This month it's my pleasure to feature one of the industry's most amazing talents--Heather Graham.  She's classy, multi-talented, prolific, and endearing.  The list of compliments could on and on.  Loyal.  Hard-working.  Generous.  Dare I say--beautiful?
Yes, I'll make that statement:  Heather Graham is beautiful!

I first met Heather at the 2008 ThrillerFest.  I'd read many of her books, but to discover the person behind the pages was so charming and personable, took me by surprise.  After all, Heather has written over 150 novels and novellas, has 75 million books in print, and her stories have been translated into 25 different languages.  Yet she talked to me as a peer.  Now admittedly, I'm a small fish in a big pond--I have no illusions about it--but at that moment in time, it sure didn't feel like it.

Later that night when I met her husband, Dennis, the feeling returned.  They're both down-to-Earth, genuine people who share a profound love of the profession.  What impressed me the most was how approachable they are at conferences.  Heather goes out of her way to interact with fans and authors alike.  She even hangs with Joe Konrath, but we won't hold that against her!

Special to the Big Thrill by Hank Wagner.

The much-heralded ITW project THRILLERS: 100 MUST-READS is scheduled to be published by Oceanview this July, debuting at ThrillerFest. To whet your appetite for this essential book, we're going to feature a series of short interviews with various essayists in upcoming issues. This interview is with the delightful Christine Kling, who contributed a piece on Erskine Childer's The Riddle of the Sands.

Christine, you wrote about The Riddle of the Sands, by Erskine Childers. Was it your first choice to write about? If so, why? Does it fulfill your personal definition of a "must read"?

Childers' The Riddle of the Sands was absolutely my first choice. In fact, at a ThrillerFest cocktail party, I wasn't above begging David Morrell to give me a shot at it. My definition of a "must read" is a book that was a game changer, and in that regard, Childers' book fits the bill perfectly. There are many who call it the first international spy novel, but to me, it was the first techno-thriller. You might wonder how I can say that about a sailing novel that
was written in 1903, but technology doesn't have to mean this idea we have of electronic gear. Technology is 'how stuff works' and we have come to love our thrillers today that give us so many details about worlds we might never visit outside the pages of a book. Childers didn't flinch at using complex nautical terminology or geographical accuracy. Books like Hunt for Red October and The Andromeda Strain are direct descendants.

The most riveting reads in history meet today's biggest thriller writers in Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads.

Edited by David Morrell and Hank Wagner, Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads examines 100 seminal works of suspense through essays contributed by such esteemed modern thriller writers as: David Baldacci, Steve Berry, Sandra Brown, Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, Tess Gerritsen, Heather Graham, John Lescroart, Gayle Lynds, Katherine Neville, Michael Palmer, James Rollins, R. L. Stine, and many more.

Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads features 100 works - from Beowulf to The Bourne Identity, Dracula to Deliverance, Heart of Darkness to The Hunt for Red October - deemed must-reads by the International Thriller Writers organization.

Much more than an anthology, Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads goes deep inside the most notable thrillers published over the centuries. Through lively, spirited, and thoughtful essays that examine each work's significance, impact, and influence, Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads provides both historical and personal perspective on those spellbinding works that have kept readers on the edge of their seats for centuries.

"This fun and fact filled epic view of the genre is itself a must read." - Kathy Reichs, New York Times best-selling author of Spider Bones

"This fascinating book is essential for anyone who loves thrillers, fans and authors alike." - Joseph Finder, New York Times best-selling author of Vanished

"The ultimate thriller resource.  This wealth of information about classic thrillers is destined to be a classic on its own." - Brad Thor, New York Times best-selling author of The Apostle

"It reminds us all of the sheer excitement and dazzling scope of the genre. A treasure!" - Christopher Reich, New York Times best-selling author of Rules of Deception

Additional reviews and interviews:

Thrillers: 100 Must Reads - An Interview with Christine Kling

Thrillers: 100 Must Reads - An Interview with James O. Born

Thrillers: 100 Must Reads - An Interview with Gayle Lynds

Thrillers: 100 Must Reads - An interview with Tess Gerritsen

Thrillers: 100 Must Reads - An interview with Douglas Preston

Bookpage

Florida Weekly

Bookmarks Magazine

Asbury Park Press

Brad Thor brings back his hero, Scot Harvath, in another gripping and pulse-pounding thriller.  Hopefully there is someone like Harvath protecting our country from our enemies.  Brad talked about his latest thriller to ITW.

What sparked the idea for Foreign Influence?

The idea for Foreign Influence actually came from conversations with two different friends. 

The first was a conversation I had with Glenn Beck.  We were discussing turmoil in other nations and how we send operatives over to tip things one way or another.  Glenn asked me how many nations I thought were sending operatives here to America to do exactly the same thing right now.

The second conversation was with my friend, Barrett Moore - the founder of the private military corporation, Triple Canopy.  We talked about a white paper published by a nation hostile to America that detailed how they could absolutely crush us without ever meeting us on the conventional battlefield.  The plan involved co-opting Islamic terror groups to do their bidding in a first wave of attacks.  Once the terrorists were unleashed on America and American interests abroad, a whole series of incredibly unconventional attacks would begin in areas we had never before considered.  It was terrifying and made even more so by the fact that this plot actually exists and is fact, not fiction.

I love research.

I think this love of research stems from my tendency to procrastinate. In school, I was really good at cramming at the last minute--back then, it was hitting the library the day before a major paper was due, reading everything I could on the subject, then writing all night. The last-minute projects inevitably garnered me a B+ or A- (which, had I spent more time researching, editing, and revising would have been an A--but we work we our natural talents, right?)

Last week I finished writing one book; this week I started the next. I realized real quick that my knowledge of modern private investigators was slim, and the books on my shelf were woefully outdated. The book I have on Missing Persons was printed in 1993--before Facebook, before MySpace, and before Google. Needless to say, useless.

I emailed a P.I. friend of mine asking for two books she'd recommend on modern P.I. techniques, and wondered if there was a P.I. ride-along program . . .

We are truly blessed writers to have so many resources at our fingertips. In the past twelve months, I've participated in two SWAT training exercises, toured the FBI Academy at Quantico, visited FBI Headquarters in D.C., toured Folsom State Prison (with fellow ITW author James Rollins), and took a second trip to the Sacramento County Morgue to learn how they preserve evidence. If you really twist my arm, I'll admit being a non-ambulatory victim during SWAT training was probably the most fun I've had in a long, long time . . . which shows you what a boring life I lead!

To fans of romantic thrillers, best-selling author Debra Webb needs no introduction. Her enormously popular Colby Agency series is one of Harlequin Intrigue's most-read series, and she's written dozens of novels in the series, which is still going strong. In July, Colby Control, the latest book in the series, hits the bookstores.

I recently caught up with the busy author, wife, and mother, and she was gracious enough to chat with me about her writing career, her passion for suspense, and more.

DEBRA WEBB, born in Alabama, wrote her first story at age nine and her first romance at thirteen. However, it wasn't until she spent three years working for the military behind the Iron Curtain--and a five-year stint with NASA--that she realized her true calling. A collision course between suspense and romance was set.

Author Blake Crouch headed north for his new novel Snowbound.

For Will Innis and his daughter, Devlin, the loss was catastrophic. Every day for the past five years, they wonder where she is, if she is--Will's wife, Devlin's mother--because Rachael Innis vanished one night during an electrical storm on a lonely desert highway, and suspected of her death, Will took his daughter and fled.

Now, Will and Devlin live under different names in another town, having carved out a new life for themselves as they struggle to maintain some semblance of a family.

When one night, a beautiful, hard-edged FBI agent appears on their doorstep, they fear the worst, but she hasn't come to arrest Will. "I know you're innocent," she tells him, "because Rachael wasn't the first...or the last."

Gregg Hurwitz's latest novel involves a struggling scriptwriter who "wants the limelight a little too badly and gets the attention in a way he doesn't anticipate." In the novel, They're Watching, Patrick Davis walks to out his porch, picks up his morning newspaper and a package containing an unmarked DVD slides out. When he watches it, he discovers that he and his wife are being filmed, that someone is stalking them and recording them inside their house using hidden cameras. And it's just the first of many DVDs he will receive.

Hurwitz says, "It turns into a chess match, where he tries to spy on the people spying on him, but they're always set up one step further ahead. It becomes a really dangerous game. In the middle of this, his marriage, which was already on the rocks, comes under terrible strain. Soon it becomes a matter of life and death."

Dangerous Desires is the second in Dee Davis's series of A-Tac adventures.  A-Tac is the American Tactical Intelligence Command, an elite CIA unit masquerading as faculty at an Ivy League college.  Brilliant, badass, and seemingly bulletproof, the members of A-Tac are assigned to the riskiest missions and the most elusive targets.  

Dangerous Desires is the story of extraction expert Drake Flynn. Flynn knows how to survive behind enemy lines. But he's about to meet one adversary he can't subdue . . . or resist.

Stranded in the Colombian jungle after a mission goes bad, Drake has only one objective: evade the mercenaries hot on his trail and deliver "the package" to U.S. officials. But "the package" has a mind of her own, and she has no intention of trading one set of captors for another.

In our discussion, Dee was charming while talking about her feelings about writing, favorite writers, and her characters.

In The Cabal, David Hagberg's fourteenth installment of his Kirk McGarvey series, a Washington Post investigative reporter has uncovered strong evidence that a powerful lobbyist has formed a shadowy group. They call themselves the Friday Club, a cabal whose members include high-ranking men inside the government: a White House adviser, a three star general at the Pentagon, deputy secretaries at the State Department, Homeland Security, the FBI and even the CIA.

That afternoon CIA operative  Todd Van Buren--son-in-law to the legendary spy Kirk McGarvey--is brutally gunned down. That same evening the reporter and his family are killed, all traces of the shadow group erased.

A grief-stricken McGarvey is drawn into the most far-reaching and dangerous investigation of his career, the stakes of which could destabilize the U.S. government, and shake the foundations of the world financial order.

One of the main reasons for Hagberg's continued success is his passion for science and research. "For as long as I can remember, since I was a little kid, I've been torn two ways--being a scientist (actually I wanted to be a theoretical astrophysicist), and becoming a writer, especially a novelist.