Who is the man with the infectious smile, charming personality, and overflowing generosity?  The answer can be found within ourselves.  Ridley Pearson represents the best humanity has to offer.  His love of life and the intricate balance it seeks is plainly evident in the stories he crafts.

Although he's quite modest about it, Ridley Pearson is a household name in more than 70 countries.  With over 12 million copies sold worldwide, his 38-plus books have been translated into 22 languages. 

Ridley's novels resonate with his readers because there's passion behind the words.  Simply stated, he loves to tell stories.  If he'd lived 15,000 years ago, he would've been the hunter sitting at the campfire recalling the day's hunt to a captive audience.   

Not many authors can take credit for helping the police solve a real-life homicide case.  Ridley's research for UNDERCURRENTS (1988) did just that.  Since then, Ridley has contributed to active police task force investigations on both the city and federal level.  His knowledge and understanding of police procedures adds realism and true-to-life color to his novels.  If he hadn't become an author, I think it's fair to say Ridley would've made a great detective.

by Charlie Charters

I have a very unusual relationship with the events of 9/11.

You see our house is one of the very few where we actually celebrate when that date falls, because that was the day our daughter was born. Our first girl and second child. September 11 2001.

Yes, that day.

It so happened that we were in Fiji at the time and so approximately 16 hours ahead of New York, but it nonetheless colours everything that happens in our household in the lead-in to that momentous day.

If you've ever had a young daughter, granddaughter or niece you'll know that it is flatout impossible to try to get them to see a particular day, their birthday, as anything other than an opportunity to scream, hyperventilate, screech, bounce off the walls, and generally dominate proceedings.

The Story Behind the Story, by Lisa Black

In September of 1935, two boys were passing over the train tracks in a valley known as Kingsbury Run on the edge of Cleveland, Ohio, when they encountered a man. A very dead man, wearing nothing but a pair of socks and missing a head, not to mention a few of his more personal parts. Another victim lay about thirty feet away, this one missing even his socks. The heads of both men were found buried nearby, with just their hair sticking out among the weeds and grass. This killer wasn't making any effort to hide his work; quite the contrary, he seemed to be making a statement which no one has ever been able to decipher, or perhaps just creating an extremely bizarre example of performance art.

Neither man had been murdered at the scene; in fact, the second had already been dead for at least a week. The fresher corpse was one of the very, very few victims ever identified--as a local ne'er-do-well, but a thorough investigation of his life never did lead detectives to the killer.

I've been writing these articles for a while now, and Cris Ramsey was the most difficult author yet to research - there is literally nothing about him on the Internet, just references to his novel Eureka: Substitution Method. Then my editor pointed out that Cris Ramsey is a pseudonym, a pen-name for Aaron Rosenberg, a very prolific author from New York City with over 100 published works to his credit. Great, I thought, this will be easy.

It's never easy. If you want to know about Aaron Roseneurg-the-orthopedist or Aaron Rosenberg-the-professor, then your curiosity can be easily slated at a number of web sites. If you want to know about the many books, computer games, and stories authored by Aaron Rosenberg-the-author, there is also plenty of material.

But Aaron Rosenberg himself? Nothing.

Don't turn out the lights. Don't go out alone. And whatever you do, don't let down your guard. Because your neighbors might seem normal, but why do they collect knives and eat their steaks so bloody? And when the boy of your dreams finally asks you out, why is there something so . . . lupine . . . about him? And if your brother's fear of the dark is so childish, how do you explain those shadows creeping out of your closet?
In thirteen blood-chilling stories from true masters of suspense, including five New York Times bestselling authors and four Edgar Award nominees, nothing is what it seems, and no one is safe. . . .

Fear: 13 Stories of Suspense and Horror, is a collection of terrifying original stories from the hottest names in thriller writing today, including R.L. Stine (widely considered the king of children's horror writing, who edited and contributed to the collection), Meg Cabot, Heather Brewer, Tim Maleeny, Heather Graham, Alane Ferguson, Jennifer Allison, Walter Sorrells, Peg Kehret, Suzanne Weyn, Jim Rollins, F. Paul Wilson and Ryan Brown.

Edited by the father of scary children's stories, Stine presents this delightfully chilling collection of thirteen short tales featuring more then just vampires. From Stine comes a series of twists on an initiation challenge that leaves readers guessing, did he or didn't he. Heather Graham serves up a Halloween treat where the hunter unexpectedly becomes prey and although most readers will see through the plot from the first, its still fun seeing how it plays out. A babysitter with a knack for soothing a troubled yet talented blind boy is the subject of Ryan Brown's "Jeepers Peepers" while the babysitter in Jennifer Allison's "The Perfects" discovers the family has a taste for exotic meat.

Though marketed for younger readers, adults may enjoy the plot twists and surprises of these imaginative quick-to-read tales which are just the ticket for getting in the mood for Halloween. 

"It is rare for a collection of stories to maintain the same quality from beginning to end, but Fear succeeds in delivering all the suspense, terror, irony, and twisted endings that any horror addict could crave." -- Jamie Hansen for VOYA

Robert Lawrence Stine began career as an author writing short stories and joke books -- but in the early 1990's, he introduced the wildly popular Goosebumps series. The books sold millions of copies, and made reading frighteningly fun again for kids.

In mystery novels, investigative journalists are often heroic detectives.  But in Wanda L. Dyson's new thriller Judgment Day, the reporter is the victim framed for murder and on the run from a killer.

The star of the novel, Suzanne Kidwell, is also the star of Judgment Day, a popular investigative news TV show.  Her mission is to expose the darkest secrets of the rich and famous.  And that's what gets her in trouble!  While the reader comes to care about Kidwell's fate, Author Dyson shows us the darker side of her character's world.  Dyson says she thinks there's a fine line between reporting that informs us and the sensationalism reporting that is just looking to titillate.  The danger comes when the truth doesn't matter - ratings do.

"I got the idea for this book after watching a cable news reporter decide to take the law into her own hands and "interrogate" someone she felt was guilty--something that was clearly the police's job, not hers," Dyson says.  "The woman she "interrogated" was so distraught, she went home and committed suicide.  In typical writer fashion, I couldn't help asking myself, "what if," and Suzanne Kidwell and her show Judgment Day were born."

Jonathan Maberry is making the transition from bestselling thriller writer to brand name. He's written a Stoker Award-winning Horror series (The Pine Deep Trilogy), the wildly-successful, genre-creating Joe Ledger thriller trilogy (Patient Zero, Dragon Factory and next year's King of Plagues) which has been called "Michael Crichton meets 24," and which has been snapped up by Sony Pictures for development as an ABC Television series. Along the way he's also written dozens of short stories and essays and a string of nonfiction books, the last five dealing with myths and legends of the supernatural, such as the Stoker Award-winning Cryptopedia (2007). Comic book fans know him from his work on Punisher, DeadPool, Black Panther and many other popular Marvel series.

Bestseller Tess Gerritsen writes, "Every so often, you discover an author whose writing is so lyrical that it transcends mere storytelling. Jonathan Maberry is just such an author, and his writing is powerful enough to sing with poetry while simultaneously scaring the hell out of you."

Jonathan's latest thrill ride into our collective fears is a two-book YA series that starts with Rot and Ruin, coming in September from Simon and Schuster. Jonathan made some time for The Big Thrill earlier this week to tell us about his new book:

In mystery novels, investigative journalists are often heroic detectives.  But in Wanda L. Dyson's new thriller Judgment Day, the reporter is the victim framed for murder and on the run from a killer.

The star of the novel, Suzanne Kidwell, is also the star of Judgment Day, a popular investigative news TV show.  Her mission is to expose the darkest secrets of the rich and famous.  And that's what gets her in trouble!  While the reader comes to care about Kidwell's fate, Author Dyson shows us the darker side of her character's world.  Dyson says she thinks there's a fine line between reporting that informs us and the sensationalism reporting that is just looking to titillate.  The danger comes when the truth doesn't matter - ratings do.

"I got the idea for this book after watching a cable news reporter decide to take the law into her own hands and "interrogate" someone she felt was guilty--something that was clearly the police's job, not hers," Dyson says.  "The woman she "interrogated" was so distraught, she went home and committed suicide.  In typical writer fashion, I couldn't help asking myself, "what if," and Suzanne Kidwell and her show Judgment Day were born."

Michael W. Sherer, whose latest Emerson Ward thriller Death on a Budget is due out from Five Star Publishing, is interviewed by ITW Contributing Editor John T. Cullen.

Mike Sherer's publishing career keeps gathering praise from leading reviewers and top-selling fellow novelists. Please see synopses of all seven Emerson Ward novels, and the mainstream thriller Island Life, along with a short biography, below after the interview.

Booklist praises his complex characters and clever plotting.

The Chicago Sun-Times calls his writing 'taut, full of muscular action, and suspenseful'.

The Chicago Tribune favorably compares Emerson Ward with Travis McGee, and calls Mike Sherer 'the next John D. MacDonald'.

Library Journal says of Forever Death: "A slick narrative, quirky suspects, a fast-moving plot, and likable protagonist combine...in this winner for series fans."

Since the days of King Solomon's Mines, Africa has provided the setting for an untold number of thrillers.  Typically, though, the continent has been a backdrop for the exploits of foreigners who have come to the continent from somewhere else. 

Deon Meyer writes from a different perspective.  His novels deal with people who, like the author, call post-apartheid South Africa home.  The locales manage to be simultaneously exotic for the reader and familiar for the author's cast of characters.  Keeping that balance between the new and the familiar has become second nature for Meyer. 

"The problem with the rich and vibrant South African setting is that it insinuates itself into the story without me noticing," Meyer explained.  "It feels like an organic process in which you let your characters loose in this environment.  As they start to interact with it more and more, the setting is created almost by accident."