Latest Books: May 2010 Archives

Frank Winter is a disgraced veterinarian who works for the mob at a Chicago horse-racing track. When a job goes bad, they take Frank out to a roadside zoo out in the desert and try to feed him to a bunch of starving alligators. He ends up in an isolated small town where the tyrannical mayor puts Frank's talents to use in a series of exotic animal hunts that escalate into animal death matches. Frank is pushed to the brink, and has to decide whether to side with the humans or the animals.

"I welcome a fresh new talent with the amazing ability to captivate and astonish. Each page brought a surprise. This novel is destined to become a collector's item." -- David Morrell, New York Times bestselling author of First Blood and Creepers

"...Jacobson trenchantly denounces the substandard treatment of animals and the questionable practice of paying to hunt captive animals in a debut packed with relentless scenes of death and torture. Sensitive readers beware." -- Kirkus Reviews

Jeff Jacobson teaches Fiction and Screenwriting at Columbia College Chicago. His crime novel FOODCHAIN is out now from Five Star Mystery. WORMFOOD, a comedic horror novel, will be available from Medallion Press in July 2010. His stories have appeared in Doorways Magazine, Read by Dawn Vols. 1 and 3, f Magazine, and Hair Trigger, with a forthcoming short story in Cemetery Dance. He lives near Chicago with his family and far too many animals. His website is http://www.jeff-jacobson.com. Stop by and say howdy.

Library Journal has called Mike Lawson's House Justice "the perfect political thriller" and Booklist said it was "a superb example of the post-cold war espionage novel." House Justice is the fifth book in the DeMarco series - a book in which a CIA agent is killed when a story is leaked to an ambitious journalist.

Mike Lawson has written five political thrillers starring his protagonist, Joe DeMarco, a political fixer. The Inside Ring, The Second Perimeter, House Rules, House Secrets, and House Justice. His books have been Indie picks, Nancy Pearl picks, Barry Award nominees, and published in twelve countries.

Sultry days, sinful nights and a magic fountain... What more could a nice-turned-naughty bridesmaid wish for...?

When it comes to weddings, why should the bride and groom be the only ones tying knots? In these consummate erotic novellas set in steamy New Orleans, three nice-turned-naughty bridesmaids each make a wish by tossing a coin into an infamous fountain. Before the night is through, these bridesmaids find themselves entangled with passionate partners, who show them the only way to free their desires is through the most enticing restraints.

Nikita Black goes behind the closed doors of a bordello and a masked bachelorette party where anything can--and does--happen.

Allyson James explores a ménage a trois as a bridesmaid finds herself locked in a house with two men who introduce her to sensations that are out of this world.

Sheri Whitefeather reveals a secret room under a French Quarter B&B where a bridesmaid's forbidden erotic dreams become a reality.

An invitation to indulgence, Wedding Favors offers bold and sensual adventures in seduction and surrender. When the

Nikita Black "The stuff legends are made out of." -- Midwest Book Review

Allyson James "Hot! Hot! Hot!...If you enjoy stories full of action, both in the bedroom and out, this is one story you will want to read." -- The Romance Studio

Sheri Whitefeather "Sensual, passionate, seductive--lose yourself in the romance of an amazing story." -- National bestselling author Jaci Burton

While at heart stories of romance, Nikita Black's erotic fiction allows women readers to safely explore themes which go beyond broad shoulders and sweet kisses, into the dark world of forbidden fantasies. Her books have been on bestseller lists and won numerous awards, including the Independent Publishers Award of Excellence (IPPY), the Write Touch Readers Award, and an RT BookReviews nomination for Best Erotic Novel of the Year.

Under the name Nina Bruhns, she is also a bestselling author who writes award-winning romantic thrillers for Berkley.

A burning summer's day explodes into violence. A murderous gang targets the exclusive south coast island of Terror's Reach, home to rival business tycoons Robert Felton and Valentin Nasenko. The residents are facing annihilation, and only one man stands a chance of saving them. Four years ago, after an undercover police operation went disastrously wrong, CID officer Joe Clayton lost his career and his family. Forced to adopt a new identity, he drifted from place to place and ended up on the Reach, working as a bodyguard to Nasenko's wife, Cassie, and her children. Now he must draw upon all his experience and reserves of strength to keep them alive. But nothing is as it seems on Terror's Reach, and a long night of betrayal and murder leaves Joe fighting for his own survival...

Praise for SKIN AND BONES: "This is a mystery and a thriller that is satisfying on every level. This book gave me chills." -- JON JORDAN, CRIMESPREE

"What truly sells SKIN AND BONES is Bale's almost cinematic storytelling style, along the lines of what Lee Child does with his Jack Reacher series." -- JIM WINTER, JANUARY MAGAZINE

  Tom Bale is the author of SKIN AND BONES. He lives with his family in Brighton, England.

When 19 year old Bethel Newton accuses Elias Claymore of raping her, America is deeply divided on the issue. In his youth, Claymore was a Black power militant, as well as a convicted rapist and escaped convict. But after undergoing a Pauline conversion, he came back to America as a born again Christian to serve out his sentence and reinvented himself as a respectable, neoconservative TV talkshow host. In the face of the new serious charge, Claymore turns to his friend Alex Sedaka for help. Alex is persuaded to share the defence with a law firm appointed by Claymore's insurers and finds himself working with Andromeda ("Andi") Phoenix, whose lesbian lover Gene works at a rape crisis centre. But when Andi makes an issue of the under-representation of African-Americans on the jury, she starts receiving anonymous threats. Meanwhile Alex finds holes in the prosecution case, such as the victim's description of the attacker as well as her own past. But he hits a major obstacle when he comes up against the DNA evidence. Over the course of the trial, Alex must battle his way through jury tampering and a malicious computer hacker to find out who is telling the truth. And while all this is going on, Alex's on-ex-girlfriend, TV reporter Martine Yin, is covering the case. But is she getting too close and putting herself in danger?

'This will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.' Closer (writing about Kessler's previous book: MERCY)

I have been writing since the age of 15, when I dropped out of school. My writing ranges from thrillers to science fiction, to children's books to chick-lit, but my greatest distinction is to be the master of the thriller genre. When you start to read a thriller by David Kessler, you know that you are going to be reading a devilishly cunning thriller full of twists and turns, almost every chapter ending on a cliffhanger and big twist at the end. But even then you cannot be sure that you've heard the last of it - there's usually a last-minute sting in the tail.

In Richard Hawke's newest, House of Secrets, the people who know that Senator Andy Foster's charm can get the better of him have bugged the Shelter Island bungalow where the up-and-coming senator is enjoying a midnight tryst with a beautiful campaign adviser. But all hell breaks loose when a man carrying an iron pipe comes crashing through the bedroom's sliding glass door. Within seconds, the young woman lies bloodied, dead on the sheets, and Foster has fled in panic. And it's all on tape.

As momentum builds for Foster's likely selection as the next Vice President, the senator's only hope of keeping his involvement with the murdered woman secret is to locate his blackmailers. But even they don't have their hands on the devastating images. The man they used for the job has turned the tables and is blackmailing them. Are we talking a major mess here? You bet.

Richard Hawke's previous two novels, Speak of the Devil and Cold Day in Hell introduced NYC gumshoe Fritz Malone onto the mystery scene. The Washington Post decreed that Hawke "had me putting my hand over the next page to keep from peeking. [His] plot grabs us by the throat." With a different pen in hand, Hawke is known as the writer Tim Cockey, author of the award winning 'Hearse' series.

In Michael Stevens's Fortuna, Stanford computer science major Jason Lind, longing for escape from his mundane existence, signs up to play Fortuna, an online role-playing game set in Renaissance Florence.

From the first, fateful mouse click, Jason tumbles into the vibrant, lush, and anonymous world of Fortuna. Swept up in this highly complex, highly addictive game of fame, fortune, and power, Jason quickly transitions from casual gamer to compulsive player.

What started as a great escape may be anything but, because in the world of Fortuna, it's not how you play the game; it's if you survive.

"Wild and addicting! I couldn't tear my eyes from Michael Stevens's masterpiece, a blend of high-tech computer games, gangsters, and medieval Florence that rivals a Steve Berry thriller for chill-inducing fun."
--Shane Gericke, national best-selling author of Cut to the Bone

"Welcome to the game. Is it a game? Or is it RL (real life)? Is there a clear distinction, or does one bleed into the other? Jason Lind must call on all of his incredible intellectual gifts to determine which intrigues and threats are 'in game' and which are RL. His life depends on it. Fortuna is a breakneck thriller unlike any you've ever read."
--D.P. Lyle, Edgar Award nominee and Macavity Award-winning author of Stress Fracture

Michael Stevens began his writing career in high school as a music columnist for the Vallejo Times Herald, his hometown newspaper.

After graduating from the University of California at Berkeley as an English major, Michael served two years in the U.S. Army's Berlin Brigade, then began a career in high-tech marketing, first as a writer and later as a creative director and Silicon Valley ad agency executive. Concurrently, he managed the technical development and marketing of two successful software products. At present, Michael is a contributing editor for several high-profile web sites in the technology arena.

In addition to writing, Michael Stevens is a serious amateur musician who has produced four CDs. He lives in Berkeley, California, and at an undisclosed location in Second Life.

Every five minutes, a transplant candidate dies while waiting for a heart, a liver, a kidney. Imagine a technology, says New York Times bestselling author Scott Sigler, that could provide those life-saving transplant organs for a nominal fee.

By reverse-engineering the genomes of thousands of mammals, P.J. Colding's team has dialed back the evolutionary clock to re-create humankind's common ancestor. The method? Illegal. The result? A computer-engineered living creature, an animal whose organs can be implanted in any person, and with no chance of transplant rejection.

There's just one problem: these ancestors are not the docile herd animals that Colding's team envisioned. Instead, Colding's work has given birth to something big, something evil.

The ultimate predator is on the loose ...and it's very, very hungry.

"A top-notch, action-packed adventure. If you think Scott Sigler just writes horror, you're dead wrong. This guy is one heck of a thriller writer."--Steve Berry

"Fast, furious fun...Michael Crichton has a worthy successor in Scott Sigler."--Simon R. Green

New York Times best-selling novelist Scott Sigler built a large online following by giving away his self-recorded audiobooks as free, serialized podcasts. His loyal fans, who named themselves "Junkies," have downloaded over eight million individual episodes of his stories and interact daily with Scott and each other in the social media space.