"Stellar. A brutal fable." PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review)

"Noir as hard-boiled as it gets." LIBRARY JOURNAL (starred review)

"Dark and brutal, the novel has a focused poetic style that stays with you long after you finish reading." KEN BRUEN

"A prime destination for readers who like to detour from crime-fiction's beaten path." BOOKLIST

Roger Smith was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and now lives in Cape Town. His debut thriller, Mixed Blood, was published in the U.S. and Germany in March 2009 and released in paperback by Picador Crime in December.

His second book, Wake Up Dead , will be released in the U.S. and Germany in February 2010 and later in the year in the U.K., Japan and Italy.

GreeneStreet Films (NYC) is developing the movie version of Mixed Blood - scheduled to start shooting in Cape Town in late 2010 - starring Samuel L. Jackson, with Phillip Noyce directing.

So print the Big Thrill list and head to your favorite bookstore or download your selections to your electronic e-reader. Remember that great books make perfect gifts on Valentine's Day. Happy reading from your friends at the International Thriller Writers.

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

• CITY OF DRAGONS by Kelli Stanley
• FRESH KILLS: Tales from the Kill Zone by various authors
• DEADLY SEDUCTION by Cate Noble
• THE LAST SURGEON by Michael Palmer
• RESCUING OLIVIA by Julie Compton
• LAST SNOW by Eric Van Lustbader
• WAKE UP DEAD by Roger Smith
• THE THINGS THAT KEEP US HERE by Carla Buckley
• MONEY TO BURN by James Grippando
• CEMETERY ROAD by Gar Anthony Haywood
• NO MERCY by Lori Armstrong
• CASE FILE: CANYON CREEK, WYOMING by Paula Graves
• THE LITTLE DEATH by P.J. Parrish
• L.A. BONEYARD by P.A. Brown
• SLOW FIRE by Ken Mercer
• ORIGINAL SIN by Allison Brennan
• DOWN RIVER by Karen Harper
• RAINING CAT SITTERS AND DOGS by Blaize Clement
• BROKEN PLACES by Sandra Parshall
• THE RUNNER by Peter May
• THE TRAITOR IN US ALL by Robert S. Levinson
• IF BOOKS COULD KILL by Kate Carlisle
• THE WOLFMAN by Jonathan Maberry
• EMERALD EMBRACE by Shannon Drake
• JACK: SECRET CIRCLES by F. Paul Wilson
• REQUIEM IN VIENNA by J. Sydney Jones
• XOMBIES: APOCALYPTICON by Walter Greatshell
• A Between The Lines interview with Lisa Gardner
• A special to the Big Thrill, THRILLERS: 100 MUST READS. A chat with Douglas Preston
• International News from Mike Nicol and Gerald Brennan

Coming next month: a Between The Lines interview with Jon Land, and the latest thrillers from Keith Thompson, Ronie Kendig, Thomas Kaufman, Jennie Bentley, Jim Michael Hansen, Wendy Corsi Staub, Barry Grant, Shirley Tallman, Chuck Barrett, Kate White, Mario Acevedo, Linda Fairstein, Erica Spindler, J.T. Ellison, Michael Parker, Drue Allen, Vicki Hinze, Jonathan Maberry, Neil Russell, John F. Dobbyn, Christy Reece, Erin Hart, and more. It's gonna be a thriller!

It's my pleasure to begin with Lisa Gardner, an amazing novelist with ten New York Times bestsellers and nearly 20 million books sold.  If you laid them end-to-end, the line would extend from San Diego to Washington D.C.!  So the next time you're on a coast to coast flight, think about a continuous line of Lisa Gardner books down there.  Incredible! 

I had the good fortune of spending some time with Lisa at ThrillerFest last year.  I found her charming, classy, and articulate.  And incredibly beautiful (yes, I'll make that statement!)  As you read on, you'll discover I'm not the only one with that opinion.  Next month I'll be featuring Jon Land.  Sorry Jon, I'm not making that statement about you.

Lisa graciously agreed to be interviewed for the February issue of Between The Lines.

Let's start with your new book coming out this summer.  Can you give readers its title, an inside look, and anything that helped you with the inspiration for it?

First, the exciting part.  My next novel, LIVE TO TELL, is scheduled for July 13, 2010 release, otherwise known as the Tuesday after Thrillerfest.  Bantam, however, has graciously agreed to make the book available for Thrillerfest participants, so attend Thrillerfest and be one of the first readers to get LIVE TO TELL!

As for the novel, Detective D.D. Warren returns to investigate the brutal murder of four family members.  The father appears to have shot his entire family before mortally wounding himself.  An isolated tragedy or something more sinister when another family also turns up dead?  The trail leads to a locked down pediatric psych ward and a single nurse, Danielle Burton, whose own family was murdered by her father twenty-five years ago.

It actually gets slightly more twisted from there.  The book was inspired by a real life situation that happened to friends of mine, but I won't go into details, because that gives too much away.  Hope readers enjoy!

I do have lines.  Eventually I've crossed most of them, though I swear it was never planned.  I don't think any good writer goes for graphic violence for the sake of graphic violence.  I think, however, a good writer follows the story and sometimes that can lead you to unexpected places.

Many aspects of writing are just plain hard work.  Touring, for example.  Do you experience times when you don't enjoy being an author?  Can you envision ever doing anything else?

Having written my first novel when I was seventeen, this is all I know and I can't imagine doing anything else.  All these years later, however, I remain a cranky author.  I'm never happy writing, only having written.  So each deadline sends me into a tizzy of gnashing teeth and wringing hands.  Then I finally turn in the novel, just in time for book tour, which as you mention, has its definite ups and downs.  When that's done, it's time to write again.  Now that you mention it, I think I'm happy about two days a year--the day I turn in the book, and the day I come home from tour.  My family is obviously very patient.

Do you try to respond to all fan mail?  Are there some emails or letters you don't respond to?

I do respond to fan mail--I love to hear from readers!  But I don't answer all fan mail.  If you're writing to me while incarcerated, as many of my readers seem to do, please understand I won't reply, and also, while I have your attention, requests for signed nude photos are not the quickest way to a writer's heart.

Truth be told, Lisa, I just don't have the guts to ask!  Besides, I'm a happily married man.  On a serious note, if you could change one thing in the publishing industry as a whole, what would it be and why?

I wish the industry had more patience.  I wish authors were given more time to nurture their novels.  I wish editors were given more time to nurture authors.  And I wish publishers gave both editors and authors more time to build a career.  The industry seems fixated on overnight success and instant gratification.  That kind of book/career can happen, but is tricky to replicate on demand.
 
What single piece of advice do you give to aspiring authors?

Write.  Honestly, that's the best thing you can do, the only thing you can do.  Publishing is out of our control.  Writing should be our focus at all times, while gnashing our teeth and opening the latest Department of Corrections fan mail, of course.

In good cheer, Lisa takes it all in stride.  After all, fans are fans, and she's got millions of them--some of them just happen to be incarcerated!

Lisa's love of writing started in grade school and blossomed from there.  I think all great writers are also avid readers.  From her website interview, Lisa feels the suspense genre chose her.  Growing up, she read Stephen King, John Saul, and V.C. Andrews. Basically, she loves stories that begin with a dark and stormy night and end with a dead body.

Her first book sold twenty years ago, but Lisa didn't become a full-time writer until ten years later, when her first suspense novel The Perfect Husband was published.  "That book ended up launching my career--an overnight success a mere ten years in the making."  

All of Lisa's 23 books are stand alones, but if you want to fully appreciate the character development of key players, it's best to read these six books in this order:

THE PERFECT HUSBAND (introduces Quincy)
THE THIRD VICTIM (Quincy and Rainie meet)
THE NEXT ACCICENT
THE KILLING HOUR (focuses on Quincy's daughter, Kimberly)
GONE
SAY GOODBYE (more Kimberly)

Plan on losing sleep, I did.  Maybe I'll work up the nerve to ask Lisa for a cover blurb someday.  It would be pure gold!

Lisa's also an inspiration and a role model for those trying to break into a difficult and competitive profession.  She's devoted a generous portion of her website, www.lisagardner.com, to aspiring writers.  Her "Tricks of the Trade" page offers a comprehensive look at the craft of writing.  The articles and lectures are top notch.  There's also a terrific interview on her website.  I highly recommend taking a look, but please don't ask Lisa to read a sample of your work in progress.  For a number of reasons, she just can't do it. 

Bottom line:  Lisa's novels keep getting better and better and her fan base is exploding.  She's living proof that good things happen to good people.

"It's not easy, it's not glamorous, but if writing's in your blood, it's something you have to do.  So go do it! Have fun!"

Lisa is currently finishing a sequel to SAY GOODBYE.  The novel doesn't involve the Quincy family, but does bring back Sergeant D.D. Warren from ALONE and HIDE.  Lisa lives in New Hampshire with her wonderful husband who loves auto-racing and black-diamond skiing.  She writes in her loft with two barky shelties guarding her feet, and one hostile, three-legged cat.  Their young daughter has learned to imitate mom's work.  Sometimes it takes Lisa days to find what she typed into the manuscripts!

Andrew Peterson is the author of FIRST TO KILL, the debut in series featuring Nathan McBride, a former marine sniper.  Andrew is currently finishing FORCED TO KILL, which should be available late summer or fall.

Congratulations to Craig Baker, the winner of this month's BIG THRILL giveaway. Craig will receive an assortment of signed thrillers including Burn by Ted Dekker & Erin Healy, Connect the Dots by Denise Robbins, Dead Air by Mary Kennedy, Mercy by David Kessler, Down River by Karen Harper, Burnout: The Mystery of Space Shuttle STS-281 by Stephanie Osborn, Deadly Seduction by Cate Noble, Too Hot to Hold by Stephanie Tyler, and Forgive Me Not by Vicki Hinze.

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

Fresh Kills

In John Gilstrap's suspenseful "In The After," an intruder demands the impossible of Tony Emerson--he wants to set the clock back 18 years and retrieve the childhood that Tony stole from him.

John Ramsey Miller's terrifying "Family Again" tells of an orphaned child who gets lost in the woods and, while searching for refuge, knocks on the wrong door.

In James Scott Bell's "Laughing Matters," a down-on-his-luck comedian gets a big break, though it comes with a very strange string attached.

Michelle Gagnon's thrilling "The Chicken Guy" reveals how FBI Special Agent Kelly Jones--who was first introduced in her novel The Tunnels--survives an encounter with a ruthless killer in an abandoned chicken processing plant.

In Kathryn Lilley's compelling paranormal story, "Blood Remains," a victim of childhood abuse returns home after many years only to discover that while memories fade, blood remains.

Joe Moore's "Final Flight" delivers a gripping tale of a WWII pilot on a secret mission with a mysterious cargo who lets curiosity get the best of him.

In Clare Langley-Hawthorne's evocative story, "The Angel in the Garden," Australian police constable Duff McManus must confront both the death of a childhood friend long considered a traitor, as well as his own wartime memories.

The authors of the Fresh Kills anthology include national bestseller and former trial lawyer James Scott Bell, IMBA top-10 bestseller thriller author Michelle Gagnon, New York Times bestseller John Gilstrap, IMBA bestseller and former Australian attorney Clare Langley-Hawthorne, former journalist Kathryn Lilley, New York Times bestseller John Ramsey Miller, and international bestseller Joe Moore.

Download Fresh Kills to your Kindle or PC today.

Levinson, a newpaperman, public relations executive, writer/producer, columnist, and critic, says, "Writing a novel was always my ultimate objective." What he didn't realize was just how significant a role his previous careers play in his current profession.

"I've drawn on my varied experiences for characters, plot, setting, and so forth for all my books...With me it is 'use what you know' to give the story a greater degree of verisimilitude."

For The Traitor in Us All, Bob's inspiration went back to when he was in talent management and to an entertainer he was briefly associated with. "My newspaper experiences and TV work inspired the characters of Neil Gulliver and Stevie Marriner in the Affair series of books which in large part play off my PR years in entertainment and especially rock-and-roll."

Not fond of labels, Levinson sees his writing as crime stories ("not to be confused with people who might think it's criminal I'm writing at all"). The previously mentioned Affair books are "about as close to mystery stories as I've come, and I'm looking to write another one of these days." With the stand alones, Levinson moved into the thriller category. Not only was he able to "break free of the series mold," he is also able to explore different themes and challenges in different ways, "hoping (of course) that my readers would join me on the adventure."

Levinson was an Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Award choice three consecutive years and his short stories have been selected for inclusion into the "year's best" anthologies for four consecutive years - so far - including the cover title piece in 2009: "A Prisoner of Memory and 24 of the Year's Finest Crime and Mystery Stories."

As for his succes Levinson believes "I got lucky, plain and simple. Frankly, I feel blessed to still be around as the publishing world shrinks, lists are trimmed, and technology changes the rules of the game."

It takes a bit more than luck and having good groundwork. This level of writing skill comes from hard work. Levinson is at his computer by 6:30 am and stays there except for a break for lunch until 4 to 6 pm . He works "until the galloping tireds set in, the eyes grow weary, [and] the mind begins cranking out at half speed or less." On weekends, he cuts back to about four hours leaving his afternoons and evenings free for errands and an occasional movie.

Reading is also a pleasurable pasttime and he confesses to be an "author groupie" who relishes the opportunities to "meet and get to know many of authors whose work I long admired." Besides the dozens and dozens still among us, he names "the late Ira Levin, Evan Hunter/Ed McBain, Dennis Lynds, Ed Hoch, Stuart Kaminsky, Donald Westlake, and Robert B. Parker." This groupie was more than likely in his glory as the writer/producer of the inaugural and Second Annual Thriller Awards in 2006 and 2007!

Levinson's books, especially The Traitor in Us All, blend "the best in thriller writing" according to best-selling author Jeffrey Deaver, "a keenly drawn hero, sharp plotting and dialogue, intelligent intrigue, and a dash of the past.

One review for In the Key of Death called it an "ass-kicker," So is its creater one too?

"Nah. Life's too short. Any asses need kicking, they get kicked in the books."

(The Affair series began with The Elvis and Marilyn Affair (1999), followed by The James Dean Affair (2000), The John Lennon Affair (2001), and Hot Paint (2002). Previous stand alone novels are Ask a Dead Man (2004), Where the Lies Begin (2006), and In the Key of Death (2008)

Terry DiDomenico has spent most of her professional career editing and writing for university publications with a little freelancing on the side. She lives with her husband and two cats on four acres in south central Pennsylvania. She is working on her first novel - a thriller of course.

The Wolfman

Maberry was tapped to novelize The Wolfman based on the screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker and David Self. Maberry is no stranger to monsters, having authored The Cryptopedia, Zombie CSU, and other nonfiction catalogs of the supernatural in addition to his own best-selling fiction.

The original 1941 werewolf film starred Lon Chaney, Jr. And the novelization is based on the movie's remake, opening Feb. 12. Lawrence Talbot's childhood ended the night his mother died. After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brother's fiancée tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search.

But as he hunts for the nightmarish beast, a simple man with a tortured past will uncover a primal side to himself . . . one he never imagined existed.

Maberry is the multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author, including PATIENT ZERO and THE DRAGON FACTORY in his Joe Ledger series. He also writes for Marvel Comics and his first Young Adult novel, ROT & RUIN, will be published this year. He's a member of ITW, MWA, and HWA. Visit his website at www.jonathanmaberry.com and find him on Facebook and Twitter.

Scott Nicholson is the author of seven thrillers, including THEY HUNGER, as well as six original screenplays, two story collections, and the comic series "Dirt." He was the original bass player in the Killer Thriller Band. His virtual haunt is www.hauntedcomputer.com.

"Smooth prose, a lush background...a fine-feathered read," says Publishers Weekly. "Another enjoyable tale," says Kirkus Reviews. And according to Laurien Berenson, who commented on Clement's Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter, the series is "a knockout read. For anyone who loves mysteries, animals, or just plain great writing."

Hard at work on book six in the series, in her past lives, Blaize Clement has been a stay at home mom, dressmaker, caterer, psychologist, and writer--some of them all at the same time. But, ask her what she does and she might tell you she's a "chicken-sexer." Why? Just because she hates the question. That, and "what do you do?" When she meets others what she wants to know is what they're passionate about, what makes them get up every morning, what they believe in.  And, for the record, she has never been a pet sitter.

So, what is her passion? People.

What's her favorite story? Rudyard Kipling's The Elephant's Child.  Plus, her all time favorite literary scene is from another Rudyard Kipling story, The Jungle Book. The one where the wolf pack has met to look over the new cubs so they would know their own from an enemy, and Father Wolf pushes Mowgli into the center.

She will be the first one to tell you that those beloved stories about the intelligence and nobility of animals, coupled with her passion for families and children, inevitably led to writing the Dixie Hemingway Mystery series. The relationship between people and pets is one of the highest examples of unconditional love. Dixie Hemingway is a professional pet sitter who values her family and the pets she takes care of above all else. You can connect the dots.

Blaize took some time out to answer a few questions and post them up on her website.

Why did you make Dixie Hemingway a pet sitter?

Because she had to have something that would break through the dark pain she's lived in, and the best thing to penetrate pain is love. Pets give us unconditional love, so the pets in my books are symbols of love.

For the particular kind of mystery series I'm writing, it's essential. I'm fascinated by the lies criminals have to tell themselves in order to do the things they do. To intentionally set out to hurt somebody, people have to tell themselves that every bad thing that has ever happened to them was somebody else's fault, that they have no responsibility for their own pain. So they lash out in a kind of vindictive fury to make somebody else hurt as much as they do. That's what I explore in my mysteries. Not just the lies the killers tell themselves to justify what they do, but the lies we all tell ourselves from time to time -- that we're not in any way responsible for the fixes we find ourselves in, that it's all somebody else's fault, that the choices we've made didn't have anything to do with it.

Don't you think some bad things happen to people that they had no control over?

Of course. But we do have a choice about how we respond to them. The ability to make a choice in how we respond is really our only freedom, our only true power. In my series, Dixie Hemingway has suffered some awful losses, and she's still reeling from them, but she realizes that she can continue to hurt or she can enjoy life. That's ultimately the only way any of us grows, to have the courage to let pain go and enjoy life, and Dixie tries to do that. She doesn't always make the best decisions, none of us do, but she always gets up stronger and wiser and more willing to fully live.

So where do we stand on the series?

Five books are finished, and the sixth is in the works. I enjoy Dixie so much and I want so much for her to have the happiness she deserves that I start another book the minute the last one was finished. I'll keep writing them until Dixie's story is done, whenever that is.

Dixie Hemingway is like a real person to you, isn't she?

Dixie is as real to me as anybody I know. I have lived with her for so long now that I actually have the feeling she's out there doing things that I'm not writing.

Why are so many "literary" authors turning to mystery-writing?

Traditionally, the works we call "literary" have been explorations of the internal landscape, the struggle of individuals to find authentic ways of living with themselves and those close to them. Readers gained insight by reading those explorations because they recognized their own challenges. But the world has changed. People can now get that same kind of insight by watching an hour of Oprah, and they're not so focused on their own individuation. With so much violence in the news, people are now increasingly focused on how to retain their integrity in a bizarre world. That's the stuff of mysteries, horror, and sci-fi -- stories in which one imperfect person tries to bring order and meaning to a frightening world.

To get the whole skinny on Blaize and the Dixie Hemingway series, visit www.blaizeclement.com and tell her I sent you.

Contributing editor, Christine Goff is the award-winning author of the bestselling "Birdwatcher's Mystery" series.  She began her career writing non-fiction for local, regional and national publication.  Chosen Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' 2002 Writer of the Year, two of her novels were named finalists for the prestigious Willa Literary Award for Best Original Paperback Fiction; and her latest novel, DEATH SHOOTS A BIRDIE, was a named finalist for the Colorado Authors League 2008 Best Genre Fiction Award. Her novels focus on environmental concerns through bird-related issues. Currently, she is working on a new book; a thriller set in Israel.

What sparked the idea for The Last Surgeon?

I am not one of those authors who has a pile of idea just waiting to be turned into novels. Mine come to life with difficulty, and with many rejected ideas scattered along the way. The First Patient, a thriller about the President's doctor was a huge success--the strongest of any of my books so far. My editor asked if I could come up with another medical/political thriller. I told her about a soldier with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, who had ridden next to me on a flight to D.C. and that whatever I wrote should feature the issues surrounding PTSD. Next I spend most of a month designing a "What if?" question that would feature a G.I. with the condition. Eventually, that question became, "What if three years after a botched operation, those who were present in the OR that day began to die?"
 
I've never heard of a book having a theme song!  How did that originate?
 
I am blessed with three terrific, talented sons. ITW member Daniel, the middle of them, is a musician, novelist, and a computer wonk. Writing a theme song for The Last Surgeon was his idea. I am a hack musician, myself, and approved the project largely because Daniel told me it had probably seldom or never been done. He promised that if the song didn't click, he wouldn't fight me about putting it in the drawer. After I heard co-composer Thaddeus Hogarth sing the finished product of their work, I never suggested anything but finding a way to get it out to people. Daniel created the video, and Boston blues legend Donna McElroy did the final vocal.

I always enjoyed my interests outside of medicine, although I love being a doctor. I played various instruments with various bands, did some summer stock and community theater - musicals (I was Harold Hill in The Music Man) and drama (The Children's Hour, The Shadow Box). Then, when I read Coma by Robin Cook, a college classmate and fellow resident, I decided to try my hand at writing just to see if I could do it. I chose thrillers because that was what I read. My first book (never published--at least not in English--got me an agent. She helped me develop the idea for The Sisterhood, a thriller about euthanasia, and that was it. 
 
Each of your novels covers a particular medical issue.  Why?
 
After The Sisterhood, I took almost a year to come up with Side Effects, a thriller about infertility and human experimentation. From there on I tried to pick a medical/ethical issue for each of my books. Holistic healing, corporate medicine, ecological contamination, managed care, presidential medicine, Asperger Syndrome, vaccinations, and organ theft are a few of the subjects I have tackled. My goal is to raise the issues, not to champion them, although some times I have trouble resisting.
 
How do you find time to juggle writing a book a year with still maintaining your medical practice?

My boards are in Internal Medicine and ER, and I have practiced both. For a long time I did medicine and writing full time. When my youngest son was born, 19 years ago, I did not want to miss a moment of his life (I was a med student and intern when his older brothers were born and missed plenty). I stopped working in the ER and took a job working with doctors with health problems - mental illness, physical illness, behavioral difficulties, drugs, alcohol. I keep up annually with my CME credits, and now work about 10 hours a week monitoring docs in recovery and facilitating support groups.
 
Is the love of writing a disease or disorder?

A curse? A passion? A disorder of the imagination? A lust? A malfunction of metabolism?  A virus? An inflammation of the pancreas?? A chronic dermatologic abnormality which must be scratched? An advanced form of self-loathing? Smoldering egomania?? 
 
Your son recently landed a book deal himself.  How did that come about and did he get the love of writing from you?

I am reminded of a great quote by Jules Pfiffer, who said, "I grew up to have my father's looks--my father's speech patterns--my father's posture--my father's walk--and my mother's contempt for my father." Daniel is very talented and very much his own man. He just has a few genes tacked on here and there.
 
How has ITW changed your life?
 
The networking has been the most wonderful part of ITW for me. Friendships with John Lescroart, Lee Child, Steve and Liz Berry, David Morrell, Heather Graham, Harley Jane Kozak, Joe Finder, and so many others has been an unmerited gift of my membership and participation in ITW, plus annually I get to write and perform song parodies with my kid.
 
What's next?

At last an easy question. It's always been a day at a time for me. When writing isn't fun anymore I'll move on. I am a bronze life master in tournament bridge, currently on hiatus. It will be great when I decide to return to the tables. My youngest is in college now, which means I get to do more traveling. And of course there are always more song parodies to write. Wait until you hear the one we're putting together for this summer's ThrillerFest V.

Jeff Ayers is the author of VOYAGES OF IMAGINATION: THE STAR TREK FICTION COMPANION Pocket Books-November 2006. He frequently reviews thrillers for Library Journal and regularly interviews authors for LJ, the Seattle Post-Intellgencer, and Writer Magazine.

Doug, you wrote about Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White. Was it your first choice?  If so, why?  Does the novel fulfill your personal definition of a "must read"?

It was my first choice. It is a stupendous novel, rich, complex, and archetypal in its power. The characters are extraordinarily vivid. A sense of growing menace, claustrophobia and tension towers above it all like a building storm, overspreading the book and casting a pall until the atmosphere in the novel becomes almost unbearable. Terrible things happen; Collins pulls no punches.

I am astonished the author managed to keep track of the many plot threads and the exquisite timing involved to pull it all off. Count Fosco is a character for the ages. So much so that Lincoln Child and I purloined him, in all his corpulent glory, for our novel Brimstone.

In particular, the contrasts between the idyllic, lovely English countryside and the dark machinations being plotted therein add an additional level of horror.

I believe every thriller writer ought to be familiar with the canon, so to speak, and The Woman in White, as the first "novel of sensation," qualifies in my mind as a must read.

I first read the novel when I was nineteen. I'll never forget reading the opening sequence, with the spectral vision of the woman in white floating in the darkness like a ghost. It is one of the most striking opening scenes in all of English literature. It pulled me into the story with a vengeance, and I didn't emerge until a few days later, dazed and shaken. I remember being terribly depressed, thinking that I could never hope to write a novel as good as The Woman in White. And, alas, I haven't.

What was it like re-reading the book this time? Was it as good as you remembered? Did the novel age well?  Were you able to step back and read it like a reader, rather than a professional writer?

Nothing is quite like reading a book in your youth, when you are impressionable, enthusiastic, full of heart and open to the world. You remember best the books you read between, say, the ages of 12 and 23. Now I am far more critical, and it takes a great deal more to impress me.

But on re-reading The Woman in White, as a seasoned author instead of a callow youth, I was even more impressed by the stupendously complex architecture of the book. The novel aged very well, and I adore Collins's 19th century English idiom. He was not quite as accomplished a wordsmith as his friend Dickens, but his plots were better and his pacing far superior. From a narrative point of view, Collins was far more radical and experimental than Dickens. Both created unforgettable, eccentric characters, but Collins's real people were more real than Dickens's.

It was easy once again to lose myself in it as a reader. It is not an easy novel, with a sweeping cast of characters, complex language, an intricately braided plot, and many varying points of view and narrative devices, but it is well worth the read, a novel to be savored rather than wolfed down.

To see what Doug had to say about The Woman in White, be sure to pick up a copy of Thrillers: 100 Must Reads when it debuts in July during ThrillerFest V. One hundred of your favorite thriller authors writing about one hundred classic thrillers make this book "must" reading.

Hank Wagner is a prolific and respected critic and interviewer. His work regularly appears in such publications as Mystery Scene, Cemetery Dance, Nova Express, and The New York Review of Science Fiction.

Sandra Parshall

ITW contributing editor Cathy Clamp sat down with the author to find out a little more about this next book in the popular series.

This is your third Rachel Goddard mystery. Does this mark a new chapter in the heroine's life with the addition of more people from her past?
 
It marks a turning point in her relationship with Tom Bridger, the deputy sheriff who is my co-protagonist. She is forced to choose between revealing the truth about her background, something she has promised her sister she will never do, and driving Tom away with her secrecy. Tom can't live with the knowledge that Rachel doesn't trust him enough to share her secrets with him, so their relationship can't move forward unless she makes a conscious decision to open up her life to him. That sounds like a romance novel, but when you add a conniving former girlfriend who will do anything to get Tom back and happens to be the daughter of the two murder victims, Rachel's need to guard her secrets becomes a subplot that feeds into the mystery storyline.

During your research for the book, what is the most interesting or unusual thing you discovered that might or might not have made it into the book?

USA Today bestselling author Cathy Clamp has co-authored over a dozen award winning paranormal romantic thrillers for Tor Books with C.T. Adams, along with multiple short stories and outdoor articles for magazines and anthologies. The duo's latest paranormal thriller, COLD MOON RISING, hit the shelves in August. They will release the first of a new urban fantasy series with Tor, "The Blood Singer" starting with BLOOD SONG, in summer 2010.  She and her husband live in the Texas hill country where they raise goats--which (usually) keeps her out of trouble.

Cate, tell us a little about growing up and at what point you realized that telling stories was your gift.

I recognized at a very young age that I needed more alone time than most, but solitude was a rare commodity in a house with seven children.  Books proved to be the one place I could always escape alone. I began writing my own stories in second grade, to entertain myself, but I learned the power of entertaining others in fourth grade when I read a story aloud and received thunderous applause.  Unfortunately, it took the publishing world a few decades to catch on.  Even then, it wasn't until my third published novel, when I began working with the late, great, Kate Duffy, that I realized story telling was my gift.  Kate was a huge influence on me and my writing.

Your new release, DEADLY SEDUCTION, revolves around mind control. In today's world it seems the perception of privacy invasion related to national security is increasingly prevalent. Fears and sensitivities to perceived "controls" of this nature appear to be increasing as well--particularly when the authorities or the government is involved. Did these issues prompt any inspiration for this story?

Romantic Times called DEAD RIGHT a flat-out thriller. What steps do you feel are crucial for keeping the escalating tension of the romance intrinsically entwined with the breathless pacing of a thriller?

I like to endanger my characters emotionally and physically, so I use three separate arcs when plotting a story.  The first is the usual W-shaped story/action arc with turning points, twists, and a black moment.  Next is an arc for character growth; one each for the hero, heroine and villain.  These three characters form my triangle of opposition.  Last is the romance arc which charts the path from dislike to true love.  Front-loading the romance with unbearable conflict and angst is crucial.  When I finally entwine these various arcs - literally laying them over one another -  the big picture becomes clear and I can then tweak the timing of the twists and turns so they collide at the worst possible moment, again and again.  My goal is to keep my characters from catching their breath until the very end, which is the same response I hope to evoke in my reader.      

What's next for Cate Noble?
 
I'm finishing the third book in this series, DEAD RECKONING, which will be out in February 2011.  It will wrap up the story threads from DEAD RIGHT and DEADLY SEDUCTION and kick off a new direction for two more books in the series.  I'm also working on a partial for a new suspense series with deeper paranormal elements.  My biggest problem is more ideas than time to write.  My main resolution for 2010 is to learn to write faster!

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

Amid jaded suspicion, underlying threats, and the dreaded approach of All Hallow's Eve in 1865, Martise encounters a witch's coven and meets Lord Bruce Creeghan, the love of her friend's life. Mysterious, yet passionate, Mary's husband elicits a deep desire and a profound fear in the core of her soul. He knows . . . something. And it's up to Martise to reveal what he hides from her prying intrusion.

Lord Creeghan wards off the invasion of his private fortress, yet he cannot resist his magnetic attraction to the beautiful sleuth. As strong as the inevitable pull toward the catacomb beneath their bed, an overwhelming obsession propels them into disheveled sheets of unquenchable hunger and lust. While savoring an affair that cannot be denied, Martise must discover whether her lover is a ruthless murderer or a guardian angel.

"Readers will thrill to this tale, a brilliant testament to Drake's versatility" -- Publisher's Weekly

Heather Graham (AKA Shannon Dreake) is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over a hundred novels including suspense, paranormal, historical, and mainstream Christmas fare. She lives in Miami, Florida, her home, and an easy shot down to the Keys where she can indulge in her passion for diving. Travel, research, and ballroom dancing also help keep her sane; she is the mother of five, and also resides with two dogs, a cat, and an albino skunk. She is CEO of Slush Pile Productions, a recording company and production house for various charity events. Look her up at the originalheathergraham.com, writersforneworleans.com or eheathergraham.com.

"Set in 1983, Wilson's second in a trilogy about the teen years of his Repairman Jack character is a periodically breathtaking thriller. Readers of the adult RJ novels will enjoy bringing their background to this reading, but, luckily for kid readers, knowledge of the series is not vital to enjoying this smart, spooky mystery adventure." -- Kirkus Reviews

"F. Paul Wilson's first YA novel is an eerie page-turner, brimming with conspiratorial mystery and thrilling action, with an awesome teen hero--Jack--just beginning to discover his unique talents. Jack is a winner and F. Paul Wilson is a natural for the YA audience." -- Ridley Pearson, New York Times bestselling author on Jack: Secret Histories.

F. PAUL WILSON, the New York Times bestselling author of the Repairman Jack novels, most recently Ground Zero (Forge 2009), lives in Wall, New Jersey.

Requiem In Vienna

"A rich, beautifully written historical mystery...first class." -- Booklist (starred review)

"Confident prose and mastery of historical detail, woven into a convincing narrative, make this sophisticated entertainment of a very high caliber."-- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Jones's fine second Viennese mystery ... smoothly blends a compelling period whodunit with bountiful cultural and social details." -- Publishers Weekly

J. SYDNEY JONES is the author of twelve books, including the first Viennese Mystery novel, The Empty Mirror. A long-time resident of Vienna, Austria, he now lives in Santa Cruz, California.