David Hewson in Rome revisits the locations used in the third Nic Costa novel, The Sacred Cut, and in particular the Pantheon, the former Imperial era temple that's at the heart of the story.

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Energy executive Lynn Dayton thinks her challenge is fixing the troubled refinery her company has just acquired on the Houston Ship Channel. But soon she must save it, and other oil refineries, from the industrial havoc and deaths directed by a French saboteur, simultaneously fighting off threats to her own life.

ITW associate member L.A. Starks' first novel reflects a career that has taken her from oil industry refineries to corporate offices. To watch her new video on her debut novel see below.

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International bestselling author and ITW member Kate Pepper reads the chilling prologue from her thriller ONE COLD NIGHT (NAL/Penguin, 2006) in which a predator watches his next victim, fourteen-year-old Lisa Bailey, on her way to school in Brooklyn. Kate 's next novel, HERE SHE LIES , cranks up the suspense as identical twin sisters face identity theft without knowing exactly who to trust and who to fear-Listen for chapter one in spring 2007!

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Colin Cotterill takes us on a trip to the People's Democratic Republic of Laos where his Dr. Siri Paiboun mysteries are set. We hear a National Public Radio interview talking about the first of these books, The Coroner's Lunch. We then accompany him to the wilds of Laos where we hear some samples of his interviews with locals as he researches the second and third books: Thirty Three Teeth and Disco for the Departed (the latter is due out in August 2005). This travelogue is rounded off with a reading from the fourth book, The Corpses of Khong.

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The first Nic Costa story created quite a stir for David Hewson appeared, notably for its shocking opening in the Vatican Library. Here are three extracts from the book read by the British actor Andrew Piper.

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One Christmas Eve, Whale Harbor is visited by a man who thinks he's Jesus and claims to be looking for a game of poker. But, as usual, things are not quite what they seem. Having some version of the Lord in town for his birthday creates a strange effect on the locals: unlikely couples are breaking up and making up and making out; a luxury mobile home that belonged to an elderly couple from New Jersey (until they disappeared after a run-in with "the Lord") is won by a down-on-his-luck gambler in an unbelievable hand of poker; the area's most well-known and long-forgotten tourist attraction is rising up from a hole in the ground; and a gun no one has used in years is suddenly in hot demand. In the steamy climes of southern Florida, you take your miracles where you can get them-and if that means being led to salvation by a schizophrenic with a rap sheet, so be it.

In the rollicking tradition of Carl Hiaasen's Tourist Season, with the heart of Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon, and peopled by the kind of colorful characters who would be quite at home in any Tom Robbins novel, N. M. Kelby's Whale Season is a sharp and funny novel made up of equal parts comic adventure and serial-killer inspired mayhem. Listen to the author's reading.

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Allan
Topol

"I quit writing," the would-be novelist said, "when
I realized that the headlines in the newspapers heralded stories more
bizarre than I could ever create in my mind."



Welcome to the minefield which is the attempt to write a thriller having
as a background a current and critical international political issue.
The objective is to have the readers turn the pages, hopefully long
into the night.



Some time ago, I concluded that fiction can be an effective vehicle
to address a serious subject, as well as an entertainment. While a novel
is ultimately about people, the story can be educational and deal with
the serious international political issues with which the author is
concerned. Some novelists such as Graham Greene and Leon Uris did that
very effectively.



For example, Greene's novel, THE HONORARY CONSUL, which was number
one on bestseller lists for many weeks, provided an incisive view of
the brutal military dictatorship in Paraguay. In THE COMEDIANS, the
backdrop was repression in Haiti. THE HEART OF THE MATTER provided a
view of life in European colonies in Africa during the Second World
War.



Likewise, Leon Uris's bestselling novels EXODUS and QB VII educated
millions of readers about the founding of the State of Israel and the
Holocaust. But Uris by no means confined himself to the "Jewish
issues." TOPAZ dealt with Castro's Cuba. From his superb
novel, TRINITY, I learned much of what I know about the conflict in
Northern Ireland.



Neither Greene nor Uris would be classified as thriller writers, though
some of their fiction has elements of this genre. But Ken Follet certainly
would. His novel TRIPLE focuses on Israeli efforts to obtain material
for nuclear weapons. In THE KEY TO REBECCA, the setting is Egypt during
a critical period in the Second World War as Rommel's army tore
east.



For those who wish to try this type of thriller, there are two key points.
The first is to find a sufficiently important issue and one which will
impact the American people. With the end of the Cold War and the USSR,
this takes some creative thinking, although there is no paucity of issues
and not just in the Middle East. John Le Carre focuses on Panama in
THE TAILOR OF PANAMA. Militarism is on the rise in Japan. China may
attempt to seize Taiwan by force.

Subscribe to the ECONOMIST and let your mind wander. You'll find
that issue. People often ask me whether the story comes first or the
issue. The answer is they usually hit my mind at about the same time.




Research is essential. Visiting all the places described is invaluable.
The factual predicates must be correct. Regardless of the issue, many
readers will be knowledgeable.



Prayer is useful if you're so inclined. Pray that changing world
events don't blow away your story. I was all ready to go with
one about the Shah of Iran when he was overthrown.



This brings me to the second point. At the end of the day, a thriller
must have a story and characters that will make the reader want to continue
turning the pages. Having an issue is great, but too much of a good
thing kills. Becoming bogged down in the factual background can destroy
a thriller.



It's a fine line to walk. Very satisfying, however, when it works.

© 2005 Allan Topol

 

A graduate of Carnegie Tech, majoring in chemistry, Allan
Topol abandoned science and obtained a law degree from Yale. A partner
in a major Washington law firm, he practices international environmental
law. An avid wine connector, he has traveled extensively, researching
dramatic locations for his best-selling novels , which include SPY DANCE,
DARK AMBITION, CONSPIRACY, and ENEMY OF MY ENEMY.

Christopher Rice



Here's what I like most about writing crime fiction: Every five
seconds there is a large and well-attended convention taking place somewhere
in the United States where fans and practitioners of the craft gather
to discuss the most successful ways in which they can murder their imaginary
friends.



The largest of these conventions is called Bouchercon. It's basically
three days spent shuffling between hotel conference rooms with a bag
of free books slung over your shoulder, three days of flipping through
the convention program in search of the bios for authors whose sharp
wit livened up panels with topics like "The Role of the Potted
Plant in the Police Procedural" and "The State of the Cat
Mystery In The Wake of 9/11." (Don't get me wrong. It's a blast.
You're free to talk about things here that might land you on a watch
list if discussed in an airport, or even a nice restaurant.)



This past fall, Bouchercon was also the setting for what many in the
crime-writing community regarded as a mild insurrection. The invitation
went out by email several months prior to the convention; those attendees
who considered themselves to be thriller writers were invited to gather
in an abandoned conference room several hours before the start of the
Anthony Awards dinner. The goal ‹ to determine whether a separate
organization was needed to promote and celebrate the thriller as a distinct
genre. Distinct, that is, from the mystery. (Insert gasp here.)



A quick check of Bouchercon's website will tell you that it's a mystery
convention. Thriller writers meeting at a mystery convention? For devoted
crime fiction fans, the mere idea of such a meeting gives off a small
spark of controversy. It conjures images of a group of glamorously dressed,
brandy-snifting novelists drawing up plans to kidnap and ransom the
President of the Mystery Writers of America and stage armed takeovers
of mystery bookstores throughout the country. ("All the Frederick
Forsyth to the window display! Now, Otto!")



Rest assured that such silly rumors were merely the inane ramblings
of certain convention center staff members who have since moved on to
other lines of work. (Note to concerned family members ‹ Gayle
Lynds has asked that all inquiries into the whereabouts of these individuals
be addressed to Lee Child, newly appointed chairman of ITW's Disappearing
Committee.)



Joking aside, the ever-widening circle of thriller writers who gathered
that evening shared the belief that their work was profoundly connected
to the traditional mystery, but also its own beast, deserving of its
own corner of the barn. While the mystery and thriller share certain
thematic elements, the all-too-common consensus is that a thriller simply
rockets them all to level ten.



This mode of comparison allows for few shades of gray. Try to use it
to assess which side of the fence a work of crime fiction should sit
on, and the resulting discussion may turn into a hair-splitting dissection
of the novel's more cosmetic attributes. Lots of explosions? It's a
thriller. One explosion where no one dies? A mystery ... maybe. Wait,
a cat is killed in the explosion? Oh, dear! Definitely a thriller then.
Killing cats in mysteries is a big no-no. Especially since they make
such fine detectives. And so on and so on.



I'm not a fan of "the high-stakes" method of distinguishing
thrillers from mysteries. This might have something to do with the fact
that I consider my first two novels to be thrillers but critics don't
seem to agree. In my first, A DENSITY OF SOULS, homophobic terrorists
bomb a New Orleans gay bar, and a massive hurricane destroys southern
Louisiana. Call it really bad luck for New Orleans, but don't call it
a "coming-of-age story" for Pete's sake. Unfortunately that's
exactly how most critics described it.


In my second attempt to write a thriller, a college freshman with an
assumed identity tries to investigate a murder. Only problem is the
victim was married to the professor this freshman is having an affair
with. And ‹ oh, yeah ‹ his fake identity is starting to
unravel. Some critics described this ditty as a "dark coming-of-age
story."



I'm convinced that if I wrote a novel about a massive blizzard that
sent sheets of ice scissoring through downtown Los Angeles critics would
describe it as "meteorological meditation." I don't know.
Maybe my characters talk too much. Maybe I need to use more Semtex.
Perhaps the cover art is a little too stark, a little too literary,
if you will. (Most people thought the dead grass depicted on the cover
of THE SNOW GARDEN was a close-up shot of arm hair)



So here's the real question. Why do I remain convinced that my novels
are thrillers when the majority of critics refuse to describe them as
such?



Simple. My characters always leave behind a trail of physical and psychological
destruction that is ripe for the prodding of a good detective. Upon
finishing THE SNOW GARDEN, I immediately wanted to follow it up with
my best attempt at a mystery, in which a seasoned detective made a new
kind of sense out of the proceedings, the kind of sense that the characters
in THE SNOW GARDEN were too desperate and afraid to make for themselves.
Call it a ghost mystery, if you will, that will continue to linger out
there in the ether until I write it. (I might not.)



Conversely, I think every great mystery reads as if it were preceded
by a ghost thriller. My favorite example is THE GALTON CASE, by Ross
Macdonald, in which PI Lew Archer uncovers a conspiracy of switched
identities that spans decades and straddles North America. I don't consider
the novel a thriller because Archer never gets sucked in by the sense
of desperation among the suspects and villains he encounters, a brave
strength that gives him the ability to experience a different story
inspired by the same crimes.



To put it simply, every great thriller kicks up the makings of a great
mystery, and every great mystery begins in the wreckage of a great thriller.
But both rely on the well-conceived conspiracy or crime.



From a creative standpoint, I like to think of the perfect crime as
a beautiful seductress. (Alright, that's a lie. I think of my crime
as a hot stud. But for the sake of example, I'll let the majority rule
here.) I send her into a smoky bar and have one guy approach her right
away. He falls for her after the first drink. He takes her home and
into bed. He makes ill-advised life plans with her. If I pick this poor
dupe's story, I'm about to start a thriller.



I let another night go by in this new-noir bar in my mind. In walks
my dangerous dame for the second time that week. I have another guy
approach her, only this guy doesn't quite like her tone. He buys her
a few more drinks to see if things lighten up. They don't. He begs off,
but later, he follows her home just so he can get a glimpse of how she
lives. If I pick this guy's story, I'm about to start writing a mystery.



Readers will be able to tell right away which guy's story they're reading,
without counting the number of explosions involved or how many times
the guy flew British Airways in the course of the novel.



For reasons best left unexplored, I always pick the poor dupe who made
too many life plans with the dangerous dame. That makes me a thriller
writer. Someday I might learn to keep my distance or try a different
angle of approach, but for now I'll just keep hitting those crime conventions
and take solace in the fact that mystery and thriller writers both get
worked over by the same dangerous dame. The difference is our scars
are in different places.

© 2005 Christopher Rice

Christopher
Rice is the author of THE NEW YORK TIMES best selling "thrillers"
A DENSITY OF SOULS and THE SNOW GARDEN, which won a Lambda Literary
Award. He writes a regular column for THE ADVOCATE. His forthcoming
novel, LIGHT BEFORE DAY, will be in stores on March 16, 2005.