Thomas Reid Pearson (born 1956) is an American writer. Pearson also writes
crime fiction
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...
under the
pen name
A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen na ...
Rick Gavin.
Biography
Pearson was born in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Winston-Salem is a city and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the second-largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region, the 5th most populous city in N ...
. He was a student at
North Carolina State University
North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The universit ...
, where he gained a
BA and
MA in English. He went on to teach at
Peace College
William Peace University is a private college in Raleigh, North Carolina. Formerly affiliated with the Presbyterian Church, it offers undergraduate degrees in more than 30 majors and the School of Professional Studies (SPS) offers accelerated ba ...
in
Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the List of North Carolina county seats, seat of Wake County, North Carolina, Wake County in the United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most ...
. He started work on a PhD in
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
but soon returned to North Carolina, where he worked as a carpenter and a housepainter while he began writing his first two novels, ''
A Short History of a Small Place'' and ''
Off for the Sweet Hereafter''. Neither was published until 1985, when he moved to New York City, where both books were issued by
Linden Press.
His novels are set in the
South
South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...
, in the imaginary small town of Neely, near Winston–Salem, or, in his recent novels, in the
Appalachia
Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ca ...
n areas of Virginia, where he now lives. His writing captures a uniquely Southern social order, outlook, and voice and has been compared to the work of
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
and
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most of ...
.
''A Short History of a Small Place'', ''Off for the Sweet Hereafter'', ''The Last of How It Was'', ''Cry Me a River'', ''Polar'' and ''Blue Ridge'' were ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' Notable Books.
Pearson collaborated with
John Grisham
John Ray Grisham Jr. (; born February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas) is an American novelist, lawyer and former member of the 7th district of the Mississippi House of Representatives, known for his popular legal thrillers. According to the Am ...
on early drafts of the screenplays for ''
The Rainmaker'' (1997) and ''
Runaway Jury
''Runaway Jury'' is a 2003 American legal thriller film directed by Gary Fleder and starring John Cusack, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, and Rachel Weisz. An adaptation of John Grisham's 1996 novel ''The Runaway Jury'', the film pits lawyer We ...
'' (1998), films based on two of Grisham's novels.
Under the pen name Rick Gavin, Pearson wrote a series of three crime novels, set in the
Mississippi Delta
The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi (and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana) that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo ...
, featuring
repo man Nick Reid and his best friend, Desmond.
Pearson lives in
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
.
Works
Novels
Neely trilogy
* ''
A Short History of a Small Place'' (Linden Press, 1985)
* ''
Off for the Sweet Hereafter'' (Linden Press, 1986)
* ''The Last of How It Was'' (Linden Press, 1987)
Ray Tatum Mysteries
* ''Cry Me a River'' (Henry Holt, 1993)
* ''Blue Ridge'' (Viking, 2000)
* ''Polar'' (Viking, 2002)
* ''Warwolf'' (Barking Mad Press, 2011)
* ''First in Flight'' (Barking Mad Press, 2015)
* ''Brigade'' (Barking Mad Press, 2018)
Nick Reid and Desmond series (as Rick Gavin)
* ''Ranchero'' (Minotaur Books, 2011)
* ''Beluga'' (Minotaur Books, 2012)
* ''Nowhere Nice'' (Minotaur Books, 2013)
Standalone novels
* ''Call and Response'' (Linden Press, 1989)
* ''Gospel Hour'' (William Morrow, 1991)
* ''True Cross'' (Viking, 2003)
* ''Glad News of the Natural World'' (Simon & Schuster, 2005)
* ''Red Scare: A Novel of Venomous Intrigue'' (Barking Mad Press, 2008)
* ''Jerusalem Gap'' (Barking Mad Press, 2010)
* ''East Jesus South'' (Barking Mad Press, 2014)
* ''Low Lords'' (Barking Mad Press, 2016)
* ''Theory of the Case'' (Barking Mad Press, 2017)
* ''Eaglesworth'' (Barking Mad Press, 2018)
* ''Serpent of Old'' (Barking Mad Press, 2019)
* ''Sleepaway'' (Barking Mad Press, 2019)
* ''Confederate States'' (Barking Mad Press, 2020)
* ''Devil Up'' (Barking Mad Press, 2021)
Non-fiction
* ''Seaworthy: Adrift with William Willis in the Golden Age of Rafting'' (Crown, 2006) — Biography of adventurer
William Willis.
Book Information
* ''Augie's Quest: One Man's Journey from Success to Significance'' (Bloomsbury USA, 2007) with Augie Nieto
* ''Year of Our Lord: Faith, Hope and Harmony in the Mississippi Delta'' (Mockingbird Publishing, 2010) — Text by Pearson, photographs by Langdon Clay
* ''Top of the Rock'' (Random House, 2012) with Warren Littlefield
Warren W. Littlefield (born May 11, 1952) is an American television executive.
Born in Montclair, New Jersey, Littlefield attended Montclair High School and graduated from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York, where he was award ...
As editor
* '' I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon'', by Crystal Zevon (HarperCollins, 2009)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pearson, T. R.
1956 births
Living people
20th-century American novelists
21st-century American novelists
American male novelists
Novelists from Virginia
North Carolina State University alumni
Writers from Winston-Salem, North Carolina
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American male writers
Novelists from North Carolina