Upcoming Events:
Thursday, 11 June, noon - Book talk, An Apartment in Paris, Rockford Rotary Club, Rockford, Illinois
Wednesday, 8 July, noon - Book Talk, An Apartment in Paris, Mount Horeb Rotary Club, Mount Horeb, Wisconsin
Monday, 13 July, 11:15 am - Book Talk, An Apartment in Paris, Verona Community Center, 108 Paoli Street, Verona, Wisconsin
Tuesday, 14 July, 7 pm - A Dialog on Writing with Dave Wood, Whitehall Public Library, 18560 Scranton Street, Whitehall, Wisconsin.
Videos:
“GabTalk” with Gabby Olczak
Gabby Olczak, co-founder of the Independent Press Association (IPA) and the vivacious hostess of her “GabTalk” videos has done a series of interviews with Last Kid Books author David Benjamin.
NEW from Last Kid Books:
Upstairs
Sixth in the Award-Winning Jim Otis Smalltown Crime Series!
There’s a curse on the Kuckuck building.
It’s been abandoned for more than a decade. It’s boarded up and slated for demolition. In other words, it’s a magnet for kids to break, enter, climb the stairs and explore. Which is exactly what Riley Hawkins, grade-school bully, decides to do …
… Until the building strikes back!
Benjamin at BookCamp
July 2024 •
“GabTalk” with Gabby Olczak
At the Independent Press Awards “BookCamp” this year, the IPA’s vivacious Gabby Olczak chatted with David Benjamin about Cheat (Mystery), one of Benjamin’s four 2024 Distinguished Favorite award-winning books, including The Voice of the Dog (Crime Fiction), The Melting Grandmother and Other Short Works (Short Stories) and Bistro Nights (Literary Fiction). These honors increased the total number of literary awards garnered by Last Kid Books to 46, since its 2019 launch.
Here’s Benjamin, holding his haul of medals, with Book Camp impresario Ted Olczak. Click to view Benjamin’s “GabTalk” conversation.
Last Kid News:
(Here is the official notice of the release of my newest Last Kid Books title, Upstairs, a milestone that I’m announcing in collaboration with Boundless Media. Lots of info on Upstairs, Jim Otis (and his gang of irregulars), and all my books is at my LKB website.)
Upstairs: Award-Winning Author David Benjamin Releases Sixth Jim Otis Novel Exploring Hidden Fears
LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, May 20, 2026 — Award-winning author David Benjamin returns with Upstairs, the sixth book in his Jim Otis smalltown crime series. Set in the fictional town of Hercules, Wisconsin, the new novel blends mystery, suspense, humor, and the supernatural as it explores what happens when buried secrets and personal struggles refuse to stay hidden.
“At its core, Upstairs is about the things we try to outrun,” says Benjamin. “The memories we bury, the truths we avoid, and what happens when they finally catch up with us.”
The story begins when Riley, a troubled but curious schoolboy, wanders into the upstairs apartment of an abandoned building and experiences something he cannot explain. Before long, others enter the strange space and experience disturbing visions tied to the things that haunt them most. When Police Chief Jim Otis steps in to investigate, he confronts disturbing experiences from his own past as he tries to understand the strange power the building seems to hold over the town.
Upstairs is available now. Click here to order copies: https://lastkidbooks.com/upstairs/
NEW...
Upstairs
Last Kid Books
is a publishing house with a sense of humor. Dedicated — at its outset — to publishing the works of prolific storyteller David Benjamin, LKB embodies Benjamin’s wry wit and narrative adventurousness.
Last Kid Books takes its name from David Benjamin’s beloved Midwestern coming-of-age story, The Life and Times of the Last Kid Picked (published by Random House in 2002). Benjamin is also author of SUMO: A Thinking Fan’s Guide to Japan’s National Sport, a Charles E. Tuttle title, revised in 2010, that has been in print since 1990. Two previous Benjamin novels, Three’s A Crowd (a noir comedy) and A Sunday Kind of Love (a football romance), have been added to the Last Kid Books imprint, as well as Black Dragon, released in July 2019.
David Benjamin is a novelist, journalist, provocateur and habitual humorist who has lived his life — occasionally to his chagrin — by the words of Nobel laureate Juan Ramon Jimenez: “If they give you ruled paper, write the other way.”
Last Kid Books is Benjie’s showcase.
