Friday Freebie: The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel

Congratulations to the five winners of last week's Friday Freebie, Alyson Hagy's new novel Boleto: James Stolen, Thomas Baughman, Carol De Brikasaan, Rhonda Lomazow, and Lewis Parker.

This week's book giveaway is The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel, a writer whose career has had jet packs strapped to its back ever since the publication of her first novel, Last Night in Montreal in 2009, which was followed by The Singer's Gun a year later. In her new novel, just released by Unbridled Books, Mandel delivers a tightly-plotted thriller.  Library Journal gave it a starred review, saying, "Evocative, intriguing, and complex, this novel is as smooth as the underbelly of a deadly, furtive reptile."  I blogged about it in a previous edition of Front Porch Books, but here's the full plot summary from the publisher's website:

Gavin Sasaki is a promising young journalist in New York City, until he’s fired in disgrace following a series of unforgivable lapses in his work. It’s early 2009, and the world has gone dark very quickly. The economic collapse has turned an era that magazine headlines once heralded as the second gilded age into something that more closely resembles the Great Depression. The last thing Gavin wants to do is return to his hometown of Sebastian, Florida, but he’s in no position to refuse when he’s offered a job by his sister, Eilo, a real estate broker who deals in foreclosed homes. Also, Eilo has shown him a photo of a ten-year-old girl who could be homeless and in trouble. The little girl looks strikingly like Gavin and has the same last name as his high school girlfriend, Anna, from a decade ago. Gavin—a former jazz musician, a reluctant broker of foreclosed properties, obsessed with film noir and private detectives and otherwise at loose ends—begins his own private investigation in an effort to track down Anna and their apparent daughter who, it turns out, have been on the run all these years.

If you'd like a chance at winning a copy of The Lola Quartet, all you have to do is answer this question:

Where was Emily St. John Mandel born?  (You can find the ridiculously easy answer at her website.)

Email your answer to thequiveringpen@gmail.com

Put FRIDAY FREEBIE in the e-mail subject line.  One entry per person, please.  Please e-mail me the answer, rather than posting it in the comments section.  Despite its name, the Friday Freebie runs all week long and remains open to entries until midnight on May 10--at which time I'll draw the winning name.  I'll announce the lucky reader on May 11.  If you'd like to join the mailing list for the once-a-week Quivering Pen newsletter, simply add the words "Sign me up for the newsletter" in the body of your email.  Your email address and other personal information will never be sold or given to a third party (except in those instances where the publisher requires a mailing address for sending Friday Freebie winners copies of the book).

Want to double your odds of winning?  Get an extra entry in the contest by posting a link to this webpage on your blog, your Facebook wall or by tweeting it on Twitter.  Once you've done either or both of those, send me an additional e-mail saying "I've shared" and I'll put your name in the hat twice.