June 2009 Archives

When his father's former partner asks for help to settle his daughter's estate, John Delaney get more than he bargained for. The hidden box of tapes Delaney finds in her home provides the first clue the girl's death may not be what it seemed. Through a series of twists and turns, Delaney learns it's related to another "accident" that occurred fifteen years earlier and a thousand miles apart.

"A Spenceresque thriller that's hard to put down." -- Kirkus

"Cleverly plotted with exciting courtroom and action sequences." -- Booklist

"A compelling, interesting and entertaining story with great characters." --Francine Brokaw, The Herald

This is Mitchell Graham's second legal thriller. Mitchell practiced law for thirty years and also holds a degree in neuropsychology. Along the way he represented the United States in numerous fencing competitions. He won or was a finalist in over 87 events worldwide. His third book featuring John Delaney and Katherine Adams is due out next year.

Here's what was featured in the July Edition of the Big Thrill
click on a book title to read the feature story

• LOST THRONE by Chris Kuzneski
• ABANDON by Blake Crouch
• TRY FEAR by James Scott Bell
• HIGH CHICAGO by Howard Shrier
• KILL ZONE by Vicki Hinze
• NO MERCY by John Gilstrap
• GREEDY BONES by Carolyn Haines
• DARK TIME: MORTAL PATH by Dakota Banks
• HAUNT OF JACKALS by Eric Wilson
• MISSING MARK by Julie Kramer
• KILL HER AGAIN by Robert Gregory Browne
• FADE TO BLACK by Leslie Parrish
• SHANGHAIED by Eric Stone
• GRIPPED BY FEAR by John M. Wills
• HOUSE SECRETS by Mike Lawson
• TIMESCAPE by Robert Liparulo
• RED BLOODED MURDER by Laura Caldwell
• THE APOSTLE by Brad Thor
• BREAKPOINT by JoAnn Ross
• OUTCAST by Joan Johnston
• THE BONE FACTORY by Nate Kenyon
• THE ODDS by Kathleen George
• FUGITIVE by Phillip Margolin
• THE LAST RESORT by April Star
• UNDONE by Karin Slaughter
• THE DEVIL'S COMPANY by David Liss
• FREE AGENT by Jeremy Duns
• LEADEN SKIES by Ann Parker
• CRIMINAL KARMA by Steven M. Thomas
• FAN MAIL by P.D. Martin
• THE MISSING INK by Karen E. Olson
• DUST TO DUST by Heather Graham
• EVERYWHERE SHE TURNS by Debra Webb
• THE ESTUARY by Derek Gunn
• DEAD DOCKET by Mitchell Graham
• A Between The Lines interview with Jonathan Kellerman
• Plus International News from Mike Nicol in South Africa and Declan Burke in Ireland.
  

Monthly Book Giveaway

Congratulations to Marilyn Amann, the winner of this month's BIG THRILL giveaway. Marilyn will receive an assortment of signed thrillers including Cold Black Hearts by Jeffrey J. Mariotte, Outcast by Joan Johnston, Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Deception by Eric Van Lustbader, The Memory Collector by Meg Gardiner, The Shroud of Heaven by Sean Ellis, Leaden Skies: A Silver Rush Mystery by Ann Parker, The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu by Michael Stanley, Dead or Alive by Michael McGarrity, and Fugitive by Phillip Margolin.

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

Jonathan Kellerman's publishing history shows that he hit the ground running with his first novel, When the Bough Breaks, which won several awards and landed on the New York Times bestseller list. But just as in his books, there is a more complex web behind the scenes.

"Actually, When the Bough Breaks was my ninth or tenth novel," Kellerman explains. "I wrote a slew of unpublished 'masterpieces' over a thirteen year dry period. The process began in 1971 after I won a writing award in college, got an agent, and began to believe literary success was imminent. Alas, Bough wasn't bought until 1983 and publication was delayed to 1985 because the publisher, Atheneum, had no idea what to do with it."

Suffice to say, Kellerman did not have high hopes for his debut.

"The book was purchased as (what I now realize was) a small book destine for a quick death and an unceremonious burial. The advance came out to three bucks an hour and at the time I was making considerably more as a med school professor, clinical psychologist, and court consultant. So  I never really thought writing would be a job. It was just something I loved and I figured I'd continue seeing patients and turn out a book every few years, if I could afford the time."

Still, the fact of publication was "proof that I wasn't just a self-deluded neurotic typing away in an unheated garage without a speck of success."

But then the thing all authors hope for happened.

"Somehow--I still don't understand it--the book became a word-of-mouth bestseller. I said, Hmm, okay, let's try another. Same deal. Ditto for my third, fourth, fifth . . .twenty-five years and 30 or so bestsellers later, I still don't get it. But I sure love it and I'm deeply grateful to my readers."

How did Kellerman prepare for this? What foundation was laid down for ultimate bestsellerdom?

Society bachelor and former army sniper Ben Benedict moves between two worlds--from high-society Washington to the mean city streets, from tuxedos to Glocks. His powerful Virginia family wants him out of harm's way, but Ben stays on the job, determined to make amends for a past that haunts him. Dr. Anna Schuster is fighting demons of her own when she crosses paths with Agent Benedict. The two become adversaries--and lovers--as they search for an Al Qaeda operative bent on revenge. Ben must fight against time--and his own darkness--to rescue millions of innocents and the woman he loves from a virulent bio-weapon in the hands of a dangerous enemy.

"Skillful storyteller Johnston makes what would in lesser hands be melodrama, compellingly realistic."-- Booklist

Joan Johnston is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than forty award-winning historical and contemporary romantic novels, including her Bitter Creek series featuring The Rivals, The Price, The Loner, The Texan, and The Cowboy.

Johnston received a master of arts degree in theater from the University of Illinois and graduated with honors from the University of Texas School of Law at Austin. She lives in south Florida and Colorado.

When some of the top thriller writers in the world came together in Thriller: Stories To Keep You Up All Night, they became a part of one of the most successful short-story anthologies ever published. The highly anticipated Thriller 2: Stories You Just Can't Put Down is even bigger. From Jeffery Deaver's tale of international terrorism to Lisa Jackson's dysfunctional family in the California wine country to Ridley Pearson's horrifying serial killer, this collection has something for everyone. Twenty-three bestselling and hot new authors in the genre have submitted original stories to make up this unforgettable blockbuster.

Clive Cussler takes the editorial helm from James Patterson in this follow-up to Thriller (2006). This volume again features another impressive line-up of crime writers, some household names (Phillip Margolin, Ridley Pearson) and some lesser-knowns (Javier Sierra, Harry Hunsicker). All are members of the International Thriller Writers, the organization that came up with the concept for the series. What's different in this second compilation is that this time most of the familiar authors leave their established characters at home and strike out in new directions. So while David Hewson delivers a taut, exciting story, it isn't about his Roman detective Nic Costa. Thrillers are not an easy genre to define, as Cussler points out in his introduction, as it has more to do with pace than with plot. But that's good news for readers, who will enjoy such diverse story types as international intrigue (Jeffrey Deaver's "The Weapon"), suspense (Hewson's "The Circle"), and even a blend of political thriller and science fiction (Kathleen Antrim's "Through a Veil Darkly"). An entertaining collection. -- Mary Frances Wilkens, Booklist

Thriller 2, Stories You Just Can't Put Down is available in bookstores and online.

Mike Lawson's books chronicle the adventures of Joe DeMarco, an aide to the Speaker of the House.  The fourth in the series and newest, House Secrets, is his best yet.  Lawson talked to Big Thrill contributing editor Jeff Ayers about his work and DeMarco.

What was your life before you became a writer?  

I've been very fortunate in my life: my marriage, my family, and my careers - both of them.  Before I became a full-time writer, I worked for the navy for about thirty years as a nuclear engineer and as a manager maintaining the reactor plants in the navy's submarines and aircraft carriers − and I had a very successful career.   It was a good job, an interesting job, and one that dealt with vital issues related to national defense - but it wasn't fun.  The fact was, although I cared very much about what I did for the navy and worked very hard at it, I didn't really enjoy the work.  With writing it's different.  I love to write and I look forward to writing.  In my old job, I sometimes dreaded going to work in the morning knowing the tough issues that I'd have to face that day.  By contrast, I never dread sitting down and working on my novels even when I'm going through a phase where I'm stuck on the plot or the words aren't flowing as they should.  Like I said, I was fortunate to have an interesting job as an engineer and to make enough money to provide for my family, and I was particularly fortunate to be involved at a fairly high level in important issues that really mattered in terms of the country's security − but I consider myself even more fortunate to now be doing something I'm truly passionate about and look forward to doing each day.

What were the origins of your main character, DeMarco?

The origins of DeMarco came from two things:  First, I decided before I wrote my first novel that I wanted to write political thrillers.  I've always told people that for a writer, Washington, D.C. is a target rich environment.  What I mean by that is that you can pick up a paper any day of the week and read about something that happens in Washington - some blunder, some scandal, some intelligence coup, something related to the military or Congress or the president − that provides an endless supply of plot-ideas for novels.  So, I wanted my novels and the novels' protagonist to have a D.C. "link".   The next thing I thought was that the mystery/thriller world didn't need another detective or cop or lawyer as a protagonist for a series - and thus DeMarco was born − a guy who works for the Speaker of the House.   DeMarco's job gave me the "access" I needed to write stories involving all the shenanigans and serious, important things that occur in D.C.

In SHANGHAIED, Eric Stone's fourth in the Ray Sharp series of detective thrillers set in Asia--a series based on true stories and described by Lee Child as "bizarre but believable, tough but tender, and fast but considered. Highly recommended." -- Hong Kong's been handed back to the Chinese. Ray Sharp's whole world is changing. Carnivorous Tibetan monks are worried about what a Chinese bank is doing with their money. A murderous, sociopathic veteran of the U.S. invasion of Grenada, along with his twin comely kung-fu bodyguards, Floss and Betty, figure into it. As does a painful dumpling accident, drugs, sex and rock and roll, along with the usual coterie of business moguls, hookers, friends and foes. And the return of Ray's Chinese-Mexican colleague and pal, the diminutive Ms. Wen Lei Yue.

Eric's previous series books include Flight of the Hornbill, Grave Imports and The Living Room of the Dead. He is also the author of Wrong Side of the Wall, a true-crime / sports biography. Eric worked for many years as a journalist in the U.S. and Asia, covering everything from economics to crime; politics to sex, drugs and rock & roll. He once wrote an advice to the lovelorn column for a bi-lingual (English-Chinese) fashion magazine.

Eric sat down with Big Thrill contributing editor Megan Kelley Hall to discuss his intriguing writing career and his next novel, SHANGHAIED, from Bleak House books.

Eric, how has your career as a journalist helped you with your novel writing?

It has given me an appreciation for how truly strange the world is. My books are loosely based on stories that I covered, or am very familiar with, from my work in Asia, so I've had a chance to put  my experiences into play in plots, locales, characters, pretty much every element of my books. The hard part is that in my novels, everything needs to make sense - unlike in the real world. As a journalist, if I could back up what I reported with research, it didn't matter how bizarre or illogical something was. Truth really can be stranger than fiction. A novel requires more logic. If my readers feel that something doesn't make sense, they lose patience with it. And, on a technical level, I've got a lot of experience with deadlines and writing every day, so I don't agonize too much over the actual work involved in writing.

With Criminal Paradise, his gritty, satirical take on the Southern California underworld and the faulty society it preys on, Steven M. Thomas earned comparison to such masters as Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen. Now, Thomas has written another smart, sexy thriller featuring his charismatic antihero, the small-time crook Robert Rivers, who has dreams of making the big score and the brains to pull it off -- if only his partner, Reggie, wouldn't keep getting in the way.

The stakes are high for Rivers this time around: He is on the trail of a diamond necklace worth a small fortune. The necklace belongs to beautiful Los Angeles socialite Evelyn Evermore, but Rivers has a foolproof plan to remedy that. Unfortunately, the plan is not Reggie-proof, and when the dust clears, the necklace is gone and the cops are in hot pursuit.

When Rivers learns that Evelyn is mixed up with a 300-pound guru known as Baba Raba, the necklace seems to be within reach once more. Only the deeper Rivers digs, the more it appears that Baba Raba is a dangerous fraud intent on the same prize Rivers is pursuing. Worse, Rivers finds himself developing a soft spot for Evelyn, who isn't the shallow socialite she seems to be.

Soon Rivers and Reggie are barreling headlong into a battle with Baba and a gang of murderous Italian gangsters who, in cahoots with the guru, are using intimidation, extortion and the cats paw of a corrupt politician to gain control of a $100-million swath of oceanfront property. Set in sunny Venice Beach and Indian Wells in the Coachella Valley, Criminal Karma offers exotic locales, fast-paced action, colorful characters, and dazzling plot twists that will keep readers enthralled until the final page.

"This novel is more than a wonderful thriller and a classic caper-gone-wrong. It's a morality tale and a jaw-dropping tour of Southern California at its most crazy and compelling. I loved it." -- T. Jefferson Parker

"From posh hotels to flop houses, from ashram meetings to complicated burglaries, Rivers keeps his eye on the prize, but not without an appealing touch of knight errantry . . . . Rivers is a cunning and resourceful thief capable of blending into his surroundings like a chameleon or meeting force with force when necessary. He does both with charm, wit and surprising decency." -- Publishers Weekly

"As in the first novel, author Thomas writes gracefully and deftly about Southern California, louche and luxe, and Rivers' casual disquisitions on Hindu beliefs are informative and insightful. Give this one to fans of Lawrence Block's Bernie Rhodenbarr." -- Booklist

Steven M. Thomas grew up in a working class suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, where he was not an Eagle Scout or member of the boys choir. He left home the first time at 15, spending the summer hitchhiking across the country, working at odd jobs and writing a journal. He was educated -- eventually -- at Antioch University, the University of Missouri, St. Louis (B.A. English, summa cum laude, 1997) and the University of California, Irvine (Regent's Fellowship, MFA, 1999). Before becoming a fulltime novelist, Thomas worked at different times as a magazine editor, journalist and college lecturer, teaching writing at UCI. He has also been a short order cook and an aluminum siding salesman. He lives with his wife and daughter in Orange County, California.

What happens when a message in a bottle washed ashore contains neither the typical proclamations of love nor charts or maps to shipwrecks and buried treasure, but instead, secrets, lies, betrayals and the most unspeakable of crimes - murder? In THE LAST RESORT, the second novel in her Wanderlust Mystery series, author April Star takes readers on a journey to answer that very question. THE LAST RESORT features newlyweds and amateur sleuths David and Laura Jennings, two RV enthusiasts who stumble upon murder and intrigue as soon as they arrive at the St. Augustine RV resort where they hope to enjoy a romantic honeymoon. Kirkus Review called THE LAST RESORT "a fine blend of mystery and romance." As she celebrates the novel's recent release, April took time to answer some questions for Big Thrill contributing editor, Julie Compton.

Your protagonist Laura Jennings is an RV enthusiast and former manager of a camping resort. You, too, are an RV enthusiast and former manager of an RV resort. In what other ways is Laura like you? Or do the similarities stop there?  

At the time I was writing Tropical Warnings, the first title in this series and when Laura Jennings was created, I was managing an RV resort. I'm now an Office Coordinator and reservationist. Laura is really a composite of the woman I'd always hoped to become. Serious-minded but fun loving; business and success oriented, and a woman who displays a strong and independent spirit.

You state in your bio that the stories and characters in the Wanderlust Mystery series emerged from your experiences as a manager at the camping resort. Can you elaborate? Are there any aspects of your plots that are based on real events or people? Have you ever found a message in a bottle?

My husband, who is very much the romantic, has sent me a number of "messages in a bottle." Some with personal and touching notes, others held diamonds and gold. When I stated that the characters and plots emerged from my experiences as a manager and my own adventures as a fulltime RVer, I was talking about the "happenings" and some of the quirky characters that find their way into campgrounds. We had one woman who tried to convince us that she was half alien and she wanted us to be sure to let her know if Jerry Springer called!

"From an early age," thriller author Eric Wilson said, "I wanted to be a writer. Although I was born in California and raised in Oregon, my more enduring memories start in Europe where my parents took Bibles behind the Iron Curtain. Life was an adventure, full of exotic cultures and peoples." It's been a wild ride for his self-described "preacher's kid" who has become a bestselling Christian author, producing not only a series of successful original novels such as The Best of Evil, Shred of Proof and Dark to Mortal Eyes, but also the novelizations of a series of films like the immensely popular "Fireproof." Eric's latest is Haunt of Jackals from Thomas Nelson, the second in his 'Jerusalem Undead' series that began with Field of Blood and features Gina Lazarescu, a Romanian girl trying to solve an occult mystery with dire repercussions for herself and the and all of mankind.
 
When did you start writing? Did you write stories as a child?

My childhood love of books spurred me to write. By age seven or eight, I was writing stories. By age sixteen, I'd completed a 300 page novel.
 
You followed a really unique path to representation and getting published - can you tell us about that?

After publishing articles in college, I got married and had to get a "real" job. With the advent of the Internet, I began reviewing novels on Amazon, and it was there that an established agent noticed me while reading one of my reviews of a book he had represented. He saw in my bio that I was working on a novel and he asked to see it. I thought he was a scam artist, but soon learned he was the real deal. Eight months later, I had a contract with a division of Random House.

Journalist John Pender has returned to his home town of Whiteshead to rekindle his marriage. Ex-British intelligence officer Dave Johnson has arrived to isolate himself after his fiancé is murdered during a mission that went terribly wrong. But excavations for the new shopping centre unearth a mysterious contagion that threatens to throw their lives into chaos.

Now the residents of Whiteshead are trapped within a quarantine zone with the military on one side and ravenous hordes of living dead on the other. Escape is no longer an option.

Far out in the mouth of the estuary a small Keep sits forlornly surrounded by an apron of jagged rocks. This refuge has always been unassailable, a place of myth and legend that has grown in folklore through the years. Now, it's the survivors' only hope of sanctuary. But there are thousands of flesh-eating infected between them and the Keep and time is running out ...

"Gunn's writing style is very engaging, particularly his action sequences. They are plentiful, intense, appropriately blood-soaked" -- Bookloons

"Almost fifteen thousand men, women and children turned into flesh-eating zombies by a long-forgotten Nazi chemical weapon ...sounds like your thing?" -- David Moody, author of HATER.

"A seemingly idyllic setting, characters full of human weakness and heroism and a mysterious contagion that threatens to destroy everything--fantastic ingredients for a modern horror novel!" -- Gav thorpe, author of MALEKITH

Derek Gunn lives in Dublin, Ireland with his wife and three children and is the author of the post-apocalyptic thriller series, Vampire Apocalypse, widely praised on both sides of the Atlantic. The first two books in the series are; A World Torn Asunder (2006) and Descent into Chaos (2008). The third Vampire Apocalypse book, Fallout, is due out in 2009. An adaptation of Derek's first book is under option and is currently in active development as a major movie. Derek is a member of the International Thriller Writers and the Horror Writers Association. Visit his website at www.derekgunn.com

When Dr. CJ Patterson returns to her Southern hometown, she finds herself surrounded by a series of long-buried secrets--and a killer who seems to know her better than she knows herself...Drugs, prostitution, robbery, homicide--these are four terms that Dr. CJ Patterson learned all too well growing up on the seamy, forgotten streets of inner-city Huntsville, Alabama. Fiercely determined, CJ worked hard to forget where she came from and become an emergency medicine resident at a prestigious Baltimore hospital. But when her younger sister--the only family she ever had--is murdered, CJ is drawn back into the painful past she thought she'd left behind. Her unrelenting investigation uncovers a highly sophisticated web of shocking family secrets, dark obsession, and brutal violence and a killer who will stop at nothing to keep her from learning the truth.....

"Everywhere She Turns is romantic suspense at its best." -- Erica Spindler, New York Times bestselling author of Breakneck.

"The dark and seamy lives of those on society's edge give Webb's latest a desperate quality. This complicated story has a variety of villains, all of whom add to the relentlessly ominous atmosphere. It's riveting, yet darkly and sadly chilling." -- Romantic Times Magazine

Debra Webb wrote her first story at age nine and her first romance at thirteen. It wasn't until she spent three years working for the military behind the Iron Curtain and within the confining political Walls of Berlin, Germany, that she realized her true calling. A five-year stint with NASA on the Space Shuttle Program reinforced her love of the endless possibilities within her grasp as a storyteller. A collision course between suspense and romance was set. Debra has been writing romantic suspense and action packed romantic thrillers since. Visit her at www.DebraWebb.com.

Not long ago, Scott Bryant would have described himself as an ordinary guy. But one act of heroism has changed his life forever--or at least until the apocalypse occurs. Because the end of the world is on its way.

Suddenly and inexplicably possessed of superhuman strength, Scott finds himself allied with the enigmatic and alluring Melanie Regan in a quest to find the mysterious Oracle in hopes of averting the absolute destruction that threatens.

Melanie herself has been falling into trances, sketching terrifying visions of future events--and she wants answers. She knows better than Scott where to look for help, but even she cannot fathom the powers that have thrust them together in an epic battle of good against evil.

The earth itself will soon turn against its inhabitants, and now mortal and immortal must join forces if any are to survive.

"Graham's dependable romantic flourishes enhance this bewitching blend of Native American lore, ghostly shenanigans and modern-day chicanery." -- For NIGHTWALKER, Publisher's Weekly

New York Times bestselling author Heather Graham has written more than a hundred novels, many of which have been featured by the Doubleday Book Club and the Literary Guild. An avid scuba diver, ballroom dancer and mother of five, she still enjoys her south Florida home, but loves to travel as well.

The Missing Ink, first in the Tattoo Shop Mysteries, features Brett Kavanaugh, a tattooist in Las Vegas. When a girl makes an appointment to get devotion ink with the name of her fiancé embedded in a heart, Brett takes the job, but the girl never shows. The next thing Brett knows, the police are looking for her mysterious client and the name she wanted on the tattoo isn't the name of her fiancé.

"Readers need not be conversant with "street flash" or other industry terms to enjoy the setting and follow Brett down a trail of needles and gloves to the dramatic finale." -- Publishers Weekly

Karen E. Olson, an award-winning author, was a longtime journalist. She lives in Connecticut with her husband, daughter, and two fat cats.

Aussie FBI profiler Sophie Anderson is ready for a new life - a new home and a new job at the Bureau's Los Angeles office. She hopes working in the field again will bring her closer to her cases...and her ability to see into the minds of killers and victims.

Within days of Sophie's arrival in LA, her theory is put to the test when a best-selling crime novelist is murdered - strangled with a pair of stockings, just like the character in her last book. Has fiction become fatal?

". . . gripping read . . ." -- Herald Sun

". . . best book in the series so far. . . " -- The Age

". . . gripping and realistic thriller." -- Good Reading

". . .  twisted, intriguing and brilliant plot." --  Sunday Territorian

"Martin ratchets up the fear and the tension expertly." -- Courier Mail

P.D. Martin--Phillipa Deanne Martin--was born in Melbourne, Australia and developed a passion for crime fiction and story telling at an early age. This interest was backed up with formal education through a Bachelor of Behavioral Sciences (with majors in psychology and criminology) and a Postgraduate Certificate in Professional Writing (creative writing). Fan Mail is the third novel featuring Australian FBI profiler Sophie Anderson, following on from the internationally successful Body Count and The Murderers' Club

Chicago Police Detectives Pete Shannon and Marilyn Benson are thrust into the limelight when their first major investigation turns the city upside down. A madman is on the loose, attacking women who travel downtown to clean offices. As the number of attacks continues to mount, the detectives find themselves pressured by their boss to end this reign of terror committed by a psychopathic rapist.

The community becomes outraged and protests at City Hall, causing the Mayor to demand action by his police department. In the midst of it all, Marilyn learns some disturbing news that forces her to choose between her loyalty to Pete and the man she loves.

"Once again John Wills delivers a nitty-gritty true-to-life "you can taste the atmosphere" story about the life of police officers on the often violent streets of Chicago. Captured in the language and with a feel that only a cop from Chicago can deliver, "Gripped By Fear", second in the Chicago Warrior series, reveals some of the heroism, fears, motivation and courage cops everywhere can relate to." -- Frank Borelli, Editor-In-Chief, Officer.com

Gripped By Fear, the second novel in the Chicago Warrior thriller series, finds John Wills doing what he does best--writing exciting police action/drama from a Christian perspective. His 33 years in law enforcement give him great insight into the police world. He is at work on his third book, continuing along the same theme.

Toronto investigator Jonah Geller is back in this sequel to Howard Shrier's hit debut Buffalo Jump, and now he has opened his own agency, World Repairs, with best friend and partner Jenn Raudsepp. Asked to investigate the apparent suicide of a young woman, they're drawn into the high-stakes world of construction and development on a long-neglected parcel of Toronto's waterfront. Clues lead them to suspect that fabled real estate tycoon Simon Birk--the partner of the dead girl's father--is killing anyone who gets in the way of the project. Without enough evidence to convince Homicide Sergeant Katherine Hollinger, Jonah heads off to Chicago to take on Birk, his creepy hairless bodyguard and a corrupt cop. As Birk unleashes a wave of attacks against Jonah, he calls on reinforcements, including former hit man Dante Ryan, and crafts an audacious plan to take down one of Chicago's most powerful--and dangerous--men.

"Often funny, sometimes violent, and always thoughtful, with a powerful sense of place throughout. Toronto may have just found its Spenser in PI Jonah Geller, and I can't wait for his next case." -- Sean Chercover, award-winning author of Trigger City and Big City, Bad Blood

"Shrier's first Jonah Geller mystery was terrific; High Chicago is even better." -- Linwood Barclay, bestselling author of No Time for Goodbye

"Equal parts Rambo and Spenser, with the wisdom of a world-weary Rabbi thrown in. I hope Geller returns for a third book...but considering the punishment he's endured in the first two, I doubt he could survive it." -- Lee Goldberg, writer and producer

Howard Shrier was born and raised in Montreal, where he earned an Honours Degree in Journalism and Creative Writing. He began his career as a crime reporter, and has since worked in theatre, television, sketch comedy and improv, as well as high-level government and corporate communications. He now lives in Toronto with his wife and two sons and wonder cat. Howard's first novel, Buffalo Jump, was published to wide acclaim by Vintage Canada in 2008. The sequel, High Chicago, is coming out July 14. Film rights to both books have been optioned by Toronto-based Media Headquarters. Please visit howardshrier.com.

On Christmas Day in 1893, every man, woman and child in a remote mining town will disappear, belongings forsaken, meals left to freeze in vacant cabins, and not a single bone will be found--not even the gold that was rumored to have been the pride of this town will be found either. One hundred and thirteen years later, two backcountry guides are hired by a leading history professor and his journalist daughter to lead them into the abandoned mining town so that they can learn what happened. This has been done once before but the people that went in did not come out. With them is a psychic, and a paranormal photographer--the town is rumored to be haunted. They've come to see a ghost town, but what they are about to discover is that twenty miles from civilization, with a blizzard bearing down, they are not alone, and the past is very much alive....

"Blake Crouch is an outstanding writer who has penned a brilliant piece of work with his latest, ABANDON. The surprises begin early and continue until the very last page. But ABANDON is not merely an exciting thriller with a terrific plot and gangbuster ending; the writing here sings; the characters live; and the universal themes of greed and evil resonate long after the final sentence." -- JOHN LESCROART

"ABANDON is terrific...a great storyteller hitting his stride." -- LEE CHILD

Blake Crouch was born near Statesville, North Carolina in 1978. He attended UNC-Chapel Hill and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 2000 with degrees in English and Creative Writing. He is the author of DESERT PLACES, LOCKED DOORS, and ABANDON, all published by St. Martin's Press. His short fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen, THRILLER 2, and UNCAGE ME. Blake lives with his family in southwest Colorado, where he is at work on a new book. 

RED BLOODED MURDER is the second book in a new back-to-back-to-back trilogy from critically acclaimed author Laura Caldwell that includes RED HOT LIES (June 2009) and  RED, WHITE & DEAD (August 2009).

Chicago is the Windy City, and these days the winds of change are whipping Izzy McNeil's life all over the map. A high-profile job on Trial TV lands her in the hot seat. After a shocking end to her engagement, she finds herself juggling not only her ex-fiancé, but a guy she never expected.  And a moonlighting undercover gig has her digging deep into worlds she barely knew existed.
 
But all of this takes a backseat when Izzy's friend winds up brutally murdered.  Suddenly, Izzy must balance the demands of a voracious media and the knowledge that she didn't know her friend as well as she thought.

As a Chicago resident and former trial attorney Caldwell brings her vast knowledge of the city's unique character and the legal system to the pages of her mystery trilogy that is gaining wide acclaim and praise.  In describing the trilogy debut, RED HOT LIES, Publishers Weekly said "Former trial attorney Laura Caldwell launches a mystery series that weaves the emotional appeal of her chick lit titles with the blinding speed of her thrillers...(a) headlong chase...readers will be left looking forward to another heart-pounding ride on Izzy's silver Vespa."

Karin Slaughter, the #1 internationally bestselling author of FRACTURED, has sold over 17 million copies worldwide. Publishers Weekly lauded her newest book, UNDONE, in a starred review: "Bestseller Slaughter brings together characters from her two series for the first time with electrifying results...[she] ups the emotional ante with every twist and turn in this disturbing thriller."

What's was the most difficult part of writing UNDONE?

BEYOND REACH, my last Grant County book had a pretty explosive ending.  My next book was FRACTURED, which is about Will Trent's world, so I didn't really have time to sit down and consider the emotional fall-out of what had happened in the previous book.  I'm being very cryptic here so as not to spoil things, but those who already read the book will know what I'm talking about.  The ending of BEYOND REACH was the hardest thing I've ever written.  As difficult as that was, talking about Sara in UNDONE was even harder.

What's your writing routine like?

I'm very lazy most of the time, but when it's time to write, I'm crazy busy.  I block out some time and go up to my cabin in the North Georgia mountains where it's just me and the bears and work for weeks at a time.  Usually, I'm pulling twelve to fifteen hour days.  It's really rough, and I would not recommend my writing routine to anyone.   
I suppose it comes from having such a finite amount of time to work on writing way back in the day when I was struggling to get published.  I had a full-time job, and then I had to block out time on nights and weekends to write.  Even though my only job now is to write, I still write on the same schedule as I did before.

The image of that wedding dress stays in mind. "FOR SALE: WEDDING DRESS. NEVER WORN," is the ad that television journalist Riley Spartz sees. Her news sense is strong: to her, the ad tells a story. "Mystery and emotion, all in one line." Exactly. And we're away.

It is unsurprising that Julie Kramer, author of Missing Mark, never misses hers. Kramer knows this world; walks this walk. Kramer is a freelance news producer for NBC's Today Show, Nightly News and Dateline. Before that she was an award-winning investigative producer for WCCO-TV in Minneapolis. If Kramer's depiction of Riley seems dead-on, this is the reason why: a lifelong lover of thriller and mystery fiction, the novels featuring Riley Spartz are the books Kramer looked for but could never find.

Kramer says she got "tired of fictional TV reporters always being portrayed as obnoxious secondary characters who could be killed off whenever the plot started dragging." Kramer wanted more for Riley and her wish -- and her work -- came true with the 2008 publication of Stalking Susan (the paperback debuts this month). Stalking Susan was published to wide critical and fan acclaim. It was awarded the Minnesota Book Award, Best First Mystery for the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award, was a finalist for the Mary Higgins Clark Award and was recently short listed for both the Anthony and Barry Awards for Best First Novel.

The signs are good that Kramer's sophomore effort is a fitting successor to her debut. Publishers Weekly said Missing Mark was a "slick sequel to 2008's Stalking Susan while Booklist proclaimed that "Kramer has a winning series here."

John Gilstrap's terrific new book, No Mercy, is the first in a new series introducing Jonathan Grave. He's not an assassin and he's not a vigilante; he's a freelance specialist in covert rescues, and he will work outside the law to get things done--especially in highly sensitive hostage situations. In No Mercy when an Indiana college student is abducted and Jonathan's meticulous plan explodes into a deadly shooting spree, the local authorities are out for blood--and they're not alone. Someone wants to control a devastating secret... someone rich and powerful... someone willing to capture, torture, and kill anyone to get it. Even the people he loves most...

What can your fans expect in No Mercy - how is it different to your other thrillers?

First and foremost, No Mercy is the start of a series.  All my other thrillers have been stand-alones.  To be perfectly honest, I had never thought of doing a series before I conceived of the character who became Jonathan Grave.

 From the beginning of this project, I knew that I wanted to write a number of books around Jonathan, so my storytelling outlook was different from the very first paragraph.  The pacing is all there, and the character development is as strong as ever, but the story told in No Mercy plays out in the midst of a much larger story arc.  I've never had this much fun writing a book.

I hope that I always give my readers a thrilling ride, but in this one, even though I think they'll find the ending very satisfying, I hope that they'll close the book and mark their calendars for the release of the next Grave book in 2010.

Kathleen George chats with Big Thrill contributing editor Janice Gable Bashman about The Odds, George's fourth thriller that has focused on Pittsburgh homicide detectives.

Entertainment Weekly states, "If anyone's writing better police thrillers than George, I don't know who is."

Give us a quick run-down on The Odds and what makes it such a fascinating read.

I show what the police are doing, how they are working a case, but I also track the criminals and the victims. The reader is in the cat-bird seat, seeing everything, making the connections, and it can get very tense when the reader watches the police almost catching up to something or a victim making a bad decision. I love those big tapestries in which you see many stories unfolding. In this novel I have several versions of "motherless children" - which is one of my themes throughout all my work. I'm interested in people who missed out on nurturing and in children who become adults before their time.

My police characters have that in their history. Commander Christie had to be the support for his mother when she was abandoned by his father. As a result, he takes on a paternal role with almost everyone. The effect at the office and with the families of victims is that almost everyone ends up with a crush on him. His novice detective Colleen Greer has that particular form of magic too. She had unattentive parents. She made up for it with charm and will, so people get crushes on her, too.

But I think the main ingredient the EW reviewer refers to is the tension between the stories - the police working hard but the worlds of characters unraveling at the same time.

Four abandoned kids are at the center of your story. Tell us about them and why we want to know them.

I fell in love with these characters as I wrote them. They've had really rough breaks - they're orphans abandoned by their step-mother, but they're extremely smart in a number of ways. They're alert, well-read, and at the top of their classes in school. So this smartness and sense of responsibility both help and harm them. They are able to get away with being on their own. They're so good at it that people don't notice. That's frightening. Because they still need things - food, clothes, basic things. And they need adult attention. But a tricky thing I discovered about them as I wrote them was that they still had a capacity for love. For each other, for others. They're immensely generous kids.

BREAKPOINT is New York Times bestselling author, JoAnn Ross' ninety-ninth novel. She comes with terrific blurbs, like:

"Ross returns to her extra-sexy, extra-Special Forces teams and the special women in their lives in a winning mix of action and romance." ~ Patty Engelmann, Booklist

"If action, adventure and suspense are your drugs, prepare to be hooked." ~ Austin Camacho, The Big Thrill

And with a launch date of July 7, 2009, expect to see BREAKPOINT climbing the charts.

Protagonist Dallas O'Halloran is a hottie Air Force Combat Controller, who first appeared in Ross' novel, CROSSFIRE. As she puts it, "I knew Dallas was the babe magnet of the High Risk group.  But I had no idea what a charmer he was going to turn out to be!"

Fans adored him! Now he's back.

In BREAKPOINT, O'Halloran is none too pleased to find himself teamed up with the icy blond JAG officer who nearly court-martialed his friends. Julianne Decatur is tough and tenacious. Driven by her belief in military law, she has zero patience for hot shot Spec Ops cowboys who think the rules don't apply to them. But when she and Dallas are assigned to investigate a Navy flyer's death, they discover the trail of a ruthless killer with a secret to hide. And when their prey turns the tables on them, Julianne will have to depend on the one man daring and reckless enough to keep them both alive.

As a seven-years-old, Ross had no doubt whatsoever that she'd grow up to play center field for the New York Yankees. Writing would be her backup occupation, something she planned to do after retiring from baseball. Those were, in her mind, her only options. So, while waiting for the Yankees management to call, she wrote her first novella--a tragic romance about two star-crossed mallard ducks--for a second grade writing assignment. The rest is history.

With over thirty novels under her belt, three-time RITA Award nominee, nine-time Romantic Times Award nominee and 2006 RT Award winner, Leslie Kelly decided to change tack and write a new, darker series under the pseudonym Leslie Parrish. "I adore reading suspense and horror," she says. "So despite how odd it might have seemed to others--considering I'd always written light and sexy romantic comedies--to me it was a natural progression to go from straight romance to dark romantic thrillers. I came up with the idea for a team of FBI agents investigating Internet-related murders when I read an article about a woman who lost her life savings because of one of those Nigerian 419 e-mail scams. It stunned me that people fell for those things, and got me wondering about the criminals who prey on such gullible victims. How their minds work...how far they might go." That snippet of an idea led her to write a few chapters of PITCH BLACK, which ended up at her publisher's request as book two of the Black CATs trilogy. NAL bought the entire series based on those chapters and a few paragraphs of a book about a man auctioning off "means-of-death" at a sick cyber playground, which became book one, FADE to BLACK. "Compelling, hold-your-breath romantic suspense with one of the most chillingly evil villains I've ever read, FADE TO BLACK crackles with dark, edgy danger from page one," says New York Times bestselling author JoAnn Ross.

Brad Thor has accomplished what many thousands dream about, but precious few ever achieve:  Becoming a #1 New York Times bestselling author.  Please allow me to repeat that -- a New York Times #1 bestselling author.  It's the pinnacle of the publishing world and it couldn't have happened to better person or a more loyal patriot.  Brad's dedication and relentless hard work toward his craft are evident.  Simply stated;  His books are awesome and fun to read!

THE APOSTLE, due to be released June 30th, by Atria Books, delivers another action packed adventure in which its hero, Scot Harvath, must take on an assignment that will test the very limits of his abilities and the core of his beliefs.

Here's a quick snapshot of the novel: A new administration with a new approach to dealing with America's enemies has left covert counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath without a job. But when American doctor Julia Gallo is kidnapped in Afghanistan, the terms of her ransom leave the president with only one course of action.

In a dangerous assignment that the United States government will deny any knowledge of, Scot Harvath must secretly infiltrate Kabul's notorious Policharki Prison and free the man the kidnappers demand as ransom - al-Qaeda mastermind, Mustafa Khan.

But when Harvath arrives, he quickly learns that there is more to the kidnapping than anyone dares to admit. And as the subterfuge is laid bare, Harvath must examine his own career of hunting down and killing terrorists, and ask himself if he has what it takes to help one of the world's worst go free.

I was fortunate and honored to be granted an interview with Brad, as you can imagine, he's got a full schedule.  Since THE APOSTLE takes place largely in Afghanistan, my questions lean in that direction.

When the Kings move from L.A. to a secluded small town, fifteen-year-old Xander is beyond disappointed. He and his friends loved to create amateur films . . . and the tiny town of Pinedale is the last place a movie buff and future filmmaker wants to land.

But he, David, and Toria are captivated by the many rooms in the old Victorian fixer-upper they moved into--as well as the heavy woods surrounding the house.

They soon discover there's something odd about the house. Sounds come from the wrong directions. Prints of giant, bare feet appear in the dust. And when David tries to hide in the linen closet, he winds up in locker 119 at his new school.

Then the really weird stuff kicks in. They find a hidden hallway with portals leading to far-off places--in long-ago times. Xander is starting to wonder if this kind of adventure is a teen's dream come true, or his worst nightmare, because each door leads to a portal to a different time in history.

Trouble is, not only can they go from the house to the past; people from the past can come through into their house. And when someone does - and kidnaps Mom, taking her into some unknown place in the past - David and Xander begin a quest for Mom.  In Timescape, the fourth book in the Dreamhouse series by Robert Liparulo, their quest takes them to many dangerous and incredible places throughout time as the reader begins to understand that the family is in the house for a very specific purpose, and they must do much more than find their mother.

For David Liss, writing about the worlds of history, finance and corporations is interesting. Perhaps because they are subjects that fascinate him.

Or perhaps because he populates them with mayhem and intrigue.

"I do my best to keep the dull stuff out of my books," he said. Instead, he focuses on "what I think makes this sort of material exciting. At their core, my novels are often about the dangerous and despicable things people will often do to obtain or keep money."

In THE DEVIL'S COMPANY, due for release in July by Random House, ruffian Benjamin Weaver is pushed into doing dangerous things to help another man obtain money - specifically, financial information from one of the 18th Century's most massive corporations, the British East India Company. The former pugilist gets sucked into a world of intrigue that, as more and more intersecting plots and operatives are uncovered, could threaten the fate of England itself.

Because his books are deeply embedded in their historical setting, Liss backs up his writing with meticulous research. And sitting in a library isn't a foreign setting for the almost-PhD in 18th Century British literature.

"If things had not worked out with fiction, I probably would have kept to my graduate school career track and sought a job as a literature professor," he said. "I have written contemporary fiction, and there are definitely times when I think it would be a lot easier not to have to do all that research, but at the end of the day I absolutely love writing stories set in certain historical periods."

If you think you've seen it all in the realm of political intrigue, you're in for a treat when you see how it worked in the 19th Century Wild West.  In Ann Parker's Leaden Skies, former president Ulysses S. Grant's visit to Colorado silver mines in 1880 appears to kick off a wave of conniving, plotting, and murder.  With this July release, Parker continues her award winning series starring Inez Stannert, saloon co-owner and amateur sleuth in the silver mining boomtown of Leadville, Colorado.

Inez Stannert is a marvelously arresting protagonist, having an affair with a minister and doing business with a local madam while trying to divorce her missing husband.  Parker says she's still learning about her lead character.

"I started out wanting to create a female protagonist 'of the times' who has her good points and her bad points, who sometimes makes wrong decisions and then must deal with the consequences," Parker said.  "I see her as a very intelligent, well-bred, passionate person, who reads people well."

Stannert may be quick to judge, but she is also fiercely loyal to her friends and not afraid to take a chance.  And as Parker points out, she has traits that make her a great detective, even if her investigations are unofficial.

"What makes her a good amateur sleuth?  Her powers of observation, her courage, her inclination to gamble on a hunch, and her desire to right wrongs."

Declan Burke's column in last month's The Big Thrill sent me on an internet chase that took me to his website and blog and a post called 'Irish Crime Writers: Yankie Doodling Dandies'.  What warmed my heart - if only because it showed that we (South African crime fiction writers, that is) were not alone in the world - were his comments about Irish readers thinking their writers produced inferior crime novels.  In this instance inferior to the novels of US writers.  

Declan's sentence read: 'It'd be a huge pity, though, if Irish readers were to ignore the likes of Gene Kerrigan, Declan Hughes, Arlene Hunt, Tana French, Brian McGilloway, Colin Bateman, Stuart Neville, Alan Glynn (who set his debut novel in New York, incidentally), Garbhan Downey, et al, simply because their very fine novels were set in Ireland, and especially if it's because of some kind of inferiority complex. (My emphasis.)  Replace the names with those of SA crime authors, change Ireland to South Africa and we have the same situation.  You see, one of our major problems over the last four or five years has been encouraging South African readers to read us.

I used to think that the lack of interest we were shown by our book buying public had something to do with the apartheid novel which very few local readers wanted to read because (a) it showed that you were living in a police state; (b) that if you were white, which generally you were if you were buying the book, you were guilty of racial exploitation; (c) that apathy wasn't an appropriate response to the cruelty of the times; and that (d) the writer had the moral authority because of a, b, and c to castigate you.  Come the end of apartheid, how to persuade your fellow countrymen that the society was now a democracy and normalising and that part of that process of normalisation was that writers were going to write entertaining books that you could read on the beach or on a plane and that weren't going to wrack you with shame.  A difficult prospect.

Contributing editor CJ Lyons talks with Vicki Hinze about her new thriller, Kill Zone, from Medallion Press.

Kill Zone is part of a series about body doubles who infiltrate our government and military.  How did you come up with this unique twist on identity theft?

It started with Body Double, book one in the War Games series.  I was doing an in-depth study on body doubles used by foreign leaders and dignitaries.  More specifically on Saddam Hussein and two of his sons.  That fired interesting twists in my mind, and I wondered what would happen if these doubles infiltrated areas of our government where they had ready access to information classified top secret or higher.  What do you do to prove someone is who they say they are, or you believe they are when they have the ability to substitute medical records, dental records, DNA?  It intrigued me and the War Games series was born.  Interestingly enough, I thought this series was a trilogy and had the over-arching villain, Thomas Kunz, captured and put in prison.  Then I found out it wasn't him, but a body double.  And so on we go, trying to nail him.  In Kill Zone, he took a couple unexpected twists on me.  You expect the worst from someone who black market sells intelligence and arms, but my idea of his worst and his idea of it proved poles apart.  I had to write it to see what happened.

Any adventures in research while writing Kill Zone?

There are always adventures in research.  Seemingly insignificant things that you run across that you just have to incorporate in the story--like the emerald ring in Kill Zone and an arrowhead in Body Double.  We don't often see the danger in everyday living things, and yet that's where we're extremely vulnerable, and that includes villains.  They prepare for the obvious, it's the innocuous that zaps them in their soft underbellies.  The adventures were admittedly milder in this book than in ones like Acts of Honor, where I created a technology that was new and highly classified.  I married an article from Scientific American and a mention of a future weapon on the web and I hit a little too close to home.  Had some explaining to do on that one.  It is a functioning system operational now, but then it was, I thought, a gleam in someone's eye and a tickle in my imagination.

Big Thrill contributing editor, Keith Raffel, chatted with the author of Try Fear, James Scott Bell.

Try Fear is your third Ty Buchanan book.  Give us a sneak preview.

Buchanan is still living in a trailer in the hills above Los Angeles, giving legal aid to the poor, and getting help from the basketball playing nun, Sister Mary Veritas. The book starts with a strange DUI. A big guy in a Santa hat and G string gets pulled over and arrested, and Buchanan goes down to the Hollywood station to see him. But soon this minor case leads to murder, and a full-blown trial for Buchanan. But with someone out there gunning for him, there's a lot more going on in the mean streets of LA, as usual.

How much do the plot and characters of Try Fear reflect your own experiences as a lawyer?

Only to the extent that I draw upon what it was like to try cases, the thought process and so on. I also spent several years observing top trial lawyers, including Gerry Spence, for a book I wrote on trial technique, Trial Weapons, that still sells. I don't practice anymore, though, and don't know any basketball playing nuns.

You're a Los Angeleno and proud of it.  You were born there and set your books there.  So how much were you influenced by the greatest of the LA crime novelists, Raymond Chandler?  How about any other LA writers?

Chandler was a huge influence on me. I read all his stuff in college, and just got pulled in to his whole milieu. I love all sorts of LA writers. From John Fante to Michael Connelly, from Nathanael West to Robert Crais. If you write about LA, you are my friend.

DARK TIME: MORTAL PATH, the first book in the Mortal Path series, is a thriller laced with ancient legends, a frightening scenario that could be tomorrow's headlines, a heady dash of the paranormal, and a generous dollop of romance. Dakota Banks has created an unforgettable heroine, Maliha Crayne, who battles against powerful evil. While being unjustly burned at the stake, she makes a pact with a Sumerian demon to live forever if she becomes his assassin, the Black Ghost. Hundreds of years later she wants out of her deal, but there's always a catch when the contract is signed in blood.
 
DARK TIME is your first paranormal suspense novel. What led you to this genre?

Although I read widely and have written in other genres, I've had a special affection for science fiction and fantasy since I was a child, probably since I was in the womb. Writing with paranormal elements turns the wheel back to my original interests while retaining the thriller portion of the story: action, suspense, high stakes, and fast pacing. It's the maximum fun and satisfaction for me as a writer. Vampires and werewolves weren't my style, so I based my story on the mythology of ancient Sumeria. I have a strong interest in archaeology, so it was a perfect fit. When the National Museum of Iraq was looted for three days in April 2003, thousands of Sumerian treasures were smashed or stolen. Thinking about artifacts that had survived 6,000 years or more generated ideas of other things that could have survived from that civilization. Why not their gods and demons? The idea percolated in my mind for years until I had to write about it. 

Carolyn Haines is a former journalist who began her fiction career writing short stories. She quickly moved to the long form and has written over 15 novels. Most recently she was awarded the Richard Wright Literary Excellence Award for a body of work. She is Fiction Coordinator at the University of South Alabama where she teaches and cares for 21 animals: cats, dogs, and horses. Learn more about her at www.carolynhaines.com.

Tell us a bit about your series heroine, Sarah Booth Delaney, and her challenge in GREEDY BONES. 

In GREEDY BONES, which is the 9th book in the series, Sarah Booth has finally achieved an old dream--to be an actress. But when her friend and partner, Tinkie, has to rush home from Hollywood to Zinnia, Mississippi, because her husband, Oscar, is gravely ill, Sarah Booth returns home with her. 
 
Oscar, Deputy Gordon Walters, and two female realtors have been stricken with high fevers, skin lesions, and a coma state that doesn't respond to antibiotics and not even specialists with the CDC can identify what's going on. The only thing the four sick people have in common was a visit to a local cotton plantation.
Sarah Booth must find out what's wrong with these people and how to help them before it's too late.

You chose to make your heroine an actress.  What attributes of that career and talent lend themselves to her detective work?  What aspects of acting might work against Sarah Booth Delaney's pursuit of criminals?

In THEM BONES Sarah Booth was a failed actress who returned home in defeat. It was the failure that defined her. But through the series, she's come to appreciate her strengths and friends. In WISHBONES, her dream of acting does come true, and she discovers she has credible talent. But in GREEDY BONES she must chose between friendship and her celluloid career. It's a hard choice--a dream or the reality of Zinnia. Sarah Booth's choice comes at great cost.

Nate Kenyon is a multiple Bram Stoker Award nominee who has racked up a starred review from Publishers Weekly (for THE REACH).  Born in Maine, educated in Connecticut (at Trinity College) and now a resident of Boston, Nate writes novels that blur the line between horror and thriller, and which are amassing a huge following of devoted -and frightened--fans.

Who is Nate Kenyon and why is he scaring the hell out of people?

Let's see: I'm about 6 foot five, 260 pounds, with a nasty case of paranoid schizophrenia...wait, that's my villain. I'm so confused. In real life, I'm just a regular guy with a mischievous streak--the kid in your group who liked to jump out from behind things and say "boo!" I like to investigate the darker parts of life, because I think it tells us something about ourselves--who we really are, when the chips are down. Do we stand and fight, or run and hide? With fiction, you can go down that road for a while and then close the book and get back to reality. It's escapist, but it's also a psychological test, in a way. After all, we're all going to get to the end of the road sooner or later.

Give us a brief rundown on THE BONE FACTORY

I pitch it as SILENCE OF THE LAMBS meets THE SHINING: a young, troubled family in peril, with some creepy twists. It's character driven suspense, ratcheting up the tension until it explodes through the last 100 pages. Here's a synopsis:

The Jackson Pumped Storage Project was supposed to be one of the most ambitious hydropower experiments in the world.  But when a particularly brutal winter and bad planning forced a shutdown in construction, it became one of the most expensive mistakes the locals had ever seen. That is, until Hydro Development decided to try again, and awakened a sleeping giant--and the murders begin.
 
A thousand miles away, hydropower engineer David Pierce gets a second chance when he's hired to head a crucial part of the resurrected facility. Recently fired from a position with a rival company, his world was swiftly crumbling before his eyes, his marriage in trouble and money growing tight.  In the blink of an eye, everything changes, and he, his wife and their young daughter are driving to Quebec City to begin their new lives together.
 
But Jessica Pierce is no ordinary little girl, and the visions that have haunted her since birth swiftly grow worse: visions of the "blue man," and with him comes blood and pain and terror.  There begins the most horrifying few weeks of the family's lives as they battle the unforgiving Canadian winter and a madman under the influence of something far more terrifying and destructive than anyone can understand.
 

I am excited to announce that a new Dark age has descended upon us all.  Step aside James, stand down Jason, and allow Paul Dark to take center stage.  Debut Author Jeremy Duns' FREE AGENT offers a fresh insight to Cold War espionage.

In July 1945, MI6 agent Paul Dark took part in a clandestine mission to hunt down and execute Nazi war criminals. He will discover that everything he understood about that mission, about its consequences, and about the woman he once loved, has been built on false foundations. Now it's 1969, and a KGB colonel called Slavin has walked into the British High Comission in Lagos, Nigeria, and announced that he wants to defect. His credentials as a defector are good: he has highly suggestive information indicating that there is yet another double agent within MI6, which would be a devastating blow to an organisation still coming to terms with its betrayal by Kim Philby and the rest of the Cambridge ring.

Dark has largely been above suspicion during MI6's years of self-recrimination, but this time he's in the frame. For some it would be flight or fight time. But when you discover everything you've taken for granted turns out to be untrue, and when your arrest may only be moments away, then sometimes the only option is both flight and fight...

Thriller author Chris Kuzneski's recurring main characters, Jonathon Payne and David Jones, are ex-MANIACs. That is to say, they commanded a Special Forces squad whose acronym stands for Marines, Army, Navy, Intelligence, Air Force, and Coast Guard. Kuzneski says, "They're best friends who consider themselves brothers. And just like my friends, they tease each other (and everyone else) without mercy."

The new novel, THE LOST THRONE, begins with a small group of warriors storming a Greek monastery and murdering the monks. Payne receives a phone call from an old friend asking for help. Payne and Jones rush to the rescue and find themselves in a race to recover a lost treasure that could rewrite history.

Kuzneski came to his writing career in one of those rarified stories that writers dream about: he self-published THE PLANTATION after it was repeatedly turned down by agents. He wrote personal letters to several of his favorite authors and asked them to read a print-on-demand version of THE PLANTATION. "Amazingly, most of them agreed to do it, and before I knew it, the endorsements started rolling in."

Phillip Margolin is the author of thirteen New York Times bestsellers. He recently discussed his newest thriller FUGITIVE and the return of criminal defense attorney Amanda Jaffe with contributing editor John T. Cullen

What led you to Amanda Jaffe and her father in WILD JUSTICE? Anything in your personal life, or just a writer's rich imagination? What led you back to her in PROOF POSITIVE? Why the hiatus between each novel? Does the series format come easily to you? Do you think you have more to write about her? Is there an evolution across the Amanda Jaffe novels?

Amanda Jaffe also made a cameo appearance in THE ASSOCIATE, which came after WILD JUSTICE, when I needed a defense attorney to represent the hero and decided that I didn't have to reinvent the wheel.

WILD JUSTICE was intended to be a stand-alone and the Jaffes are strictly imaginary. When GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN came out in 1993, it was a huge success so I immediately thought about writing a sequel with Betsy Tannenbaum--the heroine--and a serial killer. Then I decided that I would be locked in to Betsy Tannenbaum serial killer books for the rest of my life if the sequel was successful, so I took a chance and wrote another stand-alone, AFTER DARK.

I did not intend to bring the Jaffes back when I wrote "Ties That Bind," but I realized that that would be a perfect fit for the book while I was working up the outline. The challenge was to see if I could write a sequel, which I had never done. After that, I kept the characters in mind and wrote about them only if they were a perfect fit for the book I was writing. I'll bring the Jaffes back if I think of a plot where they don't have to be forced into the book.

What makes Amanda Jaffe and Betsy Tannenbaum such compelling characters for you and for the readers?

I think Amanda Jaffe and Betsy Tannenbaum are compelling characters because they are like real women attorneys and not like the characters on television many of whom who could pass for swimsuit models. Both women have doubts about what they do and strong emotional reactions to their work. They are not super heroes but they can dig deep and find courage when their backs are to the wall. My wife, who was an attorney, was the model for Betsy and she was one of the strongest and most dynamic individuals I've ever met but she was also a great wife and mother and extremely feminine.

Robert Gregory Browne has spent a lifetime working with dirt as well as ideas.  Besides being a novelist, screenwriter and musician - he's also held jobs as a janitor, flower delivery boy, Hollywood messenger,  hotel room maid, clerk for the Hawaii Legislature, criminal intake processor for the Honolulu Public Defender, legal secretary, magazine columnist, and a video editor.

His varied experiences have given him vast material to craft pulp tales of gritty suspense.

His latest thriller, KILL HER AGAIN, centers around FBI agent Anna McBride who, after a brush with death, is haunted by visions of a kidnapped child about to be murdered. A hypnotist suggests the girl in the visions is Anna in a past life. Now she must reach into the dark recesses of her mind to relive the horrors of her past and face a diabolical psychopath determined to kill her again.

Your plots start out like traditional police procedures, then flirt with the paranormal.  Do you simply have a great imagination, or does the supernatural have a place in your own life?

I've always been attracted to stories that are a little off-kilter, with a little more going on with them than the "traditional."  I've read hundreds of cop novels -- and don't get me wrong, I love them -- but for my own work I like to use that framework to do something a little different, or beyond normal.  But I also think the word "paranormal" is misleading.  Nowadays paranormal conjures up images of vampires and ghosts and so forth, but my books don't really deal with the paranormal in that sense.  I'm more interested in people who either a) have extraordinary experiences; or b) have extraordinary abilities that they might not have known about.

KILL HER AGAIN deals with the possibility of reincarnation, and I think there may be some truth to the idea.  For research I actually went through a past-life hypnosis session.

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