Who We Are: January 2008
ITW Debut Authors Origins …
Way back when, in 2006 to be exact, there was a group of authors facing the release of their debut novels. One of them, Jason Pinter, put out a call for fellow debut crime writers to join him. Soon he had a band of merry murderers, dubbed Killer Year.
Their goal? To see each other through their debut year, to help promote each other, to forge new connections, and to try to have some fun along the way.
I met the Killer Year group at ThrillerFest in
It was a fantastic success. Killer Year members have received nominations for awards, accolades from national press, film deals, foreign rights, and now, under the editorial guidance of Lee Child, have an anthology due to be released.
Lee went to the ITW Board and proposed a long-term continuation of an ITW Debut Author Program. One that all ITW debuts could participate in, sharing knowledge with their published fellow members.
And thus, I present to you, the first group of ITW Debut Authors … Let The Thrill Begin!
CJ Lyons
Sean Michael Bailey, 1787, available now
Sean Michael Bailey is the pen name of an investigative reporter and New York Times bestselling author of true crime books who has switched to fiction. The thriller 1787 is his first novel.
At 36,000 feet, the cyber-battle has begun and the stakes are higher than life-and-death. Matt Newton and his fellow passengers aboard Flight 1787 from Kennedy Airport face a series of battles, both real and virtualon on which not just their lives depend. They must face a fearless enemy who uses secret technology and ruthless violence in a grab to achieve a sacred goal. The odds are impossible, the consequences beyond reckoning.
http://seanmichaelbailey.com
Sibylle Barrasso, DARK WATERS, August, 2008
Sibylle Barrasso traded the sunny skies of California for the harsh Boston winters to work for Bain & Company. Her career in high tech became the basis for DARK WATERS, a mystery about a prominent university professor, the nation's foremost AIDS expert, whose lifeless body washes up on the banks of the Charles. When his diminutive widow is arrested for murder, the result is a media frenzy. Macy Adams is the private eye the young widow hires to save her from spending a life sentence in prison. During Macy's investigation, she discovers a shocking secret from the professor's past that puts her own life in jeopardy. Sibylle Barrasso received an award from Sue Grafton for the sequel to DARK WATERS at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, and was twice a finalist in the St. Martin's Press Best First Private Eye Novel contest.
Chris Beakey, DOUBLE ABDUCTION, available now
Laura Benedict, ISABELLA MOON, available now
After spending almost twenty years writing book reviews, essays, and short stories that took themselves very seriously, Laura decided to get truly serious and write something fun. Thus, ISABELLA MOON, a supernatural thriller set in a small Kentucky town, was born. Released in hardcover by Ballantine Books in September, 2007, it will be followed by another thriller, CALLING MR. LONELY HEARTS, in Spring 2009. She lives with her husband and two children, a black Lab, and the occasional intrepid bobcat in rural southern Illinois--a lonely, enchanted sort of place that offers endless inspiration for writing thrillers.
Jennie Bentley, FATAL FIXER-UPPER, November, 2008
A career as a professional renovator and REALTOR® has given debut author Jennie Bentley plenty of fodder for her new series of Do-It-Yourself Home Renovation Mysteries from Penguin/Putnam. She has stumbled over dead bodies - those of birds, cockroaches, and the occasional rat - unearthed hidden treasure - gorgeous tile floors hidden under ugly vinyl, pristine footed bathtubs covered over with drywall - and had personal experience with just how dangerous renovating a house can be (she and her husband have come close to killing each other on many occasions while renovating the eight houses the family has owned in the past eight years). FATAL FIXER-UPPER, the first book in the DIY-series, will be released by Berkley Prime Crime in November, 2008. For more information, please visit http://www.jenniebentley.com.
Rebecca Cantrell, A TRACE OF SMOKE, Summer, 2009
Rebecca Cantrell has a two book deal from Tor/Forge for a mystery series set in
Kate Carlisle, HOMICIDE IN HARDCOVER, October, 2009
Kate Carlisle's debut novel, HOMICIDE IN HARDCOVER, the first book in the Bibliophile Mystery series, will be released by NAL in February 2009. A lifelong love of old books and an appreciation of the art of bookbinding led Kate to create the Bibliophile Mysteries, featuring rare book expert Brooklyn Wainwright, whose bookbinding and restoration skills invariably uncover old secrets, treachery and murder. In HOMICIDE IN HARDCOVER, a priceless--and supposedly cursed--copy of Goethe's FAUST draws Brooklyn into a murder investigation that only she can solve--with the help of clues she uncovers within the valuable book. Kate spent twenty years in television production before turning to writing. She lives with her husband in Venice Beach, California, and online at http://katecarlisle.com.
Peter Clenott, HUNTING THE KING, available now
I was born and grew up in Portland, Maine. After graduating from Bowdoin College, I settled in Boston and began a career in the non-profit world helping the homeless and at-risk stay housed or find new affordable housing. I now live in Haverhill, Massachusetts with my wife and three children and hold down two jobs to make ends meet. I am currently working on ALBERTVILLE, a coming of age story that takes place in the Congo in 1960. Book Description: Molly O'Dwyer was five years old when she witnessed her mother die in a fire. She never knew her father. After her mother's death, Molly was raised on the campus of a Jesuit college in Boston. Now an archaeologist, she has been recruited to participate on a dig in war torn Iraq to search for the remains of Jesus and his illegitimate daughter Hannaniah. As a scientist, Molly is compelled to find whatever or whoever is buried under the sands of ancient Babylon. As an observant Catholic, she is scared that whatever she discovers will have devastating consequences to her faith. Joined by an international team of archaeologists and pursued by Iraqi terrorists and American intelligence, Molly hunts for the king and for her own troubled soul. http://www.peterclenott.com
JJ Cooper, INTERROGATED, August, 2009
JJ Cooper spent seventeen years in the Australian Army, deploying on two tours of duty in East Timor and one tour to the Middle East in 2003. He specialised in Human Intelligence, including interrogation (as a practitioner and instructor). Since leaving the military, he spends every spare moment on his passion for writing. JJ's debut thriller, Interrogated, will be published by Random House Australia in 2009. INTERROGATED is a story of betrayal and nightmarish conspiracy firmly rooted in the highest levels of government across international alliances. Jay Ryan is an interrogator with a dark past and a tortured soul; he's also the keeper of secrets Israeli spies will kill to get their hands upon. Renowned for his skills, he is used to commanding a certain level of respect amongst his peers. Then one day Jay is drugged, tortured, tattooed and accused of rape. He is forced to reveal information that could further destabilise fragile Middle East relations and plunge the entire region into war. The story rockets toward a shattering finale that will leave the survivors changed forever. http://jjcooperaus.blogspot.com/Joshua Corin, NUCLEAR WINTER WONDERLAND
Joshua Corin grew up to a strapping 5'8'' in Rhode Island, a lovely state you've never been to and which is roughly the size of Yosemite National Park. He spent 7 years at the State University of New York at Binghamton, and all he got to show for it was a Bachelor's degree, two Master's degrees, three consecutive assistantships, and mononucleosis. In 2000, he went on to work on the Broadway revival of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and then teach English at a yeshiva for wayward Jews. He moved to Atlanta in 2004, where he currently is an instructor in English and theatre at Georgia Perimeter College. His plays have been produced in many states, his screenplays have won many awards, and his debut novel NUCLEAR WINTER WONDERLAND was written over many sleepless nights. For more information, visit Joshua at http://jcorin.blogspot.com.
Jordan Dane, NO ONE HEARD HER SCREAM, NO ONE LEFT TO TELL, and NO ONE LIVES FOREVER, available now
Avon/Harpercollins bought Jordan Dane's debut suspense series in auction and is launching this trilogy in a back to back publishing event April through June 2008. "We are pursuing an aggressive release schedule," says
Karen Dionne, FREEZING POINT, October, 2008
Karen Dionne's debut eco-thriller FREEZING POINT will be released by Berkley Books in October 2008. In addition to novel writing, Karen is co-founder and co-administrator of Backspace (www.bksp.org), an award-winning website and Internet-based writers organization with over 700 members in a dozen countries. She also organizes and runs the Backspace Writers Conferences held in
Prior to forming Backspace, Karen worked as senior fiction editor at NFG Magazine, a print literary journal out of
Stacy Dittrich, THE DEVIL'S CLOSET, October 2008
Stacy Dittrich is an award winning 15-year law enforcement officer and former detective specializing in sex crimes. With past training by former FBI Behavioral Specialist, and bestselling author, Roy Hazelwood, Stacy is certified through the National Institute of Truth Verification as an examiner (CVSA- lie detector). Stacy has also been assigned to a federal drug task force that resulted in arrests from California to Mexico and has been involved in the investigations of numerous homicides. Prior to her law enforcement career, Stacy explored a brief modeling career in New York, where she appeared in Allure Magazine. Stacy is the author of the upcoming CeeCee Gallagher thriller series about a female detective.
JT Ellison, ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS, available now
Leighton Gage, BLOOD OF THE WICKED, available now
Leighton Gage has been a copywriter, an advertising creative director, a magazine editor, and a writer/producer/director of documentary films and industrial videos. He now writes full time. Sequels to his first book, "Blood of the Wicked" are due for release in January of 2009, 2010 and 2111. He visited Spain in the time of Franco, Portugal in the time of Salazar, South Africa in the time of apartheid, Chile in the time of Pinochet, Argentina in the time of the junta, Prague, East Germany, and Yugoslavia under the Communist yoke. He has two daughters in The Netherlands and two more in the United States. He and his wife spend much of their time in Brazil, her native country.
Theo Gangi, BANG BANG, available now
Theo Gangi's father worked for prison reform and from his frequent visits with him, he became aware at an early age the discrepancy of quality of life. "As a kid growing up in Manhattan during the 70's and 80's, I only really know the urban environment," says Gangi. "The culture I saw was that of the urban-savvy people. It was a far different Manhattan from what you have today." In college he caught the attention of best-selling author Madison Smartt Bell. Bell suggested Gangi go on and get a Master of Fine Arts degree. Gangi took his advice, returned home, went to Columbia University and earned the MFA. 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, Mystery Scene Magazine, Crimespree Magazine, 3AM Magazine and Crucial Minutiae.com, where he has a weekly column. Mr. Gangi currently teaches writing at John Jay College, CUNY.
Rip Gerber, PHARMA, July, 2007
Rip Gerber is a former biochemical engineer and technologist. He began his career at the Central Intelligence Agency, categorizing Soviet newspapers and evaluating recruits in the Psychological Assessment Division. He designed Firestone's first chromatic polyethylene manufacturing plant, launched the financial industry's first online credit card application while at American Express, ran global marketing divisions for two advertising agencies and served as Chief Marketing Officer for two public software companies. He received his biochemical degree from the
Andy Harp, A NORTHERN THUNDER, available now
A missile launched from deep inside
Michael Haskins, CHASIN' THE WIND, available now
"Chasin' the Wind" nails the colorful and often violent action in both Key West, Florida, and Havana, Cuba. It navigates corruption and small town politics in the southernmost city of the
Rhodi Hawk, A TWISTED LADDER, April, 2009
Rhodi Hawk has been fascinated by storytelling since her earliest memory, when her grandmother read to her from Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. Rhodi has been reading or writing ever since, and began her career as a transcription linguist in US Army intelligence. She later made a living as a technical writer during the Internet boom, working on her first novel in the early mornings and at night, and is now writing fiction full time. In 2007 Rhodi Hawk won the International Thrillerwriter's Scholarship for her first work of fiction, A Twisted Ladder. She is also one of the founders of a new magazine, The Fruited Vine, which is due to launch in the third quarter of 2008. She travels compulsively and dabbles in the culinary arts, and lives in the
Don Helin, THY KINGDOM COME, March, 2009
Don Helin's debut novel, Thy Kingdom Come, is due out in March 2009. In the novel, the Pentagon's elite Anti-Terrorist Task Force is assigned a mission of preventing a white supremacists' rogue militia from stealing nuclear material and spreading terror by detonating dirty bombs. Don spent three tours in the Pentagon and has worked as a lobbyist for the chemical industry. These two "Washington Insider" careers have provided him ample material for his thriller novels. For more information, visit www.donhelin.com.
Jeannie K. Holmes, CRIMSON SWAN, September, 2009
Jeannie K. Holmes -- known to friends as J. K. -- is a native of southwest Mississippi. Before receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of South Alabama, she worked in a variety of interesting jobs, including emergency rooms, independent auction houses, and even a brief stint in a funeral home. Her debut novel, CRIMSON SWAN, a paranormal thriller set in a small Mississippi town, is due for release in September 2009 from Bantam Dell. In CRIMSON SWAN, Alexandra Sabian, a vampire and Enforcer with the Federal Bureau of Preternatural Investigation, must fight bigotry, the media, and her own past to stop a serial killer before her brother becomes the next victim. In addition to working on the sequel to her debut novel, she is finishing her Master of Arts degree in English at the University of South Alabama. She lives in Mobile, AL with her husband and four neurotic cats. For information, visit www.jkholmes.com.
Joe Kolman, NAKED OPTION, available now
Joe Kolman has worked as 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. NAKED OPTION, his 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.
Visit Joe on the web at http://www.joekolman.com/.
Julie Kramer, STALKING SUSAN, July, 2008
Julie Kramer is fourth generation of a strong family which raised cattle and farmed corn for 130 years along the Minnesota-Iowa state line. Her favorite days were spent waiting for the bookmobile. She grew up to become a freelance television producer for NBC News. Before that she won numerous national investigative awards at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis. Julie tired of fictional TV reporters always being portrayed as obnoxious secondary characters who could be killed off whenever the plot started dragging. So her debut thriller, STALKING SUSAN (July 15 from Doubleday), features a TV reporter as a heroine who discovers a serial killer is targeting women named Susan. She now lives with her family in White Bear Lake, MN. Visit her website www.juliekramerbooks.com
Will Lavender, OBEDIENCE, available now
Will Lavender's New York Times bestselling debut novel, OBEDIENCE, was published by Shaye Areheart Books in February 2008. The novel is a psychological thriller set on a fictional college campus. It has drawn rave reviews from the Wall Street Journal, Salon.com, the New York Times Book Review and many other publications. Will lives in Louisville, Kentucky with his wife and two small children. After receiving an MFA from Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, Will returned to Kentucky to teach college writing--a job he held for an amazing six years without going completely mad. Now he writes full-time and is working on a second novel. Discover more about Will at his website.
CJ Lyons, LIFELINES, available now
As a pediatric ER doc, CJ has lived the life she writes about in her debut, LIFELINES (
Grant McKenzie, SWITCH, October, 2008
Born in Scotland, living in Canada and writing American fiction, I like to cover all the bases. My debut novel SWITCH will be published by Bantam Transworld for mass-market paperback on their thriller list in the UK on October, 2008. My short stories have been featured in Out of the Gutter and Spinetingler magazines and my first screenplay won a 2007 fellowship at the Praxis Centre for Screenwriting in Vancouver, B.C. As a veteran journalist, I have worked in virtually every area of the newspaper business from the late-night "Dead Body Beat" at a feisty daily tabloid to senior copy/design editor at two of Canada's largest broadsheets. In between regular newspaper gigs, I have also contributed technology/humour columns to various magazines around the world. I currently reside on British Columbia's beautiful Sunshine Coast with my wife and teenage daughter.
Marc Paoletti, SCORCH, available now
After years as an award-winning journalist and advertising copywriter, Marc Paoletti decided to focus his energy and passion on fiction of a different sort. SCORCH, his debut thriller forthcoming in hardcover from Five Star Mysteries, tells the story of a Hollywood special effects man who uses his specialized knowledge to hunt the people responsible for his son's murder. To give SCORCH unique realism, Marc drew upon his years of experience as a Hollywood pyrotechnician, when he blew things up for movies, television shows and commercials. His short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies alongside such authors as Stephen King and Irvine Welsh, and recently he received an honorable mention in Ellen Datlow's The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His next novel, The Last Vampire, is co-authored with Patricia Rosemoor and forthcoming from Del Rey. For more information, visit his web site at www.marcpaoletti.com.
Andrew Peterson, FIRST TO KILL, September, 2008
Born and raised in San Diego, California, Andrew Peterson attended La Jolla High School before enrolling at the University of Oklahoma, where he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Architecture. At age six, Andrew won his first shooting competition. His early fascination with rifles became a life-long devotion. He has won many competitions, including a Gold Medal at the 1995 Excellence in Competition match at the Nevada State Championship, and a First Place victory at the 1994 Arizona State Championship, 1,000 Yard Service Rifle Match. Currently, Andrew holds the classification of Master in the NRA's High Power Rifle ranking system. Andrew began to write fiction in 1990, but it wasn't until he attended his first writer's conference in 2005, that he became serious about writing the Nathan McBride stories. Andrew and his wife, Carla, live just north of Paso Robles, California. For more information on Andrew, please visit www.andrewpeterson.com.
Roger Smith, MIXED BLOOD, Winter 2009
South African film and TV writer, Roger Smith, uses Cape Town - a city as brutal as it is beautiful - as the backdrop for MIXED BLOOD. An American, hiding out in Cape Town after being blackmailed into a bank heist back home, is building a new life for his pregnant wife and young son when an incident of random violence sets him on a collision course with street gangs and a rogue cop who loves killing almost as much as he loves Jesus Christ. MIXED BLOOD will be published in hardcover by Henry Holt in February 2009. Roger's second book, another stand-alone thriller, will follow in early 2010. Website: www.rogersmithbooks.com
Kelli Stanley, NOX DORMIENDA (A Long Night for Sleeping), July, 2008
Kelli's debut novel, NOX DORMIENDA (A Long Night for Sleeping) also marks the debut of her new genre: Roman Noir. A unique fusion of hard-boiled style and historical setting, it launches in hardcover on July 18th, from Five Star Mysteries. It's the first of a series featuring Arcturus, a half-Roman, half British doctor-cum-detective. Ken Bruen has described it as "Ellis Peters re-written by Elmore Leonard ... a gem of a novel, and it moves like a gladiator on speed." Kelli holds a Master's degree in Classics, is a devotee of film and literary noir, and lives in
Jeffrey S. Stephens, THE PORTOFINO CONSPIRACY, available now
ITW Debut Authors Origins …
Way back when, in 2006 to be exact, there was a group of authors facing the release of their debut novels. One of them, Jason Pinter, put out a call for fellow debut crime writers to join him. Soon he had a band of merry murderers, dubbed Killer Year.
Their goal? To see each other through their debut year, to help promote each other, to forge new connections, and to try to have some fun along the way.
I met the Killer Year group at ThrillerFest in
It was a fantastic success. Killer Year members have received nominations for awards, accolades from national press, film deals, foreign rights, and now, under the editorial guidance of Lee Child, have an anthology due to be released.
Lee went to the ITW Board and proposed a long-term continuation of an ITW Debut Author Program. One that all ITW debuts could participate in, sharing knowledge with their published fellow members.
And thus, I present to you, the first group of ITW Debut Authors … Let The Thrill Begin!
CJ Lyons
Sean Michael Bailey, 1787, available now
Sean Michael Bailey is the pen name of an investigative reporter and New York Times bestselling author of true crime books who has switched to fiction. The thriller 1787 is his first novel.
At 36,000 feet, the cyber-battle has begun and the stakes are higher than life-and-death. Matt Newton and his fellow passengers aboard Flight 1787 from Kennedy Airport face a series of battles, both real and virtualon on which not just their lives depend. They must face a fearless enemy who uses secret technology and ruthless violence in a grab to achieve a sacred goal. The odds are impossible, the consequences beyond reckoning.
http://seanmichaelbailey.com
Sibylle Barrasso, DARK WATERS, August, 2008
Sibylle Barrasso traded the sunny skies of California for the harsh Boston winters to work for Bain & Company. Her career in high tech became the basis for DARK WATERS, a mystery about a prominent university professor, the nation's foremost AIDS expert, whose lifeless body washes up on the banks of the Charles. When his diminutive widow is arrested for murder, the result is a media frenzy. Macy Adams is the private eye the young widow hires to save her from spending a life sentence in prison. During Macy's investigation, she discovers a shocking secret from the professor's past that puts her own life in jeopardy. Sibylle Barrasso received an award from Sue Grafton for the sequel to DARK WATERS at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, and was twice a finalist in the St. Martin's Press Best First Private Eye Novel contest.
Chris Beakey, DOUBLE ABDUCTION, available now
Laura Benedict, ISABELLA MOON, available now
After spending almost twenty years writing book reviews, essays, and short stories that took themselves very seriously, Laura decided to get truly serious and write something fun. Thus, ISABELLA MOON, a supernatural thriller set in a small Kentucky town, was born. Released in hardcover by Ballantine Books in September, 2007, it will be followed by another thriller, CALLING MR. LONELY HEARTS, in Spring 2009. She lives with her husband and two children, a black Lab, and the occasional intrepid bobcat in rural southern Illinois--a lonely, enchanted sort of place that offers endless inspiration for writing thrillers.
Jennie Bentley, FATAL FIXER-UPPER, November, 2008
A career as a professional renovator and REALTOR® has given debut author Jennie Bentley plenty of fodder for her new series of Do-It-Yourself Home Renovation Mysteries from Penguin/Putnam. She has stumbled over dead bodies - those of birds, cockroaches, and the occasional rat - unearthed hidden treasure - gorgeous tile floors hidden under ugly vinyl, pristine footed bathtubs covered over with drywall - and had personal experience with just how dangerous renovating a house can be (she and her husband have come close to killing each other on many occasions while renovating the eight houses the family has owned in the past eight years). FATAL FIXER-UPPER, the first book in the DIY-series, will be released by Berkley Prime Crime in November, 2008. For more information, please visit http://www.jenniebentley.com.
Rebecca Cantrell, A TRACE OF SMOKE, Summer, 2009
Rebecca Cantrell has a two book deal from Tor/Forge for a mystery series set in
Kate Carlisle, HOMICIDE IN HARDCOVER, October, 2009
Kate Carlisle's debut novel, HOMICIDE IN HARDCOVER, the first book in the Bibliophile Mystery series, will be released by NAL in February 2009. A lifelong love of old books and an appreciation of the art of bookbinding led Kate to create the Bibliophile Mysteries, featuring rare book expert Brooklyn Wainwright, whose bookbinding and restoration skills invariably uncover old secrets, treachery and murder. In HOMICIDE IN HARDCOVER, a priceless--and supposedly cursed--copy of Goethe's FAUST draws Brooklyn into a murder investigation that only she can solve--with the help of clues she uncovers within the valuable book. Kate spent twenty years in television production before turning to writing. She lives with her husband in Venice Beach, California, and online at http://katecarlisle.com.
Peter Clenott, HUNTING THE KING, available now
I was born and grew up in Portland, Maine. After graduating from Bowdoin College, I settled in Boston and began a career in the non-profit world helping the homeless and at-risk stay housed or find new affordable housing. I now live in Haverhill, Massachusetts with my wife and three children and hold down two jobs to make ends meet. I am currently working on ALBERTVILLE, a coming of age story that takes place in the Congo in 1960. Book Description: Molly O'Dwyer was five years old when she witnessed her mother die in a fire. She never knew her father. After her mother's death, Molly was raised on the campus of a Jesuit college in Boston. Now an archaeologist, she has been recruited to participate on a dig in war torn Iraq to search for the remains of Jesus and his illegitimate daughter Hannaniah. As a scientist, Molly is compelled to find whatever or whoever is buried under the sands of ancient Babylon. As an observant Catholic, she is scared that whatever she discovers will have devastating consequences to her faith. Joined by an international team of archaeologists and pursued by Iraqi terrorists and American intelligence, Molly hunts for the king and for her own troubled soul. http://www.peterclenott.com
JJ Cooper, INTERROGATED, August, 2009
JJ Cooper spent seventeen years in the Australian Army, deploying on two tours of duty in East Timor and one tour to the Middle East in 2003. He specialised in Human Intelligence, including interrogation (as a practitioner and instructor). Since leaving the military, he spends every spare moment on his passion for writing. JJ's debut thriller, Interrogated, will be published by Random House Australia in 2009. INTERROGATED is a story of betrayal and nightmarish conspiracy firmly rooted in the highest levels of government across international alliances. Jay Ryan is an interrogator with a dark past and a tortured soul; he's also the keeper of secrets Israeli spies will kill to get their hands upon. Renowned for his skills, he is used to commanding a certain level of respect amongst his peers. Then one day Jay is drugged, tortured, tattooed and accused of rape. He is forced to reveal information that could further destabilise fragile Middle East relations and plunge the entire region into war. The story rockets toward a shattering finale that will leave the survivors changed forever. http://jjcooperaus.blogspot.com/Joshua Corin, NUCLEAR WINTER WONDERLAND
Joshua Corin grew up to a strapping 5'8'' in Rhode Island, a lovely state you've never been to and which is roughly the size of Yosemite National Park. He spent 7 years at the State University of New York at Binghamton, and all he got to show for it was a Bachelor's degree, two Master's degrees, three consecutive assistantships, and mononucleosis. In 2000, he went on to work on the Broadway revival of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and then teach English at a yeshiva for wayward Jews. He moved to Atlanta in 2004, where he currently is an instructor in English and theatre at Georgia Perimeter College. His plays have been produced in many states, his screenplays have won many awards, and his debut novel NUCLEAR WINTER WONDERLAND was written over many sleepless nights. For more information, visit Joshua at http://jcorin.blogspot.com.
Jordan Dane, NO ONE HEARD HER SCREAM, NO ONE LEFT TO TELL, and NO ONE LIVES FOREVER, available now
Avon/Harpercollins bought Jordan Dane's debut suspense series in auction and is launching this trilogy in a back to back publishing event April through June 2008. "We are pursuing an aggressive release schedule," says
Karen Dionne, FREEZING POINT, October, 2008
Karen Dionne's debut eco-thriller FREEZING POINT will be released by Berkley Books in October 2008. In addition to novel writing, Karen is co-founder and co-administrator of Backspace (www.bksp.org), an award-winning website and Internet-based writers organization with over 700 members in a dozen countries. She also organizes and runs the Backspace Writers Conferences held in
Prior to forming Backspace, Karen worked as senior fiction editor at NFG Magazine, a print literary journal out of
Stacy Dittrich, THE DEVIL'S CLOSET, October 2008
Stacy Dittrich is an award winning 15-year law enforcement officer and former detective specializing in sex crimes. With past training by former FBI Behavioral Specialist, and bestselling author, Roy Hazelwood, Stacy is certified through the National Institute of Truth Verification as an examiner (CVSA- lie detector). Stacy has also been assigned to a federal drug task force that resulted in arrests from California to Mexico and has been involved in the investigations of numerous homicides. Prior to her law enforcement career, Stacy explored a brief modeling career in New York, where she appeared in Allure Magazine. Stacy is the author of the upcoming CeeCee Gallagher thriller series about a female detective.
JT Ellison, ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS, available now
Leighton Gage, BLOOD OF THE WICKED, available now
Leighton Gage has been a copywriter, an advertising creative director, a magazine editor, and a writer/producer/director of documentary films and industrial videos. He now writes full time. Sequels to his first book, "Blood of the Wicked" are due for release in January of 2009, 2010 and 2111. He visited Spain in the time of Franco, Portugal in the time of Salazar, South Africa in the time of apartheid, Chile in the time of Pinochet, Argentina in the time of the junta, Prague, East Germany, and Yugoslavia under the Communist yoke. He has two daughters in The Netherlands and two more in the United States. He and his wife spend much of their time in Brazil, her native country.
Theo Gangi, BANG BANG, available now
Theo Gangi's father worked for prison reform and from his frequent visits with him, he became aware at an early age the discrepancy of quality of life. "As a kid growing up in Manhattan during the 70's and 80's, I only really know the urban environment," says Gangi. "The culture I saw was that of the urban-savvy people. It was a far different Manhattan from what you have today." In college he caught the attention of best-selling author Madison Smartt Bell. Bell suggested Gangi go on and get a Master of Fine Arts degree. Gangi took his advice, returned home, went to Columbia University and earned the MFA. 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, Mystery Scene Magazine, Crimespree Magazine, 3AM Magazine and Crucial Minutiae.com, where he has a weekly column. Mr. Gangi currently teaches writing at John Jay College, CUNY.
Rip Gerber, PHARMA, July, 2007
Rip Gerber is a former biochemical engineer and technologist. He began his career at the Central Intelligence Agency, categorizing Soviet newspapers and evaluating recruits in the Psychological Assessment Division. He designed Firestone's first chromatic polyethylene manufacturing plant, launched the financial industry's first online credit card application while at American Express, ran global marketing divisions for two advertising agencies and served as Chief Marketing Officer for two public software companies. He received his biochemical degree from the
Andy Harp, A NORTHERN THUNDER, available now
A missile launched from deep inside
Michael Haskins, CHASIN' THE WIND, available now
"Chasin' the Wind" nails the colorful and often violent action in both Key West, Florida, and Havana, Cuba. It navigates corruption and small town politics in the southernmost city of the
Rhodi Hawk, A TWISTED LADDER, April, 2009
Rhodi Hawk has been fascinated by storytelling since her earliest memory, when her grandmother read to her from Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. Rhodi has been reading or writing ever since, and began her career as a transcription linguist in US Army intelligence. She later made a living as a technical writer during the Internet boom, working on her first novel in the early mornings and at night, and is now writing fiction full time. In 2007 Rhodi Hawk won the International Thrillerwriter's Scholarship for her first work of fiction, A Twisted Ladder. She is also one of the founders of a new magazine, The Fruited Vine, which is due to launch in the third quarter of 2008. She travels compulsively and dabbles in the culinary arts, and lives in the
Don Helin, THY KINGDOM COME, March, 2009
Don Helin's debut novel, Thy Kingdom Come, is due out in March 2009. In the novel, the Pentagon's elite Anti-Terrorist Task Force is assigned a mission of preventing a white supremacists' rogue militia from stealing nuclear material and spreading terror by detonating dirty bombs. Don spent three tours in the Pentagon and has worked as a lobbyist for the chemical industry. These two "Washington Insider" careers have provided him ample material for his thriller novels. For more information, visit www.donhelin.com.
Jeannie K. Holmes, CRIMSON SWAN, September, 2009
Jeannie K. Holmes -- known to friends as J. K. -- is a native of southwest Mississippi. Before receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of South Alabama, she worked in a variety of interesting jobs, including emergency rooms, independent auction houses, and even a brief stint in a funeral home. Her debut novel, CRIMSON SWAN, a paranormal thriller set in a small Mississippi town, is due for release in September 2009 from Bantam Dell. In CRIMSON SWAN, Alexandra Sabian, a vampire and Enforcer with the Federal Bureau of Preternatural Investigation, must fight bigotry, the media, and her own past to stop a serial killer before her brother becomes the next victim. In addition to working on the sequel to her debut novel, she is finishing her Master of Arts degree in English at the University of South Alabama. She lives in Mobile, AL with her husband and four neurotic cats. For information, visit www.jkholmes.com.
Joe Kolman, NAKED OPTION, available now
Joe Kolman has worked as 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. NAKED OPTION, his 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.
Visit Joe on the web at http://www.joekolman.com/.
Julie Kramer, STALKING SUSAN, July, 2008
Julie Kramer is fourth generation of a strong family which raised cattle and farmed corn for 130 years along the Minnesota-Iowa state line. Her favorite days were spent waiting for the bookmobile. She grew up to become a freelance television producer for NBC News. Before that she won numerous national investigative awards at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis. Julie tired of fictional TV reporters always being portrayed as obnoxious secondary characters who could be killed off whenever the plot started dragging. So her debut thriller, STALKING SUSAN (July 15 from Doubleday), features a TV reporter as a heroine who discovers a serial killer is targeting women named Susan. She now lives with her family in White Bear Lake, MN. Visit her website www.juliekramerbooks.com
Will Lavender, OBEDIENCE, available now
Will Lavender's New York Times bestselling debut novel, OBEDIENCE, was published by Shaye Areheart Books in February 2008. The novel is a psychological thriller set on a fictional college campus. It has drawn rave reviews from the Wall Street Journal, Salon.com, the New York Times Book Review and many other publications. Will lives in Louisville, Kentucky with his wife and two small children. After receiving an MFA from Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, Will returned to Kentucky to teach college writing--a job he held for an amazing six years without going completely mad. Now he writes full-time and is working on a second novel. Discover more about Will at his website.
CJ Lyons, LIFELINES, available now
As a pediatric ER doc, CJ has lived the life she writes about in her debut, LIFELINES (
Grant McKenzie, SWITCH, October, 2008
Born in Scotland, living in Canada and writing American fiction, I like to cover all the bases. My debut novel SWITCH will be published by Bantam Transworld for mass-market paperback on their thriller list in the UK on October, 2008. My short stories have been featured in Out of the Gutter and Spinetingler magazines and my first screenplay won a 2007 fellowship at the Praxis Centre for Screenwriting in Vancouver, B.C. As a veteran journalist, I have worked in virtually every area of the newspaper business from the late-night "Dead Body Beat" at a feisty daily tabloid to senior copy/design editor at two of Canada's largest broadsheets. In between regular newspaper gigs, I have also contributed technology/humour columns to various magazines around the world. I currently reside on British Columbia's beautiful Sunshine Coast with my wife and teenage daughter.
Marc Paoletti, SCORCH, available now
After years as an award-winning journalist and advertising copywriter, Marc Paoletti decided to focus his energy and passion on fiction of a different sort. SCORCH, his debut thriller forthcoming in hardcover from Five Star Mysteries, tells the story of a Hollywood special effects man who uses his specialized knowledge to hunt the people responsible for his son's murder. To give SCORCH unique realism, Marc drew upon his years of experience as a Hollywood pyrotechnician, when he blew things up for movies, television shows and commercials. His short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies alongside such authors as Stephen King and Irvine Welsh, and recently he received an honorable mention in Ellen Datlow's The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His next novel, The Last Vampire, is co-authored with Patricia Rosemoor and forthcoming from Del Rey. For more information, visit his web site at www.marcpaoletti.com.
Andrew Peterson, FIRST TO KILL, September, 2008
Born and raised in San Diego, California, Andrew Peterson attended La Jolla High School before enrolling at the University of Oklahoma, where he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Architecture. At age six, Andrew won his first shooting competition. His early fascination with rifles became a life-long devotion. He has won many competitions, including a Gold Medal at the 1995 Excellence in Competition match at the Nevada State Championship, and a First Place victory at the 1994 Arizona State Championship, 1,000 Yard Service Rifle Match. Currently, Andrew holds the classification of Master in the NRA's High Power Rifle ranking system. Andrew began to write fiction in 1990, but it wasn't until he attended his first writer's conference in 2005, that he became serious about writing the Nathan McBride stories. Andrew and his wife, Carla, live just north of Paso Robles, California. For more information on Andrew, please visit www.andrewpeterson.com.
Roger Smith, MIXED BLOOD, Winter 2009
South African film and TV writer, Roger Smith, uses Cape Town - a city as brutal as it is beautiful - as the backdrop for MIXED BLOOD. An American, hiding out in Cape Town after being blackmailed into a bank heist back home, is building a new life for his pregnant wife and young son when an incident of random violence sets him on a collision course with street gangs and a rogue cop who loves killing almost as much as he loves Jesus Christ. MIXED BLOOD will be published in hardcover by Henry Holt in February 2009. Roger's second book, another stand-alone thriller, will follow in early 2010. Website: www.rogersmithbooks.com
Kelli Stanley, NOX DORMIENDA (A Long Night for Sleeping), July, 2008
Kelli's debut novel, NOX DORMIENDA (A Long Night for Sleeping) also marks the debut of her new genre: Roman Noir. A unique fusion of hard-boiled style and historical setting, it launches in hardcover on July 18th, from Five Star Mysteries. It's the first of a series featuring Arcturus, a half-Roman, half British doctor-cum-detective. Ken Bruen has described it as "Ellis Peters re-written by Elmore Leonard ... a gem of a novel, and it moves like a gladiator on speed." Kelli holds a Master's degree in Classics, is a devotee of film and literary noir, and lives in
Jeffrey S. Stephens, THE PORTOFINO CONSPIRACY, available now
