February 2008 Archives

Ridley Pearson keeps the thrills for a younger audience in his latest, Steel Trapp: The Challenge. The first book in a new series featuring Steven (Steel) Trapp, the novel opens with our young protagonist riding a train with his mother to the National Science Challenge in Washington, D.C.   He sees a woman leave a briefcase on board, and his attempt to return it propels him into a complex plot involving kidnapping and blackmail.

In a miracle of 21st century logistics, Californian Keith Raffel recently caught up with Cape Town, South Africa resident Charlie Newton, whose Calumet City has just appeared to acclaim.  In a starred review Booklist called it "dark and dizzying, bloody and bewildering, and highly original."
 
Q.  Calumet City is the first novel of your novels to appear in print, but I understand you've written lots more.  What was it like traveling down the road from book one?  What did you learn along the way?

Calumet City was number six.  I'm halfway through number nine as we speak. My road? The typical disaster--ridiculous expectations, sixteen thousand hours of typing, psychiatric sessions with friends, industry rejection on the odd day you got anyone's attention, credit card companies that don't understand the Mamas and Papas did it this way. Learn? Worst--that I'd been a villain with great powers of rationalization.  Quite a shock.  Best--that God does in fact occasionally protect the bridge jumpers.

Contributing editor Cathy Clamp chats with Reed Coleman on his new thriller, Empty Ever After.

What do you do when the past comes back to haunt you? For hard-boiled private eye Moe Prager, it seems to happen a lot. But like the aftershock of an earthquake, his latest adventure is going to change everything, because being "haunted" will take on new meaning. "The Moe Prager Mystery series is one in which the past is ever present," the author shared. "It is one of the abiding conventions of hard-boiled and noir novels that the protagonist be haunted by his or her past. Ghosts are everywhere, but they are the ghosts of our own mistakes, of our guilt, of our regrets.  Well, in Empty Ever After, there's plenty of haunting, and more than one ghost. One of the characters in the book surely believes she is involved in something paranormal. And there are other characters who want her to believe it."

When you think of Key West, what first comes to mind are likely beautiful sunsets, clear blue water, and cold beer enjoyed to a soundtrack of island music, not a man beaten half to death outside the clubhouse of a sailing club. But that's the way Michael Haskins introduces us to Key West in Chasin' the Wind. Local journalist "Mad Mick" Murphy finds the victim, a friend and one of a cast of idiosyncratic locals who populate Haskins' debut political thriller. As the plot unfolds, Mick and associates uncover a tawdry scheme involving local officials and the Cuban government, and the deeper they dig, the more treachery they unearth.

Scottish writing festivals, Mills and Boons gets bloody, Tom Rob Smith's Supermarket Sweep and the newest British thrillers

Each month seems to come around with less and less warning in these parts.  And, as ever, February has come and gone far too quickly. With Valentines day, I noticed an upsurge in bloody crime fiction sales which spoke nicely to the cynic in me and also maybe said something to the fact I was about the only section not to indulge in a special valentines day display (even the history section seemed to have a few titles especially on display, although our law buyer's idea for a display of how-to-divorce titles was nixed at the last minute).

But that's all in the past now, and March beckons us on further into the new year. So without delay, here's what's come my way during the month of February and the usual look ahead to new British thrillers available from March...

Jerry Lang was a high class burglar. Gloria Pavlich was his accomplice, his "leading lady," and his lover. They had five years of success, but then somebody set them up. One night after they had stolen a valuable painting the cops were waiting. In the struggle Jerry shot a detective. Gloria disappeared. In jail, Jerry barely survived four assassination attempts. Now he has escaped, intent on finding out who framed him and killed Gloria.

"Veteran screenwriter and novelist Gould writes with infectious crackle and humor. Colorful back stories peppered throughout add tension." -- -Kirkus Review

"Readers will appreciate Heywood Gould's wild Noir." -- Harriet Klauser, The Mystery Gazette

"A great Sunday afternoon read." -- Barbara Defina, producer of Goodfellows and Casino

"I'm a sucker for caper novels, and Leading Lady is a first-rate example of the genre" -- Hugh Abramson, Editor

Born in the Bronx and raised in Brooklyn, Heywood Gould got his start as a reporter for the New York Post. Later he financed years of rejection with the usual colorful jobs - cabdriver, mortician's assistant, industrial floor waxer, bartender and screenwriter. He has written twelve books and nine screenplays, among them Double Bang, Fort Apache, the Bronx, One Dead Debutante, Glitterburn, Cocktail, Boys From Brazil, and Rolling Thunder.

Contributing editor Mark Combes sat down with CJ Lyons to discuss our upcoming new thriller, Lifelines.

It's what all debut authors dream of - to have a publisher ask YOU to write a new series.  That's right, no query letters; no anxious hours watching the mailbox.  Just a phone call and a contract.  And that's exactly how it happened for CJ Lyons.  "They (Berkley) had been wanting to create a new type of thriller, something that hadn't been tried: medical suspense told from solely a woman's point of view, with the pacing of a thriller.  Of course I jumped at the chance!  To be able to create my own rules and forge a new path was an exciting and fun experience!  It was also terrifying-an unknown author such as myself being asked to take on such a project.  I'll forever be appreciative of Berkley's faith in me."

New York Times bestselling author Linda Lael Miller is back with reader favorite Mojo Sheepshanks, the irreverent newbie P.I. who finds truth in the strangest places . . .

Mojo is trying to enjoy her posh new home, but she's rather be back living over the biker saloon, where life was simpler. Her sexy cop boyfriend can't let go of his past, while her wealthy sister is being blackmailed for secrets in hers. And Mojo's smack in the middle of it all.

As the murders pile up, Mojo is starting to uncover secrets that even the dead don't want disturbed . . .

"Miller's got major storytelling mojo for the second adventure set in Cave Creek, AZ." -- Publishers Weekly starred review

"The combination of edgy suspense, humor and the supernatural-not to mention Miller's gift for characterization-makes the this one story you won't soon forget!" -- RT BOOKreviews, 4½ star Top Pick Review

Stephanie Barron, author of the successful mystery series featuring British novelist Jane Austen, is taking a break from Ms. Austen and the 1815s and moved to the Victorian era with an historical suspense novel featuring Queen Victoria herself in A Flaw In The Blood. Barron notes that the new novel begins on December 15, 1861 with the death of Queen Victoria's consort, Prince Albert, and centers on two outsiders in Victorian society.

"One is an Irish-Catholic barrister," says Barron, "and the other is a woman doctor who deals with the poor in Victorian London. Both of them have pieces of a secret surrounding the crown of England that they don't realize they possess until they find themselves hunted in the aftermath of Prince Albert's death."

Six years after her courageous testimony helped put her husband on death row for a string of gruesome murders, Leigh Wren has almost succeeded in putting her past to rest. She has moved from the West Coast to North Carolina with her young son, adopting a new name and a new life. But the world that she has created for herself is shattered when the father of one of her ex-husband's victims begins stalking her, then confronts her late one night. In the days that follow, he exposes Leigh, in newspapers and on television, to a startled North Carolina community. And just as her marriage to Randall Mosley, a man who became known to the world as a deviant serial killer, is brought back to light, a more deadly game of cat and mouse ensues.
A new killer has emerged, one whose methods are frighteningly similar to those used by Mosley, who is awaiting execution thousands of miles away. Leigh and her son appear to be in the assailant's scope, and it becomes clear that he is more than a copycat killer--his targets are all tied to Leigh's former life. With the clock ticking down and the victims of a new killer mounting, Leigh is forced to probe the darkest corridors of her past to protect her life and her son's. She must also confront her own feelings of responsibility: Leigh has always professed her ignorance, but how complicit was she in her husband's horrific murder spree, as it was taking place?

From a major new voice in suspense, The Killer's Wife is a story driven by psychological insight and harrowing revelations, asking how well you can ever really know the person sleeping beside you.

"A book you can't put down." -- Iris Johansen

"Riveting and original... Will keep you turning pages until the shocking conclusion." -- Allison Brennan

"A compelling debut." -- Jacquelyn Mitchard

"Vividly imagined and sharply drawn... A welcome voice in a crowded genre." -- John Hart

"One hell of a scary ride." -- James W. Hall

Bill Floyd lives in Morrisville, North Carolina, with his wife, Amy. A graduate of Appalachian State University, this is his debut novel.

Award-winning author Ann Voss Peterson has written seventeen romantic thrillers.  Her latest, Wyoming Manhunt, has been chosen to be the launch title for Harlequin Intrique's new Thriller line.

According to Ann, Intrigue is already known for romantic suspense with action and intensity, and these books take it a step further. "The editors describe them as 'jam packed with edge-of-your-seat action and fraught with sexual tension.' And how can you resist that?"

Wyoming Manhunt is the story of a single mother accountant who goes on her company's executive big game hunting trip hoping for a promotion...until the boss starts hunting her.

CJ Lyons: You're known for doing a lot of research for your novels.  What was the most memorable research experience?

Ann Voss Peterson: Probably the most frightening and challenging research I've done was taking part in my local fire department's citizen's academy. We trained for ten weeks, doing everything from prying open cars with the jaws of life to ice rescue to practicing search and rescue in a live burn training structure. Charging into a near thousand-degree room so filled with smoke that I couldn't see an inch in front of my nose was a bit harrowing. And after crawling on hands and knees over the steel floor, my hands were scorched through my gloves and my knee pads were melted.

Jack Holm dreams of what life would be like without his wife, but when she doesn't come home one day his nightmare begins. CPS wants to take his kids, the cops want him in jail, and a killer is stalking his family. His only way out is to find out what happened to his wife. "Island Life" is the new suspense thriller from the author of the Emerson Ward mystery series.

"Beautifully written and richly nuanced, Island Life transcends the usual suspense tale." -- Gayle Lynds, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Spymaster

"Island Life is a terrific novel... A truly different and fascinating story." -- Jeremiah Healy, author of Turnabout and The Only Good Lawyer

"In a shift from his Emerson Ward mysteries (Death is No Bargain, 2006, etc.), Sherer creates a suspenseful tale of a family stressed by the conflicts murder reveals." -- Kirkus Review

After stints as manual laborer, dishwasher, bartender, restaurant manager, commercial photographer, magazine editor and pr executive, Michael W. Sherer decided life should imitate art--he's now a freelance writer. He has five novels in the Emerson Ward series (An Option On Death, Little Use For Death, Death Came Dressed In White, A Forever Death, and Death Is No Bargain). Island Life, a stand-alone thriller about an ordinary suburban father's race to find out what happened to his missing wife before he loses his children, his freedom and possibly his life, comes out in March, 2008. Please visit www.michaelwsherer.com and www.islandlife-thenovel.com.

Justice is as fast as a bullet...

As I lie in bed with Amanda, ignoring another late night call from my ex, a shot rings out in the New York night and a beautiful starlet dies outside the city's most popular nightclub. This is the kind of story I was born to chase--but I never dreamed this story began over a hundred years ago...

Suddenly another life is taken, the bullet fired from one of the deadliest guns ever made. Both victims are highly controversial, their murders more like public executions. My search leads me into the twisted world of The Boy--a world defined by a demented code of honor and shocking, long-buried secrets of the world's most infamous outlaw.

When this assassin realizes I'm getting too close to the truth, uncovering the past could jeopardize everything I care about. Because in his world there's a fine line between good and evil, and the difference between innocence and guilt depends on who's holding the gun.

"Pinter's cool fusion of a new outlaw with blood ties to an old one hits the mark. The resolution is a ripsnorter, leaving thrill fans ready for the next Henry Parker newsflash." -- Publishers Weekly

"Pinter is among the best of a new generation of thriller writers." -- Joseph Finder

Jason Pinter is a graduate of Wesleyan University, and worked in book publishing for five years before leaving to write full time. He is the bestselling author of THE MARK which has been optioned for film. He is a member of International Thriller Writers and Mystery Writers of America, and is a founding member of Killer Year. He lives in New York with his wife Susan and their dog Wilson, and is currently at work on his next Henry Parker novel, THE STOLEN. Visit him at www.jasonpinter.com.

Best-selling author Charlotte Bronte travels to London, witnesses a murder, and becomes embroiled in a dangerous chain of events. Aided by her famous family, she pursues a ruthless killer throughout Victorian England and overseas, confronts demons from her past, and finds romance as well as adventure.

"The author of Jane Eyre plays sleuth in this enchanting historical from Rowland, acclaimed for her mystery series set in 17th century Japan . . . Bronte fans will delight in Rowland's portrait of Charlotte, who closely parallels Jane both in personality and station." -- Publishers Weekly

Laura Joh Rowland is the author of the mystery series set in 17th c. Japan that features samurai detective Sano Ichiro. Her work has been published in 13 foreign countries and nominated for the Anthony Award and the Hammett Prize. She is also the author of The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Bronte. Laura lives in New Orleans with her husband Marty and their two cats.

The church waits in darkness. It looks abandoned, forgotten. It has no congregation, but it is not empty. Under its floor, in a pit dug long ago, lies a wooden crate that was never meant to be unearthed. But the church is finally being renovated and workmen have found the pit. How could they realize what they have done? How could they know the forces they've unleashed?

Father Pilazzo is overseeing the renovation of the old church. His dream is to see it restored to its former glory. But his dream is becoming a nightmare. He's begun to see horrific visions, unholy images of death and warnings of terrors to come. And within the church forgotten men fight to survive against impossible demons, while sides are drawn for the ultimate battle...

Michael Laimo's novels include ATMOSPHERE, DEEP IN THE DARKNESS THE DEMONOLOGIST, and DEAD SOULS all of which were published in paperback by Leisure Books.  His short fiction has found its way into the pages of A WALK ON THE DARKSIDE, LOST ON THE DARKSIDE, HOT BLOOD XII: STRANGE BEDFELLOWS, SURREAL MAGAZINE, INHUMAN MAGAZINE, plus many more anthologies and magazines, many of which will be collected in a new short story collection entitled DARK RIDE.  

Aimée is thrilled when her one-time lover, Yves, an investigative journalist returns from his assignment in Egypt and proposes marriage. But after a single night of bliss, his body is discovered in a Paris doorway. His throat has been slit. Aimée, determined to avenge him, follows a trail leading to a sleeper Jihadist which embroils her in Turkish and Kurdish politics.

"Riveting." -- Publisher's Weekly starred review.

"If the cobblestones could talk, they might tell a tale as haunting as the one Black spins." -- New York Times

"One of the best writers in crime fiction today." -- Lee Child

Cara Black lives in San Francisco with her husband, a bookseller, and her son. Her bestselling, award nominated Aimée Leduc Investigation series, is set in Paris. Her books are published in five languages.

Felix Gomez, Iraq war veteran and vampire detective extraordinaire, has survived aliens, nymphomaniacs, and x-rated bloodsuckers. But now the aliens are back, in a fiendish conspiracy to kidnap earth women. Only Felix stands between the aliens and their hapless prey. But when an Army hit man attacks Felix and fellow vampire (and sexpert) Carmen, only the astonishing erotic powers of the Undead Kama Sutra may be able to save Felix.

"Hard-boiled action mixes with soft-core titillation..." -- Publishers Weekly

"...trashy...silly and so much fun." -- Seattle Stranger

"Acevedo has proven once again that he is a very disturbed man-and I mean that in the absolute finest sense of the term." -- Tim Dorsey

Mario Acevedo is a former paratrooper, military helicopter pilot, engineer, and art teacher to incarcerated felons. He lives and writes in Denver, Colorado.

FBI Special Agent Breed Grayhawk has the hottest sex in his life with a stranger who calls herself Grace "Smith," only to discover that her real name name is Merle Raye Finkel--and she's a convicted double murderer who broke her parole a year ago and disappeared. Now she's the prime suspect in a terrorist threat against the U.S. president, and Agent Grayhawk has just five days to find his dangerous lover....

"Gritty suspense, hot romance! Joan Johnston dishes up the murder and mayhem Texas style, with plenty of larger-than-life characters and edge-of-your-seat action."-- New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner

"Great plot, characters to root for, white-knuckle suspense, sizzling romance--A Stranger's Game has it all."-- New York Times bestselling author Karen Robards

Joan Johnston is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of 48 novels and novellas with over 10 million copies of her books in print. Joan has a B.A. and M.A. in Theatre and a J.D. with honors from the University of Texas at Austin School of Law. Joan has been a newspaper editor, drama critic, director of theatre, college professor and attorney on her way to becoming a full-time author. She has raised two fairly normal kids and splits her time between homes in Florida and Colorado.

After author Chris Keane has written books that have been made into movies and series, The Hunter (Paramount) and The Huntress (TV series on USA Network), along with teaching at Harvard and NYU and writing features, he came to the conclusion that the best way by far to get you book or screenplay into production is to place the greatest amount of focuis on the central character. It makes sense. Agents and managers want their star clients to star in movies that will enhance their careers. And so Chris wrote Romancing The A-List. This book follows his international bestselling How To Write A Selling Screenplay.

"Chris Keane's emphasis on developing a central character as the way to get A-List actors to come on board is quite simply brilliant." -- - Margaret Lazarus and Renner Wunderlich, Oscar Winners for Saving their Lives and members of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Chris Keane's Romancing The A-List stands head and shoulders above a very crowded field of "how to" books. Successful both as a writer and teacher, Keane explains the tactics necessary for building a story and getting it into the marketplace. Essential reading for anyone interested in a career in screen writing. -- Michael Miner, director, The Book Of Stars, co-writer, Robocop and Anacondas: Hunt For The Blood Orchid

Christopher Keane has written fourteen fiction and non fiction books including The Hunter (a Paramount feature, Steve McQueen's last picture -- and his first book and movie, at age 23). The Huntress (a USA TV series) and The Crossing (WB).

He has taught or lectured screen and novel writing at Harvard, Emerson College in Boston, NYU, LMU Grad School (LA) Notheastern University and spoken on screenwriting at The Smithsonian Institution, The National Press Club, Maui Writers, LA Screenwriting Expo and many more. He recently completed a feature, Lost Light (about JFK's greatest secret love with whom he spent the last year of his life in the White, House, and a TV series pilot, DIVINE JUSTICE. His new screenwriting book, Romancing The A-List will be out in March, '08.

A farmer in Adamant, Arkansas, awakes to a noise on his roof and finds his snow-blanketed yard marked with thousands of cloven footprints. The prints vanish with the melting snow...only to reappear seventy years later near the gruesome killing of Rachel DeLaune.

"The sinister world of Amanda Stevens will feed the dark side of your soul...and leave you hungry for more." -- New York Times bestselling author Christina Dodd

Amanda Stevens considers storytelling a part of her heritage. "Someone once said the South is home to people who love to talk. This is especially true of the rural South where I grew up." Her high school literature classes provided an early influence where she was drawn to the darker stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allen Poe, but it was the southern gothic that truly inspired her. The strong sense of place--dusty back roads and moonlit bayous, simmering secrets and fragrant, sweltering heat--provided a powerful backdrop to the despair and desperation of the wayward souls that peopled classic southern literature. Amanda uses those same elements in her thrillers, which can best be described as "creepy, southern suspense."

A thriller set in the late 1940s, during the witch-hunting days of the House Unamerican Activities Committee, when thousands of entertainment workers were blacklisted for years.

Stuart Woods is the author of thirty-six novels. He has a run of twenty-two straight New York Times bestsellers. He lives in Key West, Florida, Mt. Desert Island, Maine and New York City.

Michael Egan comes to Ireland to investigate recent thefts and murders connected to a mythic Celtic jewelry collection. The woman who owned most of this cursed set is murdered, and her family accuses Irish jewelry designer Flanna McKenna of being involved in the theft and murder. Even though he doesn't believe her claims that she's psychic, Michael thinks she's the best bet for finding the perpetrator.

Romantic Times BOOKreviews TOP PICK! "Patricia Rosemoor's soothing pace fits in well with her lyrical Irish dialogue and fascinating myth-making. In Name Only? (4.5) is a first-rate, old-fashioned paranormal mystery with gothic overtones."

Feeling that justice is all too rare in real life, Patricia Rosemoor drives her characters to seek an equitable resolution, no matter the personal sacrifice. Her fascination with "dangerous love" -- combining romance with danger -- has led her to write various forms of romantic suspense and paranormal romantic thrillers, bringing a different mix of thrills and chills and romance to each book. 

Josette Monier has lived for centuries. The bobcat shifter was born with multiple seer gifts, leaving her lost in time--seeing the past, present and future in one stream. She's thwarted evil plans at every turn, leaving her open to constant attempts on her life. But suddenly her gifts have failed her, and without her ability to see the future, the entire human race could be in danger. It will take all her skills, plus those of the ex-husband she'd believed dead, to stop the crisis before time runs out.

"Each new chapter of this thought provoking and intense series adds further luster to an already stellar body of work. Adams & Clamp are guaranteed page turners!" -- RT BOOKreviews

"A superior offering for readers of paranormal romance. The Sazi world continues to grow and fascinate." -- Fresh Fiction

USA Today and Waldenbooks Mass Market bestselling authors C.T. Adams & Cathy Clamp have published ten paranormal thrillers for Tor Books since 2004. In addition to critical acclaim, their novels have won several major awards, including the Reviewer's International Organization Award of Excellence, Book Buyers Best Award and RT BOOKreviews Magazine Reviewer's Choice award. They are also finalists in this year's Career Achievement Award competition by the same magazine. C.T. and Cathy are residents of the Texas Hill country and look forward to a long and productive writing career.

He returned to his country, his hollowed out soul gnawing away at him, until love floated in on Mojave Winds.

A Mid-Western kid ships off to serve his country...four years later...Kris Klug comes back a man looking for a job. He counts on his Uncle Fred as a bridge back to the civilian world. He yearns for simple, peaceful living. After meeting up with his Uncle Fred for a job in his trucking outfit hauling goods between L.A. and Vegas, Klug discovers an underworld where thugs and cokeheads snare him and dump him in the Mojave.

With gangsters at his heels, Klug sinks into his darkest hour. Love comes his way when he least expects to survive. Mojave Winds carry the devil's breath and maybe, just maybe, an angel's mercy.

"I started reading this thriller and couldn't put it down."  --  New York Times bestselling author, James Rollins

"Biskeborn has imagination, toughness, color and in-your-face relevance. all the ingredients for a rousing yarn." --
Robert Grudin Ph.D. - Guggenheim Fellow in 1992-93; Author of books on philosophy and two novels; Professor Emeritus, Comparative Literature

A long-time resident of California, Oregon-born Mark Biskeborn first began writing and reading intensively while in high school. Just out of high school, he worked a year at Das Geotheanum in Switzerland. Goethe's Faust is performed unabridged. He obtained an MA in Comparative Literature after studying at the Universitaet Goettingen.

Later with an MBA he worked over 17 years in corporate marketing...in France and Germany, which gave him the chops to place his stories in exotic lands.  He contributed many non-fiction articles, essays, book reviews... to various magazine publications and blogs over the years. Mark began writing Mojave Winds in 2003. In 2008, Mark is already polishing a manuscript for his next thriller, Follow the Sufi's Ghost, the sequel to Mojave Winds.

Contributing Editor, Rebecca Cantrell, discusses agenting with the woman described by Writer's Digest as "Superstar Agent" Kimberley Cameron.

What's the market right now for thrillers? I keep hearing "the thriller is dead, long live the thriller."

Everybody says the market is dead for a lot of reasons, in every genre, but writers make the market. If you work on your writing and make it excellent it's going to rise to the top no matter what genre it's in. Manuscripts must be multi-layered, not just action-driven page turners.

What makes a good thriller?

A very astute editor, Rick Horgan, uses a credo given to him by Henry Morrison: Any novel that makes the reader sweat will achieve significant sales. One that makes him sweat and stirs his heart will do even better, and one that makes him sweat, stirs his heart, and causes him to reflect will be a blockbuster.

Here's what was featured in the March BIG THRILL

• MOJAVE WINDS by MARK BISKEBORN is "a rousing yarn"
• C.T. ADAMS & CATHY CLAMP's new TIMELESS MOON is "a guaranteed page turner"
• There's "gothic overtones" in IN NAME ONLY? by PATRICIA ROSEMOOR
• STUART WOODS delivers his latest with BEVERLY HILLS DEAD
• Feel the "dark side of your soul" in THE DEVIL'S FOOTPRINTS by AMANDA STEVENS
• See why ROMANCING THE A-LIST by CHRISTOPHER KEANE is "simply brilliant"
• Find "edge-of-your-seat action" in the pages of A STRANGER'S GAME by JOAN JOHNSTON
• THE UNDEAD KAMA SUTRA by MARIO ACEVEDO is "hard-boiled action"
• CARA BLACK'S writing is "riveting" in MURDER IN THE RUE DE PARADIS
• "Sides are drawn for the ultimate battle" in FIRES RISING by MICHAEL LAIMO
• THE SECRET ADVENTURES OF CHARLOTTE BRONTE by LAURA JOH ROWLAND is "enchanting"
• THE GUILTY by JASON PINTER "hits the mark"
• MICHAEL W. SHERER's writing "transcends the usual suspense tale" with ISLAND LIFE
• A KILLER WIFE by BILL FLOYD is "a compelling debut"
• DEADLY DECEPTIONS by LINDA LAEL MILLER is one story "you won't soon forget"
• LEADING LADY by HEYWOOD GOULD is "wild Noir"
  
• The latest International News from Russel McLean
• Plus our contributing editors deliver in-depth feature interviews with C.J. LYONS, MICHAEL HASKINS, REED FARREL COLEMAN, CHARLIE NEWTON, RIDLEY PEARSON, STEPHANIE BARRON, and ANN VOSS PETERSON
• Bonus: a special BETWEEN THE LINES interview with literary agent, KIMBERLEY CAMERON
• And so much more from the best thriller writers on the planet!

Book Giveaway

Congratulations to Sharon Johnson, the winner of this month's BIG THRILL giveaway. Sharon will receive an assortment of thrillers including MOJAVE WINDS by MARK BISKEBORN, LIFELINES by CJ LYONS, THE DEVIL'S FOORPRINTS by AMANDA STEVENS, EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE by SHEILA QUIGLEY, THE PORTOFINO DECEPTION by JEFFREY S. STEPHENS, and WYOMING MANHUNT by ANN VOSS PETERSON.

All subscribers to THE BIG THRILL webzine are automatically eligible for the monthly drawing. Click here to subscribe to the BIG THRILL.

Like many fiction writers, when I began trying to write a novel in the mid 1990s, I had no clear notion of genre, much less something called the thriller genre. Of course I did have a clear notion that THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, which I liked, was quite different from THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, which contained a certain genius that even I could discern but, frankly, nevertheless bored me.

We tend to write the kinds of book we enjoy reading, seeking certain familiar touchstones or landmarks, while investing the story with quirks of place, character, or plot that make the work uniquely our own. What I wrote early on was an odd misfit of a manuscript, about which bewildered publishing house editors could say only the dreaded, "We hope you find a home for it." There were of course mutterings that they couldn't figure out how to place it even if they could bring themselves to like it.

In a famous essay, Henry James once wrote, "The house of fiction has many windows." The same applies to thrillers. There are many types: the legal thriller, the spy thriller, the action-adventure thriller, the medical thriller, etc. One of their common denominators is that they quicken the reader's heartbeat.

The following is a list of those we believe made a difference, compiled with the advice of several thriller reviewers. Books were chosen based on the impact that each had on the genre. Did the author contribute a new subject, direction, and/or technique that had a lasting effect? Did a work make such a impression that it has been frequently imitated? There will no doubt be objections about what was included and what wasn't. For that reason, please consider this a work in progress.

The list has a serious purpose. In "Tradition and the Individual Talent," T.S. Eliot insisted that every writer has an obligation to study the literary tradition in which that writer works. Eliot believed we have a responsibility to absorb and carry it forward, trying to add something of our own. Too often we pay attention only to current trends and lose the guidance that literary history can provide. Still, if we study our antecedents, we can strengthen our technical skills while using old concepts to go in new directions. At the least, we gain enough sophistication to know when we're innovating rather than performing the literary equivalent of reinventing the wheel.

The Reading List Council of the American Library Association has established the new Reading List Award, an annual award that will acknowledge their selection of the best book in eight different genre categories for the year. Thrillers, suspense and adventure titles were combined into the “Adrenalin” category. Other genres include Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, Women’s Fiction, Horror, Fantasy and Historical Fiction. The winners of this year’s award for Adrenalin and Mystery titles were announced on January 18th: respectively, Mark Frost for The Second Objective, and Ariana Franklin for Mistress of the Art of Death.

Neal Wyatt, who has served as past chair of the Collection Development and Evaluation Section (CODES) and the Notable Book Council, felt that a focus on genre fiction was needed because of its popularity with patrons. She proposed a genre award in 2007.

Bertelsmann Direct North America has bought ITW author Jordan Dane's 3-book debut series--NO ONE HEARD HER SCREAM, NO ONE LEFT TO TELL, and NO ONE LIVES FOREVER--as featured alternates in the Doubleday, Mystery Guild and the Rhapsody Book Clubs. Every year, they evaluate over twenty thousand manuscripts from publishers and select two thousand or so for use in their various clubs.

Dane's books will be printed in hardcover for exclusive distribution to club members. And her debut series will be promoted in a club magazine containing book reviews, exclusive features, and special promotions. These clubs offer a vast selection of the latest in best selling novels that include mysteries, thrillers, suspense, romance and other genres.

For more information on Jordan and these thrilling new novels, visit her website.

Bestselling author Tina Wainscott is celebrating her new romantic suspense, WHAT LIES IN SHADOW (St. Martin's Press), with her eighth annual Best First Line contest. Shocking, suspenseful…make us want more! Cash prizes! No entry fees. The contest runs from February 1 through March 15, 2008. For aspiring authors, it's a chance to get your name out there and add a "win" to your bio. For readers, it's a chance to play at being a writer. Even if you're not inclined to write a line, check out the entries—they're a lot of fun!

Last year's winner: This was absolutely the last time I was helping my sister get rid of a dead body. – Patricia Connell

Go to Tina's website for contest info, sneak peeks, writer's tips, and to check out WHAT LIES IN SHADOW, which has earned a rave review from the ShopSmartBookClub.

Tina also sponsors periodic contests to win autographed books (hers and other authors) exclusively for her Yahoo Groups lists!
For announcements only, sign up at: tina_wainscott-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To chat with Tina and others, subscribe to: Tina_Wainscott_chat-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Bestselling thriller writer R. Barri Flowers, author of STATE'S EVIDENCE and PERSUASIVE EVIDENCE, will beinterviewed in February on the Biography Channel's popular crime investigative series, Crime Stories.

The episode, entitled "The Love Slave Murders, " examines through interviews and reenactment the real life story of husband-wife serial killers, Gerald and Charlene Gallego, the basis of Flowers bestselling true crime thriller, THE SEX SLAVE MURDERS (St. Martin's Press, 1996).

Though broadcast originally on Friday, February 1st at 10 p.m., ET and Saturday, February 2nd at 2 a.m. and 7 p.m., ET, reruns of episode will appear throughout the year on the channel and be sold on DVD this summer.

Visit the author's website and Crime Space pages for more information.

Celebwire is featuring three ITW members this month: Heather Graham, Brett Battles, and Debut Program leader CJ Lyons, who is featured as a New and Notable author.

Each of them has contributed a short story available for download on Celebwire. Lyon's short story, TOXICITY, is a prequel to her soon-to-be-released debut medical suspense novel, LIFELINES (March, from Berkley).

To read the three stories for free, visit Celebwire. For more information on these ITW authors, please visit their websites:
Brett Battles
Heather Graham
CJ Lyons