Connecticut Author Brendan Flaherty Discusses New Comic Crime Novel "Middleman" at House of Books in Kent
The novel, published this week, follows a stressed remote worker, a lonely teenager, and a plot to rob a cemetery’s mausoleums.
Friday, November 13, 6–7pm | Kent, CT
Brendan Flaherty talks about his new novel, Middleman, at House of Books in Kent on Friday evening. The event is free. The novel was released This week and follows his first book The Dredge in 2024.
Middleman follows Jake Flynn, an underpaid, overstressed remote worker with aging parents, young children, a burnt-out wife, a boss who calls at all hours, and growing debts. When his family moves into a rental house in a small Connecticut town, the neighbors complicate things. Edwina is the town historian, whose odd newsletter hints at a dark past. Her son Eddie is a freewheeling aspiring artist who wants easy money, sex, and revenge. Trevor is a lonely 15-year-old who wants to take care of his mother and little brother. Eddie hatches a scheme to rob three mausoleums in the old cemetery of something valuable and manipulates Trevor and Jake into helping. The publisher calls the book a humorous, heartfelt, and unsettling story of an amateur heist gone wrong.
Flaherty grew up in Connecticut’s Farmington River Valley and lives there now. He has a master’s degree in fine arts from Boston University, where he taught fiction, and says he spent years as a remote worker in lower-middle management at large corporations, the world his novel draws on. The Kent event is the first stop on a release weekend tour, followed by Saturday at 4pm at the Simsbury Public Library and Sunday at The Hickory Stick Bookshop.
House of Books, 10 North Main Street, Kent, CT. Information at houseofbooksct.com.
Written by
After a decade of writing for RI (along with many other publications and organizations) Jamie took over as editor in 2025. He has a masters in journalism from NYU, a wonderful wife, two kids and a Carolina dog named Zelda.
