David Morrell is ITW’s 2009 Thriller Master. Over four decades, from FIRST BLOOD through THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE ROSE and CREEPERS, he has pioneered new ways to write thrillers. With his latest, MURDER AS A FINE ART, Morrell journeys into 1854 London, blending fact with fiction in a harrowing exhumation of the infamous Ratcliffe Highway murders.
For this month’s BIG THRILL, Morrell’s Mulholland Books editor Josh Kendall interviews him about the novel’s main character, Thomas De Quincey, one of the most fascinating personalities of Victorian England.
Readers always enjoy hearing how an author found an idea for a book. What was the origin of MURDER AS A FINE ART?
DAVID: I happened to watch a 2009 film called CREATION. In it, Charles Darwin struggles with grief after the death of his favorite daughter. Meanwhile his wife has religious objections to his theory of evolution and suspects that their daughter’s death was God’s punishment. Under these pressures, Darwin finds it impossible to continue writing ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. He succumbs to a mysterious illness and is basically a mess until a friend visits him and says something along these lines: “You know, Charles, people such as De Quincey are suggesting that it’s possible for our minds to control us in ways that we don’t understand.”
Sounds like Freud.
Exactly. But the film takes place in the 1850s, forty years before Freud’s theories began to be published. The reference was to Thomas De Quincey, who was famous for being the first person to write about drug addiction in CONFESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH OPIUM-EATER. I had read some of De Quincey’s work in a Victorian literature course when I was in college, but my professor never indicated that De Quincey anticipated Freud.
more »
In THE BARBED CROWN, the sixth Ethan Gage adventure, the American adventurer journeys to Paris in the company of a beautiful comtesse to thwart Napoleon’s ascension to emperor and avenge his wife. Being Ethan, he finds the royalist conspiracy in ruins, his wife unexpectedly alive, and his wealth in jeopardy, and is recruited to spy for both the English and French. He’s also on the path of a medieval relic and the Crown of Thorns from the crucifixion of Jesus. Caught up in Bonaparte’s desperate plan to invade England, the adventure takes Ethan from the catacombs of Paris to the battle of Trafalgar, tangling him with Talleyrand, Nelson, Emma Hamilton, and a host of other historical figures.
William Dietrich recently answered some questions for the Big Thrill:
For the readers who have not read your previous novels which feature Ethan Gage as your protagonist, please give us an overall review of his character, his strengths and weaknesses.
Ethan is an American adventurer and treasure hunter caught up in the Napoleonic Wars. He’s a protégé of Benjamin Franklin and thus an “electrician,” a sharpshooter with an American long rifle, a gambler, a would-be womanizer in the earliest books (he soon meets the love of his life) and an independent man in a violent world where everyone is choosing sides. He’s an opportunist and a rascal, but moral in his own way. He’s also funny.
more »
Raymond Benson knows something about superheroes. He’s been writing larger than life franchises and tie-ins for METAL GEAR SOLID, HITMAN, and JAMES BOND for decades. It makes him the perfect author to reinvent the genre. Or perhaps, just like the Prog Rock (Jethro Tull, Yes, Gentle Giant) he loves returns to vogue every generation, it’s time for a return to a fresh, humanized hero, even if she is still super.
It’s working …
“One of the most original heroines I’ve read in a long time…” — Sandra Brown
“A mashup of the work of Gloria Steinem, Ian Fleming, and Mario Puzo, all under the editorship of Stan Lee.” — LIBRARY JOURNAL
THE BLACK STILETTO: STARS & STRIPES is the third book in a projected five novel series.
Raymond, can you set up the series for those who have not read books one and two, please?
It’s a story about a woman ahead of her time, fiercely independent in a world where women weren’t allowed to be so. She’s a feminist before that term was in our vernacular. And while it’s about a woman who puts on a costume and mask and fights crime—she has no superpowers, really. More importantly, it’s also a story about a woman with Alzheimer’s and her son and a story about a father and daughter.
Here’s the cover copy for the third book.
It’s 1960 in the third Black Stiletto book, and the Black Stiletto, in her civilian persona, Judy Cooper, volunteers to work for JFK’s presidential campaign, only to become involved in a devious behind-the-scenes plot that could change the course of history. In the present, Judy’s son, Martin, must deal with increasing mental health issues, his mother’s demise from Alzheimer’s, and a new woman in his life. And then there’s Gina, the Stiletto’s granddaughter, who is exhibiting evidence that she is more like her grandmother than Martin would like.
more »
By Don Helin
In this historical thriller, Beverly Swerling unleashes a plot so exciting that Booklist says “Elements of romance, religious mythology, cultism, and the supernatural abound as this genre-blending thriller stretches back and forth through time to a suitably dramatic denouement.”
Annie Kendall – American, architectural historian, ex-lush – takes an assignment that sends her to London seeking information about a man from Tudor times known as the Jew of Holborn, and his trove of ancient Judaica. The flat she’s subletting has two remarkable features: an extraordinary black and white mural, and an even more extraordinary ghost in whom she, of course, does not believe. Until she meets a TV pundit who looks exactly like him. And learns that the man bankrolling her assignment is up to his ears in very questionable Middle-Eastern politics, and has an agenda in which Annie is not the hunter but the hunted. The key to survival, for Annie and many others, is figuring out who the Jew of Holborn really was and what happened to him, a story that unfolds for Annie and the reader in the voices of the Jew himself, and the Carthusian monk now haunting Annie’s flat.
more »
By George Ebey
Amy Lignor’s debut novel, 13, introduced the world to the intrepid adventures of Leah Tallent and Gareth Lowery. Now Tallent and Lowery are back in their exciting follow up, THE SAPPHIRE STORM.
This time around, a new puzzle from the past has come to life when the courageous couple becomes embedded in a world filled with liars, killers and greed. And when the riddle of a famous ‘Bard’ is solved, a strange woman appears who has far more in common with Leah Tallent than she can possibly imagine. The heart-stopping suspense of this new quest takes them from Coptic Cairo to the magical world of Petra, in search of a cave deep underground that once housed a true ‘Illuminator.’ Yet again, they must find the answers and stay one step ahead of true villains who are determined to make sure that – this time – Tallent & Lowery do not survive
I recently checked in with Amy and asked her to give us some insight into the writing and editing process as well as what the future holds for the heroes of 13, and THE SAPPHIRE STORM.
This book is the second in your Tallent and Lowery series. Can you tell us a little about the first book, 13, and how it figures into THE SAPPHIRE STORM?
I actually try to separate each novel so they can be read as stand-alone adventures. However, with 13, Leah Tallent& Gareth Lowery are first introduced, and the book opens the door to their relationship, humor, and the way Leah’s incredible mind works. In 13, the puzzle that must be solved connects the haunted Winchester Mansion in California to Whitechapel to a very famous home on the shores of Loch Ness and then on to Glastonbury. The reader gets to follow each and every step with the team as they head into these historical places and try to stop villain from uncovering a site that needs to remain buried. Although, THE SAPPHIRE STORM does stand alone, being a completely new adventure, I still think Leah and Gareth’s first meet is so intriguing that the reader will want to be on board right from the beginning.
more »
By Thomas Pluck
Susanna Calkins is the author of A MURDER AT ROSAMUND’S GATE, a mystery set in turbulent 17th Century London, in a time of great religious and social upheaval. When someone she loves is accused of murder, chambermaid Lucy Campion interprets the clues herself, all while avoiding the murderer, the law, and the everpresent cold hand of the Great Plague itself.
Those of us without a PhD in history often have a homogenized view of the past- so tell us a bit about England during the time A MURDER AT ROSAMUND’S GATE is set.
Great question! A MURDER AT ROSAMUND’S GATE was set in the mid-1660s, a period of great political, social and religious contrasts. On the one hand, after years of civil strife and warfare, the Stuart line was restored with the return of King Charles II to the throne, ending years of joyless Puritan rule. The theatres were reopened, long-squashed festivals were revived, and a sense of frenzied pleasure and merriment returned to the kingdom. On the other hand, with the ousting of the Puritans from power, there emerged great religious tensions among the re-established Anglican Church, the much-disparaged Catholics, as well as the many dissenting religious groups, especially the Quakers. New political conflicts between Parliament and the King were an additional source of tension and stress as well. Within all these tensions, England faced an ongoing struggle for order.
Exacerbating this struggle, between 1664 and 1666, two great disasters befell England, London most catastrophically. First, the plague struck heavily, killing thousands and thousands of people. Then, before the society could recover, the Great Fire of London swept through much of the city, destroying nearly 13,000 homes and rendering thousands homeless. Consequently, a remarkable–if temporary–social mobility and gender fluidity occurred among the survivors, as servants and apprentices took over their master’s homes and livelihoods, and women found new ways to speak.
more »
By James M. Tabor
Left Hands and Porcelain Dogs
An Interview with Jess Faraday
Starvation and disease haunt the streets of 1820s Paris, while supernatural terror stalks the night. The once-famous police force is a shambles, its elite Bureau of Supernatural Investigations disbanded. Only Detective Inspector Elise Corbeau remains, spared by a shadowy protector for a purpose not even she knows. When charismatic cult leader Hermine Boucher is kidnapped, all fingers point to her ex-lover, inventor Maria Kalderash. But the further Inspector Corbeau investigates, the more suspects she turns up, until finally, the finger is pointing right back at the Paris Police.
By Derek Gunn
My assignment this month was THE ROMANOV CROSS by Robert Masello. This one came in when I was in the middle of another novel. This is not normally an issue as I have two weeks or so to complete the book I am on, leaving me plenty of time for the new one. However, this time I was only half way through Ken Follett’s monster WORLD WITHOUT END. That’s over 1,200 hundred pages for those who have not read it. The reason I mention this is that I was really enjoying the book and hated to put it aside so I could read THE ROMANOV CROSS. Not the best frame of mind to give a book a fair hearing I hear you say, and you would be right.
However, Robert Masello didn’t need a fair hearing from me. The book grabbed me from the start and never really let go. This book is compelling. That’s not a word I use often in my reviews, you can check if you don’t believe me. The book shifts effortlessly between the time of the Romanovs just before the revolution and the present day.We are introduced to Anastasia, Grande Duchess and daughter of the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II as well as the always interesting Grigori Rasputin. There have always been suggestions that Anastasia may have escaped when the rest of her family were killed in 1918 by the secret police. Masello ties into this uncertainty linking reports of the families’ Haemophilia with a possible immunity for the Spanish Flu.
Masello puts forward the hypothesis that the young woman escaped to Alaska, then owned by the Russians. It was at this time that the Spanish Flu raged across the world killing over 50 million people and the small community on St Peter’s Island, a remote, forbidding island, just off the coast of Alaska that was wiped out by the epidemic.
more »
Hailed as one of the genre’s rising stars, author Nancy Bilyeau transports us to 1538 in THE CHALICE where England’s bloody power struggle between crown and cross threatens to tear the country apart. Her heroine, novice Joanna Stafford, becomes caught up in a shadowy international plot targeting Henry VIII himself. So we had to ask . . .
Who were your literary influences when you were learning to be a writer?
When I was in high school in Michigan and thinking of becoming a writer, I read a lot of different sorts of fiction: Daphne du Maurier, Stephen King, John Le Carre, E.L. Doctorow. I had a wonderful teacher who read RAGTIME aloud to us. In university I studied Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Hardy, and T.S. Eliot. In the intervening years, I worked as a magazine editor and did not think about writing novels. Recently, when I did decide to give it a go, I’d say I was influenced by A.S. Byatt, Mary Renault, Katherine Neville, Ellis Peters, and Ken Follett.
more »
In historical thriller format, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling Tosca Lee tells this story of Judas, from his tumultuous childhood to his emergence as the man known as the betrayer of Jesus. Moreover, it’s a surprising view into the life of Jesus that forces us to reexamine everything we thought we knew about these famous—and infamous—religious icons.
Tosca added, “This was really a chance to put myself into the skin of one of the most vilified characters in history. By skin, I mean the oppression of the age. To really hear the national cry for salvation—for freedom—from Rome by the hand of a Messiah when so many would-be messiahs before had failed. We’re all familiar with the story of Judas, his infamous kiss and betrayal of Jesus. But there was so much going on politically, nationally and religiously, in those last decades, like a ticking bomb leading up to the revolt that happened after the death of Jesus.”
Steven James, bestselling author of PLACEBO, said, “A startlingly dark and breathtaking novel. ISCARIOT is both visionary in scope and historically accurate down to the most minute detail—which is an astonishing feat. This is epic, masterful storytelling from one of the most gifted novelists writing today.”
more »
Under investigation by the Foreign Office, Sebastian Danvers, Lord Somerton, is exiled to the country, where he learns his beautiful neighbor, Catherine Ashcroft, has been watching over his estate. Soon, he must face his worst nightmare–protecting Catherine from his sworn enemy? Can he? Or, will he lose his love in this war between England and France?
more »
If you read thrillers, you know the names James Patterson and Clive Cussler.
Patterson and Cussler know Chris Kuzneski.
Patterson says, “Chris Kuzneski’s writing has the same raw power as the early Stephen King.” Cussler adds, “Chris Kuzneski writes as forcefully as his tough characters act.”
With his latest thriller, THE DEATH RELIC, his characters have to be tougher than ever.
What’s at stake in this book, for the heroes personally and for the public at large?
Thanks to the doomsday predictions for 2012, the Maya have been in the news quite a bit lately—at least more than they have been for the past thousand years or so. One of the main reasons there was so much confusion about the end of the Mayan calendar (or, more accurately, the end of the most recent 5,125-year cycle) is because so little is actually known about the Maya.
more »
This historical thriller is about a young Latvian-German aristocrat swept up in the turbulence of World War I, told by the point of view of outsiders, from the perspective of those living in Latvia. By twist of fate, he finds himself a member of the Russian Revolution’s Red Riflemen, a group known colloquially as “Lenin’s Harem.” Aristocratic Wiktor Rooks adapts, survives, finds friendship and love among the Communists, and is betrayed in Stalin’s purges. The tale is comprised of three tragic seductions—an unscrupulous woman, a doomed nation, and a treacherous ideology.
McCormick added, “In short, LENIN’S HAREM is the story of a ruined aristocrat swept up in the chaos of war, who by twist of fate finds himself a member of the elite guard of the Russian Revolution. He hides in plain sight amongst his enemies while the Russian Empire crumbles, but where does he go when the revolutionaries win?”
“William Burton McCormick takes us inside lives that would otherwise be unimaginable,” said Suzannah Dunn, author of THE CONFESSION OF KATHERINE HOWARD.
more »
Shirley Tallman’s fifth installment of the Sarah Woolson series, DEATH ON TELEGRAPH HILL, begins with a reading by Oscar Wilde followed by a gunshot. Wilde’s reading may have been sleepy but I can assure you there’s nothing soporific in this historical thriller.
The fiercely independent Sarah Woolson is a rare find in 1882 San Francisco — a female attorney with her own law practice. Defying a woman’s “proper” place in society, Sarah is more likely to be found in the courtroom than in the drawing room, ready to go to any lengths to stand up for what’s right — especially when family is involved. After an evening spent listening to the young Irish poet Oscar Wilde, Sarah and her brother Samuel are making their way down San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill when the sound of a gunshot shatters the quiet night, the bullet striking Samuel. Sarah sets out to uncover the truth, but what she finds are more questions — and multiple murders. When the police arrest a friend whom Sarah believes to be innocent, she agrees to act as his attorney and faces the most difficult case of her career. Even worse, she discovers too late that she may have just added her own name to the killer’s list!
more »
By Azam Gill
The true events behind the John’s Canyon Murder and the subsequent “skeleton murder trial” of the Depression Era are brought to spellbinding light in HARD TWISTED, set in a landscape as brutal as it is beautiful. After a twelve-year quest, trial lawyer C. Joseph Greaves gave up his thriving partnership to write a saga of survival, redemption and a young girl’s coming of age. Oklahoma May 1934 — Clint Palmer, released from the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas , befriends Dillard Garrett, a homeless man and his 13-year-old daughter, Lucille. Palmer lures them to Texas, where Dillard Garrett mysteriously disappears. Lucile begins a harrowing, year-long ordeal in captivity culminating in four additional killings.
Charles Joseph Greaves spent 25 years as an L.A. trial lawyer before turning his talents to fiction. His award-winning debut novel HUSH MONEY was hailed by critics as “an auspicious debut” (KIRKUS REVIEWS, Critics’ Pick) and a “stellar first novel” (PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, starred review) and a “delightful debut” (LIBRARY JOURNAL, starred review).
His second novel, HARD TWISTED, is the result of a twelve year determined search for the truth behind the John’s Canyon murders of 1934. An expected literary masterpiece, while in manuscript form, it was named the Best Historical Novel of 2010 in the SouthWest Writers’ international writing contest.
more »
By Virna DePaul
About THE LINCOLN CONSPIRACY: A nation shattered by its president’s murder. Two diaries that reveal the true scope of an American conspiracy. A detective determined to bring the truth to light, no matter what it costs him. THE LINCOLN CONSPIRACY is a vivid tale of intrigue, riddles, and murder in post-Civil War Washington.
“History as a dangerous, inventive game. Fascinating.”—Martin Cruz Smith
“THE LINCOLN CONSPIRACY is a hell of a good read. It’s an exciting thriller full of believable characters and absorbing history, and the end result is a page-turning blend of research and imagination.”—David Liss
Recently, I interviewed author Tim O’Brien. Here’s what Mr. O’Brien had to say about his upcoming release.
more »
By Derek Gunn
A PLAGUE OF LIES – Poison, murder and plots against the King himself. The Charles du Luc adventures continue with a riveting installment.
Judith Rock is not just a busy lady now; one quick look at her bio will show you she has always been busy. Dancer, Choreographer, Ph.D, Lecturer, Professor, Playwright, Actor and even a police officer with the NYPD. A keen cyclist and volunteer for Save Our Seabirds in Sarasota, Florida sees her rounding off a hectic schedule. And she writes too. I’m not sure when she gets the time; maybe she discovered a time portal and gains extra time over the rest of us, but her research and language in her latest novel is exquisite.
A PLAGUE OF LIES is the third novel, but the fourth story in the Charles du Luc saga, there is also an e-novella called Pernelle’s Escape available. Charles is a Jesuit in 17th century Paris. His days are taken over with teaching dance, philosophy and harsh Greek to his soft-tongued, young students. As the story unfolds his day to day regime is interrupted when he is ordered to attend Versailles to present a holy reliquary to Madame de Maintenon. Sounds easy. The gift is an attempt by the Jesuits to placate the King’s second wife for convincing the King not to make her Queen when he married her. This and many other plots swirl around the huge palace.
more »
By James A. Moore
In Brian D’Amato’s cult classic, IN THE COURTS OF THE SUN, a team of scientists sent math prodigy and Mayan descendant Jed DeLanda back in time to the year AD 664 to learn the “Sacrifice Game,” a divination ritual that the ancient Maya used to predict the apocalypse on December 21, 2012. But after arriving in the body of a willing human sacrifice instead of a Mayan king, Jed’s experiences led him to the fateful decision that rather than avert the apocalypse, he must ensure instead that the world ends.
Using his knowledge of the divination game, Jed sets in motion a series of events that will bring about the destruction of humanity, ending the world’s pain and suffering once and for all. But before the plan can be completed, the organization that sent him into the past discovers his intention and devotes every resource to stop him.
more »
By Gary Kriss
Piero Degli Antoni’s bucket list would barely fill a thimble.
It has only three items, less if you don’t count the redundancies,
“I want to sell a million copies of my book,” Antoni, a 52 year-old prize-winning Italian novelist, says. “Then I want to sell another million copies of my book. And then I want to sell two million copies of my book.”
The “book” is his latest BLOCK 11 (St. Martin’s Press, October 2012), which is set in 1944 Auschwitz. Whether or not it sells in the millions, BLOCK 11 has one thing going for it that Antoni’s other seven books didn’t: a larger potential audience because it’s been translated into English. Although new to the American market, BLOCK 11 came out two years ago in Italy and last year in France, Russia and Spain.
more »
By Andy Straka
THE INCENSE GAME takes place during one of history’s worst natural disasters—the massive earthquake that devastated Japan in 1703. The shogun’s court is in chaos. Chamberlain Sano Ichiro is struggling to help the survivors when he finds three women dead amid the ruins. They were murdered with poisoned incense. One is an incense teacher with dangerous secrets. Two are the daughters of a powerful lord, who threatens to topple the regime unless Sano tracks down the killer.
Bestselling author Laura Jo Rowland’s Sano Ichiro novels have been labeled “masterful” (PUBLISHERS WEEKLY) and “an exercise in pure entertainment” (WASHINGTON POST). THE INCENSE GAME, her latest novel, has just been released. The author answers a few questions about her newest book:
more »
Berlin in 1933 is in upheaval. Eleven-year-old Carla von Ulrich struggles to understand the tensions disrupting her family as Hitler strengthens his grip on Germany. Into this turmoil steps her mother’s formidable friend and former British MP, Ethel Leckwith, and her student son, Lloyd, who soon learns for himself the brutal reality of Nazism.
Lloyd also encounters a group of Germans resolved to oppose Hitler – but are they willing to go so far as to betray their country? Such people are closely watched by Volodya, a Russian with a bright future in Red Army Intelligence.
The international clash of military power and personal beliefs that ensues will sweep over them all as it rages from Cable Street in London’s East End to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, from Spain to Stalingrad, from Dresden to Hiroshima.
At Cambridge Lloyd is irresistibly drawn to dazzling American socialite Daisy Peshkov, who represents everything his left-wing family despise. But Daisy is more interested in aristocratic Boy Fitzherbert – amateur pilot, party lover and leading light of the British Union of Fascists.
Back in Berlin, Carla worships golden boy Werner from afar. But nothing will work out the way they expect as their lives and the hopes of the world are smashed by the greatest and cruellest war in the history of the human race.
WINTER OF THE WORLD is the second novel in the uniquely ambitious and deeply satisfying ‘Century’ trilogy.
*****
“Just as potent, engrossing, and prolix as the opening opus, Fall of Giants. [Follett’s] dedication and ability to keep so many plots spinning while delivering a story that educates, entertains…Will leave fans eagerly awaiting the trilogy’s crowning capstone.” —Publishers Weekly
“Follett’s storytelling is unobtrusive and workmanlike…he spins a reasonable and readable yarn that embraces dozens of characters and plenty of Big Picture history.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Follett never lets the action lag as he adeptly ties together all the sweeping economic, cultural, political, and social transformations of the entire era.” —Booklist
*****
Ken Follett burst onto the book world in 1978 with EYE OF THE NEEDLE, a taut and original thriller with a memorable woman character in the central role. The book won the Edgar award and became an outstanding film.
He went on to write four more bestselling thrillers: TRIPLE; THE KEY TO REBECCA; THE MAN FROM ST. PETERSBURG; and LIE DOWN WITH LIONS.
He also wrote ON WINGS OF EAGLES, the true story of how two employees of Ross Perot were rescued from Iran during the revolution of 1979. This book was made into a miniseries.
He then surprised readers by radically changing course with THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH, a novel about building a cathedral in the Middle Ages. Published in September 1989 to rave reviews, it was on the New York Times bestseller list for eighteen weeks. It also reached the No. 1 position on lists in Canada, Great Britain and Italy, and was on the German bestseller list for six years.
To learn more about Ken, please visit his website.
Johnny Tom, a Chinese immigrant, and his beautiful Creek Indian wife, and daughter, Era, live in Shisan, a Chinese settlement along the Mississippi River. Their life is simple and idyllic, until Confederate soldiers invade the town, kidnap the men and force them into service, fighting for the South and slavery. At the first opportunity, many Chinese soldiers defect to the Union Army.
In revenge, the Confederates return to Shisan to rape and torture their wives and daughters. Defiled and half-mad, Era sets out to find her father and is plunged into the full savagery and horror of the War. Lured by Union officials to pose as a nurse while spying on the Confederate army, she falls in love with a wounded Confederate cavalryman, and her loyalties become divided between her beloved father in the North, and the gallant soldier who sustains her in the South.
more »
A conspiracy thriller about our dystopian future, set in the ancient past. Welcome to a world where there is only one government and one religion, before which all must bow or die in the arena. Welcome to the New World Order. Welcome to Ancient Rome at the end of the first century. No one from slave to senator can escape the Reign of Terror under Emperor Domitian, who has declared himself Lord and God of the Universe. No one, that is, until an innocent man, Athanasius, miraculously escapes certain death, alone with a secret that will shake the world. Dominus Dei. The plot to reestablish the Roman Empire in the 21st century starts here.
more »
Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes have travelled the world since they met on the Sussex Downs in 1915 (The Beekeeper’s Apprentice) and now they find themselves in Morocco. It takes some time before Russell knows quite where, since she wakes in a strange city with no memory, in unfamiliar clothes, and with blood on her hands. And to make matters even more interesting, there seems to be a war on. Holmes, meanwhile, is swanning around in the Atlas Mountains, ducking bullets, happily oblivious to both the war and his missing amnesiac wife. Just another another day in the life of Russell & Holmes.
more »
By Andrew Zack
I remember well the days when a medieval mystery rode the best-seller list. THE NAME OF THE ROSE, by Umberto Eco, turned a lot of preconceptions around for publishers, I think. The time period, the setting, and even the protagonist were a long way away from mysteries of the times. And remembering all that, I was pleasantly surprised to learn about Karen Maitland’s medieval novels and wishing I had more time for “non-work” reading.
Coming out this summer in the UK from Michael Joseph, an imprint of Penguin, FALCONS OF FIRE AND ICE is Maitland’s fourth medieval thriller (she emphasizes they are thrillers, not mysteries and, while there might be some sex, there’s no romance) and it sounds like a winner.
more »
By Brian Knight
Ash will do anything to restore her father, King Jared II, to the throne. Her younger sister, Naiva, will do anything to save her family from destruction. When Akish, the man who is commissioned to assassinate their grandfather, falls in love with the younger sister but chooses to marry the older sister, their hearts are divided. The conquest of power and greed blend together in this haunting new thriller.
H.B. Moore’s new historical thriller was recently released by Covenant Communications, and I was lucky enough to have an opportunity to visit with the author about DAUGHTERS OF JARED, her life and work, and her love of historical fiction.
more »
By Tracy March
Award-winning novelist Rebecca Cantrell’s novels have been called “chillingly realistic” by USA TODAY, and KIRKUS REVIEWS says, “Cantrell keeps the close calls and cliffhangers coming.”
In Rebecca’s most recent release, A CITY OF BROKEN GLASS, Journalist Hannah Vogel is in Poland with her son Anton to cover the 1938 St. Martin festival when she hears that 12,000 Polish Jews have been deported from Germany. Hannah drops everything to get the story on the refugees, and walks directly into danger.
Kidnapped by the SS, and driven across the German border, Hannah is rescued by Anton and her lover, Lars Lang, who she had presumed dead two years before. Hannah doesn’t know if she can trust Lars again—with her heart or her life—but she has little choice. Injured in the escape attempt and wanted by the Gestapo, Hannah and Anton are trapped with Lars in Berlin. While Hannah works on an exit strategy, she helps search for Ruth, the missing toddler of her Jewish friend Paul, who disappeared during the deportation.
Trapped in Nazi Germany with her son just days before Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, Hannah knows the risk of staying any longer than needed. But she can’t turn her back on this one little girl, even if it plunges her and her family into danger.
more »
A decade ago, Dr. Declan Stewart, once the world’s foremost authority on ancient manuscripts, vanished from an obscure asylum in Damascus. On a winter’s day shrouded in fog, he rose from his bed, walked out the door and disappeared. No one looked for him because no one cared. The assassins had made sure there would be no one left to care.
For ten years, Declan hides himself away on the isolated western coast of New Zealand’s South Island, riding the towering waves of Ghost Ships break and trying to forget the past. Then on a bright summer’s day, as the sun settles on the western horizon, a dying monk from an obscure Syrian monastery appears on the high cliffs and calls his name. Declan at last realizes that nothing can save him from his destiny; that he will never escape his obsession with the elusive ancient manuscript known only as Q.
more »
By Jeremy Burns
Bestselling author James Rollins is world-famous for his action-packed thrill-rides that infuse ancient mysteries with the science of tomorrow in a stunning package that is truly his own. His latest, BLOODLINE, takes readers on a whirlwind adventure through time and space with Sigma Force, the secret government team that has saved the world from terrors both ancient and modern more times than one. This time, Rollins looks to outdo himself by raising the stakes further than ever before: nothing less than the future (and indeed, the very definition) of our humanity hangs in the balance. I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Rollins about the latest in his blockbuster series.
more »
By Cathy Clamp
The 14th century wasn’t for sissies. Europe suffered from horribly cold winters, and then appallingly wet summers. From 1315 to 1321 the harvests suffered. Famine caused starvation everywhere, and there were rumors of cannibalism all over the continent. In England alone, between 10 and 15 per cent of the population died. Hanged men, allegedly, were hauled down and hacked apart for food in Poland. King Edward II of England couldn’t keep his lords from bickering and fighting, and there were regular civil wars. His advisors were corrupt and greedy to a level astonishing to consider in today’s world.
more »
reverse phone number look up…
THE BIG THRILL:…