Iowa City suspense authors bring their unique backgrounds to their writing

About this episode

The episode revisits a conversation with best-selling author Tim Johnston and Anna Bruno about suspense writing and features a discussion on the reopening of the Rails West Museum.

Best-selling author Tim Johnston was a master of the thriller. He passed away in May. To mark his passing, we’re revisiting a conversation from 2025 with Johnston and author Anna Bruno. We talk about their books 'Distant Sons' and 'Fine Young People' and the art of writing suspense. Then, the Historical Society of Pottawattamie County reopened the Rails West Museum after a year and a half of renovations, where people can explore a historic train depot and train cars. We’ll talk to the museum’s site manager as well as the site manager of the Squirrel Cage Jail. (This show was originally produced July 21, 2025.)

People in this episode

Guest: Anna Bruno

Topics covered

• suspense writing
• thriller authors
• literature
• historical museums
• Iowa culture

Keywords

• Tim Johnston
• Anna Bruno
• suspense
• thriller
• Rails West Museum
• Iowa City
• historical society
• Distant Sons
• Fine Young People

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Historical Society of Pottawattamie County

Books & works: Distant Sons, Fine Young People

Places: Rails West Museum, Squirrel Cage Jail

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