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

James Rollins Recommends
Freezing Point, by Karen Dionne 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read an excerpt and learn more at pennyrudolph.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

www.ostarapublishing.co.uk

Harper joins the resistance driven by memories of a daughter lost, a daughter whose very name was erased by the Red List. Guided by the fabled Book of Noah, this underground army is determined to shake the people from their apathy and ignorance, and start a war in the name of freedom.

In the tradition of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Laura Bynum has written an astonishing debut novel about a chilling, all-too-plausible future in which speech is a weapon and security comes at the highest price of all.

"Ms. Bynum has a beautiful, distinctly poetic style that makes Veracity a lush, eminently readable book...The narrative style, reminiscent of Margaret Atwood as mentioned above, is stunningly effective... There's a sense of intimacy and empathy with Harper as she struggles to save her daughter. In fact, the most touching, believable, human thing about Harper was her emotional devotion to her child; the fact that all of this, the danger she faces each day is for her little girl - a girl whose very name the government took away..." --The Book Smugglers

"Bynum deftly paints the drab, fear-filled existence led by Confederation citizens. Harper is a compelling protagonist...as doubtful as anyone that she has the strength to succeed at her self-appointed task, and this tension propels the narrative....this bleak vision of the future feels real and truly chilling." --Kirkus Review

Laura Bynum was born in Springfield, Illinois in 1968. She completed her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Communications at the University of Illinois at Springfield and Eastern Illinois University respectively. In 2006, Laura won the Rupert Hughes Literary Writing Award at the Maui Writer's Conference. As a result, Laura's first novel, Veracity, was published in January of 2010. The day Laura signed the contract with Simon and Schuster, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and has since been successfully treated. She lives in the Piedmont area of Virginia with her husband and three daughters.

In Kayla Perrin's newest thriller, Spring Break, these are the last words Chanetelle hears from her friend Ashley, in a static-filled phone call that soon goes dead. Their trip to the island paradise of Artula started the way any trip should, and soon Chanetelle and her friends find themselves in sun-drenched days and party-hopping nights. The vacation is not without its conflicts, however, and old rivalries and new jealousies come to light as the week passes. But no one expects things to turn as ugly as they do. No one expects that they won't all return. And no one expects that murder might be the ultimate souvenir.

"Perrin succeeds in building a mood of nail-biting suspense..." --Publisher's Weekly

"This is a superb romantic suspense that looks deeply into human sexual trafficking..." --Harriet Klausner, Genre Go Round Reviews

Kayla Perrin is a multi-published USA Today and Essence ® bestselling author with thirty-six books in print. She is published in a variety of genres, including mystery/suspense, romance and mainstream fiction. She has been featured on television shows such as Entertainment Tonight Canada, Who's Afraid of Happy Endings (Bravo documentary about the romance genre), and A.M. Buffalo (among others). She has been featured in Ebony magazine, Romantic Times magazine, The South Florida Business Journal, The Toronto Star and other Canadian and U.S. publications. Her works have been translated into Italian, German, Spanish and Portuguese. Please visit her website at www.kaylaperrin.com.

This month I have the pleasure of featuring Jon Land.  He's not only a terrific author, he's a good friend.  I first met Jon at the 2008 ThrillerFest.  He was personable and attentive, and took an immediate interest in my career.  You won't find a kinder pro in the business.  Both in and out of workshops, I routinely heard Jon offer words of encouragement to his students and fellow authors.

The publishing industry is tough, especially commercial fiction, and breaking in isn't easy.  Jon goes out his way to help aspiring authors.  He gives hope to those still struggling, and often, a glimmer of hope is all they need to keep going. 

Jon not only writes mainstream thriller fiction, he's expanding his talents to focus on  screenwriting as well.  His first film credit, a teen caper-comedy called DIRTY DEEDS, was released theatrically in the summer of 2005 and in DVD in January of 2006.  His other current film projects include the psychological-thriller PARANOIA and CHALK (Handpicked Films, Michel Shane) and LUCKY DOG (Gravity Entertainment).  And he is currently adapting STONG ENOUGH TO DIE for the screen.

It's a tall order adapting your book to screen.  How do you convert (edit down) a four hundred page novel onto a 110 page screenplay?  Just thinking about it gives me a headache.  It's one of the things I plan to ask Jon at ThrillerFest 2010.

In the following interview, I asked Jon some questions that will give you a better feel for who Jon Land really is and why he's so passionate about writing.

 It's a reprint of the hard cover from Tor/Forge and the first in a series featuring female Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong--without question the best received book I've ever done.  I'd always wanted to write about the Texas Rangers, the most famous lawmen in our country's history, who are every bit as tough today as ever.  I also realized that there wasn't a single female action hero out there--plenty in mystery series, but not thrillers mixing it up with the baddest of the bad.  So in creating Caitlin I felt I was filling a glaring void and need.
 
You're very generous with volunteering your time.  You're on the ITW board, and you make major contributions to ThrillerFest each year.  You've helped me with my career.  Why is this so important to you?  Did someone help you early in your writing career?  How do you find the right balance of getting your writing in, touring, promoting, attending conferences, and helping aspiring authors?

Wow, that's a lot of questions!  First off, I feel all people who are successful have an obligation to give back.  Nobody makes it on their own; everyone has help and helping others is a way of paying that back.  But it's easy to help people you like and I don't think there's anything I take more pleasure in.  I wouldn't be a writer today if it wasn't for my college mentor, the great Professor Elmer Blistein, who agreed to sponsor my senior Honors Thesis, which was writing a thriller, when everyone else said it wasn't "academic" enough.  As far as the right balance goes, the key is being able to put aside the blocks of time necessary to write a book from beginning to end.  For me that's six weeks, for the first draft anyway.  It's a matter of budgeting time and setting priorities.
 
You're good friends with David Morrell of the famous Rambo series.  How did that come about?  You've had numerous discussions with David about the role of the "thriller hero."  Are there certain lines you feel thriller heroes shouldn't cross when pursuing their goals (the bad guys.)

 (Laughs)  Now that's a funny story!  David Morrell was one of the writers (along with Stephen King, Clive Cussler and Robert Ludlum) who made me want to write thrillers.  So I'm at the first ThrillerFest in Phoenix, I don't know anybody, and one morning after working out he and I ended up in the hotel gym whirlpool together.  And I realize here I am talking to one of my idols, and he couldn't be more kind or gracious.  No one has done more for our form or genre than David, who's proven that thriller writers can be terrific novelists as well.  Which brings me to your next question.  One of the things I've really explored in both my last two books, THE SEVEN SINS and STRONG ENOUGH TO DIE, is the nature of ambiguity in my heroes.  Both Michael Tiranno and Caitlin Strong have plenty of demons in their closets, defined as much by their flaws as their strengths.  Both will go as far as they have to get what they want.  They don't define any limits for themselves when it comes to preserving their own moral codes, but they pay a steep price for that.
 
I really like Caitlin Strong, a modern day Texas Ranger.  What is like writing a female lead role?  I think you've got her personality perfectly portrayed--I was going to say "you've got her nailed" but that just doesn't sound right!  I'm hoping we'll see more stories with Caitlin? 
 
Well, first and foremost, I was writing a Texas Ranger who just happened to be a woman.  The only criticism I've really gotten about STRONG ENOUGH TO DIE is that she's not female enough.  What does that mean exactly?  Texas Rangers need to be pretty tough hombres rather than men or women.  The thing that makes writing Caitlin fun and easy is she knows who and what she is:  a gunfighter, cut from the same cloth as gunmen from the Old West.  Like all great heroes, she's a loner, but she struggles with that, and that's where her relationship with Cort Wesley Masters and his sons comes in.  They bridge the gap and helps me, and Caitlin herself, define her feminine side.  You will indeed see more of Caitlin, too:  STRONG JUSTICE comes out this June and I've just finished the first draft of STRONG AT THE BREAK.
 
What can you tell us about the new "Jon Land Wing" of the Brown University Library?  Do tell all!

(Laughs again)  Hey, how'd you find out about that? (Sorry Jon, I told Joe Moore I wouldn't tell on him!) It's actually the ITW wing because Brown's famous John Hay Library is in the process of establishing the first dedicated Thriller Collection ever.  I pursued this because part of ITW's mission statement is to promote our genre and give it the recognition it deserves.  After generations being lumped in with mysteries, we're finally building our own identity and this collection can only help further promote our prestige.

Tell us a little about Tom Doherty of Tor/Forge.  Why you are you two such close friends?

My late great agent, Toni Mendez, taught me most of what I know about publishing, part of which is nobody does it the old-fashioned way anymore . . . except Tom Doherty.  His company, Tor/Forge, is one of the true success stories in the industry.  They made money last year when pretty much everyone else went into the tank.  Tom has always been loyal to me, through good times and bad.  He loves my books, especially the Caitlin Strong series, and is as frustrated as I am that I haven't broken out.  But instead of giving up, he just tries harder.  When he needed an author to write the potential New York Times bestseller that became THE SEVEN SINS, he came to me, not one of his already established authors on the list, because he knew I'd do a great job.  That's the kind of faith I'm talking about.  To me, he and his daughter Linda Quinton, who runs the marketing and promotion side, of the company are family.  I'd never even consider changing publishers.
 
What do you enjoy the most about being an author?  And conversely, what is the most troublesome part of being an author?

More great questions!  I love the freedom and lifestyle.  I love the process, I love seeing the product on the racks, in the front of Barnes and Noble on the famed "octagon."  My frustration is in never reaching the New York Times bestseller list, the holy grail of our industry.  In a way, though, that's a good thing since it keeps me hungry and motivates me to write better and better books.

All of your books are stand alone stories, but you have several series characters.  If you had to pick just 6 of your books, which would they be?  And in what order should folks read them?

You're really challenging me now, but here goes:

STRONG ENOUGH TO DIE--In my mind, the most complete book I've ever done as far as characters, story, and structure go.

THE SEVEN SINS--The book that resurrected my career after a four-year absence from publishing.  Big, glitzy, and over the top with a terrific hero for these times. 

A WALK IN THE DARKNESS--The best in my Ben Kamal/Danielle Barnea series.  My take on THE DA VINCI CODE material maybe ten years ahead of Dan Brown.

THE EIGHTH TRUMPET--The best example of my previous incarnation as a paperback original high-action writer.  Wildly imaginative.

THE OMEGA COMMAND--The first in my Blaine McCracken series and the beginning of me really figuring out who I was as a writer.

THE LUCIFER DIRECTIVE--My second published book and the first one where I figured out the process and really began to enjoy it.
 
And enjoy it he has, to the tune of 28 books.  Jon's also contributed a short story, Killing Time, to ITW's THRILLER 2.  Killing Time was just selected for inclusion in Otto Penzler's BEST MYSTERY STORIES OF 2010 collection, one of only twenty stories making the list.

Including foreign sales, Jon has over seven million books in print.  If you stacked them like pancakes, the pile would extend into earth orbit, nearly 140 miles high! 
 
Jon's first publishing credit, THE DOOMSDAY SPIRAL, was released from Zebra Books in 1983.  It took his agent over a year to place it, with Zebra being the 13th or 14th publisher to take a look.  Rejection is never easy, but Jon persevered, kept a positive attitude, worked hard, and was rewarded with a sale.  It's the advice he still offers today.  "Never give up."  Good writing gets noticed.  It may not happen overnight, so hang in there for the long haul. 

What does Jon like to do when he isn't writing?  One of the pastimes he mentioned we simply can't get into here!  Think about a jail scene from BLAZING SADDLES.  But when he isn't writing, or ah... recreating, he finds time to work out everyday.  Jon believes staying in top physical shape is vital to good creative thought.  In the same vein, Jon practiced Aikido for twenty years and became a 4th degree black belt, but gave it up when his instructor died.  So don't mess with Jon or his friends unless you like reconstructive oral surgery!  On a serious note, he loves reading and watching movies, both silver screen and made for television.

I asked for Jon's take on audio books.  "I like to read books, not listen to them.  Just not my thing."  I'm going to work on that--see if I can't get Jon on the path to audio enlightenment and righteousness.  Personally, I love audio books.  I can't be all wrong, Stephen King loves them too! 

The authors who continue to inspire Jon are:  David Morrell, Lee Child, Stephen Hunter and James Lee Burke.  "I like them because they're all terrific novelists as well as storytellers.  David invented, and continues to reinvent, our genre.  Lee created the most iconic series character of our time (Jack Reacher).  Steve has made a career out of writing phenomenal action scenes and has recreated the "gunfighter" mentality in his heroes.  And Burke is flat out the best writer out there today."

Jon isn't too shabby himself.  He's been recently hailed as "the greatest thriller writer alive today" by Bookviews and called "a creative genius" by Romantic Times.  Seventeen of his twenty-two books have been national bestsellers.  He's been printed in fifty different countries, in six different languages.  He's received praise from Vince Flynn, Lee Child, David Morrell, and too many others to mention here.  If you like fast paced stories with engaging characters, Jon's your man.    

Jon is currently in the process of creating a new website www.jonland.net which should be up soon. 

* * *

Jon Land graduated from Brown University in 1979 Phi Beta Kappa and Magna cum Laude.  He continues his association with Brown as an alumni advisor to the Greek System, vice-president of the Brown Football Association and president of the Brown Faculty Club.  He bases his novels and scripts on extensive travel and research, as well as a twenty-year career in the martial arts.  He is an associate member of the Unites States Special Forces, volunteers frequently in schools to help young people learn to enjoy the process of writing and serves as Vice-President of Marketing for the International Thriller Writers (ITW).  He currently lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

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.

So, three years back when local crime novels were thin on the ground, some of us pulled Brown into the ranks.  He came reluctantly it has to be said and I understand why.  Coldsleep Lullaby used thriller techniques but it wasn't crime fiction, not in the conventional sense anyhow.

Now he's published another novel, Refuge, which involves crime and the underworld and a subject which has crept into dinkum crime fiction - the refugee in our cities.  After all didn't Ian Rankin devote a whole book to the subject - Fleshmarket Close?

Your novel Coldsleep Lullaby could be called a crime novel - certainly the contemporary story conforms to the conventions of a police procedural - but it also has a historical story which has nothing to do with the conventions of crime fiction.  You always seem to have been a reluctant fellow traveller and I sense you would rather not be labelled.

To be perfectly honest, I was a bit surprised when Coldsleep Lullaby was categorised as a crime thriller, as I hadn't thought of it in that way at all.  I suppose, on reflection, the categorisation is probably correct, in that there is a crime committed which requires investigation and an ultimate resolution.  I am just very wary of labelling writing as one thing or another, for two reasons.  Firstly, if for example you label a work as "chick lit", you immediately lose a whole group of readers who might otherwise read (and enjoy) a book. 

Secondly, and more importantly for me, the label seems to reach far wider than just the book in question - the author becomes permanently associated with a particular genre, and that is really where my reluctance stems from.  I have written four books, of which only one could be called a crime thriller (Coldsleep Lullaby), and yet I appear destined to languish perpetually in the category of 'crime writer'

Then along comes your new novel, Refuge, which is clearly not a crime novel in that it certainly doesn't abide by the conventions, yet some have put you back in the genre.  Does this irritate?

 It is a hard question to answer without seeming to denigrate the genre of crime writing, which is certainly not my intention.  But yes, it does annoy me - not because there is anything inferior about crime writing, but because the categorisation is lazy and shows a lack of appreciation for what the book is really about.  Refuge is not meant to be a crime thriller at all and I really don't feel that it falls into the genre of crime writing.  It would be just as inappropriate for example to label it as 'erotica' merely because it contains some explicit scenes.

It is trying to be a social commentary - a protest almost - against the way in which we treat refugees and non-South Africans in this country.  The commentary is embedded in a storyline that moves along at a fair pace in an attempt to keep the reader interested, but it is wholly secondary to the message that I am trying to convey.

Refuge has as its central character a lawyer, Richard Calloway, and certainly the story concerns a crime - the appalling treatment of refugees by the state - and the manipulation of their lives by criminal elements.  So it is a story about crime...

For me, the title of the novel is an accurate encapsulation of the central theme: it is about people seeking refuge from things (one of those things being crime) and seeking refuge in things (in each other, in sex, in power).  So crime is an important protagonist for the theme - it touches and manipulates every character in the book, but ultimately the book is not about the crime, but about how it devastates the people it affects.

On the other hand, Refuge is essentially a character study of a man going through a crisis, it just so happens that his personal crisis reveals a hidden world where people are treated shamefully.

Andrew Brown:  Richard is a middle-aged white man living in a country that is swirling around him as if he were standing still.  He isn't part of it and he doesn't understand it.  His personal crisis nudges him off his protected platform and into the maelstrom. In that chaos he comes to understand the true depth of the horror that faces the vulnerable and poor, but he also comes to understand a whole lot more about himself and about how he actually fits in amongst those around him.  It's a bit like driving past the same beggar your whole life, refusing to make eye-contact in case he asks you for something.  Then one day your car breaks down right next to him.  He helps you open the bonnet and you start to talk to him: it turns out that he knew your grandmother or that he worked in your grandfather's shop.  An entire world of humanity opens up between you and you come to regret your self-imposed isolation.

Of course it is also about two other characters, the refugees Abayomi and her husband Ifasen.  Indeed the story of Ifasen's destruction is a tale of horror as he meets violence and betrayal at all levels - on the street, in the hands of the cops and the courts, and in prison.

Abayomi and Ifasen are an amalgamation of stories that I heard on the streets, outside the department of home affairs, in the art bazaars and the drug houses around Cape Town.  Vulnerability attracts tragedy and the stories that I heard from refugees in the city was one of abuse, corruption and violence. 

There is no one to help them, other than other equally vulnerable members of their community, and they are fed upon by government officials, gangsters, the police and - if the truth be told - by businessmen, unscrupulous landlords and expedient entrepreneurs.

Refuge is highly critical of our judicial system.  In fact the judicial system seems to exacerbate the refugee's position.  Ifasen's experience being the case in point.  But then we find that behind the scenes is the sinister figure of Svritsky - the Russian émigré who lurks in the underworld pulling the strings.  He, too, is a refugee, yet he is able to work the system by exploiting the vulnerable.  So there is a stark and awful contrast between the two groups of refugees: the privileged (by colour and class) and the detested (those from other African countries).

I am intrigued at how some immigrant communities can achieve a certain status within the city, while other communities remain downtrodden and defenceless.  I have, in the course of my career as a lawyer and during interviews for Refuge, come across the Russians, the Israelis, the Chinese Triads and other similar powerful groups that exert an enormous influence on the commercial sector of the city and have access to the judicial system.  Then there are the Somalian and Nigerian communities which seem to maintain some cohesion and unified activity, but remain targets for disaffected locals, the police and the politicians.  The rest of the African refugees languish at the bottom of the food chain, being picked on by everyone else.

Do you think you will ever write genre fiction or do you prefer being outside the conventions in the freedomland of general fiction?

I have decided to write an interminably slow, navel-gazing philosophical treatise set in 18th century Finland in which the only deaths that occur are due to sheer boredom and suicidal depression.  It will be like watching paint dry, only half as exciting.  No one will have sex with anyone else (or contemplate having sex with anyone else), there will be no black people, and the following words will not appear anywhere in the text: "blood", "breast" or "nipple", "chocolate", "skin", "cock" or "penis" or "member", "mangled", "bruised" or "fractured".

I hope that this book - entitled Foucault and the Danish Problem - will finally allow me to overcome the categorisation as a 'crime writer'.

I imagine it almost certainly will launch him out of our ranks.  Till next.  Hang loose.

ITW International Committee Chair for South Africa, Mike Nicol, is a journalist and writer and now a hard-core crime fiction addict. He's published two crime novels - Payback and Out to Score (a co-authorship), and is a founder of the blog Crime Beat.  He lives on Cape Town's peninsula, up a mountain, in the teeth of the wind.

Happy reading from your friends at the International Thriller Writers.

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

• Hell Gate by Linda Fairstein
• Once A Spy by Keith Thompson
• Live to Tell by Wendy Corsi Staub
• Dead Reckoning by Ronie Kendig
• The Cold Room by J.T. Ellison
• The Dragon Factory by Jonathan Maberry
• Hush by Kate White
• Drink the Tea by Thomas Kaufman
• City of War by Neil Russell
• Freeze Frame by Peter May
• Scandal On Rincon Hill by Shirley Tallman
• Never Look Away by Linwood Barclay
• The Secret Of Excalibur by Andy McDermott
• A Covert War by Michael Parker
• Miles To Go by Amy Dawson Robertson
• Veracity by Laura Bynum
• Plaster and Poison by Jennie Bentley
• Wild Laws by Jim Michael Hansen
• Werewolf Smackdown by Mario Acevedo
• Blood Vines by Erica Spindler
• The Cost of Love by Drue Allen
• Forget Me Not by Vicki Hinze
• Frame Up by John F. Dobbyn
• No Chance by Christy Reece
• False Mermaid by Erin Hart
• Touch of Evil by Colleen Thompson
• The Gray Man by Mark Greaney
• The Savannah Project by Chuck Barrett
• Legion by B.J. Kibble
• Silver Guilt by Judith Cutler
• Spring Break by Kayla Perrin
• The Twain Maxim by Clem Chambers
• Rum Point: A Baseball Novel by Rick Wilber
• The 24th Letter by Tom Lowe
• Grey Matters by Clea Simon
• A Between The Lines interview with Jon Land
• International News from Mike Nicol

Coming next month: a Between The Lines interview with R.L. Stine, and the latest thrillers from Gayle Lynds, D. P. Lyle, Dianna Love and Sherrilyn Kenyon, Alan Orloff, Richard L. Mabry, MD, Lisa Jackson, Glenn Cooper, Mark Terry, Jeremy Robinson, Kay Thomas, Robin Caroll, Gary Phillips, Penny Rudolph, Douglas Corleone, David Corbett, Jim Daher, Heather Graham, Shiloh Walker, William Dietrich, Dan Wells, Christy Reece, Laurie R. King, Daniel Kalla, and more. It's gonna be a thriller!

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.

Give us a brief overview the second Dulcie Schwartz mystery- Grey Matters

This series centers around Dulcie Schwartz, a literature grad student at Harvard University, who is trying to write her thesis on an overlooked Gothic novel from the 1790s... only murder keeps getting in the way. In this second outing, Grey Matters, everybody has got something to hide. Dulcie's office mate is acting furtive, her roommate is avoiding her, and even her boyfriend seems to have gone AWOL. And when our grad student heroine literally stumbles over a dead body on the stoop of her professor's Tory Row home, she knows she's going to need some help. Pity her professor seems more concerned with his departmental politics - and even the loyal specter of her late, great cat, Mr. Grey seems to have gone silent.

How did the idea for this book come to you?

Within the parameters of a cozy with paranormal aspects (that ghost cat!), I wanted to play with a classic mystery paradigm - the case where lots of people seem to be reasonable suspects. I was thinking a lot about motive when I planned this book. I was thinking that most of us have secrets and things that we are desperate to keep out of the public eye, but with that in mind, which of us could be pushed over the edge? It is very important to me to have my characters be real, to feel real, despite the paranormal aspects, and that means coming up with a villain who has an emotionally believable motive.

You mean, did I channel any ghosts? Nope, but I have talked with others who have lost pets and many of us share the otherworldly feeling that our pets remain with us. My ghost cat plays on that - that feeling that our pet is really just there, just out of sight. We hear them, we sense them... but they're not there in any real, physical sense. Just ... sort of a spirit in the air. In terms of academia, well, that was fun. I'm a Harvard grad and I live right by the campus, so I've gotten my alumna library card and I get to go play in the libraries and re-read 200-year-old books and call it research.

People are always intrigued by a writer's path to publication - tell us a bit about yours.

It's all a question of persistence. I was a journalist for many years and my first books were nonfiction books. My very first book started as a Boston Globe Sunday magazine article - that article served as the proposal and sold the book. When I turned to fiction in 2003, I had to start all over, though. Suddenly I was sending out queries and manuscripts cold again. It can be disheartening! But I don't have any special stories - just keep on keeping on. And when you get any feedback, listen to it. You can reject it, but at least keep in mind that there might be something in it that you can use.

Which writers have been most influential for you?

Probably not the ones you'd think! While I read a ton of contemporary mysteries (and am currently catching up with Frank Tallis's Vienna series), I think that for this series I am most influenced by the whimsy, heart, and conviction of my childhood favorites - specifically C.S. Lewis's Narnia chronicles and Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows.  If you are going to stray from reality, you need to throw yourself into your own created reality, and they taught me how to do that.

Recently, I've been reading a lot of Hilary Mantel and Denise Mina. Neither are cozy - Mantel doesn't even write mysteries - but what I love about them is how much they imply. Very little needs to be spelled out in their books. They're subtle and that's more effective. I aspire to that.

What is the most challenging aspect of the writing process?

Doing it. Sitting down every day and starting. Once I've gotten into something, then it just flows. But starting? Oy. Though, hmm... I also find revising pretty painful. I mean, I know what happens so the stories almost always seem dull. Or the opposite happens - I love something I've written and I think, "I will never be able to do that again." That said, writing regularly and revising thoroughly are definitely part of the process. They are what makes a professional writer. They are necessary, and I do them.

Do you believe our pets do come back?

I believe that love endures. I've lost many people in my life, as well as pets, and while I am not religious in any sense, I find it restorative to think of them. Same with pets. Any creature that helps you to love gives you something that lasts. So, well, I'm not really convinced that our pets come back - but I guess I also don't really believe that they are ever completely gone, either.

Clare Langley-Hawthorne was raised in England and Australia. She was an attorney in Melbourne before moving to the United States, where she began her career as a writer. Her first novel, CONSEQUENCES OF SIN, has been nominated for the 2008 Sue Feder Memorial Historical Mystery Macavity award. The second in the Ursula Marlow series is THE SERPENT AND THE SCORPION. Clare lives in California with her family

"Lowe's heated follow-up to 2009's A False Dawn catapults former Miami homicide detective Sean O'Brien into a desperate race to save the life of a man he helped send to death row. The near-death confession of prison inmate Sam Spelling comes just 84 hours before Charlie Williams is scheduled to die for the murder of his girlfriend, Alexandria Cole" - Publishers Weekly

Tom Lowe is an award-winning documentary writer/director whose films air nationwide on PBS. As he writes his novels, Tom draws from his travels around the world and his background as a print and broadcast journalist. He worked fifteen years in television news and did freelance stories for CNN. Tom is a sailor and SCUBA diver. He lives in Florida.

"As the camera captures an image, so a skilled writer can bring a scene to life. B. J. Kibble's unique style breathes instant life into his characters while his stories explode with emotion and action." -- Dick Ross, Writing Well

"Kibble's latest book is an excellent read from start to final page. The book was hard to put down as it is rare for a story to be so satisfying. Highly recommended to those who enjoy a great crime thriller." -- J. F. Ward, Amazon Review

From a family background steeped in law enforcement and military history, Barrie Kibble followed the tradition and served as a British soldier and police officer. During the course of his duty, he survived three near death experiences--the last occasion was prior to leaving the Police Force when he walked unscathed from a devastating IRA bomb. Joining the business sector, he became a marketing manager for a well-known computer firm, and then a buyer for American, Swiss and British companies.  

Her plight attracts the attention of Piers, a handsome fellow dealer, who falls in love with her and presents her with a wonderful ring. But are he - and the ring - genuine? Can she trust the kindly policeman who comes into her life? When violence threatens the only person she can really trust, Griff, Lina has to make a difficult decision...

"A very readable story" - Bernard Knight

"In Cutler... we are undoubtedly dealing with the creme de la creme" - The Times

Cotswolds-based Judith Cutler began her working life as a lecturer, first at a tough inner-city college and later at Birmingham University. A former CWA Secretary, she has won and been shortlisted for a number of short story awards. Primarily known for her contemporary crime novels usually featuring feisty females, Judith recently embarked on an acclaimed historical series featuring a Regency clergyman. Now she has returned to the adventures of the young antiques dealer, Lina Townend, who originally appeared in Drawing the Line.

Judith is married to fellow mystery-writer, Edward Marston.

"I didn't necessarily start to write a thriller, but as the story progressed I realized that it very much was one and I enjoyed that little bit of self-discovery. The various conflicts in the novel really keep things moving, I hope, and the reader comes to realize there are both internal and external struggles for all the characters in the story. I wanted a daughter in peril and a father who must change his own life in order to save hers. But I wanted her to be very strong, and throughout the novel she thinks (quite rightly) that she's saving him. I had a lot of fun playing with that mix of perspectives.

But you still might be wondering - why baseball?  Well, baseball and writing about baseball comes naturally to Rick.

"I grew up in baseball. In my youth we lived in Boston when Dad was a catcher and pinch-hitter for the Red Sox, and then in Chicago where he was a coach for the White Sox, and then in a string of minor-league towns where he was a Triple-A manager (Charleston, WV and Louisville, most memorably). So I grew up playing catch with the likes of Luis Aparicio and Nellie Fox, and going to Ted Williams' house for dinner, and hanging out with the children of the other players and coaches. I didn't know it, but it was a very privileged childhood.

I played other sports, as well, from college football and basketball to serious amateur soccer; but baseball is the sport I know best, and deepest, so it crops up in my writing all the time. I'm a parent, and like most dads I deeply love my son. But I definitely dote on my daughter. I'd do anything for her, including breaking my own neck to make her's safer. So I wondered what would happen if a lifelong baseball guy ... faced a point in life where he had to choose between the demands of the game and the needs of his daughter? The answer to that question is at the heart of Rum Point."

When you think of baseball in the Caribbean you think of Cuba and Dominican Republic - not the Cayman Islands.  Setting has always played a large part in Rick's work on a much deeper level than just a place for the action - and it does again here in Rum Point.

"My previous thriller, The Cold Road, was set mostly in Mankato and in the island of St. Kitts. In that book I had a real metaphoric focus on deep cold, both the kind of sub-zero cold that changes everything about the way life for the people who live in it, to the emotional cold of my villain. There's a scene in that book where there's a frozen lake, and a body, and....well, you'll have to read it...

In the case of Rum Point, I wanted to put a similar metaphoric focus on the story and its characters, only this time on heat. So I set it in St. Pete, with its really impressive summer heat and thunderstorms, and tried to reflect that heat in several ways in the novel, including the deep, hot greed of the two villains.

I used the Caymans for about half the setting because it doesn't have a baseball tradition and I wanted to move the reader away from any baseball metaphors and into a more traditional thriller setting, complete with an impaling or two, an impressive water spout, a place called Hell, and a James Bondesque underwater battle to the death. Great fun."

Mark Combes is an avid sailor and Scuba diver and travels extensively in the Caribbean pursuing his passions. He works in book publishing and RUNNING WRECKED is his first novel.