Features: August 2010 Archives

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.

"Combine a title like Fear with a name like Stine, and most readers will naturally assume this collection is filled with supernatural terrors. And for many of these 13 original stories, they would be right. Many genres are represented, and each story (including Stine's, which opens the book) offers chills, though seldom getting too gruesome. Readers seeking diverse sources of suspense will most appreciate this collection." -- Publishers Weekly

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. 

"Vampires, aliens, mind creepers, demons, sinister swamp people, hungry shadows, or cannibals next door --any one of these would guarantee shivers, chills, and sleeples nights for avid horror fans. R. L. Stein, dean of the creepy-crawlies, has collected stories by thirteen authors to provide thirteen times as much of the right stuff, under the aegis of the International Thriller Writers. . . . 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." -- VOYA

"Thirteen highly suspenseful short stories, well selected by none other than R. L. Stine, who contributes the first tale, have the power to attract and delight many stouthearted young readers. The man behind the Goosebumps and Fear Street megaseries enlists some of the best in the business, such as Meg Cabot and F. Paul Wilson, Walter Sorrells and James Rollins, who offer plenty of heart-throbbing supernatural horror, crime suspense, shockers and sometimes a mixture of all three." -- Kirkus Reviews

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."

Joshua Corin described himself as "restless" and "antsy", which is what initially drove the award-winning writer for stage and screen into the new authorial territory of the thriller. "Thrillers, by their very nature, are structurally restless and antsy and provide constant stimulation," said Corin. "In that, they are most akin to sports, and as I lack any athletic ability whatsoever, the closest I can come to that adrenalized lifestyle is thriller writing."

Corin not only found stimulation in the writing of thrillers, but in the challenge of creating in a media that was somewhat foreign to him. "Writing for the stage, writing for the screen, and writing for the page all require many of the same tools, but it is their very differences as media that make adaptation so tricky."

Corin makes it look easy. His debut novel, Nuclear Winter Wonderland, was named by Booklist as one of the top ten debut crime novels of 2008. Corin returns to bookstore shelves in September 2010 with When Galileo Preys.

Compelling from the beginning, D. E. Johnson opens his debut novel with the discovery of a grisly homicide.  Will Anderson, the protagonist of The Detroit Electric Scheme is a man haunted with a dark and vivid past who manages a department in his father's electric car company.  On a bitter November night in 1910, he discovers the body of a rival crushed inside a hydraulic roof press.  Escaping from police, Anderson becomes the prime suspect in a dangerous mystery set during the early rise of Detroit's automotive industry, a time filled with promise and corruption. 

The Detroit Electric Scheme has generated critical acclaim including a starred review in Booklist:  "The surprise ending leaves you gasping and shaking your head at Johnson's masterful plotting and the menacing tension that forces otherwise good characters to behave despicably.  Every bit as powerful as Patricia Highsmith's Ripley series, this gem of a debut showcases an author to watch very closely."

Dan lives near Kalamazoo, Michigan with his family where he is working on the sequel to The Detroit Electric Scheme.  I had the pleasure of interviewing him about broad influences that went into the creation of his new book as well as his thoughts about writing.

Stuart Woods started out as an advertising copywriter in the 1960s and sold his first major novel, Chiefs, in 1981.  It was a modest hardback hit and then exploded in paperback and was made into a six-hour television drama for CBS-TV, starring Charlton Heston, Danny Glover, Billy Dee Williams and John Goodman.  The book also won the Edgar Award. More recently he was awarded France's Prix de Literature Policiere, for Imperfect Strangers. These days Stuart has logged forty-four novels and set up permanent camp on the New York Times best-seller list.  His latest novel, Santa Fe Edge, hits bookstores this month. Stuart took a few minutes to chat with The Big Thrill about his books and his process.

You've been doing this for a long time--44 books--what keeps it fresh for you?

I think it must be that, when writing, I live in the book, so each one is a fresh experience for me.

Tell us about Sante Fe Edge.

Santa Fe Edge is the new Ed Eagle novel, which is published September 20. It is the fourth novel in which Eagle appears, beginning with Santa Fe Rules.  I'm not going to tell your readers any more than that; they'll have to read the book.

The New Publishing Age
By Pat Mullan

In June I flew from Ireland to New York. As usual I stuffed a paperback - a fat one, about 400 pages - into my carry-on bag. I had really wanted to take a hardback I'd been reading at home but that was impractical. 

As my fellow travelers and I waited at the boarding gate in Shannon, many of us fumbled with our books, newspapers, boarding passes, and passports. Even those of us with a practiced expertise dropped our bookmarks or momentarily panicked when we thought we'd mislaid our boarding pass.

But, in the midst of all of this, one mature, conservatively dressed lady of middle-age sat unflustered and unencumbered, completely absorbed in the book she was reading: an electronic book, an e-book reader, slim, practical, elegant.  I envied her and promised myself that I would join this digital revolution.

Recently I sat down with Jilliane Hoffman to talk about her new nove, Pretty Little Things. Please tell us a little about your new legal thriller.

Thirteen-year-old Lainey Emerson is the middle child in a home police are already familiar with: her mom works too much and her stepfather favors his own blood over another man's problems--namely Lainey and her wild older sister. When Lainey fails to come home from a night out with friends, her disappearance is dismissed by the local police as just another disillusioned South Florida teen running away from suburban drama and an unhappy home life.

But FDLE Special Agent Bobby Dees is not quite so sure. When he discovers Lainey was involved in a secret internet relationship, he fears she may be the victim of an online predator.  And when chilling portraits of other possible victims are sent to a local television station, he realizes she may not be the only one. Haunted by the still unsolved disappearance of his own teenage daughter, Bobby will find himself pulled into a deadly game of cat and mouse with the most prolific killer he's ever encountered.

Oliver Stark's début novel, American Devil looks like it's headed for the top of the best sellers lists judging by the reaction of the book reviewers. I caught up with Stark this month and the result is this in depth interview, which opens the pages up a little on his life, his plans and his writing.

The short synopsis of American Devil shows clearly what promises to be a thriller of best selling proportions.

Taut, tense and terrifying - American Devil marks the thrilling début of an outstanding new talent.

The Progression of Love: his ultimate artistic creation - now all he needs is seven beautiful women.

For the violent killer stalking New York's streets, the trophies he will take from his victims are essential if he is to complete his masterpiece. That he also likes playing games with the police and his prey is a bonus. He can outwit everyone he comes up against. Or can he?
Detective Tom Harper is the NYPD's best chance of catching the American Devil. But he's on suspension for punching his superior. With panic gripping the city, Harper wants the challenge even if it means he has to undergo therapy from police psychologist Denise Levene. She believes he can be brought back into the fold, but can the NYPD trust him not to fall apart?

A deranged murderer and a volatile cop. Time is running out and there can only be one winner...

The action in James Thane's debut thriller novel, No Place To Die, begins immediately when Phoenix attorney Beverly Thompson is snatched from her garage and her husband is brutally murdered.  When four others quickly fall victim to the same killer, homicide detective Sean Richardson is assigned the case.  Even as Sean hunts for the killer and his next victim, his opponent proves to be both clever and elusive.  Soon, Sean questions whether Beverly will survive, let alone see her husband's killer brought to justice.

"NO PLACE TO DIE is a two-in-one treat, a convincing police procedural bolted to a nail-biter suspense novel."  - Sam Reaves, author of MEAN TOWN BLUES



"NO PLACE TO DIE is an auspicious beginning to what I hope will become a series. Sean and Maggie make a great crime-solving team."   -Barbara D'Amato, author of DEATH OF A THOUSAND CUTS

Recently, I interviewed Mr. Thane.  Here's what he had to say about his writing journey, his story, and his upcoming release. 

Recently I sat down with Kay Hooper, the author of Blood Ties,  the latest in the Bishop/Special Crimes Unit series.

Your plots are wonderfully complex, do you map everything out ahead of time, or do you make changes as you go?

I'm a seat-of-the-pants writer, so much so that I seldom know for certain what's going to happen in the next chapter. I have realized over the years that my subconscious is working away on the plot, "seeding" bits and pieces of information that mean nothing to me consciously - until later in the book. It's not at all uncommon for me to mutter, halfway through the book, some variation of, "Oh, that's why he said that in Chapter 2!" Discovering the story pretty much as the readers do is, for me, a big part of the joy of writing.

Recently, I sat down with Kelly Gay to talk about her new novel, The Darkest Edge of Dawn.

Have you always been interested in fantasy as a genre?  Do you have any early inspirations of fantasy writers you especially liked?

Fantasy has always been a part of my creative process. Some of my earliest memories are of my grandmother and mother telling me stories about faraway lands or pointing out places in the woods were fairies made their homes. I was brought up on fantasy and it comes very natural to me. I couldn't imagine writing without this element. My earliest inspirations were Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Mary Stewart.

In fantasy, so much of the landscape is spun out of whole cloth, as it were.  Do you use anything from your own life, such as cities you've lived in, or is it totally from your imagination?

Oh, most of it is definitely from real life. The landscape of urban fantasy relies heavily on the modern world, on places and cities we all recognize and/or know. The back drop is very real in that sense. And it's often a case of the paranormal existing in secret within this normal landscape or the paranormal existing out-of-the-closet, in tandem with the world around us. (Think TV shows like TRUE BLOOD, CHARMED, FRINGE, HEROES, or SUPERNATURAL). Most urban fantasy authors set their work in major cities, in modern day times, and with many of the normal things you would recognize. The difference being is that the supernatural exists and intertwines with the normal world.

Kathy Reichs can do seemingly anything. She turned her career as a forensic anthropologist into a series of New York Times bestselling books, whose heroine, Tempe Brennan, got her own television show, Fox's monster hit "Bones." Kathy has been a producer for all six of this wildly successful series' seasons (the show recently aired its landmark 100th episode).

Scientist, bestselling novelist (whose books have been translated into 32 languages), and television producer, Kathy can now add television writer to her list of accomplishments. She wrote an episode of "Bones" called "The Witch and the Wardrobe" which aired in May. She loved working in the writers' room with a team of people. Fortunately, though, for her legions of fans, who have bought over 7,500,000 copies of her novels in the United States and Canada, she still loves writing solo.  Scribner will publish her newest Tempe Brennan novel, Spider Bones, on August 24, 2010.

Canadian author Michael Van Rooy introduces an appealing antihero, Montgomery Haaviko, in his debut, a gritty, offbeat suspense novel, An Ordinary Decent Criminal, that has been released this month by Minotaur/Thomas Dunne Books.

Haaviko is what the guards in London's Wormwood Scrubs Prison call "an ordinary decent criminal." It's a way of differentiating the burglars and smugglers from pedophiles or terrorists. Only there's very little about Haaviko that is ordinary.

A reformed career criminal, he knows every trick of the trade: from how to conceal your fingerprints with a spot of Crazy Glue to the best way to survive a brutal police interrogation (scream a lot; it makes the cops feel better to know you appreciate their work).

In Doug Magee's Never Wave Goodbye, a woman puts her daughter on the bus taking her to sleep away camp, goes back in her house, and fifteen minutes later the real bus from the camp arrives. Three other children have been similarly kidnapped. The four families are kept in horrible suspense, unaware that there children are in even deeper trouble than they can imagine.

As a parent, I can relate to that frightening idea. One of my kids got lost for twenty agonizing minutes in a popular theme park in Florida. I remember, or rather can't forget, my dry mouth, the troubled breathing, the accelerated heart rate, my gaze sweeping over any black-haired ten-year-old and finally, speaking to security. My case being mainly fear of the unknown, I cannot imagine how it would feel to know for sure my kid is in danger. Oh, by the way, my boy came back claiming he never got lost but a wrong turn delayed his return from the attraction.

Ward Larsen is a writer who has led a life as interesting as the characters from his novels.  As a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force, he flew over twenty combat missions in Operation Desert Storm, was awarded two Air Medals, received training in aircraft accident investigation, and attended USAF survival training where he learned, among other things, which snakes can be eaten and how to resist "interrogation under hostile conditions."  Ward Larsen's military qualifications and positions include Expert Qualification in Small Arms Marksmanship, Four-ship Flight Lead, Instructor Pilot, Maintenance Test Pilot, and Flight Commander.  Larsen has herded camels using both a jet and an SUV. (He reports that it is far easier with an SUV.).

Ward has also worked as a federal law enforcement officer and an aircraft accident investigator.  Presently, he is a captain for a major airline and resides with his family in Florida.  And if that's not enough for you, he is also the award-winning author of The Perfect Assassin, Stealing Trinity, and his latest book, Fly By Wire.

Armed with a JD and PhD in political science, Wendy Watson might have chosen to give Scott Turow and John Grisham a run for their money.  Instead, Wendy chose to follow a different one of her passions:  ice cream.  September 7 marks the release of the second in her series of mysteries involving Tally Jones, proprietor of Dalliance, Texas's ice cream parlor, Remember the A-la-mode.  In the first Tally book, I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM (Signet, 2009), Tally swallows her pride and agrees to provide ice cream for her ex-husband's company luau.  Her ex's arm-candy girlfriend is murdered and Tally becomes the prime suspect. 

In the new book, SCOOP TO KILL (Signet, 2010) Tally's niece Alice, who is a student at the local college, stumbles over the body of a murdered graduate student.  When Alice's favorite teacher becomes the prime suspect, Tally helps Alice follow the evidence to solve the crime.  A third book, tentatively entitled A PARFAIT MURDER, is due out in June of 2011.

Laura Caldwell has written chick-lit, international suspense, and romantic suspense, but now she's turned her considerable talents to the book she believes she was "mean to write," a nonfiction story about a young man who was wrongly imprisoned for a crime he did not commit.

In the book Long Way Home, Caldwell tells the story of Jovan Mosley, a Chicago kid who in 1999 was falsely accused of and arrested for taking part in a fight that resulted in a death. Even though he claimed innocence, the Chicago police bullied the 19-year-old into a confession. Then, says Caldwell, "They sent him off to a jail that's probably the worst in the country. It's basically a holding cell where you wait for trial. You just wait around and try not to get killed. The system lost him and he spent five years and ten months without trial."

Janice Gable Bashman and Jonathan Maberry have unleashed a torrent of terror in their new nonfiction release, Wanted Undead or Alive: Vampire Hunters and Other Kick-Ass Enemies of Evil, from Citadel. The book is a far-ranging investigation into the nature of evil and a fascinating history of our preoccupation with the struggle between light and darkness. Publisher's Weekly calls it a "fantastic and inventive approach to the world's oldest war (and) a gripping and informative work."

Jonathan Maberry is well-known to thriller writers and readers as the award-winning author of the bestselling Joe Ledger series, Patient Zero, Dragon Factory and the upcoming King of Plagues, as well as numerous other nonfiction works, short stories and Marvel comics. Janice has a busy career as a journalist, blogger and fiction writer. They made time for me last week to discuss Vampire Hunters, their collaborative process and their own takes on mankind's oldest struggle.

In Joelle Charbonneau's comedy mystery novel, Skating Around The Law, the heroine, Rebecca Robbins is a woman on a mission--to sell the roller rink she inherited in her rural hometown and get back to her life in Chicago. Fast. What she didn't count on was discovering a dead body head-first in the rink's toilet. Rebecca must discover the identity of the murderer before she becomes the next victim.

It wasn't Olivia Newton John's Xanadu that prompted the author to choose a roller rink for the scene of the crime. Joelle grew up going to roller rinks as her mother is a former World Champion artistic roller skater. A literary agent who specializes in romantic fiction recommended that Joelle write a book with a roller rink as a backdrop. Joelle incorporated a love story, a murder and memorable characters into the plot, and a comedic, sexy, mystery novel was born.

Every good romance novel features a drool-worthy hero, and in Skating Around The Law, said hero is a handsome veterinarian.

Recently, I sat down with the father and son writing team of Michael and Patrick McMenamin to talk about their debut novel, The De Valera Deception.

How did you come up with the idea of The De Valera Deception?

MICHAEL: I'm a Winston Churchill biographer and scholar, and I've always had an interest in Irish history as well. Patrick is a Phi Beta Kappa history major who specialized in 19th and 20th century European history, so we both have an interest in the period where our thrillers occur. For years, I had talked about writing a thriller series set in Churchill's "Wilderness Years" from 1929 to 1939. I wanted the first book, set in 1929,  to revolve around two historical facts: Churchill's three-month holiday that summer in North America  while at the same time the Graf Zeppelin was making its historical round the world airship flight  sponsored by the Hearst media empire.

PATRICK: The rest we sort of pieced together over family dinners whenever we visited each other. (I think it's fair to say we became a bit of a nuisance at the dinner table for the rest of the family.) We were both familiar with Weimar Germany's secret military alliance with the USSR during the 1920s which enabled Germany to evade the Versailles Treaty's limits on arms. This is years before Hitler assumed power. Germany  developed in Russia the most modern weapons systems in Europe--planes, tanks, artillery, poison gas--and the Allies were none the wiser. The goal of the alliance was to invade Poland and divide it between them. That's all historical fact.

  For most military aviators, an encounter with the enemy usually happens in the form of lights streaming up from the earth.  It has an air of unreality about it, almost like a video game.  If those lights don't hit you, they don't hurt you.

But what if you had an airplane blown out from under you and you met the enemy on his terms, in his territory?  What would you face on the ground?  What would your buddies need you to do?  Under conditions of extreme duress and hardship, would you make decisions you could live with later on?

In his new thriller, The Mullah's Storm, author Thomas W. Young takes readers on a journey through this very real and frightening scenario.

Katia Lief, author of the new thriller You Are Next (September 28), remembers the moment when her desire to be a writer jelled: her third grade teacher, after reading a story she had written, sent her parents a note that said, "Katia could be a writer."

She wonders what would have happened if the teacher's note had encouraged her to be a dentist. Fortunately for her and for readers, it didn't.

With You Are Next and its sequel, Next Time You See Me, which follows quickly in October, Katia is in a sense embarking on her third career as a writer, with a third name.

Katia Spiegelman was born in France to American parents, grew up on the east coast, graduated from Sarah Lawrence College at 19, and held a number of jobs before she began publishing mainstream novels. When she turned to stand-alone thrillers, she wrote under the nom de plume Kate Pepper. Now, with her new thriller series, she is using her married name, Katia Lief.

Allison Brennan describes Jordan Dane's books as "... romantic suspense [that] sizzles with an effective blend of hot romance and cold suspense. Intense and satisfying." I completely agree. I had the pleasure of meeting Jordan last year at Bouchercon in Indianapolis and have enjoyed reading her books ever since.

So you can imagine my sheer delight when I was given an opportunity to discuss the latest installment in the Sweet Justice Series, The Echo of Violence, with Jordan.

The Echo of Violence is the third book in the Sweet Justice Series and is due from Avon (Harper Collins) August 31. What's it about and will we see any returning characters?

I was inspired to write this book after seeing a TV documentary on a real life tragedy about a missionary couple who had been kidnapped and held for ransom by terrorists. The desperation and tragic outcome gripped me, so I told my version of their story with characters I wanted to introduce to my Sweet Justice series. Basically, my dark mercenary Jackson Kinkaid has found a way to launch his own war against the drug cartels. Like a modern day Robin Hood, he steals from criminals and gives money to charities, even though on the surface, he appears to be working for the cartels.