The Vassar Club of Texas invites you join us from 8-9:30 pm CT for an event guaranteed to entertain and intrigue! This online book club (Zoom) is part of our Artistry Unbound event series.

Thomas Dean Donnelly ’90 has been a professional screenwriter for 30 years. During the recent Hollywood writers strike, he took the time off to finish his first novel, a spy thriller called Year of the Rabbit, which came out in the fall of 2024. We encourage you to read it before the event!

This interactive book club discussion will be led by the author, who is a seasoned presenter and storyteller.

YEAR OF THE RABBIT is the debut spy thriller by Vassar film major T.D. Donnelly ’90. Tom has been a professional screenwriter for 30 years now, having written Sahara (Matthew McConaughey), Conan the Barbarian (Jason Momoa), and other films. During the Hollywood writers strike two years ago he finally found time to write his first novel.

Its sequel, YEAR OF THE HORSE, is projected to be out in August 2025.

About YEAR OF THE RABBIT:

A MILLION dollar bounty
TEN THOUSAND agents dying to collect
ONE man caught in the crosshairs

Legendary interrogator Malcolm Chaucer is known as The Oracle. There is no subject he cannot break, no secret he cannot unlock. The key to his uncanny ability: Chaucer was subjected to eight years of experimental torture at the hands of a North Korean madman. He is a broken man, possessed with a unique psychology that makes him both incapable of lying, and a human polygraph machine.

But when a routine interrogation in NYC reveals the assassin of a Korean virologist, Chaucer’s world is thrown into chaos. The assassin’s identity? Tempest McClaren, known both as The Widowmaker … and Chaucer’s ex-wife.

Unraveling this chain of seeming coincidence uncovers a secret coup in the world’s most dangerous nuclear-armed regime, and Chaucer finds himself running for his life.

A North Korean assassin, a CIA hunt team, and a million dollar bounty broadcast to every freelancer on the East Coast all tell Chaucer his chances for survival are at an all-time low, unless he can find his ex-wife and stay alive long enough to discover the secret of the Year of the Rabbit.

Year of the Rabbit combines the man-on-the-run paranoia of Six Days of the Condor, the colorful characters of Mick Herron’s Slow Horses series, and the raw fun of Lee Child’s Reacher series.

Artistry Unbound is a Vassar Club of Texas event series that is designed to embrace books, music, visual arts, performing arts, crafts, and more! Please feel free to email the club with suggestions of people, works, venues, and activities we could feature. Events will be virtual and in person.

VCTX Community Inclusion: Unless an event listing specifies a particular group, such as “alums,” our events are open to all alums (former students, across the globe), current and incoming students, and family members!

Questions? Contact vassarcluboftexas@gmail.com.

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