May 2010 Archives

Frank Winter is a disgraced veterinarian who works for the mob at a Chicago horse-racing track. When a job goes bad, they take Frank out to a roadside zoo out in the desert and try to feed him to a bunch of starving alligators. He ends up in an isolated small town where the tyrannical mayor puts Frank's talents to use in a series of exotic animal hunts that escalate into animal death matches. Frank is pushed to the brink, and has to decide whether to side with the humans or the animals.

"I welcome a fresh new talent with the amazing ability to captivate and astonish. Each page brought a surprise. This novel is destined to become a collector's item." -- David Morrell, New York Times bestselling author of First Blood and Creepers

"...Jacobson trenchantly denounces the substandard treatment of animals and the questionable practice of paying to hunt captive animals in a debut packed with relentless scenes of death and torture. Sensitive readers beware." -- Kirkus Reviews

Jeff Jacobson teaches Fiction and Screenwriting at Columbia College Chicago. His crime novel FOODCHAIN is out now from Five Star Mystery. WORMFOOD, a comedic horror novel, will be available from Medallion Press in July 2010. His stories have appeared in Doorways Magazine, Read by Dawn Vols. 1 and 3, f Magazine, and Hair Trigger, with a forthcoming short story in Cemetery Dance. He lives near Chicago with his family and far too many animals. His website is http://www.jeff-jacobson.com. Stop by and say howdy.

Library Journal has called Mike Lawson's House Justice "the perfect political thriller" and Booklist said it was "a superb example of the post-cold war espionage novel." House Justice is the fifth book in the DeMarco series - a book in which a CIA agent is killed when a story is leaked to an ambitious journalist.

Mike Lawson has written five political thrillers starring his protagonist, Joe DeMarco, a political fixer. The Inside Ring, The Second Perimeter, House Rules, House Secrets, and House Justice. His books have been Indie picks, Nancy Pearl picks, Barry Award nominees, and published in twelve countries.

The hardest part of this discourse is to not make it another "Lisa Goes to China" story. There are already a ton of those. China is the setting of Lisa Brackmann's acclaimed debut novel, Rock Paper Tiger, and a huge influence in her life. But there is another Lisa, a Lisa who maybe should have come of age in the '60s, off chasing whatever dream currently predominates in her active imagination, unbound by a conventional approach to, well, anything.

Who has the spirit and resolution to write a novel at age 5? About cats camping. The Other Lisa tried, but spelling got in her way. So then she decides to be an astronaut, only to be diverted by the new goal of being Secretary of State? Lofty goals, but where is the segue in that decision? And when they lost their appeal, she packed up and headed to Hollywood to become a screenwriter. All of this before she ever thought about going to China. So, yes, this is much more than a Lisa Goes to China story.

Sultry days, sinful nights and a magic fountain... What more could a nice-turned-naughty bridesmaid wish for...?

When it comes to weddings, why should the bride and groom be the only ones tying knots? In these consummate erotic novellas set in steamy New Orleans, three nice-turned-naughty bridesmaids each make a wish by tossing a coin into an infamous fountain. Before the night is through, these bridesmaids find themselves entangled with passionate partners, who show them the only way to free their desires is through the most enticing restraints.

Nikita Black goes behind the closed doors of a bordello and a masked bachelorette party where anything can--and does--happen.

Allyson James explores a ménage a trois as a bridesmaid finds herself locked in a house with two men who introduce her to sensations that are out of this world.

Sheri Whitefeather reveals a secret room under a French Quarter B&B where a bridesmaid's forbidden erotic dreams become a reality.

An invitation to indulgence, Wedding Favors offers bold and sensual adventures in seduction and surrender. When the

Nikita Black "The stuff legends are made out of." -- Midwest Book Review

Allyson James "Hot! Hot! Hot!...If you enjoy stories full of action, both in the bedroom and out, this is one story you will want to read." -- The Romance Studio

Sheri Whitefeather "Sensual, passionate, seductive--lose yourself in the romance of an amazing story." -- National bestselling author Jaci Burton

While at heart stories of romance, Nikita Black's erotic fiction allows women readers to safely explore themes which go beyond broad shoulders and sweet kisses, into the dark world of forbidden fantasies. Her books have been on bestseller lists and won numerous awards, including the Independent Publishers Award of Excellence (IPPY), the Write Touch Readers Award, and an RT BookReviews nomination for Best Erotic Novel of the Year.

Under the name Nina Bruhns, she is also a bestselling author who writes award-winning romantic thrillers for Berkley.

Warning!

The following reveals the most recent whereabouts of Jason Bourne, last seen in Bali. Therefore, should you decide to continue reading, you will, of course, have to be killed.

Now that everyone understands the rules . . . .

As of June 1, you'll find Bourne in Cleveland, Ohio, where he . . . wait, sorry--Bourne  will be in Helena, Montana, and is . . . no, cancel that--it's actually Danbury, Connecticut. right by . . . ah, make that Naples, Florida, dressed in . . . whoops, ixnay Aples-na and change it to Knoxville, Tennessee . . . .

Oh, hell, forget it! Just open a damn atlas, close your eyes, point to any place you want and, wherever books are sold there, you'll find Jason Bourne, cleverly disguised as a 437-page novel called The Bourne Objective. But better act fast. If history is any guide, a lot of people  will be out to get Bourne, eager to carry him off, maybe to a bedside or a beach or a lakeside cottage--who knows. The only sure thing is that not long after he's been snatched, Bourne'll pop up again--on the bestseller lists like his other seven incarnations, the first three by his creator, author Robert Ludlum, and the rest by the man who took over one of thrillerdom's most successful franchises and made it his own, Eric Van Lustbader.

The Bourne Objective [officially Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Objective--all Bourne books carry the originator's name as part of the title] will start flying out doors just as Lustbader is flying into New York with his wife, Victoria, herself an author, back home from Paris and Rome where he spent three weeks piecing together the next Bourne book.

"I knew I wanted to set part of book in Rome," Lustbader says, "although I don't know about Paris." 

And even if he does, Lustbader probably wouldn't say. Besides being a "very private person" a self-described "outsider" who freely admits to not wanting his readers to know "anything about me" beyond what they can glean from his books, he's adept at keeping a secret. (Which, if you have deep ties in the intelligence community, as Lustbader does, is probably a valuable, if not life-sustaining skill.) Lustbader, however, will offer this much about that next as yet untitled book--one of two he is currently committed to writing: "There are elements in The Bourne Objective that start the next series of books. It's a minor thing, nothing more than a background thing, but it becomes a major force in the book I'm writing now."

Karen Rose, internationally best-selling author of ten thriller novels, has hit one out of the park again. On May 25, the day her latest book Silent Scream, debuted, it shot to the no. 2 spot for hardcovers in the United Kingdom.

Rose is known for writing gripping romantic thrillers.  Publisher's Weekly said of her novel "I Can See You" packs action into every moment of four intense days...Thriller fans will love the high-adrenaline story and robust cast of intriguing supporting characters.... Readers may never use an unsecured free Internet connection again."

Recently I was able to chat with Karen about Silent Scream, her writing process, and where she gets a lot of her story ideas (hint: caffeine is involved!)

Silent Scream: When a teenage girl dies in a suspicious fire, Detective Olivia Sutherland is assigned to track down the arsonist. Then she discovers something more sinister: a vicious blackmailer who preys on young people and murders without hesitation. Making her work even harder is sexy firefighter David Hunter. He's not only sharing the case but sparking memories of their long-ago night of passion, when feelings were left unspoken and hearts were broken. David has his own ghosts, and a million regrets. But while he and Olivia try to face the wall of pain between them, a diabolical puppet master is pulling strings to make a group of twentysomethings do his bidding. Soon Olivia and David are scouring the city for a calculating criminal who seems tantalizingly close--and is moving in for the kill.

Did you write when you were a child?

I wrote two or three stories as a kid that I can recall.  My parents found the manuscript for my first (unfinished) story in their attic recently - I was seven when I wrote it.  It was a sci-fi murder-mystery about twin sisters who must move from the only home they've ever known when their father is transferred - to MARS! When they arrive at their first day at the new school, they discover a murder.  I guess I started young, LOL.  The other stories I wrote would have been better described as "After School Specials" - full of drama and death and grief, but happy endings, too.  I always loved angst and happy endings.

A successful horror screenwriter and director in the 1980s and 1990s, Gregory Lamberson noted that his writing is maturing, just as he is. The 46 year-old stay-at-home father explained, "Horror films are fun to watch with other guys and a case of beer on Friday nights. But novels, because they have no budgetary restrictions, allow me to tell the kinds of stories I want to tell."

In addition, Lamberson's foray into novels provided a new, and perhaps unexpected, appeal. "When I write novels, I'm a lot more interested in character than I used to be. I'm also able to set-up the situations and develop them more realistically than if I was doing a film."

Another thing Lamberson likes about novels is pace of development compared to films, "I can write a book and be pretty happy with it in about nine months. An independent film can take two to three years." In 2003, Lamberson began novelizing many of his screenplays, which gave birth to two published novels before his latest, THE FRENZY WAY. Originally written for film in 1987, the story and characters evolved through novelization.  So did Lamberson's perspective on his protagonist, Anthony Mace. "He's more of a traditional hero. I made him a guy who is very political and has a lot of career aspirations. But he slowly has to come around to analyzing what it is about being a cop that makes him tick."

Fans of Karin Slaughter's gripping thrillers will be delighted to know that this month marks the release of BROKEN, the latest Grant County novel, featuring pediatrician and coroner Sara Linton and troubled police detective Lena Adams.

Detective Lena Adams is thrown into a mess of trouble when a suspected suicide turns into a bloody murder. Sara Linton, back in town for the first time in almost four years, sees an opportunity to finally put away the woman she holds responsible for ruining her life. She calls in Georgia Bureau of Investigation special agent Will Trent to investigate the investigators. He thinks he's solved part of the case, but then another body is found and yet again Grant County's idyllic small town world is turned upside down.

Karin Slaughter, a native of Georgia, is the #1 internationally bestselling author of ten books. Her novels have been translated into over 30 languages. Recently, I had the chance to chat with Karin about her life, her writing process, her love for Georgia, how she gets all of those nitty gritty forensic details that make her books so eerily believable... and what scares the pants off her.

I see that you had a sign business before you became a bestselling thriller writer. Did you have any other jobs previous to becoming a writer?

I've done a lot of glamorous jobs, from house painting to exterminating.  I was such a poor college student that I even put flyers under car windshields outside the grocery store.  I try to think about those days whenever I write a story, because I know what it's like to splurge on a hardcover book and feel like you didn't get your money's worth.  I want to make sure I am telling the best, most riveting story I can.  Books are an escape from everyday life.  That's what gives them value.

Leigh Russell hit the publishing world when she banged out the first draft of Cut Short in a mere six weeks. Soon after she snagged a three-book deal, received starred reviews, and broke book sales records in the UK, where she lives. Road Closed, the second book in Russell's series starring female protagonist Detective Inspector Geraldine Steel, hits the shelves in June, and her fans eagerly await its release.

Contributing Editor Janice Gable Bashman chats with Leigh Russell about Road Closed and her writing process.

Tell us about your latest thriller Road Closed and why we want to join D.I. Geraldine Steel in her murder investigation.

People fascinate me, so my characters intrigue me whether they are detectives, killers, or victims. My books are written mainly from the perspective of my detectives, but the reader also sees the story from the killers' point of view. As a writer, I try to get inside all my characters' minds to see the story through their eyes.

You stated your protagonist, D.I. Geraldine Steel, was originally a male, but that you changed the character to a female because you didn't know how men felt in personal relationships and you "didn't want to fall back on clichés." What's unique about D.I. Steel, and what makes her the ideal protagonist?

I was thrilled when US Publishers' Weekly gave my first book, Cut Short, a starred review describing my detective as "a compassionate and complex heroine who's sure to win fans." Geraldine is dedicated to her work. The murder investigation drives the narrative, but Geraldine has her own story, which was introduced in Cut Short and develops in Road Closed. Jeffery Deaver wrote of my protagonist: "you're just plain going to love DI Geraldine Steel." I hope more and more readers agree with him as my series continues.

There is no greater fear for a parent than losing a child.  It is a nightmare that resides in the deepest recesses of our subconscious, but also an event that we never truly feel will happen to us.  In The Wolves of Fairmount Park, a novel that has been described as both "dark and gritty" and "brilliant and beautiful", Dennis Tafoya probes the depths of this tragedy and takes us inside the minds of the parents left behind.

Dennis Tafoya's lyrical, intense, sometimes tragic and sometimes hopeful second novel details the drive-by shooting of two teenagers in a rough Philadelphia neighborhood from four perspectives: Brendan Donovan, a cop and the father of the boy shot and left comatose; George Parkman Sr., another father, this one of the boy who was killed; Danny Martinez, a cop whose job it is to investigate the killing; and Orlando Donovan, the junkie uncle of the cop's kid, who happens to live nearby. 

I had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Tafoya and discussing his new book, his influences, and what comes next for a writer who "punches right through to the heart of the action."

If we met on an elevator, how would you convince me to pick up a copy of your new book?

My new book is Wolves of Fairmount Park, and it's a gritty, character-driven thriller about how an investigation into the shooting of two teenagers changes the lives of everyone involved, from the junkie uncle of one of the teenagers to the detective investigating the shooting. It's gotten rave reviews from Booklist and Publishers Weekly.

Acclaimed author Alexandra Sokoloff's latest novel, Book of Shadows, twines the classic murder-mystery with look-over-your-shoulder elements of the occult. Lee Child praises it as "A wonderfully dark thriller with amazing is-it-isn't-it suspense all the way to the end."

Homicide detective Adam Garrett is a rising star in the Boston police department when he and his cynical partner Landauer catch a horrifying case that could make their careers: the ritualistic murder of a wealthy college girl which appears to have Satanic elements.

The partners make a quick arrest when all evidence points to another student, a troubled musician in a Goth band who was either dating or stalking the murdered girl. Then beautiful, mysterious Tanith Cabarrus, a practicing witch from nearby Salem, walks into the homicide bureau and insists that the real perpetrator is still at large. Tanith claims to have had psychic visions of the killer ritually sacrificing other teenagers in his attempts to summon a powerful, ancient demon.

All of Garrett's beliefs about the nature of reality are tested when he is forced to team up with a woman he is violently attracted to, yet cannot trust. They race to unmask a psychotic killer before he strikes again on the next pagan holiday. Samhain... Halloween.

Contributing Editor Tracy March chats with Alexandra Sokoloff about her latest work and many talents.

What inspired you to write Book of Shadows?

I am fairly obsessed with gender issues and differences. For a long time, I have wanted to write a book that would pit a very outwardly rational, logic-driven man, in a very male profession (homicide detective), from a very rational city (Boston) against a very otherworldly, psychic, subconsciously driven woman (a practicing witch), in a much more mysterious town (Salem)--and play with the contrasts and the line between what is real and what is supernatural. I thought I could create some great chemistry and distrust between the characters there, a supernatural noir, as it were. Then there's also my constant theme of people, especially young people (in this case a troubled college student) opening doors that they really don't understand and having to deal with what might be supernatural consequences.

Every industry has its success stories, the unknown rising to celebrity, or the underdog boxer knocking out the champion. The publishing world is no different. In our case, the underdogs are the self published, and they love to see one of their own breakout. In fact, it's a community that plays an active role in making that happen.

A year ago, John Rector self published THE GROVE on Kindle. After which it garnered quite a following, including no fewer than 18 five star reviews.

AmazonEncore is now in the process of editing and publishing a second edition of THE GROVE, and Simon and Schuster will be publishing it in 2011. Forge is releasing John's first hardback original THE COLD KISS this July. By all measures, John can raise the heavy weight title belt high over his head.

But if these ripping blurbs from bestselling authors are another gauge, John has something more going on than a growing readership.

Eric Van Lustbader, New York Times Bestselling Author of FIRST DAUGHTER, had this to say about THE COLD KISS: "Tense, taut, throat-grabbing. John Rector is far more accomplished than his years. Reads like a cross between No Country for Old Men and Deliverance. Terrific to the last drop--of blood."

Simon Kernick, Bestselling Author of RELENTLESS, called it, "A well crafted, tightly plotted thriller which steadily cranks up the sense of menace page by page. You know something bad is going to happen and you just have to keep reading..."

My personal favourite quote from Spinetingler Magazine tells the reader to, "check your medicine cabinet before picking up THE COLD KISS...because once you get into the deep dark mess at the heart of this book, you're gonna want to pop beta blockers by the fucking fistful."

Intrigued? I am. 

Here's the blurb:

All Nate and Sara want is a new life in a new town, away from the crime and poverty of their past. So, after being approached at a roadside diner by a man offering $500 for a ride to Omaha, they wonder if their luck might be changing.

At first it seems like easy money, but within a few hours the man is dead.

Now, forced off the road by a blizzard and trapped in a run-down motel on the side of a deserted highway, Nate and Sara begin to uncover the man's secrets. Who he was, how he died, and most importantly, why he was carrying two million dollars in his suitcase.

Before they know it, Nate and Sara are fighting for their lives, and in the end, each has to decide just how far they are willing to go to survive.

To learn more about THE COLD KISS and how John harnessed the self publishing route to garner acclaim and finally multi book publishing contracts and a movie deal, I've got John here to answer a few questions.

An Israeli counterterrorism agent thwarts an attack of epic proportions...only to discover that he was the target.  Now he's trapped in an ancient holy war, and the only way back to the 21st-century is to complete a dangerous spy mission that could change the course of history.

It's always difficult writing against the background of the Middle East. The area, culture, people and the hatreds that drive them are so steeped in the past that it is difficult to tell a modern story that can do it justice. Thomas Greanias has come up with an original twist though. His main character, Sam Deker, is an expert in counter terrorism and, while proving that security around the 'Dome of the Rock' is not all it should be, he is captured. The 'Dome' marks the place Muslims believe the Prophet Mohammad descended from Heaven and where the Jews believe God gathered the dust to create the first man. The contention around the ownership of the site goes back centuries and Deker is thrust into a conspiracy that threatens the world.

This, in itself, would mark the beginning of a great thriller but Greanias sends our hero back in time to the Siege of Jericho. Not content with getting to grips with the modern day issues and contentions surrounding the area Greanias skillfully introduces us to one of the most controversial periods in history. The Siege of Jericho is a hotly contended period in history which questions the reliability of the Bible itself and is still used as a major source for the history of ancient Israel. Rather than seeing this Siege through the eyes of a hero of the time Greanias shows us the action through the eyes of a modern-day man whose beliefs and attitude have been forged by a history that is yet to occur.

This is great stuff and will keep you riveted to the pages. Those of us who have an interest in myth and Atlantis will be well aware as to who Thomas Greanias is. He has a very interesting story as to how he started writing by creating demand through his website and reaching number 1 in the eBook charts, but I will let him tell that one in the interview below. The Atlantis trilogy is a remarkable trilogy that will have you questioning just which parts are fiction and which are fact. As another bonus the first two books of the trilogy have been released together in one volume and offers great value for the coming Summer.

Thomas is a former journalist who has reported on issues of National Security, is currently CEO of a Beverly Hills-based media development, production and finance company. He has partnered with CBS, Apple, Sony and other media giants to produce some of the world's bestselling audio books, interactive games and now motion pictures. And he finds time to write books as well. With all this going on it was a pleasant surprise that, not only did he have time for an interview, but he also turned out to be a really nice guy.

You seem to have a knack for taking a familiar subject and adding a new twist to it. You took Atlantis to a whole new level, and now you take on historical fiction - but with a twist. How did the idea come about?

As a journalist by training, I suppose I naturally like to dig for the real story behind anything--whether it's Atlantis, the founding of America or, in the case of The Promised War, the ancient siege of Jericho and its consequences for the past three millennia.  Two things conspired to bring about The Promised War:

First, my longtime fascination with Israel as a porous region in terms of time and space where the past, present and future seem to reside together in one continuous stream through history like a cosmic River Jordan. 

Second, a clandestine meeting I had with one of America's top intelligence pros who freely offered his opinion that the world would be better off without Israel.  I disagreed, but I was shocked by the cool or rather cruel logic of his argument, and for the first time could appreciate where Israel's enemies are coming from, as well as why, in my opinion, they will never change regardless of what olive branches are offered in any peace process.  I wondered what a world without Israel might look like, or at least the possibility, so I went back to that reality in 1410 BC.  Here the Israelites are, in effect, the Palestinians, and it's their general, Joshua Bin-Nun, who has declared a holy war and death to "everything breathing thing." 

Recently, I sat down to chat with Pamela Callow, author of the exciting new thriller, DAMAGED.

Can you tell us how you came up with the plot for DAMAGED? You described it as a legal biomedical thriller, could you tell us a little about that genre?

DAMAGED was inspired by a US criminal case. I didn't want to write a fictionalized account of the case, so I devised a second, intertwining plot, and added a few twists. I also wanted to write a series with an ordinary woman in the lead, a woman who has to face her darkest fears and find out how far she will go to stop a serial killer. And how far she has to go to save herself. In terms of the legal biomedical genre, DAMAGED has an intertwining legal and biomedical plot. The series lead is a lawyer, so subsequent books in the series have more a legal/crime element to them.

You have wonderful reviews from James Rollins and Linwood Barclay. Is there something about their work that inspired you?

Both James Rollins and Linwood Barclay are masters of the thriller genre, so their work inspires me on many levels: to improve, to push boundaries yet remain grounded in fact and plausibility, to be as generous as they have been to me.

What happens when you take a combat Air Force stealth bomber pilot/instructor with a degree in Middle Eastern studies and plunk him down in front of a computer? You get a tense, suspenseful techno-thriller that not only becomes classified for national security reasons but earns praise from some of the top authors in the field. Clive Cussler raves that James R. Hannibal "brings together a terrific mix of real air technology with intrigue and nonstop action."

And if that isn't enough of an endorsement to interest you, the plot will take care of it: When the twin towers fall, Captain Michael "Victor" Baron is an American A-10 pilot stationed in Germany. He is also an expert in Islamic Terrorism, and the horrible events of September 11th, 2001 only fuel his already deep-seated hatred for the men who commit terrorist acts. Amidst the darkness of the 9/11 aftermath and the controversy of a fatal training accident, he leaves his A-10 squadron to join the Stealth Bomber, where he is certain he will have the opportunity to gain the retribution he so desperately desires. He is not disappointed. At the Stealth Wing, a covert operative recognizes Victor's unique talents and recruits him into the top secret world of Operation Cerberus, a mission that takes him from a harrowing flight high over a hidden desert testing facility to a fight for his life on the Iraqi dunes.

ITW Contributing Editor Cathy Clamp had the chance to chat with Hannibal about this very intriguing new book:

You've got considerable credentials to write this book. Did you find it difficult to translate your real-world knowledge into fiction that would grab readers?

Of course, putting anything into fiction is always a challenge. My background and knowledge are only part of the equation, and I have to overcome the same difficulties with plotting and tension that all thriller writers face. In particular, though, it was tough to build this story around a covert operations community without inadvertently divulging classified information. From a practical perspective, one of my biggest challenges was sifting through my own knowledge to determine what was safe for public release and what needed to be kept quiet.

Special to the Big Thrill by Hank Wagner.

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 is with James O. Born, who contributed a piece on Joseph Wambaugh's seminal police procedural, The Choirboys.  

You wrote about Joseph Wambaugh's The Choirboys. Was it your first choice to write about? If so, why? Does it fulfill your personal definition of a "must read"? 
 
The Choirboys was my first choice for a number of reasons. On a personal level, Joseph Wambaugh and his novels were what led me towards a career in police work. From the aspect of police work there are so few realistic novels about police and their lives that Wambaugh did an excellent job using his experience to shed light on different aspects of the occupation. Wambaugh touches on it all, the role of luck, the randomness of events on an every day basis, the camaraderie and rivalry that can grow from working day in and day out in an intense occupation with the same men and women.
 
The Choirboys is a must read because it doesn't fit the common, cookie-cutter mold police stories. From a writing aspect, Wambaugh does a masterful job of weaving together disparate vignettes into a satisfying conclusion. For most people, their only experience with police work is either getting a traffic ticket or watching shows on TV. Neither gives you an accurate picture of the day to day lives of police officers. The Choirboys gives the reader an alternative view and makes the reader look at each cop like a real person, not some robot in a uniform who doesn't care about anything but the job.
 
The truly amazing thing about The Choirboys is that although it was written in the mid-70s, it holds up surprisingly well. Some of the slang has changed but the intensity and emotion that Wambaugh writes about is just as relevant in the new millennium as it was during the Me Decade.

A young woman plunges from a Las Vegas sightseeing helicopter, landing in the Pirate's lagoon in front of the Treasure Island Hotel in the middle of the 8:30 Pirate Show. Almost everyone writes her off as another Vegas victim.

But Lucky O'Toole smells a rat. She's head of Customer Relations at The Babylon, the newest, most opulent mega-casino and resort on the Strip, so she's got a lot on her plate: the Adult Film industry's annual awards banquet, a spouse-swapping convention, sex toy purveyors preying on the pocket-protector crowd attending ElectroniCon.... Still, Lucky can't resist turning over a few stones.

When a former flame is one of the snakes she uncovers, Lucky's certain she's no longer dealing with an anonymous Sin City suicide. To top it all off, Lucky's best friend Teddie--Las Vegas' finest female impersonator--presses to take their relationship to the next level. Leave it to Lucky to attract a man who looks better in a dress than she does.

Lucky must manage the Babylon's onslaught of outrageous festivities, solve a murder, and struggle to keep her life and libido from spinning out of control... not to mention keep her balance in six inch heels.
 
"Watch out Janet Evanovich. The new hot number is Deborah Coonts." -- Gayle Lynds, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Spies

"Deb Coonts' debut novel is more fun than a winning streak in Vegas! Lucky O'Toole is a character with brains, beauty and a wry sense of humor. Readers will want to meet her again--and soon." -- Diane Mott Davidson, New York Times bestselling author of Fatally Flakey

"Wanna Get Lucky? goes down faster than an ice-cold Bombay martini--very dry, of course, and with a twist." -- Douglas Preston, New York Times bestselling author of Blasphemy

Deborah Coonts' mother tells her she was born a very long time ago, but Deb isn't so sure--her mother can't be trusted. These are the things she does know: She was raised in Texas on barbeque, Mexican food and beer. She's lived in every time zone in the U.S.--the most memorable being the time she now spends in Las Vegas, where family and friends tell her she can't get into too much trouble. Silly people. Deborah has spent more time in school than any sane person should, acquiring along the way a bachelor's and master's degree in business, a law degree and a master's of laws in taxation (can you say 'geek'?). She has built her own business, practiced law, flown airplanes, written a humor column for a national magazine and survived a teenager.

I'd been wondering for a while about what was going on in SA crime fiction and decided to take a closer look recently.  Some time back a local critic, Louis Greenberg, got to the nub of issue, I thought, with his remark that our crime fiction was about finding common ground in our beleaguered democracy - the 'beleaguered democracy' part being my words not his.  Anyhow it got me to pondering 'thusly' (to use Declan Burke's favourite word):

A quick scope: when I first thought about writing crime fiction in the late 1990s, I looked around at a rather bleak landscape with one lone figure on a motorbike: that lone figure was Deon Meyer.  By 2000 he'd published two novels in English, Dead before Dying and Dead at Daybreak.  He remained the lonely upholder of the faith until crime fiction took off from about 2005 with Richard Kunzmann's Bloody Harvests, and Andrew Brown's hybrid literary/crime novel Coldsleep Lullaby which went on to win the Sunday Times Literary Award for Fiction.

The following year Kunzmann brought out another novel, Salamander Cotton, and Margie Orford published the first of her Clare Hart and Riedwaan Faizel series, Like Clockwork.  In 2007 Orford was back with Blood Rose and Meyer brought out his Devil's Peak.  The following year, 2008 saw 13 crime novels published in English and Afrikaans and of note among them was Jassy Mackenzie's Random Violence.

Wow! I'm very pleased to be talking to Irene Ziegler this month about her new book, Ashes to Water, from Five Star Publications. Ashes to Water explores a very emotional situation with a protagonist who must make a very difficult decision. Please share your journey of how this plotline came to you and developed.

Let me start by saying thank you so much for your interest.

Thank you so much for your interest! I just had a bookstore owner decline my request for a signing, so this is a lovely poultice for a wound I'm sure will never, ever heal. Sigh.

While it stands alone, Ashes to Water continues the story of Annie Bartlett who grows up in my collection of linked short stories, Rules of the Lake, both set in Florida. In Ashes to Water, my first novel, Annie returns to her small home town to bury her father, who has been murdered. His girlfriend, accused of the crime, is in jail awaiting trial. Annie finds reasons to fight for the woman's innocence even though a not-guilty verdict would have a devastating effect on her erratic and unwell sister, Leigh. The plotline came to me while I was performing a heart transplant.

Kidding.

I think it came to me when a good friend was going through a divorce, and his teenaged daughters didn't talk to him for about three years. When I saw how their estrangement was killing him, I thought how easily time might get away from those girls, until one day, after they realized that life is complicated and love is messy, their dad might not be there anymore. I thought how profoundly sad that would be for them, to have missed out on that relationship. So I put Annie and Leigh in that situation, and played it out. The theme of difficult family relationships and the struggle to forge a lasting peace with loved ones soon began taking shape and posing interesting questions. Is blood always thicker than water? In morally ambiguous situations, where do loyalties lie?

Tess Gerritsen's latest Maura Isles and Jane Rizzoli thriller, ICE COLD will captivate her fans and continue to grow her readership.  Her characters will also star in a new series premiering on TNT in July.  Tess talks about her new book and the origins of the series.

What sparked the idea for ICE COLD?  Why the different title in England?

Unfortunately, if I answer this question, it will be the biggest spoiler ever!  So I can't. At heart, ICE COLD is a ghost town story about a remote village where the residents have all vanished, leaving behind dinners on tables, cars in garages, and dead pets.  This is the situation where my heroine Maura Isles finds herself during a vacation in Wyoming.  An impromptu ski trip turns deadly when she becomes stranded during a snowstorm in Kingdom Come.  Every attempt to escape the strange little village leads to escalating disaster.  She has no idea what happened to the inhabitants, and the answer (that spoiler!) will prove deadly.  The solution to the mystery is based on real science and real events that occurred in the American west back in the 1970's.

The book will come out under different titles in the UK and the US.  My two publishers couldn't agree on which title they liked best, and each decided to go with the one they thought would sell best in their own markets.  In the UK, it will be called THE KILLING PLACE.

Did you expect these main characters to resonate so much with readers?

I've given up trying to predict which characters and stories will resonate with readers.  The book business is so unpredictable that I just have to write the best story I can, release it to the world, and hope it finds its audience.  Certainly, when I introduced Jane Rizzoli in my 2001 book THE SURGEON, I had no idea she would even survive that story, much less go on to become a popular series character who would end up on television.  But I think a large part of Jane's appeal is that she's the Everywoman, the ordinary person who's not gorgeous, not particularly charming, who has to work harder to be a success.  She's the classic outsider, and I think we all identify with outsiders.

Contributing editor Keith Raffel recently chatted with Rober Dugoni about his new thriller, Bodily Harm.

Come on, Robert, the toy industry as a suitable backdrop for a thriller?  Tell us about Bodily Harm.

I think Kirkus put it best when they called it "a toy story for adults." Wherever you have money, you have the potential for greed, corruption, and skullduggery, and the toy industry is a 25 billion dollar a year industry. Companies can be made and broken by the success or failure of a single toy. Beanie Babies and Tickle Me Elmo were billion dollar ideas and Barbie and GI Joe have sustained the toy industry for decades.

David Sloane becomes an unwitting participant in this world. He's on the verge of a victory in a malpractice action against a doctor for the death of a young boy when toy designer Kyle Horgan claims responsibility not only for the child's death but also for the fate of a second boy. When Horgan vanishes, Sloane teams up with his longtime investigative partner Charles Jenkins to reexamine the deaths and dig deeper into Horgan's claims. This provokes a vicious response from powerful people and Sloane has to dodge a calculating killer charged by his employers to inflict maximum bodily harm, while overcoming a devastating personal loss that nearly destroys him--all keeping in check his overwhelming desire for revenge.

What kind of research did you do for the book? 

I did go back to Washington, D.C. to visit all the locations in the book. I made it to the outside of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, but didn't make it inside. I did, however, make it inside the CIA at Langley and that was an incredible experience. They were very open about talking to me about Charles Jenkins as a former CIA agent.

I also interviewed several lawyers who handled product liability cases, but I was familiar with those types of cases. Here in Seattle, I talked with an attorney who handled cases involving defective magnets. He had to be careful not to divulge certain information to me, however, due to confidentiality agreements with the companies and I respected that. But once I had the idea I was able to pull up binders full of articles on defective products, the inefficiency of the Consumer Product Safety Commission due to excessive deregulation, manufacturing in China, the use of powerful magnets, and, ultimately, on the toy industry, including several books on the subject. I felt like I was back in college doing a thesis. I probably read 10,000 pages of material. The trick is to then synthesize that material down for a 400 page book in a way that doesn't bore the reader.

This is your third David Sloane book.  How much of David Sloane is Robert Dugoni?

All characters are a part of the writer, I think. How can they not be since they come from within? But honestly, Sloane is smarter and gutsier than I ever was as a lawyer or a person, and as he has developed through the novels. He  actually has become less and less like me with each book.
      
You've done some acting which requires getting inside a character in a fictional world.  How much is that like writing novels?

Acting is what got me back into writing novels because it required scene study, and theater is all about showing and not telling. It is all about what the audience can absorb with their senses: what they see and hear and smell on the stage. People tell me my novels would make great movies, but that's because I'm a visual person and I'm good with my eyes and my ears from taking hundreds of depositions and also playing many different types of characters on stage.  Scene study also teaches you tension and suspense and how a writer should enter and leave a scene at high points of both. When I'm writing I often find myself speaking the parts out loud of each of the characters and acting out each roll.  It's a lot of fun, but you don't want too many people to see you doing it!

Torture.

Ghost Detainees.

And a massive cover-up that continues even today.

This is the propulsive thriller that reveals the disturbing truths hidden behind the headlines. A thriller only former CIA operative turned bestselling novelist Barry Eisler could have written, and a story that urgently needs to be understood.

Marooned in a Manila jail after a bar fight fatality, black ops soldier Ben Treven gets a visit from his former commander, Colonel Scott Horton, who explains the price of Ben's release: find and eliminate Daniel Larison, a rogue operator from Ben's unit who has stolen ninety-two torture tapes from the CIA and is using them to blackmail the US government. But other players are after the tapes, too, and to find Larison, Ben will have to survive CIA hit teams, Blackwater mercenaries, and the long reach of the White House. He'll also have to find a way to handle Paula Lanier, a smart, sexy FBI agent who has her own reasons for wanting the tapes and is determined to get them before Ben does. With the stakes this high, everyone has an angle--everyone but Ben, who will have to find the right alliance if he wants to stay alive.

"A white knuckle roller-coaster ride through the dark side, a truth so horrifying it can only be told in fiction. Eisler is a rarity, the ex-spook who turns himself into a great thriller writer." --Robert Baer, former CIA officer and New York Times bestselling author of See No Evil

"Eisler drives this locomotive of a story full speed into the façade on the war on terror... a relentless and revelatory look into the human cost of those who torture on behalf of their country." Library Journal, Starred Review

Barry Eisler spent three years in a covert position with the CIA's Directorate of Operations, then worked as a technology lawyer and startup executive in Silicon Valley and Japan, earning his black belt at the Kodokan International Judo Center along the way. Eisler's bestselling thrillers have won the Barry Award and the Gumshoe Award for Best Thriller of the Year, have been included in numerous "Best Of" lists, and have been translated into nearly twenty languages. Eisler lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and, when he's not writing novels, blogs about torture, civil liberties, and the rule of law.

Payne Harrison's STORMING INTREPID was a New York Times Bestseller and a Cold War classic that helped define the techno-thriller genre.

Now with EUROSTORM he weaves his narrative magic yet again - this time aboard the Eurostar bullet train as it races under the English Channel from London to Paris. Sealed within the vault of an impregnable security car is a substance so secret and so lethal that only a handful of mandarins within Her Majesty's Government even know of its existence.

Yet when the train exits the "Chunnel" and heads toward Paris, Scotland Yard learns too late that an evil force has literally risen from the grave to ensnare the train and hijack a cargo that could alter the world as we know it.

As the cumbersome cross-Channel bureaucracies struggle to respond, the only hope that emerges to keep this horrific genie in the bottle is a small team of French commandos that takes to the air to board the Eurostar as it hurtles across the countryside at 186 m.p.h. - with nothing less than the future of the planet in the balance.

"I've been waiting 13 years for the return of Payne Harrison. Finally, he's back with another captivating gem. EUROSTORM has it all: explosive, simmering action; plenty of bark and bite; treachery arriving on stage from all directions. Harrison's impressive talent is on full display. Don't miss this one." -- Steve Berry, New York Times Bestselling Author of The EMPEROR'S TOMB

"Action-thriller master Payne Harrison makes a triumphant return to the genre he helped invent in EUROSTORM. After STORMING INTREPID, he turns his attention to a bullet train speeding through Europe at a breakneck clip perfectly aligned to the pace of this riveting tale. EUROSTORM is 'Die Hard' done even harder, a must read for those who like their action served hot with no pause between courses." -- Jon Land, Bestselling Author of STRONG JUSTICE

Payne Harrison is the New York Times bestselling author of STORMING INTREPID, THUNDER OF EREBUS, BLACK CIPHER, and FORBIDDEN SUMMIT. THUNDER OF EREBUS was a main selection of The Military Book Club.

A native Texan, he served with the United States Army in Europe and is a former newspaper reporter. He earned a B.A. in journalism and an M.A. in political science from Texas A&M University, and an MBA from Southern Methodist University. He and his family live in Plano, Texas.

She's got the moxie and he's got a whole lot of sexy. Her business is mischief....his is keeping secrets...and business is booming. They never expected a joint Hawaiin assignment, with promises of fun and sun would take their lives down a drastically different path.

Selena Robins has an excellent voice that makes Maddie such a wonderfully hilarious woman. There are more twists and turns in What a Girl Wants to keep the reader on their toes. What A Girl Wants is one that should be near the top of any to-be-read list. -- Delane, Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance & More

Warning: Side effects may include spontaneous, uncontrollable laughter, hot flashes and dangerous chocolate cravings. Contents include one kick-ass heroine and a sex-on-legs hero whose kiss could singe the eyebrows off a mannequin. Can be read in bed with someone special or a BOB (battery operated boyfriend.) Please note: Batteries not included.

Unable to stay focused in school--science and math didn't equate to happily ever after--Selena Robins excelled in Daydreaming 101 and Creative Writing. Her future as a writer was foreshadowed by winning first prize in a contest run by the Human Society--a romance about two race horses who fell in love (the filly won the race and the stud).

Selena has continued her passion for happily ever after both in her life (okay, some days she's sitting in first class on the Frazzled Express...but still) and in her books.

Thirty years ago, teenager Rebecca Underhill and her twin sister Molly were abducted by a man who lived in a house in the woods behind their upstate New York farm. Now, it's 30 years later, and when Rebecca begins receiving some strange anonymous text messages, she begins to realize that the monster who attacked her all those years ago is not dead. He's back, and this time, he wants to do more than just haunt her. He wants her dead.

"The surprises keep coming up until, literally, the very last page..." Heath Lowrance, The Bastard Hand.

"A thrill ride of a book..." Bookjourney
 
Moonlight Falls and The Remains author, Vincent Zandri, is an award-winning novelist, essayist and freelance photojournalist. His novels have been sought out by numerous major movie producers, including Heyday Productions and DreamWorks. He is also the author of the noir novels, As Catch Can and Godchild. Zandri currently divides his time between New York and Europe.

The killer left nothing behind but a rosary, a kitchen knife, and a dead man. But the dead man is a friend of Sabre Orin Brown. When his unsuspecting wife is accused of the murder, Sabre will stop at nothing to uncover the truth, even if it means unearthing chilling secrets. From a San Diego jail to the shady Chicago nightlife, Sabre's search for the true killer forces her to face the question: What do you do when the ones you trust the most are the ones with the most to hide?

"Teresa Burrell's gripping legal thriller is sure to excite mystery fans with its fast pace and surprise-filled plot." -- Jeff Sherratt, author of the Jimmy O'Brien mystery series

Teresa Burrell has dedicated her life to helping children and their families in both the courtroom and the classroom. As an attorney in San Diego, Burrell maintained a private law practice for twelve years, which specialized in juvenile court work where she focused on representing abused minors and juvenile delinquents. Burrell has also enjoyed a satisfying career as a teacher. She has taught children of all ages with diverse backgrounds and special needs. Now in semi-retirement in California, Burrell continues to educate groups about social issues impacting children and write novels, many of which are inspired by actual legal cases.

Bill Sheeny's name may sound familiar to you, especially if you enjoy reading westerns. Joining a long line of thriller writers that first wrote western themed books - Elmore Leonard, James Lee Burke come to mind - and chose thrillers as their next challenge, Sheeny has changed genres and with The Argentine Kidnapping has joined the ranks of thriller writing.

"I created a western novel ... westerns seemed to me to be the easiest kind of story to tell, they were my apprenticeship," Sheeny said. "One followed after that and then another, and another --- now there are ten of them out there; ten westerns ... and I felt it was time to move on. My first attempt at a crime novel fell flat on its face ... so did the second one ... and the third one."

His publisher wanted a brief synopsis on his next effort, so he sent this:

It was suppose to be a simple kidnapping but when $2,000,000 is involved, nothing is simple. When Bernie Gould was offered $10,000 to deliver the ransom and bring back the kidnapped victim, the wife of a big shot San Francisco businessman, he took it. That much cash in the bank would let him focus on finishing his novel, the one he was working on days while spending the nights repossessing vehicles with his former partner, Steve. Bernie thought life was good until he was informed that one of his published stories had been used as a plan to rob a high stakes poker game. Not only that, a second job was being planned, this time an armored car heist, and another of his stories told how to best do it. Bernie was assured he'd get his share of both jobs. Then the police came around, wanting to know what he'd been doing meeting with one of San Francisco's biggest drug dealers. Why did the cops bring up the subject of two recent rape/murder cases? All this before he had a chance to deal with the kidnappers about setting up the trade for the woman they were holding. Anyway, the kidnapping wasn't really a kidnapping; it was a straightforward business transaction. The victim was covered against being kidnapped by a special insurance policy that would pay off the ransom. Just a simple business deal. Or was it? Not when two million dollars is involved.

In his novel, Day One, Bill Cameron unleashes a story so thrilling that New York Times bestselling author Chelsea Cain says, "Day One combines philosophical first person wit with a spider web of a plot.  It is an utterly engrossing page-turner, but you'll force yourself to slow down, just so you don't miss any of Bill Cameron's crackerjack writing.  A reluctant hero, a damsel in distress, a kid with a secret, plenty of Oregon references, and oh, lots and lots of murder.  What more could anyone want?"

Born and raised in southern Oregon farm country, Ellie Spaneker flees her home and abusive husband, her trail dogged by a brutal ex-cop in the hire of her vengeful father-in-law.  In Portland, retired homicide detective Skin Kadash fills his idle days drinking coffee and searching for Eager Gillespie, a teen runaway of special interest as the only witness in a troublesome and long unsolved murder.  Eager, meanwhile, is on his own, grifting and working the angles in the homeless underground, oblivious to the unfolding events which will force him to face the consequences of a crime, and a longing, which has haunted him for years.

These disparate trails converge at a bloody standoff, the harrowing end of a string of violence which stretches from the high desert to the streets of Portland.

Bill Cameron is the author of the dark, gritty Portland-based mysteries, Lost Dog, Chasing Smoke, and Day One.  His stories have appeared in Spinetinger, Killer Year, Portland Noir, and the forthcoming First Thrills.

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

Is there anything special you'd like to tell us about Day One?

With each project, I like to try something new.  Both Lost Dog and Chasing Smoke unfold through a straightforward chronology:  A followed by B followed by C, and so on.  In Day One, I explore the idea that our understanding of events is independent of the order in which they occur.  The story unfolds in a staccato, fractured chronology which jumps back and forth in time and from character to character in a way which I believe both reflects and illuminates the turbulence in their lives.  And while Skin Kadash returns and is central, he's not the single focus the way he was in Chasing Smoke.  One of the advantages of introducing multiple point-of-view characters was I gave myself the chance to explore new territory without giving up the pleasure I take in writing about Skin.

Looking for a good mystery to kick off your summer?  How about three?  That's what you'll find in Barbara Levenson legal thriller, Justice in June.  Levenson knows how to cook up Florida criminal cases that will keep you guessing, but the element that ties it all together is street smart defense attorney Mary Magruder Katz.  Lenvenson says she's the product of a Miami upbringing and not afraid to speak her mind.

"Most people can relate to Mary," Levenson says.  "She is so typical of today's bright young women with a streak of independence but a love for her own family.  I hope readers will feel that they have a new best friend."

This fascinating character is, like so many Miami natives, the product of a mixed heritage: a Jewish father and a southern Baptist mother.  And as you learn early on in the novel, she's not without flaws. 

"She has an ingrained commitment problem," Levenson says, "having had two previous fiancés.  Her current boyfriend, hotty Carlos Martin is ready to proceed to a wedding ceremony, but Mary just can't bring herself to say yes to forever."

Barbara Levenson has followed the age old advice to "write what you know."  In addition to being a 32 year Miami resident, she has served the justice system from almost every angle since her graduation from the University Of Miami Law School.  That career explains how she was able to keep track of her protagonist juggling three different cases.

"As a prosecutor, I always had at least fifty open cases and had to be ready on any given week to try two or three of them," Levenson says.  "As a defense attorney, I had to have multiple clients or I would have starved.  This meant being completely familiar with each of their cases.  As a judge with a heavy docket, I took many files home to study prior to days of hearing motions.  I probably presided over hundreds of cases, so writing about just three wasn't difficult."

Pay attention, because soon the name Jim Bernheimer is going to catch your eye.  Literally.

In 2009, Jim burst onto the scene with his debut novel, Dead Eye: Pennies for the Ferryman.  If the title alone isn't enough to intrigue you, the premise certainly will.  Dead Eye introduced audiences to Mike Ross, a soldier who, thanks to a nasty encounter with a roadside bomb, has a new cornea in his eye which grants him the power to see ghosts.  But not just see them.  Mike can talk to them, befriend them, fight with them, and even be hurt by them.  It seems that he's what's known as a ferryman, someone with the ability to assist ghosts (pleasantly or forcibly) to cross over to the other side.  Ami Blackwelder of Hot Gossip Hot Reviews gave it four out of five hots and calls it, "one of my favorite novels of 2009."

Which brings us to 2010.

Jim is back, this time with a new novel of fantasy and adventure, Spirals of Destiny Book One: Rider.  The rider of the title is Kayleigh Reese.  Kayleigh doesn't seem to fit in with the other new recruits of the High-King's elite unicorn cavalry.  Her age difference and reluctance to endure the rigorous training make her an unlikely Battle Maiden candidate.  But fate has other plans.  Majherri, a unicorn who narrowly survived the death of his previous rider, has become a pariah, mistrusted by the unicorn Greater Herd.  Now, with nowhere else to turn, these two misfits must join together.  Only then can they unravel the mystery of Majherri's past and put Kayleigh on the path to becoming a legendary warrior. I recently caught up with Jim who was kind enough to answer a few questions.

When did you first become interested in the fantasy / sci-fi genre?

I became interested in fantasy / sci-fi before I was even a teenager.

Contributing editor Nate Kenyon recently chatted with author Jamie Freveletti about her new thriller, Running Dark.

Your debut thriller, Running with the Devil, was a "runaway" success, an international bestseller, chosen as a Notable Book by the independent Booksellers of America and nominated by International Thriller Writers for best first novel. Has all that changed the way you feel about your own work, or how you approach the writing business?

I'm enormously pleased at the book's success--it's the stuff debut authors can only dream about, but I will admit that it puts a bit of pressure on.  I'm trying to just focus on the writing and ignore the marketing while I write. Book 2 comes out June 29, but luckily was written before the first really launched, so I wrote it without influence. I'm currently working on Book 3, and I'm finding that it has been the easiest to write of the three. Like anything else, writing seems to get easier the more you practice!

Tell us a little bit about your new release, Running Dark. Is it a sequel to your debut? Any plans to continue the story?

Running Dark features Emma Caldridge, but is not really a sequel. You don't need to read one to understand the other.  In Running Dark I wanted to show another "hot" area of the world-Somalia.  Emma learns that Cameron Sumner, the man who helped her in book one, is on a cruise ship in the Gulf of Aden that's under attack by Somali pirates. There's a chemical on board that needs to be analyzed quietly, and Darkview, a contract security company, asks Emma to infiltrate the ship. In the first book Emma ran away from hell. In this book she runs into hell.

On a remote island in the Canadian Arctic, PJ Colding leads a group of geneticists who have discovered a technology that can provide life-saving transplant organs for a nominal fee. By reverse-engineering thousands of animal genomes, Colding's team has dialed back the evolutionary clock and re-created the progenitor of all mammals. The method? Illegal. The result? A computer-engineered living creature, an animal whose organs can be implanted in any person, with no chance of transplant rejection.

There's just one problem: these ancestors are not the docile herd animals that Colding's team envisioned. Instead, Colding's work has given birth to something big, something evil...something very, very hungry.

As creators become prey in an ultimate battle for survival, Colding and the woman he loves must fight to survive -- even as government agents close in to shut the project down, and the deep-pocketed company backing this research reveals its own cold-blooded agenda.

 When I used to write about radio for The Boston Globe we always talked about radio as the ubiquitous medium. You could listen while driving from work; you could tune n while cooking dinner. And if you're an on-air shrink, that means you have access to a huge range of people, both victims and murderers. Such is the premise of Mary Kennedy's Talk Radio Mysteries, which feature Maggie Walsh. Like Kennedy, Maggie is a clinical psychologist - but unlike her creator, Maggie has taken her talents to the airwaves of WYME, with wild results. Obsidian launched Kennedy's series in Jan., 2010, with Dead Air. We spoke with Mary on the eve of her second Talk Radio Mystery, REEL MURDER (You can also read more about Mary and Maggie at http://www.marykennedy.net)

Why does a talk radio psychologist make a natural detective?

Maggie has a tremendous advantage in solving crimes, because she comes in contact with a broad spectrum of people as a radio talk show host. Cypress Grove is a little south Florida town and everyone knows everyone else. And everyone listens to Maggie's show, so she has contacts everywhere. With the police department, the newspaper, all the advertisers and listeners. And of course, as a psychologist, she has an edge in solving crimes-she always focuses on getting inside people's heads and figuring out their motivations when she's going through her list of suspects. I used to work as a forensic psychologist, and like Maggie, I've "seen it all."  
 
What is your own talk radio background, and how did it prepare you for writing mysteries?

I was a radio copywriter for WKDA, a terrific rock radio station in Nashville Tennessee. It was a fabulous, crazy-making job and I had 90 accounts to write for. But it was great training for novel-writing--I learned to write fast, to focus and to make deadlines. Plus it was a really fun environment.

Jon Land doesn't remember if he's published 28 books or 29. He says he's lost track. Counting the books listed on the inside flap of his last book, STRONG ENOUGH TO DIE, it looks like his latest book, STRONG JUSTICE, will be his 29th. And then there's the screenplay for the film "Dirty Deeds", perhaps best known for having Milo Ventimiglia and Zoe Saldana in it, as well as a variety of other screenplays in various stages of consideration, and it's clear Jon Land is keeping busy.

Land's latest novel, STRONG JUSTICE, is the second to feature female Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong. Land says she's "on the trail of both a serial killer that has killed more than 400 women, and a Mexican revolutionary plotting a war against the United States." He notes that STRONG JUSTICE has received his first starred review in Publishers Weekly, and adds, "If you're a mystery fan you're absolutely the wrong person to read one of my books. I'm all about story, I'm all about plot. My goal is to make it impossible for you to put the book down."

A burning summer's day explodes into violence. A murderous gang targets the exclusive south coast island of Terror's Reach, home to rival business tycoons Robert Felton and Valentin Nasenko. The residents are facing annihilation, and only one man stands a chance of saving them. Four years ago, after an undercover police operation went disastrously wrong, CID officer Joe Clayton lost his career and his family. Forced to adopt a new identity, he drifted from place to place and ended up on the Reach, working as a bodyguard to Nasenko's wife, Cassie, and her children. Now he must draw upon all his experience and reserves of strength to keep them alive. But nothing is as it seems on Terror's Reach, and a long night of betrayal and murder leaves Joe fighting for his own survival...

Praise for SKIN AND BONES: "This is a mystery and a thriller that is satisfying on every level. This book gave me chills." -- JON JORDAN, CRIMESPREE

"What truly sells SKIN AND BONES is Bale's almost cinematic storytelling style, along the lines of what Lee Child does with his Jack Reacher series." -- JIM WINTER, JANUARY MAGAZINE

  Tom Bale is the author of SKIN AND BONES. He lives with his family in Brighton, England.

Set in New York City, THE ANNIVERSARY MAN is the ultimate killer thriller, chronicling the case of a deranged but highly intelligent murderer who kills on the anniversary dates of famous serial murders from the past. Each subsequent slaying eerily copycats another infamous death--all faithfully replicating precise details of previous homicides. From electrifying start to shocking conclusion, this thriller affirms the genius that is R.J. Ellory. Britain's phenom author has achieved the status of world-class writer.

Ellory fills this crime thriller with intriguing characters. Detective Ray Irving finds himself on the trail of a daring and intelligent killer. Potty-mouthed crime reporter Karen Langley's intuition leads her to danger. And enigmatic crime researcher John Costello, who narrowly escaped a serial killer attack twenty years before, belongs to a group of survivors and could "understand what it is that makes someone do something like this." A quirky person whom Ellory says "has dedicated his life to understanding the history and psychology of mass murder."

Five months before A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS was published in the States, I predicted it to be a mega-bestseller, one that Jonathan Kellerman called a "powerful, evocative novel of great psychological depth." That was Ellory's fifth book, published in England and the first to be published by Overlook Press in the US. "Anniversary Man" is the second and affirms Ellory's title as the crime king. A SIMPLE ACT OF VIOLENCE is an exposé of covert operations, and uncharacteristic Washington greed and corruption during fictional midterm elections, to be released just in time for real midterm elections. Is Ellory saving the best for last?

When 19 year old Bethel Newton accuses Elias Claymore of raping her, America is deeply divided on the issue. In his youth, Claymore was a Black power militant, as well as a convicted rapist and escaped convict. But after undergoing a Pauline conversion, he came back to America as a born again Christian to serve out his sentence and reinvented himself as a respectable, neoconservative TV talkshow host. In the face of the new serious charge, Claymore turns to his friend Alex Sedaka for help. Alex is persuaded to share the defence with a law firm appointed by Claymore's insurers and finds himself working with Andromeda ("Andi") Phoenix, whose lesbian lover Gene works at a rape crisis centre. But when Andi makes an issue of the under-representation of African-Americans on the jury, she starts receiving anonymous threats. Meanwhile Alex finds holes in the prosecution case, such as the victim's description of the attacker as well as her own past. But he hits a major obstacle when he comes up against the DNA evidence. Over the course of the trial, Alex must battle his way through jury tampering and a malicious computer hacker to find out who is telling the truth. And while all this is going on, Alex's on-ex-girlfriend, TV reporter Martine Yin, is covering the case. But is she getting too close and putting herself in danger?

'This will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.' Closer (writing about Kessler's previous book: MERCY)

I have been writing since the age of 15, when I dropped out of school. My writing ranges from thrillers to science fiction, to children's books to chick-lit, but my greatest distinction is to be the master of the thriller genre. When you start to read a thriller by David Kessler, you know that you are going to be reading a devilishly cunning thriller full of twists and turns, almost every chapter ending on a cliffhanger and big twist at the end. But even then you cannot be sure that you've heard the last of it - there's usually a last-minute sting in the tail.

Special to the Big Thrill by Simon Wood.

Relationships with our coworkers are a vital part of life.  Considering that we spend a third of our day in the workplace, they have to be.  No wonder we build friendships with workmates.  That's great.  Unfortunately, the flipside of personal relationships in the workplace is that they can turn sour--and violent. 
 
I've seen workplace violence up close.  At my last job, my employer took out a temporary restraining order against an employee after he threatened to harm a number of staff members (myself included).  Let's just say that's a tad awkward when you bump into that person in a mall.  Oddly enough, a restraining order has little power in that situation, but running does.  Back in the UK, a firm I used to work next to had a problem with one of their people.  When they let him go, he tendered his resignation by throwing an office chair through a second floor window.  A few days later, he came back at night and drove a car through the main entrance.  
 
According to government statistics, twenty people are murdered at their place of work every week in the US.  Retail jobs top the list as the most dangerous profession and women are the most likely to be killed.  Now, the majority of these deaths aren't committed by one coworker upon another, but it gives you an idea of how dangerous the modern workplace is.  By the by, if you want to know which profession suffers the least from workplace violence, it's mineworkers. 
 
But it wasn't incidents like these that became the inspiration for my latest thriller, Terminated, but what companies are doing to combat workplace violence.  Workplace violence isn't good for business.  Not only is it disruptive, upsetting and frightening, it's also expensive.  And in the world of commerce, money talks.  It's the expense which is forcing companies to employ some interesting tactics.  Some companies in high profile industries are hiring private security firms to handle claims against violent and potentially violent employees.  The security firms provide protection for those threatened and their families, but that's not the intriguing part.  The security firms also investigate and run background checks on the accused.  If the investigators find any dirt, indiscretions or infractions, this is used to build a case against the violent employee.   The evidence is then used as part of a criminal case or it's just dangled in front of the troublemaker to force that person leave of their own accord, unless they want their dirty laundry aired to the world.  The whole notion blew me away.  I was amazed at what a company has to do to prevent a potentially volatile situation.
 
This situation became the inspiration for Terminated.  The book chronicles a personal grievance at work that takes on a life of its own.  In the book, Gwen Farris has the unenviable task of managing Stephen Tarbell.  Tarbell is already bent out of shape because he believes he should be manager, not Gwen.  The ignition source for the conflict is an annual performance evaluation.  When Gwen issues Tarbell a poor evaluation, he tells her to change it--or else.  Gwen goes to her bosses, this only serves to inflame the situation, and it all goes downhill from there.  
 
Now the book's scenario may come over as extreme, but it isn't.  Looking through reports of real life incidences of workplace violence, the flame that has ignited a firestorm in the workplace have been as simple as an off color joke, a remark about someone's girlfriend/wife/daughter, a humiliating prank, and an interoffice romance gone wrong, just to name a few.  If you can name it, it's been a source of conflict in the workplace.  I came across the most astounding incident by pure luck after I finished the book, which surrounded Marta Bradley and Alan Chmurny.  Chmurny was Marta's boss and they enjoyed a friendship for a number of years.  An incident occurred to change that which resulted in Chmurny stalking Marta's every move for four years.  His crimes against her escalated from vandalism to breaking and entering and ended in a failed murder attempt.  Chmurny ended up committing suicide in the courtroom after a guilty verdict.  What was the reason for all the emotional wreckage?  Marta had said publicly that she hadn't liked Chmurny's deviled eggs at a company picnic.
 
Writing this book has been quite sobering.  The workplace seems like a safe environment where we feel we know our colleagues, but how well do we really know them?  It's a dangerous world out there and the greatest threat you face might not be from a hostile nation abroad, but the other side of your cubicle wall.

Simon Wood is an ex-racecar driver, a licensed pilot and an occasional private investigator. He's had over 150 stories and articles published. His short fiction has appeared in a variety of magazines anthologies, such as Seattle Noir and Thriller 2. He's a frequent contributor to Writer's Digest. He's the Anthony Award winning author of Working Stiffs, Accidents Waiting to Happen, Paying the Piper and We All Fall Down. As Simon Janus, he's the author of The Scrubs and Road Rash. His latest books are Terminated, and Asking for Trouble.

E. J. Rand is an acclaimed author, whose mystery-thriller novels include the series The Reluctant Sleuth. In DARK SEA, fourth novel in the series (June 2010, Deadly Ink Press), Gary and Becca celebrate their second honeymoon on a cruise. Then their cabin neighbors disappear. On the corpse of an 'accident' victim, Gary spots a diamond the vanished woman claimed she never took off. The captain warns them to stay out of the case as the ship cruises among Caribbean islands. Wrapped ever more tightly into a mystery they must figure out, Gary and Becca nevertheless investigate on and off the ship. They encounter a dangerous cast of passengers and officers, who all seem to be hunting for a missing $86 million. Suspicious and dangerous events multiply. Someone has set his sights on Becca. Can they survive attempts on their lives, work through unexpected marital problems, and kill to save one another? Who winds up in the DARK SEA?

Today, we have the opportunity to interview Mr. Rand for background info on crisis consultant, widower, and amateur sleuth Gary Kemmerman and the new love of his life. Previous titles in the series, in order of publication, are SAY GOODBYE, PERFECT COVER and HIGHER CALLING.

I am intrigued by the statement on your website: "My genre is the mystery thriller, but I can't write a novel without offering a deep love story." That's reflected in your memberships, which include Romance Writers of America (RWA), Mystery Writers of America (MWA), and International Thriller Writers (ITW). As a male author with RWA, do you think you are among a rare breed? Can you elaborate a bit? How did you qualify for membership in RWA?

What counts with the lovely women of RWA-New York Chapter, is not gender but content.  In '04, I began writing a murder mystery and found a love story pouring out.  My novels all detail love stories, if beset by adventure and crisis.  Gary and Becca have a lot to lose--each other, and that intensifies the mystery and thriller aspects of the action.  Few authors choose to dip into marital emotion or sex:  If I'm a rare breed, that's why.  The passion of newness claims most attention, but in real life, emotion fills in the gaps.  My novels are about people I consider real, and that's what I offer readers.

For two years a serial killer known as Mama's Boy gripped the Seattle area with fear, abducting mothers in front of their sons. In 2002, the killings suddenly stopped--at least for sleepless Seattle. Flash forward to 2009, when widow Susan Blanchette and her toddler Matthew arrive at a rustic resort on the isolated San Juan Islands north of Seattle. Her fiancé has planned this weekend of "relaxing by the water." But for what purpose? Susan discovers her soon-to-be groom may not be whom she believed him to be. Before the weekend ends, a horrifying secret will be revealed. Mama's Boy will kill again, leaving those who survive never to be the same. And leaving readers with high electric bills, by keeping lights on all night. O'Brien added: "All of the action in VICOUS takes place over one weekend, making it more intense. I'm hoping readers will be pleased--and deliciously creeped out!"

Kevin O'Brien was exposed to the world of thrillers in a PJ-peeing episode that dreadful night of November 22, 1963. At age eight and youngest of six children, he watched cars pull up to the house his parents had just purchased. The police and possibly Alphabet Soup-initialed federal agents wanted to contact the home's previous owner, from whom Lee Harvey Oswald acquired the rifle used to assassinate President Kennedy--six days before the O'Briens were to celebrate Thanksgiving Day in their new home, a plot too inconceivable for fiction!

The mega-bestselling author added information about his eyebrow-raising youth: "At a parent-teachers day when I was in kindergarten, the teacher told my mother that the kids were supposed to draw a picture representing Easter and springtime. 'Can you guess which picture is Kevin's?' the teacher asked. Taped to the wall were colorful drawings of bunnies, Easter eggs, and baskets of flowers. And then, there was the bloodiest, most gruesome rendering of the Crucifixion a five-year-old could draw. 'That's Kevin's,' my mother said, pointing to the scariest picture there. I guess I was destined to write thrillers."

Dianne Emley escaped a career in business middle management and the cubicle warren and now writes the Detective Nan Vining thrillers published by Ballantine. The debut, The First Cut, was an LA Times bestseller. Publisher's Weekly called Cut to the Quick "compelling" and "edgy." The Deepest Cut, a Romantic Times TOP PICK, received a starred review from Booklist. Love Kills was released in May 2010. The series has been translated into several languages. A Los Angeles native, Dianne has a BA and an MBA from UCLA. She lives in Pasadena with her patient husband and two willful cats.
 
Dianne was pleased to chat about writing, life, and her latest in the series--Love Kills.
 
Congratulations on Love Kills, the fourth book in the best-selling Detective Nan Vining series. When you started writing the debut in the series, The First Cut, did you imagine Nin would take you for such a ride?
 
Thank you! I can't wait for Nan's fans to reconnect with her in her newest adventure, Love Kills, which is jam-packed with twists and turns. When I started writing The First Cut, the series debut, I wanted to keep readers turning the pages into the wee hours of the night. I have to say that Nan has taken me to some unexpected and exciting places that neither I nor she could predict. In her obsession to trap the man who ambushed her and left her for dead, whom she and her daughter have dubbed T.B. Mann (short for The Bad Man), she's danced on the line between right and wrong, scaring even herself (and me). 
 
Perhaps more than ever, Nin has some serious personal stakes within Love Kills. What sort of struggle do you have, as Nin's creator, to keep her balanced between peril and pursuit?
 
Love Kills takes Nan disturbingly close to home when she learns that the seemingly unrelated murders of a Hollywood P.I. in a seedy East L.A. motel and the mysterious drowning of Pasadena socialite in her backyard pool do, in fact, have a connection--Nan's mother. Even though Nan faces daunting challenges investigating these new homicides, she must stay grounded and balanced as she is a single mom to her fifteen-year-old daughter, Emily. No matter the perils of her day job, Nan has to make sure that Em gets to and from school, eats well, does her homework and chores, and stays out of trouble.

When a blue whale tagged with a web-cam designed with stolen defence technology broadcasts a brutal murder at sea as part of a television nature program, Special Agent Tara Shores finds herself navigating an ocean of manipulation and deceit in a deadly race to reach the 100-ton creature roaming the Pacific before an unknown killer can destroy the digital evidence it carries. As Shores dives deeper into the case, what she initially dismisses as a publicity stunt for the glitzy reality series soon sweeps her out to sea in a rip tide of greed, intrigue, and high tech crime.

And so first-time author, Rick Chesler bursts on to the scene with a new angle on high tech thriller writing. His first, published thriller has given Rick the edge on coming up with another novel approach (no pun intended) and opens up the genre even further. Having the sea in his blood with a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Biology, Rick can get his readers real close to the action. This hard hitting, action packed tale has attracted reviews that some would-be hacks can only dream of. Read what two of his readers have had to say about Rick's début novel:

"A whale of a tale by first-time author Rick Chesler involving modern day pirates and a sexy Federal agent, all chasing a cetacean-mounted camcorder and the crucial piece of evidence needed to resolve a murder." -- Steve Alten, New York Times best selling author of GRIM REAPER and MEG

WIRED KINGDOM is a fast paced thriller that is one third deep-sea adventure, one third FBI sleuthing and one third awesome. A superb début novel and killer concept. -- Jeremy Robinson, author of PULSE and INSTINCT.

Rick Chesler, like many budding writers, first put pen to paper with the aim of getting into print and ended up burying the idea after learning how difficult it was to find anybody interested in taking him on. Another attempt joined the first before Rick finally got on with his life and began a peripatetic life around Florida Keys, L.A. and Hawaii, picking up a Masters Degree in Business and getting married along the way. The seeds of WIRED KINGDOM took root during those years and eventually became his 'first novel'.

New York Times bestselling author Cindy Gerard writes a fast, sexy, action-adventure series featuring former Spec Ops warriors as they learn to live outside the rules of the military. Gerard just won the RT Book Reviewers Award for Best Romantic Intrigue; she's also a two time RITA winner.

In RISK NO SECRETS, a deadly mission reunites sexy Black Ops, Inc operative Wyatt 'Papa Bear' Savage with his sizzling former love, Sophie Baylor, in the steamy jungles and urban decay of El Salvador as they race to save an abducted child. Wyatt lost Sophie once and he won't lose her again - even if he has to fight, kill or die.

How did an author living amid the farmland of Iowa end up writing about special forces and the jungles of El Salvador? 

I wonder about that sometimes myself. Truth be told, 9/11 had just happened about the time I started kicking around concepts for a romantic suspense series.  Like most Americans I was galvanized by news of the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and felt compelled to learn more about the men and women of our amazing military who put their lives on the line for our freedoms.  An even bigger question for me was, what do these warriors do when they separate from military service?  How do they adjust?  What careers do they pursue? I found that many continue to use their specialized skills as private contractors for the US government or as law enforcement officers or go into some sort of securities related businesses.  These are the men and women my stories are about and because their 'jobs' take them to lawless places like El Salvador, Colombia, and Indonesia that's where the stories are set. 

How much research do you do away from the computer?

Most of my research is done via the internet but I also belong to several writing loops and so far have been able to touch base with someone who has lived in that world or knows someone who has.  I read extensively, plot with a country map and a Lonely Planet Guide at my finger tips and attempt to paint the truest picture of the setting as possible.  It's a challenge - but an intriguing one.

New York Times bestselling author Lee Child and the International Thriller Writers present a collection of remarkable stories in First Thrills: High-Octane Stories from the Hottest Thriller Authors. Showcasing many of the organization's bestselling authors as well as rising stars in the genre, here are twenty-five brand-new, never-before published, stories packed with murder, mystery, and mayhem.

• A cunning criminal thinks he can use a child to take the rap for his crimes.
• A hospital intern turned body-snatcher.
• A priest who comes face to face with his wife's murderer on death row.
• A confederate soldier comes home to his love, but changed by more than just the war....he comes back wrong.
• The discovery of a flying saucer in the deep sea brings one man to the brink of a massive revelation.
• A dying man's last request proves to his ex-wife that he's still rotten to the core.
• A clandestine operative finds himself caught in a wicked game of confusion . . . but who is calling the shots?

"This volume is intended to function as a sampler, as a shop window," says Lee Child in the anthology's introduction. "Read these stories, and you'll sense the talent the same way we did, and you'll be excited to pick up the participants' full- length novels, and buzz will build, and the participants will survive the crucial first year or two, and careers will be started, and the next generation of house hold names will be forged."

Rebecca Cantrell's haunting debut novel, A TRACE OF SMOKE, won the Bruce Alexander Award for best historical mystery of 2009. A NIGHT OF LONG KNIVES, the enthralling, thrilling sequel featuring protagonist Hannah Vogel, takes place three years after A TRACE OF SMOKE, in 1934, when the Nazis have fully come to power.

Rebecca discusses her approach to history, mystery and what else may be in store for her investigative journalist, Hannah Vogel:

A NIGHT OF LONG KNIVES takes place a few years after your award-winning debut novel (and first of the Hannah Vogel series), A TRACE OF SMOKE, and, like all the Hannah Vogel series, deals with the tragic and very real history of Nazi Germany. Tell us a little about this background - what was the "Night of Long Knives"?

The Night of the Long Knives was a Nazi purge that took place in 1934. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, they immediately destroyed all other political parties,  removed all state governments, wiped out labor unions, drove Jews out of public and professional life, stifled the courts, and put political, economic, cultural, and social life under their control. But Hitler still did not have the full backing of the Army. The German army, because of the Treaty of Versailles, was limited to one hundred thousand men. The Storm Troopers, under Hitler's close friend Ernst Röhm, had four million. When Röhm suggested moving the army under his control, the generals were worried. They made a deal with Hitler: if he would kill his best friend and the top ranks of the Storm Troopers, they would back him. At the same time, Himmler created a fake dossier accusing Röhm of plotting to take over the government. In response, Hitler started the purge known as "The Night of the Long Knives" killing Ernst Röhm, the upper echelon of the Storm Troopers, and a long list of other personal and political enemies. The true body count has never been determined, but at the Nuremberg trials after the war estimates ranged up to one thousand.

Yasmine Galenorn is a busy, talented, and diverse author. She writes the Otherworld/Sisters of the Moon Series for Berkley and now pens the Indigo Court urban fantasy series. In the past, she wrote mysteries and nonfiction metaphysical books, and her books have hit the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists numerous times. Yasmine is also a shamanic witch who describes her life as "a blend of teacups and tattoos."  NIGHT MYST, the first book in her new series, releases this month and author Jeaniene Frost calls it "erotic and darkly bewitching...A mix of magic and passion sure to captivate readers."

What inspired the story and what is the series premise?

One night, some time back I had a very brief dream. I'm very visual and not only dream in vivid color, but detail too. So I had this dream about a living painting. As I watched the painting, I saw a magical wood. In the wood lived an evil Fae queen who played with spiders and mist. She was attempting to catch a young woman who was looking for her aunt, who'd also been captured by the evil queen. And creatures of all sorts--from legend and lore--filled the painting.

I woke up, wrote it down, and tucked it away, but the dream stuck in my mind. So I told my agent about it and came up with a brief synopsis of the world and wrote about ten pages. She sent it to my editor, and I received a contract for the series.

C.E. Lawrence recently chatted with Cathy Clamp, one half of the writing team of Cat Adams about their new thriller BLOOD SONG.

Your website says you write "as a team." How did you meet and when did you realize you'd work well together? 
 
Cie Adams and I met while we both worked at a law office in Denver, Colorado. Cie was the writer. I wasn't. Actually, I had no inclination to write when we met, but we would walk for exercise at lunch and talk about her book plots. It turned out I was pretty good at spotting logic gaps or suggesting subplots. She suggested I try my hand at writing and it seemed like something fun. I started with an X-Files tie-in (I call it a tie-in rather than fanfic because at the time they really were publishing X-Files novels.) Once I discovered no agent alive would take on a tie-in as a debut novel, I tried an original novel---an historical novel about an event in Colorado history. She told me it was accurate, but . . . well, sort of dry and lifeless. She suggested a feel-good, emotional subplot that was a lot of fun. When it got accepted for publication by a niche Colorado press, I felt sort of guilty. The editor had specifically mentioned the subplot she helped me with. What do you do about that? Say "Thanks"? Buy her dinner? Give her money? We decided that we were offering so many suggestions on each other's books we might as well co-author and share the money and the work. And "a team" was born!

Karen Harper chats with author Julie Kramer about her new thriller SILENCING SAM.

In this town, gossip kills...When a widely despised gossip columnist is found shot to death, TV reporter Riley Spartz must secretly investigate a case in which she becomes the prime suspect. Amid murder, our heroine discovers news and gossip have more in common than she ever imagined.
 
Your background as a freelance news producer for NBC's Today Show, Nightly News and Dateline obviously provides a lot of material for your series (STALKING SUSAN, MISSING MARK, SILENCING SAM).  I'm sure you take a lot of plot points from your career and that your co-workers provide some fiction fodder.  But how much of yourself is in your heroine?

My books are works of fiction -that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Actually, there's a little bit of me in my protagonist, but she's also a composite of friends I've worked with in TV news. Each of the books has lines they recognize from their own careers. I weave some real life news events through the plot because I think it makes it seem more real to readers and gives them context for time.  

To mark the 20th anniversary of its hardcover publication, To Speak for the Dead, Paul Levine's debut legal thriller, is now available as an e-book, with all proceeds going to charity.

The novel introduced Jake Lassiter, the linebacker-turned-lawyer, who is as likely to punch out a witness as cross-examine him. In To Speak for the Dead, Lassiter defends a surgeon accused of malpractice after his patient dies during routine surgery. When evidence is uncovered that the surgeon was obsessed with his patient's wife, Lassiter suspects his client is innocent of malpractice...but guilty of murder.

To Speak for the Dead was translated into 18 languages and adapted into an NBC World Premiere Movie in 1995. All royalties from the e-book edition will go to the Four Diamonds Fund, which supports cancer treatment and research at Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital.

"I've had three dear friends lose a child or a spouse to cancer in the last few years," Levine says. "This is a cause close to my heart."

Seven Lassiter novels were published in the 1990's. Since then, Levine has written two stand-alone thrillers including last year's Illegal, plus the four-book Solomon vs. Lord series. Additionally, he wrote 20 episodes of the CBS military drama JAG, and co-created the Supreme Court show First Monday, starring James Garner and Joe Mantegna.

"If not for To Speak for the Dead," I'd still be handling 8 a.m. motion calendars in the Miami-Dade Courthouse," says Levine, a former trial lawyer. After signing his initial two-book contract with Bantam in 1988, Levine quit the practice of law and began writing full time.

"I'd read Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent and Carl Hiaasen's Tourist Season, plus all of John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee books," Levine says, from his Studio City, CA hillside home. "I was influenced by their rich characters and powerful themes, and in Carl's case, his subversive humor. Those books convinced me I wanted to be a writer."

Jake Lassiter will return in an original hardcover next year with the publication of Last Chance Lassiter.

More information at http://www.paul-levine.com

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

Click on a book title to read the feature story

• 61 Hours by Lee Child
• The Radix by Brett King
• Sparrow Rock by Nate Kenyon
• Down Among the Dead Men by Robert Gregory Browne
• Fever Dream by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
• Island of Betrayal by Alan L Moss
• The Inheritance by Simon Tolkien
• The Insider by Reece Hirsch
• The Hypnotist by M.J. Rose
• Delta Blues by Edited by Carolyn Haines
• Frenzy by Robert Liparulo
• City of Fear by David Hewson
• Play Dead by Ryan Brown
• The Ark by Boyd Morrison
• The Terrorist by Peter Steiner
• Dweller by Jeff Strand
• Strip by Thomas Perry
• Fortuna by Michael Stevens
• Killer by Dave Zeltserman
• Never Let You Go by Erin Healy
• ALONE: Chasers by James Phelan
• House of Secrets by Richard Hawke
• City of Dreams by William Martin
• Valley of Bones by Eric Wilson
• The Biggest Liar in Los Angeles by Ken Kuhlken
• Touching Darkness by Jaime Rush
• L.A. Bytes by P.A. Brown
• Die Twice by Andrew Grant
• Red November by W. Craig Reed
• Taurus Eyes by Bonnie Hearn Hill
• Cheat the Grave by Vicki Pettersson
• Dead in the Water by Meredith Cole
• Fire Force by Matt Lynn
• 2 In The Hat by Raffi Yessayan
• A Host of Shadows by Harry Shannon
• Street Kids: The Lives of Runaway and Thrownaway Teens by R. Barri Flowers
• Anywhere She Runs by Debra Webb
• Death on the Aegean Queen by Maria Hudgins
• Manifest Destiny by Rick Robinson
• The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber
• A Between The Lines interview with Lee Child
• Thrillers: 100 Must Reads - An Interview with Gayle Lynds
• International News from Gerard Brennan and Mike Nicol

Coming next month: a Between The Lines interview with Janet Evanovich, and the latest thrillers from Cat Adams, Bill Cameron, Pamela Callow. Barry Grant, Mary Kennedy, Nikita Black, Allyson James, Sheri Whitefeather, Irene Ziegler, Leigh Russell. Dianne Emley, Cindy Gerard, Tess Gerritsen, Dennis Tafoya, Yasmine Galenorn, E. J. Rand, Jon Land, Julie Kramer, Barbara Levenson, Gregory Lamberson, James R. Hannibal, Rebecca Cantrell, Scott Sigler, Rick Chesler, Jim Bernheimer, John Rector, Eric Van Lustbader, Thomas Greanias, Matt Forbeck, Kevin O'Brien, Lisa Brackmann, Alexandra Sokoloff, Karin Slaughter, Jeannie Holmes, Barry Grant and more. It's gonna be a thriller! 

ThrillerFest News

Nearly 40 agents have signed up for AgentFest! Find out who in the AgentFest section of www.thrillerfest.org.  You can also read a profile of an debut author who's launching big this month thanks to finding his agent at AgentFest. Check out the world-class authors and agents who are instructors at CraftFest, and back in Latest News, coming soon: the next in the continuing series of our 2010 ThrillerFest Headliners, Lisa Scottoline.

"ThrillerFest has lots of extras this year," adds Kathleen Antrim, ThrillerFest director, says. "For starters, there's a party every night:

Wednesday night: CraftFest Cocktail Party.
Thursday night: Opening Reception Cocktail Party.
Friday night: ITW Publications Reception. By the time ThrillerFest arrives, ITW will have launched four major new publications. To celebrate these works, we're having a grand signing/cocktail party.
Saturday night: ITW Awards Banquet. One ticket, one night, three parties: the pre-event cocktail party, the banquet, and the post-event after-party.

If you haven't yet registered, log onto www.ThrillerFest.org for event details, registration link, and hotel reservations.  Be there!

WATCHLIST: Two Serial Thrillers in One Killer Book!

Imagine a literary jam session with 22 of your favorite masters of pulse-pounding fiction and you have WATCHLIST: Two Serial Thrillers in One Killer Book. Jeffery Deaver conceived of the characters and put the plot into motion and Jim Fusilli leant a sharp editorial eye, finely orchestrating this chorus of suspense that includes such top writers as Lee Child, Joseph Finder, Lisa Scottoline, Gayle Lynds, P.J. Parrish and many others. Dramatic tension ties the novellas together as each thriller titan leads the reader down dark alleys and around blind corners, saving the fireworks for the climactic endings, also crafted by Jeffery Deaver.

This two-fisted tome has the chills, breakneck pacing, and diabolical switchbacks that thriller lovers have come to expect. Reading into the wee, small hours is practically guaranteed.

Read and listen to a review of WATCHLIST by Lynn Neary on NPR's "All Things Considered."

Coming soon: First Thrills: High-Octane Stories from the Hottest Thriller Authors

New York Times bestselling author Lee Child has teamed up with the International Thriller Writers for First Thrills, a showcase of many of the organization's bestselling authors as well as rising stars in the genre.

First Thrills includes never-before-published stories by New York Times bestselling authors Lee Child, Stephen Coonts, Jeffrey Deaver, Heather Graham, Gregg Hurwitz, John Lescroart, John Lutz (with Lise E. Baker), Alex Kava (with Deb Carlin), Michael Palmer (with Daniel James Palmer), Karin Slaughter, and Wendi Corsi Staub.

The collection also serves as an introduction to those ITW has christened its rising stars, including Sean Michael Bailey, Ken Bruen, Ryan Brown, Bill Cameron, Rebecca Cantrell, Karen Dionne, JT Ellison, Theo Gangi, Rip Gerber, CJ Lyons, Grant McKenzie, Marc Paoletti, Cynthia Robinson, and Kelli Stanley.    Available June 22

Coming soon: Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads

A new ITW publication coming soon from Oceanview, Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads, edited by David Morrell and Hank Wagner, features 100 works--from Beowulf to The Bourne Identity, Dracula to Deliverance, Heart of Darkness to The Hunt for Red October--deemed must-reads by the International Thriller Writers organization.

Much more than an anthology, Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads goes deep inside the most notable thrillers published over the centuries. Through lively, spirited, and thoughtful essays that examine each work's significance, impact, and influence, Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads provides both historical and personal perspective on those spellbinding works that have kept readers on the edge of their seats for centuries.

Read the interview this month with Gayle Lynds, as well as previous interviews with Tess Gerritsen and Douglas Preston, then watch this space for more details!

In Richard Hawke's newest, House of Secrets, the people who know that Senator Andy Foster's charm can get the better of him have bugged the Shelter Island bungalow where the up-and-coming senator is enjoying a midnight tryst with a beautiful campaign adviser. But all hell breaks loose when a man carrying an iron pipe comes crashing through the bedroom's sliding glass door. Within seconds, the young woman lies bloodied, dead on the sheets, and Foster has fled in panic. And it's all on tape.

As momentum builds for Foster's likely selection as the next Vice President, the senator's only hope of keeping his involvement with the murdered woman secret is to locate his blackmailers. But even they don't have their hands on the devastating images. The man they used for the job has turned the tables and is blackmailing them. Are we talking a major mess here? You bet.

Richard Hawke's previous two novels, Speak of the Devil and Cold Day in Hell introduced NYC gumshoe Fritz Malone onto the mystery scene. The Washington Post decreed that Hawke "had me putting my hand over the next page to keep from peeking. [His] plot grabs us by the throat." With a different pen in hand, Hawke is known as the writer Tim Cockey, author of the award winning 'Hearse' series.

In Michael Stevens's Fortuna, Stanford computer science major Jason Lind, longing for escape from his mundane existence, signs up to play Fortuna, an online role-playing game set in Renaissance Florence.

From the first, fateful mouse click, Jason tumbles into the vibrant, lush, and anonymous world of Fortuna. Swept up in this highly complex, highly addictive game of fame, fortune, and power, Jason quickly transitions from casual gamer to compulsive player.

What started as a great escape may be anything but, because in the world of Fortuna, it's not how you play the game; it's if you survive.

"Wild and addicting! I couldn't tear my eyes from Michael Stevens's masterpiece, a blend of high-tech computer games, gangsters, and medieval Florence that rivals a Steve Berry thriller for chill-inducing fun."
--Shane Gericke, national best-selling author of Cut to the Bone

"Welcome to the game. Is it a game? Or is it RL (real life)? Is there a clear distinction, or does one bleed into the other? Jason Lind must call on all of his incredible intellectual gifts to determine which intrigues and threats are 'in game' and which are RL. His life depends on it. Fortuna is a breakneck thriller unlike any you've ever read."
--D.P. Lyle, Edgar Award nominee and Macavity Award-winning author of Stress Fracture

Michael Stevens began his writing career in high school as a music columnist for the Vallejo Times Herald, his hometown newspaper.

After graduating from the University of California at Berkeley as an English major, Michael served two years in the U.S. Army's Berlin Brigade, then began a career in high-tech marketing, first as a writer and later as a creative director and Silicon Valley ad agency executive. Concurrently, he managed the technical development and marketing of two successful software products. At present, Michael is a contributing editor for several high-profile web sites in the technology arena.

In addition to writing, Michael Stevens is a serious amateur musician who has produced four CDs. He lives in Berkeley, California, and at an undisclosed location in Second Life.

 

Every five minutes, a transplant candidate dies while waiting for a heart, a liver, a kidney. Imagine a technology, says New York Times bestselling author Scott Sigler, that could provide those life-saving transplant organs for a nominal fee.

By reverse-engineering the genomes of thousands of mammals, P.J. Colding's team has dialed back the evolutionary clock to re-create humankind's common ancestor. The method? Illegal. The result? A computer-engineered living creature, an animal whose organs can be implanted in any person, and with no chance of transplant rejection.

There's just one problem: these ancestors are not the docile herd animals that Colding's team envisioned. Instead, Colding's work has given birth to something big, something evil.

The ultimate predator is on the loose ...and it's very, very hungry.

"A top-notch, action-packed adventure. If you think Scott Sigler just writes horror, you're dead wrong. This guy is one heck of a thriller writer."--Steve Berry

"Fast, furious fun...Michael Crichton has a worthy successor in Scott Sigler."--Simon R. Green

New York Times best-selling novelist Scott Sigler built a large online following by giving away his self-recorded audiobooks as free, serialized podcasts. His loyal fans, who named themselves "Junkies," have downloaded over eight million individual episodes of his stories and interact daily with Scott and each other in the social media space.