Church Street.