ELLA--English Language Latina Authors, the nation's only book club devoted entirely to works by and about U.S. Latinas--will be reading Penny Rudolph's soon-to-be-released thriller Eye of the Mountain God as their May pick.
The group's founder Alisa Valdez Rodriguez says, "I believe a true measure of a community's equality in the greater culture is often best measured not by the art we create about ourselves--after all, we know we're terrific!--but rather by work written about us by those who do not belong to our group.

While many Latina characters in mainstream fiction by non-Latina authors painted us as stereotypical in the past, I am pleased to see that the new wave of novels by non-Latinas but featuring Latina protagonists present us a whole, well-rounded, interesting and unique individual human beings who are American everywomen. This is a major step forward, and one we should all support!

Penny Rudolph says, I am very pleased (and honored) for Eye of the Mountain God to be selected by ELLA.

The publisher, Thomas Dunne Books, describes Eye of the Mountain God as:

An explosive combination...
A woman who finds five emerald arrowheads wrapped in her newspaper,
an autistic child who knows the unkowable,
a man determined to become the American Che Guevara

Advance praise for this thriller comes from 2-time Edgar Award-winner Warren Murphy, who calls it, "An exciting thriller with a Southwestern flavor...(that) combines elements of Rudolfo Anaya's and Tony Hillerman's novels."

Read an excerpt and learn more at pennyrudolph.com

Specially published to celebrate St. Patrick's Day and Dublin becoming a UNESCO World City of Literature in 2010 City-pick Dublin will be available from March 11, 2010.

Pat Mullan, who is Ireland Chair of International Thriller Writers, says "I am very pleased (and honored) to be included in this selection of fifty Irish writers.  My short thriller story, Tribunal, which was published in Dublin Noir by Akashic Books in the US and by Brandon in Ireland and the UK has been selected for inclusion.  Tribunal is the opening chapter of my novel, Last Days of the Tiger (available from my agent, Svetlana Pironko)."

The publisher, Oxygen Books, talks about city-pick Dublin:   A truly astonishing variety of writers evoke the myriad pleasures of this legendary writers' city, bringing Dubliners, famous, not so famous and famously fictional, to life.
city-pick Dublin is introduced by Orna Ross, well-known Dublin journalist and bestselling author of A Dance in Time, who offers her own fascinating perspective on the city and its writers as Dublin becomes a UNESCO World City of Literature in 2010.   'Okay, London might have its share of good writers ... but in a straight contest - great writers per head of population - isn't Dublin the clear winner? Haven't we four Nobel Prizewinners (Shaw, Yeats, Becket and Heaney) out of only a million or so inhabitants? As well as the world's best novelist (Joyce) who should have got one too?'

ITW mystery/suspense novelist L.J. Sellers has signed with Echelon Press to publish the next two novels in her Detective Wade Jackson series, plus a standalone thriller. Echelon picked up the series with Sellers' second Jackson book, SECRETS TO DIE FOR, which came out in October, 2009. The third book, THRILLED TO DEATH, will be released in August, 2010. In this story, two young women with nothing in common disappear on the same day, then one turns up dead and Jackson discovers disturbing things about her.

"Even though it's a series, each book is unique," Sellers says. "I use different POV characters, a variety of crimes and motives, and distinctive structures. I'm especially excited about THRILLED TO DEATH because it's Jackson's most twisted case yet."

In 2011, Echelon will release the fourth book in the series, PASSIONS OF THE DEAD, and a standalone thriller, THE BABY THIEF, which features Jackson the homicide cop, but not as the main character.

In addition to writing novels, L.J. Sellers is an award-winning journalist and occasional standup comic. Learn more about Sellers at her website: http://ljsellers.com

Three months after the imprint's launch, Ostara Publishing has issued four more titles in their print-on-demand Top Notch Thrillers series which "aims to revive Great British thrillers which do not deserve to be forgotten".

The new titles, originally published in Britain between 1962 and 1970, were selected by crime writer and critic Mike Ripley, who acts as Series Editor for TNT.

The Tale of the Lazy Dog by Alan Williams is a brilliant heist thriller set in the Laos-Cambodia-Vietnam triangle in 1969 as a mis-matched gang of rogues and pirates attempt to steal $1.5 billion in used US Treasury notes. Time Is An Ambush is a delicate, atmospheric study of suspicion and guilt set in Franco's Spain, by Francis Clifford, one of the most-admired stylists of the post-war generation of British thriller-writers. A Flock Of Ships, Brian Callison's bestselling wartime thriller of a small Allied convoy lured to its doom in the South Atlantic, was famous for its breathless, machine-gun prose and was described by Alistair Maclean as: "The best war story I have ever read". The Ninth Directive was the second assignment for super-spy Quiller (whose fans included Kingsley Amis and John Dickson Carr), created by Adam Hall (Elleston Trevor) and is a taught, tense thriller of political assassination which pre-dated Day of the Jackal by five years.

Announcing the latest batch of reissues, Mike Ripley said: 'Our new titles are absolutely in line with the Top Notch ethos of showing the range and variety of thrillers from what was something of a Golden Age for British thriller writing. They range in approach from slow-burning suspense to relentless wartime action and feature obsessive, super tough, super cool spies and some tremendous villains. Above all, they are characterised by the quality of their writing, albeit in very different styles.

'When first published, these titles were all best-sellers and their authors are among the most respected names in thriller fiction. Many readers will welcome these novels back almost as old friends and hopefully a new generation of readers will discover them for the first time.'

Top Notch Thrillers are published as trade paperbacks with a RRP of £10.99

www.ostarapublishing.co.uk

From the January 21, 2010 edition of The New York Times:

In an act of collective creation, 22 thriller writers -- among them best sellers like Lee Child, Lisa Scottoline and Mr. Deaver -- collaborated to create the pair of "serial thrillers" in this book. In both tales Mr. Deaver sets things in motion and then, in a variation on "exquisite corpse," the other writers take up the story. Their shared main character is Harold Middleton, a retired Army colonel turned war-crimes investigator. The book began life in 2007 as an audiobook serial to publicize International Thriller Writers, an industry group (if people who sit at keyboards creating mayhem can be called an industry).

WATCHLIST
Based on an idea by Jeffery Deaver
404 pages. Vanguard Press. $25.95.

ITW mystery novelist and criminologist R. Barri Flowers has signed with Urban Books to write three mainstream suspense novels under the pseudonym Devon Vaughn Archer. The first suspense novel, THE SECRETS OF PARADISE BAY, is about two brothers and the woman that comes between them while a vengeful minded man plots the murder of all three. It will be released as a trade paperback in July 2010, while the second novel, THE HITMAN'S WOMAN, will come out a year later.

Urban Books are distributed by Kensington Publishing. As a criminologist, Flowers has also signed with Praeger to write a hardcover nonfiction book, PROSTITUTION IN THE DIGITAL AGE. It is scheduled for release in 2011.

"I enjoy moving back and forth between writing mystery fiction and crime nonfiction," said Flowers, who recently edited the American Crime Writers League anthology, MURDER PAST, MURDER PRESENT. "It allows me to tap into my creative juices and imagination on the one side, while using my criminology background to bring credibility to my novels and nonfiction projects."

See more about R. Barri Flowers on his website and at CrimeSpace: http://crimespace.ning.com/profile/RBarri

Vanguard Press has released New York Times bestselling author, David Morrell's, THE SPY WHO CAME FOR CHRISTMAS as an innovative iPhone application, that merges together audio, text, and video seamlessly.

With this custom application developed for Morrell's Christmas thriller, readers have a truly multimedia experience.  They can listen to the audiobook while following the text on the screen and audio and video interviews are also integrated as part of the app.  

Roger Cooper, the publisher of Vanguard Press, says, "We're thrilled to release this multimedia book on the iPhone and recognize the huge potential to reach a new, younger generation of readers with this fantastic new technology. The portability and flexibility this platform offers is unprecedented. With THE SPY WHO CAME FOR CHRISTMAS, beyond all the multi-faceted application components, we are not only offering readers a second book by David Morrell, his New York Times bestseller SCAVENGER, but we are also featuring one of the few Christmas-specific iPhone applications, unique in its promotion of the holiday spirit."

"As an author, I know how important it is to reach readers on new platforms and this iPhone app lets users experience my book in a way that was never before possible," explains David Morrell.

iPhone apps create completely different reading experiences--combining the act of reading with synchronized audio, links to the web, inclusion of stills, use of GPS and mapping, and more.

Everyone remembers their first thrill, their first . . . kill.

Today's best-selling thriller authors all began with that first book, the one that hooked us and made us gasp for more. Tomorrow's bestsellers are no different and Tor/Forge wants to introduce you to this fresh, new crop in an anthology that will keep you turning pages deep into the night.

FIRST THRILLS: stories from the bestsellers of today and tomorrow, will be published by Tor/Forge in June 2010 and will feature contributions from established International Thriller Writer authors combined with stories from twelve members of their incredibly successful ITW Debut Author Program.

International bestseller Lee Child will edit FIRST THRILLS and provide the foreword, while ITW co-president Steve Berry will supply an afterword.

FIRST THRILLS will feature stories from such thriller luminaries as: Ken Bruen, Lee Child, Stephen Coonts, Jeffrey Deaver, Heather Graham, Gregg Hurwitz, John Lescroart, John Lutz, Alex Kava, Michael Palmer/Daniel Palmer, Karin Slaughter, Wendy Corsi Staub.

The debut authors who are already making a name for themselves are: Sean Michael Bailey (1787), Ryan Brown, Bill Cameron (Chasing Smoke), Rebecca Cantrell (A Trace of Smoke), Karen Dionne (Freezing Point), JT Ellison (Judas Kiss), Theo Gangi (Bang Bang), Rip Gerber (Pharma), CJ Lyons (Urgent Care), Grant McKenzie (Switch), Marc Paoletti (Scorch), Cynthia Robinson (Dog Park) and Kelli Stanley (Nox Dormienda).

As Lee Child says, "This is an incredible lineup of new talent. I'm delighted to be part of their introduction to an eager fan base. Readers will be surprised by just how good they are."

The membership of the International Thriller Writers, Inc. recently voted to fill two vacancies on our board of directors and to confirm a returning director. The vacancies were created due to term limits. We are proud to announce the 2009 ITW board of directors:

Steve Berry, Co-President. One of the founders of ITW, Steve has already served as managing editor of Thriller 1 and as Executive Vice President. He's the bestselling author of seven novels, the latest of which is The Paris Vendetta.

Joe Moore, Co-President. Joe joined ITW in 2005 and has previously served as Vice President, Technology. His international bestselling Cotten Stone thriller series has been translated into 24 languages. He writes full time from his home in South Florida.

Red-hot mystery author Laura Caldwell, who released not one, not two, but three books this summer--to ignite the popular Izzy McNeil trilogy--announced that she has signed with MIRA books to write four more Izzy McNeil novels.  In June, Caldwell published Red Hot Lies, the story of a sassy, red headed Chicago attorney whose fiance disappears on the same day her client is killed.  The book was followed by Red Blooded Murder (July) and Red, White & Dead (August), all of which feature Izzy McNeil against the backdrop of Caldwell's buzzing hometown Chicago.

The books are scheduled to hit stores after the release of Unlikely (tentative title), Caldwell's non-fiction book with Free Press (a Simon & Schuster imprint) about a murder trial she handled which changed her life.  That book is set for September 2010.

"I'm thrilled to write four more books in the Izzy McNeil series," said Caldwell.  "Never before have I felt there was still so much material to cover in the life of this character and those of the people around her.  And the fact that so many readers are writing to share what they liked (and what they didn't; it's okay, I can handle it) makes it even more exciting. 

"Some readers have made the most incredible suggestions that never would have occurred to me.  I have a feeling there will be many readers acknowledged in these books."

While Caldwell has 10 books published, the popular summer mystery trilogy was her first series.