# Event Details - **Event Name**: Author Talk with James Whitfield Thomson: A Better Ending - **Event Start and End Date**: Thu, 24 Apr, 2025 at 06:00 pm – Thu, 24 Apr, 2025 at 07:00 pm - **Event Description**: Titcomb's Bookshop welcomes author James Whitfield Thomson to speak about A BETTER ENDING on April 24th at 6:00 PM at Titcomb's Bookshop.About this EventTitcomb's Bookshop welcomes author James Whitfield Thomson to speak about his upcoming memoir A Better Ending: A Brother's Twenty-Year Quest to Uncover the Truth About His Sister's Death (pub March 25th) on Thursday, April 24th at 6:00 PM at Titcomb's Bookshop.Books will be for sale at the event, and the author will sign them after his presentation. If you cannot attend but would like a signed copy, please call the bookshop at 508-888-2331.This is a free, in-person event with the author. Registration is required and space is limited. Registration can be completed HERE or by calling Titcomb's Bookshop at 508-888-2331.ABOUT THE BOOKFor fans of We Keep the Dead Close and The Night of the Gun, a propulsive and moving memoir about a brother’s decades-long investigation into the circumstances surrounding his sister’s tragic death—and his own journey to forgiveness and closure.On a summer evening in 1974, Jim Thomson arrived home from a baseball game to the news that his younger sister, Eileen, had taken her own life. To Jim, his parents, and his brother, Keith, the loss was unexpected and devastating. Only twenty-seven years old, Eileen had been living in California with her high school sweetheart, Vic, a cop, surrounded by a circle of close friends and working at a job she loved. It seemed unfathomable that she would K*ll herself, but as the family gathered in Pittsburgh to say goodbye, more details emerged that seemed to explain the tragedy: Eileen had confided in her parents that she had been suffering from depression, and her storybook marriage had been plagued by bitter fights, infidelity, and guilt. When Jim eventually sat down with his brother-in-law to talk about the final hours of Eileen’s life, Vic looked him in the eye and explained that he had stormed out of the room in the midst of a volatile argument. Moments later, a gunshot went off. Sensing no lies or evasion, Jim believed him. He recounted the story to the rest of the family, and they got on with their lives as best they could.Twenty-seven years later, with all of his family passed away, Eileen’s death began to nag at Jim. Now a writer, he wanted to fill in the blanks of her story and answer the questions that were plaguing him. What had the final months of Eileen’s life been like? Why had she not told him about her troubles? How had the infidelity in her marriage brought her and Vic to that fateful day, and who else had been a part of it? What other demons had she been battling?Determined to uncover the truth, Jim hired a private investigator to help him. Together, they tracked down Eileen’s old friends and clandestinely obtained copies of police reports, which revealed that Vic and Eileen’s relationship—and the sheriff’s investigation that followed her death—was much darker and more complicated than they had imagined. Torn by doubt, Jim began a two-decade journey that took him from the streets of Pittsburgh to the hills of San Bernardino, leading him into a tangled web of secrecy, deception, and shifting stories that forced him to reconsider everything he thought he knew about Vic, Eileen, and himself—and to confront the chilling question of whether his sister had really taken her own life.Told with the precision and pace of a whodunit and the searing emotion of a family saga, A Better Ending is an unforgettable tale about the love between siblings, the murkiness of truth and memory, and the path to acceptance.ABOUT THE AUTHORJames Whitfield Thomson grew up on the North Side of Pittsburgh and attended Harvard College on a scholarship. He served as the navigator of a Navy supply ship in the South China Sea during the Vietnam War, then earned a Ph.D. in American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, writing his dissertation on the detective novelist Raymond Chandler. Following a brief stint teaching literature in academia, he had a successful career in business.Jim’s short stories have appeared in various literary journals, and his novel, Lies You Wanted to Hear, has received wide acclaim and was chosen as the pick of the month by Redbook magazine. Jim and his wife live outside of Boston. They have five far-flung children and eleven grandchildren.EVENT ADDRESSTitcomb's Bookshop432 Route 6AEast Sandwich, MA 02537 - **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/sandwich/author-talk-with-james-whitfield-thomson-a-better-ending/100001296063955179 - **Event Categories**: art, literary-art - **Interested Audience**: - total_interested_count: 0 ## Ticket Details - **Ticket URL**: https://consumer.pxf.io/c/1339408/3151484/39691?partnerpropertyid=1191892&MediaPartnerPropertyId=1191892&svlink=14105511&level=1&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eventbrite.com%2Fe%2Fauthor-talk-with-james-whitfield-thomson-a-better-ending-tickets-1296063955179 - **Ticket Price Range**: min: 0, max: 0, currency: USD ## Event venue details - **city**: Sandwich - **state**: MA - **country**: United States - **location**: Titcomb's Bookshop - **lat**: 41.7387086 - **long**: -70.44261 - **full address**: Titcomb's Bookshop, 432, Sandwich, United States ## Event Organizer details - **affiliate_id**: 10 - **organizer**: Titcomb's Bookshop (https://allevents.in/org/titcombs-bookshop/22554637) ## Event gallery - **Alt text**: banner - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events7/banners/641eded431ad12cd31ae5f67b16406334fef534f8a06b83316c27419302ffce9-rimg-w1200-h600-dcdddccf-gmir.jpg?v=1742521580 - **Alt text**: thumbnail - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events7/banners/cbf3aee9dd72ee0fa597da94c10504dc0818c8334ce37757db45da360a39cf15-rimg-w400-h400-dcdddccf-gmir.jpg?v=1742521577 ## FAQs - **Q**: When is the event happening? - **A:** Thu, 24 Apr, 2025 at 06:00 pm - **Q**: Where is the event happening? - **A:** Titcomb's Bookshop, 432, Sandwich, United States - **Q**: What is the ticket price? - **A:** starting from 0 up to 0 USD - **Q**: Who is organizing the event? - **A:** Titcomb's Bookshop - **Q**: What type of event is this? - **A:** art, literary-art - **Q**: Where can I find ticket details about Author Talk with James Whitfield Thomson: A Better Ending ? - **A:** You can find ticket details about this event on AllEvents. ## Structured Data (JSON-LD) ```json [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Event", "name": "Author Talk with James Whitfield Thomson: A Better Ending", "image": "https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events7/banners/641eded431ad12cd31ae5f67b16406334fef534f8a06b83316c27419302ffce9-rimg-w1200-h600-dcdddccf-gmir.jpg?v=1742521580", "startDate": "2025-04-24", "endDate": "2025-04-24", "url": "https://allevents.in/sandwich/author-talk-with-james-whitfield-thomson-a-better-ending/100001296063955179", "location": { "@type": "Place", "name": "Titcomb's Bookshop", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "432", "postalCode": "02537", "addressLocality": "Sandwich", "addressRegion": "MA", "addressCountry": "US" }, "geo": { "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": "41.7387086", "longitude": "-70.44261" } }, "eventAttendanceMode": "https://schema.org/OfflineEventAttendanceMode", "description": "Titcomb's Bookshop welcomes author James Whitfield Thomson to speak about A BETTER ENDING on April 24th at 6:00 PM at Titcomb's Bookshop.", "offers": [ { "@type": "AggregateOffer", "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock", "priceCurrency": "USD", "availabilityStarts": "2026-04-04", "availabilityEnds": "2025-04-24", "validFrom": "2026-04-04", "lowPrice": "0.00", "highPrice": "0.00", "price": "0.00", "url": "https://allevents.in/sandwich/author-talk-with-james-whitfield-thomson-a-better-ending/100001296063955179" }, { "@type": "Offer", "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock", "priceCurrency": "USD", "availabilityStarts": "2026-04-04", "availabilityEnds": "", "validFrom": "2026-04-04", "url": "https://allevents.in/sandwich/author-talk-with-james-whitfield-thomson-a-better-ending/100001296063955179", "price": 0, "name": "General Admission" } ], "organizer": [ { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Titcombs Bookshop", "url": "https://allevents.in/org/titcombs-bookshop/22554637", "description": "Independent family-owned bookshop since 1967. 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