March 2010 Archives

The Barbary Pirates by William Dietrich, the fourth novel in the Ethan Gage series of rollicking historical thrillers, has the hero on the hunt for the Mirror of Archimedes, an ancient death ray that could tip the balance of power in the Mediterranean. After embroiling three real-life scientists - Georges Cuvier, William Smith, and Robert Fulton - in an imbroglio in a brothel, Ethan is dispatched by Napoleon to find the mirror before the Barbary pirates do. The action ranges from Paris to Venice to Santorini to Syracuse, and at the climax in Tripoli he must rescue his lost love Astiza and a two-year-old son he didn't know he had. Swift, fact-filled, funny, and suspenseful.

"Dietrich is an excellent writer...an action-filled romp that's both historically accurate and great fun." Library Journal.

"Should be heartily recommended to all action-adventure lovers." Booklist.

"Dietrich's imaginative page-turner will enjoy a long and lively run." Publisher's Weekly.

William Dietrich is the author of 13 books that combined have sold into 28 languages. As a journalist he won a Pulitzer for covering the Exxon Valdez oil spill for the Seattle Times. He is also a professor at Western Washington University. HIs historical thrillers combine careful research with rapid-fire action and social commentary.

Here's what was featured in the April edition of The Big Thrill:

Hot off the press:
Click on a book title to read the feature story

• The Book of Spies by Gayle Lynds
• Of Flesh and Blood by Daniel Kalla
• Diamonds for the Dead by Alan Orloff
• Instinct by Jeremy Robinson
• The Fallen by Mark Terry
• Eye of the Mountain God by Penny Rudolph
• The Barbary Pirates by William Dietrich
• Dead Head by Rosemary Harris
• The Covenant Of Genesis by Andy McDermott
• A Kiss To Kill by Nina Bruhns
• Bulletproof Bodyguard by Kay Thomas
• One Man's Paradise by Douglas Corleone
• Without Mercy by Lisa Jackson
• Silent Truth by Dianna Love and Sherrilyn Kenyon
• Deliver Us From Evil by Robin Caroll
• The Killing Edge by Heather Graham
• Do They Know I'm Running? by David Corbett
• Second Chance by Christy Reece
• Stress Fracture by D. P. Lyle
• Book of Souls by Glenn Cooper
• Orange County Noir by Gary Phillips
• The God of the Hive by Laurie R. King
• Code Blue by Richard L. Mabry, MD
• Blood Money by Jim Daher
• Broken by Shiloh Walker
• A Between The Lines interview with R.L. Stine
• Thrillers: 100 Must Reads - An interview with Tess Gerritsen
• ThrillerFest Headliners - An interview with Harlan Coben
• International News from Gerard Brennan and Mike Nicol

Coming next month: a Between The Lines interview with Lee Child, and the latest thrillers from Scott Sigler, Leanna Renee Hieber, Rick Robinson, Peter Steiner, Meredith Cole, Maria Hudgins, Debra Webb, Nate Kenyon, W. Craig Reed, William Martin, Reece Hirsch, Eric Wilson, Thomas Perry, Robert Liparulo, R. Barri Flowers, Ryan Brown, Boyd Morrison, Richard Hawke, Jamie Rush, David Hewson, Michael Stevens, Jeff Strand, Edited by Carolyn Haines, Alan L Moss, Bonnie Hearn Hill, Vicki Pettersson, Harry Shannon, Raffi Yessayan, James Phelan, Lee Child, Peter Steiner, Erin Healy, M.J. Rose, Ken Kuhlken, Matt Lynn, Dianne Emley and more. It's gonna be a thriller!

 

Three hundred million!  (300,000,000)  That's the number of  R.L. Stine books sold.  Honestly, it's hard to wrap your arms around that number.  I'll try to give you a visual.  If you placed them end to end, the line would encircle the Earth, and still go half way around again!  It's beyond incredible.

Robert Lawrence Stine is nothing short of a literary icon in the publishing industry.  With three hundred titles translated into thirty-two different languages, I'm hard pressed to think of a place--anywhere on the globe--where you can't find his work.  R.L. Stine is a household name in virtually every country on the planet.

As you can imagine, Bob is an industrious man.  He gets dozens of requests for appearances every month and thousands of emails and fan letters.  I would imagine many of them are written in foreign languages.  The only person on the planet who gets more fan mail is Santa Claus.  I have a funny visual of a kid addressing an envelope with simply:

 R.L. Stine
 Goosebumps, HorrorLand

Amazingly, it probably has a good chance of being delivered to his publisher.

In Dianna Love and Sherrilyn Kenyon's newest, Silent Truth, Bureau of American Defense operative Hunter Wesley Thornton-Payne has a chance to corner the ruthless assassin he's hunted for four years. It's a rogue operation, but he's got nothing to lose until a woman pulls him into her own dangerous agenda.

Abigail Blanton was only trying to find out what mysterious illness was killing her mother before she ran out of time, but her gamble to pressure an heiress into telling the truth backfires in a bloody way. Survival comes down to choice - her salvation or his redemption?

Only one can win and the assassin holds the best odds.

"All hell breaks loose in this over-the-top romantic thriller from bestseller Kenyon (BAD Attitude) and Love (aka Dianna Love Snell, Worth Every Risk).... Da Vinci Code-derivative components tweaked with a bioterrorism twist add extra punch." Publisher Weekly

New York Times bestseller Dianna Love started writing suspense while working over a hundred feet in the air creating spectacular marketing projects for Fortune 500 companies. Her first book won the prestigious RITA award and second one debuted on the NYT list. She writes thrillers and urban fantasy, now co-writing a contemporary BAD Agency thriller series with #1 NYT best seller Sherrilyn Kenyon and an upcoming paranormal thriller series on the Beladors. Her next release is Silent Truth (Pocket/April 2010). An international speaker, Dianna teaches the highly-successful Break Into Fiction® Character-Driven Power Plotting program. Visit www.AuthorDiannaLove.com ~ www.BreakIntoFiction.com

The much-heralded ITW project THRILLERS: 100 MUST-READS is scheduled to be published by Oceanview this July, debuting at ThrillerFest.  To whet your appetite for this essential book, we're going to feature a series of short interviews with various essayists in upcoming issues.  This interview by Hank Wagner, co-editor of the collection, is with ITW co-founder Gayle Lynds, who contributed a heartfelt tribute to Helen MacInnes in her essay on MacInnes's classic, Above Suspicion.

You wrote about Helen MacInnes's Above Suspicion.  Was it your first choice to write about?  If so, why?  Does it fulfill your personal definition of a "must read"?

Before I read Robert Ludlum, the quintessential American spy thriller author, I read Helen MacInnes, who brought the traditional British espionage novel to the U.S. and added a Yankee robustness and complexity to it.  Today she is largely forgotten, but she was the literary legend with astronomical sales figures that Ludlum, le Carre, and Forsyth had to catch.  Above Suspicion is definitely a must-read, because it is not only a fine novel, it was the beginning of the Americanization of the spy novel.

HW: If you were re-reading the novel, how long ago did you first read it?  About how old were you when you read it?   What immediate impact did that first reading have on you? What influence did the book have on your career or your writing?

Recently, I sat down with Glenn Cooper to ask him a few questions about his new novel, Book of Souls.

You've had multiple fascinating careers, from doctor to corporate businessman to producer to writer. What made you turn to writing, and do you feel your "past lives" have helped you write better novels?

I think it's pretty hard for a very young person to write a compelling thriller precisely because of a dearth of past life experiences. Thriller readers are a sophisticated bunch who expect plots, details and characters to ring true and that's where a writer's past comes in. It's no coincidence that so many successful thriller writers are lawyers, doctors, physicists, academics, etc. I've been accumulating decades of experiences so I don't have to look far afield for ideas.

Secret of the Seventh Son, your first novel, was a big success. Did you see that coming early on? What do you think made the book click with readers?

No way. First I was over the moon at landing an agent, then a publisher, then seeing it in print. Now we're closing in on a million copies sold worldwide in 29 translations. The book is about fate and predestination but I didn't see it coming. It's a complicated book with time jumps and a lot of historical detail and I think readers seem to enjoy the challenge of trying to figure out how all the strands come together.

We've all heard mentors, published authors and/or writing workshop leaders utter some version of, Persistence is the greatest talent a writer can possess. Jeremy Robinson is proof they were right. His creative career spans comics, screenplays, novels, and a brief foray into self-publishing. "My drive is to tell exciting stories," said Robinson. "It has been since I could pick up a pencil."

Robinson's real-life story contains the rags-to-riches theme that crosses all fiction genres. "I wrote my first screenplay while homeless for four months, traveling up and down the East coast in my big green station wagon with my wife," he explained. In the face of adversity, Robinson did what all good protagonists do; he believed in himself, he kept writing, and his screenplays eventually found a home on the West coast.

Tiring of Hollywood after several years, Robinson picked up a copy of James Rollins's Subterrean and found the next chapter of his creative career. In fact, it was Rollins's own advice that led Robinson to another seemingly risky career move with his first novel--The Didymus Contingency. "We agreed that it was too religious for mainstream publishers and too mainstream for religious publishers. [Rollins] said, 'Why don't you self publish it?' And I did."

Many authors come to writing via other careers. For Jim Daher, the travel required for his career in health care management provided the perfect opportunity to read mysteries and thrillers by authors such as John Grisham, Robert Ludlum, Jonathan Kellerman, Faye Kellerman, Robert B. Parker, Stuart Woods, Lisa Scottoline, Michael Connelly, Daniel Silva, Lee Child, David Baldacci, and Greg Iles. He became fascinated with how these authors "created characters, devised plots and most importantly 'entertained' their readers" and vowed to write a novel when he had time. That time came eventually, and Daher wrote his first novel, Righteous Kill. His latest book Blood Money is the sequel.

Contributing Editor Janice Gable Bashman chats with Jim Daher about Blood Money and his writing process.

Tell us about Blood Money and why it's so compelling?

The characters, the plot and the unknown of what's next makes Blood Money a must-read. Scott Justice, Sarah James' groom, is shot in the middle of his wedding vows and Sarah is devastated. After she is certain he will survive, Sarah becomes frustrated with the FBI's botched attempts to protect Scott and their lack of progress in identifying the shooter. As a result, she decides to "handle it" herself and deal with him "her way." The FBI forbids her to get involved in the case, but that's impossible for Sarah James. She wants, no needs, revenge.

"Fugutive mom."

That's the headline that rocks a small New England town when one of its favorite ladies is discovered to be a fugitive from the law. Amateur sleuth Paula Holliday is called on by the women's distraught family to find out who outed the woman and why, after all these years she still holds a secret that someone is willing to kill for.

That's the set-up for Rosemary Harris' new mystery thriller Dead Head, a hardback original from Minotaur Books. The series character Paula Holliday emerged after Harris saw a newspaper article about a mummified body found near her Connecticut home, and has since grown to embrace the current economic recession.

"Making my amateur sleuth a gardener was a no-brainer for me,' Harris said. "For the most part, they have seasonal jobs, which gives them plenty of time to poke around in other people's business. They make their own hours, report to no one, interact with an enormous range of people from illegal workers to wealthy clients and--here's a fun part--they are almost invisible. Like nannies and housekeepers, they can fade into the background and sometimes see and hear things people might not reveal to others."

In The God of the Hive, award-winning author Laurie R. King has created another fascinating and engaging Mary Russell novel.  For those not familiar with this series, I strongly recommend you cease your current activity and immediately introduce yourself to Mary Russell and her whirlwind life as Sherlock Holmes's young wife.

Russell and Holmes have worked together to solve the most perplexing of cases. Now, The God of the Hive picks up where The Language of Bees left off: with the duo and those they are protecting scattered to the winds, Scotland Yard after them from one side and a shadowy faction of the government from the other--in rickety airplanes above Scotland and on boats in the North Sea; in hidden rooms above London shops and rustic woodland cabins.

Chased by those who want them dead, chasing answers to deadly mysteries, the consequences of what they find will circle the globe, and involve a man with a curious identity and a dangerous past. With the God of London's hive watching them, it will take more than deduction if they ever want to see each other alive again.

If you liked the movie Taken, let W.D. Gagliani's Savage Nights take you much, much farther into the darkness. It's a tough, pulls-no-punches, noir thriller that's not for the faint of heart.

"I truly enjoyed it and the pages kept turning... the suspense grew, the shocks had real jolt, and the big scenes were big and satisfying...better than (David) Morrell!" -- Brian Pinkerton, author of Abducted and Vengeance

Rick Brant is a Vietnam veteran tormented by his past, his secrets, and his inconsistent and unreliable psychic ability. When his beloved 19-year old niece, Kit, is kidnapped from a busy mall, he is forced to use his old connections and his skills. Hard-nosed inquiries suggest that Kit has been snatched for auction by an international sexual slavery ring. Brant reconnects with his Vietnam buddies, some of them ex-cops, to help him pry Kit from the clutches of the ruthless Goran ("the Serb") and his gang. The Serb's daughter, Irina, is also a key to finding Kit, whose ultimate destination may be a modern harem, a brothel, a dungeon, or one of the Serb's kinky slavery clubs. Or worse. As the horror of Kit's captivity increases daily, Brant becomes rescuer, avenging angel - and executioner. In his quest, he may find redemption for his own past sins.

For a limited time, all e-formats are only $1.99.

Includes bonus material: excerpts from horror thrillers by W.D. Gagliani, John Everson, and Scott Nicholson, and a complete crime short story by David Benton and W.D. Gagliani.

W.D. Gagliani is the author of WOLF'S TRAP, WOLF'S GAMBIT, WOLF'S BLUFF, WOLF'S EDGE (2011), all from Leisure Books. All available on Amazon Kindle and other e-formats. Gagliani is a member of the Horror Writers Association (HWA) and the International Thriller Writers (ITW). See www.williamdgagliani.com for more info!

Mark Terry writes exciting, page-turning suspense that will remind readers of Jeffrey Deaver, since both excel at plots that deal with a ticking clock.  Terry's third Derek Stillwater novel, The Fallen, is his best yet.  Mark Terry talked to ITW.

How did Derek Stillwater originate?

When I wrote the first Derek Stillwater novel, I started it with a  prologue that took place in Iraq in the first Gulf War. That was a piece of writing I'd tried to turn into a couple other novels unsuccessfully for a couple years. It's basically a scene where Derek and another Special Forces soldiers (Richard Coffee) are deep behind enemy lines setting up a laser guidance system at an Iraqi weapons depot so the U.S. can drop a bomb on it. Well, everything goes to pieces and one of them--Coffee--gets exposed to the fallout from the bombing, and Derek evacuates them. Derek really stepped out of that scene as a Special Forces guy who was all too familiar with biological and chemical weapons and was very cool under pressure. Then I moved him 10 or 15 years later, thinking about what this guy would have become out of the military, but in a world that had gotten very focused on battling terrorism. And then, like most characterization, bits and pieces came to me like his superstitious quirks and his total lack of patience with chain-of-command, especially non-military chain-of-command, and his belief that bureaucracies don't respond well to terror threats, and his hypochondria and panic attacks. Derek's a guy with a lot of mileage who still manages to perform at a high level.

There was a quote from Ian Rankin floating around the web recently that had him lamenting the distinction that's made between crime fiction and literary fiction by reviewers and prize administrators.  The UK Independent had him saying, 'The best crime fiction today is talking about the same things big literary novels are talking about. They are talking about moral questions, taking ordinary people and putting them in extraordinary situations ... some of the best crime fiction is literature. And some of the best literature is crime fiction.'

I'm hardly going to disagree with this and thought it might be worth pointing up the situation in South Africa.  Ours is a country built on a history of conflict between the indigenous people and those who came to settle here.  The politics of conflict and resolution are among our first articles of co-existence, and our literature, certainly our apartheid literature, drew attention to this contention and the attendant inequities of legalised discrimination.

Recently I sat down with Kay Thomas to talk about her newest release, Bulletproof Bodyguard.

Bulletproof Bodyguard is your third release, and it's an exciting premise. Can you tell me how you came up with the idea?

Bulletproof Bodyguard is about a young, widowed mother who is forced to help with a casino robbery on the Mississippi coast when her three-year-old son is kidnapped by 'guests' staying at her bed and breakfast. Her only hope is an undercover cop with a troubled past who must choose between saving his career and saving her child.

It's hard to believe that you're a "debut author"--your work is so polished. I have to ask: are you a plotter or a "pantser?"

Thanks, I appreciate your saying that. I am a pantser, who is working hard at becoming more of a plotter. I used to write myself into corners being a pure pantser, but selling on proposal has helped me in that area quite a bit. I like to know where I'm going, but I don't like to plan so much of the story out that I know everything before I start writing.

There were times I forgot to breathe while reading The Book of Spies, the newest novel by New York Times bestselling author, Gayle Lynds.  The writing was so fast, the action so believable, and the characters so realistic, I forgot I was reading and thought I was the one in the chase down a long flight of stairs pursuing who I thought might have been my dead husband.  I was angry for having done time in jail for his death.  I felt confusion, betrayal and real anger.  I used my skills in karate to stop the guards at the museum entrance who were trying to interfere with my pursuit.  I felt impeded by my clothing.  I was out of breath from the sprint to find out who this man was and why he was running from me. "Charles!"  I screamed.  "Stop!"

When I returned to earth, I unclenched my fists and laughed out loud--"That was fun!"  And then I scrolled down to the next chapter for more.

The Book of Spies is being called Gayle Lynds' best work ever.  And it is her most challenging.  After nine stand-alone novels, Lynds embarks on her first series.  And in doing so has engrossed herself as never before.  "I'm a wallower,"  Gayle says.  "But a wallower in a nice way."

The reader reviews of Broken by Shiloh Walker have raved about the surprising plot twists! And Romantic Times Magazine said: "If you think this is another alpha-male-saves-battered-woman story, you'll be delightfully surprised. This book pulls you in right from the first sentence and doesn't let go. Walker has created a series of intriguing characters, including the secondary ones, with complicated pasts and heartwrenching conflicts. They'll win your heart and keep you reading right to the end." Recently I sat down with Shiloh to talk about her new novel.

Congratulations! I'd love to hear your writer's journey. When did you start writing and at what point did you decide to seek publication?

I don't know if there was a time that I wasn't writing.  I remember writing stories in sixth or seventh grade, but my mother would tell you it was younger than that.  From the time I was in high school, I'd planned to attempt getting published, although I didn't expect it to be easy so I made a back-up plan-I'd go to nursing school and work as a nurse while I tried to get published.  After I started working writing fell to the wayside for a couple of years-I'd just gotten married, working as a nurse, all of that...I think I just needed to acclimate.  After a couple of years, two or three, I started fiddling with it again.  After our second child was born, I started pushing harder-sent out some books, queried a few agents, and nothing happened until fall 2002.  I'd received a rejection on a book which eventually was titled Her Best Friend's Lover.  I'd decided to rewrite it and submit it to a new e-publisher, Ellora's Cave.  They accepted it.  Things just kind of took off from there.

It was daybreak and the rancher, standing at his kitchen window, watched two silhouettes stager forward through the dessert scrub.

Thus begins Do They Know I'm Running?, a new thriller by David Corbett.  Mr. Corbett is the author of three previous novels: The Devil's Redhead, Done for a Dime, and Blood of Paradise.  He has been nominated for the Edgar award as well as named in the 2007 top ten list of mysteries and thrillers by the Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle. Now he brings us a story which Publishers Weekly calls, "...a rich, hard-hitting epic..."

Roque Montalvo is wise beyond his eighteen years.  Orphaned at birth, he's a gifted musician who's stuck in the California backwater and forced to help his Salvadoran aunt care for his damaged brother, an ex-marine badly wounded in Iraq.  When Immigration agents arrest and deport Roque's aging uncle, the family is forced to make a choice.  Badgered by his street-hardened cousin, Roque agrees to bring his uncle back to the U.S. himself, relying on the criminal gangs that control the dangerous smuggling routes from El Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico, to the U.S. border.

"This story would not let go."

That's what D.P. Lyle has to say about his new novel Stress Fracture that introduces Dub Walker, an expert in forensic investigation and criminal behavior.  And while Dub may be new to us, he has been with Lyle for nearly fifteen years.

As with first novels, the book, according to its author "has undergone 23 major rewrites, changed settings three times, changed titles four, and went from 138,000 words of bloat to a much crisper 85,000 word story." And its most challenging aspect was "getting it right."

"The only thing that didn't change through all of its major surgeries was the villain and the through line. It's basically the same story as it started only better told."

Stress Fracture is a departure from Lyle's previous novels Devil's Playground and Double Blind in two significant ways. Most notable perhaps is the protagonist went from female (Samantha Cody) to male in the person of Dub Walker.  Sam, a professional boxer and police officer, lacks a medical background. Since Lyle is a physician, reviewers made note of that fact. Dub has a medical background but his creator was very careful in making sure he was not a physician.

    "Writing a book is usually a solitary occupation," NPR's Lynn Neary writes in her story "In New Serial Thriller, Everyone's Hands Are Bloody," "but when David Corbett was asked to work on a serial thriller, the opportunity was too good to pass up. The story would be a collaboration among 22 writers; one person would set the action in motion, then hand it off to another writer who would add a new chapter, taking the plot in new directions.

"Corbett would be working with some of the best writers in the business, but when it was his turn to write, he says, he realized the format of the story would drastically change the way he wrote.

"'Normally as a writer you start out doing the background on all of your characters, you do all of your research," Corbett says. "And it's a living, breathing thing in a lot of ways, in your unconscious before you even begin. Here, here you're sort of like given building blocks.'"

You can read and/or listen to the rest of Neary's piece at NPR's website.

Andy McDermott's The Covenant of Genesis, the fourth adventure for Nina Wilde and Eddie Chase, sees them hunting for a secret pre-dating even Atlantis... a secret so shocking, so dangerous, that its discovery sees them both marked for death!

Off the Indonesian coast, Nina makes an incredible find: a settlement that existed over a hundred thousand years before any previously known culture. But before she can reveal her findings, the expedition is attacked by a clandestine religious group, the Covenant of Genesis, which is determined to suppress all knowledge of the mysterious race - at any cost.

But why? Their search for the truth takes Nina and Eddie to the ends of the earth, from the frozen Antarctic wastes to the searing Sahara - where the most world-shaking revelation in history awaits...

"A pulse-racing adventure" - Northern Echo

"Great stuff!" - The Bookseller

Born in Halifax, England, Andy is the New York Times bestselling author of The Hunt For Atlantis. Previously, he was a journalist and editor of such magazines as DVD Review and the iconoclastic film publication Hotdog. He has also worked as a cartoonist, graphic designer and videogame reviewer, and written for the award-winning British sci-fi comic 2000AD.

Orange County, California, brings to mind the endless summer of sand and surf, McMansion housing tracts, a conservative stronghold, tony shopping centers where pilates classes are run like boot camp and real-estate values are discussed at your weekly colonic, and ice-cream parlors on Main Street, U.S.A., exist side-by-side with pho shops and taquerias. Orange County Noir takes you for a hardboiled tour behind the Orange Curtain where a reclusive rock star has lived way too long in his own head, a crooked judge uses the court for illicit means, a cab driver prowls the streets with more than the ticking meter on his mind, where cultures clash, housewives want more than the perfect grout cleaner, and nobody is who they seem to be.'

Back in 2004 Akashic published an anthology with stories set in a distinct neighbourhood or location within the city of the book. This first anthology was called Brooklyn Noir. As you can see from their website,  the anthology garnered loads of awards and a series of anthologies were born; each one unique to the titular city and loaded with dark stories steeped in local knowledge. Since then there have been 36 other anthologies set as far afield as Paris, Dublin and more American cities than I can shake a stick at. And there are more planned with locations as diverse as India and Moscow to whet our appetites.

The latest in the series, and the reason for this article, is Orange County Noir edited by Gary Phillips. Gary is already well known to readers of this series as his stories appear in many of the Akashic anthologies. He has also co-edited other Noir anthologies but this is his first stint as editor of this particular series. Contributors to the anthology include Susan Straight, Robert S. Levinson, Rob Roberge, Nathan Walpow, Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, Dan Duling, Mary Castillo, Lawrence Maddox, Dick Lochte, Robert Ward, Gordon McAlpine, Martin J. Smith, and Patricia McFall.

Christy Reece's story of reinventing herself as a romantic suspense novelist after years in the corporate world is an inspiration to all aspiring authors.  She wrote four manuscripts before getting her first break - a three book deal with Ballantine. Her career has been on the fast track ever since, with each book receiving enviable acclaim.

Second Chance continues Reece's second trilogy in her Last Chance Rescue series as Cole Mathison finds himself embroiled in the mysterious disappearance of Keeley Fairchild's young children. Rescuing the children is his mission--but falling in love with the widow of the man he inadvertently killed was never in the plans.  RT Book Review made it a Top Pick and heaped praise: "The range of emotions in this book is intense and lead to edge-of-your-seat consequences. Another winner!"

You had three books published last year; another three will hit store shelves this year. You make being an author look easy. How do you do it?

From his home in Vancouver, Daniel Kalla has the solution for keeping the Olympic high going: Releasing his next book, Of Flesh and Blood, April 13th.

Although, Daniel Kalla, an ER doc by day, is primarily known for his medical thrillers with favourable comparisons to Robin Cook, Michael Crichton and John Grisham, he tells me that Of Flesh and Blood is a departure for him. But, if you look at his earlier interviews, as early as 2006, you'll find mention of this novel fighting to come out. And maybe it's in his blood because the book comes with a century of personal family history, including ancestors escaping the Nazis in Prague and then fleeing the Soviets during the Hungarian Revolution.

Combining his experience of our most intimate ER moments with a deep family inheritance, Of Flesh and Blood promises to be nothing short of an explosive epic.

Nina Bruhns' latest romantic thriller, A Kill to Kill, has everything -

Revenge...
Eight months ago, Dr. Gina Cappozi and CIA black ops commando Captain Gregg van Halen were lovers until Gregg committed the ultimate betrayal. Left in the hands of terrorists and to do the unspeakable or die, Gina vowed to kill the man she once loved.

Danger...
She knows that Gregg lives in the shadow world of violence and darkness. She knows that he's watching her every move. What she doesn't know is that Gregg isn't the only one following her-or that he still cherishes her.

Sex...
When Gina's burning need for revenge leads her back to the one place she can easily lure Gregg-his bed-she rediscovers another, more irresistible need. Now, with the threat of enemies at every turn, Gina and Gregg realize that the power of betrayal and revenge is nothing compared to the power of love.

"A thrill ride of fast action and hot sex ... Nina Bruhns' latest delivers it all!" -- CJ Lyons, bestselling author

"Suspense just got a whole lot hotter with Nina Bruhns dynamite romantic thriller. A hero to die for and a heroine to cheer for . . . an awesome, sexy story." -- New York Times Bestselling author Allison Brennan

"Intense pacing...powerful characters...searing emotions and explosive sexual tension! Once I started reading Shoot to Thrill, I couldn't stop! Nina Bruhns writes high-action suspense at its very best!" -- Bestselling author Debra Webb

"A provocative, sexy thriller that will get your adrenaline pumping on all levels. A riveting breakout novel that will shoot Ms. Bruhns straight to bestsellerdom. Move over, boys, and see how it's really done!" -- Award-winning mystery author Tamar Myers

Bestselling romantic thriller writer Nina Bruhns has penned over twenty novels to date, selling over two million copies, translated into a dozen languages. Known for vivid settings, unique characters, and page-turning plot twists, Bruhns is by profession an archaeologist, has lived all over the world, and done fieldwork in Sudan, Egypt, Spain, Sweden, and USA. She now lives in Charleston, SC.

Ms. Bruhns' books have garnered numerous awards, including three prestigious Daphne du Maurier Awards of Excellence for Overall Best Mystery/Suspense Novel of the Year, five Dorothy Parker Awards, and a National Readers Choice Award, along with two Rita nominations.

A handful of emeralds, an autistic psychic girl, and a political terrorist all come together in Penny Rudolph's new mystery/thriller, Eye of the Mountain God.  The emeralds, which fall out of a morning newspaper, are rooted in the history of the Pima Indians of the Southwest.

"I heard the story and learned the emeralds were never found," Rudolph says. "I became a little obsessed." The author also became intrigued with the Hispanic uprisings in Northern New Mexico in the '60s and '70s and with a young autistic girl who lived next door. She began to plot her story, using those elements as the cornerstones.

Her protagonist, Megan Montoya, has moved to New Mexico with her daughter, Lizzie, to begin a career in photography. She opens her newspaper one morning to have five jagged stones clatter to the floor. A jeweler identifies them as emeralds, and an attractive archeologist believes they might be the legendary emerald arrowheads used by the Pima Indians four centuries earlier to lure away the Spaniards.

 

As part of the continuing partnership between ITW and Audible.com, Audible has just released debut author Karen Dionne's science thriller Freezing Point as the newest title in their "Breakout Thrillers" program. 

James Rollins Recommends
Freezing Point, by Karen Dionne 

"I hate it when I read a book and go, 'Crap. I should have had that idea.' Wouldn't you know, that's exactly what happened when I picked up a copy of Karen Dionne's debut environmental thriller Freezing Point. I mean, microwaves and melting icecaps - who wouldn't' want to read that? I know I did. So I started reading, thinking, 'I'll just check the book out and see if there's anything there.'

"Before I knew it, the pages were flying by. A mysterious virus killing off researchers. Hordes of man-eating rats. Explosions, fires, tidal waves. A greedy exec with a murderous love for power, environmentalists vs eco-terrorists - it's all there. The scientific and ethical themes are fascinating, and the remoteness of the Antarctic is an ideal thriller settling. Karen's science is dead on, which puts the novel squarely within the realm of possibility and makes the storyline all the more chilling. I loved this book.

"So do what I did. Pick up a copy of Freezing Point for yourself, and see if you don't agree that Karen's a female Michael Crichton. Freezing Point is a terrific read. I highly recommend it."

You can listen to an exerpt of Karen Dionne's Freezing Point or purchase the recording at Audible's website. 

The heroine of Heather Graham's new chiller, Chloe Marin, was just a teenager when a party at a Florida beachside mansion turned into a savage killing spree. Ten years later she is working as a psychologist specializing in traumatized victims, when a new case shows unnerving parallels with the massacre she escaped from. Enter a ghost...

'I really love the paranormal because I'm fascinated by the possibilities,' says Graham. 'I am the world's greatest coward. I don't particularly know that ghosts exist, I just hope they do. And there are enough stories out there which are true that leave the possibilities wide open.' A prolific writer - she has authored over a hundred novels - Graham is also a voracious reader who admits to reading everything she can lay her hands on, 'including cereal boxes'. 'But I have always loved a story with an edge. And the great thing about writing fiction is that you're able to get a lot of opinions out there without looking overbearing or like a fool.'

Dr. Richard L. Mabry's first novel, Code Blue, is due for release by Abingdon Press April 1, 2010. Code Blue is a medical thriller, the first book in the Prescription For Trouble series. Richard describes his fiction as "Medical Suspense with Heart." He is a retired physician and medical school professor, which gives him an unrivaled depth of experience and judgment to draw upon in writing medical fiction.

Although Code Blue is his first published novel, it's not Dr. Mabry's first book. After the death of his first wife, he used journaling as a coping tool after the loss, and that became the core of his nonfiction book The Tender Scar: Life After The Death Of A Spouse, released March, 2006 by Kregel Publishers. The book offers a profound ministry to those who have lost a loved one, and Dr. Mabry continues to speak to groups about grief and loss.

Richard has an interesting past. He played semi-pro baseball while in college. As an Air Force Captain, he served as Deputy Commander of the USAF Hospital in the Azores, and was decorated for saving the life of a local child. He is an ordained Deacon in the Baptist Church, and has been a Sunday school teacher and choir soloist.

Robin Caroll is the author of eleven novels. Her books have placed/finaled in such contests as Bookseller's Best, Book of the Year, and Reviewer's Choice Award. When she isn't writing, Robin spends time with her husband of twenty years, her three beautiful daughters, and their four character-filled pets at home--in the South. An avid reader herself, Robin loves hearing from and chatting with other readers. Today Robin and I sat down to talk about her new book, Deliver Us From Evil, which sounds perfectly delicious!

So of course, Robin, give us the dish on Deliver Us From Evil. What's the book about and why do you love it?

A beautiful yet tough woman working in a beautiful yet tough setting, Brannon Callahan is a search and rescue helicopter pilot for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Strong faith and a decorated history of service have kept her one step ahead of on-the-job dangers, but there's no precedent for what's about to happen. After a blizzard takes down a small plane carrying U.S. Marshal Roark Holland (already haunted by a recent tragedy), Brannon must save him in more ways than one and safeguard the donor heart he's transporting to a government witness on the edge of death. Otherwise the largest child trafficking ring in history--with shocking links from Thailand to Tennessee--will slip further away into darkness along the Appalachian Trail.

Recently I caught up with #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jackson to talk about her new novel, Without Mercy.

The starred review for Without Mercy in Publishers Weekly (Feb. 22, 2010) opines, "This campy cool thriller builds to a surprising cliffhanger ending."  How do you interpret their 'campy cool' description of your story?

I'm thrilled with the starred review, of course and I think the 'campy cool' line is up for debate.  I don't know what the reviewer really meant, but I love the line!  I sound so much hipper than I really am!

Your official bio says you have "an obsessive curiosity about the dark side of life."  Obviously, this is working for you and your readers.  Your in-depth characters demand you spend a lot of time with sick and tormented minds.  How to you manage this, then leave that behind and live a normal life?  Do your characters ever "haunt" you when you're not writing?

In his debut novel, Diamonds For The Dead, Alan Orloff unleashes a story so thrilling that New York Times Bestselling author John Gilstrap says "Diamonds For The Dead has it all: compelling plot, great characters, and the kind of tension that keeps you screwed into your seat for a one-sitting read."

In the story, Josh Handleman returns to his boyhood home to sit shiva for his estranged father and gets the shock of his life.  His frugal dad was a diamond collector worth millions.  Now the gems are missing, and Josh begins to suspect his father's death might have been murder, not an accident.

Hounded by grief and remorse, Josh resolves to find his dad's diamond stash.  His emotion-laden treasure hunt throws him into the middle of a feud between two stubborn old Russian Jews, and puts Josh squarely in the sights of his father's killer.

Before Alan Orloff stepped off the corporate merry-go-round, he had an eclectic (some may say a disjointed) career.  As an engineer, he worked on nuclear submarines, supervised assembly workers in factories, facilitated technology transfer from the Star Wars program, and learned how to stack washing machines three high in a warehouse with a forklift. Alan lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and two children.

I caught up with Alan a few days ago and had a chance to ask him some questions.

Many of us have dreams we aspire to if reality didn't get in the way. Some may dream of retiring to a sun-kissed island somewhere in the tropics, or the Caribbean perhaps. Others dream of writing a novel. If only! But new author, Douglas Corleone has done just that: he's given up the day job in New York City and taken himself, his wife, and son off to Hawaii. Corleone describes Hawaii as one of the most enticing places on the planet; easy to fall in love with it. What with the sunshine, the crystal clear waters and people who do not take themselves too seriously, it's almost Corleone's idea of paradise. And the other dream? He's done that too; a début novel titled One Man's Paradise.

Corleone's book is about a hotshot New York criminal defence lawyer, Kevin Corvelli, whose direction in life was to win and win big. One day he loses, but so does his client, because he eventually gets killed in jail. Trouble was, for Corvelli, his client was innocent. Corvelli's reputation is shot and his career in free fall, so he takes himself off to Hawaii and tries to keep a low profile handling minor cases.

Corvelli's first case turns out to be a homicide. A young law student is accused of chasing his ex girlfriend to Hawaii and killing her. He is innocent, but this time, Corvelli knows it. The killer knows it too, and has plenty of incentive to ensure that the proof of the young law student's innocence does not go any further than the three of them.

The much-heralded ITW project THRILLERS: 100 MUST-READS is scheduled to be published by Oceanview this July during ThrillerFest.  To whet your appetite for this essential book, we're going to feature a series of short interviews with various essayists in upcoming issues. This interview by Hank Wagner, co-editor of the collection, is with Tess Gerritsen, who contributed a fabulous essay on Ken Follet's masterpiece, Eye of the Needle.

Tess, you wrote about Ken Follett's Eye of the Needle.  Was it your first choice to write about?  If so,why? Does it fulfill your personal definition of a "must read"?

Yes, it was absolutely my first choice because I remembered it so fondly.  It was my first experience with "faction" -- a novel with a basis in real history.  And yes, it certainly fulfills my definition of a "must read."  It had unforgettable characters, a riveting premise, and fascinating historical detail.

ELLA--English Language Latina Authors, the nation's only book club devoted entirely to works by and about U.S. Latinas--will be reading Penny Rudolph's soon-to-be-released thriller Eye of the Mountain God as their May pick.
The group's founder Alisa Valdez Rodriguez says, "I believe a true measure of a community's equality in the greater culture is often best measured not by the art we create about ourselves--after all, we know we're terrific!--but rather by work written about us by those who do not belong to our group.

While many Latina characters in mainstream fiction by non-Latina authors painted us as stereotypical in the past, I am pleased to see that the new wave of novels by non-Latinas but featuring Latina protagonists present us a whole, well-rounded, interesting and unique individual human beings who are American everywomen. This is a major step forward, and one we should all support!

Penny Rudolph says, I am very pleased (and honored) for Eye of the Mountain God to be selected by ELLA.

The publisher, Thomas Dunne Books, describes Eye of the Mountain God as:

An explosive combination...
A woman who finds five emerald arrowheads wrapped in her newspaper,
an autistic child who knows the unkowable,
a man determined to become the American Che Guevara

Advance praise for this thriller comes from 2-time Edgar Award-winner Warren Murphy, who calls it, "An exciting thriller with a Southwestern flavor...(that) combines elements of Rudolfo Anaya's and Tony Hillerman's novels."

Read an excerpt and learn more at pennyrudolph.com

Specially published to celebrate St. Patrick's Day and Dublin becoming a UNESCO World City of Literature in 2010 City-pick Dublin will be available from March 11, 2010.

Pat Mullan, who is Ireland Chair of International Thriller Writers, says "I am very pleased (and honored) to be included in this selection of fifty Irish writers.  My short thriller story, Tribunal, which was published in Dublin Noir by Akashic Books in the US and by Brandon in Ireland and the UK has been selected for inclusion.  Tribunal is the opening chapter of my novel, Last Days of the Tiger (available from my agent, Svetlana Pironko)."

The publisher, Oxygen Books, talks about city-pick Dublin:   A truly astonishing variety of writers evoke the myriad pleasures of this legendary writers' city, bringing Dubliners, famous, not so famous and famously fictional, to life.
city-pick Dublin is introduced by Orna Ross, well-known Dublin journalist and bestselling author of A Dance in Time, who offers her own fascinating perspective on the city and its writers as Dublin becomes a UNESCO World City of Literature in 2010.   'Okay, London might have its share of good writers ... but in a straight contest - great writers per head of population - isn't Dublin the clear winner? Haven't we four Nobel Prizewinners (Shaw, Yeats, Becket and Heaney) out of only a million or so inhabitants? As well as the world's best novelist (Joyce) who should have got one too?'

ITW mystery/suspense novelist L.J. Sellers has signed with Echelon Press to publish the next two novels in her Detective Wade Jackson series, plus a standalone thriller. Echelon picked up the series with Sellers' second Jackson book, SECRETS TO DIE FOR, which came out in October, 2009. The third book, THRILLED TO DEATH, will be released in August, 2010. In this story, two young women with nothing in common disappear on the same day, then one turns up dead and Jackson discovers disturbing things about her.

"Even though it's a series, each book is unique," Sellers says. "I use different POV characters, a variety of crimes and motives, and distinctive structures. I'm especially excited about THRILLED TO DEATH because it's Jackson's most twisted case yet."

In 2011, Echelon will release the fourth book in the series, PASSIONS OF THE DEAD, and a standalone thriller, THE BABY THIEF, which features Jackson the homicide cop, but not as the main character.

In addition to writing novels, L.J. Sellers is an award-winning journalist and occasional standup comic. Learn more about Sellers at her website: http://ljsellers.com

Three months after the imprint's launch, Ostara Publishing has issued four more titles in their print-on-demand Top Notch Thrillers series which "aims to revive Great British thrillers which do not deserve to be forgotten".

The new titles, originally published in Britain between 1962 and 1970, were selected by crime writer and critic Mike Ripley, who acts as Series Editor for TNT.

The Tale of the Lazy Dog by Alan Williams is a brilliant heist thriller set in the Laos-Cambodia-Vietnam triangle in 1969 as a mis-matched gang of rogues and pirates attempt to steal $1.5 billion in used US Treasury notes. Time Is An Ambush is a delicate, atmospheric study of suspicion and guilt set in Franco's Spain, by Francis Clifford, one of the most-admired stylists of the post-war generation of British thriller-writers. A Flock Of Ships, Brian Callison's bestselling wartime thriller of a small Allied convoy lured to its doom in the South Atlantic, was famous for its breathless, machine-gun prose and was described by Alistair Maclean as: "The best war story I have ever read". The Ninth Directive was the second assignment for super-spy Quiller (whose fans included Kingsley Amis and John Dickson Carr), created by Adam Hall (Elleston Trevor) and is a taught, tense thriller of political assassination which pre-dated Day of the Jackal by five years.

Announcing the latest batch of reissues, Mike Ripley said: 'Our new titles are absolutely in line with the Top Notch ethos of showing the range and variety of thrillers from what was something of a Golden Age for British thriller writing. They range in approach from slow-burning suspense to relentless wartime action and feature obsessive, super tough, super cool spies and some tremendous villains. Above all, they are characterised by the quality of their writing, albeit in very different styles.

'When first published, these titles were all best-sellers and their authors are among the most respected names in thriller fiction. Many readers will welcome these novels back almost as old friends and hopefully a new generation of readers will discover them for the first time.'

Top Notch Thrillers are published as trade paperbacks with a RRP of £10.99

www.ostarapublishing.co.uk