This month we, get stoked for a tenth anniversary, British (and Irish) writers win awards, and Russel celebrates a naughty word with a whole caboodle of more talented writers. Oh, and we’ve got some more British thriller releases for you, too.

I don’t know about you, but recently I’ve been putting up bows, getting out the wrapping paper and dusting off my tinsel covered top-hat. Actually, since the retail world starts preparing for Christmas sometime in June (its getting closer to January every year) I’ve been indulging in this sort of behaviour for months. Its no wonder retailers get more cynical as we close in to the end of the year.

Luckily, cynicism is the perfect attitude for a crime fiction bookseller, so I’ve been more than happy pottering around my books, getting ready to recommend that people stuff their family’s stockings with murder, mayhem and violence when the holiday season begins.

In their fourth hysterical outing, Terry and Kerry are headed to Santa Catalina for a family vacation with Aunt Reba and Cousin Robert. But all is not as it appears on this quaint island getaway, as the twins learn when they launch an investigation into the case of a bride, uncovering an efarious plot that reaches all the way from the shores of Catalina to a defunct Namibian diamond mine. The Con Artist of Catalina Island takes aim at the Patriot Act and the suspension of habeas corpus, while answering the burning question: What happens when you mix a French poodle with a herd ofbuffalo?

 Praise for Jennifer Colt's McAfee Twins Series. . .

"Hilarious." -- NoveList

"Charming." -- Chicago Sun Times

"A hoot." -- Crime Spree Magazine

"Required reading." -- New York Post

"Fast and furious." -- Barnes and Noble Editors

"A true Original." -- Pages Magazine

"Sexy."  -- New Mystery Reader

"Awesome." -- Empowerment4women.org

"Rollicking and thrilling." -- Curled Up With a Good Book

"Extremely funny." -- Harley Jane Kozak, award-winning author of Dating Dead Men

"A winner." -- Julie Kenner, bestselling author of Carpe Demon: Adventures of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom

Jennifer Colt is a screenwriter and comedic novelist who lives in Santa Monica, California, with her forbearing husband.

CIA Forensic Scientist Dr. Christine Myers works alongside a team of Navy SEALs, as they investigate a derelict Korean submarine that has mysteriously floated into U.S. waters. The entire crew of the Dragon is found dead and mutilated, and the SEALs start dying one by one. Now the survivors must band together against an unseen and lethal enemy!

“A top-notch thriller from a young writer of immense promise.” -- Charles Dickinson, author of A Shortcut in Time

Gerry Doyle graduated from the University of Kansas with degrees in journalism and philosophy. His short stories have been published internationally, and Doyle is a member author at International Thriller Writers, Inc. He works as an editor for the Chicago Tribune's Metro section. He lives in the Chicago area.

ITW contributing editor, Keith Raffel , recently caught up with Robert Liparulo to ask him about his just-released thriller Deadfall which Steve Berry calls “inventive, suspenseful, and highly entertaining.”

Let’s start at the beginning. Tell us about Deadfall.

It’s about four friends who head up into the wilds of northern Canada to recharge after a tough year. They run into a group of young punks who are field testing a satellite laser cannon—and terrorizing a small town with it. The campers have to decide whether to run for their lives or help the townsfolk. In ten words or less, it’s an update of Deliverance...without the hillbillies.

Probably without the banjos, too. Why did you write Deadfall? For entertainment only? Or are you trying to get some other messages across as well?

I’ve always strived to entertain readers with my stories. My characters, good guys and bad, tend to be psychologically complex. I’m interested in exploring why people do the things they do. So, while I want my story to be a great ride for readers, I want to engage them intellectually as well.

What did you learn writing Germ and Comes A Horseman that you’ve applied to Deadfall?

With the first two books, I obsessed on research. I wanted to keep looking for that little nugget, that perfect touch that would give readers absolute confidence I knew what I was talking about. For Deadfall, I tried focusing on the truly relevant facts, without scurrying down every rabbit trail. As a result, I was able to immerse myself in my characters’ world more and tell a tighter story.

Is Deadfall a metaphor for what society is losing by focusing on technologic innovation instead of old-fashioned values?

The fun of Deadfall is watching the match-up between the campers with almost no technology and the punks with ultra-high technology. Nowadays, most people would assume the advantage belongs to whoever has the best technology—and they may be right; but there’s the human element, which can never truly be taken out of the equation.

Do you have anything cooking with Hollywood ?

Comes a Horseman was optioned by Mace Neufeld, who produced Tom Clancy’s movies. The film rights to Germ was purchased by Red Eagle Entertainment, the company bringing Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time to the screen. And the movie rights to my yet-untitled fifth novel was purchased by Mike Medavoy at Phoenix Pictures (Zodiac, Stealth). I’m writing the novel and working on the screenplay with director Andrew Davis (The Fugitive, The Guardian).

I understand you’ve published over a thousand articles. Did you invent software that writes them for you?

For a long time, my sole source of income was as a freelance magazine writer, so I had to work hard and fast. At first, I begrudged it since it wasn’t the fiction I longed to write, but the lessons I learned were invaluable to my becoming a novelist—how to research, how to write succinctly, how to work under the pressure of deadlines.

Tell me about a typical day in the life of Robert Liparulo.

I work late into the night, so I don’t start my day until 9:30 or 10:00 in the morning. The first hour, I get organized, answer emails. Then I write for a few hours. I wrap up the daylight hours with research or marketing tasks—updating my website or whatever. I spend the late afternoon and evening with my family, then get back to work about 10pm . I write until about 1:00 or 2:00 —even later, on Deadfall, I was so into it.

While casting for trout in a mountain stream, you hook a mysterious brass lamp. You rub it and out pops a genie, wearing waders, who offers you three writing wishes. What do you ask for?

I’m not sure I was ready for that image of a fly fishing genie, but hey, as long as the guy’s handing out wishes... (1) That my writing keeps improving; (2) that I live long enough to tell all the stories I have in mind; and (3) that I find the time to read the way I used to—I’ve been so busy lately, I haven’t read even a quarter of the novels I’ve purchased. I miss that more than anything else.

Robert Liparulo and his family live in Colorado in the foothills of the Rockies.

Keith Raffel wrote Dot Dead, "without question the most impressive mystery debut of the year" according to Bookreporter.com.  Former counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, he is currently finishing up Two Graves, a political thriller set – where else? – in Washington, D.C.

ITW contributing editor Mark Terry recently chatted with James Twining about his new thriller, THE GILDED SEAL.

Some writers have all the luck. James Twining’s latest novel, THE GILDED SEAL, published on October 15, 2007 in the U.K. and pretty much the rest of the world with the exception of the U.S., features recurring hero, ex-art thief Tom Kirk. The new book involves three real life art thefts. One is the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa, a second is the 2003 theft of the da Vinci painting, “The Madonna of Yarnwinder” and the third is an art fraud case out of New York City. Conveniently for Twining, The Madonna of Yarnwinder was recovered on October 5th and arrests made, only ten days prior to the release of his latest novel.

Twining says, “The story is one where Tom is hired to investigate the theft of the Madonna of Yarnwinder and gets distracted by the murder of an old friend. When he investigates, he discovers there’s a major plot to steal the Mona Lisa.”

Twining lives in London with his wife and two daughters. He notes that he used to work on Wall Street, then left to open his own business, which he eventually sold. “I didn’t make a lot of money, but enough to take a year off and write the first book (THE DOUBLE EAGLE) and that’s what I’ve been doing since.”

Growing up in Paris and working and living in the U.S. and the U.K. have proven to be useful fodder for novels that hopscotch around the world. Twining says THE GILDED SEAL “starts in Spain. One of the things I loved about Robert Ludlum’s books was the way the story jumps all over different locations and different strands come together. It moves to Scotland, to London, to New York, to Paris and finally to Havana.”

Although not formally trained in art, which plays such a huge role in his books, Twining notes that he was raised in Paris. “One of the things about growing up in Paris is your parents are always dragging you around to all the great museums. I went grudgingly, with a fight, but in time grew to appreciate it. What I really like besides the aesthetics are the stories behind the art: where it’s been, what battles were involved, was it stolen. I was always very interested in the stories behind the art.”

His recurring series character, Tom Kirk, is half-American, half-English. At one time he was a spy for the U.S. government, but “the government forced him out and he became an art thief.” After going straight, Kirk now is pulled in by various groups to help recover stolen items. Twining notes, “By the standard measure of morality he’s a bad guy. He’s a thief, a killer, but he’s also got a strong moral center. He provides the moral compass for the entire book. Of good and evil people, it’s often the supposedly bad people who display the greater good and the supposedly good people who display the great acts of badness. He’s heroic despite his credentials and I think that creates an interesting relationship with the reader because they’re rooting for the ‘bad guy’ and booing the ‘good guys.’ It gives the reader a different kind of experience.”

Although the U.S. publication date of THE GILDED SEAL is still unknown, Twining’s second Tom Kirk novel, THE BLACK SUN, is due out from HarperCollins in mass market paperback around Christmas 2007. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages.

Mark Terry is an ITW contributing editor and the author of the Derek Stillwater thrillers, the latest of which is THE SERPENT’S KISS. Visit his website at www.markterrybooks.com.

ITW contributing editor Mark Combes recently got a chance to catch up with Chris Grabenstein and chat about the second in his Christopher Miller Holiday Thrillers, Hell for the Holidays.

Grabenstein is best known as the writer of the very popular and Anthony Award winning Ceepak Mysteries.  But Chris isn’t content with just one best-selling series - the Miller Thrillers are Grabenstein’s second series and he’ll be starting a third middle grade series in 2008.  Yes, that’s correct.  Three series at one time.  He blames it on his advertising background.

“I’m used to the pace of advertising.  My first professional writing job was doing Burger King copy for James Patterson at J. Walter Thompson, NY. There is no writer’s block in adland – just unemployment.  So, you get used to a fast work pace.

“My publisher said he liked former advertising writers because ‘we don’t waste people’s time.’  I guess that comes with spending close to two decades writing thirty second spots where you had to grab the audience’s attention in the first two or three seconds and only had a grand total of seventy words to make your entire point.”

And Chris’ Thrillers certainly do that – grab you from the beginning.  In Hell for the Holidays, the prologue starts with Miller’s daughter having a very nasty nightmare and Miller confessing to himself that he’s not sure he can keep her safe.  It’s short.  It’s scary.  And you know something bad is going to happen very soon.  That Miller will again have to save his daughter.

“I have a soft spot for children in jeopardy.  I also think, from a story telling perspective, children in jeopardy are our worst nightmare. Civilization, in some ways, was established to protect children.  Our guardians, the cops and FBI agents, are put to the ultimate test when protecting kids.”

And as with any good thriller, the pace Chris sets is relentless.

“The Christopher Miller books are thrillers from page one.  If the Ceepak books are page turners, the Millers are page rippers.  Severe danger of paper cuts, the pages flip by so fast.  I think mysteries are more about solving a puzzle, thrillers are more about pure adrenaline and classic irony – the reader knows things the actors on the pages do not!  Makes for many a sleepless night.”

James Patterson hired Chris Grabenstein as a junior copywriter at the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency in New York. His TILT A WHIRL won the Anthony Award for “Best First Mystery,” MAD MOUSE was named one of Kirkus’ “Ten Best Mysteries of 2006,” and WHACK A MOLE came out this summer. Ceepak #4 HELL HOLE will be published by St. Martin’s Minotaur in 2008. He also writes the Christopher Miller Holiday Thrillers (SLAY RIDE and HELL FOR THE HOLIDAYS) and his Young Adult Ghost Story series will debut in 2008 from Random House.

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

For former pre-school teacher Michael Bennett, spending time with his beloved five-year-old nephew goes hand in hand with his ongoing recovery from terrors of the past. But now Justin has vanished, while under Michael's care. As the prime suspect in the boy's disappearance, Michael is forced into an uneasy alliance with enigmatic policewoman Gloria Towson, who believe's Justin's fate is connected to a serial killer who targets gay men. In a desperate quest to rescue Justin and save Michael from becoming the killer's next victim, Gloria is tracking the abductor online - a task made more difficult by her supervisor, Louis D'Amecourt, who may be conspiring with FBI officials to keep her from learning the truth. Yet Michael may not be as innocent as he claims. He and D'Amecourt share a devastating secret; and five years ago Michael's first nephew disappeared in a remarkably similar crime.

"Double Abduction has it all in a fast-paced thriller." -- New York Times bestselling author Robert K. Tanenbaum

"A fast, smart thriller . . . tense, emotionally charged . . . the surprises just keep on coming." -- Alex Award winning author Bart Yates

"Double Abduction is a creepy, living nightmare that will be hard for readers to shake off." -- Edgar Award winning author Peter Blauner

Chris Beakey is a ghostwriter who spent years as a tutor and mentor in Washington, D.C.

Even though he's 38 and been working the streets for years, Izzy is what is known in crime circles as a “stickup kid”—a gunman who preys on other criminals. He and his partner, the jittery, brutal Mal, have one hard-and-fast rule when pulling a job: once they kill someone, all the witnesses have to die. Since their victims are armed thugs, this rule usually results in a roomful of bodies. Mal is the chief killer, but he insists that Izzy contribute his fair share. Izzy ends up on the run from a gang of vicious Albanians after refusing to shoot Eva, a beautiful social worker, when she witnesses Mal shooting several dealers.

"Gangi serves up a judicious portion of gangsta street talk, rough romance and raw violence in this exciting and gritty debut thriller." -- Publisher's Weekly

"Theo Gangi's first novel Bang Bang is a classic extreme thriller, with some surprising literary subtleties, and a level of Escherian interlocking that would make Tarantino's head spin." -- Madison Smartt Bell, author of All Soul's Rising

“Theo Gangi is a superb craftsman. His work displays diverse characters and wonderful dialogue that would make Elmore Leonard stand up and applaud. He is a new talent that has finally arrived.” -- Eric Jerome Dickey, New York Times Bestselling author

Theo Gangi is a novelist who’s first book, Bang Bang is being published by Kensington Books in November, 2007. A graduate of Columbia’s MFA program, his stories have appeared in The Greensboro Review, The Columbia Spectator and The Kratz Center Sampler. His articles and reviews have appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, 3AM Magazine and Crucial Minutiae.com, where he has a weekly column. Mr. Gangi currently teaches writing at John Jay College, CUNY. Look for his next book Kiss Kiss to be released in late 2008.

Noah Kingsley is the best agent available to solve the problem, but he isn't for sale.  Not even to heiress Faith Byrne, who's used to getting her way.  But when a stalker's obsession grows dangerous, Noah answers the call of duty--and once this Seeker takes on a job, he doesn't follow the rules.  Soon the stakes raise to uncontrollable heights, and Noah is caught in a game where anything and everything is fair play.

Sylvie Kurtz has written twenty books where she lets her imagination soar to create fictional adventures that explore the complexity of the mind and the thrill of suspense.  Visit www.sylviekurtz.com for an excerpt of Honor of a Hunter.

Dr. Xenon Pearl cuts brains for a living, and he’s as good as it gets. The other side of this motorcycle riding, brilliant doctor façade is a side that Xenon (aka Zee) hides even from his father. Secretly trained since childhood by his Chinese nanny, Wu, Tie Mei--herself a martial warrior of shadowy lineage--Dr. Xenon Pearl is also a martial arts expert who loves the sword as much as the scalpel. Now his past is showing up to literally haunt him. Dr. Xenon Pearl must use his skill – to defend the innocent, defeat the Russian mob, protect the woman who loves him, and stay one step ahead of a smart cop; he is set to lose everything unless he can cut just one more time.

“A gripping story...The Cutting Season is far more a page-turning mystery than a martial-arts slam-bang, more James Bond than Bruce Lee. Rosenfeld's medical knowledge and martial-arts expertise reinforce an authority and clarity to the work. Away from the book, I [might] dismiss the living spirit...but as I read, I believed her, heard her: that's storytelling!” -- Walter Anderson, Chairman & CE0 of Parade Magazine, Author of The Confidence Course

"Arthur Rosenfeld’s The Cutting Season is a marvelously entertaining blend of many different genres: medical thriller, psychological suspense, fantasy, martial arts adventure, romance, and crime drama, all neatly packaged into three hundred engrossing pages." -- Eleanor Bukowsky of Mostly Fiction Book Reviews

Arthur Rosenfeld is a martial arts teacher, writer, speaker, and coach. His martial arts training spans more than twenty-six years, and includes instruction in Tang Soo Do, Kenpo, Kung Fu, and Tai Chi Ch'uan. Rosenfield is a critically-acclaimed, best-selling author of eight novels (Avon Books, Bantam, Doubleday Dell, Forge Books), two non-fiction books (Simon and Schuster, Basic Books), several screenplays, and numerous magazine articles (Vogue, Vanity Fair, Parade, and others). He consults for the pharmaceutical industry as a recognized expert on aspects of chronic pain. Arthur Rosenfeld resides in Pompano Beach, FL.

A thrilling race against time, a smorgasbord of Chinese history, an epic love story, and the trenchant tale of one very special, intimate, and gifted family. Taoist immortals Sanfeng and Zetian are brother and sister who have lived in China for over 3000 years. Now, in the near future of 2009, they face an enemy they recognize from their childhood, a plague that left them orphaned and alone. A warning against the perils of the modern world; a clarion call to heed the wisdom of the ancient sages--before it’s too late.

Arthur Rosenfeld is a martial arts teacher, writer, speaker, coach, and highly sought after media guest. His media appearances, articles, and reviews include: Fox News Channel, Newsweek, Parade Magazine, Ebony, and The New York Times. Rosenfeld is a critically-acclaimed, best-selling author of eight novels two non-fiction books, several screenplays, and numerous magazine articles (Vogue, Vanity Fair, Parade, and others). He consults for the pharmaceutical industry as a recognized expert on aspects of chronic pain. Arthur Rosenfeld resides in Pompano Beach, FL.

Naked Option, Joe Kolman’s ITW debut novel, is about a disgraced options trader who tracks a multi-million fraud and a murder through Wall Street's gay subculture. Dave Ackerman, the narrator of Naked Option, is a brilliant young trader, but one day, recklessly trying to one-up his firm's superstar, he goes naked on an option trade -- and loses $112 million in two hours.  His career is over. Then he hears about an auditing job at an investment bank.  He knows within minutes that something is very wrong, but he's so desperate he takes the job.  His new partner is Susanna Cassuto, an attractive young auditor he mistakenly tags as a rich party girl. Together they uncover an elegant embezzlement scheme. When somebody turns up dead, they race to put the pieces together, but the bank drops the case. They're fired. Furious, Dave goes out on his own to find the killer.

"For a long plane ride or weekend escape, Naked Option is a breezy, easily digestible pleasure that reads like a pulp detective story in a Wall Street setting." -- Jonathan Hoenig, Chicago Sun-Times

"Even if you no idea what 'options trading' is, try this Wall Street thriller -- it may correct your ignorance, and it's also full of suspense, sex, and surprise." -- Alison Lurie, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of Foreign Affairs

Joe Kolman has been a financial writer for more than two decades. He has an MFA from Cornell University and has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony. He's currently a vice president at a large investment management firm and lives in Manhattan with his wife and two sons.

“How could I kidnap a child and get away with it?”

This was probably the wrong question to ask an FBI agent right out of the gate. The agent’s expression turned grim and his answer was clipped and a tad aggressive. “You couldn’t. We'd catch you."

“Yeah, but,” I said before he interrupted me.

“No buts. We’d catch you. When a kid gets snatched, we drop everything. It becomes top priority. You wouldn’t stand a chance.”

I’ll admit it was at this point I started to panic. Not because I thought the Feds weren’t going to let me leave the building, but because I saw my novel falling apart around me. A child kidnapping is a key factor in Paying the Piper. A kidnapper with a grudge comes after the family of a newspaper reporter. I thought it was a good idea. So did the publisher. They’d paid me an advance on this very storyline. In the space of five minutes, my book was in tatters before it was written because the FBI knew better.

I thought the storyline was going to be tough to pull off, but not this tough. I quickly outlined the scenario for the book to demonstrate my master plan for counteracting law enforcement procedure. I waited for him to applaud me for my criminal genius. He didn’t.

“We’d still catch you,” he said.

I wasn’t too downhearted as I didn’t care if my antagonist got caught, as long as he got caught on page 347 and not page 10. I put my frayed plotline to one side and we talked kidnappings—procedures, old cases, likely outcomes, etc. As I listened a single thought rose to the surface. It’s bloody hard to get away with a high profile crime. As far as I can see it, as soon as the cops get a hold of the case, you (the criminal) are toast.

The problem is, it is impossible not to leave a trail. It doesn’t matter if you go hi-tech or lo-tech. There’s a trail. As I listened, I could envisage a snail-like physical trail left behind by my fictional kidnapper and the cops following it all the way to his lair.

I couldn’t see a way around the problem. A kidnapper, being a kidnapper, needs to make contact with the kidnap family. Phones are a nightmare these days. Landline or wireless, they’re easy to trace. Digital seems to be the criminal’s worst enemy. The technology’s strength is its weakness. As easy as it is to use, it’s just as easy to locate.

Going old school doesn’t help matters either. If the kidnapper sends a letter, he’s going to need a return address for return correspondence. That doesn’t even cover the issues of how easy it would be to trace the sorting offices the letter went through to narrow down the sender’s location. Document specialists can lift all sorts of forensic evidence off paper.

The only thing left open to the kidnapper is face-to-face meets and that’s fish-in-a-barrel time for law enforcement.

It doesn’t matter how you slice it, if you kidnap a kid for ransom, you’re going to get caught.

Eventually, with a little a devious ingenuity plot-wise and some character flaws, I built a plotline that worked, but the Q&A with the FBI was a tipping point. I’m a good guy, but it made me question myself and whether I would ever cross a legal line. I can’t say I won’t, but I can’t rule it out. Circumstance may dictate otherwise. However, the more I write and the more I research crimes for my stories, the more honest it makes me. In spite of how smart I think I am, I’d get caught. I’ve seen the inside of police stations, courtrooms and a prison and I quite honestly can say I don’t want to be arrested, I don’t want to go to court, and I definitely don’t want to go jail. I wouldn’t last a day in the big house. This smart mouth would get me into all sorts of trouble.

So a simple question about kidnapping helped turn me into a more law abiding person. It’s my fiction that’s just plain criminal…

Simon Wood is a California transplant from England.  In the last seven years, he's had over 140 stories and articles published. He's the author of WORKING STIFFS and ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN. PAYING THE PIPER hits bookshelves in November.

A world famous wine critic is murdered in the vineyards of south-west France.  Scots forensics expert Enzo Macleod sets out to track down his killer and finds himself, literally, drowning in wine.

About Extraordinary People, the first in the series:



"A sharp edged tale woven with the intricacy of a spider's web.  Intelligent,

involved, and ingenious." -- Steve Berry



"A dynamite novel and a fine beginning to what promises to be an outstanding

crime fiction series." -- Carl Brookins



Peter May was once Scotland's Young Journalist of the Year.  After twenty years of creating and writing television drama in the UK, he gained international recognition for his series of six thrillers set in contemporary China.  He is now writing the third book in his cold case series set in France, the Enzo Files.  May lives in the south of France with his wife, writer Janice Hally.

ITW contributing editor Carolyn Haines talks to Lindy Cameron about her new thriller, REDBACK.

Lindy Cameron’s newest book, REDBACK, moves her focus from the more personal world of Melbourne investigator Kit O’Malley to the global scope of terrorism and political greed.

In REDBACK, we meet Commander Bryn Gideon and American journalist Scott Dreher. The book opens with Gideon’s Redbacks, a crack team of Australian retrieval agents resolving a hostage situation and then moving on to track a new terrorist group.

What made you decide to move from the more intimate world of a private investigator to a book of global scope?

I began my author’s life (back in the 1990s) with the type of book that I was reading at the time – contemporary crime with a strong female protagonist. I chose a PI because I wanted my main character to have the ‘freedom’ a cop doesn’t have when investigating something. I also wanted to present my home city, Melbourne , to a wider reading audience. A strong sense of place is one of the keystones of good crime fiction, and I wanted Melbourne to be a character in my series.

My first published book was an archaeological mystery adventure called Golden Relic. It was a stand-alone or is the first in series! It’s set in Melbourne , Cairo and Peru . I had such fun writing about places I’d been – or wanted to go – that I knew sooner or later I would return to the wider world.

By its very nature crime fiction holds the promise of a resolution. In fact, that is the unspoken pact that we modern crime (and thriller) writers make with our readers. And these days it’s not just the whodunit, but the why that’s important. The motives of the good and the bad guys must be examined or at least revealed, the outcome must be believable, if only in context, and justice, of some kind, must be seen to be done.

Most importantly, a good crime novel provides closure, brings order to the chaos of everyday life and reason to the madness around us. Within the covers of a crime novel you expect everything will turn out okay in the end. The good guys win hopefully with honor, integrity, and more than a few page-turning thrills.

So although crime fiction is the perfect vehicle for delving into social, legal, political, or environmental issues, these topics are usually investigated on a more intimate level through stories told in one place – like Melbourne . The foreign setting (as in Australia being foreign for Americans) simply puts a different slant on crimes that everyone can understand on some level. Crimes like murder, assault, robbery, white collar shenanigans, local political or environmental scandals. We all understand these on some level because they all happen locally – just with a different accent.

But in the 12 years that I’ve been dealing with the fictional crime-fighting of my own city, the real world around me has been going to hell in a hand-basket.

There’s war and warmongering, acts of terrorism, whether homegrown or the work of the enemy, the nefarious schemes or governments or government agencies, and the wicked plots of rogue states or fanatical cells. Although these things are touching more and more of us, they are not yet something experienced by people in every neighborhood.{mospagebreak}

So the main reason I turned my fictional attention from the local to the international was because I got angry and frustrated enough at the world at large – and, in particular, with the many questionable political decisions and procedures instigated in Australia and abroad by other members of the so-called Coalition of the Willing. I wanted to find a way to express that frustration while entertaining as many people as possible.

It was obvious that a contemporary political / espionage / thriller was the best vehicle for the stories I now want to create: fast-paced action-adventure with believable heroes set in a recognizable world. Redback is fiction based in reality. I’m hoping it might be seen as the thinking-person’s action thriller.

Are the Redbacks fictional, and if so, what are they based on? If they’re real, would you tell us a little of their history?

The Redbacks are entirely fictional as far as I know. I’ve read a lot in the past few years about mercenary-types or just ex-cops or soldiers who have been hired to re-abduct children kidnapped by a parent who takes them home to his (usually) or her own country. There’s also the host of foreign businessmen kidnapped on a regular basis by rebels or insurgent groups or criminals asking for ransoms. These victims also get rescued by mercenaries and the like.

The Redbacks as a concept were based on the need for that kind of unit as a full-time operation. They are government-sanctioned but not government run. I also endowed them with all the money, high-tech gear and resources they could ever want so they can just pick up and go wherever they’re needed. If only they were real.

The name Redback, by the way, is taken from one of Australia ’s many poisonous spiders.

What authors inspired you to take on such a big landscape? Is there any political/thriller writer that you greatly admire?

I love Nelsen DeMille for his action and his splendid storytelling. I also really like Carsten Stroud, David A Rollins, Gayle Lynds , Taylor Smith, and Vince Flynn.

But my crime/psychological thriller writing hero is Val McDermid.

In REDBACKS, did the plot come to you first, or the characters?

The characters and the idea for the retrieval agency came first by a whisker. I wanted to create a group of Australian action heroes but set them in an international arena. And I wanted to comment on home-grown and international politics include an American non-fighting hero and terrorists from a variety of backgrounds to demonstrate it’s not as simple as us and them – because who are we; and who are they?{mospagebreak}

Was it difficult to manage so many different elements of such a complex story? How do you manage a timeline in a book like this?

I nearly went mad. The timeline was especially difficult because the whole story takes place over a couple of weeks but things are going on at the same time in Sydney, Washington, Peshawar, Houston, and the middle of the Pacific. This means stuff happens in the same moment but all the times and even the days are obviously different.

Rather than writing each character or group’s story arc and then editing it into the correct time frames, I wrote it chronologically. So I wrote from one scene to the next – in the same order that readers get to read it. Hence the madness!

I’ve heard highly respected authors talk about the reason for writing a particular book. I was struck by one author’s statement that “if a book isn’t political, at heart, there’s no reason to write it.” (political in the sense that it addresses issues such as class, race, gender—not party politics) Would you agree or disagree with this statement, and also if REDBACKS is “political,” would you care to elaborate on this?

I think I answered this one earlier, but I totally agree with the statement. My crime novels are political in the sense of addressing personal equality, freedoms, the local political or criminal machinations that affect everyday life, etc.

REDBACK is political on just about every level including actually political in terms of how I have represented my fictional world Leaders and the things they do, and what my other characters think of that.

You’re very active in Sisters in Crime. Along with serving as co-convenor, you edit STILETTO, an anthology of Australians sisters’ stories published annually. You also have a crime anthology coming out from MIRA in 2008. Why short fiction, which has been such a difficult sale in past years?

The short-fiction answer is: I was Editor of Scarlet Stiletto the first cut which is an anthology of the 13 first-prize winning stories, and 13 category-winning stories from the first 13 years of our annual crime and mystery short story competition called The Scarlet Stiletto Awards.

I am also Editor of Stiletto, the Sisters in Crime Australia magazine, which comes out three times a year and features interviews, reviews, and feature stories on the many functions we run.

I am also the Editor of and a contributor to a True Crime anthology called Meaner Than Fiction [subtitled Powerful Australian True Crime Stories of Failed Justice]; and co-author, with my sister Fin J Ross, of a forthcoming True Crime collection called Killer in the Family.

Lindy Cameron is a resident of Australia and national co-convenor of Sisters in Crime Australia Inc. She is also an animal lover with five cats and one dog in her household. You can find out more about Lindy at www.lindycameron.com

ITW contributing editor Carolyn Haines is the author of PENUMBRA, named one of the top five mysteries of 2006 by Library Journal, and FEVER MOON, a Book Sense notable book, and is a contributor to the New York Times Best Selling anthology MANY BLOODY RETURNS. Her newest thriller is REVENANT. www.carolynhaines.com

With a razor-sharp story of revenge, conspiracy, and murder, #1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci is back with another edge-of-your-seat thriller, Stone Cold. Oliver Stone and the Camel Club are back in their most dangerous adventure yet, a war on two fronts with casino king Jerry Bagger from The Collectors hunting Annabelle Conroy who conned him out of millions and a deadly new opponent – Harry Finn who sets his bull’s-eye on Stone which may cause readers to reconsider their views of good and evil. As bodies and institutions topple, the story rockets toward a shattering finale that will leave the survivors of this explosive tale changed forever.

“The modern-day paladins of the Camel Club are back in their third exciting adventure… Gripping, chilling and full of surprises, Baldacci’s latest reveals the anarchy that lurks under the slick façade of corrupted governments.” -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“When Baldacci is on fire, nobody can touch him, and this is an exhilarating thriller: fast paced, with a cast of engaging characters, a couple of mind-wrenching plot twists, and a general air of derring-do that keeps the proceedings from getting too heavy. Let’s hope this isn’t Oliver Stone’s last appearance.” -- Library Journal (starred review) 

David Baldacci is the author of fourteen consecutive New York Times and worldwide bestsellers. With his books published in over 40 languages in more than 80 countries, and with over 50 million copies in print worldwide, David Baldacci is one of the world’s favorite storytellers. He’s also the cofounder, along with his wife, of the Wish You Well Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting literacy efforts across America. Still a resident of his native Virginia, he invites you to visit him at www.davidbaldacci.com, and his foundation at www.wishyouwellfoundation.org.

With a storm paralyzing New England, the O'Boyle household becomes prey to a pair of brutal killers, desperate to find refuge.  It's a time when the family--dyfuntionally arguing over trivia as they begin their holiday vacation, must learn the value of love and family ties as they join forces in a psychological battle to make sure that this Christmas is not their last.

"Graham's tight plotting, her keen sense of when to reveal and when to tease...will keep fans turning the pages." -- Publishers Weekly on Picture Me Dead

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

Bestselling author William Bernhardt has published his twenty-third novel CAPITAL THREAT. In it, his long-running series character, defense attorney Ben Kincaid, has a new job-he's a senator, embroiled in politics very much not-as-usual. The Republican President has nominated Thaddeus Roush to the Supreme Court. Roush seems appropriately conservative and he's passed his apparently lame background checks. During a White House rose garden press conference presenting his nomination, Roush announces he's gay on live TV. Suddenly the President isn't very interested in Roush as a judge. Although he can't very well back out now, he can try to kill the nomination via his party. The Democrats, on the other hand, find themselves in the unusual situation of wanting to sponsor and support a Republican Supreme Court nominee. The case, already rather sticky, gets even stickier--or weirder--when during a press conference a dead body shows up in Roush's backyard.

In steps Senator Ben Kincaid from Oklahoma, appointed by the Governor of Oklahoma after the death of the sitting senator. Since he has the least to lose out of all of the Democratic senators, he is chosen by the Democratic leadership to be Roush's consultant/lawyer/representative during the Senate hearings. The book then alternates between the hearings and Kincaid's investigator’s search for the identity of the dead woman.

William Bernhardt, who lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, talks to ITW contributing editor, Mark Terry, about his latest books and writing.

Terry: You used to be a practicing attorney, right?

Bernhardt: I practiced for not quite ten years as a trial lawyer in the litigation department of a big firm. Somewhere in the middle of that, about 1991, my first novel, PRIMARY JUSTICE was published, and did a lot better than expected—better than I expected, I can tell you that. But who knew what would happen? I didn’t want to move precipitously, I had children to support. It kept working out quite well and then in about January ’96 I resigned from the firm and started writing fulltime.

Terry: You moved Ben from Oklahoma to Washington, DC. Why?

Bernhardt: Well, I moved him to DC in the previous book, CAPITOL MURDER. I do try to keep it fresh. The problem with series that go on for a while is that sometimes they start to look all the same, the plots start to look interchangeable, only the themes change. So I do try to make each new Ben Kincaid installment change--fundamentally and structurally different--and try to tell different stories. And one way to do that is to move him out of town now and then, which sounds like a superficial sort of change, but it really isn’t. It fundamentally changes the whole equation, like when Ben goes to Chicago or to Washington, DC.{mospagebreak}

Terry: But CAPITOL THREAT isn’t even that much of a murder mystery. I would call it a political thriller.

Bernhardt: CAPITOL THREAT is not even a courtroom drama, although there are hearings-- instead of courtroom machinations there are political machinations. I think the people who like the other will like this, but it keeps me fresh and engaged, too.

I didn’t expect the “Capitol” thing to run for two or three books, but CAPITOL MURDER sold really well, we got a nice step up in sales and I’d already turned in the next book. A month or two after CAPITOL MURDER was released I got a call from my editor—you know, they never want to tell you anything about sales numbers or how your book’s coming—but when the editor called and said, “You know the end of this book where Ben comes home from Washington? You might want to rethink that.” Hmmm, something good must be happening. I’m glad it worked.

I’ve done 23 books now and I’ve tried different things and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. And as you know, in CAPITOL THREAT the murder mystery aspect is almost a subplot. It’s got to be there, people expect it, but it’s almost a subplot, it’s not really the main event. And even less so in the next book, which is probably going to be titled CAPITOL CONSPIRACY, which is pretty much a straight-ahead political thriller. And I think the best of the three.

Terry: Are you a visit-the-place researcher or an Internet-National Geographic-Fodor’s kind of researcher?

Bernhardt: I like to visit the place, but the truth is, you can spend an hour on the Internet and get about as much as you could get in a week on in-place research. The one thing you can’t get, and I don’t mean this to sound too mystical, but you can’t get a feel for the place, if you know what I mean. You can’t see the people and how they talk to each other and what they wear.

Terry: You’ve got a new standalone novel coming out in August, right?

Bernhardt: Yes, it’s quite classy, going to be called STRIP SEARCH, which is a sequel to a book I did a few years ago called DARK EYE, which is outside the series. I thought DARK EYE was a standalone, but now it’s got a sequel. It’s set in Vegas, which is why it’s titled STRIP SEARCH because it’s set on the Vegas strip and they’re “searching” for the bad guy. I don’t know what you were thinking when I said STRIP SEARCH, but it might work in the airport for the guy who has 20 seconds to pick a book--that title might help. It’s a much more psychological and complex characterization than what I’ve been doing with the Kincaid books, and I think it’s the best book I’ve ever done.

Mark Terry is an ITW contributing editor and the author of the Derek Stillwater thriller series. His newest thriller, The Serpent’s Kiss, is available in stores and online.

In his novels, Kyle Mills tackles controversial issues while entertaining readers at the same time. In Fade, a man is falsely accused of being a terrorist.  In Smoke Screen, he examined the social issues surrounding the tobacco industry.  Now, he creates a timely thriller that exposes the dangers of the world’s dependence on oil in Darkness Falls.

What sparked the idea for Darkness Falls?

I was interested in the topic of the world's dependence on oil and, more specifically, what would happen if availability was suddenly cut off. 

It also presented a substantial challenge:  How do you wipe out such a durable and diverse resource?  Right up my alley, since my favorite part of writing thrillers is figuring out how to pull off ridiculously difficult crimes.

Why bring back the character of Mark Beamon now, after a three book absence?

Oh, I missed him something awful. 

Seriously, not writing Mark was less a conscious decision to get rid of him as it was an attraction to subject matters that didn’t work for him. I always knew he’d come back when I discovered the right venue.

Do you think we are fighting in the Middle East for oil?

No question. If the Middle East didn’t have oil, we’d pay no more attention to it than we do sub-Saharan Africa.  And without money flooding in from around the world, they would have no capacity to build weapons that could be any real threat.

Does a bacteria and organisms that eat oil actually exist?  Should we be concerned?

Yes on both fronts. The real-world counterpart of my bacteria is Geobacillus thermodenirificans, an organism recently found in a Chinese oil well.  It can survive in temperatures as high as 165F with crude oil as its sole energy source, and it is easily altered on a genetic level to tailor it to specific tasks.{mospagebreak}

What would the consequences be of the drastic reduction in oil that you depict in Darkness Falls?

A disaster beyond your wildest imagination.

People in the developed world rely on a very delicate web of specialized skills and complex supply chains.  Think about it:  What would you do if there was suddenly no food in the grocery stores and no gas to put in your tank?  How would you eat?  Go to work?  Heat your home?  If you needed the police or an ambulance, how would they get to you?  How would the incredibly high-tech medical and pharmaceutical industry that we’ve come to rely on keep going?  And, in the end, how would you prevent chaos when people became desperate?

What can we do to help get rid of this oil dependence?

I don’t think there is the political will to try to reduce our dependence and that means we’re going to have to wait until it becomes scarce.

Depending on which statistics you read, we either have plenty of oil or we are going to run out anyway in less than fifty years.  What do you see fifty years in the future?

By 2057, I’m confident that oil will be scarce and expensive.  I seriously doubt it will be used for things like transportation anymore because it won’t be able to compete with available alternatives. Even with current technology, a jump in gas prices to seven dollars starts to make a $35,000 plug-in hybrid look attractive.

Will your next novel incorporate the changes you describe at the end of Darkness Falls? 

No, though with Mark Beamon, I seem to have accidentally created an alternate universe a la Tom Clancy.  Maybe that will signal the end of Mark. I’m not sure.  Honestly, the whole idea of him being permanently gone doesn’t sit well with me.  We have such history together.

The book I’m working on now is about an American who inadvertently becomes entangled in organized crime and politics in Africa.  I spend a lot of time in South Africa and have always wanted to try to capture the dangerous energy of that continent. 

Click to read an except from DARKNESS FALLS.