Happy book birthday to Hold Me Down!

I’ve waited so long for this book to be published, please help me celebrate. Share your pictures of HOLD ME DOWN in print or the ebook cover on Twitter, FB, or Instagram, and I’ll reach out with some pub week treats!

Thanks to the pandemic, it doesn’t look like I’m going to have any in-person events. However, I’ve paired with some very cool independent bookstores for online events, and I hope you’ll join me at one (or all). Yes, my book is now up for pre-order at Amazon – and, believe me, I appreciate all sales! – but if you find you can order from one of the hosting indies below, it will support them, as well as me. (The buy links are on the events pages.) 

Some of these are watchable through Facebook and Youtube, as well as each bookstore’s own site or Zoom channel. They’re all free. 

Hope you can join me in the celebration!

Thursday: The Poisoned Pen  Oct. 21, 7 pm (interviewed by bookstore owner Barbara Peters)

Next Thursday: Harvard Book Store (in conversation with Caroline Leavitt) on Oct. 28, 7 pm

*Here’s what early readers and reviewers are saying about HOLD ME DOWN. Please share YOUR thoughts on my new book below!

“Lyrical, layered, and full of surprises. Simon has penned a raw and emotional thriller with a heartbeat, about lost dreams and missing friends, regrets and buried memories, the final note reminding us that it’s never too late to start again. Provocative, moving, and suspenseful.” –Lisa Unger, New York Times bestselling author of Last Girl Ghosted 

“Gripping and intense, a darkly suspenseful dive into friendship, fame, murder, and the thrilling power of rock music. I couldn’t put it down.” ―Meg Gardiner, author of the UNSUB series 

“This devastatingly powerful mystery hits like a punch to the heart.” ―Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of With or Without You 

“Simon perceptively illustrates the sacrifices one makes for art. Simon’s tour of the Boston music scene will make readers wish Hold Me Down included a link to iTunes.” ―Oline Cogdill, Sun-Sentinel 

“A mystery that explores character motivations … For fans of Alexander McCall Smith and Janet Evanovich.” ―Library Journal 

“Simon draws on her career as a journalist, in particular her reporting on Boston’s music scene in the 1990s, for the setting, concert scenes, and flashbacks, bringing a gritty reality to this dark suspense tale.” ―Booklist

“A flat-out, stoked-up, red-alert blistering justice-gets-done story that you can’t put down.” ―E. Jean Carroll, author of What Do We Need Men For? 

“This exquisite novel is not the one in the story but the one in the way Clea Simon tells it. We hear music that never existed, pine for memories we couldn’t have, and mourn for the survivors. …Simon is a wizard.” ―David Hajdu, author of Lush Life and Positively 4th Street 

“This pitch-perfectly dark psychological suspense underscores the price of fame, the price of friendship, and the temptations of success. Sharp and insightful, and written with exquisite detail, this story has a soundtrack that will linger long after the final page.” ―Hank Phillippi Ryan, USA Today-bestselling author of Her Perfect Life 

“Hold Me Down is a joyous novel about friendship and survival, but what dark, bitter joy. Simon has gone deep into a world many women know all too well, where pride, guilt, and pain do battle inside the stories we tell. A cracking plot in a rich setting round out this important, timely book to perfection.” ―Catriona McPherson, Edgar-nominated author of A Gingerbread House 

“Powerfully written and compulsively readable. Part murder mystery and part wistful history of a one-time rock star and her deeply buried secrets.” ―Dave Zeltserman, award-winning author of Small Crimes, now a Netflix film 

“A hard-rocking riff of a novel, Hold Me Down explodes with a passion for music while also probing the intimate betrayals buried under a haze of alcohol and pills. Simon expertly explores how music seeks to embody truth, even when musicians hid their own pain behind the melodies.” ―Joanna Schaffhausen, winner of the MWA/St. Martin’s Minotaur first crime novel award for The Vanishing Season