Creator of 'Fargo' TV show crafts one of the year's best suspense novels

Creating the award-winning television show "Fargo" isn't enough to keep Noah Hawley busy: He's also a novelist.

His fifth and newest book, "Before the Fall," is a fractured glance at a private plane crash just off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. It's a late summer night when the jet of a Wall Street titan goes down in the dark waters of the Atlantic.

There are only two survivors: Scott, a painter whose specialty is disaster scenes, and a 4-year old boy, who is the last living member of a wealthy and influential family.

The book, as the title suggests, jumps back in time to investigate the lives of the doomed passengers, and follows up to explore the controversy and conspiracy theories that erupt after the crash.

The New York Times wrote that "Before the Fall" is "a mesmerizing, surprise-jammed mystery that works purely on its own, character-driven terms."

Hawley joined MPR News host Kerri Miller to discuss the novel, the idea of violence in fiction and the experience of filming the show "Fargo."

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