John Searles

John Searles is an American writer and book critic. He is the author of five novels: Single Girls inspired by his years as an editor at Cosmopolitan and his friendship with the controversial feminist editor and writer Helen Gurley Brown^[1]as well as Her Last Affair (ISBN 0-06-077965-9), Help For The Haunted (ISBN 978-0-06-077963-4), Strange But True (ISBN 0-06-072179-0) and Boy Still Missing (ISBN 0-06-082243-0). His essays have appeared in national magazines and newspapers, such as The New York Times^[2] and Washington Post and he contributes frequently to morning television shows as a book critic. He is based in New York City.^[3]

Born and raised in New England, Searles is the son of a truck driver and stay-at-home mother.^[4] After high school, Searles worked at the DuPont factory close to his hometown^[5] of Monroe, Connecticut.^[6] He went on to pursue an undergraduate degree from Southern Connecticut State University, becoming the first member of his family to attend college, before entering a graduate program at New York University on a writing scholarship,^[7] where he won a number of fiction awards^[5] and received a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing.^[3][8] He is married to theatre director Thomas Caruso.^[9]

After completing his master's degree, Searles took a job at Redbook magazine reading fiction submissions.^[5] He soon moved on to a part-time job in the books department at Cosmopolitan, where he went on to hold many positions including Books Editor, Executive Editor, Editorial Brand Director^[5] and Editor-at-Large.^[8]

Upon the 2001 publication of Searles' first novel, Boy Still Missing, Time named him a "Person to Watch"^[10] and the New York Daily News named him a "New Yorker to Watch."^[11] His second novel, Strange But True, was named the best novel of 2004 by Salon.com.^[10] Searles' novel Help for the Haunted, published by William Morrow/HarperCollins^[10] in September 2013, won the American Library Association Alex Award, was named as an Amazon Top 10 Mystery and Suspense Novel of 2013, a Boston Globe Top 10 Crime Novel of 2013, and an Entertainment Weekly Top Ten Must Read,^[12] and was hailed by author Gillian Flynn as "dazzling… a novel both frightening and beautiful."^[10]

His essays have appeared in The Washington Post, the New York Times, and other national magazines and newspapers. He has featured frequently as a book critic on morning television shows including NBC's Today Show,^[10] CBS's The Early Show,^[10] Live! With Regis and Kelly,^[10] Charlie Rose, and CNN^[10] to discuss his favorite book selections.

In 2019, a film adaptation of Strange But True was released by Lionsgate and CBS Films.