On a stifling August night, an orderly line of more than 100 people, mostly men, snaked down the sidewalk outside Books and Greetings at a New Jersey strip mall.
Many wore camouflage. Still more sported tattoos — flags, anchors, skulls and wings — and facial hair, ranging from full Santa to neat goatee. Conversation was hushed but ardent.
“I cannot get enough,” said a visitor wearing a No Surrender T-shirt. “When I finish, I start over.”
A man in a trucker hat stitched with tomahawks agreed: “Same, bro.”
They were fanboying over Jack Carr, a former Navy SEAL turned No. 1 best-selling author whose eighth thriller, “Cry Havoc,” came out on Oct. 7. He was the guest of honor at the pleasantly chockablock bookstore that harks back to an era when indies were as plentiful as nail salons and “kindle” was merely a verb.
But this was a thoroughly modern book event. There was no reading or Q&A session; no fleet of plastic champagne flutes; no leaning tower of hardcovers. The price of admission ($29.99) included a professional photograph with Carr, downloadable via QR code. In two months’ time, attendees would receive a signed copy of “Cry Havoc” bearing the ultimate benediction: a bullet hole shot through the title page.
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