January 2009 Archives

Yes, another month has flown by and we're well into the new year here at ITW (UK Division) HQ. Yes, it seems as though there are clouds on the horizon, but as long as there are good books being produced, and people to read and enjoy them, then there is hope.

So among all the gloom and despair that seemed to typify the beginning of this new year, there were more than a few moments of good news, and more importantly there were some damn fine books released as well.

And as long as I have good books to hand - preferably thrillers - I feel as though I could face almost anything. So with out of the way, let's move onto this month's report proper:

What's the inspiration behind KILL FOR ME?

When I first started KILL FOR ME, I had the mental image of a closed door. It was the door to an office in the crime scene unit of a Midwest police department and belonged to the detectives that investigated Internet crimes against children.  The officer leading the tour told me the office was locked and only the detectives on the case could go inside.  Inside were the monitors on which they viewed unspeakable crimes so they could identify the victims and track the perpetrators.  On their desks they kept pictures of their own kids, to remember what they were fighting for.  The image of "The Room" stayed with me and I started thinking about what that kind of job would do to a good soul.  That inspired the character of Special Agent Luke Papadopoulos, who is tortured by the children he can't save.

Did you know where you were headed when you wrote DIE FOR ME?

No, I had no plans to write a trilogy.  In fact, I hadn't planned the subplot involving Simon, Daniel, and Susannah Vartanian.  It was one of those wonderful surprises!  I hadn't planned to leave DIE FOR ME with the Daniel Vartanian unresolved photograph plotline, but it seemed the right thing to do.  When I'd turned in DFM and started on the next, unrelated book, I realized that Daniel and Susannah's stories needed to be told. Having written DFM independent of a "grand plan" I often found myself with loose ends that needed to be woven carefully.  I think the next time I write a trilogy, I'll plan ahead, LOL.

Peter Straub has achieved that enviable position of both critical and commercial success. Perhaps that's because, when he started, he faced the dilemma of needing to earn a living while desiring to take his writing beyond genre conventions.

"Essentially, I try to write as if there is no distinction between literary and commercial fiction," Straub says. "When I began, finding readers was very important to me. I wanted to be able to support myself with my writing, which meant that I had to sell a good number of books. At the same time, I wanted to write as well as I could, to do interesting things with structure and point of view, to create characters who were real human beings in real-world contexts. I wanted the reader to smell the cut grass, to see the undersides of leaves, to feel the earth underfoot."

The author of such acclaimed novels as Ghost Story, Shadowlands and Koko, Straub has never lost a certain sense of play in his writing.

"One of my central concerns has been to ground  the elements of horror and suspense in a firmly novelistic context. After that, I just tried to have a kind of fun, a kind of pleasure, in using the devices of metafiction, intertexuality, conflicting realities, shattered points of view, false endings, unreliable narrators, tonal shifts, whatever I could think of. My assumption going in was that horror was capable of doing anything and everything, that there were no real limitations or boundaries to it."

Straub has also collaborated with Stephen King on two projects, The Talisman and Black House. Not a bad writing partner. So I asked Straub, if he could collaborate with any other writer in history, besides King, who would he choose?

Far north in the Arctic Circle, a team of scientists uncovers the frozen remains of a large animal.  Soon after their discovery, a documentary film crew arrives to record their find for a large audience.  Then the movie director decides that they will thaw the animal out on live television.  While the "ancient animal buried in the ice" has been done before, chronicling the find from a documentary perspective felt original and brought back memories of Geraldo.

Lincoln Child has the ability to manipulate the reader in surprising ways.  In his previous novel, Deep Storm, he lead the reader to believe the characters were heading to Atlantis (spoiler alert: they weren't).  Child commented, "I think it must spring from the novelist's always-on desire to surprise and confuse. If you can do something completely out of left field, completely unexpected, you'll keep the reader on edge, going forward."

How does Child write such an organized read?  He responded, "I generally write the first third basically off the top of my head. I'll have thought that far ahead while putting together the proposal for my publisher. But beyond that point I carefully outline what will happen--not extensively, but comprehensively. It helps me know precisely where I have to get to, with as much economy as possible."

Here's what was featured in the February edition of the Big Thrill

Hot Off The Press
Click on a book title to read the feature story

• WARNING SIGNS by CJ Lyons
• DEATH WAS IN THE PICTURE by Linda Richards
• VENDETTA by James A. Moore
• EVIL WITHOUT A FACE by Jordan Dane
• THE SILENT MAN by Alex Berenson
• BLOOD AND BONE by William Lashner
• RUPTURE by A. Scott Pearson
• FATAL FEBRUARY by Barbara Levenson
• KILL FOR ME by Karen Rose
• BOCA KNIGHTS by Steven M. Forman
• TERMINAL FREEZE by Lincoln Child
• HOMICIDE IN HARDCOVER by Kate Carlisle
• WHISPER IN THE DARK by Robert Gregory Browne
• CRITICAL MASS by Whitley Strieber
• SHATTERED by JoAnn Ross
• THE SECOND OPINION by Michael Palmer
• THE KING OF THIEVES by Michael Jecks
• SEEING RED by Susan Crandall
• THE CONTRACTOR by Colin MacKinnon
• SOLDIER'S SECRET CHILD by Caridad Pineiro
• DEATH FORCE by Matt Lynn
• A PERFECT DARKNESS by Jaime Rush
• BLOOD AND ICE by Robert Masello
• JAILBAIT ZOMBIE by Mario Acevedo
• LETHAL LEGACY by Linda Fairstein
• DEAD RIGHT by Cate Noble
• MAGIC'S DESIGN by Cat Adams
• MISSING by Rebecca Cantrell et al
• A Between The Lines interview with Peter Straub
• International News from Mike Nicol in South Africa and Russel McLean in the UK

Monthly Book Giveaway

Congratulations to Patricia Wright, the winner of this month's BIG THRILL giveaway. Patricia will receive an assortment of signed thrillers including First to Kill by Andrew Peterson, Evil Without a Face by Jordan Dane, Better Than Bulletproof by Kay Thomas, Trigger City by Sean Chercover, Calling Mr. Lonely Hearts by Laura Benedict, Skin and Bones by Tom Bale, Fatal February by Barbara Levenson, Stuff Dreams Are Made Of by Don Bruns, Lethal Legacy by Linda Fairstein, Cat Sitter on a Hot Tin Roof by Blaize Clement, Buried Strangers by Leighton Gage, Eight in the Box by Raffi Yessayan, Rupture by A. Scott Pearson and Death Force by Matt Lynn.

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

A PERFECT DARKNESS is part of the Offspring series, in which a group of twenty-somethings with enhanced psychic abilities discover they are the offspring of parents involved in a mysterious experiment. Together they must find the truth and fight an enemy out to destroy them.

In this first book, a sexy stranger wakes Amy Shane in the dead of night with an urgent warning. He barely has time to whisper a few words before three men burst in and drag him away. But what Lucas Vanderwyck reveals shatters Amy's safe little world forever. Lucas and Amy share a connection beyond reality and a psychic gift--a gift that could get them killed.

So you want to know a little more about the author, Jaime Rush? She's the daughter of an exiled king. Living a life of both luxury and danger while ensconced in the family palace in their adopted land of Romania, she must be ever-vigilant of the dark forces that expunged her family from the beautiful and sacred land that was once called Eden.

Not! She's actually lived in the same west Florida town her entire life, with a wonderful family and wonderful friends. The loves to swim, work out, meditate and read--and, of course, write.  Jaime has written eighteen books under the name of Tina Wainscott, and her first thriller is just coming out.  Fortunately, she was able to sit down and answer a few questions for contributing editor, Christine Goff.

The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) division of the American Library Association (ALA) has named its top reads in eight categories ... ITW members CJ Box (BLUE HEAVEN) garnered the nod for best thriller, and David Hewson's THE GARDEN OF EVIL has won for best mystery.

Hewson, International Vice President for ITW, had this to say about his win: "Any award made by librarians - some of the most important people around in the book business - is bound to fill me with gratitude and flattery, not least because, if it weren't for libraries, I wouldn't be doing what I do. I'm immensely grateful to everyone at Bantam Dell for having the faith to publish eight novels of mine in a row without blinking, and to the many members of ITW who've generously helped up my profile enormously in the US over the years. You all have my heartfelt thanks."

For the entire list of winners, please visit the Library Journal website at: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6632403.html 

Michael Jecks is known as the master of medieval mysteries, with KING OF THIEVES the 26th title of his popular Knights Templar series. In 1325 the King of England sends his son to Paris under the protection of the Bishop of Exeter, to save his kingdom from humiliation at the hands of the French.
Sir Baldwin and Bailiff Puttock join the guard, but in Paris there have been two murders linked to the shadowy "King" of thieves. 
When the Bishop is accused of murder, his simple diplomatic mission becomes a test of courage and loyalty, in the face of an assassination plot that will change the course of history. And Baldwin and Simon must find the killer before disaster overcomes Europe.


Historical Novels Review calls Jecks latest book 
"a page-turning masterpiece that will keep the reader totally gripped until the very last page. Highly recommended." Publishers Weekly predicts that the novel's
"stirring intrigue and a compelling cast of characters will continue to draw accolades."

A fascination with medieval history was Jecks' inspiration behind the Templar series, which is based upon the disastrous reign of King Edward II (1307-1327). England had just been trounced in a dispute with the French which led to the confiscation of all the English territories in France. Queen Isabella was sent to France to negotiate their recovery, because she was the sister of the French King. She arranged a truce, provided that her son went to pay homage to the French for the English territories. But, unknown to the English, Isabella detested her husband's regime, and once her son was with her, she kept him and refused to return to England. This is the start of KING OF THIEVES, which reaches the dramatic conclusion of Edward II's rule. "My books are ruthlessly historically accurate," says Jecks, "with the events depicted taken from actual cases.

JoAnn Ross has carved out her own niche in the thriller world with her romance-laced High Risk adventure series.  She takes that potent mix of action, thrills and heat and kicks it up a notch in her latest novel, Shattered.

Each of the High Risk novels features a special ops protagonist with a troubled past.  In Shattered, that's Army Nightstalker pilot Shane Garrett.  His onetime lover, Army doctor Kirby Campbell, launches this military action plot when she learns that a friend is being held hostage in Central America.  She enlists Shane's aid in organizing a rescue mission that will keep any hardcore thriller fan's heart pounding until the final page.  

Like her work, New York Times bestselling author JoAnn Ross defies classification.  One might think that being excerpted in Cosmopolitan would brand her as a romance writer, but her books offered by the Literary Guild, and Mystery Guild book clubs militate against that label.  Thanks to a very low tolerance for boredom, Ross says she has always blended genres.

"I've written a lot of romantic suspense, women's fiction, fantasy, time travel, and even gotten away with setting a book in outer space," she says.  

Ross has allied that broad variety with amazing output.  A quick tally tells me that Shattered is probably her 100th novel.  Aside from being a naturally fast writer she says her newspaper career helped her to be so productive.

"A background in journalism taught me that I couldn't wait for my muse to show up because muses are, by nature, unpredictable, quixotic, cranky, and sulky," Ross says.  "They're also occasionally brilliant, which is why we writers put up with them."

In this case her muse brought her a compelling story about characters who are dealing with some of the issues men and women face when they return from war.  If you thought for a second that a woman couldn't write about these issues, an army of guys who have read Ross' work will tell you you're wrong.  And they tell her.

"I've received a lot of e-mail from men," she says, "including one just last week from a Vietnam vet who enjoys my cop and military stories."

When people think of the Depression era, they think of food lines, hungry children and the dust bowl. But in California, film making was just taking off as an industry and there was plenty of glitz and glamour that made people forget about the pains of the rest of the country. The time and place are the perfect setting for a detective with moxie to get ahead, and Linda L. Richards's heroine, Kitty Pangborn, is just the gal for the job. Contributing editor Cathy Clamp sat down with Richards to get the dirt on Kitty.

Tell me a little about the story and what Kitty's all about.

Kitty Pangborn is secretary to a drunken Los Angeles gumshoe named Dexter Theroux. She doesn't care about solving cases. It's the Depression, there's not a lot of money to go around: she cares about getting paid. But her drunken boss spends so much time messing up, Kitty finds herself helping him out, just to make sure clients don't drop him and so her paychecks keep coming.

This is Kitty's second outing. Readers first met her in 2008 in Death Was the Other Woman. In Death Was in the Picture, Dex is hired to keep tabs on a movie star. Before his first day on the job, though, the movie star is charged with a murder that takes place at a party that Dex attended. In figuring out what happened, Kitty and Dex realize that they are embroiled in a conspiracy of moralities and that the hands putting everything into motion may be at the very highest reaches of both film making and organized religion.
 
I'm a HUGE fan of Noir detective stories. Tell me a little more about your influences for creating a hard-boiled story set in California.

The Kitty Pangborn stories are set in Los Angeles, although the most recent book, Death Was in the Picture, is set partly against the world of 1930s filmmaking and Hollywood.

I was greatly influenced by the work of Raymond Chandler - whose stories are mostly set in Los Angeles and environs -- and Dashiel Hammett, whose stories are mostly set in San Francisco. That being the case, it seemed to me that Kitty had to be a Californian. Since I was raised in Los Angeles and have spent only limited amounts of time in San Francisco, it really had to be L.A.

I have the pleasure of knowing A. Scott Pearson through our ITW Debut Authors program.  Remarkably, there's close to 60 of us now.

RUPTURE:  I think it's a terrific title for a terrific book.  Here's a snapshot:

Well on his way to realizing his dream of becoming a successful surgeon-scientist, Eli Branch seems destined for academic stardom.  After years of research, he's is on the cusp of a groundbreaking discovery that could light the way for the future.  But he soon discovers today's medicine has a dark side.

While investigating the suspicious death of one of his patients, Eli uncovers an elaborate web of lies spun by his late father, a longtime professor of anatomy at Mid-South Medical College in Memphis.  Instead of finding answers, he only finds more questions-and more victims, each meeting a sudden and violent end.

He joins forensic pathologist Meg Daily to find a common thread among the victims. As they piece together the chilling puzzle, they plunge headfirst into the world of deadly medicine -- a world way too close to home.

Trapped in the paradox of ending one life to save another, Eli and Meg find themselves in a life-or-death race against time where one false step could be their last.

A Scott Pearson graciously accepted an interview request from me.

Your novel touches a dark side of medicine that most people outside of the profession aren't aware of.  Are you worried you'll be labeled a "whistle blower" for writing it?

That's an interesting question.  Some people assume I write under a pseudonym, which I don't.  In the novel, the dark side of medicine is embellished for the sake of fiction.  But the conflict of interest between physicians and the biopharmaceutical industry is all too real.  We struggle with it today.  There's also the disruption that has occurred between society and the profession of medicine, the metaphorical meaning of Rupture.

On your website (which is very nicely done) you talk about a "patient's narrative?"  What is that?

Patient narratives are simply their stories, or what's important to them in the context of their illness.  As physicians, we sometimes forget the rich life experience that individuals have before entering the illness experience.  If we practice narrative medicine, we strive to understand the patient's story, so that we might optimize care.

The Wall Street Journal called Alex Berenson's Edgar Award-winning first novel, The Faithful Spy, "one of the best spy stories ever told." Its follow-up, The Ghost War, was hailed as "mesmerizing . . . an extraordinary achievement."
 
Now Berenson's third novel featuring CIA agent John Wells, The Silent Man, is hitting the shelves, and we had a chance to talk to the bestselling author about both his writing and  his "day job" as a reporter for the New York Times:

In The Silent Man, Wells faces an old enemy, even as terrorists plot to use a nuclear weapon to provoke war between Russia and the United States. You currently cover the pharmaceutical industry and medicine for the New York Times, yet your books aren't medical thrillers, but deal instead with espionage and countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Russia. You obviously know a lot about this stuff, but how? Or shouldn't I ask?

When I started writing The Faithful Spy, I drew heavily on my experience covering Iraq for the paper. I worked there for about four months in 2003 and 2004.  More broadly, my experience as an investigative reporter helps me find and process information that isn't readily available -- and also gives me insight into the way big organizations and bureaucracies behave.  There is less difference between a drug company like Eli Lilly and an agency like the CIA than you might imagine.  Bureaucracies are inherently self-protective organizations.

People seem to turn to fiction when times are tough, maybe because it gives us a sense of control when everything else seems out of control. Is there any of that in the correspondent who, in his day job, reports the news, but in his writing creates it -- at least, fictionally?

Yes, I very much enjoy having a world I control, where I understand the characters and their motivations fully.  I sometimes tell readers that my characters may lie to each other -- and sometimes even to themselves -- but they never lie to me.

Contributing editor Rebecca Cantrell discusses Boca Knights with author Steven M. Forman.

Eddie Perlmutter, the main character in Boca Knights, has been called "one of the best new characters to appear on the literary horizon in years" by bestselling author Gayle Lynds. A retired Boston cop, he's traded the cold streets of Boston for the sultry ones of Boca Raton. But he's about to discover that warmer doesn't mean safer, and a man with a strong sense of justice can't ever really retire.

What drives Eddie to pursue justice for crimes large and small?

Eddie can't ignore injustice regardless its size or shape. It's in his DNA to defend everyone's right to live as they choose in peace. Also, in tracing his lineage, we find that he was born without a fear gene which helps if you're going to do something heroic. Eddie was a super cop in his youth and a baby boomer Batman at sixty.

How can I get Eddie to move onto my street?

Eddie Perlmutter probably does live on your street. Not everyone can be as invincible or obvious as Eddie, but there's a little bit of a heroic Boca knight inside of every suit of armor.

Contributing editor Jonathan Maberry recently chatted with C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp about their new paranormal romance Magic's Design written as Cat Adams.

How did the collaboration of C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp come about?
 
Wow, that's actually a bigger question that you realize. Long story short, we didn't start out being collaborators. We actually met in the law office where I (Cathy) worked. Cie was doing a temp gig for a paralegal on maternity leave and we got to know each other over lunches. We started out as critique partners and plotting partners. I was writing my books and she was writing hers. But then my historical novel got accepted and I started to panic. She'd nearly single-handedly created a major subplot in the book, which I'd happily used. But then--what was I supposed to do? Thank her nicely for (quite possibly) making the book good enough to get accepted? Buy her lunch? Cut her in on the royalties? You see where it gets tricky? Then I started thinking about the book she was working on. Again, I'd created a major character and given him a subplot. After some soul-searching talks, we decided that if we simply went in as co-authors, with a 50/50 split, we wouldn't have to worry about who did what or how we achieved the final product. Who does what is pretty easy still. We each work on different books as the "lead" author and then switch for editing.
 
You write long distance--Cathy in Texas and Cie in Denver. How do you manage a long-distance collaboration?
 
With a really good long distance telephone plan. We talk on the phone nearly every day and email back and forth a lot. It's not as hard as it sounds, simply because we do have a collaboration where one person writes the whole book. So we don't have to exchange files or anything until the book is complete.

For half Jewish, half Southern Baptist Miami criminal defense attorney, Mary Magruder Katz, life changes completely when she is rear-ended at the car wash.  All she wanted was a clean car.  Instead she gets a hot new lover, gets fired from her job, starts her own law practice and lands her first client, Lillian Yarmouth.  Lillian is accused of the stabbing death of her husband.  The murder becomes the society, newspaper headline, case of the year.

In her first thriller, Barbara Levenson shows the real Miami, not the South Beach tourist site.  The gritty world of jails, and courtrooms filled with the quirky inhabitants of a multi-ethnic city forms the backdrop for the first book in the series of Mary Magruder Katz mysteries.

How did the idea for this book come to you?

One day I was at the car wash.  I happened to see an amazingly handsome guy who I chatted with while we devoured the free bags of popcorn.  He was terribly rude to the attendants, and suddenly a situation popped into my mind.  This became the starting point for the book.  The protagonist had been stirring around in my psyche for a while.  I'm not sure where she came from.  She just emerged fully formed.

In James A Moore's supernatural thriller, Vendetta, Robert Workham is happy, truly happy for the first time in as long as he can remember.  He has a perfect life. A beautiful wife, three loving children, and an empire he's spent a lifetime building.

The last time he came close to this level of joy was a lifetime ago, when he was a very different entity, a violent, hateful thing that killed without remorse or compassion. In his time he has slain kings, leaders of industry and some of the most power figures in the history of mankind. But that's all in the past.

Now there's just one little problem, his past is coming back for him. The family he killed was a lot like his, a loving wife and three devoted children, protected by a father who cared for them and treasured them as he had never treasured anything before.

There's only one thing he has to do before he can be free, one more murder to take care of before he can put the past behind him. Unfortunately, the man who wants to kill him has a long history of violence as well and as almost anyone who's ever crossed his path could tell Bob, Jonathan Crowley is relentless and unforgiving.

Keith Raffel met Linda Fairstein at Sleuthfest in Florida a couple of years ago.  He caught up with her just before LETHAL LEGACY hits the bookstores on February 10.

LETHAL LEGACY, your eleventh in the Alex Cooper series, comes out this month.  Would you give us a sneak preview?

Nothing I'd like better. Many of my readers know that as a crime writer, I love to explore New York City history in the framework of a prosecutorial procedural.  I take some familiar institution or aspect of Manhattan that seems elegant or benign or grand, and dig beneath the surface to find the grit that's buried on the site.  The New York Public Library is my favorite place in the city - both the great Beaux Art structure and the incredible treasures that make up the collection of one of the world's great research libraries.  The building is constructed on the foundation of the city's first reservoir that played a central role in Caleb Carr's THE ALIENIST; the rare books and atlases inside truly are worth killing for.  Several years ago, there was a very sophisticated con artist named Forbes Smiley who was a master map thief, stealing millions of dollars worth of rare maps from libraries all over the world - including the NYPL.   He was a scholar and collector who pretty much had unfettered access to valuable books.  I started to think about what else was in this place to attract a thief - or a murderer.  I've never had such a wonderful time researching as I did to get the background for LETHAL LEGACY.

Your books show up on bestseller lists now.  Was that true from the beginning?

That aspect is certainly a dream come true.  My first novel in the series was FINAL JEOPARDY, published in 1996, while I was still a prosecutor in Manhattan.  I was fortunate to have a lot more exposure than most first novelists for two reasons:  I had the 'real' job that I had created for my protagonist and alter ego, Alex Cooper and had frequently been a media commentator on cases and issues in the news.  FINAL JEOPARDY made many of the regional lists, but was not a NYTIMES bestseller.  At the time, the so-called "extended list" of the TIMES was not published, but I did start out there.  My fourth entry - THE DEADHOUSE - was published in 2001 (I was still prosecuting full time) and debuted on the TIMES list at #12.  Each book since has hit the list, and I'm hoping not to break the streak with LETHAL LEGACY because I was immodest enough to answer your question!  It's still a thrill, as it is to make the list in any part of the country or abroad.

These are beach days.  Cape Town's hot and the light is long and the laziness of the languid days that opened the year is hard to shake off.  The year's taking a slow start.

On the crime fiction front nothing visible is happening although there is a behind the scenes sense of anticipation.  March is going to be something else.  By my count three new novels, one reprint and the first ever SA anthology of crime fiction.

This is a big deal for us.  A big deal because just four years back that was probably the sum total of crime thrillers published all year.

Causing a bit of a stir already because of the rave comments he's been getting from US readers is Roger Smith's Mixed Blood.  He's an ITW member so you can find out about him at his profile and at his website: http://www.rogersmithbooks.com/.

During 2007 814,967 missing person records were entered into the National Crime Information Center's Database.In 2009 a mysterious gathering of authors present MISSING. Proceeds from all sales of this book will benefit the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Sample stories titles:

Coffee - A pilot searches for his mother, and redemption, in post-war Berlin. by Rebecca Cantrell

The Right Choice - Duffy races to find the pregnant daughter of a 'hot' senator before hired guns do. by Tom Schreck

Cleaning up at the Franks - An astute housekeeper scrubs a kidnapper's plans for a wealthy couple's son. by Gayle Carline

Rebecca Cantrell writes the Hannah Vogel mystery series set in 1930s Berlin. "A Trace of Smoke," the first in the Hannah Vogel series, is due out May 2009. "A Night of Long Knives," the second book in the series, is due out May 2010. Her screenplays "A Taste For Blood" and "The Humanitarian" have been finalists at Shriekfest: The Los Angeles Horror/Sci-fi Film Festival in 2007 and 2008. As of this writing, she lives in Hawaii with her husband, her son, and a feral cat.

After eighteen months in a secret prison in Southeast Asia, Dante Johnson wants only to move on with his life - until a bomb attack makes it clear that someone, somewhere won't let the past go. All signs point to Catalina Dion, the brilliant foreign agent he once believed himself in love with...the same woman suspected of selling him out...
Cat knows her young son's safety depends on her ability to remain hidden. But now Dante has tracked her down, reigniting the searing attraction between them and tempting Cat to lower her guard in potentially lethal ways. Now, together, they're on the trail of a rogue Russian scientist, risking everything on a fragile trust and a fierce hunger that may be more dangerous than any enemy they've ever faced...

"Thrilling!" -- Shannon McKenna, New York Times bestselling author

"Noble's impressive romantic thriller debut introduces hot CIA operative Dante Johnson in the first of a steamy new series. " -- Publishers Weekly

"This flat-out thriller features black ops agents who never got the chance to come in from the cold." 4.5 stars -- Romantic Times Book Reviews

Cate Noble likes trouble . . . Her specialty: high-intensity romantic thrillers that never let up - with tall, dark and devilish heroes who never let you down. A former accountant, she now enjoys making sure danger, intrigue and drop-dead romance add up to an adrenaline rush her readers won't soon forget.

In the prologue to this exceptional supernatural thriller from Masello (Bestiary), two lovers-Lt. Sinclair Copley of the 17th Lancers and Eleanor Ames, a nurse from Florence Nightingale's Harley Street hospital in London-fall into ice-strewn seas from a British sloop foundering near Antarctica in 1856. In the present, Seattle writer Michael Wilde, who's recovering from a personal tragedy, can't resist the opportunity to go to Antarctica to write a magazine article about the Point Adélie research station. Past and present stories alternate until Michael makes an amazing discovery in a submerged block of ice off the Antarctic coast-two frozen bodies, bound in chains. After Sinclair and Eleanor revive, Masello slowly and subtly reveals how they came to transcend death. The thrills and, most decidedly, the chills mount to a believable, sad and hopeful ending. Fans of John Campbell's Who Goes There? -the basis for the movie "The Thing'-will find much to like. -- Publishers Weekly

"Stunning . . . will chill you to the bone." -- Lisa Gardner

"If you've not discovered Robert Masello yet, I envy you.  Masello is a true master at blending cutting edge science, historical intrigue, and riveting thrills.  And BLOOD AND ICE is one of his best books yet, a riotous mixture of history, cryogenics, vampirism, and a chilling adventure set in the Antarctic.  It all shouldn't work, but it does!  Park in front of a warm fire and prepare to read this in one sitting!" -- James Rollins, bestselling author of The Last Oracle

Robert Masello is an award-winning journalist, television writer and the author of sixteen previous books.  His articles and essays have appeared in such diverse publications as New York, People, Parade, The Wilson Quarterly, and the Los Angeles Times.  His books have been translated into nine languages.  His novel, VIGIL, appeared on the USA Today bestseller list, and ROBERT'S RULES OF WRITING, which has become a staple in many classrooms, on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list.  He lives and works in Santa Monica, CA.

Ten Men. One robbery.
They think it's the perfect crime.
Except for one thing. The man they are robbing is the main drugs dealer in Helmand, Afghanistan. And a deadly battle with the Taliban is about to begin.

Death Force tells the story of a group of mercenaries, working for a Private Military Corporation called Dudley Emergency Forces, or DEF. But the men in the unit call it Death Inc. They are hired by the British Army to take out the headquarters of the warlord backing and financing the Taliban. Their prize? The $50 million in gold and diamonds stored in his fort. And a deadly chase across the badlands of Helmand Province is about to begin.

"Brilliant, realistic and riveting: blistering front-line action" -- Chris Ryan.

Matt Lynn has ghost-written several successful action-adventure novels, including three number one bestsellers. He has worked for The Sunday Times, and now writes a column for Bloomberg, as well as contributing to The Spectator. Death Force is the first in a new series of military thrillers.

At eighteen, Macy Ward had turned to Fisher Yates for a single night of comfort...and then Fisher joined the military while she married another man. Years later, she is a single mother, and Fisher is back in town, unaware that the troubled teen with Macy is the result of that one passionate, unforgettable night....

Macy knows that she should tell Fisher. But the military is his life--a life that never seemed to include the desire for family. Until her son's disappearance brings them together in a race to save him...and forces the ultimate decision between duty and lost love.

4 Stars from Romantic Times: Caridad Piñeiro's contribution to The Coltons: Family First, finds lovers reuniting. Soldier's Secret Child (4) feels like a wonderful dream.

4.5 Stars from Cataromance: "Intriguingly suspenseful plus overflowing with conflicting emotions, SOLDIER'S SECRET CHILD is poignantly compelling."

NY Times and USA TODAY bestseller Caridad Piñeiro is a multi-published and award-winning author whose love of the written word developed when her fifth grade teacher assigned a project - to write a book that would be placed in a class lending library. She has been hooked on writing ever since.

When Ellis Greene testified against the man who assaulted her cousin thirteen years ago he threatened that she would pay. Now he's out on parole and executing his long-planned revenge against those he feels wronged him.

Once a suspect in the attack, Nate Vance left town with only one person believing in his complete innocence, Ellis Greene. Now he returns from the shadows to protect her. As Nate and Ellis try to outwit a ruthless criminal, shocking secrets begin to emerge from the past. What really happened on that sultry South Carolina night? Will the truth protect them? Or send them straight into the trap of a killer?
 
"...a tense thriller ... taut and twisty, drawing a persuasive picture of a family distorted by unhealed grief and unrevealed secrets." -- Publishers Weekly

"Poignant in places and nail-bitingly suspenseful in others, this is one of those books readers will want to finish in one sitting." -- Romantic Times

Award winning author Susan Crandall has published seven novels since her debut (BACK ROADS) in 2003. She lives in Indiana with her husband and their mystery-mix dog, Bear.

Nuclear nonproliferation specialist Jim Deutsch fights a desperate battle against terrorists in possession of the ultimate weapon. Pitted both against the terrorists and a system too complex and unwieldy to react swiftly enough, Jim's time runs out. And then the President of the United States is faced with a truly horrific problem: the threat of losing a nuclear war to an enemy who is known only by his apocalyptic demands.

"A heart-pounding descent into dread." -- Richard Christian Matheson.

"Read Midnight and confront the unspoken terrors that world leaders, intelligence agents, and military planners must deal with on a daily basis. And then try to go back to sleep!" -- Peter Levenda

"Whitley Strieber's CRITICAL MASS is one hell of a book--a frighteningly plausible conspiracy-thriller."-- Douglas Preston

Whitley Strieber is the author of over 30 novels, including the Wolfen, the Hunger, Warday, Communion, Superstorm, the Grays and 2012. The Wolfen, the Hunger, Communion, and Superstorm (as the Day After Tomorrow) were all made into films, and the Grays and 2012 are in preproduction at Sony and Warner Bros. respectively.

For a son, every funeral before his father's death is a rehearsal and every funeral thereafter is a memorial.

Kyle Byrne, the illegitimate son of a prominent Philadelphia lawyer, had to sneak into his father's funeral when he was fourteen years old. Twelve years later, his father's death still casts a shadow upon his heart.

But when his father's former law partner is brutally murdered, the cops see Kyle as a possible suspect and start asking uncomfortable questions about his father's death. And after a strange encounter with one of his father's former clients, Kyle enters into a search for answers that leads from his father's past to the highest pinnacles of power--and forces Kyle to lay bare the deceptions and losses in his own life.

Just when it seems he's close to learning the truth about his father and the murder, Kyle is reminded of that old adage "be careful what you wish for," because Kyle Byrne's most fervent wish is suddenly about to come true--with a vengeance.

"With high wit and perfect pitch, Lashner keeps the reader spellbound." -- Harlan Coben

"Lashner is as impressive as anyone writing thrillers today." -- Washington Post Book World

"William Lashner is a remarkable writer--quick, witty, funny, and authoritative." -- Nelson DeMille

New York Times bestselling author William Lashner is the author of seven suspense novels that have been published in over a dozen languages throughout the world. A former trial attorney in the criminal division of the Department of Justice, he is also a graduate of the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop. He lives with his family and his dog outside of Philadelphia, PA.

Jordan Dane is best known for her NO ONE trilogy, but in the thriller world she's certainly become SOME ONE - and in a very short time.  Publisher's Weekly picked her debut, NO ONE HEARD HER SCREAM, as one of the best books of 2008. Her third, NO ONE LIVES FOREVER is a finalist in the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Awards.  Now, with her fourth novel to hit the shelves in less than a year - EVIL WITHOUT A FACE -  Dane kicks off a new series that takes readers to dark corners of the world and the human psyche.  

What inspired the story of EVIL WITHOUT A FACE?

Imagine the horror of going to your teenager's bedroom one morning only to find her missing. Her bed hadn't been slept in and her clothes are gone. In 2000, that's what one mother in Florida faced. Her only child had conspired against her and ran away. And worse, she later discovered that her daughter had left the country--without having a passport. From the moment I read this news story, I was hooked and had to know more about how such an atrocity could happen.

A savvy online predator not only manipulated the teenager, but also convinced law-abiding adults to cooperate with his schemes. The naïve young girl was outside the country before her mother knew she was gone. I had to write that story and started it in Alaska where I'd lived for ten years and continued the chase into Chicago and parts of Russia.

Jailbait Zombie is the fourth book in Mario Acevedo's Feliz Gomez vampire detective series. Contributing Editor Janice Gable Bashman caught up with Mario to talk about the series and his writing process.

Tell us about Jailbait Zombie and why we would want to visit this world.

Reading Jailbait Zombie could save your life. It's got details that may be useful in the upcoming zombie plague. Fact: Homeland Security and the CIA are funding research to reanimate the dead but, like most government projects, they'll find a way to screw it up. What else is in the story? Lots of guns. Some kissy face vampire stuff. Imagine a Dirty Harry version of Twilight as directed by George Romero and Sam Peckinpah.

You stated you were "a huge fan of the Creepy-style magazines. [Your] mom and dad used to confiscate them from [you]. [You] also enjoyed the sarcastic apocalyptic vision of Vincent Vaughn Bode's Cobalt 60 comics and the ribald humor of National Lampoon. Anything with big stop-action monsters (and slave girls in skimpy harem outfits) like in the Sinbad movies was high on [your] must-see list." How did your love of these forms of media influence you as a writer?

The Creepy magazines haven't influenced my writing so much. I like National Lampoon because of its satirical attitude and the great writing. What I admired about the Sinbad movies and the wonderful stop action was that ability to make you suspend disbelief and get drawn into the action.  If the animation was done well, you wouldn't think, "This could never happen." Instead, you'd tell yourself, "This is so cool." One media inspiration for my books are movies like Pulp Fiction and The Big Lebowski. I love the loopy, hard-boiled dialog and the noir atmosphere. Another source of inspiration comes from weird true tales I read in junior high.  Demons. Fantastic inventions. Ghosts. And aliens. In The Undead Kama Sutra, I based my description of the alien gangster on a sighting of an extraterrestrial near Socorro, NM.

The Mystery Writers of America have announced the nominees for the 2009 Edgar Awards. Congratulations to all!

BEST NOVEL

Missing by Karin Alvtegen (Felony & Mayhem Press)
Blue Heaven by C.J. Box (St. Martin's Minotaur)
Sins of the Assassin by Robert Ferrigno (Simon & Schuster - Scribner)
The Price of Blood by Declan Hughes (HarperCollins - William Morrow)
The Night Following by Morag Joss (Random House - Delacorte Press)
Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz (Simon & Schuster)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

The Kind One by Tom Epperson (Five Star, div of Cengage)
Sweetsmoke by David Fuller (Hyperion)
The Foreigner by Francie Lin (Picador)
Calumet City by Charlie Newton (Simon & Schuster - Touchstone)
A Cure for Night by Justin Peacock (Random House - Doubleday)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

The Prince of Bagram by Alex Carr (Random House Trade)
Money Shot by Christa Faust (Hard Case Crime)
Enemy Combatant by Ed Gaffney (Random House - Dell)
China Lake by Meg Gardiner (New American Library - Obsidian Mysteries)
The Cold Spot by Tom Piccirilli (Random House - Bantam)

BEST FACT CRIME

For The Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder that Shocked Chicago by Simon Baatz (HarperCollins)
American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century by Howard Blum (Crown Publishers)
Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba and Then Lost It To The Revolution by T.J. English (HarperCollins - William Morrow)
The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Hans van Meegeren by Jonathan Lopez (Harcourt)
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale (Walker & Company)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

African American Mystery Writers: A Historical and Thematic Study by Frankie Y. Bailey (McFarland & Company)
Hard-Boiled Sentimentality: The Secret History of American Crime Stories by Leonard Cassuto (Columbia University Press)
Scene of the Crime: The Importance of Place in Crime and Mystery Fiction by David Geherin (McFarland & Company)
The Rise of True Crime by Jean Murley (Greenwood Publishing - Praeger)
Edgar Allan Poe: An Illustrated Companion to His Tell-Tale Stories by Dr. Harry Lee Poe (Sterling Publishing - Metro Books)

BEST SHORT STORY

"A Sleep Not Unlike Death" - Hardcore Hardboiled by Sean Chercover (Kensington Publishing)
"Skin and Bones" - Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine by David Edgerley Gates (Dell Magazines)
"Scratch of a Woman" - Hardly Knew Her by Laura Lippman (HarperCollins - William Morrow)
"La Vie en Rose" - Paris Noir by Dominique Mainard (Akashic Books
"Skinhead Central" - The Blue Religion by T. Jefferson Parker (Hachette Book Group - Little, Brown and Company)

BEST JUVENILE

The Postcard by Tony Abbott (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Enigma: A Magical Mystery by Graeme Base (Abrams Books for Young Readers)
Eleven by Patricia Reilly Giff (Random House Children's Books - Wendy Lamb Books)
The Witches of Dredmoore Hollow by Riford McKenzie (Marshall Cavendish Children's Books)
Cemetary Street by Brenda Seabrooke (Holiday House)

BEST YOUNG ADULT

Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd (Random House Children's Books - David Fickling Books)
The Big Splash by Jack D. Ferraiolo (Harry N. Abrams Books - Amulet Books)
Paper Towns by John Green (Penguin Young Readers Group - Dutton Children's Books)
Getting the Girl by Susan Juby (HarperCollins Children's Books - HarperTeen)
Torn to Pieces by Margo McDonnell (Random House Children's Books - Delacorte Books for Young Readers)

BEST PLAY

The Ballad of Emmett Till by Ifa Bayeza (Goodman Theatre, Chicago, IL)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher, based on the story by Robert Lewis Stevenson (Arizona Theatre Company)
Cell by Judy Klass (International Mystery Writers' Festival)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY

"Streetwise" - Law & Order: SVU, Teleplay by Paul Grellong (Wolf Films/NBC Universal)
"Prayer of the Bone" - Wire in the Blood, Teleplay by Patrick Harbinson (BBC America)
"Signature" - Law & Order: SVU, Teleplay by Judith McCreary (Wolf Films/NBC Universal)
"You May Now Kill the Bride" - CSI: Miami, Teleplay by Barry O'Brien (CBS)
"Burn Card" - Law & Order, Teleplay by David Wilcox (Wolf Films/NBC Universal)

BEST MOTION PICTURE SCREENPLAY

The Bank Job, Screenplay by Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais (Lionsgate)
Burn After Reading, Screenplay by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen (Focus Features)
In Bruges, Screenplay by Martin McDonagh (Focus Features)
Tell No One, Screenplay by Guillaume Canet, based on the book by Harlan Coben (Music Box Films)
Transsiberian, Screenplay by Brad Anderson & Will Conroy (First Look International)

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD

"Buckner's Error" - Queens Noir by Joseph Guglielmelli (Akashic Books)

GRAND MASTERS

James Lee Burke
Sue Grafton

RAVEN AWARDS

Edgar Allan Poe Society, Baltimore, Maryland
Poe House, Baltimore, Maryland

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER - MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD

Sacrifice by S.J. Bolton (St. Martin's Minotaur)
The Killer's Wife by Bill Floyd (St. Martin's Minotaur)
Stalking Susan by Julie Kramer (Random House - Doubleday)
A Song for You by Betsy Thornton (St. Martin's Minotaur)
The Fault Tree by Louise Ure (St. Martin's Minotaur)

Kate Carlisle makes her debut with Homicide in Hardcover, coming in February from NAL.  She is a member of ITW's Debut Author Program and talks with contributing editor CJ Lyons about her debut experience.

First, tell us about your background.

I worked for many years in television production, mainly as an Associate Director for game and variety shows such as The Gong Show, The Midnight Special, Solid Gold, lots of others. When shows got canceled or went on hiatus, I would work as a legal secretary, and that's where I am now.

At one point, I had this brilliant idea to go to law school--which I hated so much, I would spend all my free time writing stories about killing off my professors. I took that as a good sign that, you know, I should probably quit law school, so I did, happily. But I kept killing people--er, writing. And all that killing finally paid off with a publishing contract.

How did you break into publishing?

Breaking into publishing only took me twenty years or so! My call story? I was at work at my very serious, high-powered, multi-national law firm, when my agents called to tell me we'd sold the Bibliophile Mystery series.

I was beyond excited but I couldn't scream for joy. Make noise in those hallowed halls? It just wasn't done! So I sat there, spinning around in my chair, squealing internally, trying to absorb everything the agents were saying. I believe there were tears involved. I thought I was being discreet but when I hung up the phone, I looked up and saw that my desk was surrounded by friends and co-workers who screamed on my behalf and grabbed me for hugs and cheers and laughs. There were flowers and champagne that night when I got home, and my DH and I called everyone we knew to share the news. After twenty years, there were a lot of people to tell.

Colin MacKinnon comes by his worldview naturally--he spent much of his youth and young adulthood in the Middle East teaching English in Iran. "I started life as a linguist. I do Persian pretty well. I taught English overseas and taught Persian here." He notes, however, that after the Iranian Revolution in 1979 a lot of the money for that sort of work dried up and he turned to journalism, writing about the legal system changes in the Middle East during the '80s and '90s. "If you think of it, these Middle East countries that got a lot of oil money in the '70s had really old, decrepit legal systems that didn't interface well with the outside world. They had a lot of money and a lot of business interest in them, so they had to reform their legal systems, which were usually Islamic, to more modern foreign ways of doing business."

MacKinnon's latest international thriller, THE CONTRACTOR, revolves around the shadowy field of Foreign Material Acquisitions or FMA. MacKinnon describes it as "essentially buying stuff from foreign governments that the CIA and the DIA don't want to be seen acquiring or buying, so they do it in the private sector through private contractors."

Contributing editor Karen Harper recently chatted with bestselling author Michael Palmer on his newest medical thriller THE SECOND OPINION.

Why medical thrillers?

The simple answers to this question are that I wanted to write and I'm a physician--with boards in internal medicine and ER, and much experience in physician health and addiction medicine as well. But I think the more appropriate answer is that I love the issues presented by medicine and doctors--the heroism and victories and utter defeat of patients battling against injury and often against illness they cannot see or understand. You feel fine, you have a routine test, and suddenly a doctor is telling you that soon, you will die. That's big stuff--the biggest, really. I am an emotional person, and I am at my most comfortable best when writing about feelings. Medical thrillers allow me to explore human feelings and emotions in the harshest of circumstances, while at the same time indulging the macabre, cobwebby corners of my imagination. 
 
Can you give a bit of your background and interests for specializing in this thriller sub-genre?
 
When I decided I wanted to try writing a novel, I was 35 and in private practice. I had never written anything creative before except for some silly (I hope) limericks. Then I read COMA by Robin Cook, who was 2 years ahead of me at Wesleyan University in Connecticut--also Robert Ludlam's alma mater--and decided that if Robin could do it, maybe I could do it. We got a wonderful liberal education at that school, and even now I often call up information gleaned from courses on Poe, war, eastern literature, and mythology, to name just a few. I also came away from succeeding in organic chemistry, then med school, believing that I could do anything I set my mind to.

Robert Gregory Browne's latest thriller, WHISPER IN THE DARK, will be released in the U.S. in February after debuting in Great Britain. Browne is a former screenwriter who has followed a life-long dream of writing thrillers. WHISPER is his second novel and will soon be followed by two more.

A lot of writers want to move from book to film, but you've come at this in reverse. Why? What are some of the screenplays you wrote?

In all honesty, I was frustrated with the movie business. While I had had some success early on, winning a fairly prestigious award and getting a deal with Showtime, I soon discovered that you spend more time in Hollywood hunting for a deal than you do actually writing. And once you get that deal, you're only as good as your first draft. After that, the story you slaved over can be taken away from you and changed by just about anyone the studio hires. It's no longer your story. And this is true for nearly every movie you see. Most of them are written by a slew of writers who, frankly, have little respect for the previous draft. The most common jobs in Hollywood usually involve rewriting someone else's work. And while that may put food on the table, it is -- for me, at least -- creatively unsatisfying. I don't want to look at a movie I've "written" and say, "Hey, that was one my lines." Call it ego, but I want them ALL to be my lines. I want the story I originally wrote to wind up on screen and that just doesn't happen. I could give you the names of screenplays I've written, but it wouldn't mean much to you, because they've never gotten all the way to production. Most of the scripts written never do -- which is another source of frustration. So, once I wound up writing Saturday morning cartoons like Spider-Man, I was pretty much writing only to feed my family. There was a certain satisfaction in getting the job done, but no real joy in the work. When a friend suggested I turn a movie idea of mine into a novel, I gave it a try and my first book, KISS HER GOODBYE, was born. I've never looked back.

CJ Lyons is swapping her M.D. title for that of national bestselling author with the release of her new novel, WARNING SIGNS, this month. Both occupations involve blood, sweat and tears, but at least in fiction, her patients don't really die. By writing what she knows, Lyons launched a series that combines the pace of E.R. with the sizzle of Grey's Anatomy.

She's been there in the medical trenches of trauma centers, on the Navajo Reservation, even as a flight doctor. Her clinical views have aided police and prosecutors in cases of rape, child abuse, and murder. In writing suspense, Lyons knows more about life and death than most of us will ever face. So we'll begin with the question on everyone's mind.

In real life, do doctors and nurses have sex in the hospital?

Only with George Clooney and Patrick Dempsey, lol! Seriously, working 36 hour shifts in the same pair of sweaty scrubs and having no privacy anywhere aren't as conducive to fun and games as you'd think.

Compared to struggling writers, doctors have a enviably secure paycheck. How did you have the guts to trade your stethoscope for a keyboard? And don't tell us it worked for Tess Gerritson and Michael Critchton, so you knew everything would be fine.

Well, first of all, I've always been a dreamer. If I hadn't been, I would never have made it to college, much less been able to put myself through medical school. And second of all, I'm half Irish and half Italian, which makes me all stubborn.

But it did take courage. Talk about your leap of faith--even though I wasn't making a lot of money as a pediatrician (kids don't vote, so pediatricians are at the bottom of the pay scale) it was plenty for me. And to leave that to live a life of uncertainty, no secure paycheck, no plan B--well, let's just say that several of my partners suggested a psych eval would make more sense than my following my dream of writing.

All I can say is that I knew what I wanted, was confident in my abilities, and yes, I did prepare a financial emergency fund--just in case. Those first few months were scary--first time I'd been unemployed since I was 15! But luckily since then I've been making a living with my writing, paying the bills, and having a heck of a lot of fun doing it!

What a way to start 2009! Jordan Dane's debut series has sold foreign rights to Oakla Publishing in Japan. This prestigious publisher covers a broad list of genres, especially comics and magazines. NO ONE HEARD HER SCREAM (Apr 2008), NO ONE LEFT TO TELL (May 2008), and NO ONE LIVES FOREVER (Jun 2008) will be translated into Japanese for all three titles. For more information, visit Jordan's website at http://www.jordandane.com.