When newly divorced Julia Hamill finds a human skull buried in her backyard, she begins to identify with the nameless female murdered a century ago.  “Julia in her own way felt discarded,” says bestseller Tess Gerritsen whose novel, The Bone Garden, unveils the dirty habits of doctors in the early nineteenth century.  “Her husband dumped her and when she discovers the bone in her yard, she feels an attachment to this unnamed woman.”

Back in 1830, Boston hero Oliver Wendell Holmes discovered that washing hands could save lives. “Medicine was crude in those days. Doctors didn’t wash their hands,” says Gerritsen, herself a doctor who was inspired to write The Bone Garden because of Holmes’ simple but radical finding at the time. “They came from working with cadavers and infected their patients, unknowingly.” 

In The Bone Garden, resurrectionists aka body snatchers dig up cadavers and sell them to medical schools.  “They’d put them into barrels, pickled in brine and transport them on body trains to the medical schools in the northeast,” says Gerritsen.  Norris Marshal, a poor medical student who digs up graves at night to earn money, becomes a prime suspect after a nurse is found brutally murdered on hospital grounds.

As Gerritsen researched past medical practices, she came across a few gruesome details while poring over old medical textbooks. “I have a medical textbook from the 1820s which describes how to amputate an arm," she says. "The basic principal is: do it fast!  Interestingly, people didn’t often die from the amputation, they died a few weeks later from infection from doctors not washing their hands.”

Tess Gerritsen is the New York Times bestselling author of a dozen thrillers. Her novels have been #1 bestsellers in both Germany and the UK.  Her books have been translated into 31 languages and have sold more than 15 million copies worldwide.  Winner of both the Nero Wolfe Award and the Rita Award, Gerritsen began her writing career when she took a maternity leave from her work as a physician.  Retired from medicine, she writes full time and lives in Maine.

Set in medieval times, The Queen of Wolves, the third and last installment of Douglas Clegg's epic Vampyricon trilogy, finds vamps and mortals amassing for a shattering battle against the Mother of Darkness.

Aleric, the Priest of Blood, must raise an army of the undead to battle against the woman he once loved, who has now become possessed by shadow priests and their mistress from a realm called the Veil. To achieve this destiny, Aleric seeks out an ancient city by a fire-colored sea, which is the origin of his tribe of vampyres.

A gothic tale of war, love, betrayal, and destiny among vampires, “The title,” says Clegg, “also refers to the mother of all vampires, an exiled queen who exists only in shadow and who seeks dominion on earth.”

Clegg’s inspiration for The Vampyricon dates back to a trip he took to the pyramids of Teotihuacán in Mexico when he was ten years old. “ I remember clearly standing on the upper steps of the Pyramid of the Sun,”he says, “looking down at all the excavations then going on, thinking: beneath this world, there's another buried world.”

His travels to Europe further ignited his fascination for the paranormal and the realm of pure imagination.  In his teens, Clegg saw The Alhambra, the magnificent Moorish palace in Spain built in the early 1300’s.  In his twenties, while living in France, he spent several nights in one of the oldest forests in Brittany. “All of this,” he says, “and my lifelong love for ancient mythology and a kind of alternate medieval history, inspired The Vampyricon novels.”

Douglas Clegg is an award-winning author of suspense novels. The Vampyricon series begins with The Priest of Blood followed by The Lady of Serpents.  Read an excerpt of The Queen of Wolves here.

Think small towns are safe? Worry free havens?  Impervious to crime?  That’s what Kate Russell thought when she moved to idyllic Carystown, Kentucky.  In an attempt to escape her past and bury her own terrible secret, Russell hoped to become anonymous and in a sense disappear, says Isabella Moon’s author, Laura Benedict.  But the opposite occurs.  She quickly embroils herself in the town’s darker side.

Soon after Kate moves to Carystown, nine-year-old Isabella Moon disappears.  Russell thinks she knows where the body is and becomes a prime suspect. Another murder occurs that might be connected to Russell as well.

From there, the story is really about secrets and exposing secrets, says Benedict, whose original grain of the idea came from the Polly Klass case in California: the girl who was kidnapped from her bedroom. “I had a small daughter at the time,” says Benedict.  “Over the next fifteen years I noticed that whenever there was a case of a missing girl, the attending media attention became a circus that descended on these small towns.  I wondered how a small town changed in response to this kind of hyper attention?” 

Benedict, who grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, feels close to the landscape of the South.  She later moved to a small town in West Virginia and experienced how much living in a small town was akin to living in an extended family.  “People know things about each other—they know things that are shocking,” she says.  At the same time, she says, people learn to adapt and accept one another’s weirdnesses and eccentricities.  “It’s not literally incestuous but it becomes that way.”

Laura Benedict spent five years in sales and promotion and went through two marriages before she realized what she really wanted to do was write.  Since then, she has published essays and short stories and settled into a happy, third marriage.  Isabella Moon is her first novel.  She lives in rural Southern Illinois with her husband and two children. Read an excerpt here. (Click on Isabella Moon, then select excerpt.)

Christy Pickering’s 18-year-old daughter is dating Jerry Bethlehem, a man twice her age.  Christy wants Jack to find something damning about him.  He learns that Bethlehem is not the man he pretends to be.  Who -and what - he really is will have a devastating effect on Jack’s life and future.

And as the bodies pile up, Jack finds another piece to the puzzle of who he really is and why he’s been drafted into a cosmic shadow war.

"Like its predecessors, [BLOODLINE] shows why Jack's saga has become the most entertaining and dependable modern horror-thriller series. -- Publishers Weekly



BLOODLINE proves there’s no slowing down for the best anti-hero out there. -- Bookgasm

F. PAUL WILSON is the award-winning, NY Times bestselling author of thirty-seven books and nearly 100 short stories spanning horror, adventure, medical thrillers, science fiction, and virtually everything between.  More than seven million copies of his books are in print in the US and his work has been translated into twenty-four foreign languages.  He also has written for the stage, screen, and interactive media.  His latest thriller, BLOODLINE, stars the notorious urban mercenary, Repairman Jack.  He currently resides at the Jersey Shore.

Tom Grace has written four novels featuring his ex-Navy Seal hero, Nolan Kilkenny.  In his fifth, The Secret Cardinal, the Vatican recruits Nolan to send a team into China to rescue a man imprisoned for thirty years.  Grace's novels are always fun, but this time he has outdone himself with his best book to date.  

What sparked the idea for The Secret Cardinal?

I found the idea for this book in a tribute Sen. Joseph Lieberman gave from the floor of the Senate to mark the passing of Cardinal Ignatius Kung Pin-Mei. Cardinal Kung endured over three decades of imprisonment in China for refusing to renounce his faith and was the first of four secret cardinals created by Pope John Paul II. From Lieberman's tribute I first learned about the repression of the Roman Catholic Church in China, the remarkable example set by Cardinal Kung, who inspired the title character of my novel, and the existence of secret cardinals.

Your hero has endured rough times and personal tragedy over the course of five novels.  Does he share any of your traits?

Nolan Kilkenny shares many traits and interests, and he is in some ways my Walter Mitty-esque alter ego. Like Kilkenny, I enjoy distance running, swimming, and the martial arts, but he is far better at these activities than I am. Of course, he needs to be better because of all the trouble I create for him.Does the Vatican have a network similar to the CIA?

The Vatican did possess an espionage service during the era of the Papal States, when it controlled a large portion of the Italian peninsula and had all the temporal problems of every other European monarchy. The need for such a service disappeared when the Vatican ceded all but the property it retains today to a unified Italy. Vatican Intelligence today is an under-funded desk in the Vatican State Department that collects information from published sources. The Holy See is focused on spiritual matters and has no interest in cloak and dagger diplomacy. During the rise of Solidarity in Poland, the CIA regularly briefed Pope John Paul II on what was happening in Poland because the Vatican had no spies on the ground. The Vatican is widely regarded as the nation that is the most spied upon, yet least capable of spying.{mospagebreak}

In a scene in the Chinese prison, your characters use a device called a "fly" to get the layout of the compound.  Does such a thing actually exist?

Micro-Electronic Machines (MEMs) and Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) do exist and, as noted in The Secret Cardinal, some very interesting technology in this young field has been created in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Kilkenny came into contact with it. I am pushing the envelope with my Fly, but not by much, and probably not for long.

Could you discuss the origins of the China/Catholism conflict? What do you see as the end result?

The difficulties between China and the Vatican are just a modern version of the age-old conflict between church and state. Totalitarian states have trouble with religion because it supposes a power higher than the state. In the pagan days of Egypt and Rome, the tyrants solved the problem by declaring themselves gods. Monarchies in Christian Europe eventually justified their rule by the Divine Right of Kings. As communists are avowed atheists, the leaders of China could neither declare themselves gods nor claim their right to rule as a mandate from the Almighty, so the eradication or suppression of religion is the only alternative. Eradication has failed, so the Chinese state rigidly controls religion to ensure the message the Chinese faithful hear from the pulpit is supportive of the state. All sanction religion is China is run by the state, meaning political atheists are in charge of religion. In August, the Chinese Religious Affairs Bureau issued Order Number 5 that established the rules governing the reincarnation of Tibetan Buddhist Lamas--a government that does not believe in the existence of souls has claimed authority over reincarnation.

The Soviet Union lasted roughly 90 years before collapsing. Communist China is almost sixty years old, but has evolved into something more closely approximating National Socialism. Nearly two-thousand years have passed since Jesus Christ founded the Church, and the unbroken line of succession from St. Peter to Pope Benedict XVI coupled with the 1.3 billion faithful worldwide are a testament to the durability of this entity. There are five times more Roman Catholics in China today than there were when the communists took power, and there are more Christians in China than communists. Eventually, single party rule in China will end and the communist version of totalitarianism will join feudalism in the footnotes of history.

What's next?

Promoting The Secret Cardinal, which is available in both hardcover (Vanguard Press) and unabridged audio (BrillianceAudio). I'm developing a few more ideas for future novels, some featuring Kilkenny and others veering off into new directions. I am also still a practicing architect and I have a few projects in construction, including a former nuclear energy research facility that I'm renovating into a hydrogen fuel cell lab--more interesting technology that might end up in one of my novels.

After serving ten years for a crime he didn't commit, Clint Austin will let no one stand in his way as he tries to prove his innocence. That includes Emily Wallace, the girl he once loved, who testified against him at his murder trial. But it may be too late to clear his name before the real killer strikes again.

A well-crafted and engrossing thriller! -- New York Times bestselling author Heather Graham



I loved this book! -- USA Today bestselling author Karen Rose

DEBRA WEBB, born in Alabama, 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 a five-year stint with NASA, that she realized her true calling. A collision course between suspense and romance was set. 

Meet Duffy Dombrowski, the paper work hating anti bureaucrat on the brink of losing his counseling job….again. But Duff doesn’t have much time to worry about that because one of his ghetto clients is missing a step daughter, somebody keeps beating up the homeless guys in the park and, oh yeah, there’s that terrorist plot going on in New York City.

Saddled with his adopted basset hound, Al, a boxing career going nowhere and four philosophizing idiot drunks for friends its no wonder Duffy leans on the Schlitz a little too often.



Just don’t underestimate a pissed off Irishman.

"One hell of a debut." Jon Jordan, Crimespree Magazine



"A promising debut" Kirkus



"...the new Spenser." Marcus Sakey, author of The Blade Itself



"This is what feeling good is all about." Ken Bruen, author of The Guards

A former director of an inner city drug clinic and now a world championship boxing official, Tom Schreck has combined his varied experience and created his first novel. On the Ropes is the story of a drug counseling professional fighter, his Black Muslim basset hound and their pursuit to save a kidnapped little girl while foiling a terrorist plot to blow up Yankee Stadium. Tom Schreck graduated from The University of Notre Dame and has a Masters Degree in Psychology. He lives in Albany, New York.

A mysteriously empty aircraft hangar in the middle of Algeria; the crash of a transport plane in northern Russia; a violent robbery at a disused airfield in Bulgaria; the body of a front-line Russian fighter pilot found shot dead, execution-style, in the woods outside Perm. 

This series of apparently unconnected events leads trouble-shooter Paul Richter to Moscow, where his old adversary Viktor Bykov needs his help. The Russian government has a problem - they’re calling it ‘inventory errors’, but the truth is that someone’s been stealing their MiG-25 Foxbats, and they’ve no idea who, or why. On the other side of the world, alarm bells ring in the USA when North Korea launches an intercontinental ballistic missile, but it’s only when the Americans begin to mobilise their forces that the full extent of the threat becomes clear. And Richter finds himself back in the pilot’s seat of a Harrier over North Korea, fighting his way past surface-to-air missiles and dodging supersonic interceptors to complete his mission before Seoul is destroyed by a devastating chemical weapon attack.

"Foxbat offers a unique insight into a little-known world of high-octane military-espionage operations. The premise of North Korea holding the world to nuclear ransom is a chilling one, and only too real." Damien Lewis (best-selling author of Cobra Gold, Bloody Heroes and Operation Certain Death [Century])

For more information, visit www.jamesbarrington.com 

Ex-special forces operative Carla Smukowski is struggling to come to terms with her brother’s murder by Islamic militants, but she’s unwilling to make peace with a world which has betrayed her. Her collaborator – and sometimes lover – is Boyce Hammond, an FBI agent who’s been undercover so long he’s forgotten where his loyalties lie. 

Smukowski, Hammond and their squad of American terrorists – the so-called Ethan Allen Brigade – seize a shipment of high-level nuclear waste, intending to make a radiological ‘dirty bomb’ for an attack that will inflame the Islamic world. But just as Hammond begins to fear the group he has infiltrated might pull off their insane scheme, the stolen shipment is snatched from them by a group of extremist every bit as dangerous – and now America itself is the target.

 

Packed with breathtaking action scenes, political insight and unforgettable characters, Shock and Awe turns the terrorist novel on its head: a subversive action thriller for a new era.

David Isaak has been a dishwasher, a farm laborer, a night watchman, a dock worker, a counselor, a government researcher, an academic, and vice-president of an international consulting firm.

 

A high-school dropout, he later went on to earn a BSc in Physics and a PhD in Resource Systems. He is an expert on international energy, and has worked in about three dozen countries, mostly in the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. He has co-authored three books and many monographs on energy issues.

When the latest assignment for ex-Special Forces soldier turned bodyguard, Charlie Fox, ends in a bloody shootout in a frozen forest in New Hampshire, she's left fighting for her life.

Simone Kerse, Charlie's client, has just become a lottery millionairess but may not live long enough to enjoy her riches. Charlie was just supposed to keep Simone's troublesome ex-boyfriend at bay and accompany her on a trip to track down the father Simone had never really known - a relatively low-risk job.



But Simone's father has secrets in his past that are about to come back and haunt him, and the arrival of his long-lost daughter may be the catalyst that blows his whole world apart. And the closer Charlie gets to the truth, the bigger threat she becomes - only this time she's in no fit state to protect anyone, least of all herself ...

"James Bond watch your back ... crackles with suspense ... crisp prose, plenty of plot twists, and a heroine who adds new meaning to the term femme fatale." -- Booklist (starred review)



"Today's best action heroine is back with a bang. Scarily good." -- Lee Child



"Quite simply, Zoë Sharp kicks ass. The action scenes are ultra real, her descriptions are magic, and her pacing perfect. Second Shot is a direct hit, clean and center through." -- Crimespree



"Sharp expertly builds the suspense in a non-stop thrill ride." -- Publishers Weekly

Zoë Sharp is the author of Barry Award finalist First Drop, also out in mmpb in September. She opted out of mainstream education at the age of twelve and wrote her first novel at fifteen. Sharp started writing her crime thriller series featuring Charlie Fox after receiving death-threats through her work as a freelance photojournalist. She lives in the English Lake District, where she and her nonfiction author husband have recently self-built their own house.

A routine due diligence investigation in Hong Kong uncovers a trail of violence and corruption leading to the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Based on the facts of the trade in looted Cambodian antiquities.

"Ray Sharp earns a living investigating Asian companies as possible investments for U.S. businesses. A routine probe into a Chinese art-supplies company has Ray following an antiquities smuggling ring from Hong Kong to mainland China to Cambodia. It is 1995, and art smuggling is a money maker for a Vietnamese ex-general, the Khmer Rouge, and every lowlife in Southeast Asia. What starts as a fast-paced thriller turns into a deeper social novel concerned with poverty, slavery, and the best and worst of the human condition. This will appeal to fans of John Burdett and Colin Cotterill, as well as patrons who enjoy exotic Asian settings and a mystery plot with some substance." -- Library Journal (starred review)



"A multi-course Asian feast of a novel, Grave Imports is an engaging odyssey into a world of exotic plunder, where heritage and humanity are sold down the river by zealous warlords and high-living thugs. Dig in, savor the spice, and come back for seconds."  -- Dan Fesperman, author of The Prisoner of Guantanamo

Eric Stone’s most recent book is Grave Imports, the second of his thrillers set in Asia and based on true stories. The first was The Living Room of the Dead, based on a true story of the Russian traffic in prostitutes to Asia. His previous books include Wrong Side of the Wall - a true crime / sports biography. Eric worked as a journalist in the U.S. and Asia, covering everything from economics to crime; politics to sex. He once wrote an advice to the lovelorn column in a bilingual Chinese-English fashion magazine. He currently lives in Los Angeles.

The phrase “dead-end job” is about to take on a whole new meaning. Best friends James Lessor and Skip Moore may have the right stuff to start a business, but chasing the American dream will leave them running for their lives in this witty, gritty mystery about big dreams, big ideas – and big trouble. 

“Vivid characters, a crackerjack prose style and a sharply limned Florida setting make Stuff to Die For the buddy caper read of the year.  And send up a prayer to the book gods that this is the first of a series?we need more of the wisecracking Moore.” -- –Claudia Bishop, award-winning author of The Casebooks of Dr. McKenzie



“We just love Floridian crime tales, and Stuff to Die For, by Don Bruns, is a perfect example of why.  Witty, gritty and filled with brilliantly realized characters, the book is a pure delight.  Let’s hope the rumors are true and Stuff To Die For heralds the start of a new series.” -- Jeffrey Deaver, author of The Sleeping Doll



“Hold on to the safety bar as Don Bruns takes you on one hurricane of an adventure through a Miami the tourists never see.  Picture twenty-something Hardy Boys in the maelstrom of international intrigue and it's the Stuff To Die For.  Suspense, humor, and vibrant characters in a story to die for, Stuff is the real double-dealing deal.  A tornado of a tale!” -- Edgar award winner Rupert Holmes

Don Bruns is the author of three mysteries featuring rock and roll journalist Mick Sever –  Jamaica Blue, Barbados Heat and South Beach Shakedown.  South Beach Shakedown  was named best novel in the mystery/suspense thriller category of the “Best Books 2006” awards. Bruns has also authored several short stories and served as editor of the anthology, A Merry Band of Murderers, which reached #5 on the Independent Mystery Bestsellers List in 2006. He is also a frequent contributor to The Little Blog of Murder. A former road musician who traveled and performed throughout the US with major entertainment acts, Don Bruns recently released a CD of original songs called Last Flight Out, and performed two original songs at the 2004 Edgar Awards ceremonies. Don Bruns divides his time between Ohio and South Florida. He regularly travels to the Caribbean.

Newspaper editor John Quinn returns to his coastal Maine hometown to raise his young son. When his best friend -- a married politician with children -- is found beaten to death in a park used as a gay pickup spot, the police seem indifferent.

Quinn decides to take matters into his own hands and uncovers plenty of hidden violence, sexual intrigue and smalltown scheming. With so many people hiding secrets—secrets some are willing to kill for — Quinn is determined to learn the truth about his friend’s murder before he, too, is permanently silenced.

Terry Shaw has been a newspaper reporter and editor in several states – including Maine. “The Way Life Should Be” is his first novel. It was named the Grand Prize winner out of more than 2,600 entries in the First Chapters Competition sponsored by Gather.com, Touchstone/Simon & Schuster and Borders. He and his wife live in Knoxville, Tennessee.

A PERFECT GRAVE, is the third installment in Rick Mofina's internationally acclaimed series featuring rookie crime reporter Jason Wade. The series debuted with THE DYING HOUR, which the International Thriller Writers named a finalist for a 2006 Thriller Award.

"A PERFECT GRAVE is a lightning-paced thriller with lean, tense writing. Rick Mofina really knows how to make a story fly." -- Tess Gerritsen, New York Times best-selling author.



"One of the leading thriller writers of the day." Penthouse. It was followed by EVERY FEAR. In A PERFECT GRAVE, Jason Wade's pursuit of the killer of a beloved nun draws him into a mysterious religious order and ultimately to his father's dark secret arising from his troubled days as a police officer.

Rick Mofina, is a two-time winner of the Arthur Ellis Award, Canada\'s prize for crime writing. He is a former journalist whose reporting has put him face-to-face with murderers on death row.. He covered a horrific serial killing case in California, an armored car heist in Las Vegas, the murders of police officers in Alberta, flown over Los Angeles with the LAPD, and gone on patrol with the RCMP near the Arctic. He has reported from the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East, James Patterson, Dean Koontz, Michael Connelly, David Morrell, and Sandra Brown have praised his best-selling books.  

In Saudi Arabia, a female archaeologist finds an artifact that threatens the historical foundation of Islam. To some Muslims, it is a discovery that must be silenced at all costs. . . .

Meanwhile, in a secret bunker run by U.S. intelligence, a Special Forces officer is brutally executed while interrogating one of the world’s most dangerous terrorists. Jonathon Payne and D.J. Jones offer to spearhead the investigation and quickly realize that there is more to this atrocity than terrorist reprisal—there is a plot in motion that will burn the world in the fires of a holy war.

“A non-stop locomotive of a thriller. Combines labyrinthine plot twists, global terrorism, and the darkest depths of psychological warfare in a thriller that had me burning the midnight oil 'til breakfast… Kuzneski is a master in the making.” -- Vince Flynn, New York Times best-selling author of Consent to Kill



“SWORD OF GOD is as convincing as it is terrifying. Riveting and relentlessly paced, here is novel that will be consumed in one sitting.  Chris Kuzneski proves again that he is thriller writer for the new millennium.” -- James Rollins, New York Times best-selling author of The Judas Strai



“Reading SWORD OF GOD is like jumping on a runaway freight train hurtling toward disaster, with the fate of the world in the balance... A fabulous premise, great characters, rich settings, and mach-5 pacing. Explosive!” -- Douglas Preston, New York Times best-selling author of The Codex

Chris Kuzneski is the international bestselling author of SIGN OF THE CROSS, an acclaimed thriller that has been translated into more than a dozen languages. His first novel, THE PLANTATION, introduced the characters of Payne and Jones, and received rave reviews. Although he grew up in Indiana, PA, he currently lives on the Gulf Coast of Florida.

For widow Beth Lindstrom, her aunt's legacy--an abandoned café in the dusty town of Lone Wolf, Texas--was her  only hope of a fresh start for her and her five-year-old daughter, though she doubted there was any place on earth she'd ever feel truly safe again.

She hadn’t counted on the presence of ex-cop Joel McAllen, right next door.  It didn't take long for him to sense that her past held a terrible secret that had kept her on the run until now, or for him to start hunting for the truth. But it wasn’t until her husband’s killer followed her to Texas that she realized she’d need to trust Joel with her life…and her heart.

"Readers will surely enjoy the well-developed plot of Lone Star Legacy (Four Star rating) by Roxanne Rustand.  The author delivers warm, colorful characters and sparkling description." RT Book Reviews

Roxanne Rustand is an award-winning author of fifteen romantic suspense novels for Harlequin SuperRomance. She also contributed to the serial murder mystery, ORCHESTRATED MURDER. Her upcoming releases include Lone Star Legacy, August, 2007 for SuperRomance, and a trilogy for Love Inspired Suspense: HARD EVIDENCE, December, 2007; VENDETTA, February, 2008; and WILDFIRE, March, 2008.

Her first manuscript won the Romance Writers of America Golden Heart in Long Contemporary. Her second manuscript was a Golden Heart finalist. She won the Romantic Times Bookclub Magazine award for Best SuperRomance of 2006, and in 2005, she was nominated for RT's Annual Career Achievement Award.

Life is sweet for Molly Doyle and Treasures Antiques, the Carmel, California shop she manages, is doing well.  Her niece, Emma, continues to enrich her life, and her personal relationship with Randall, the chief of police, has reached an interesting plateau.

Eager to branch out into interior decoration, Molly takes on a lucrative commission to refurbish the wine tasting rooms at Bello Lago, a prestigious family-owned winery in Carmel Valley.  But Molly soon finds herself in the middle of the dysfunctional family's squabbles when they end in murder - and she's a prime suspect.  Even worse, Emma's future is at stake when a stranger walks into Treasures.

Carmel, California comes alive in Flinn\'s engaging fourth mystery to feature Molly Doyle, antiques dealer and reluctant but adept sleuth.  Once again, Molly delves at considerable personal risk into a homicide case.  Full of interesting antiques lore, this expertly plotted whodunit is a must-read for fans." -- Publishers Weekly



"You don't need to know anything about antiques to recognize when you've gound a genuine treasure.  Witty and skillfuly ploted, DEADLY VINTAGE has a cast of characters you can believe in.  Look no further for the perfect traditional mystery." -- Stephen Booth

Elaine Flinn is a recovering antiques dealer masquerading as a mystery writer.  Her multi-nominated and award winning Molly Doyle Mystery series is a take down on those rascals of the trade, who, while they pretend to be soigné, really only sell used stuff.  Elaine lends Molly her twenty plus years in the biz so Molly can spill the beans on the tricks, schemes, fakery and shenanigans of unscrupulous dealers, auctioneers and appraisers – and help you avoid Emptor Caveat (Buyer Beware)!

Rachel Chavez, a tough but vulnerable recovering alcoholic who owns—and lives in—an LA parking garage, discovers two unconscious boys in a van. She rushes them to the emergency room and is told one is dead. The other is admitted for treatment. But the next day, the hospital has no record of either child.

Racing to find the answer in time, Rachel gets help from her best friend, a Whoopi Goldberg sort, as well as a cell-phone-toting homeless woman. 

Booklist calls Rachel “one of the most refreshing new ... heroines

to wander into the crime genre ....”



Orange County (California) Metro Magazine: “Rudolph has a talent for creating likeable characters... (and) is particularly adept at crafting scenes of breathless action and situations of barely bearable suspense.”

Penny Rudolph has worked as a bartender, truck driver, chile picker, science writer, and medical writer. She’s taught high school and college, English, creative writing and journalism. Her mystery/thriller Thicker than Blood, a 21st century take  on Chinatown—is a tale of a woman caught in the crossfire of California water politics. The sequel, Lifeblood, and Rudolph’s historical mystery/thriller Listen to the Mockingbird, set in New Mexico during the Civil War, are 2007 releases.

The first victim is found in a snow-covered Philadelphia field.  Detective Vito Ciccotelli enlists the aid of archaeologist Sophie Johannsen to determine exactly what lies beneath the frozen ground.  Despite years of unearthing things long buried, nothing can prepare Sophie for the matrix of graves dug with chilling precision.  The victims buried there haunt her.  But the empty graves terrify her – the killer isn’t done yet.

“Rose delivers the kind of high-wire suspense that keeps you riveted to the edge of your seat.” -- Lisa Gardner, New York Times bestselling author



"Karen Rose's COUNT TO TEN takes off like a house afire.  There's action and chills galore in this nonstop thriller." -- Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling author of THE MEPHISTO CLUB. 

Karen Rose is a USA Today bestselling author of six novels. Her novel I'M WATCHING YOU was the recipient of the Romance Writer's of America's coveted RITA award for Best Romantic Suspense for 2005. In the same year, HAVE YOU SEEN HER? was also a 2005 RITA finalist. In 2006, her novel NOTHING TO FEAR was both a RITA finalist and a nominee for the SIBA Book Award for fiction. Her seventh novel, DIE FOR ME, will be released September 1, 2007. Karen is a former chemical engineer and teacher living in Florida.

When Phylly Worth, a former Las Vegas showgirl with a tangled past, goes on the run from a stone killer, the daughter she adopted and the son she abandoned come together--reluctantly--to save her. 

". . . dark, intense and suspensful thriller . . . Fear and tension leap off the pages."  Romantic Times BOOKclub

EC Sheedy lives and works in a coastal community in the Pacific Northwest, just a short ferry ride from the beautiful cities Vancouver, BC and Seattle, Washington. Critics call her work fast paced and intense. EC calls it a compulsion.

A riveting novel of suspense set in post-9/11 Middle East and America, RED SEA is the first work of fiction from critically acclaimed author Emily Benedek.  After four commercial airliners disappear almost simultaneously in international airspace, retired Israeli colonel and special forces commander Julian Granot is called back to his old job to investigate.

He solicits the help of Marie Petersen, a journalist, and Morgan Ensley, an FBI agent, and they make the horrifying discovery that the plane crashes are decoys to conceal a more ambitious assault on the Western world. Through an investigation that leads from Jordan to Iraq, through London and Cyprus to New York, Granot and his unorthodox team uncover plans for just the attack that has terrified American security experts for years: a nuclear bomb slipped onto a container and rigged to explode in a major US seaport. Meanwhile, Marie discovers a startling personal connection to the Islamist terrorist behind the plot, a secret that jeopardizes her life and the entire mission.

"Emily Benedek is the new female voice of suspense novels of the highest order.  RED SEA is filled with complex plot twists and memorable characters, plus a chilling vision of a terrorist attack even deadlier than 9/11.  Ms. Benedek obviously knows her stuff, and it shows on every page." -- Nelson De Mille



"Solid suspense, a fine thriller... A tremendous young talent."  -- Stephen Coonts



“Red Sea is a gripping foray into the world of terrorism. Ms. Benedek has done her homework.” -- Steven Emerson, author of American Jihad and executive director of The Investigative Project on Terrorism

 

“Emily Benedek’s realistic and factual thriller about terrorism is not only a heart-stopping read, it informs as much as it entertains.” –Naomi Ragen, author of The Covenant

Emily Benedek is a journalist and author. Her articles and essays have appeared in Newsweek, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Glamour, and on NPR, among others. She is the author of The Wind Won’t Know Me: A History of the Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute (Knopf, 1992); Beyond the Four Corners of the World: A Navajo Woman’s Journey (Knopf, 1996); and Through the Unknown, Remembered Gate: A Spiritual Journey (Shocken, 2001).Benedek spent a year following an FBI special agent working counterterrorism and wrote about an F-15C fighter pilot who flew in Operation Shock and Awe. Red Sea is her first novel.

She may be able to see the future, but she needs to know what happened to her past. Calla thought that her boyfriend breaking up with her in a text message was the worst thing that could ever happen to her. But just two weeks later, her mother died in a freak accident, and life as she knew it was completely over. With her father heading to California for a new job, they decide that Calla should spend a few weeks with the grandmother she barely knows while he gets them set up on the west coast.

To Calla’s shock, her mother’s hometown of Lily Dale is almost entirely populated by spiritualists who can communicate with the dead—and her grandmother is one of them. Suddenly, the fact that her mother never talked about her past takes on more mysterious overtones. The longer she stays in town, the stranger things become, as Calla starts to experience unusual and unsettling events that lead her to wonder whether she has inherited her grandmother’s unique gift. Is it this gift that is making her suspect that her mother’s death was more than an accident, or is it just an overactive imagination? Staying in Lily Dale is the only way to uncover the truth. But will Calla be able to deal with what she learns about her mother's past and her own future?

Wendy’s latest adult thriller, DON'T SCREAM, spent five weeks on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists! Publisher's Weekly says: "Staub keeps things taught and unpredictable, changing perspective often and offering up a whole school of red herrings; capped with a gratifying conclusion, Staub's latest is a(n)...effective thriller."

Wendy Corsi Staub is the award-winning author of more than sixty published novels. Under her own name, Wendy achieved New York Times bestselling status with the single title psychological suspense novels she writes for Zebra Books. Those novels and the women's fiction she writes under the pseudonym Wendy Markham have also frequently appeared on the USA Today, Barnes and Noble Top Ten, and Bookscan bestseller lists.

When he's called to North Carolina to consult on the case of an area serial killer, Patrick Bowers finds himself in a deadly game of cat and mouse. Cunning and lethal, the killer is always one step ahead of the law, and he's about to strike again.

It will take all of Bowers's instincts and training to stop this man who calls himself the Illusionist. Just when the pieces start to come together, Bowers realizes they're not quite adding up. Can he uncover the Illusionist's strategy and save the next victim? Thrilling, chilling, and impossible to put down, "The Pawn" will hold you in its iron grip until the very last page.

"Riveting...a gripping plot and brisk pacing." -- Publishers Weekly



"In his brilliant debut novel, Steven James gives us a captivating look at the fine line between good and evil in the human heart. "The Pawn" is not to be missed." -- Ann Tatlock, Christy-award winning author



"Steven James combines 21st-century high-tech law enforcement techniques with 18th-century Sherlockian deduction to craft an exciting, suspense-filled story." -- Dr. Kim Rosmo, Center for Geospatial Intelligence and Investigation, Texas State University.

Steven James is a critically acclaimed author and award winning storyteller whose stories and articles have appeared in more than eighty different magazines. Since 2000 he has written more than twenty nonfiction books and taught at writing conferences in the United States, Canada and India. "The Pawn" is his first thriller and launches a new series of suspense-filled novels that are already receiving rave reviews. 

High above blizzard-ravaged Chicago, a crippled airliner is barely flying, half it's roof torn away by a collision with another airplane.  With help from a handful of survivors, including a woman from his carefully concealed past, Donovan Nash struggles to help the injured Captain fly the heavily damaged aircraft.

On the ground, Donovan's fiancée, Dr. Lauren McKenna, discovers a plot by the airline's CEO to let the stricken airliner vanish into the icy waters of Lake Michigan.  As flight 880 runs out of fuel and daylight, Lauren and others execute a desperate attempt to save Donovan and the passengers circling helplessly above.



"I loved it.  Philip Donlay is a gifted storyteller, and everything is there-great characters, great plot, and suspense and momentum that don't stop.  Put this book on the very top of your reading list."  Brian Haig, best-selling author of Private Sector and The President's Assassin



"Highly recommended for all popular fiction collections--sure to make a great vacation read, but beware reading it on the plane while en route. Michael Gannon, Booklist



Philip Donlay is a professional pilot who has spanned the globe for nearly three decades.  A native of Kansas, he divides his time between Minneapolis and Northern Virginia.  Code Black is his second novel.

FALSE FORTUNE finds attorney/kayaker Hannah Dain in deep water. The chance rescue of a drowning woman leads to Hannah's appointment as lead trial counsel in her sister Shelby's case.

Then a new friend pulls her into a treasure hunt-or is it fraud?-while a recently-discovered family member threatens Hannah's relationship with Shelby. Only by taking a gutsy chance can Hannah unravel the scheme and unite both halves of her family.



"Vivid descriptions of the desert provide a dramatic backdrop.... Phelan has created a swiftly-moving tale of corporate corruption and tangled, touching family relationships." -- Publishers Weekly



"A unique blend of tense legal thriller and dashing outdoor adventure" Rhys Bowen, Anthony-Award winning author, Edgar finalist

Author of the award-winning Pinnacle Peak series, TWIST PHELAN received her undergraduate and law degrees from Stanford University. A former trial lawyer, she enjoys world travel and endurance athletics. Her research for FALSE FORTUNE included outrigger racing in Australia and surf ski paddling in Hawaii. Find out more about Twist and her books at www.twistphelan.com.